Canon to appoint 200 CEPs by 2006; eyeing SMB market

Betting big on the SMB growth in the country, Canon India is looking at
doubling its empowered partner base from the present 200 to 400, within the next
year. The company aims to increase its SMB revenue share from 25% to 35% by
2006, through this initiative.

"Our SMB revenue is growing significantly year-on-year and we are also
expanding our product offerings here to address the wide market. In the next
couple of months, Canon would launch 10 new products for SMBs," said

S Gangopadhyay, Head-Office Systems & Solutions (OSS), Canon India.

The company is also increasing its channel, product offerings and service
support to capture significant market share and take it to the next level.
"Canon Empowered Partners (CEPs) will be primarily into providing telecom
and office automation (OA) solutions, and they are allowed to sell both
equipment and consumables in the market. Service is the other key area where
they need to focus on to sustain in business," he pointed out.

The company markets office systems and solutions both directly and through
the channel route. While direct selling is a small constituent in the total
business, channel sales account for more than 90% of the OSS division revenue in
Canon. "We have two major channel partner groups- OA and Enterprise
Solution Providers (ESPs). Further, the OA channel is split into OA Corporate
and OA Reseller, where we have 80 and 40 partners respectively. The CEPs will be
addressed through OA Resellers only," explained Gangopadhyay.

Canon claims to offer a wide range of products for SMBs, which include faxes,
printing solutions, MFDs, low-end of hi-speed scanners, large format printers
and copiers, among others. "Our solutions are aimed at improving the
productivity and efficiency of SMB partners to compete in the global
market," Gangopadhyay claimed.

He also said that the SMB segment is registering a phenomenal growth after
the recent restructuring of policy by the central government. "SMB
contributes 32% to the total GDP of India and south is leading the race with
many self-sustaining towns spread across the region."

S GOPIKRISHNA