We are in India at the right time as Internet is still in its infancy here

Frank Leu is responsible for leading Trend Micro's business operations in South East Asia and South Asian regions. He holds a masters degree in computer science from the University of Maryland, USA and joined Trend Micro in 1998 after a stint at Oracle. A year later, the revenue growth rate in Leu's region turned out to be the highest among all business units in Trend Micro. His current mandate is to develop the channel network and establish its market presence and he tells DQCI how he plans to do the same.

What are the different products that Trend Micro has in its basket?

We have all kind of products for anti-virus and content security. We have Interscan firewall for gateways. We also have a product called Scanmail for groupware like Lotus Notes and email servers. Besides, we have solutions for servers and desktops as well.

If you think that anti-virus is a simple issue, then you are wrong. When you talk about email servers and gateway, you are talking about providing solutions to the enterprises -- small, medium and large. And when we talk about enterprise products, we have to think about the different users, servers and the environment as well, and that is related to the security. It is this enterprise segment that we have been concentrating upon.

Do you have any anti-virus products for handhelds and cellphones, which are now becoming important access devices?

Yes, we do have anti-virus solutions for these products too. But right now there are not many viruses circulating in that area. This is because the usage of these devices to access the Net is negligible. Though, we found some viruses in Japan, it may not have affected other country users as the telecommunication providers are different.

Mostly, people write virus codes just to be famous. Some young people write these programs just for the kick. But then there are people who write malicious codes which can affect the recipient's machines. That is when it's a threat and becomes a serious issue. But right now for us, this segment is not a big market even though we have the products ready.

You have tied up with NTT DoCoMo in China for providing anti-virus protection. Do you plan to have a similar tie-up in India?

In India if there is a business opportunity, then we will certainly explore it. Anyone willing to talk to us is welcome. And now that we have set up an office in India, I think we will do better in the near future.

You have been a late entrant in India. There is very little awareness about your company in the country. How do you plan to remedy that?

We are in India at the right time as Internet is still in its infancy here. This is the time to go into the enterprise market for gateways and server protection. I don't think we are too late. We started as a small company and it has been built from scratch. This has kept us pretty busy. India is a very important market for us because of its immense potential. If we had come here too early, we would have to concentrate on the desktop market, which is neither a very profitable business nor our focus area.

Who are your OEM partners?

Our major OEM clients are the motherboard manufacturers. As you know most motherboard companies are based in Taiwan and 90 percent of them are our partners. This partnership also acts as an effective marketing tool to get users to buy our products.

We are talking to local motherboard players in the Indian market and they have already evinced a lot of interest.

How much business do you lose to piracy and how do you plan to tackle it?

I don't have the numbers. We are not going to stop this problem on our own. We have to show our value to the customer and our support to the systems integrator, which a pirated software can't offer. So we have to create more value than just a CD. Whoever wants regular updates will definitely go for the authentic product.

How do you plan to position your product in the Indian market?

We have products from desktop to email to servers protection all the way. We are not saying that we will not provide protection for desktops. But we have seen that there are already many players in this segment, which is why we want to keep our focus on the gateway

protection. As the Internet re-defines business procedures, enterprises of all sizes are getting concerned about data safety and integrity. By protecting information that flows through Internet gateways, email servers and file servers, Trend Micro allows companies to stop viruses and other forms of harmful content from a central point before they ever reach the desktop.

We spent the first phase of our plans in developing solutions for different customer segments. Then we tied up with OEM partners to take these products to the market. Now that we have a good technology and product, we need a good channel to sell it. And so we are coming up with marketing plans like road shows, seminars and promotions. And as time progresses, we would come up with more media publicity.

We will also launch some promotions for resellers and the channel. These channel programs will be handled with the help of Ingram Micro. We have already worked out on a detailed plan for India.

What is Trend Micro's market share worldwide?

According to IDC, Trend Micro enjoys 54.3 percent of the Internet gateway segment of the anti-virus market.

VINITA SUVARNA-BHATIA in Mumbai