“We always prefer customers to choose quality over price”- Subhodeep Bhattacharya

Subhodeep Bhattacharya, Regional Director, India & SAARC, Netgear speaks about the importance of channels in making the company a smart IT solution provider for SMBs

What is your Go-To-Market strategy?

We believe in adding value to our products in terms of technological relevance, quality, and reliability and our brand stands for it. We have positioned ourselves as global innovators from the Silicon Valley who are focused on developing world class connective infrastructure for SMBs and homes and we want to provide the best price to performance on our products.

How your solutions help IT organizations/people?

NETGEAR is focused on SMB organisation which as a category is the fastest growing in India. NETGEAR’s vision is to be the most reliable IT infrastructure brand for SMBs and we aim to provide the entire IT ecosystem for them starting from switches to wireless and storage devices. Our product development target is to provide Smart IT solutions for the SMB IT manager.

What are the recent developments at the company?

NETGEAR is putting a lot of focus on developing 10G solutions with switches and storage products. NETGEAR is also focusing on developing higher end Wi-Fi controllers and WAVE 2 wireless solutions. Today NETGEAR has one of the most exhaustive switching ranges in the industry and the Gigabit Smart POE is a particular favorite of our channel partners. We will continue to develop more and more products on the same lines.

Which are the verticals going more? Which regions are you targeting now?

NETGEAR sees the lots of growth in education, hospitality, healthcare and local Government. As a horizontal segment we also see growth happening in surveillance, storage solutions, 10G solutions and Wave 2 wireless products. Geographically, we see growth happening all over India.

What is your channel strategy?

NETGEAR has a multi-tier channel distribution strategy. We believe in having a stable channel model where partners don’t change frequently, and we expand partner base only when we are expanding in geography or when we are expanding in terms of a new product or solution which current partner bases can’t provide

What is your existing channel partner program?

We are focusing on training our partners on our latest products and solutions and rolling out extensive partner training program throughout the country.

What edge do your services offer to customers?

NETGEAR is focused on bringing the latest technology at an affordable value to SMB customers and simple deployment of IT services.

Which companies do you consider as your competition in the Indian market?

NETGEAR operates at various product and market segments and it is difficult to name competitors. We would rather focus on giving the best possible solution to our customers which helps them in getting a Smart IT solution.

Have you come across weak points or what challenges you face in the market?

One of the greatest challenges in the Indian market that we come across is the fact that many of our competitors are focused on selling low quality products in their effort to achieve a lower price point. Invariably such products end up costing more for the customers. NETGEAR offers class leading lifetime warranty on most of its products and we would always prefer customers to choose quality over price.

Any tie-ups to be announced in near future?

NETGEAR is coming up with a new promotional website called www.netgearconnect.com.

What are the business expectations and targets that you have to set out to meet in Indian and Market outside India?

NETGEAR wants to be a Smart IT solution provider to SMBs and also wants to focus on home automation in India. We want to take the entire NETGEAR range of the products to every nook and corner of the country. We are putting all our efforts in creating great channel organisation and support infrastructure to reach and serve our customers.

What are the company’s future plans?

Connectivity is going to be the driving force of future. NETGEAR is investing in connective products across the board to provide value to a large range of customers. NETGEAR wants to continue to develop products for customers to enable them to connect to the cloud as well as the Ethernet/Internet in a safe and secure manner.