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EMC’s Eager Passage to India : Joe Tucci Chairman, President & CEO, EMC

By VARINDIA - 2010-04-05

When Joe Tucci, Chairman, President & CEO, EMC, visited India for the first time last year, he spoke in glowing terms of India: “India has rapidly become one of the most strategic markets for EMC’s expanding global business. India is a remarkable country in so many ways – from its vast population of scientists and engineers and the priority given to education, to the rapid growth of its economy, and the government’s intensive focus on IT and e-governance. We see a great future for EMC in India, and we look forward to providing the technology and solutions that can help India progress towards its goal of becoming one of the world’s leading information-based societies.” Manoj Chugh, President, EMC India & SAARC, reinforces the point, “India is a key strategic market for EMC, globally, and we see immense potential for growth in this market going forward. We have outlined an aggressive strategy to strengthen our leadership position in the market.”

“India is key for EMC’s expanding global business as the country is remarkable in various ways. The vast number of scientists and engineers and the priority given to education set it apart from other countries of the world. The booming economy coupled with the government’s intensive focus on IT and e-governance makes India an exciting place,” says Steve Leonard, Senior Vice-President, EMC Corporation, & President, EMC Asia-Pacific/Japan, EMC Corporation.

Steve Leonard sees a great future for Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based EMC in India. “We look forward to providing the technology and solutions that can help India progress towards its goal of becoming one of the world’s leading information-based societies,” adds Steve. The message was clear. India, which has become a crucible of IT market and opportunities, occupies a place of prominence in the Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based company’s scheme of things.

Since the start of its operations in India in 2000, EMC has witnessed stellar growth in India during the last four years not only in terms of revenues but also in manpower. What sets the company apart from competition is its wide range of storage platforms, management software and consulting services, coupled with complete client focus and strong channel strategy.

There has been a considerable transformation in the company’s strategy worldwide and in India. EMC has come a long way from being just a storage hardware company to an information management and storage company. Its vision is to create the “Ultimate Information Lifecycle Management” company to help the customers get the maximum value from their information at the lowest total cost, at every point in the information lifecycle. The difference is that it is not about selling storage boxes at all, but rather engaging with customers to give them the best solutions, software and services for their information needs. “As part of our ILM strategy, in the last four years, EMC has made several significant acquisitions globally which have augmented EMC’s software and solutions portfolio making it an end-to-end information management player focussed on enterprises across high-end to mid-end to entry level. “This strategy has resonated with customers in India, and they are the ones who have demonstrated their preference for our solutions with their IT budgets,” says Manoj.

In the recent past, EMC is on the prowl for acquisitions. The majority of these acquisitions are software companies. This has something to do with EMC’s transition from a storage vendor a few years back to, what Steve calls, an infrastructure management company. By acquiring and integrating these organizations, EMC’s revenues from software alone have catapulted it to the seventh-largest company in the world with software revenues. In order to better leverage these assets and to go to market in an effective manner, EMC has created the EMC Software Group (ESG).

With a wide range of storage platforms, consulting services and management software, EMC has all the three components to fulfil a complete ILM solution. The company has been involved with the Indian market since 2000 and already runs business offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai. The company also operates customer support and logistics centres (Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad) throughout the country to address the customers’ base. It has three proof-of-concept (POC) solution centres in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. “As a leading information management vendor in India, EMC has witnessed tremendous growth in the country over the last three years. We look forward to grow and solidify our leadership position in the Indian market,” says Steve.

But the biggest transformation has happened in India when EMC, which was known as the sweetheart of the large enterprises and telecom industry’s darling, has also accepted the fact that the SMBs also have every right to acquire the enterprise-class solutions. This is a very price-sensitive market.

“SMB is a significant growth driver for EMC in India. Today’s mid-tier companies face the same challenges as the world’s largest enterprises do. What they lack in are the resources and budgets for resolving their information infrastructure challenges. Backup and recovery, archiving, e-mail management and business protection can be major challenges to mid-size enterprises in all sectors,” says Manoj.

