"Customers are realizing that in the business of IT, information always comes before technology"

With EMC's recent shift in focus to concentrate on the mid-tiered
enterprises, Manoj Chugh expects B-class cities in the Indian market to become
major growth drivers. He is confident that EMC's technology and infrastructure
will make this transition a smooth sailing, unlike its competitors who are now
planning to scale up to meet high-end requirements.

How is EMC positioned in the external storage space?

Almost 55% of the external storage segment comprises of Direct Attached
Storage (DAS) and the rest comprises NAS, SAN and CAS. In this 45% space, we
enjoy the leadership position.

As per the IDC figures, EMC's marketshare in the external storage space by
the end of 2003 was close to 7% of the total marketshare. We had planned to
scale this up to 24% by the end of 2004, and I am glad to mention that we have
already achieved the target.

We see the Indian storage market shifting from DAS to the other three forms
of external storage within a year. And we plan to grow our market share with it.
EMC is looking at leveraging the shift in the external storage space and widen
its geographical reach in India.

What changes have been brought about in EMC's business model over the
last few months?

EMC has realigned its business model since November last year. Known as a
company that would cater to only high-end customers, we have now started looking
at the mid-sized companies. We have earmarked an investment $100 million in
India over the next five years.

We launched 14 new products in February 2003, a significantly large number in
the industry to be launched by anyone. And, of this, 11 are catering
specifically to mid-sized companies. It is the widest product line EMC has ever
offered.

We even came up with our 'Go To Market' strategy under which we are now
focusing on the various B-class cities across India. We see a lot of
opportunities in these cities as they have many mid-sized companies. We even
opened our third logistics and spare part facility in Delhi in March this year,
the other two of our centers being at Bangalore and Mumbai.

What channel initiatives has EMC taken up?

EMC came up with its partner program called 'Velocity' in April this
year. Under this program, we offer a complete choice to our partners as to the
kind of relationship they want to maintain with EMC.

We have three types of partners under the Velocity Partner Program. The
Velocity Resellers, Partners and Premium Partners. These partners share the
sales, support, implementation and service-level relationships with us. The goal
of Velocity is to increase EMC's ability to attract and support partners by
combining financial support with training, certification, sales, marketing and
technical support.

The biggest differentiator is that the Velocity program allows our certified
partners to realize revenue from services and consulting. This allows many of
our partners the foothold they need in customer accounts, as well as providing
an additional revenue stream.

We also appointed Redington as our national distributor in January this year.
EMC has seven SIs at present. Dell and Datacraft are the two global partners the
company has and the local partners are Wipro, HCL, Tata Elxsi, CMC and Tata
InfoTech. Redington is in the process of appointing reseller partners for us
throughout the country.

What USP does EMC offers to its partners?

The USP that we offer to our partners is that they have the choice on the
kind of relationship that they can have with us. We give our partners the choice
to be our sales partners or service and implementation partners or both. Besides
we offer them intensive training, accreditation and certification programs.

Our partner model works towards enhancing the value of being an EMC partner
by fostering current partnerships and alliances and building new partnerships to
further increase EMC's coverage of diverse markets. All of EMC's hardware,
software and services are delivered through certified partners.

In fact, enabling partners to provide services is a unique value proposition
that only EMC offers. We are expecting the greatest momentum in the mid-tier
segment where partners will play a critical role. EMC has aggressive plans to
grow its channel and partner presence.

What are your plans for his fiscal?

EMC plans to aggressively run its partner program continuously training its
partners and enhancing their skills. We are looking at a strategic geographical
entry into the B cities in India, as we believe we have the infrastructure and
support to bring the high-end technology to the low end at affordable prices.

We have been very aggressive with our pricing strategy and have been trying
to make our products affordable to the mid-sized segment. The entry level EMC
products have come down from $50,000 to around $10,000 at present, which gives
an idea of how aggressive we are on the pricing front and how we are striving to
make technology affordable.

KUSUM MAKHIJA

INFORMATION LIFECYCLE MANAGMENT SOLUTIONS