“We will grow 3 times in the next 2 months in India”

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">As
a networking solutions company, what are the new products you have
come up with?

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Allied
Telesis has been a pioneer in a number of technologies in the
converged network space. In the last 2 years, we have launched a host
of products to address the enterprise and the growing SMB space. Our
products have been developed keeping in mind the increasing relevance
of convergence of services on the IP platform. All the products are
built on IEEE standards.
We have launched a suite of products in the Fast Ethernet to the 10G
platform offering
the best kind of flexibility and scalability for mid to large-sized
enterprises and also for
telco grade customers.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">In
the broad sense, what is your perspective on the Indian networking
market?

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">As
the market matures, there is a certain element of business that gets
commoditized. The same has happened to some extent in the Indian
networking industry too. However, with enterprise needs getting more
and more complex and the demand of multiple services now getting
converged on the IP platform, I do not think that the networking
business can get commoditized at this stage. It is a specialized area
and requires a huge amount of experience and skill-sets to build
robust, scalable networks.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Today,
even malls and large MDUs are building their services on IP platform
and this requires definite design skill-sets. One of the areas where
Allied Telesis excels is this large space,
and the customer very well appreciates our approach, solution
offerings and the RoIs presented
to them. Allied Telesis has seen phenomenal consolidation and
addition of customers from various verticals in the past 5 years. It
has been a consuming, but very satisfying experience to be a part of
Allied Telesis, and I firmly believe that we are a well-established
networking brand in India, featuring amongst the top 5. IDC-India
reports in the past multiple quarters also authenticate the same.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">We
are focusing big time on expanding our channels and simultaneously
working on upgrading their skill-sets. Having said that, I believe
that we have a long way to go, and Allied Telesis is taking a focused
approach to address the market and get a bigger pie in the years to
come in India.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Do
you have solutions tailored for the Indian market needs?

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Allied
Telesis is one of the very few OEMs that still believes in its own
manufacturing and development. India is one of the focus markets for
Allied Telesis. We work very closely with our
customers and backwards with our development centers. On need basis,
we get into customizing
certain products/solutions to the Indian market/customer needs.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">What
are your plans to tap the Indian market?

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Allied
Telesis has big plans for India in the next 3-5 years. We will be
almost 3 times the strength in the next 2 months in India. We have
already been able to build a strong base of strategic partners. As a
strong initiative, we would be enhancing the partner base to close to
250 focused partners in the next 1 year across the country. Multiple
channel focused initiatives are being rolled out in the coming
quarters. We have enlarged our vertical and horizontal market focus
and today have customers spread out in education, government,
transport, defense, media, manufacturing, power, and steel verticals.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Healthcare
is a vertical that we want to get into aggressively in the coming
years in India. In Japan, we have one of the largest healthcare
customer deployments. For healthcare, IP networks become a very
critical component and Allied Telesis with its highly intelligent
solutions and a close customer approach has been chosen most often
over competition.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">What
is your marketing strategy in India?

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">High
channel focus supported with interesting and innovative reward
programs will be a part of our strategy for the upcoming year. Focus
on specific verticals in the heavy engineering and design will
continue. We are also working with our counterparts in the US and
Europe to bring in our much appreciated certifications into the
country to tap the education space. Also, building a stronger
ecosystem by getting into complimentary vendor associations to
address verticals that are now moving from a non-IP to an IP based
environment would be another area of interest.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Please
discuss your distribution model.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Hundred
percent of our business happens through channels. We have always
believed in a value added distribution model and the same will
continue. We are looking at enhancing our existing distribution
network, as this will be the key for driving our channel initiatives
as well as penetration into the smaller and remote markets across the
country.