DQCI FIFTH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Five years! Yup, Channels India has just completed the fifth year of its
existence. And over these five years, we have charted the course of the destiny
of the vast and vibrant channel community of India. It has been five very
fulfilling years, in which we have tried our best to paint a true picture.

As we raise a toast to our fifth anniversary, it's time to recognize the
achievements of the industry as a whole. Just like in the previous celebrations
we have been talking about sizzlers, this time too we recognize the people
behind some dynamic companies who have made it possible for the channel
community to shine.

PEOPLE Ajay Sawant of Orient TechnologiesAnil Gupta of Artek Enterprises RK Malhotra of OA Compserve Rawlin Pinto of Lauren Technologies PK Chowdhry of Microcare Girish Madhavan of Quadsel Systems MS Sidhu of Apara Enterprises Shiv Modi of Trisita Corporation Sudhir Sarma of Network Solutions Vinayak Apte of Microline PRODUCTS MFDs It's all about color, honey Security Appliances When threats become treats Notebooks The growth opportunity is here Storage Management Riding high on data explosion TECHNOLOGIES OpenSource A shift in mindset Disaster Recovery Crucial for business continuity Infrastructure Management Services Leveraging human - independent process Software Bound SIs find a new cash cow TRENDS Wireless Networking The wave is here to stay Biometrics A technology whose time has come SATA Drives Redefining reliable storage RFID More hype than matter?

But it's not just people whom we are highlighting. Channels India is also
looking at some hot products which every channel partner should focus on to
maximize his margins. Then we also look at some hot technologies and trends to
be on the look out for.

The 10 personalities Channels India is highlighting have all excelled and are
striving for more. These 10 men have come from a number of cities - Bangalore,
Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune - in the process
encompassing the entire country.

For instance, Rawlin Pinto, CMD of Mumbai-based Lauren Information
Technologies is a very shy person by nature. He likes to remain in the shadows
and prefers to let his work speak for itself. He is betting heavily on PDA-based
applications. In fact, he has already deployed PDA applications and hardware to
several companies both within India as well as abroad.

Similarly, RK Malhotra-Rishi as he is more popularly known-also likes to
stay away from the limelight. However, this Bhishm Pitamah of the channel
community has been quietly doing his work in the background. And as a result,
Delhi-based OA Compserve Group, which he established in 1990, is today a Rs 67
crore powerhouse dabbling in trading, system integration, facility management
and high-end technical training.

As far as product categories are concerned, everybody recognizes that
multifunction devices, laptops, storage and security appliances are growing very
fast as the demand for these products is extremely high for various reasons.

For instance, laptops are experiencing a boom time thanks mainly to the
drastic drop in prices. One year back, the cheapest laptop was at least Rs
65,000. Today, this price point has dropped down to below Rs 40,000, thus
narrowing the gap with PCs.

Similarly, storage market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 65% by the year
2007. Now, that's an extremely good growth by any standard. No wonder, all the
leading vendors like HP and IBM are going all out. In addition, a pure PC vendor
like Dell has also plunged into this market. That sums up the scenario in
storage.

In technologies, we focus on wireless networking, biometrics, SATA and RFID
- all upcoming and very promising technologies. In addition, we do keep a
watch on the future trends, which include open source, data security,
infrastructure management and SIs setting up their own software teams.

Team DQCI