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Setting new standards of
excellence and raising the bar of performance has been the hallmark of Select
Technologies. It is, indeed, with immense pleasure, that we announce that
Select Technologies has been conferred with the VAR India Award for the 'MOST
VALUE ADDED SOFTWARE SECURITY DISTRIBUTOR - 2006'. It is a matter of great
honour as this recognition has come at the time when Rishtey 2006 is on the
anvil. The award will only motivate and encourage us to raise the bar of
brilliance and distinction even further. Congratulations to the TEAM SELECT!!!
You have displayed the zeal and enthusiasm that is synonymous with Select
Technologies. Keeps the Select banner flying high!
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Select's Uniqueness lies in Value Addition
The distribution business was not so thrilling
until some time back. The dynamics of the IT business have undergone a drastic
change with the proliferation of IT in the country. The market has expanded
both vertically and horizontally. The SMB sector has emerged to be the most
challenging part in the business chain. With this, the competition has gone to
the next level. Every stoppage of the supply chain has felt the pinch of
competition- be it the resellers or the distributors. "Value Add and Survive"
has become the buzzword for the entire industry. Distributors, which were
earlier known to be the box-movers and mere logistic partners of the
principals, are finding their roles redefined as well. They are adding value to
their offerings and taking innovative approaches to differentiate them.
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Sriram S Chief Executive, Select Technologies Ltd.
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In this competitive environment, Select
Technologies perhaps stands above the milieu. It has been a quick learner and
adopter of the business trend. When everybody was screaming about profitability
in business, Select Technologies had taken a calculated risk. Leaving the
mundane business of PCs and peripherals, it had taken security and storage
management software products (information protection and management) very
seriously.
Two things happened at a time. Industry for both the products (security and
storage) grew enormously over a period of time in India , and it called for
value addition from the distributor itself. The net result is more engagement
in terms of sales, support and flexible billing options with the customers
(resellers), which make the resellers happy and a happy reseller definitely
makes the distributor and its principals happy.
Sriram S, Chief Executive, Select Technologies
Ltd. (A Subsidiary of WeP Peripherals Ltd.), says, "Select Technologies is not
just a run-of-the-mill distributor, but is a value-added distributor with a
unique business model which has enabled us to successfully partner with so many
principals."
Sriram adds, "Our focus has solely been on Information Protection and
Management Domain. We are consistently striving to be a pioneer in the niche
businesses we engage in. We are a very customer-driven company. We do not
merely satisfy the information and protection needs of the customer, we
understand the needs first. Likewise, we have deliberately and consciously
added solutions to meet the various lifecycle requirements of our customers in
the IPM domain."
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Select's
uniqueness lies in its business model, which is
based on manifold principles, i.e. Business
Development at the end-user through consultative
selling, Enabling channel partners to leverage on
the emerging security solutions for their customer
base, Strong pre-sales and post-sales support for
end-to-end customer requirements and Efficient and
flexible billing options to suit different
customer's needs.
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Sunil Pillai Business Head, Select Technologies Ltd.
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Asked about how to encourage the channel partners to be aggressive on your
products, Sunil Pillai, Business Head, Select Technologies Ltd., says, "We
believe in strong and enduring relationships with our channel partners. We
follow the Indirect Model due to which we have been on a growing path by leaps
and bounds consistently and encouragingly year after year. This has been
possible because of the leveraged model which we follow, which is scalable. Our
philosophy has been to enable partners through training so that we can mutually
take advantage of the best-of-breed relationships with all our vendors."
As the security market is growing rapidly, it is propelling evolutions in terms
of technology and understanding of the partners about the market dynamics. So,
at no point now any investment on manpower and technology upgradation looks
quite sizable. It is surely an ongoing process. Therefore, Select Technologies
is also investing a sizeable chunk to ensure that the company is always on the
cutting-edge technology and also enabling continuous skill updating of the
partners. However, 20 per cent of the Select Technologies' staff is dedicated
to technical services in the pre-sales and post-sales domain.
