CW: What are the instant opportunities and possible roadblocks in India for a new entity like Nevales Networks
We see only opportunity. We offer technology which is much more powerful than what has been available in the market so far. Being a managed services company, we can sell good technology, and also manage it effectively for the customers. Being an Indian company, we manage the IT infrastructure from the cloud, which is taken care of in a highly secured datacenter within Indian shores. In India, we see Nevales as a trusted technology provider for SMBs for cloud-based services. We foresee an opportunity of atleast 1 million customers in the next 5 years.
CW: But cloud still remains a buzz word though majority of tech vendors are bullish on it. Will cloud rain money for your company
In India, the adoption curve of cloud computing is really big. Basic services such as email, messaging, and communication are increasingly deployed on the cloud today, and hence, it is incorrect to say that the cloud is under-utilized. Apps, which are predominantly 'business to consumer', will move towards a 'business to business' model on the cloud. Today, it's just email and storage, but tomorrow, it would be HR, accounting and other apps on the cloud. There are more than 100 million users, who use mail services--including office email--on the cloud.
CW: Fortinet, Sonicwall, and other vendors too pursue a 'managed security' model on the cloud. What makes you different from the competition
As one of the largest managed service companies in the world, we sell the technology as a service. We currently offer security service, but we plan to introduce a few more cloud-based services in the near future. Our customers need not invest in IT staff. All our customers utilize our services on a managed model. We understand everything that happens at the customers' end. Once we identify a problem, we resolve it and send the solution across to our other customers. How many companies do that We translate all of customer inputs into actionable solutions, and this is our bread and butter. We have a different model, and they (other vendors) have a different model.
CW: What is your game plan to establish your footprint across the extensive geographic stretch of the Indian market
It will take some time for consumers and partners to understand the advanced technology we offer. We are seeding the market with our own sales efforts. We also work with channel partners who have domain expertise in verticals such as education, telecom, healthcare, retail, and manufacturing among others. We don't give a product to channels for them to just stock it. We don't want them to create artificial sales and struggle in the market. They can refer customers and make money.
Our sales staff primarily targets the metros at present. However, we're expecting our partners to expand our reach in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. All that a partner needs to do to deploy our solution is simply plugging the device with an IP; everything else is managed from the cloud. The sale can be pretty much closed in fifteen minutes. The comprehensive end-to-end support we provide means that the partner is not burdened with resolving support issues.
CW: What are the distinct features of the 'cloud-based security device' Nevales launched recently
The nano-sized managed appliance is a security gateway cloud device that can handle over 300 concurrent users. It connects with enterprise gateways too, making consolidating branch offices easy. It helps manage connectivity, security and VPN-automated connects. We give our customers the ability to manage devices, security, and communication in one box at an upfront cost that includes licensing costs too. Providing HR, CRM, ERP, and other services on the cloud is on our roadmap.
We expect to see great sales primarily from organizations with 10 to 50 users. Another lucrative market segment we're looking at constitutes of companies with '100-to-200 users'. We currently collaborate with a few security vendors, and we are beginning to collaborate with other vendors who are into IT infrastructure services. Only one percent or less of Indian enterprises has security gateway solutions, and we are aiming to capture the remaining 99 percent of the market space.
CW: What credentials does a channel partner need to work with Nevales
We don't classify partners into different sections. We work with partners who understand their customers and who see our product as a transformative technology. Partners need to believe that there are more customers than those they are addressing today. If partners do not address their customers' cloud-related needs, others will seize the order as the customer is looking for better services, and not just products. Partners can never survive on products alone.