We will add 50 percent more partners to our volume business

Computer Associates (CA) India earlier had a geographic channel sales
model. However, it has now gone ahead and created industry verticals, based on
their security needs. Chatterjee sheds more light on this move

CA has recently launched 12 enterprise IT products to manage virtual
environments. Won't this be a bit overwhelming for your partners?

CA has two layers in the channel, who look after our business-value and
volume partners.

80 percent of our business takes place through the channel. As part of our
expansion strategy, we are planning to enable both tier-1 and 2 partners to
implement, provision and service various projects.

We have observed that a lot of customers first adopt virtualization and then
realize that they need management tools as well. Hence, CA is investing a lot in
enabling and educating the partners. We have made a small core group that looks
into the services and enablement of partners, so that SIs who are implementing
their projects get hands on training around it.

Our value business is being routed through tier-1 SIs, such as Wipro, TCS and
Satyam. The volume business is being handled by the tier-2 partners, who cater
to the SMB enterprises.

At the moment there are around 15 partners who are addressing the value
business. While in the volume business category, we have around 50 partners on
board. We are now looking to appoint more partners in this category and will
increase the strength by another 50 percent.

What business opportunities do both these set of partners stand to gain?

We will be conducting a number of roadshows to increase awareness around CA
products and expand our volume business. As far as the value business is
concerned, we have identified as many as 150 enterprise accounts and every
account will be managed by four partners.

Earlier we had a geographic model, however now we have gone ahead and created
industry verticals, since each vertical has different requirements. Our tier-1
partners will now handle new set of customers.

The partners will have to give more emphasis on selling the concept of
virtualization. There are ample opportunities for both set of partners in the
data center segment, as more and more customers are now looking at expanding
their data centers. In addition with the concept of green IT gaining prominence,
the partners can tap these opportunities further.

Mixing Work And Fun Amit Chatterjee had a passion to serve the Armed Forces. As a young graduate, he had cleared the Navy Services Selection Board interview and was among 34 candidates in the final shortlist at Bengaluru. Destiny, however, took him to the IT industry. A passionate photographer, Chatterjee's day starts with an hour of yoga. His biggest love, however, is driving an SUV up the hills or into the wild. He loves the outdoors and is especially fond of the Himalayas. Some of his most memorable vacations include a trip to Puerto Rico a few years ago with his wife. He still recalls the early morning nature trail in the rain forests amidst gushing waterfalls. A movie buff to the core, he enjoys reading gossip columns in newspapers. He believes that it is necessary to have fun even while working intensely. According to him, success has a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time, for which one must always seek divine blessings.

Which verticals are contributing majorly to CA's national business?

At the moment, 40 percent of our business is coming from the government
segment, whereas BFSI is contributing nearly 25 percent. However, defense is one
segment that is yet to contribute a major portion to our revenue figure.

We are also gearing up for telecom and these two segments will be the major
focus areas for us as far as CA's market strategy is concerned. Also, in the
coming years, the volume business will contribute more to our overall revenue as
compared to the value business, and hence, we are looking at appointing new set
of partners to expand our volume business.

Does CA have a strategy for cloud computing? What are you doing in terms
of educating your volume business partners around this concept?

CA has formed separate teams that will focus on emerging markets, since it
offers immense opportunities for growth and expansion. We have recently aligned
the organization and one of the business units is going to focus only on the
promotion of cloud computing as a technology.

We are looking for master service providers for extending the solutions
around cloud computing. This will basically be an opex model and the software
being offered by us can also be extended through the software as a service (SaaS)
model.

Puja Sharma

poojas@cybermedia.co.in