From an EMC perspective, the mid-tier companies would go for the latest information management and storage technologies whether it is backup, recovery and archive technology or disaster recovery. “And, EMC is well-positioned to leverage its global leadership in mid-range storage solutions to make storage less complex, more affordable and easy to use for growing companies in India,” says Manoj.

EMC has recently launched EMC Insignia line of software and hardware products that enable SMBs store, manage, protect and share their vital business information. Products includes: EMC CLARiiON AX150, EMC Retrospect, EMC RepliStor SMB Edition, EMC VisualSRM SMB Edition and EMC eRoom SMB Edition. The software products are available from the starting price of $125. And, the hardware products from the starting price of $6500.

Post EMC’s acquisition of over 24 software companies, it has a strong portfolio of software solutions to meet the manageability challenges of SMBs.

EMC has a large portfolio of customers in India spread across diverse verticals – Telecom, Manufacturing, Technology, Financial sector and SME. The company plans to tap the other verticals, including the government sector and healthcare.

As EMC undergoes transformation from a Storage Company to a complete information Management Company, its channel strategy has also acquired a new dimension.

Once a direct sales-focussed company, EMC took the channel route with the launch of the Velocity partner programme in 2005. In order to focus on the SME market, the company has launched a product called Insignia, and Select Technologies has been assigned the responsibility of distributing this product.

In India, the company has over 50 Velocity Resellers, focussed on different geographies and verticals. Through its partners and distribution network, the company offers its storage platforms, software and services to over 30 cities and towns in the country.

EMC has already landed big name partners such as Wipro Infotech, Tata Elxsi and HCL Steve Leonard Senior Vice-President, EMC Corporation, & President, EMC Asia-Pacific/Japan, EMC Corporation in India, the company has over 50 Velocity Resellers, focussed on different geographies and verticals. Through its partners and distribution network, the company offers its storage platforms, software and services to over 30 cities and towns in the country.

Infosystems, Tata Consultancy Services and CMC Limited are EMC’s partners. Apart from having global relationship with Dell, it has strong alliances with technology companies like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Cisco. Redington is EMC’s regional distributor in the country.

EMC has announced planned support for Oracle Database 11g. As a Certified Advantage Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork, EMC has been an active participant in the Oracle Database 11g Beta Program, helping to ensure customers can take advantage of the benefits of Oracle Database 11g.

“EMC has a large portfolio of over 350 customers in India spread across diverse verticals“– Telecom, Manufacturing, Technology and Financial sector,” says Chugh. The company’s strong 350 customers in India include telecom companies such as Tata Teleservices (Tata Indicom), Bharti (AirTel), and Hutchinson Group (Orange and Hutch); manufacturing firms such as Mahindra & Mahindra, the Aditya Birla Group, Asian Paints and Madura Garments; the technology companies like Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Dell, GE and Wipro; and banking and finance companies such as ICICI Bank, Citibank and CDSL. NDS, Marico Industries and KPMG are the other important customers.

To enhance the skill sets in storage solutions in India, in 2006 EMC launched EMC Academy Programme (EAP), industry’s first programme aimed at developing a resource pool of skilled information management and storage professionals. The company has already aligned with 45 educational institutes across India and over 1,500 students undergoing the course in storage technology. “EAP is a unique program in the industry both in terms of course and content. It is the only vendor-neutral, product-agnostic, open curriculum-based storage technology training and certification program in the industry. As a part of the program, EMC would tie up with 100 educational institutions and train 10,000 professionals by 2010,” says Manoj.

EMC is providing support in terms of faculty training, curriculum designing, examination papers, setting up simulators, maintaining the quality of the program and mentoring the institutes to raise their standards of technical education. The educational institutes under EAP include the likes of Delhi College of Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, UPTEC and BITS – Pilani, IIIT – Bangalore, IIIT–– Allahabad, and IIIT-MK – Trivandrum.