The company is pretty strong in terms of its post-sale mechanisms. It has
multiple options for customers based on their requirements and SLAs. The first
level support is by partners. Select Technologies has its footprints at eleven
locations for level-2 support and logistical support, and ensures periodic
training for the first level support of our channel partners.
Of course, for the company, it is not a smooth sailing. From the outset, it
appears that Select has a number of products addressing broadly the same space.
Justifying each product line, Sunil says, "Our basket of offerings is to ensure
that we have all the solutions for customers required at the complete
lifecycle. We engage in consultative selling. Therefore, we understand
customer's requirements well and based on the requirements we position the
right solution, depending on how critical it is. We have very little overlap in
our solutions."
He clarifies, "We discontinued our alliance with WatchGuard for UTM solutions
before finally signing up with SonicWALL because of similar solutions."
The company believes that training is the vital part to understand the security
products. Therefore, the company provides exhaustive training opportunity to
the partners. Sriram maintains,""On an average, we have 3-5 training programmes
each week across different locations spread across India . The types of
training include: Pre-sales, Post-sales, Hands-on Training, New Solutions
Awareness Training, etc."
The IT business is fairly well spread these days. Only metros do not uphold
much of business promise anymore. It is the B- and C-class cities and even
smaller ones adding substantially to the revenue of a vendor. Select
Technologies is the early mover in this space as well. Sriram reveals that last
year 20 per cent of their revenue has come from the B- and C-class cities. And,
he is expecting same kind of result this year as well. He adds, "As market
leaders, we ensure that we are ahead in catering to all the classes of cities
across a diverse population."
Finally...
It is believed that the market is growing at 25 per cent and surely as the
market leader, in this space Select's endeavour will be to grow at twice the
market rate. The company has grown 100 per cent in FY 2005 and hopefully the
company will maintain the same momentum this year. However, the goal for 2006
is to consolidate its position in the information protection and management
domain and strengthen its portfolio of solution to include all types of
emerging solutions. At the same time, the company will emphasize on increasing
its breadth in the SAARC countries. Sunil adds, "We aim at growing aggressively
and doubling from the present eleven locations in India to be present directly
at all the SAARC locations. We also plan to expand our base to more B- and C-
class cities across India in the coming quarters." The company will also work
closely with the partner community in addressing the emerging solutions,
including identity and access management and e-mail and archival management.
Select will also organize its biggest national channel event "Rishtey 2006"
this quarter to address the growing solutions and emerging concerns amongst the
channel community.
Indian SMBs
To Spend $7.7 Billion On IT
Small and medium businesses (SMBs) across the
Indian subcontinent will spend a mammoth $7.7 billion to beef up their IT
infrastructure - an 26% increase over last years spends, according to reports
by New York based AMI-Partners.
According to the report one third of all SMBs in India are anticipating an
increase of about 20% in their annual revenues and will therefore be investing
in IT.
Partha Sarathi Sengupta, Research Analyst at
AMI-Partners, explained, "Increased competition and the challenges brought by
globalization are forcing MBs (Medium Businesses) to fine-tune their IT
implementation. The majority of India 's MBs are in the second wave of IT
adoption, though several progressive MBs have already moved into the third wave
of IT adoption and are competing with large businesses in terms of IT usage."
The report says that due to a booming economy, the growing SMB segment
networking has emerged as a key focus area and businesses are anticipating are
planning on opening and interconnecting new branch offices and expanding their
reaches to remote locations.
Storage is the other promising sector as storage
expenditures are anticipated to grow 44% this year. "The growing volume of data
and data security are two influential factors in determining storage needs in
this business segment," observes Sengupta.
SBs however will be the main driving force behind the IT growth, concluded the
report.
