Kerman Rana, VP (Sales and Marketing), Digilink, in an interview with Kapil Mudholkar, shares his immediate priorities and future plans. Excerpts…
What will be your immediate priorities?
The main priority right now is to sustain high visibility for the brand. Our unique channel distribution system is a strong point for the company, and this should be further explored and strengthened and lastly our immediate focus is to expand the brand globally.
What steps are you planning to boost sales in this slowdown period?
In this recession market, the companies who have not invested much tend to leave due to slowdown. At Digilink, we have invested excessively in our extensive set up, which includes state-of-the-art plants, R&D centers, 17 branch offices and 25 RMA centers.
We have the largest set up for a networking company in India today, this is a plus point for us, and because of this we will always be strong in the Indian market this slowdown has created opportunities for us to take market share of our competitors.
We are starting our 45 cities events across India and SAARC countries, which will be conducted through out the next couple of months. This will help us create mind share with our SIs over new technologies coming in to passive.
We are releasing schemes and incentive programmes for our partners, which will ensure steady sales and growth potential.
What message would you like to give to your partners?
Looking after our partners’ profitability and growth is one of our primary values. We will help our distribution network by passing on leads where necessary ensure that there are no channel clashes and basically handhold our valued partners for new and future business. Besides, there won’t be too many changes in our go-to-market strategy.
What’s your view on Indian market in this slowdown period?
The after effects of the global meltdown will remain for a while, and this is affecting the Indian market even today, but alternatively it has also opened up many new opportunities for us. Several American and European brands and companies are looking into making their presence felt since India having a decent GDP growth of 4.3 percent holds good potential. This global interest should hold the Indian market on a high pedestal even in the slowdown period.
The Indian market will see a turnaround in JFM 2010 post the March budget.
Are there any plans for new products launch?
Yes, we are looking into introducing new datacenter solutions to our product mix, as we want to get into the enterprise business segment. We will soon launch the unique Multimedia Face-plates, the first in the world, these faceplates can be customized to the customers needs in deign and d cor. Many more new products are in the loop and over the next two quarters, you will see them launched.
Any plans for channel expansion in near future?
Channel expansion within India is a continuous process, but at present we are looking to make Digilink a global brand. We already have a good channel distribution network in countries like Sri-Lanka, UAE and Bangladesh. Further on, we will look into capturing other global markets.