With the advent of globalization, the Indian economy has witnessed a rapid change in its structure. Subjecting the Indian IT industry to close introspection reveals that the buying behavior of customers has metamorphosed categorically. SMBs (Small Medium Businesses) are emerging as a big force as they create huge market opportunities for vendors. Another lucrative segment which is attracting the attention of vendors across all the verticals is the developing B and C class cities. Issues and concerns such as this have forced IT Vendors to reconsider and redefine business operations.

Business Operation of Buffalo
Even though Buffalo is at a stage where its products are fast gaining popularity in India, globally it holds the stature of a leading provider of award-winning networking,storage and multi-media solutions for the home and small business environments as well as for system builders and integrators.

With three decades of networking and computer peripheral experience, Buffalo has proven its commitment to delivering innovative, top of the line solutions that have placed the organization at the forefront of infrastructure technology. As far as the Indian Market is concerned, Buffalo plans to focus primarily on wireless networking and storage solutions.

Currently, Buffalo operations in India are carried out by its liaison office. The organization plans to open a branch or subsidiary office in India in the future. Speaking on this front Ms. Anju Thapa, liaison representative, India says “we do have a plan to work as a branch or subsidiary of Buffalo and in that case we may be implementing a direct customer support service.”

Being a new entrant in the IT market, Buffalo is going to diligently foray into the Indian IT market through customer education and awareness as well as channel communities through the adoption of various promotional activities. Elaborating the marketing strategy, Anju says “being a technology driven company, Buffalo wants to create awareness about its unique and “easy-to-use” features rich products and at the same time commit itself to deliver products at reasonable and competitive prices.

In order to increase its presence in India, Buffalo recently entered into a strategic alliance with Advent Infotech by appointing it as a national distributor. Advent is a niche player with a reach across the country. The appointment of Advent as national distributor will surely provide vibrant exposure to Buffalo's products in India. Currently, Advent Infotech also handles the Customer Support services of Buffalo.

Buffalo is quite optimistic about the Indian market and aims to delivers value added services to the customers. Buffalo is now offering its AirStation product line in India. The AirStation is an award-winning, affordable, high-performance line of wireless LAN products that offer complete wireless LAN solutions to end users in the SMB, SOHO, as well as the individual consumer segments. An innovative feature consistent throughout this product line is the patented AirStation One-Touch Secure System (AOSS) that provides top-notch security for home or office networks with nothing more than the touch of a button. On this front Anju adds “Another major strength of Buffalo is that it is the only company to offer any solutions in PC Peripherals. All our wireless and storage products have two years warranty with immediate replacement. Alongwith this online support services are also available througout India.”

Buffalo believes that it has still to learn a lot from its channel partners and understand the existing market and competition. Apart from this the company believes that its price structure offers good margins to the channel community. Apart from this, quality of products and services offered by Buffalo would prove to be nothing short of a major benefit that will help it stay ahead of the competition at all times.

In the end

In order to cope with competition at the market place, the foremost task before Buffalo is to create brand awareness through adoption of various sorts of promotional activities. Apart from that the company would also focus on developing technical skill sets in the channel community through road shows, training seminars, accurate portrayal of technical specifications of products etc.