The COVID-19 pandemic estimated four out of five workers in the workforce, have been affected by lockdowns and stay-at-home measures. The biggest challenge organizations will likely face next is getting back to work and embracing the new reality. Also, the leaders and organizations have to work hard towards the recovery of their brand's position in this crowded market place in the country.
It is very important for the brands to understand the needs of the customers at the present situation so as to position their products and solutions accordingly. When we had to discuss on the topic, here’s what our Market Gurus have to say
VAIBHAV KSHATRIYA
Director, Channels & Services Sales, Avaya
“The ongoing pandemic, COVID-19 has pushed a lot of organisations to shift to work from home and operate differently from their conventional approach to ensure business continuity and stability. At Avaya, we have been working round the clock to ensure that our customers adapt to the right fit of solutions according to their needs and requirements.
Avaya has a wide range of customers across industries including education, healthcare, government and SMBs (small and medium businesses). Even with normalcy returning, offices deploying their workforce and people conducting face to face meetings, the ‘new normal’ will definitely witness a growth in the adoption of communication collaboration leading it to become a part of our daily lives, all-encompassing video conferencing, chats, calls, messaging, and so on. Our goal at Avaya is to help businesses achieve revenue growth using Digital Transformation. Apart from revenue generated, it will further help brands to connect an increasingly digital workforce to each other and their clients, enable a personalised, positive, and connected customer experience and lastly, help integrate and transform methods for improved business results as well as growth.
At Avaya, we are focused on enabling organizations around the globe to succeed by creating immersive and seamless experiences for customers and employees that intelligently connect everyone to everything through open, converged and innovative solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration. Avaya is very central and essential in dealing with markets on the one hand and making sure that all of our steps are consistent with our convictions.”
ASHISH P. DHAKAN
MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision India
"Prama Hikvision an Indian brand has been striving hard to live up to the expectations by providing innovative solutions during the pandemic situation. As the government is planning to ease lockdown, it is offering back to business solutions across the verticals. Prama Hikvision’s brand promise has remained consistent with its ‘Make in India’ commitment through innovative products and solutions. Now it is safeguarding lives through innovations by reaffirming faith in ‘Made for India, Made by India, Made in India’.
We plan to ensure the wellbeing of employees, channel partners and end-users, their safety and health is our top priority in these challenging times. We are following a cautious approach for the time being while reopening offices, branches and key operations. We are getting back to business mode in a phased manner by following all the guidelines.
Well, beyond the pandemic, we are focusing on digital transformation efforts on the people, processes, and technology we at Prama Hikvision are ramping up the value added services to enhance the customer experience at every touch point. Our customer centric approach has always helped to strengthen the brand image and we are sure this phase will be no exception".
Ashish believes Prama Hikvision’s marketing strategy is perpetually aligned with the customer insights and evolving market dynamics. As we continue with innovations and technology upgrades, we clearly see a big shift happening in the customer buying trends after the unprecedented pandemic situation. As the new trends are getting clear with the lifting of lockdown in most parts of India, we are going to implement our marketing strategies with a fine understanding of changing trends and ground realities.
KULDEEP MALHOTRA
Director & V.P. Sales and Office Marketing & Planning - Konica Minolta
"The world has already witnessed how disrupting a pandemic can be to humanity as well as businesses. Against this backdrop, we at Konica Minolta have taken several safety measures at our premises, and deployed business continuity plans to ensure the continuation of our services amidst these turbulent times.
From spreading awareness around the need for better hygiene practices to restricting travel and limiting the size of events, we are taking every necessary step to keep our employees, partners, customers and stakeholders safe from the exposure of COVID-19. Using thorough training modules, we are preparing everyone to smartly manage the on-going crisis and stay connected through various communication channels.
Keeping peoples’ safety at the forefront, we have equipped our support teams with the right set of digital tools to remotely serve customers and use Remote Call Assistance (RCA), if the need be. Simply put, we have evolved as a digital printing solutions provider to help our people fight and contain the deadly virus. No doubt, it has affected our pace of growth, but we are sure we will revive from the current situation in the next few months when normalcy starts to return."
.
RAVINDRA KELKAR
Area Vice President, Indian Subcontinent, Citrix
"The current COVID-19 crisis has created an unprecedented situation, affecting virtually every industry. In its first phase, organisations were compelled to swiftly transition to a remote working set-up and ensure secure connectivity for their employees as they work from home. Even now, as some offices resume partial operations, all organizations, regardless of industry or size will need to think of the next step to transform post the pandemic. While some have already joined the digital transformation bandwagon, they would still have to deal with the challenge of delivering and more importantly, maintaining the right employee experience to avoid productivity gaps at the office or at home.
