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He stated: “Now we see that the country has also come to a stable mode. It has stopped all its internal issues. People are focusing more on business. This is the right time to come into this market and work together with the country.”
Commenting on their growth expectation, he said: “We do all our business quarter to quarter. Quarter is like one year for us. I am sure that if we can do that in a period of one year, our growth will be much higher and we are confident of doing that. We will do it.”
During an interview with Sutradhar, he revealed that they will be focusing on six key markets for the time being. The six markets – in and surrounding Colombo, Kandy, Matara, Negombo and Jaffna – have been identified as potential markets for the IT sector after a two month research. “We have targeted around six markets in Sri Lanka at this stage. Those six markets have been identified in terms of reseller consumer strength. I am excited about Kandy because that market is definitely positive,” stated Sutradhar.
He further added that they will be going to each of these six cities to host a two hour workshop on how to increase the profitability of a business and on their product line and technology offerings. He said” “Our workshops will help our partners sell the new product lines and new technology to the consumer, which in return will give profit. At the same time, we will also train them with the right skill sets.”D-Link has planned three workshops for this month. He mentioned that they will host at least one workshop every month.
Along with promoting their product line, enhancing the skill sets of resellers and their partners is D-Link’s main focus in Sri Lanka. “If your resellers and partners are well trained about the product lines, then the products will be delivered well. We will invest a lot to provide them with the right skill sets. So due to this, we will be launching partner schemes very soon which will be a points scheme of sorts where every partner who sells products accumulates some points. After a period of one quarter, he will be rewarded,” explained Sutradhar.
Speaking on their partners, he said: “We are 100% partner driven. We give 100% to our partners. That’s why our main motto is to increase partner profitability and address consumers with our product lines.”
As the smartphone penetration is quite high today, D-Link will also provide their entire range of IT products to the Sri Lankan market ranging from business solutions to consumer and digital home solutions to mobile and service provider solutions including the likes of security appliances, connectivity, and multimedia appliances, just to name a few.
They will also include their unique one device connector that will allow all devices such as laptops, desktops, smartphones etc. to be connected to one device for internet usage. Another unique device, the wireless IP surveillance cameras will also be included. These IP surveillance cameras allow the consumer to always check into the house from anywhere and if broken in the device sends alerts to the consumer.
The reason to provide D-Link’s entire equipment line-up to Sri Lanka lies in the potential of the country’s IT market and the country. He asserted: “This is a very good market. Technology is growing. You could see there is a growth in the economy. It’s very nice to work with the people in Sri Lanka. We wanted to give them an extra product line which will help in terms of popularity and business as well we want to give the resellers and the partners an opportunity to earn some extra margin out of those product lines.”
He also mentioned that they have seen the potential in the Sri Lanka IT market after doing business here for over 15 years. In many ways, it has encouraged D-Link to focus more on this developing market. “It’s quite positive. We see a lot of response from the partners – that’s the most important part. In terms of resilience and consumers, people in Sri Lanka are more technology savvy.
“They are much more advanced which helps us to motivate them. This is a really good market. They are accepting technologies. This is the most important part of ours. So, once the market is accepting new technologies, new innovations, it becomes exciting for us. I am sure in the coming one or two quarters, you will see big changes in terms of visibility, productivity and definitely at the same time our business,” stated Sutradhar.
He strongly claimed that out of the SAARC countries, Sri Lanka tops the list for technology acceptance which was the main advantage for working in this region. Their second advantage is communication. He added: “It’s been very exciting for me especially when I went to village kind of places, markets, digital shops etc. One man explained to me in English. If you are able to communicate, then you know how to deliver. They understand technology much faster compared to other SAARC markets.”
Sutradhar also stated that they don’t have a branch in Sri Lanka at the moment, but is looking forward to establishing one. They will also be focusing and expanding to other countries such as the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
D-Link established in 1986, has a global presence in over 67 countries with 189 local sales office employing 2,714 people. Their revenue for last year was estimated to be US$ 1.09 billion. Sutradhar believes that their strongest asset is their technology strength.
D-Link has produced many firsts including the world’s first green ethernet product, first end to end solution security, first cloud camera, cloud router and cloud storage and the first wireless ac cloud router. They have also won many awards for their product design and innovation such as the Red Dot design award for 2012 and 2013, the Good Design Award and were the finalist for the best of CES for 2013.
