Symantec India office commences operations

-Symantec announces Internet centric strategy, focused on content security

MUMBAI -- October 16, 1999 -- Symantec Corporation, the world leader in utility software for business and personal computing and Internet security technology, today announced the opening of its office in India. A fully operational management team, comprising sales and technical support, will now be based in Mumbai under the leadership of Joy Ghosh, who was recently appointed country manager for India. Symantec also announced its strategy for the Indian market, which is in line with its worldwide strategy to focus on the rapidly growing content security market. This strategy builds on Symantec's leadership in anti-virus and remote connectivity solutions to keep computing users secure and productive.

Announcing this in Mumbai, Dana Siebert, Executive Vice-President, Worldwide Marketing, Sales and Services said, "The commencement of Symantec's operations in India is in line with our plans for the region - increasing our customer focus, extending into new markets and by strengthening and building on our strategic relationships. We have identified India as one of the largest markets in the Asia Pacific region and are committed to investing here. Our business in India over the past year has made rapid progress and we expect the momentum to continue to build under Joy's leadership. Expansion of our operations in India will help us to be more accessible to our local customers and serve their needs better."

Elaborating on Symantec's Internet-centric strategy, he added, "The strategy builds on Symantec's expertise as a leader in anti-virus and remote connectivity. The strategy leverages this core competency and makes the Internet the common thread in everything we do. Further, this will allow us to extend our leadership in the PC computing area to serve a connected world in the future."

Speaking on the occasion Joy Ghosh, Country Manager, Symantec India, said, "Symantec's office and a dedicated team in India will provide the necessary thrust towards fulfilling our prime objective of delivering high levels of customer service and addressing the diverse needs of the marketplace."

Commenting on Symantec's plans for India, Joy Ghosh added, "Over the last year, Symantec products have received a tremendous response in the Indian market and we are on target to achieve a three-fold increase in sales over the next six months. With increased usage of the Internet and the opening up of the ISP sector in India, there is great opportunity for Symantec in the content security area. Our strategy is to actively pursue relationships with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) while continuing to service and focus on the Enterprise, Consumer and OEM segments."

The newly established Symantec India office will manage and co-ordinate all sales and marketing-related activities and work closely with the 25 recently appointed VAR's. In addition to this, by the end of the year, Symantec will also provide its end-users a dedicated telephone technical support from Mumbai. This will ensure better service and accessibility for Symantec customers. Further, Symantec will continue to invest in infrastructure and resources over the next year in keeping with its commitment to India.

Content Security
To meet enterprise customers' content security and remote device support needs, Symantec plans to develop web-based solutions that are scaleable, manageable and support multiple platforms. As the web is based on more platforms than Windows, Symantec aims to support a broader range of platforms including the UNIX and Linux environments. In the consumer market, Symantec's strategy is to leverage its enterprise content security solutions to bring industrial strength protection to consumers and small businesses.

Building on its strength as a leading provider of anti-virus technology, Symantec plans to provide solutions that filter Internet content, protect against unknown threats and block unwarranted or unauthorized intrusion to enable corporations to extend their business securely without exposing their systems and data to unnecessary risk. According to analyst firm, International Data Corporation, the worldwide content security market will be worth US$4 billion by the year 2003.

With this strategy, Symantec's aim is to be the world leader in Internet security by providing solutions that enable our customers to interact securely with the Internet in a simple manner.

Symantec in India
Since the announcement of its exclusive distribution tie-up with GPTL in February 1999, Symantec has been gradually expanding its operations in India. Symantec has introduced its top line products in India and has continuously launched its latest versions simultaneously with international launches. The products are: Norton AntiVirus, Norton SystemWorks, PcAnywhere, Norton Utilities, Norton CleanSweep, Norton 2000, Norton Ghost, WinFax Pro, ACT, TalkWorks Pro, etc. These top line products ensure a safe and reliable computing environment for Symantec's Indian customers.

To achieve greater penetration for its products, Symantec products are now available through a nationwide network of 25 resellers. These VARs will be authorised technical service support providers to Symantec's corporate clients under the Symantec Software Alliance (SSA) arrangement.

In addition to these, Symantec has entered into contracts with two of India's largest Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), HCL and Zenith Ltd, to market its Norton Antivirus Gold Edition. By tapping the large OEM network, Symantec's world-class anti virus technology products will now be easily accessible to the Indian customer.

About Symantec
Symantec has an exclusive distribution tie-up with Godrej Pacific Technology Ltd (GPTL) to market its products in India. This tie-up with GPTL is part of Symantec Asia Pacific's marketing and distribution strategy for the South East Asia region.

Symantec is a world leader in Internet security technology and technology solutions that help companies manage and support workforces that use laptop computers and other mobile devices.

The company is a leading provider of software products for the consumer market and is rapidly growing its presence as a provider of solutions to enterprise organizations.