‘We want to be the best in channel business', says Amit Nath, country manager, India and Saarc

Amit Nath, the newly appointed country manager, India and Saarc talks in detail about company's roadmap and the changes he plans to bring. Excerpts:

Let's talk about your channel strategy for 2014.
Since we are starting from a ground level, massive recruitment of channels throughout the country is planned. Our aim is to establish channel network in each city. Also we want to a recruit right set of partners. Our network involves sub-ditributors in all the regions and to recruit channel partners under these sub-distributors.

Tell us something more about your channel network.
As I told we are adopting the sub-distributor route, our focus is to establish competent sub-distributors in all regions. In this endeavour, we have appointed DoBuy Technologies as our sub-distributor for south and DM Systems as our sub-distributor for north. Now we will focus on east and west regions for appointment of sub-distributors and channel partners. It's going to be a huge and massive exercise. But we have a concrete strategy of enabling our partner base in the entire country. We aim to be the best in channel business and this will be huge responsibility.

Under your leadership, what is your vision for F-secure as an organization?
Well I want to build an organization which is completely channel oriented, where every employee thinks in terms of channel. In short, he or she breathes channel (pauses but his passion is clearly visible). It's important to think in terms of what our partners want and only then we can create a truly credible channel ecosystem. Since we have to build it from ground level, it is more important to ingrain a channel oriented outlook in our employees.

What are going to be your product offerings?
We already stand quite powerful as far as our products are concerned. Our solution range comprises of anti-virus, internet security, mobile security, cloud-based, real-time protection against all online threats, protection against viruses, hackers and trackers and for Android smartphones and tablets, iPhones and iPads. To sum up, we have a very comprehensive and diverse portfolio of products to cater to the ever-growing needs of today's customer. In the scenario today, it is utmost importamt to deliver according to the diverse needs of the customer and we are exactly trying to do that.

Which vertical according to you is proving to be the most promising?
Targeting almost every vertical including mobility, banking, governance, etc, however the strong focus is SMB. The small and medium businesses provide plethora of opportunities and that's what F-Secure want to seize to the fullest.We are trying to target all the verticals but SMB is the most luxcrative of them now, which has immense potential.Small and medium businesses are a vertical which are on the growth path and these are open to new offerings. At the moment, SMBs are proving to be the most profitable and so these are our focus areas.

Any specific channel programs that you are coming up with?
F-secure is currently organizing roadshows in 4 tier-1 cities including Chennai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. After that, our focus will be tier-2 and tier-3 cities. We want the partner ecosytem to be fully supported and enabled. It's important to reach and understand the need of the channel in order to byuild a great network.

How do you plan to compete since security segment is being very competitive now with some major players getting aggressive?
We need to build this brand and make it more visible.We need to have a great value preposition It's a challenge since this market is huge with serious competition. Our USP and core strength is innovation. I think it's extremely important to provide customized solutions and a strong channel base. That's what our focus is at the moment.

What, according to you, are the major challenges in the security market?
Our business model is unique and the market right now is buzzing. With the cloud being the new norm, security solutions are gaining even more relevance. Since the market is expanding and becoming more competitive, we have to make our channel network strong. We are very well-positioned but since these are the challenging times, we will not leave any stone unturned to make F-Secure a completely channel driven enterprise.