Remote work has been the very core of our business with a 30+ year history of helping enterprises to effectively develop their remote work strategies and business continuity plans.
Even now, throughout this global crisis, we at Citrix have been working tirelessly to deliver safe, secure, and uninterrupted operations to our employees and our customers. A large number of customers have been turning to Citrix for guidance and support on enabling secure remote work solutions to maintain business continuity and also ensure productivity.
After the lockdown, as some businesses resume part of their operations, we strongly believe that remote work is here to stay, playing a critical role in a company’s business operations strategy. And therefore we will continue to provide solutions, technical support, guidance, resources, as well as virtual seminars to help our customers shape their own work from home strategy and crisis-response programs, while also paving the path for digital transformation.”
VIKAS BHONSLE
CEO, Crayon India
"Amid lockdown people are forced into isolation, one of their best friends becomes the internet. This is the chance that all Business should move to the next level by adapting to digital communication. Customers across will be seeking answers, and ways to improve their personal and professional life. We have been interacting with our customers about our solutions, support and services through our social media platforms, emailers, and direct one-to-one calls. Although our entire support team is now working from home, we have assured that our clients do receive all our support like they would normally do, especially now, as the challenges might be different due to the pandemic related restrictions
We at Crayon are actively designing activities that would strengthen our position in the market. In the last 3 months, like many others we have also adopted newer ways of working and collaborating with our team, customers and prospects for business continuity.
We have been one of the very first organizations who have been helping customers in the digital transformation journey. We understand the immediate measures that are required for business continuity even during the pandemic. We would continue to guide our customers in their digital transformation journey, which forms the core objective of our business.
The pandemic has created the new normal – even after the crisis passes. Looking ahead, the best companies in the world will prepare now for how to meet the needs of the market. At Crayon we see this as an opportunity to pick up on the market behaviour changes and virtually engage in new ways. We will continue our marketing & branding efforts through Virtual Forums, Media Engagements, PR & Corporate Communication, Content Curation, Social Media and other Digital Platforms".
SUDHIR GOEL
Chief Business Officer, Acer
"As we know, with the COVID-19 pandemic changing life, it is expected that a new normal will emerge. This includes changes in lifestyle, and consequently in the consumer buying behavior as well. At Acer, we are constantly working to meet the technology demands and provide our customers with personalized solutions. For Enterprises, looking at purchases for their employees, we have enabled GST invoicing on our e-Store. To cater to the education sector, we have come up with customized offers through our Back to School campaign and have also associated with Indian Principal's Network (IPN) to reach out to lakhs of teachers and students providing them with laptops, PCs, and tablets among the lakhs of teachers and students. This initiative is aimed at promoting online education to boost-up the smart education system in India.
We have also introduced an integrated digital approach through our e-store platform which has been intended for customers with faster, hassle-free, and contactless home deliveries. This also comes with multiple easy payment options.
By taking pro-active measures now, we have come up with the 3R strategy to recapture business from COVID-19: React and Rotate, Recover, Re-orient. I believe, most consumers will be unsure of how to navigate a post-COVID-19 consumer world. They might be tempted to continue the digital commerce journey forever. At Acer, our agenda is to be swift and predictive while developing easy and viable customer solutions across all our channels".
J N MYLARAIAH
Director, Enterprise Sales, India & SAARC, CommScope
"In these unprecedented times, the strength and reliability of networks are paramount as they are keeping people connected while they are physically apart.
We are working with organizations and communities around the world to provide much needed communications equipment and expertise to support critical industries that are serving our communities.
As normalcy starts to return, organizations operating with congested, dense workplace environments, such as airports, hotels and institutions of higher learning, are already looking to pivot to new ways of working. Leveraging our global network, we have been collaborating with communities worldwide to adjust to a new normal through our ability to connect ideas with people to enrich lives
We also understand that consumer internet habits have also fundamentally evolved post-pandemic. We expect the wider telecom industry to continue seeing a 20-30 percent average increase in bandwidth use every year, as people tap into more connected technology to work from home, online learning, video chatting, live gaming, and TV. Similarly we are looking to continue supporting our customers and partners in India with their network connectivity needs.
We will be focusing on reducing the overall cost of building wireless networks, so new services can be implemented, and growth continues. We plan to reduce everything from installation costs to operational expenses, from leasing costs to transport costs".
