We are targeting to have 20 percent marketshare by next year

By April 2009, Sophos is planning to have a direct presence in India, but

till then the vendor will continue to reach the channel partners through Satcom,

its Mumbai-based national distributor

What is the distribution model of Sophos?



Our national distributor Satcom Infotech has appointed 50 channel partners

across the country. Our present agenda is to enhance our channel base; we are

planning to appoint 150 more partners by 2009. We are also coming up with

incentive programs designed to increase the interest among channel to do

business with us.

What is your strategy to beat the competition?



We have kept ourselves focused towards enterprise and mid-sized business.

Our exclusivity towards a particular market segment will provide us a leap in

the market. Currently our marketshare is in between nine to 11 percent and we

are targeting to touch the scale of 20 percent by next year.

According to industry analysts, Sophos is a real alternative to Symantec and

McAfee. We provide an integrated solution that is incorporated with all the

security features in one product and is easy to install and use. The security

solutions are designed for enterprise and mid-size markets that require multiple

features but are packaged in one bundle.

Dr Kamal Heus Manager-International Business Development, Sophos

How are you planning to increase your visibility in the market?



We will be organizing roadshows and channel programs. Our foremost action is

to spread brand awareness and we will be doing it primarily through channel. We

have programs that provide technical support to the channel. We are also

conducting seminars to spread awareness about the brand and the security

solutions as well.

Our strategy is to strengthen ourselves in technical support, marketing

activities and technical research in the corporate segment. We will provide

comprehen­sive training to the partners in all directions.

We are coming up with a series of events that are focused on providing

awareness about security solutions towards end customers and are also designed

to motivate them to develop a secure environment.

Any plans to have a direct presence in India?



Yes we are planning to make our direct presence in the country by April

2009. We are in the process of hiring manpower that can take control of the

India operations for pre-sales, post-sales, marketing and technical support. We

will be having our head-office in Bengaluru, and two branches in Delhi and

Hyderabad. We would be having more focus on providing technical support to

customers. We are taking support of an external agency to help us in recruiting

the right set of people.

Presently we are operating in India through our England office and it takes

much time to reach partners, customers and take strategic decisions. Our direct

presence will solve these issues; we can also study the Indian environment in a

better manner and design our strategies accordingly. Moreover, it would be

convenient for our distributor to communicate with us and help in revamping our

presence in India. This will also provide requisite support to channel in lesser

time span.

The channel business will be taken care of by the distributor. We will

interact with our distributor only and provide support to channel as and when

needed.

What is the time frame you are targeting to create a robust position in

Indian market?



Right now we are in the phase of building our resources. In the next three

years we are hopeful that we will have an impressive presence in India. However,

we will not emphasize on exploding our channel base. We will work with limited

partners so that they can enjoy good margins with us.

AMRITA TEJASVI



amritat@cybermedia.co.in