RSA partners with Select to tap mid-sized businesses

Stanley Glancy / Mumbai

The proliferation of wireless technology and business opportunities in m-commerce has opened up vast vistas for security service providers like RSA Security. The company recently appointed Select Technologies, a subsidiary of WeP Peripherals, as its nationwide distributor to exploit growing awareness in the SME segment with regard to security solutions. The tie-up is part of the company’s strategy to target mid-segment businesses to expand its market reach and revenue opportunities in India. India contributes 25 percent of RSA’s South Asian revenues.

Surendra Singh

RSA, which previously focused solely on the corporate segment, plans to leverage Select’s channel expertise to target companies that are first movers in the adoption of new technologies. RSA believes that once these companies set an example the second rung will follow in their footsteps.

Said Surendra Singh, head, South Asia, RSA Security, “Authentication is a growing area of business in India, as these solutions help companies provide more access to mobile users. The tie-up will enable us to leverage Select Technologies’ partner network to extend our solutions to value-added resellers and system integrators (SIs) across the country.”

Select will distrsibute RSA’s identity and access management solutions, including SecurID, ClearTrust and Keon. While the first is an authentication solution, ClearTrust is a Web access management solution and Keon is a digital certificate management solution.

The company will focus mainly on IT and financial services companies. But it will also look at tapping the pharmaceutical and manufacturing verticals where it sees huge opportunities.

But though Singh sees a huge potential in the authentication space, he feels the Indian market is not right for digital signatures and Web access solutions. He said, “Though businesses in India have gone for e-commerce they have not been able to generate enough traffic to make the business viable.” But he expects the scenario to change in the next couple of years, opening up further revenue opportunities for RSA.