| Your resignation from Cisco took many by surprise. |
| lt was a thought-out decision and given what I can do at D-Link, my quitting Cisco has been validated. I have been in the IT and networking industry for more than 20 years now and I realised that the networking market in India was maturing. We have probably reached a time when the local volume and demand for networking products is both sufficient and unique. |
| D-Link particularly has a proven and robust R&D, with a set of access routers, rich in software and features, IP Phones, IPBX. We will soon launch IP video phones designed and developed in India. This makes for a wholesome package and allows us to control all the levers to create products in India. This is what excited me about D-Link and continues to do so. What will be your priorities at D-Link? |
| We want to focus on the small and medium enterprises (SME). Today, we have 70-80 per cent of our play in the SME segment. This area has been growing at a faster pace than the enterprise space and we want to create relevant products at relevant price points. What are your growth targets? |
| As per International Data Corporation (IDC) we are number two. Our aim is to grow ahead of the market. Apart from the networking products we also want to grow our structured cabling business, the market for which is growing at 25 per cent. Our products are being developed and manufactured in India. We started 3 years back and are now number three with the the only indigenous brand among the top ten. This is going to be a thrust area for us and we are growing at 30-45 per cent. In the wireless and routing category we are expecting a growth of 25-30 per cent. |
| D-Link also has an R&D centre. What will be the focus? |
| The R&D will focus on three key networking areas "� routing, wireless and IP communications. All these segment s have potential. Where specific products are required and we have the capability to deliver them. Cumulatively we have invested about Rs 50 crore so far in R&D which is almost 3-5 per cent of the revenues. Our target will be to have at least one major launch every year and two or three version upgrades. |
| The SME section is where all the vendors are concentrating. How is the D-Link offering different from those of the others? |
| Most companies serving SMEs take the enterprise product and downsize it . But SME needs are very unique since they do not have a large IT set -up but want the same features, less complexity, affordable price points and a tailor -made robust after sales support. We are the only company with a dedicated technical assistance centre and any customer can call us for installation or support without a receipt or a warranty period . All our support centres have repair capabilities and that gives us the potential to scale up and be more flexible. |
| Since you are developing and manufacturing products in India, are you also looking at the overseas market? |
| Where networking products are concerned, we are part of the D-Link Corporation and our focus is on India and the SAARC countries. But for our DigiLink brand we are looking at the overseas market. We have found good acceptance in markets like Middle East, Europe and the US. Our locally developed products like IP Phones are also getting sold in the US market, through D-Link USA. |
| About 10 per cent of the revenues from the DigiLink brand come from overseas market. We want it to touch 25 per cent in the next two years. We derive over 30 per cent of sales of IP Communications products from in the overseas market. |
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