We have ambitious plans on all business areas – new products, new SI channel and new customers
Year 2014 is an important year for provider of telecom and security solutions Matrix Comsec, as it’s aiming for 30% revenue growth this financial year
As a products and solutions company how the security landscape has changed since your inception?
Technology business is always very dynamic. Change is the only constant in this business. There are many changes that have happened in the last 3-4 years since we entered the security market. I would like to talk about three major changes.
Technology:
The first is the technological changes. Today’s products and solutions are far more superior in functions, specifications and performance. For example, in video surveillance domain, analog technology is giving way to pure IP and hybrid video surveillance products. Even in analog video surveillance, camera resolutions, HDMI interfaces, storage capacities are superior. Intelligent Video Analytics (IVA) is getting popular. In access-control and time-attendance domains, new and more robust biometric identification technologies like palm-vein readers, finer-vein readers are widely available.
Customer Awareness:
Compared to the past, today’s customer is much knowledgeable about his requirements, available technologies, solutions, suppliers and cost. Gone are the days when wide-eyed customers believed vendors on their face value. Knowledge about security solutions has reached all organizations and to IT and networking professionals. Another positive change is customers have started looking at security solutions as part of their physical infrastructure and take after-sales services more seriously. This is putting pressure on vendors who entered this business to sell without putting support infrastructure in place.
Industry:
Today, security industry is more organized than it was 3-4 years back. Fly-by-night operators are shutting their shops and number of vendors and brands are reducing. Having said this, the security industry is still a very competitive market; which is good for any industry.
How do you foresee the security market evolving in the India market?
India is one of the fastest growing security markets on the planet. There are number of factors contributing to this growth including general economic growth, increased awareness, legal requirements, affordability, etc. In addition, there is spurt in infrastructure development in the country. Physical security is part of basic infrastructure for any modern economy. Naturally, we see significant growth potential for our security solutions in India.
Among your security products which one is the most in demand and why?
Matrix is focused on three domains to physical security needs of organization – access control, time-attendance and video surveillance. We started our business with access control and time-attendance solution about 2 years ahead of video surveillance solutions. Due to this time lead, Matrix access control and time-attendance business is stronger. This year, we have plans to strengthen video surveillance business with new-generation products and aggressive promotion.
How big is your channel community? Any plans to increase the number?
Thanks to our historical reach in telecom domain, we have 600+ system integrators spread all over the world in more than 50 countries including USA, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and few other African countries. We are leveraging this existing channel partners to promote security products. Many telecom partners have also diversified into security domain and this is helping our business. We are constantly expanding our channel network on both the dimensions –width or spread by covering new regions; and depth by appointing more system integrators in already-covered regions.
We work closely with these channel partners to ensure that the products serve the communication and security needs of the customers efficiently, reliably and longer.
What kind of channel model do you follow?
We have very clear and non-overlapping collaboration with channel partners. We understand very well that Matrix needs channel partners more than they need Matrix. Not surprisingly, we treat our channel partners as our primary customers and we try our best to meet all their expectations. Our relationship is based on trust, transparency and respect. We try our best to build long-term partnerships with all our channel partners. I am very proud to say Matrix and almost all our channel partners have grown together over the years.
Matrix is essentially a products and solutions company. We are not a typical sales organization. Therefore, we are a completely channel-oriented company. We don’t sell directly to end-customers anywhere – not even to our friends and relatives in our hometown. This single-minded channel orientation has helped us to develop strong and long-term relationship with channel partners across the globe. Most of Matrix channel partners are with Matrix for more than 10-15 years. We have a well-defined channel program to work with channel partners at all levels beginning from consultants, resellers, system integrators and distributors/stockists.
We work very closely with our channel partners in all the areas including marketing, sales, supply and support. They benefit from cutting-edge technology, field-proven solutions, marketing-sales-technical trainings, solution design assistance, presentations and sales calls help, immediate supply, technical support during installation, technical help during customer complaints and efficient and cost-effective RMA services.
Reveal the go to market strategy?
Our go-to market strategy is to reach out to organizations and businesses in the target market to offer them world-class telephony, access control, time-attendance and video-surveillance needs at optimized costs. We promote our products through trade fairs, exhibitions, road-shows and advertisements. Matrix always operates through a well-defined and trained channel network consisting of consultants, resellers, system integrators and distributors.
Differentiation is the prime business strategy for Matrix. Therefore, our marketing strategy also revolves around differentiation. We work hard to create differentiation in everything we do – product design, manufacturing, marketing, sales and support.
Specifically on marketing strategy, Matrix identifies and builds differentiated products; positions and communicates these differences; offers these solutions at optimized costs; though trained sales and technical resources and offers prompt and sincere support.
How much of your products and solutions are targeted at the SMB segment?
Most SMB-SME organizations are in the evolution phase with high growth potential. Their business is not as simple as SOHO and cannot run it like a one-man show. On the other hand, their processes are not matured to the level of large and long-established enterprises. Their processes are strong yet simple with flexibility to help them move quickly. SME-SMB customers typically need high-performance, scalable and flexible solutions that can grow with their businesses. SMB and SME form our core customer case. Matrix is also an SME and it is easier for us to understand SMB-SME pains and requirements better.
We have sharp focus on SMB-SME customers. In fact, we earn more than 60% of our business from SMB-SME customers.
What will be your priority areas for this year?
During 2014, we have planned to focus and consolidate all four domains of our business – Telecom, Time-Attendance, Access Control and IP Video Surveillance. We have ambitious plans on all business areas – new products, new SI channel and new customers.
What are your plans for this year and the kind of revenue and growth you are targeting?
With plan for vertical and horizontal expansion, we see 2014 as an important year for our business. We are aiming for 30% revenue growth this financial year.
