''We are not in any way competing with our own partners''

Although Allied Telesyn has been present in India for the past three years,
it has not managed to create good recall for itself. And this is an aberration
that Rajesh Sahore wants to correct. He is making sure that the company is
first putting the deliverables in place before talking about it. He concedes to
Channels India that he has an uphill task, but he confident that he is will make
Allied Telesyn one of the top three vendors within three years.

You want Allied Telesyn to be one of the three leading networking
companies within three years. Yet you hope to have 10% marketshare by the year
2009. Aren't both these statements contradictory?

In the networking industry, Cisco dominates with 50% marketshare. All other
vendors have sub-10% marketshares.

Allied Telesyn has a wide range of products, starting from the niche to the
SMB-level. This should help us realize our goal of being among the top three
vendors soon and gain 10% marketshare.

Allied has been in the Indian market for over a year, but has failed to
carve out a niche for itself. How are you going to create a better brand recall?

Earlier, our business was only through the distribution channel. Now we feel
that with our new product line and portfolio, we would like to try and pitch
ourselves afresh as well. That is where you will see renewed focus from our end.

In the past three months, we have launched several new products and signed up
new alliances. We have also put a new support model in place. Besides focusing
on the SMB/SME market, we will also expand to the larger enterprises.

We have started adding more partners to our network with our NetAlliance
program. We want to have approximately 150 channel partners in each of the
regions of the country. That will give us more hands and feet on the ground. At
the same time, it will bring more sales, directly or indirectly. And also the
brand visibility will be higher.

Being a smaller company compared to our peers, we are quite flexible to
changes. So, partners can expect newer ideas and strategies from us regularly.
That is exactly how we propose to become one of the top three vendors in
equivalent years.

We will always try to improve upon some pitfalls that we have faced and if
there is something that we are doing well, we will accelerate it further.

How will you get your partners to distinguish between an SME from an
enterprise, as the definitions for the two are almost merging now?

Yes, it is very difficult to decide which genre the customer falls into. To
simplify matters, a few top companies which have the potential to use our niche
products, those would comprise our enterprise clients. Proprietorship or
partnership companies with a turnover of Rs 50 crore or less, can be termed as
SME clients.

But, as you rightly mentioned, it is a thin line. Some customers may be
small, but they maybe strategic. We do not want to lose sight of these buyers.

You also plan to enter the government sector where Cisco has a stronghold.
How will you manage to entrench yourself in this space?

Our strategy to get into this market is providing products that are
technically at par with market leaders at more realistic prices. Cisco is a
market leader. But at the same time, the government business is largely
transacted through tenders and there we can use our capability of giving better
rates.?We have niche and unique products in our portfolio which will fit
well with a government or a BFSI institution. Also, we are trying to build up
upon our core strengths or deliverables.

What kind of support infrastructure have you invested in the country?

We have launched the Net.Cover capability, which is a support package that
Allied Telesyn is providing as an additional feature to customers who have very
stringent service level agreements (SLA). The normal warranty that we provide
need not be good enough for some customers, because their network uptime is more
critical. That is where this Net.Cover program comes in.

We have tied up with NCR to provide this service for customers who have opted
for the Net.Cover package. The package has both service options, on-site and
off-site. All our customers get online help which is looked after by us. If
there are ardware failure, then we direct NCR to ship the replacement to the
customer within a certain time frame.

VINITA BHATIA