Comguard outlines expansion plans for 2013

Mumbai based Comguard Networks has outlined its expansion plans to grow its reach and partner base in India. Comguard FZ LLC was established in 2002 at Dubai Internet City, which was later acquired by Spectrum Group in 2007. Presently the company's distribution reach is spread to 26 countries across Middle East, Africa and India. In India, it has entered as a niche network and security technology value added distributor. Presently, the distributor has alliances with vendors like WinMagic, gateProtect, Acunetix, Array Networks, BlueCatNetworks, Beyond Trust, Brovis, EC Council, Infowatch, iolo, and Seclore. Comguard has supported project requirements of leading enterprises in the Indian region.

In an exclusive interaction with The DQ Week Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, Spectrum Group, informed about Comguard Network's expansion plans. "Currently, we are present in two cities, Mumbai and Delhi. This year we are planning to set up five branch offices in Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, with more number of people. Additionally, we have 30-50 active partners, however, given the country size, it is very less. Hence, we need to add more partners and product lines. As of now, we are trying to understand both the aspects and working towards speeding up our expansion plans."

Presently, the distributor endeavor is to extend the alliances of its global security vendors outside the Middle East. The company intends to introduce 10 more principal companies in India, who are strong in areas like security, hospitality and RFID. "We are also planning to take inorganic way to grow our business in India; we are in talks with local small distributors, who are strong in volume and verticals, but take time to grow, and do not have sufficient funding to manage large projects. We are looking out of such local acquisition and soon we will close it," Chauhan added.

The challenge it faces in the value-added distribution is that it works with very niche product line companies, which over the time, are acquired by biggies like Cisco and HP. In the Middle East, Comguard is working with 1,000 channel partners, but in India, the company has 50 existing partners and looking forward to have 200 active partners, who have strong hold in verticals like government, banking, large infrastructure and airlines.