By Q4 this year, IceWarp is expected to launch a complete module, equipped with AR and Data Analytics, that would add on to the IceWarp Core Engine. The company is also focusing on building a strong partner network to penetrate into the untapped zones in India. Adam Paclt, Global CEO, IceWarp, shares more details
What are the key trends that are going to drive the IT industry (especially collaboration market) and how decisively is IceWarp aligning with these trends?
The key trends that would drive the IT industry in coming years are cloud computing, augmented reality and data analytics. We at IceWarp are always in sync with the latest trends and for this FY also we have made them integral part of our roadmap. We have already started investing heavily in them. As of today, we are successfully running our cloud services worldwide. We are pleased that apart from Google and Microsoft, we are the only OEM to have an own cloud infrastructure hosted and managed by the in-house team.
By Q4 this year, we are expected to launch a complete module that would add on to the IceWarp Core Engine. It is going to be equipped with augmented reality along with data analytics that would provide a complete single dashboard for all data, information exchanged, generated and maintained by a user in the organisation. The information will be collected through all the mediums (platforms) of communication viz, email, chat, team-chat, archive, SMS, and documents, and will be stored at one place. It will help in creating a repository and at the same time to maintain compliance and data security for analysis as well for compliance for today and the future.
What are the key differentiators/benefits that IceWarp offers compared to G Suite and Microsoft Office 365?
IceWarp is uniquely positioned today worldwide as the only alternative to G-Suite and O365. We are the only one who provides complete unified communication and collaboration suite – on premises and on-cloud. We have three key differentiators:
- Personal care for customers: We are hosted in Indian data centre ensuring data governance and less latency for accessing for Indian customers
- A complete set to catalyse business: We have highly user intuitive all-in-one web client, a single user interface for users. One can do email, chat, collaboration, video calls, voice calls, web documents, email archiving access, team chat, and the list goes on
- Room for growth: We provide flexibility, productivity and security with unique customisation. Our cloud customers can select different cloud packages; in return we’ll consolidate it into a single package, offering the best TCO in the market. We offer our customers to achieve 50 per cent savings year-on-year, which is huge.
What do you mean by ‘Hybrid Email’ solution; how it will benefit organisations?
Having email platform architecture, which has multiple email software / services running for a single domain name, it’s called as ‘hybrid’. For example, mail.company.com is the domain name where all users are created. But based on department, the host is different. Like [email protected] is hosted on O365 and [email protected] is hosted on IceWarp. Using two solution providers, still not making the process complex is hybrid. For external world whenever they will send email, it will be same without hampering employees’ work. Simply, the company’s employees can work and collaborate cohesively seamlessly without getting bothered about the different services.
Since 2017, we have positioned ourselves as one among the ‘Hybrid’ players in the India market. We have made major inroads in all sizes of organisations and have generated a lot of business by catering the best of both worlds. How it works? All the power users say management, middle management, will continue to use O365 or G-Suite or Exchange and non-power users like admin, back office, support etc will be migrated to IceWarp, giving the best combo to organisations.
What is the key role of C-level in today’s digital era and how technology has changed the market for them?
With technological advancements, a lot of changes come. Apart from the way businesses operate, it also affects the role of C-suite. Unlike five years ago, today C-Suite such as CEO, CFO, CIO need to be in complete sync with the latest trends and must identify the best technology/solution based on the company’s requirements. Today, everything is connected and companies look for solutions that can help them operate from anywhere, anytime. From top management to employee, everyone needs to be connected with greater level of collaboration with internal employees as well as the external world. This is where exactly, we come into the picture. IceWarp solutions allow enterprises to effectively collaborate irrespective of time zone, share data securely and seamlessly.
Now companies will start looking for solutions that offer better productivity and run their daily business operations effectively. Our product is suitable for companies of any size – from small to mid and large enterprises. We work in a highly competitive market segment and always believe in being with the trends.
How is IceWarp redefining the collaboration market?
At IceWarp, we deliver a single user intuitive web client to carry out email, collaboration, communication and much more. We are the only player who has team chat like slack part of our webclient, which has taken collaboration to the next level where while you are working on email, you can also update your teamchat by simply marking all your emails in cc / bcc to teamchat, which provided seamless information to all members of your teamchat group.
What’s your message to C-Suite for 2018?
The Future is hybrid and hybrid is the future – the new mantra in today’s hyper converged computing (HCI) environment. But we can’t deny that moving towards hybrid is going to be complex and heterogeneous. Keeping with the fact in mind that hybrid is everywhere and it’s here to stay, C-suite executives need to re-look at their current and proposed investments to augment it in sync with hybrid models. They need to deploy a solution which can manage their computing resources and at the same time enable the movement and management of complex and legacy applications to the cloud seamlessly. In the upcoming months, we will witness the new age architecture not only in email platforms, but across all other platforms.
Please tell us about the company’s go-to-market strategy in India and how do you plan to be the last-mile company for your customers?
Since our inception, we have focused on developing high breed collaboration and communication solutions. We constantly evolve by innovating and this has kept us going head strong against the competition. We are a large organisation with the mindset of a startup, which keeps us to have nimble teams for faster execution, resulting in faster go to market. We are a 100 per cent partner driven company. Business partners play a crucial role in our success. We don’t follow a distribution model; instead have a partner-based structure. We have presence in 50 countries, out of which in five, we have direct servicing team, the rest 45 are the collaborative efforts of IceWarp and partners.
In October 2016, we started our partner programme in India, which was focused on building a strong partner network. We have completed one FY and can proudly say that 36 per cent of our revenues in 2017 came through partners and we aspire to grow this up to 80 per cent, starting from 2018; setting it as our worldwide benchmark.
In terms of GTM, we will be focusing on building a strong partner network to penetrate into the untapped zones in India. We will solemnly concentrate on delivering ‘hybrid’ email services/solutions and grow our reach in Southern Indian markets through our recently launched operation team in Bengaluru and Chennai. Besides, we are also targeting the Western markets – Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. We will be working closely with partners in their respective regions by conducting workshops for their customers.
