VeriFone ‘not affected’ by market slowdown

PHUKET: VeriFone Inc, the leading global provider of secure electronic

payment solutions for financial institutions, has said that it has been

relatively unaffected by the global slowdown. "Slowdown has not affected us

at all and we are ahead of our plans," said VeriFone vice president Gary

Baty. At the same time he added that the fourth quarter (Aug to Oct) could be

slower if the market doesn't improve.

Speaking to Cyber News Service, Baty, however, said that he expected

tremendous growth in India where over the last two years, VeriFone has grown at

over 50 per cent rate. "In fact, India is the largest country in terms of

business for us in this region."

According to VeriFone India Pvt. Ltd. Country Manager (Sales) VS Nagaraj, the

company has over 80 per cent market share in India and the only major competitor

being Hypercom. Its major clients in the country include Citibank, Standard

Chartered, Hong Kong Bank, Bank Of Punjab, ANZ Grindlays and BNP. At the same

time, American Express and HDFC Bank are the only two major players who are not

its customers.

Significantly, India is the only country where VeriFone sells directly,

managing the feat with four sales people. Everywhere else in Asia, the company

sells only through partners. Also under an arrangement which is exclusive for

India, HP Support Services provides after sales support to all VeriFone

terminals.

Apart from sales activities, VeriFone also has a large R&D setup based in

Bangalore. It has nearly 150 engineers on its rolls. In addition, there are 10

man application development team also located at the same premises. Earlier this

team had just half the people. But recently the Sydney development center was

closed down and the entire application development was then consolidated at

Bangalore. Apart from India, VeriFone also has R&D centers located in the US

and Taiwan which together have a total of just about 30 people.

Meanwhile, VeriFone is gearing to launch its latest middle-end product, Omni

3750, which is said to be a three-in-one product comprising of credit, debit and

smart card. According to Baty, it will smaller memory and a slower modem and

will be launched sometime in October. However, it will be made available in

India only by January. Interestingly, a large portion of the application for

this product was developed out of India.