'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