MURALI URS
Country Manager, India, Barracuda Networks
"Barracuda protects customers from today’s advanced threats by providing the most comprehensive and easy-to-use IT-security platforms. During this global crisis, our researchers have been observing a steady increase in the number of coronavirus COVID-19-related email threats due to the remote working scenario. While remote work will be the new normal, Barracuda protects remote workers from web-based attacks and helps ensure that their web activity remains productive and compliant. Barracuda CloudGen Firewall can ensure that employees have what they need to securely access corporate resources. Meanwhile, for creating security awareness, we have Barracuda PhishLine, a computer-based training and simulation solution, to educate employees about recognizing any potential threats and eliminating highly specialized spear-phishing attempts.
During this global crisis, a lot can be at stake for companies that fail to take cybersecurity seriously. Clearly, the risks can never be eliminated but we at Barracuda Networks are planning to continue to invest in innovative solutions that are designed to protect our customers from the new age cyberattacks.
Attackers are getting more sophisticated every day, and we want to arm channel partners and their customers with the tools they need to keep up. We stay committed to our customers and channel partners throughout this challenging journey by protecting them with the best security solutions at the right time.
To make it possible, we provide our customers with all-inclusive, reliable, and efficient solutions whereas give our channel partners access to training, tools, workshops, programs and incentives to comprehend the market. Meanwhile, Barracuda continues to drive awareness of how it can support the customer in safeguarding their business journey with affordable and easy-to-deploy solutions".
RAJIV BHALLA
Managing Director, Barco India
"Barco believes in enabling bright outcomes for our customers and strive to create solutions to address their requirements, in the sectors we cater to. Customer service is one of the core values of Barco and it is an important part of our culture. We truly believe in and practice the ethos - “We Think with our Customer”. We believe in end-to-end solutions and cover the complete lifecycle of our products and services. Thus enabling customers to streamline their workforce and operations with innovative technologies and solutions, confirms Rajiv.
The pandemic has led to disruptions in supply chain and client servicing. In India, but it has also opened new opportunities too by accelerating the adoption of digital transformation and the need to enhance business resilience by preparing for future, hybrid workplaces. The new ‘hybrid workplace’ is a blend of physical and virtual experiences and Barco is uniquely positioned to cater to the demand for seamless collaboration with our remote conferencing solution Barco ClickShare. The pandemic has also boosted the need for remote learning and Barco’s solution weConnect is an excellent fit for academic purposes. Our strategy is now focused on enabling bright outcomes in these verticals.
We are also harnessing Public Relations initiatives to increase our share of voice and ensure that end consumers are aware of our innovative technology and solutions that will empower them during and post the pandemic.
For Barco, digital media is a key enabler and we undertake several digital demand-generation initiatives. We are adopting the novel Account-Based Marketing strategy boldly. We leveraged the technique successfully last year and plan to expand our base and look at larger accounts this year. We are building a major campaign across the country and aim to reach top enterprise accounts with our solutions".
DIPESH KAURA
GM South Asia Kaspersky
"As the country slowly and steadily gears up for the unlock mode; it is safe to say that it will take a few more months for the entire workforce to return to normal ways of functioning. Work from home OR remote working will be the new norm for a while now. During the pandemic, cybercriminals have increased their activities targeting enterprise businesses through ransomware and DDoS attacks, as well as individual consumers through various Covid19 related scams. Kaspersky has been working closely with enterprises and individual consumers with the help of our partners in order to help them create awareness and fight against the evolving threats related to the Covid19 scams affecting the end consumers and targeted threats on businesses. This will continue to remain our focus as unlocking phases begin too.
The approach that we are following currently and will continue the do so post Covid19 is to train our partners and help them specialise in their particular field of interest. Our key market strategy is to focus on advanced cyber solutions like OT Security, Cyber Threat Intel, Fraud Prevention, etc to name a few to help organizations respond to critical pain-points in the dynamic cyber world.
Another key initiative to create cyber awareness is by conducting online cyber workshops and training campaigns for enterprises and channel communities based on their existing cyber maturity. Our prime intent is to be seen as a Cyber Solutions Partner that can help organizations create transition from Cyber Security to Cyber Immunity".
RAMESH MAMGAIN
AVP – India & SAARC, Commvault
"The first few months of this year brought unprecedented global change, including the way we work, how we engage with customers and, most important, the new challenges our customers are facing. To help our customers accelerate their digital transformation journey, we are designing products which enable them to control costs, increase efficacies and realise their digital potential. What helps differentiate Commvault in the market is our continuous delivery of innovation. Every quarter we add new data management support for more workloads and further expand the dramatic breadth of our ecosystem, as per our customers’ evolving needs.
One of the biggest challenges that businesses continue to face is ransomware – it is by far the most notorious of all the malignant cyber threats, and the attack numbers have grown significantly amidst the pandemic.
To help our customers to continue to operate efficiently and implement critical data protection in the new ‘normal’, we are steadfast in our communications. This includes support for today’s challenges while we also look forward to the ripple effect the pandemic may have caused on data.
