“We Don’t Sell Directly as We are 100% Channel Focused Company”
The cyber-attacks and security breaches are very common today and all this happen because of the vulnerable security structure of organizations. Organizations need reliable and strong security solutions to prevent such cyber-attacks. Due to all this, the investments in cyber security market have increased and the competition is immensely increasing. Mr. Zakir Hussain Rangwala, Director at BD Software Distribution Pvt Ltd shared his company’s journey and strategies for Indian market in a recent interview with DT.
DT: How did you started BD Software Distribution Company?
Mr. Zakir:We were in talks with Bitdefender to launch their brand and promote their solutions and services in India. On getting approval from them we started the procedure of distribution and providing services to customer of Bitdefender in India. We increase the brand rate because it is the fantastic product, technically very sound, one of the best products in the Anti-Virus in the world and we wanted to make sure that people of India get this fantastic piece of software, install in their computers and that is how BD Software Distribution formed in India.We have a team of around 35 people spreaded across India with a network of more than 3000 partners connected with us. Our solutions have been accepted well across all verticals like end users, SMBs, SMEs, government and educational institutions. Now the products are selling very well online as common customers are now aware about Bitdefender.
DT: How do you see your overall channel strength?
Mr. Zakir: We don’t prefer changing channels structure on regular basis. When we appoint channel, we make sure that we have a long term relationship with this particular partner, distributor or the reseller for this particular product.We do every possible way to make sure that the partner earns the margin by which he is capable in supporting of this product in the market. We don’t go for changing our partners but once we appoint a partner, we make sure that the partner doesn’t go anywhere else and he continues with us.We are 100% channel focused company so we don’t do any business directly, we do all our business via our channel partners.
DT: How do you support your customers?
Mr. Zakir: Bitdefender is a very customer friendly product so you don’t required team to be present and required any loading. The consumer versions are very small and simple. You can just install and it gives a web console and there you can manage all the things. We have a complete team of support staff and they can help on email, chat, telephone and in certain cases we send our engineers at customer place as well to solve their issues.
DT: What are your initiatives for customers to adopt your solutions?
Mr. Zakir: If somebody checks the review sites, 8 out of 10 sites gives Bitdefender number 1 ranking today. We are using digital media, magazines, and channel events in India to promote Bitdefender security solutions as it protects all our consumers from any security threats.
DT: What are your target to achieve by end of this year?
Mr. Zakir: We are presently spreaded around 30% of India so we want to cover additional 30% region till end of this year. To get this target,we are participating in events/expo across region to promote and boost product awareness among channel partners. Our focus is to capture tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India.
DT: What is your message to your partners?
Mr. Zakir: In worldwide reviews, Bitdefender is number one.Our partners who are giving solutions to their customers are definitely would like to give something which is good, so Bitdefender becomes obvious choice. We are providing best technical support and better margins. We are running lot of schemes for partners to motivate them to earn more profit.We are investing in technical team to offer best consumer support so that our partners should do business with ease.
