Smart Expansion

size="4">ESS
Distribution, established in 2008, is an exclusive distributor of
ESET's products in India. Founded in 1992, ESET is a global
security solutions provider for businesses and consumers. Its
flagship products include ESET NOD32 anti-virus, ESET Smart Security
and ESET cybersecurity. Growing at the rate of more than 100% every
year, ESS Distribution is continuously investing in a range of
marketing activities, both channel and end-user oriented. In order
to stay afloat in today's cutting-edgecompetition, it works with
its three main departments that include sales,marketing, and
technical. The company's main operational office with the core
sales team is located in Mumbai. ESS Distribution's director,
Pankaj Jain is leading the national sales team. Under him, there are
four area sales managers responsible for driving the sales in the
North, West, South, and East regions. Then there are regional
managers, who are responsible for supporting existing partners
working in corporate segment, and regional distributors working n
retail segment. These regional managers also work towards
establishing business with new partners. All sales managers are
techno-commercial and handle pre-sales meetings with clients. All
marketing activities are organized by ESET's marketing team based
in Mumbai. From time-to- ime, channel partners organize various
marketing activities, which are coordinated by marketing department
and supported by sales managers.

Management
Split

size="4">The
company sells only ESET products through its channel network. Its
product sale is divided into three verticals, ie, paper license,
retail, and online. Currently, the company is in the developing
stage, and all its verticals are headed by the director, who gets
support from the sales, marketing, PR, SEO, and support departments.
“As the business is growing, we will be expanding our team in 2012,
which will include better hierarchy bysegregating paper license and
retail teams. We will be adding more sales people in the retail
segment, and also in the pre-sales and support departments at
regional levels,” says Jain.

size="4">Channel
Model

size="4">ESET's
entire business is performed through channel partners in India. For
paper license, it has two-tier channels, ie, a partner buys products
from the company and sells it to end-users. Whereas in retail, it has
distributors, who sell ESET retail boxes to resellers. The company
has deeply improved and extended its distribution network during the
last 1 year. In 2011, it appointed new retail distributors in North,
East, and South India including KK Software, Delhi; Galaxy Computech,
Kolkata; SAS Enterprises, Patna; Creative Compu World, Bengaluru;
Maruthi Enterprises, Cochin; and Soft Solution Link, Coimbatore. In
West India, Software Mart, Mumbai is working aggressively to sell and
promote ESET's retail products in the market. As client network,
responses, number of leads and business are increasing, it is
planning to double the team size at the earliest.

size="4">At
present, the company has a network of over 200 direct channel
partners for paper license business. In the retail segment, it has 6
regional/zonal distributors, and each of them are equipped with vast
channel network in their respective regions, having association with
over 2,000 resellers spread across India. While choosing channel
partners for paper license business, it concentrates on companies,
which have sound knowledge of security products and have resources to
provide technical assistance and support to end- customers. However,
while choosing a retail partner, it checks the credibility and
reputation of the partner in the market, channel network of the
potential partner and most importantly his capability to give sincere
and genuine effort to sell and promote ESET products.

size="4">This
year, the company is penetrating into new markets. “Till 2011, our
channel marketing activities were mostly targeted at class-A cities.
From this year, we will be focusing on class-B and -C cities as well,
as we see high potential in smaller cities due to increase in buying
capacity and larger IT penetration,” Jain says. The company is also
expanding its tie-ups with VARs, solution service providers, OEMs and
other organizations to explore the extensive range of partnership
opportunities.

Training
and Schemes

size="4">ESS
Distribution provides online training and certification programs
through ESET University. During the training program, reseller
engineers and implementation managers are exposed to the latest
technology and deployment techniques. The partner's technical staff
is also offered with free certifications for the successful
completion of the training program. The company also offers basic
sales and technical training via remote sessions. Online and offline
trainings as well as certifications are its top priorities in
improving its channel strength.

size="4">Channel
schemes have always been an important part of channel marketing
activities, though it does not just rely on schemes to retain
partners. It believes in being the most technically sound vendor,
providing the best product to its partners, and above all, at very
competitive margins and with clear policies. Last year, it supported
the partner scheme 'Drive Smart with ESET,' organized by regional
distributors which proved that every partner working with ESET can
benefit from incentive programs and rebates. This year, it is
planning to launch new channel schemes for partners and resellers in
every cities across India.

size="4">For
channel partners, the priority is always on ethical business with
higher profitability. And to ensure continuation in business and best
technical assistance to end-user, it will be improving and broadening
online and offline trainings and certification programs.

size="4">ESET
provides partners full access to marketing tools and a broad line of
collateral materials, product presentations, case comparison studies,
and innovative marketing campaigns. Moreover, ESET partner's
educational programs provide staff with latest training tools, both
offline and online. ESET partners and resellers can access the
knowledge base to effectively support and market ESET security
solutions. And, of course, they also get technical support whenever
they need to close a sale, implement a solution or just maintain
relationship with customers.

size="4">Future
Plans

size="4">ESET
installation base in India has grown up to approximately 25,000,000
licenses, which gives ESET a significant marketshare in India. To
cater the growing market and to achieve the goal to capture 10%
marketshare within the next couple of years, it has started and will
be constantly increasing its sales and technical team in every
region.

“ size="4">We
have been quite active in the enterprise, SMB, government and
educational segments, which brings up to 70% of business. The main
factor of our success is that our clients stay with us for years. The
renewal ration is over 80%,” adds Jain. From the last 1 year, it is
targeting consumer, SOHO and SMB segments aggressively. This market
is highly competitive, with more than 20 players, and very price
sensitive. To achieve the position in top-5 security brands in India,
the company is trying different marketing activities targeting both
channel partners and end-users throughout the years.