We are targeting to have 20 percent marketshare by next year

By April 2009, Sophos is planning to have a direct presence in India, but
till then the vendor will continue to reach the channel partners through Satcom,
its Mumbai-based national distributor

What is the distribution model of Sophos?

Our national distributor Satcom Infotech has appointed 50 channel partners
across the country. Our present agenda is to enhance our channel base; we are
planning to appoint 150 more partners by 2009. We are also coming up with
incentive programs designed to increase the interest among channel to do
business with us.

What is your strategy to beat the competition?

We have kept ourselves focused towards enterprise and mid-sized business.
Our exclusivity towards a particular market segment will provide us a leap in
the market. Currently our marketshare is in between nine to 11 percent and we
are targeting to touch the scale of 20 percent by next year.

According to industry analysts, Sophos is a real alternative to Symantec and
McAfee. We provide an integrated solution that is incorporated with all the
security features in one product and is easy to install and use. The security
solutions are designed for enterprise and mid-size markets that require multiple
features but are packaged in one bundle.

Dr Kamal Heus Manager-International Business Development, Sophos

How are you planning to increase your visibility in the market?

We will be organizing roadshows and channel programs. Our foremost action is
to spread brand awareness and we will be doing it primarily through channel. We
have programs that provide technical support to the channel. We are also
conducting seminars to spread awareness about the brand and the security
solutions as well.

Our strategy is to strengthen ourselves in technical support, marketing
activities and technical research in the corporate segment. We will provide
comprehen­sive training to the partners in all directions.

We are coming up with a series of events that are focused on providing
awareness about security solutions towards end customers and are also designed
to motivate them to develop a secure environment.

Any plans to have a direct presence in India?

Yes we are planning to make our direct presence in the country by April
2009. We are in the process of hiring manpower that can take control of the
India operations for pre-sales, post-sales, marketing and technical support. We
will be having our head-office in Bengaluru, and two branches in Delhi and
Hyderabad. We would be having more focus on providing technical support to
customers. We are taking support of an external agency to help us in recruiting
the right set of people.

Presently we are operating in India through our England office and it takes
much time to reach partners, customers and take strategic decisions. Our direct
presence will solve these issues; we can also study the Indian environment in a
better manner and design our strategies accordingly. Moreover, it would be
convenient for our distributor to communicate with us and help in revamping our
presence in India. This will also provide requisite support to channel in lesser
time span.

The channel business will be taken care of by the distributor. We will
interact with our distributor only and provide support to channel as and when
needed.

What is the time frame you are targeting to create a robust position in
Indian market?

Right now we are in the phase of building our resources. In the next three
years we are hopeful that we will have an impressive presence in India. However,
we will not emphasize on exploding our channel base. We will work with limited
partners so that they can enjoy good margins with us.

AMRITA TEJASVI

amritat@cybermedia.co.in