Posted by “CoSoSys engages online with local partners during the lockdowns,” says Filip Cotfas, CoSoSys – Head, India.
The COVID-19 crisis and the prolong lockdown in India have pushed companies like CoSoSys to rely on online meetings with local partners to keep the business functioning and overcome disruptions.
For this Romanian security company, channel partners are the core strength of its business that spans across 90 countries globally.
With India witnessing a major digital adoption across industries and segments, security continues to gain more prominence than in the past. Today, India is a potential market for companies like CoSoSys as it is eyeing major opportunities in the market through local partners and distributors.
In this interview, Filip Cotfas, Head India business – CoSoSys talks to TechHerald.in, on the company’s business strategy and plans in India and its key business verticals in the Indian market and how his organisation is managing the local channel partners during the lockdown.
He also discusses CoSoSys’ flagship DLP solution – Endpoint Protector and how it can help organisation and businesses safeguard against security risks and challenges in today’s remote remotely working scenario and much more.
Edited excerpts…
Q1. For CoSoSys, what’s the go-to-market strategy and business plan to increase its foothold in the Indian market?
Filip Cotfas: During the Covid19 period, our company strengthened its Channel partner program and kept informing and educating customers and partners on how to deal with the new reality of WFH and remote users.
We aim to accelerate the adoption of a data protection strategy that works for enterprises. Regular virtual engagement activities and training sessions with the channel partners have been planned to establish a healthy relationship and work together during this worldwide crisis.
We are also working closely with other technology partners so we can always be one step ahead, and continue our tradition of zero-day support for mac OS, as an example.
Q2. As a security vendor, which are the key business segments or verticals that CoSoSys is focusing on the Indian market?
Filip Cotfas: Endpoint Protector by CoSoSys can be used by any industry, but mainly by the BFSI sector. We plan to focus on several industries, such as the BFSI segment, IT, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Pharma, where the adoption of the right technology is a complete must.
Q3. As a DLP (data loss prevention) player – how you assess the Indian market in terms of security solutions in the present scenario where organisations are heavily relying on remote working and collaboration tools?
Filip Cotfas: With Covid-19, the WFH policy demand has increased along with a visible rise in DLP awareness in India can be noticed. The crisis has taught organisations the importance of data loss prevention solutions, and how its right adoption can help seamless functioning in any given situation.
Our company is always analyzing the local markets and taking into consideration the feedback we get from our customers so we can deliver the best solutions.
Q4.What sort of challenges are you facing on the business front in the current scenario where India is grappling with the pandemic and prolong lockdown?
Filip Cotfas: The main challenge we face today due to the lockdowns is relying on online meetings with local partners. What we are lacking from a face to face meeting perspective, we try to compensate using the other tools available. To make sure we can continue to help our customers throughout this unprecedented period of time.
Q5. The WFH and collaboration platform trends are seen globally, including India, but it does involve security risks and challenges. So how can CoSoSys help organisations address this security and risk scenario?
Filip Cotfas: With WFH policy, businesses have never been more at risk of data breaches than today. CoSoSys’ Endpoint Protector has several modules that help in safeguarding sensitive data from loss, leakage, and theft.
With the content-aware protection module, enterprises can filter which data can or cannot leave their network. It offers an advanced method of inspecting confidential data based on both content and context. It protects data in motion ranging from the file type, through predefined and custom content filtering to different regulations such as the GDPR or the Personal Data Protection Bill of 2019.
Q6. What is the company’s channel business model in India?
Filip Cotfas: Our company’s channel business model in India is the distribution channel. Through the distributors, we are working with a large network of channel partners. We are currently working with local partners for local support. In terms of the roadmap, we are always taking into consideration the feedback we get from our customers and partners from India.
Q7. What is the company’s business goal in terms of customers and partner base, market share in India?
Filip Cotfas: Our business goal in India is to help our existing channel, add more channel partners, and help more our customers. We are always keeping India in mind when we are developing our product roadmap. And the feedback we receive from our Indian customer is very valuable and helps us shape our product.
Regarding the channel, we are working on providing better support and more training to ensure our partners are always up to date with the latest changes and can deliver the best experience to their customers.