'We are focused on the corporate segment and want to create a niche there'

Having achieved revenues
of $1 million in less thanÂ
a month of hisÂ
appointment as Country
Manager for Allied Telesyn, Chander
Purswani is all geared to
set up a whole new
distribution network in the country. In order to enthuse second-tier partners to sell Allied Telesyn’s products,
he intends offering them
margins of at least 10
percent. His gameplan is
to focus extensively on
the corporate segment
and facilitate over-the-
counter replacement.
He tells DQCI that he
wants to make the
company one of the top
five networking
vendors within four years.

Can you give a brief backgrounder on Allied Telesyn?

Allied Telesyn worldwide is a 16-year old company, founded by Taki Oshima.
It offers an entire range of networking products for LAN as well as WAN. These
include NICS, routers, switches, firewalls, hubs and wireless LAN. We will soon
be launching IP telephony products as well.

Who are your competitors in India?

We compare ourselves with US brands like Cisco and 3Com and not the
Taiwanese companies.

We established our presence in India three years ago. But for some reasons we
could not penetrate the market. So I have taken the challenge to make the brand
well-known in the Indian market.

	I want to establish over-the-counter  replacement as the warranty norm for  our products
Chander Purswani, Country Manager, Allied Telesyn International (Asia) Pte Ltd

What will be your focus areas this year?

First of all, the product has to be freely available. So we are working
towards this. Next on the list is warranty. I want to establish over-the-counter
replacement as the warranty norm for Allied Telesyn’s products. Very few
networking companies as of now offer this.

What are the margins that you offer to your channel?

Our channel will comprise distributors, SIs and VARs. The distributor will
just stock inventory, so he will get two to three percent margin, while the
channel will get at least 10 percent.

What kind of channel network do you have in the country presently?

We already have many partners but there will be a lot of re-shuffling in the
next few months. Some new partners are going to be added to this list. Net Force
is our distributor in the western region, in the north we have Cosmos, in east
we have Leading Edge and in South it is JDH.

Do you intend to appoint a national distribution?

We do not wish to appoint a national distributor, because these are largely
box pushers and therefore they cannot concentrate on one brand. Besides, the
volumes have to be justified, before one can appoint a national distributor. We
would rather appoint a regional distributor, whose bread and butter will come
from Allied Telesyn’s sales.

What kind of support do you offer to your channel?

At times, we might bag an order directly but we will bill it only through
the channel. This way we will make sure that their interests are safeguarded.
Also we will extend whatever support they might need for closing a deal. We have
also chalked out an authorized channel program which will be called Authorized
Telesyn Engineers. All the partners registered in this program can get training
workshops and frequent updates on the latest technology as well as special
pricing.

Being in the channel business myself, I am interested in creating channel
programs that will motivate not just our resellers, but also their employees.
Because in the end, it is these employees who will bring in the revenues.

What were the revenues for last year in India?

It was not very great, maybe less than $1 million. This year we hope to
clock $3.6 million. Everyone is saying that the market is sluggish. But I have
already achieved $1 million revenues in less than a month since my appointment.

How will you create brand awareness for Allied Telesyn in an already
overcrowded market?

Brand awareness is not created overnight. Once we have the people in place,
automatically it will get created. Also we are not competing with the Taiwanese
players that cater to the home segment. Our focus is the corporate and SMB
segment which is catered to by Cisco and 3Com.

What keeps you focussed on the corporate segment?

There is a lot of demand that remains un-addressed in the networking segment
that we are catering to in India. 3Com is in a bad shape, Intel is out. The only
well-known player is Cisco. Our products are comparable with Cisco in terms of
quality. So we are confident of gaining marketshare gradually in the next few
months.

We are also talking to OEMs like PCS and HCL and will appoint them as our SIs
as they have widespread reach.

On the home segment there are already several players present, including
D-Link and other Taiwanese companies. And here the buyers are very price and not
quality-conscious. It makes much more sense for us to focus on the corporate
segment where there are not many players and we can create a niche for
ourselves.

How will you handle the service issue?

We are going to appoint someone with a national presence to handle the RMA
issues. We will give him a margin for all the cases catered by him.

How are you going to develop your operations in India?

At present I am the only person handling Allied Telesyn’s operations in
India. I have to set up an office here. Therefore I need to expand my arms and
this is where my OEM partners and channel will come into action. Instead of
investing in an office, I will invest in my business partners to grow Allied
Telesyn’s business.

For the time being I am more keen on appointing personnel who can manage the
business from their own places.

VINITA BHATIA in Mumbai