The India SB market comprises approximately 7.5 million businesses, of which
21% currently utilize PCs. AMI's study showed that 40% of non-PC SBs are
planning to purchase 1.4 desktops on average in 2006, allocating a future
planned hardware budget of over $570 per business. Adoption of computers, usage
of software, and the updating of Web sites have enabled SBs to strengthen their
position in their field.
The reports are the result of AMI's "2005-2006 India Small Business Market
Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment" and "2005-2006 India
Medium Business Market Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity
Assessment" studies which highlight these and other major trends in the context
of current/planned IT, Internet and communications usage and spending
Internet Security
Systems Named Best Security Company in the United States by SC Magazine
ISS Wins Three Awards in Magazine's Annual
Program and Is Recognized as a Finalist in Seven Additional Categories
SAN JOSE, Calif. - February 16, 2006-
Internet Security Systems (ISS) (NASDAQ: ISSX), the worldwide leader in
preemptive, enterprise security, today announced it has been named Best
Security Company USA by SC Magazine in its annual security awards
program. ISS also won the Overall Reader Trust Award in this program for
offering the Best Unified Threat Solution on the market. Additionally, ISS was
honored with a third award for the Best Integrated Security Software, based on
the company's Proventia® Desktop Endpoint Security product. According to SC
Magazine, this year's awards program drew over 1,300 product and
service nominations from over 330 companies.
On top of winning these three awards, ISS was
also deemed a finalist in seven other categories, including: Best Vulnerability
Assessment, Best Anti-Worm, Best Intrusion Prevention, Best Integrated Security
Appliance, Best Managed Security Service, Best Desktop Firewall and Best
Security Solution USA . The award for Best Security Solution was bestowed upon
ISS for its Proventia Network Intrusion Prevention System, complemented by ISS'
Managed Security Services.
"While we are very pleased to be a finalist in
so many categories, we are especially proud to have been voted as the Best
Security Company USA and for being recognized as delivering the industry's Best
Unified Threat Solution," said Thomas Noonan, president and CEO of Internet
Security Systems. "These two awards validate ISS' approach to security. As
opposed to focusing on one niche technology, ISS feels it can offer customers
the most effective solution by delivering an integrated security platform that
can automatically combat threats of varying types."
Through its Proventia integrated security
platform, ISS provides comprehensive protection for enterprises from network to
host. By infusing all of its products with security intelligence from ISS'
X-Force® research and development group, ISS is able to protect customers ahead
of the threat, before their business assets are impacted by online intrusions.
ISS received the SC Magazine awards
during a ceremony held at the RSA Conference in San Jose , CA on
February 14. Through the new products that ISS launched at RSA, coupled with
additional innovations that the company will pursue in 2006, ISS is confident
that it will be met with equal success at next year's SC Magazine awards
ceremony.
About Internet Security Systems, Inc.
Internet Security Systems, Inc. (ISS) is the
trusted security advisor to thousands of the world's leading businesses and
governments, providing preemptive protection for networks, desktops and
servers. An established leader in security since 1994, ISS' integrated security
platform automatically protects against both known and unknown threats, keeping
networks up and running and shielding customers from online attacks before they
impact business assets. ISS products and services are based on the proactive
security intelligence of its X-Force® research and development team - the
unequivocal world authority in vulnerability and threat research. ISS' product
line is also complemented by comprehensive Managed Security Services. For more
information, visit the Internet Security Systems Web site at www.iss.net or
call 800-776-2362.
SC Magazine Awards 2006 - US
With over 1,300 product and service nominations
from over 330 competing companies globally, the SC Awards are the world's
leading awards program for the information security industry.
New this year, the SC Magazine Awards have
three separate award programs for the US , UK , and Asia Pacific regions. The
awards are composed of the Reader Trust Awards-voted on by SC readers in each
region, and the excellence and professional awards that are judged by a panel
of the industry's top talents. Winners were announced at the 2006 SC Awards
Gala on February 14 th, 2006 which took place at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose
, California .
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