AGC claims IMMENSE Potential in India

Sayed Naved Shafi,
Vice-President – SME & Channel Business,
AGC Networks Ltd.,
in talks with VARINDIA, shares the roadmap of the company.

Today, there is no industry which is not looking beyond metros and capital cities. AGC has also been keeping a close watch on Tier-II growth stories and the industrial growth each of these is witnessing. This also has been our guiding principle for devising GTM strategy which varies from market-to-market, industry-to-industry, and the growth phase a region or the industry is in.

“Though it started as creation of a platform where partners come and speak about their markets, it now has taken a larger shape. Now, it has become an engagement platform which serves as a guide to us while devising plans to tap a customer segment in geography.”

India's growth when compared with global markets is positive in almost all the sectors - be it manufacturing, pharma, automotive, BFSI, etc. Secondly, the growth is not restricted to some cities or only to large-sized enterprises. Unprecedented growth is vastly scattered, coupled with highly potential SME segment. “In such a scenario, availability of a strong 'local channel' support plays a major role in terms of not only representing AGC but also ensuring and maintaining a healthy relationship of AGC with its existing and new customers,” shares Sayed Naved Shafi.

Currently, they have 100-plus partners across India and are well on their way to increase the number by 30%-40% by the end of this fiscal year. “We have a balanced mix of profiles of partners, including voice, data, AV and surveillance. There are, in fact, a few big SIs who work very closely with us,” he adds.

They have a two-pronged engagement plan with these partners. They play the role of a distributor to support their run rate product business and also engage with them as a solution integrator and support them on complex projects in terms of solution design, pre-sales and post-sales support.

USP of “Channel Partner Connection 2011”

All companies need a network of representatives who can aptly represent their organizations in front of this TG. “We, at AGC Networks, not only believe in partnering with right associates, but also believe in providing them with a healthy ecosystem which helps them sharpen their skills to grow faster,” he said. The first basic step obviously is to identify these partners in target geographies and then follows the process of strengthening relationships.

The Channel Partner Connection 2011 was launched last quarter with the same objective. Under this, AGC invites its existing and potential partners at a common forum to understand their perspective of potential segments, their needs and how should AGC fill those gaps, if any. “This, many a time, has brought a new perspective to the way we looked at and understood SMEs in some of the regions and advised us with a better GTM strategy to approach the target audience. In these forums, we also have AGC Networks leadership team briefing the partners on various solutions they can propose to these segments and how AGC Networks will support them at every stage of sales cycle and beyond,” he explains.

Bringing Value to Partners

The partners have an option to choose from AGC's abundant variety of best-of-breed solutions - be it voice or data or storage security requirement, which support them in better management of their ICT infrastructure. Our partner brands help us create a wide range of solutions ranging from basic EPABX systems to complex secured Networking Solutions through data switches, routers, Wi-Fi, etc.

AGC also specializes in Video Conferencing solutions, IP Surveillance, Information Security & Storage Solutions, IT audit services, Contact Centre Solutions and a whole lot of other applications which can help SMEs run their business smoothly and efficiently. All of these are customized for SMEs.

Interactions during programmes like Channel Partner Connection prove that right partners are the one who know the pulse of their market better than anyone else and have the inclination to learn as well as aggressiveness to approach customers. SMEs need simple, flexible, scalable and cost-effective technology solutions which are also easy to adopt. And, they look at these industry experts (partners) to update them on technological advancements. Thus, AGC is always busy to equip their bunch of partners with the latest technology knowledge which they can share with prospective enterprises - be they small or large. These partners once enabled serve as a “one-point contact” for all technology needs of these customers. And when they partner with AGC Networks, they are trained on all the ICT solutions front.

Expansion Plans

The company is aggressively expanding itself in the Tier-II cities by appointing channel partners. Currently, they have a plan to expand their presence from the present 43 cities to 63 cities in the coming months. “At AGC Networks, we have created a portfolio of services exclusively for SMB customers with the clear objective of enabling enterprises- large to medium- to communicate quickly, increase productivity, develop new business opportunities, and connect to global networks, irrespective of the size or location of their business,” adds Naved.