MSI calls off SES tie-up; ropes in Cyberstar

By Anil Ramakrishnan , April 15, 2003

Taiwan-based Micro-Star International (MSI), a leading vendor in motherboards and graphic cards, is getting aggressive with its channel strategy in India.

MSI has snapped ties with SES Technologies, one of its two distributors (the second being Priya Limited). The vendor stopped shipping products to SES since January 2003, said sources at SES. However, both MSI and SES were not ready to divulge reasons for the break-up.

Following this, MSI has handed over responsibilities of setting up an authorized channel network and appointing an authorized service provider (ASP) to its new distributor, Cyberstar Infocom.

Taiwan-based Frank Sherap, country manager (India), MSI, said "Worldwide, we are No. 1 graphics card vendor, and among the top three motherboard players. We want to emulate this success in India also, which we consider a potential market. We intend to give Indian users a total solution in terms of price competitiveness, service and product quality. And Cyberstar will help us achieve this."

Cyberstar, on its part, is appointing two resellers and assemblers in major cities. It plans to appoint five resellers each in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Jaipur; and at least 10 assemblers each in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Bangalore.

"We have yet to decide on the categorization and support provision for these partners," said Narendra Dubey, director, Cyberstar. In the next phase of channel expansion, the distributor has plans to cover more cities.

The new distributor is also appointing an authorized service provider (ASP) for MSI. "We are in talks with three third-party service specialists. Presently, after-sales for MSI are offered at branch offices of Priya and Cyberstar. But once we appoint the ASP, all such support will be handled exclusively by it," said Dubey.

MSI expects stiff competition for its motherboards from Asus and Mercury, said Sherap. "Asus has a strong brand image and Kobian's Mercury a volume edge. We are looking at beating both with our focused approach through our partners," he added.