BANGALORE: Small business is big business in India and with resources being a
major constraint for SMEs, pricing and support are the deciding factors that
will make them look at branded products. In this regard, Sun Microsystems has
lined up several strategies to tap the SME segment. CIOL catches up with
K.P.Unnikrishan, Country Head-Marketing, Sun Microsystems to unravel those
strategies.
What's the strategy behind big players like Sun, IBM entering the SMB market?
Is it because the enterprise market is kind of saturated and SMBs are now
looking more focused on IT?
I don’t think it has much to do with the enterprise market being saturated
because it is not. The focus on SMBs is being driven by the fact that the
segment is witnessing growth and they are increasingly looking at adopting
information technology on a large scale. However this is not a new phenomenon,
we have been seeing this trend of IT adoption amongst the SMBs over the last
couple of years and today the momentum is certainly picking up.
There is a large SMB market in this country. These organizations are
increasingly working with larger enterprises and hence it is important that
their IT set up scales up to meet the demands set by their larger customers.
This is one of the prime reasons for a spurt in IT spends in this market.
What kind of opportunities does the company see in the SMB market?
We believe that there is a huge market waiting out there to be tapped and we are
razor focused on addressing it. As budgets tighten across the board, affordable
servers are becoming more popular and prevalent than ever before. Low-cost
machines are spreading through the enterprise--empowering workgroups, driving
specialized, dedicated applications such as databases and firewalls.
As far as Sun Microsystems is concerned we are delivering on our commitment to
low-cost computing by providing the best of enterprise value to SMB customers.
We ensure that customers have access to worldwide services and support; the
reliability, availability and serviceability of sophisticated enterprise-class
solutions; and the security and peace of mind of mission-critical technologies
that we offer.
The corner stone of our approach lies in our unrelenting focus on reducing
complexity and cost of computing which is music to the ear of an SMB customer
unlike some of our large competitors whose strategy is centered around injecting
complexity into the system or maintaining proprietary approaches.
What are your strategies to address this segment?
At Sun Microsystems, we are lining up our world-class systems, talent,
R&D resources and global network of partners to engineer cost and complexity
out. We are not looking at busloads of people to address these issues unlike
some of our larger competitors and that is the fundamental difference in
strategy. We are striving for lower cost of network computing, low cost
structure and finally lower total cost of operations and overall lower cost.
With the new Sun Fire V60x and Sun Fire V65x servers, Sun brings its
long-standing technology leadership to the x86 server market. These fast,
high-throughput x86 servers deliver a powerful Sun platform for an SMB and they
do it at market-beating prices.
By being able to run either the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) or
standard Linux distributions, the Sun Fire V60x and V65x servers deliver the
flexibility that an SMB customer would crave for with a healthy dose of
investment protection. Their management and security features also maintain
Sun's high standards.
What is the value proposition that Sun Micro is offering to the SMB segment?
In line with the business benefits offered, Sun Microsystems is focused on
targeting the SMB segment by meeting the challenge and taking cost out from all
angles, thereby providing uncompromising choice, innovation and value. Low-cost
network compute elements: SPARC and x86 systems, Solaris OS, Linux and Storage;
Low-cost solutions/deployment: Sun ONE, iForce, Java, Reference Architectures;
Lower total cost of operations: Project Orion, N1.
The business benefits offered by Sun include, taking the cost out in the
acquisition of hardware, operating system and layered software. We provide
solutions that offer development, integration and deployment.
What kind of trend do you foresee in another two-five years?
It is estimated that in India at present, over 40 percent of the total IT spends
is from the SME segment. The Indian SMB segment is currently going through a
transformation in terms of technology. Whether they are core manufacturers or
distributors, they need to automate their core business processes in order to
contain cost escalation and improve manufacturing capabilities. In India there
are hundreds of manufacturing units, which post revenues of more that Rs 50
crore and above.
Thus small business is big business in India and with resources being a major
constraint for SMEs, pricing and support are the deciding factors that will make
them look at branded products. In the future small businesses will be the
cornerstone of the economy and we are committed to delivering products covering
hardware, software and services at most competitive prices.