Computing at an affordable cost!

How is NComputing positioning itself in the Indian market? How has been the growth so far?
NComputing’s mission is to enable the next billion people around the world to have access to computing at an affordable cost. NComputing breaks the affordability and complexity barriers that have limited the PCs from being deployed everywhere.
With the combination of our access devices and virtualization software, a single PC can be shared by up to 30 users at one time by tapping its unused capacity. Each person runs his own applications and has his own files, settings and preferences without the bulk, without the expense and without the cost of a dedicated PC. These devices are low-cost, use very little electricity and are very easy to set up and maintain. Furthermore, the solution is compatible with standard PC applications so IT staff and end-users do not require special training. Over two million NComputing systems have been deployed by as many as 50,000 organizations and institutions to slash their computing costs as much as 70%, maintenance cost by 70% and electricity consumption by 90%. Therefore, this also becomes the most green PC.

India is clearly a huge market for NComputing and we have seen it is being widely adopted by institutions and organizations. Today, we have as many as 2,50,000 seats in India and growing rapidly. Our customer base varies from educational institutions, governments, enterprises as well as smaller businesses.

What kind of technological innovations are you bringing in?
After the successful deployment of over two million seats of our X and L series products worldwide, in as many as 140 countries having 20 million users, our new products are driven towards delivering better user experience at more affordable costs. We are currently launching a new product, the U170 that plugs in with the ease of a USB, thus saving so much time on installation. This product delivers excellent multimedia performance and can run up to 10 computers with just a single CPU. There are some very exciting products planned for the next quarter.

What are the top-3 verticals meant driving desktop virtualization in the country? How is the government vertical doing?
Desktop Virtualization works wherever there is an environment requiring multiple PCs. Education has by far been driving our maximum business, but the recent ESIC project has also added healthcare as an important vertical where this technology has been proven for large-scale deployment. The desktop virtualization technology fits well into manufacturing and SMB as well.

In the education sector, every sub-segment (primary, secondary, college, university, training centres) needs to have computer labs or computers in classrooms so that students can learn about computers and learn their subjects on the computer through e-learning programmes (e.g. English, Science, Maths, etc.). Almost all educational institutions have limited funds for computer equipment. We enable them to use their existing budget and stretch it so that they can double or triple the number of students who can have computer access for the same cost. 

In the business sector, there are many small and medium businesses that also have limited funds and watch every rupee of spending. Since most business users only use the computer for accounts, web or other low-intensity work, they use at the most 5% of the PC’s power. We enable them to share that computer’s excess capacity with many more users. They also like NComputing because they have to maintain far fewer PCs than before and the impact it has on the electricity bills.

In the manufacturing sector, a PC on the factory floor is subject to damaging heat, vibration, and dust and can easily get damaged or its life gets shortened.  With NComputing, the shared PC is located in a safe area, and only our devices (and keyboard, mouse, monitor) are located on the factory floor.  Since our access devices are extremely rugged, they can stand up to the heat, dust and vibrations of a factory and also help save money on the additional air-conditioning and frequent refreshes that are required in that environment.

Governments of various states are considering NComputing technology because of the strong advantages it offers in terms of huge savings in acquisition cost and electricity costs besides the simplicity of installation.

Seeing the opportunities in the market, how are you planning your team's expansion?
Our direct team in India comprises of 10 senior and experienced professionals in Business Development, Technical and Marketing. We are adding another five for channels development. In addition to this, we already have a strong field team which is aligned with our partners and we are gradually expanding it to get a better footprint across the entire country.

What is your go-to-market strategy?
We are 100% Channel-centric in India and across APAC. Channels are the foundation, based on which all plans are made and executed. 

What kind of channel base you have? How are you expanding it in the ongoing calendar year?
Our national distributor is Redington and we already have a channel base of 1,000+ active partners, which is growing rapidly. These partners and resellers are very committed and understand the value proposition of our product. Our marketing efforts are focussed at enabling these channel partners and empowering them with all the marketing and technical support to target and serve their customers

What kind of channel enablement programmes do you run in the country?
Our Channel enablement programmes are focussed on not only in the Tier-1 cities but also in the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. These programmes would help equip the Channel Partners with complete knowledge and resources to position this solution better – right from product knowledge to sales tools to new product roadmap and knowledge sharing by partners themselves. These enablement programmes are highly interactive owing to the fact that our current channel partners are very involved and committed and very excited about this unique technology which fits creatively into so many different customer scenarios. 

How do you position NComputing vis-à-vis the competitors?
Our technology is very unique and I am not aware of any other technology offering the value which NComputing does. A straight forward 50 to 75 per cent saving in hardware acquisition costs, 75% saving in the maintenance and over 90% saving in electricity costs is what it offers besides being the greenest computer that exists today. It runs on any platform and gives a great user experience with perfect multimedia performance. Also, it is easy and plug-and-play installation.

This technology is being adopted so rapidly. In a matter of less than three years, as many as 20 million users work on these virtual desktops every day across 50,000 organizations and institutions spread across 140 countries.