ATEN, a Taiwanese multinational manufacturer of connectivity and access management hardware solutions said that it offers a wide range of meet the demands of small-and-medium businesses. In an interaction with PageOne, Sunanya Hazarika, Marketing Manager at ATEN talks on the product line, channel ecosystem, and impact of the Covid-19 outbreak. Edited excerpts.

What are your core offerings and services that drive your business?
ATEN has specialized in connectivity and management solutions in information technology, professional audio/video and green energy business since its establishment in 1979, and has been a worldwide leader in the KVM switch market. Our offerings are categorised into four product ranges—  integrated KVM and peripherals, professional audiovisual solutions, SOHO products, and intelligent power solutions.

ATEN offers a broad range of solutions to meet the needs of consumers, small office/home office (SOHO) users, and small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers. We offer KVM switches to meet the needs of server rooms in tandem with the ALTUSEN line of high-end server management solutions for the enterprise-level KVM switch market. Furthermore, ATEN´s Over the NET solutions allow you to effectively manage IT infrastructure from anywhere in the world. ATEN also offers the VanCryst range of video integrated solutions for a wide variety of corporate, commercial, and home theater applications. Our high-quality audio/video switches, splitters, extenders, and converters are available with various audio, video, and control interfaces.

The ATEN NRGence line is the latest evolution of energy intelligence. A green energy solution for data centers that provides instant real-time power management control and energy-saving efficiency, by allowing you to easily upgrade your current IT resources quickly and cost-effectively.

How do you see the market situation during the current Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown?

The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown has caused a significant impact on individual lives, businesses, and the economy. It has pushed the global economy into a recession. Many sectors that have affected due to the current pandemic include logistics, auto, tourism, hospitality, electronic goods, MSMEs, and retail among others. The lockdown has led to the migration of workers to their homes in rural areas, causing a shortage of labourers and, hence, disruption of supply chains. Many enterprises have disruptions in their logistic hubs and delivery routes due to closures.

Do you think the ICT sector has played a stellar role during the current crisis? How should organizations (enterprise sector) adopt new technology/cloud driven strategies to cut costs and stay closes to their customers?

Yes, absolutely. ICT sector has been instrumental in cushioning the fall in business operations during this crisis. This pandemic has resulted in organization looking at the remote working or future of work concept and we are seeing an increase in adoption of collaborative applications, security solutions, Big Data, and AI. It also provides an opportunity to ICT to step-up as consulting partners to handhold their clients in helping them sail through the crisis.

What is your overall India business or turnover vis-à-vis overseas business? What is your market positioning?
We have been serving our Indian customers for more than 20 years. We have a huge customer base as well as we are locally present in India since 2017. Our expertise has been recognized at multiple levels.

What are your renewed revenue targets for CY 2021? Share your expansion plans.

We will continue with our growth plan for this year, and continue expanding our channel ecosystem. In terms of revenue growth we foresee slow recovery of the economy due to the Covid-19 crisis and the target may not be as ambitious as we had planned at the beginning of the year.