"We are connecting the Dots this last one year”

What is your products and solution
portfolio?

D-Link (India) is part of href="http://www.dqweek.com/D-Link-to-create-%27Specialist-Partners%27">
D-Link
Corporation and is one of the largest networking companies in India.
D-Link entered India market in 1995 and since then the company has
been engaged in marketing and distribution of networking products in
India and SAARC countries. D-Link's product/ solution portfolio
consists of end-to-end
networking products, which includes switching, wireless, routing,
network security, IP surveillance, network storage, VoIP and
broadband. Infact D-Link is one of the very few companies to offer
end-to-end networking solution in the country. Our strength is in
providing complete networking solution and this
is exactly one of the reasons why our products are so popular across
verticals. Today, people associate D-Link with superior quality and
reliability. D-Link products/ solutions are designed effectively to
meet end-user needs, enrich their lifestyles and offer value for money.

With how many partners, do you
operate?

We adopted an enhanced distribution
structure about two years back. Our current distribution structure
consists of two national distributors (NDs), 79 regional distributors
(RDs) and business distributors (BDs) spread across India. Both our
ND's have widespread regional presence, superior logistic
capabilities, strong pre and post-sales support and effective
end-to-end customer support. Our RD's ensure continuous business
support and BD's enable us to reachout to more and more re-sellers
and partners present in smaller cities/
towns in India. With this we ensure D-Link products are readily
available in each and every part of the country. In addition to this,
D-Link also has 18 branch offices in India and every region has a
dedicated post-sales and pre-sales team.

What are the key partner programs?

One of the key programs for partners is
'D-Link Global Partner Program (GPP)' which was launched early
last year in India. D-Link Global partner program (GPP) is aimed at
improving the skill sets of partners by providing training
opportunities. GPP is divided into four levels ie, registered
partners, Elite, Silver and Gold. To get started, partners need to
register on http://dpartner.dlinkintl.
com
and also appear for DCS (Dlink Certified Specialist) and DCP
(D-Link Certified Professional) certification program. Once partners
clear the exam
and after matching other criteria like the extent of revenue
generated by partner, their geographic reach and skillsets available
with them they will be eligible to become Elite, Silver and Gold
partner.

How can partners derive maximum
benefit from your association?

Like I mentioned earlier, D-Link is one
of the few networking brands to offer end-to-end solution offering.
We offer world class quality at competitive price along with best
consumer support and this is what gives D-Link an edge over
other brands. So partners associated with D-Link can be assured of
quality product and top-class service support. In addition to this we
also ensure partner profitability, through various incentive schemes
and promos. Almost every month we come-up with promotional offers
like 'Fabulous February, Buy More.Get More etc' that helps to
drive partner business. The most recently launched incentive
program is 'DPL II Plus', wherein our RDs and BDs have an
exciting opportunity of winning free tickets to
Uzbekistan. Overall D-Link as an organization has always been closely
associated with channel community. Infact we believe D-Link is more
of a partners driven company. This is why everything we do in terms
of marketing or sales support, it is targeted towards enhancing our
partners association with D-Link.

What are your new initiatives for
Sis, VARs and VADs and platform providers?

Since last one year we have been
actively engaging with partner and re-seller community across India
through our two channel engagement programs namely-'Connection
2010' and 'Connecting the Dots'. 'Connection 2010' emphasizes on
solution centric approach and enables system integrators to focus on
D-Link range of networking solutions. 'Connecting the Dots' is
targeted towards reseller community and highlight on D-Link's wide
range of products. With both these events we tried to reach out to
partner spread across the depth and breadth of large towns and
cities. It also served as a great platform to meet and get the first
hand input/ feedback to further improvise on our product/ solution
offerings.

What is the criterion to become your
certified partner?

As mentioned earlier, our partners have
to register on http://dpartner.dlinkintl.
com
and also appear for DCS and DCP certified programs. Once they
clear the exam and after matching other criteria like the extent of
revenue generated by partner, their geographic reach and skill-sets
available with them they will be eligible to become Elite,
Silver and Gold partner.

How do you offer educational
training and technical support to your partners?

In order to empower our partners with
technical skills we have been organizing a host of educational and
training program from time-to-time, 'Sales Pro' being one of
them. 'Sales Pro' is basically a two-day interactive technology
education program that addresses the networking concerns of partners'
techno-sales and pre-sales team. It has been devised with the sole
purpose of giving insights to attendees on network design and helping
partner understand customers networking requirement in a better way.
Kicked off in Jan 2010, 'Sales Pro' has so far covered 14 cities in
India and two in SAARC (Colombo and Kathmandu). D-Link has a
dedicated post-sales and pre-sales team which is supported with 22
RMA centers in major cities and several collection centers across
India. In addition to this, we also have 35 hard core system
engineers on the field. Today D-Link has almost 100 plus technicians
supporting D-Link customers at pan-India level. D-Link is now in the
process of engaging with outsourced service partners (OSP) and
authorized service and delivery partners to serve the D-Link
customers at their doorstep.

What is your business strategy for
markets in tier-2 and 3 cities?

Currently we are covering all 'A'-class
cities and also most of the B and C-class cities through our
distributors. Infact our current distribution structure makes D-Link
one of the 'largest distributed networking brand in India'. All our
incentive programs are formulated keeping in mind the partners
present in both large and small cities. We ensure that the partners
from smaller cities are not neglected and also get equal benefits out
of these schemes and we shall continue to do the same. We shall also
ensure that these partners are better
equipped to meet customer requirement on technology front through
various training and technology up-gradation programs.

What are your channel expansion
plans and growth targets for 2012?

We have always thought about India as a
country that holds huge potential. We see good growth arising for
networking products in India, as it is one of the key element in any
infrastructure project. Off-late India is seeing a lot of investments
in infrastructure projects, which is helping the growth of networking
industry. Further the roll out of GST and DTC in Union budget 2011-12
is likely to bring in moderation of rates, simplification of laws and
better compliance which will again fuel growth for IT sector.

Going forward, what's your focus
area?

Currently our distribution structure is
in place, hence our core objective in 2011 would be to continue
working closely with our valued partners. We shall also re-position
D-Link in the Enterprise space with a renewed focus. Therefore one of
the key objectives of our ongoing 'Global Partner Program — GPP'
is to engage with new SI's and at the same time also retain our
existing SI base. Moving ahead we shall realign our internal
organization structure and have vertical specific groups that will
cater to the growing networking needs of these segments. Moreover we
are in the process of creating 'Industry vertical specialist partners'
for the
infrastructure products, as well as technology focused partners for
newer and emerging technologies — like IP surveillance, storage,
UTM. But it is at a very nascent stage. As right now we are mapping
partners and this may take some time.