The importance of the Indian market can be gauged by our five-year warranty policy, which is applicable only in this geography

Storage has become an all-important aspect for implementing IT solutions. In
keeping with the importance of the Indian market, global storage major Maxtor is
looking forward to increasing its partner strength in the sub-continent. Rachel
Forke is therefore planning to enhance the company's partner program in this
region.

What is the current focus for Maxtor globally and where does India stand
in its overall outlook?

Maxtor is always looking for opportunities to grow in geographies that we
have a presence in. India continues to be a very important market for us as a
company and we are totally committed to realizing the full potential of this
market.

Rachel Forke Director, Worldwide Channel Marketing, Maxtor

In this market, we work closely with certain OEM partners like HCL
Infosystems, Wipro Infotech, Vintron and LG Electronics. Additionally, we are
working with the solution provider or systems integrator community to better
penetrate the Indian market.

The importance of this market can be gauged by our five-year warranty policy,
which is applicable only in this geography. Service is one of the factors that
we take most seriously. We now have five service locations within India and our
resellers are maintaining three to four weeks of inventory on an average. All
this reiterates the fact that we consider India as one of the most valuable
markets.

How many partners does Maxtor work with globally and what is the figure in
India?

On a global scale - we are working with close to 40,000 partners as of
today. And in India this figure would be more than 1,000. These are part of our
VIP program and we are continuously looking at ways to increase our market reach
and presence. At the same time, we are not looking at adding mere numbers to our
partners list.

We are looking forward to increasing our Indian partner strength
considerably. Ideally, we would be adding 100 to 150 partners per month for our
VIP program. We created the Maxtor VIP Partner Program to help individuals in
our reseller network gain a competitive advantage.

As such, we work hard to support our members with the right tools, training
and incentive programs to help them recommend and sell Maxtor's full line of
storage solutions. Everything we do is designed to drive sales and help our VIP
Partner Program members be successful.

What are the new customer segments that are being targeted by the company
in India and globally?

Our research and development activity is continuously trying to explore new
market opportunities globally. Moving forward consumer electronics is one
segment, which would be really big. Set top boxes and other products are going
to drive storage demand.

What kind of importance do you give to training when it comes to
developing an ecosystem for your operations?

As we grow our partner strength, we always look for ways to enhance their
level of understanding when it comes to implementing cutting-edge technologies.
Increasingly, partners now look for ways to move up the value chain. Training
provides them with an opportunity to do that.

We are engaged in an online training program for our partners. This program
is designed to deliver knowledge about current technology and its deployment in
today's dynamic scenarios.

ZIA ASKARI

STORAGE NUMBER CRUNCHING

Source: Excerpts from a speech during Storage Visions Conferences