Infotech Lead India: LogMeIn, a provider of cloud-based collaboration, IT management, and customer service offerings, says 50 percent of new APAC business comes from India.
Seth Shaw, SVP – Sales, LogMeIn, in a telephonic interview with Baburajan K of InfotechLead.com, says India has been a significant and strategic market to the company. The company plans to target managed service providers, outsourced IT services organizations and mobile service providers in India.
Excerpts of the interview:
What are LogMeIn’s plans for India?
Smartphones and iPads are the new IT tools in every enterprise. The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend has changed the way information is accessed and shared by employees across the globe and has urged IT departments to consider mobility as the core of their IT strategies.
Bring Your Own Application (BYOA) has become as important as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) in the development of a comprehensive mobile strategy”, as enterprises look to maintain control of their IT operations.
It is predicted that by 2017 one quarter of enterprises will have an enterprise app store for managing corporate-sanctioned apps on PCs and mobile devices.
At LogMeIn since our early days we have invested and continue our investments in mobile – investments that have helped us consistently address emerging needs just as they are arising within the workplace and the larger population.
This first mover advantage has helped us win new business in mobile heavy environments – 4 of the world’s top 8 mobile operators use Rescue in their helpdesks –this technological support gives internal and outsourced IT organizations the confidence that their support solution will scale to meet the unpredictable challenges of tomorrow’s helpdesk.
India is one of the prominent outsourcing markets in the world and I believe our solutions cater perfect to this market and will help the enterprises better performance.
It has been three years since we started our India operations.
India has been a very significant and strategic market to us. 50 percent of our new APAC business comes from India. The key markets/ verticals that we plan to target in India are managed service providers, outsourced IT services organizations and mobile service providers.
Any organization providing Technical Support to internal and external customer can benefit from our solution(s). We have both large enterprises and SMBs as our customers in India. WNS, Genpact, Accenture, Happiest Minds, etc. are some of the large enterprises using our solutions.
IN Technologies, Glopore, Lester, etc. are the technical support organizations based in India who have been using our solutions. India is an important market to us and we will continue to invest heavily in India.
What are your unique strategies for India?
India is the leading global shoring destination in the world and it has been able to increase its market share in spite of competitive challenges presented by emerging off shoring destinations. The sheer volume of call center providers, IT infrastructure providers in India is huge.
The key markets/ verticals that we plan to target in India are managed service providers, outsourced IT services organizations & Mobile Service Providers. Any organization providing Technical Support to internal and external customer can benefit from our solution(s).
One of the other trends we are witnessing is the convergence in BPO and call center market, the convergence will open up a door of opportunities for LogMeIn in India. Our strategy for India is to grow our presence within the telco sector, MSPs, BPOs and call centers, who could receive benefit from customer engagement and support tools like BoldChat and LogMeIn Rescue.
What are your top 5 markets in terms of Revenue?
India is definitely one amongst the top five revenue generating market for us. We have grown by 100 percent yoy in India. 50 percent of the new business generated form APAC comes from India.
It is observed that the call center market is not growing and stagnated, what can be the reasons for this?
Automation is the primary reason for growth stagnation and also as the industry matures the growth steadies and this is what I believe the Indian Call center market is currently witnessing
What is the kind of pricing model you plan to adopt for India?
We follow Saas based pricing model. Our pricing is based on per technician usage, we have seen success in this model and it is also easily scalable and helps in achieve better TCO.
Do you also work with SMBs in India?
We do partner with both Large enterprises and SMBs in India. We have a large of small and independent outsources who are using our solutions. IN Technologies, Lester, PC Visor, etc. are some of our SMBs customers out of India,
What are your expansion plans for India?
LogMeIn is fortunate to offer products that span across markets, across verticals, and across all sizes of business. At any given moment, we are working to expand and grow within one of these areas. When we look at India specifically, our current goal is to grow our presence within the telco sector, MSPs, BPOs and call centers, who could receive benefit from customer engagement and support tools like BoldChat and LogMeIn Rescue.
Also as per IDC, the worldwide market for remote support tools will grow from $171 million in 2008 to $473 million in 2013, representing a five year CAGR of 22.6 percent. It is observed that this market is niche and growing. Given this market scenario, we see incredible potential in the Indian market – with fleets of customer support desks that can benefit from offering their end-users on-demand remote support. Our strategy has been to secure a few key customers to prove out the benefits this type of solution can have for Indian companies, and then bring the solution out to a broader audience.
You made a recent acquisition, are you considering Indian companies for your next buy out?
We think there is great technology coming from India; some of the companies that we will be looking at are definitely from India. However as of now we do not have any concrete plans for any buy outs.
We acquired Bold Chat in January 2012. The acquisition move is part of a larger strategy to expand LogMeIn’s portfolio of web-based services aimed at customer care organizations — call centers, external help desks, and customer service teams. With Bold Chat we are moving towards multi – channel customer support using web chat, Facebook, Twitter, click-to-call, email, SMS and other social channels. I believe this solution; will significantly help us in providing the much needed support for the robust Indian market.
What is your take on the market in China?
China definitely has a huge market potential, we currently have a data center in Singapore. For now, in APAC we see an incredible opportunity in India and we are keen on expanding our presence in the Indian market.