Commvault is charting a new course, one that is designed to move it into the future. While the pandemic brought tectonic shifts in the way businesses are being run, at Commvault we rallied together to adjust to the “new normal.” We remain committed to our top priorities: keep our employees and communities safe, continue to be there for our customers and remain unwavering in our innovation".
"With businesses rapidly adopting digital transformation and deploying AI powered applications and cloud services; large amount of data is being generated every second. To protect data effectively, Seagate believes that well-organized content with planned regular backups can help efficiently store the data on computer, phone and other devices.A time when majority of employees globally are working from home, the onus, more than ever, is on data to do the legwork for us.
At Seagate Technology, we are operating at both ends of the spectrum. First to keep our employees safe, and, secondly to keep enabling the critical flows of data around the world.
Our aim is to support our partners in maximising their results by offering the best and most optimal storage solutions and services. We also organise activities to address the right audience and customers, including participation in trade shows (such as IFSEC International, SecuTech, and Broadcast India), events sponsorships, sales staff training, and certification programs, as well as reaching out to our community through social messaging groups.
Designed specifically for India, the SkyHawk Partner App enables partners to calculate the storage needs and investment required on the spot.
With the advent of the fourth wave of industrial revolution within IT, our strategy is focused on helping partners drive profitability by enabling them to embrace and monetise the new opportunities around edge computing and artificial intelligence.
At Seagate, we are confident to have plenty of digital solutions and the required global experience to let businesses lead the way into the next normal".
SUDHINDRA HOLLA
Sales Director, India & SAARC, Axis Communication
"The brands in a COVID world will be seen in three stages - during work from home, return to work and accelerating growth of the industry. The companies have to adopt a reboot strategy driven by communication.
We at Axis Communications are collaborating to address the whole new range of challenges. Efforts such as rearranging transports, working with multiple suppliers and monitoring stock levels across Axis supply chain, have had positive effects. Axis distributors are in most cases operating at normal level and Axis configuration and logistics centers and manufacturing sites are working well. Also, being an important provider of products and services necessary to the operations and maintenance of essential infrastructure and governmental functions in many countries, several countries’ authorities have approved the continuing business of Axis and of its suppliers. Axis is committed to keeping partners and customers updated about how the situation develops.
For us transparency, at all levels of communication is the key – starting from employees to channel partners, distributors, and customers.
We are keeping our channel partners updated with information whenever possible. The pandemic has acted as both a boon and a bane for industries, one of them being a surveillance sector.
We will continue to see a boom in the manufacturing, government, smart city and critical infrastructure segments, where we might see a growth, for securing the premises. We might experience a dip with regards to industries related to tourism, aviation and hospitality. With respect to government initiated projects, we again expect a rise in businesses especially for projects related to social distancing monitoring and surveillance of office buildings whereas some government projects have been put on hold at the moment due to pending investments".
SRIHARI GOPINATH
Director, Marketing, HPE India
"We are certainly living in uncertain and unprecedented times. The pandemic has impacted every industry and business across the planet. As a company, HPE India is open and staying constantly in touch with our customers to assess their needs and requirements, and help prioritize the solutions that they need. The technology industry is backed by a robust but complex global supply chain.
We see a tremendous need and opportunity to help organizations rebuild business models, create new experiences and connect differently. In this new world, business continuity depends on solutions that advance IT resiliency, provide supply chain transparency, empower remote workforces, extend connectivity, reinvigorate customer engagement and help organizations retool their business models. We have a unique ability to help with these needs, and we take that responsibility seriously.
Over the course of the last few years our online presence has been strengthened to allow customers to engage with us on any screen – computers, tablets, mobile. The navigation and content framework is intuitive and the goal is to help customers get to the information they seek in the shortest possible time. Engagement options like social platforms have become an integral part of our presence and communication strategy.
We have been working tirelessly with our supply chain partners and found several innovative solutions to overcome challenges in production, logistics, and forecasting. We are fortunate to have deep relationships with our customers, some spanning decades, and that has allowed us to partner with them in a transparent, trustful manner.
The $2 billion HPEFS financing announced recently has helped customers ensure business continuity and adapt in the current environment by addressing new technology financing needs, and convert their IT infrastructure into new sources of capital".
Amid pandemic and long lasting lockdown, surely many now regular things may shed away and New Normal, may soon become a regular thing. Nothing is permanent, but change, this old adage but shall always remain permanent. Looks like the winds of change may bring many new normals to existence. All that is to see is, how Business strategy will sustain post lockdown. Will it sustain as predicted by the market gurus or any new wind of change on the way?
