D-Link Dominates

D-Link caught the eyes of partners for several reasons in the recent past .

Its strategic tie-up with Gigabyte, brought it to the motherboard segment.

Earlier, it had entered the capital market to fund its manufacturing activities.

Its third manufacturing plant was commissioned in April 2001.

The company has maintained its leadership position in the country in a range

of network products including switches, routers, adapters, hubs and modems. In

structured cabling, D-Link has emerged as one of the leaders within two years of

its entry into the field.

Today, it has emerged as a leading networking and communications company with

a strong brand image. Its entry into newer segments like firewall, wireless,

broadband and VoIP is a step towards strengthening this image.

KR Naik started D-Link India as a joint venture with Taiwanese D-Link

Corporation in 1994. The company set up a manufacturing facility in Goa, with

corporate office in Bombay. Six years later, it introduced the digital home

concept with the launch of products like MP3 players/recorder and digital

camera.

In a strategic move to fully utilize its manufacturing facilities, sales and

marketing network and to enter into another hi-tech field of motherboards,

D-Link joined hands with Gigabyte Technology Ltd     in

February this year to develop, manufacture and market motherboards under the

brand name of DigiLink-Gigabyte.

KR Naik: Leads D-Link to competitive advantage
Milestones
	Came out with an IPOÂ
	Third manufacturing plant with SMT line commissioned in GoaÂ
	Tied up with Gigabyte motherboards

"We are confident of keeping pace with fast changing technologies. We

will progress by delivering competitive and better products to our highly

demanding consumers and thereby succeed in creating a global organization,"

says Naik.

CHANNEL PLANS



Sixty-five percent of D-Link’s business is done through its 20 exclusive

distributors, who further have 300 dealers and 3,000 resellers. The remaining

business comes directly from large SIs and OEM supplies.

All distributors have a defined territory of operation, which means they

cannot sell outside their territory. "This move has helped our partners in

making the most from their regions. This also prevents unhealthy competition

among distributors which leads to under-cutting in margins," says Anand

Mehta, Marketing Manager. Distributors are given a fixed price. "No volume

discounts are given to any distributor," says Anand.

D-Link has made channel programs like point-based loyalty rewards, gold coins

scheme and foreign trips to performing dealers a regular activity.

As per Voice & Data 2001 figures D-Link’s marketshare for NICs, hubs

and dial-up modems stood at 47 percent, 65 percent and 45 percent respectively.

According to the company it now occupies the leading position in NICS, hubs and

modems with 44, 66 and 56 percent respectively. D-Link also has a good presence

in the structured cabling market at 18 percent while its switches account for

five percent marketshare.

LATEST VENTURE SHINES



D-Link ventured into motherboard segment under the brand name Digilink in

September 2001. Subsequently in February 2002, it tied up with Gigabyte

Technology Ltd to develop, manufacture and market motherboards under the brand

name DigiLink-Gigabyte.