'We offer deployment, support, monitoring and management of security solutions'

Anil Menon has been involved in the task of gearing up SecureSynergy’s
channel to sell services as a package. He is now in charge of delivering tools
necessary to retain partners and motivate them to move higher up the value
chain. In an interview with DQCI, Anil discusses the company’s key focus
areas. He reveals that SecureSynergy will soon launch a new product line as well
as increase its partner base to boost profitability.

What is Secure Synergy’s core business?

SecureSynergy is an organization focussed in the area of security domain. We
make a significant difference to the customer’s infrastructural readiness by
investing all our resources–infrastructure, people and money– into the
business.

We are developing extensions to existing products in the market to best suit
user environments. We also own intellectual property (IP) through an internally
developed security curriculum and a security simulation lab dedicated for the
same. This makes us technologically superior.

What
inroads has the company made in the market since it started a year ago?

We have a direct presence through our own offices across the Indian
subcontinent, ASEAN (Singapore and surrounding countries) and SEMA (Southern
Europe and Middle East). We have also set up the world’s sixth Sniffer
University at Delhi and already have over 50 customers who use our security
services in India.

Additionally, the company has a 24/7 helpdesk and data center and over 10
consulting engagements with large and medium organizations. SecureSynergy has
also set up a network operated center (NOC), which is connected online to one of
the world’s largest R&D lab (AVERT), focussed on malicious code research.

What role does SecureSynergy partners play in this context?

Our partners help in identifying business needs, demonstrate our
technologies, negotiate with customers and deliver first level support. In
India, we have offices at Delhi, Mumbai,Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Calcutta
and Indore, and globally, we deliver managed security services across 15
countries. We also have a good channel network with Tech Pacific as our
distributor and have over 25 resellers.

Is your channel well-equipped to fulfill its role?

We have a well consolidated channel framework in place, with a structured
document, called the the S3P program. This defines rules of channel engagement,
expectations and deliverables. Our framework is further backed by a channel
activation and development program. The focus of this program is to deliver
value to partners throughout the life cycle of our engagement.

We understand that what makes a channel relationship stronger are training
and focussed home account programs. Secure-Synergy will deliver tools necessary
to retain its partners, excite them and move them higher up the value chain.

How are Secure Synergy’s security solutions different from the offerings
of an anti-virus company?

Anti-virus contributes to less than 10% of our business model, though it is
a crucial component. Since, security is an amalgamation of process, technology
and people, we need to deliver solutions which address all these aspects. For
this we have four practices–consulting, training, managed security and
predictability management.

In the area of anti-virus, we are the only player offering out-sourced
services, where we solely look after the deployment, support, monitoring and
management of security solutions. This model reduces customer costs and improves
channel margins.

What new initiatives are you planning for the current year?

Our immediate priority is upgradation of our services through the NOC with
some new generation technologies. We will add one more product/service line to
the managed security practice and have three to four more ATPs in two cities.
Channel expansion and consolidation will also be a focus area in the next three
to six months.

VINITA BHATIA