Sun, eSys partner to expand India reach

BANGALORE: To extend its reach beyond the metros and into B- and C-class cities in India, Sun Microsystems today announced a partnership with IT disty eSys for providing Sun's solutions and products. “The Indian market today is highly dispersed. We want to reach out to the tier-2 and 3 cities like Guwahati, Chandigarh and Ludhiana to capture the sizeable market opportunity in this segment.We also want to create and grow this segment,” said Bhaskar Pramanik, MD, Sun Microsystems, India.

Leveraging on eSys' channel base that numbers over 3000, Sun Microsystems hopes to focus on verticals like education and research, government and manufacturing and also small and medium businesses.

“We are looking to add around 4-5 percent growth in overall sales through this partnership in the first year,” informed Pramanik. Sun has an existing partnership with Ingram Micro which would continue to focus on tier-one cities, he said.

Esys is the third biggest IT disty in India after Ingram Micro and Redington. The company clocked $250 million in revenues in 2004 and hopes to reach $500 million in 2005.

Vikas Goel, founder and CEO, eSys Technologies group said that partnering with Sun would enable them to capture high-value projects. ESys India contributes to around 11 percent of the company's worldwide overall sales.

ESys India CEO R Govindan said that the company would look at identifying resellers for Sun's solutions in 25 Indian cities.