Amid the increasing blare of the pandemic and the spectre of omicron casting its long shadows over the tech landscape, we have ushered into 2022. Channel success which has always been the holy-grail for any business is all set to get a makeover in the new year.
As part of our effort to get the channel community better informed and get an earful of what the leading distributors, who sit at the most critical point of IT business, are thinking, expecting, and planning for the channel community in 2022, we have started this new section to record the channel predictions of the most prominent players of the IT industry.
Here, as part of this special series of Tech Forecasts, TechnoBind India registers its predictions for 2022.
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“We will expand both in terms of our solutions coverage by adding relevant security solutions to our offerings as well as channel coverage in tier 2 cities, as we visualize a newer threat landscape with more and more businesses moving online providing turf for bad actors of the cyber world.”
Harikrishna Prabhu,
COO,
TechnoBind
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TechnoBind is the first Specialist Distributor in the Indian IT channels space, offering a hybrid distribution model placed synergistically between broad-based and niche distribution, to deliver high business value for its reseller partners. TechnoBind helps partners to implement solutions, which solve specific business pain points arising out of the rapidly changing facets of technology for businesses.
The company’s sole focus has been on technologies that help the customer handle his Data and the associated challenges of Data Treatment.
The person credited to have scripted TchnoBind’s remarkable journey as a distributor has been its experienced COO, Harikrishna Prabhu. Harikrishna has led the company through the turbulent pandemic times. Harikrishna’s unique leadership has transformed TechnoBind into a resilient organization that has sailed through the ever-changing distribution landscape. As a business leader, he has succeeded in serving as a powerful rapport between vendors and the channel community.
In a special interaction with SME Channels, Harikrishna Prabhu, COO, TechnoBind, shares his company’s Channel Predictions for the year 2022. Edited excerpts…
Give a brief introduction about your company.
TechnoBind solutions private limited is a non-government company which came to existence in the year 2010. We are a specialised technology distribution company with our headquarters in Bengaluru. We focus on the Use-Case based selling approach which helps partners to implement solutions for their customers, which help solve specific business pain points arising out of the rapidly changing facets of technology for businesses. Our sole focal point has been on technologies that help the customers handle their Data and the associated challenges of Data Treatment.
We are experts in providing diverse data infrastructure that focus on the innovative offerings for Storage Solutions, Systems Management, Virtualisation and Cloud Management. Our products include data storage, data management, data protection and data security.
As the pandemic is still there and a new variant is spreading, what are the major market trends you are forecasting for 2022?
The year 2021 has been an unprecedented year for us. With the pandemic still metamorphosing people’s lives, the cyber world has not been an exception.
Security has been and always will be important for everyone. At individual as well as corporate levels, there is a need for securing and protecting data. The pandemic has given us the opportunity to digitalise, the use of cutting-edge technologies has also proliferated during these times. While organizations worry about newly pressing concerns, cyber security focus is being overshadowed and risks are rising. 2022 will see security trends such as increased use of automation, shift to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) security architecture, Rise of artificial intelligence (AI), and EDR systems. This has attracted attention this year improving on the quondam Endpoint Detection and response.
What major trends would you forecast in the channel market?
The Indian IT distribution market has been growing expeditiously during the past decade and has gone through a massive progression. The pandemic has augmented the growth of the tech industry and the demand for technology. With IT becoming the backbone, and the market becoming more competitive than ever, the fixation on technology has been escalated. As we move towards more advanced and deeper aspects of digital transformation, the adoption of cutting-edge technology will rise. This has resulted in the enormous transformation of IT distribution business in India and has become more advanced than before. The competition in the distribution business has also risen exponentially due to emerging opportunities and increasing market size. But the companies who have well-planned GTM strategies are doing extremely well.
As a distributor, do you have any channel expansion plans for 2022? Do you plan any additional investment in terms of skillsets enhancement including technical, sales and marketing for your team?
The market has started showing positive vibes in the last couple of months. We see that the market has accepted and moved on with a new way of living alongside the pandemic. As a VAD we would continue to penetrate the tier 2 markets which have been our area of concentration for some time now. The channel expansion plans will also fall in place in tier 2 cities for us. We intend to expand both in terms of our solutions coverage by adding relevant security solutions to our offerings as well as channel coverage in tier 2 cities for we are continuing to witness a newer threat landscape with more and more businesses moving online providing turf for bad actors of the cyber world. The roadmap is very exciting for us.
We continue to drive cybersecurity awareness and evangelization across the regions with the help of our channel partners’ network. With more markets opening up in the coming time, we will have our plans in place to cater and service the customer, partners, and the market with our expanding technical and servicing teams.
What are your plans for onboarding new brands or addition of new business lines for next year?
We are currently associated with the top credible brands like Microfocus, Thales, Beyond Trust, Sonicwall, ESET, StorCentric, ColorTokens, Cloudian, LogMeIn, Quest, Tidal, Seclore, Commvault, Druva, etc. All the products that we sell have the requirements today, whether it is Backup, Cybersecurity, Network Management, Migration, EDR, DLP, IRMS, Encryption, Endpoint Management, or other solutions that we sell. With the rapidly changing scenario at the customer end, our products and solutions are well suited to cater to any demands.
With every passing day, we have newer challenges coming in due to changing requirements of customers and market demand. We are always on the lookout for vendors providing newer solutions to address the changing demands of the customers in the market. Our aim continues to provide the best solutions in the market in the space of data management and security for which we will keep associating with relevant newer brands.
How would you like to value add to pre-sales, training, post-sales services for your partners and customers?
The IT industry is changing, and traditional ways of selling will not go too far. With the Digital Transformation happening, adoption of the Cloud is increasing rapidly in the on-going pandemic, customers looking at options on multiple cloud options, need partners who can act as consultants for their overall infrastructure rather than looking at someone selling point solutions. The more quickly partners will adapt to this change, the more they will be successful.
Our Roadmap is very clear, we need to be known as VAD who provide compelling solutions and Technologies which solve the pain point of the customers in the changing environment today through our partner model that we have built and carved over the years. Our solutions today are the need of the hour and solve most of the problems that arise on the front of Data and we would continue to add more and more to that front
While everyone across the world continues to navigate the uncertainty of pandemics, TechnoBind is committed to supporting its partners and hence customers’ business during this ups and downs of pandemic and to always providing continuity of service. We are committed to providing superior support for every product, solution, and service we take to the market. We understand that in difficult times and crisis situations like the current pandemic, customers need more support from us than usual. So, we are going above and beyond our deliverables agreed in SLAs to ensure our customer’s businesses are running at its most optimal level. We are proactively reaching out to our customers and suggesting changes in their current solutions at a place to handle the current challenges and also making sure the solutions are meeting their requirements with minimal manual oversight.
What is your geo – spread? What is your plan for enhancing geographies presence from Point of Presence or sales point’s perspective?
Our idiosyncratic business model has taken us to the front, representing some of the most innovative technologies in India. Our GTM strategy is to solve the business pain point of customers by providing solutions which are well suited for today’s needs. We have built a reputation of being one of the most trusted VAD in India representing the best brands form the IT industry. Today, we have our footprints in major cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad, with an international office also in Singapore.
We are currently looking to further expand in two directions. First, we are expanding our solutions as we are stacking more relevant security solutions to our current offerings. Secondly, we will continue looking for collaboration with channel partners who can help us expand further into tier-2 cities, as we continue to witness businesses briskly moving online, providing turf for bad actors of the cyber world.
