EPiServer to increase its footprint in India

Subbalakshmi B .M

Bangalore: As a step forward to increase its footprint in India and become a
major player in the web Content Management Solution (CMS) segment, EPiServer is
looking to appoint new partners. On the anvil is to increase its partner
strength from the current six to at least 40 by the end of 2008. Speaking about
the same, Shiladitya Sunny Ghosh - President of EPiServer India said, “Our
partners are very crucial for our growth and we would continue to strengthen our
relationship with them. While trying to add on partners to our fold, our focus
for the year ahead is to try and get into alliance with partners who have
expertise in specific verticals.”

He further added, “EPiServer business model is based on 'partners' and
'participation'. We work in close association with application vendors to
provide customized solutions using EPiServer platform. We want to make use of
the expertise our partners bring and build an ecosystem, where application
developers can play an important role.”

Indicating that EpiServer is looking to increase the market presence and
expand sales through partners, Ghosh said, ”With the EPiServer platform,
partners can create unique profiles by building their own modules specialized
for different customer groups. On its part, EPiServer would focus on further
development of the platform, and let the partner fully handle the customer.”

Ghosh also said that as part of the partner program, training and
certification would be provided to all partners besides aiding them in
implementation and module development. “At the end of the day our aim is to
make the partner totally independent, so that he is able to sell and implement
solutions completely on his own,” he added.

In order to help partners' gear up on the sales and marketing front,
EpiServer has initiated a marketplace and alliance program called 'EPiMore'.
Under this program, EPiServer helps set up new business models based on mutual
exchange of ideas between them and their partners to provide solutions to the
market. Speaking about the same, Ghosh said, “Unlike other traditional
alliance models, partners approach EPiServer and make use to the market
opportunity to provide relevant modules, products and services to customers. All
products and services under this model are developed, sold, distributed and
supported by the EpiMore partners under their own brand name. These partners are
licensed as EpiMore Alliance Partners and are allowed to target our customer
base with their offering. We hope to target more SME customers with these
products and services so that they work closely with EPiServer CMS.

Sharing his thoughts on the Warm Website Initiative for customers that
Episerver has launched, Ghosh said, “Warm Website Initiative is our version of
the Web 2.0. It is an alliance program, which ties several large global product
vendors in building this experience and is a direct effort to mimic the premium
experience a potential customer gets when walking into an exclusive store using
the EPiServer Web Platform.”

Speaking about India, Gosh said that the India center for EpiServer would
serve as the point of entry for the company to increase its footprint in the
whole of APAC. “The India office is an essential part of our global expansion
plans. This office will support our global system integrators and solutions
partners in Asia and Americas. To enable us roll out our product deliveries from
India, we have established an R&D team in Bangalore, which would support our
Sweden center and help us in product expansion,” said Ghosh, while adding that
the company also wants to work with software engineers who are working with
partners in India and other parts of Asia and offer them training to become
EPiServer certified developers.

Commenting on the CMS industry trends, Ghosh said that awareness on the need
for better content management and sharing is increasing among customers who now
look for efficient IP protection. “Today in India, like most other parts of
the globe, websites are no longer mere brochure sites but serve as brand
identity and help improve customer interactions. This means that there are
growing opportunities to provide customer services offerings via the web. We
would bank on that opportunity and contribute our bit to help organizations
manage content better,” he added.