GEC NEWS WIRETalk of market dynamics-once seen as a niche player, Comguard has been making rapid strides into the volumes race as well.
“Both partners and end users should look at our portfolio very carefully. There are immense opportunities for partners to make good margins and also offer very good solutions to their customers. From end-user perspective, we are solving real problems; we have great POC labs and have received multiple awards in the recent times, not just for our numbers but also for our quality. That should be a big encouragement.”
AJAY SINGH CHAUHAN, CEO, COMGUARD
How has Comguard changed within the last year?
Within Comguard, we are trying to make sure that the company is better aligned to the newer strategies in the market. We have been reorganizing ourselves too to ensure we have the right skill sets, and right headcount-to-turnover ratio. We have a dream of going public in the next couple of years.
Comguard has been focussed on security products; gradually, the boundaries between different solutions seem to be blurring. What’s your perspective on that? How do you decide your portfolio?
We look into the current needs of the customer, and the kind of solutions they are asking for. We keep an eye on the products newly entering into Gartner space, be it in security, storage, networking or whichever it might be. We watch out for the agile and capable players from the technology perspective. Secondly, we go to our Fortune 500 customers and ask them about the kind of projects they are planning for the year and which are the kind of solutions that would fit in to address those needs. This combined exercise allows us to literally decide as to what kind of product line and solutions we should have. We have a vibrant team of consultants who understand the customer needs and recommend us to tie up with the right kind of vendors.
Which are the new additions to your portfolio?
Some of the new brands we have added are Niksun, Nexthink, Lumeta, Toshiba, Lenovo, Dell, etc. Some of the brands will give us large numbers while some will help us to reach out niche groups of customers. Some will offer volumes, but even in those, we prefer those which have something new to offer in terms of technology.
The market mostly looks at Comguard as one dealing with mostly niche products. Now, you seem to be entering into the volume game as well, is there any specific reason behind it?
As a group, we have been doing a lot of activity from the “value” perspective, along with nice kind of profitability too. But we feel, that doesn’t get us the right kind of turnover which we deserve. We do need to supply some volume products. And again, even though we are entering into the volume end, it’s not at the consumer end but we are trying to target high end business to business solutions.
Which region do you consider a nice market for the business of volume products?
KSA is a key area where we feel a lot of difference can be made; it’s a very big market by itself and we are trying how we can do more aggressive business there.
Lots of additions in workforce, partner strength, brands and so forth; it mustn’t have been a easy ride. What’s your perspective on that?
We are targeting a large turnover so we do need a workforce that’s aligned with the thought process of the group.
Training has been your base; so any new developments on that front?
We have added Dell in last couple of years. We are a very big partner of Microsoft, especially in KSA where we are doing really well. For Juniper, we have expanded the territorial coverage to Australia, New Zealand and more. In India, we have added Citrix. And, we are constantly looking for new brands too. So, we are definitely expanding the training portfolio, which has been the core strength of the company.
What message do you wish to give to the partner and end user community?
Both partners and end users should look at our portfolio very carefully. There are immense opportunities for partners to make good margins and also offer very good solutions to their customers. From end-user perspective, we are solving real problems; we have great POC labs and have received multiple awards in the recent times, not just for our numbers but also for our quality. That should be a big encouragement for the end-user community.
With too many brands, don’t you end up ignoring few in favour of few others?
While planning for a new addition, we make sure we go for complementing brands in favour of competing brands. But yeah, when vendor is more active, it definitely makes our task easier.
