Canon targets emerging markets with its LFB products

N.R Sethuraman

Chennai

January 23rd, 2008

For 2008 Canon has proposed to concentrate on the emerging business space,
which is expected to grow in the future. "This New Year, we would be
focusing on both the office business and emerging business solutions. More focus
would be put on the emerging business as that segment is expected to grow more
than the core office business solution," said Som Gangopadhyay, director of
BIS, Canon India.

Emerging business would cover all the important sectors like SOHO and SMB,
High speed and graphic cards he claimed. Canon expects to do a business of 10
times more than last year with great focus on the emerging business. "With
the updation of latest technology and the knowledge obtained out of that, our
products are available with as much as clarity that is possible. Large format
business has CAD, GUI, graphic cards, which are the huge revenue-generating
segment. The focus on this LFB will be a key growth factor for Canon," he
claimed.

Most of the LFB business for Canon comes through Government, which
contributes 30-35 percent of Canon's business for various e-governance and
automation related projects. Canon has around 132 partners in the BIS segment
and the channel contribution is around 72 percent on the whole.

"A great amount of knowledge and technical expertise is needed for
handling BIS products. We are directly involving ourselves in the installations
though we have tied up with few large system integrators, as there is a need for
complete service support to the customers," Gangopadhyay said while adding
that training programmers are needed for engaging partners in the BIS segment.

For that purpose Canon has opened a National training center in Noida apart
from the regional training centers existing in all the metros. "The six and
half thousand Sq ft center for advanced training will include all the necessary
training required for the high-end solution installations," he informed.

Gangopadhyay feels that the non-profitable training programme called 'Gurukul
program' is the high point for Canon. Last year 50 sales personal were selected
and provided with extensive and exclusive training. This year we plan to include
80 executives. Canon doesn't believe in engaging more partners for pushing the
products. We want our partners to grow with us," he added. Canon has
proposed to conduct over 60 programmers for the channel partners in 2008.