Pune: Domestic anti-virus company Indiaantivirus, which develops Net Protector Anti-virus, intends to go deep with its channel partners for better business scale. The Pune-based company that witnessed a huge traction in the anti-virus market within a short span of time, is now betting big on the enterprise business through its wide partner network.
The company recently unveiled a new enterprise class product portfolio to its partners and distributors. The company has launched solutions such as Corporate Web Control, new Z security edition designed for VIP customers and NP Remote Support to name a few. In an exclusive interaction with Channel Times, Sumeet Kela, Director, Technology, highlighted the key thrust areas of the company in terms of channel engagement.
“We have a pan India presence with a regional distribution model across the regions and metros. We have currently more than 25000 registered partners associated with our brand. We mostly work with system integrators, service providers and AMC partners. We are committed to better channel engagement and have announced a slew of initiatives including new products, reward programs and better service support”, Kela said.
Kela also responded on certain upcountry partners’ allegations on thin margins on NPAV products. He clarified that the company did not indulge in cutting down the profit margins for partners, and certain partners were deliberately reducing margins to retain customers.
“NPAV is a pull product and there is a huge demand for our brand at the counters. We always promote good and competitive margins for partners. The company is not cutting partners’ profits but certain dealers are fighting among themselves and might reducing the margins to sell it at a low price to customers,” Kela said.
Kela also clarified on the accusation of same partners about not having proper channel strategy in place. He said, “There is not truth in this allegation. We have a very good channel structure in place. We have a wide network of distributors in all regions and cities. In fact, certain AV companies are now copying the channel strategies such as dealer login portal and giving points to partners, which we introduced two years ago.”
Creative Peripherals and Distribution is a national distributor of NPAV, whereas, the company has multiple regional distributors across the regions. Talking about company’s partnership with the NPAV brand, Manthan Thakkar, Product Manager at Creative Peripherals said, “Volumes are very high in NPAV, therefore, if partners sell more they will earn more. The company is already strong in the consumer space and now they intend to expand in the enterprise business. We have a strong network of partners and all the inquiries and sales are routed through our dealer network.”
Manoj Jakhotia, director of Keshav Computers, who is a regional distributor of NPAV in Mumbai said that thin margins is a major challenge faced by partners associated with all the AV brands. “The current state of IT business has put a lot of pressure on partners’ margins and all AV brands are lacking behind on this front”, Jakhotia said.
Kela also took a dig at competitors on the allegation of copying product features from other anti-virus brands, terming it poor efforts from the rivals to defame the company. Referring to a blog post published by one of the prominent AV company, Kela said, “We have a big team of more than 200 software developers, malware analysts, research team, which is directly headed by me. Our products are internationally certified by check mark certifications. We are proud of our solutions and competitors are jealous about the fact that NPAV is doing really well in the market in terms of installations. We prefer to ignore such baseless allegations and focus on our business.”
NPAV has a very strong installation rate in the consumer segment. Kela, however, avoided revealing the sales figures and pan India installation number in the last one year. “We are not supposed to reveal the revenue details, but we are doing good pan India”, he said.
The company has recently launched a “Ransomware challenge” wherein the company would pay the ransom of its customers hit by ransomware attack. While there is a perception in the industry that the said challenge is ‘eyewash’, Kela believes that it reflects company’s confidence and trust in the product feature.
“This challenge means a lot to us and we are confident that our solutions are capable of securing customers’ data from ransomware attacks”, he said, adding that the company would continue to participate in channel meets and support partners with better margins and scale of business.