AMD to add 1000 resellers

S Gopikrishna

CHENNAI:Chipmaker AMD will add 1,000 more resellers and SIs in its list to form an exclusive channel club shortly. When asked whether the new channel club will be similar to Intel `GID' program, AMD Far East Ltd. (India) country manager Sanjeev Keskar said that it should be more than that. AMD is expected to announce this new channel club next month, which will have over 2,000 resellers and SIs as its members. "We are debating on the title which is to be formalized shortly and the program will be rolled out in June," added Keskar.




The new program will entitle authorized channel partners to register online with the company who will be given individual login ids and passwords. They (channels) will have access to key information on merchandizing, strategies, support and benefits for the resellers. "The market is growing for AMD and we want to be associated with every SI to have the maximum reach. The new Web-based program will help both the company and channel partners to be close to each other," said the newly appointed national distribution manager at AMD Far East Ltd. (India) Haresh Bharia.




Meanwhile, AMD is conducting a nine-city roadshow called `Advantage AMD Channel Summit 2004'. Rolled out in Kochi this week, followed by Chennai and Hyderabad, the roadshow will cover Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore and Mumbai during the next month.




"In next quarter, we will do similar events in Tier II and Tier III cities across the country. Through this program, we want to share with the channel community our commitment, opportunity and persistence in business. We will highlight the comfort of doing business with us and margins they can make with AMD, besides focusing on technology, strategies and resources," elaborated Keskar.




In a bid to increase its commitment in India, AMD is in the process of increasing its workforce. By end of this quarter, the company will have a team of 45 people (includes AMD and associate company). The company is also increasing its direct office presence from seven cities to 16 cities, which will include more B and C class cities.




The company currently covers over 35 cities through its distributors. "Now, we are increasing our focus in verticals such as BPO, BFSI, educational institutions, corporate and government sectors. We are meeting CIOs and officers in government departments to present AMD advantage by giving demo machines, benchmarks, analyst reports and technology perspective. AMD is making breakthrough among government institutions and now, government tenders are platform independent (neutral) open to both AMD and Intel," he pointed out.




AMD is also likely to invest a huge sum in marketing and promotional activities, shortly.




With over 70 percent of its business coming from channels and the rest from OEMs, AMD is likely to increase its OEM share. The company is already working with top eight OEM vendors out of nine. It supplies processors for servers, laptops, desktops and workstations. "We are not working in all areas with all the vendors. However, this year, our focus would be on increasing our relationship with vendors in wherever we are not present (servers, laptops, desktops and workstations)," Keskar remarked.




AMD India is getting more focus in the company's global operations since it is a critical market for AMD in Asia-Pacific. Recently, the company announced the appointment of Ajay Marathe as president of Indian operations, who is presently working as the company's VP in the US. Marathe is expected to take up office before this year-end. India is also one of the four key strategic focus markets (the other three being China, Russia and Latin America) which come under direct purview of the company CEO.




According to IDC reports, AMD holds 12 percent -13 percent marketshare in India, while Intel continues to be the giant of the Indian processor market.

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