Raritan launches "Trade-in Trade-out" programme for customers and partners

Pooja Sharma

New Delhi

October 25th, 2007

Raritan, provider of enterprise, analog and digital KVM Switches and other
security solutions has launched a programme for both channel partners and
end-customers. Called the Trade-in Trade out Programme, this initiative allows
the customers and channel partners to exchange a 4, 8, 16, 32 port x branded KVM-over-IP
switch for Raritan's recently launched product, Dominion KX I I 16/32 port KVM-over
IP switch. Both the customers and partners can thus earn attractive discounts on
the products, which would depend upon the condition and state of the product at
the time of exchange. This trade programme is open till 10th of December;
however the orders have to be placed with the authorized partner before 15th of
November 2007.

In order to be a part of the programme, partners and customers need to get in
touch with the company at enquiry.india@raritan.com.
Raritan will then contact the authorized Raritan partner, who will in turn
contact the customers and partners to assist in the trade-in. In case, one does
not have a Raritan partner, the company will refer the partner or customer to
one of their authorized partners. Once the customer has installed the new
Dominion® KXII, he can simply return the old KVM switch to the Raritan
Authorized partner.

With Dominion, the customer can access, control and manage the entire
enterprise infrastructure as one logical network-with a single, web-based
interface.

Talking about this initiative, Sanjay Motwani, Country Manager said,
"The idea behind this programme is to maximize our reach and sales. It was
Raritan's existing customers who motivated us to come up with such a programme.
With its distinct features this product enables the customers to remotely manage
their infrastructure. All the IT managers, looking to upgrade their
infrastructure that too in a cost-effective way can exchange their old switches
with the new Dominion products that we are offering." Dominion is basically
a high end product and targeted towards the enterprises and mid size
organizations.

He also added that this programme was a win-win situation for everybody is it
Raritan, their partners or the end-customers. Elucidating further he said that
the end customers benefit in a way that since they can't spend more as part of
upgrading their existing infrastructure, by exchanging their old switches with
the new ones, they not only can avail discounts but also upgrade their
infrastructure.

Motwani added that as far as channel was concerned, they have a two-tier
structure. While the tier-1 involves the distributors-Iris and Cubix, tier-2
involves the System Integrator partners, which are currently 25 in number. Again
since these partners have their own set of partners working for them, the
programme can be availed by those partners as well. Typically in the absence of
programme, the partners would have taken 2-3 months to sell the switches. But
with this initiative in place they would be able to push the same product in a
month's time, which in turn will boost their sales figure and turnover as well.
"A partner who maybe was selling 10 boxes in 2-3 months will now be able to
sell 125-130 boxes in a month's time and this will surely boost their business
as well," opines Motwani.

He further informed that the Dominion Series was launched in the Indian
market in July this year and the response has been overwhelmingly good. "So
far we haven't lost a deal and anyone who has seen the products wants to buy
them. This also goes to show that the programme will run successfully,"
stated Motwani.

Rajive Sethi, Liberty Automation, Mumbai suggested that the programme worked
upon by Raritan was an excellent one and would definitely uplift their business.
However, he also mentioned that Raritan's technology and solutions are good but
an in-depth follow up has to be done by the company. He added that the company
would have to explain their concepts of remote logging and other related
applications that it offers. "The programme requires the engagement of some
pre-sales activities. The qualified technologist at the vendor's end has to
convince the qualified technologist at the customer place about the products and
there should be no delay once the customer has agreed to install them,"
stated Sethi.

He further clarified that he was not really eyeing the quantity of units he
can sell but expects the programme to really work both for the existing
customers and the new ones alongside the partners.