Miroslav Trnka, CEO of ESET who was in Dubai during GITEX spoke to VAR Magazine in an exclusive interview

How do you see challenges to growth and what can help you stand out?
We are living in challenging times. However ESET’s growth rate in comparison with that of our competitors has been very good. This is primarily due to the consistent performance of our distributors and our sales teams.
Our award-winning product, ESET NOD32 antivirus, leads the industry in terms of proactive detection and outperforms its competitors. It has won more VB 100 (Virus Bulletin) awards than any of the other antivirus products out in the market.
Apart from our technology standing out, ESET also believes that service to our customers is a very important factor. We have shown value to our customers.

Discuss your strong markets so far?
Eastern Europe has been an important market for us. Slovakia is our home base where we have almost 97 percent market coverage. Europe isn’t as important as it used to be. The US market is growing but Asia is showing a dramatically higher growth rate. Japan is registering the highest growth rate at the moment. Besides, China is showing a good growth rate.
It is advantageous to focus on different markets globally. In case, some of the markets are slowing down or not doing too well, you can always focus more on the markets that are showing better growth.

How do you view the challenges in a market like China? Do you see customers willing and proactive on IT security investments?
The Chinese market is huge. It is price conscious and the revenues from that market are not as huge as what would justify the size of the market. We have grown the number of installations deployed there and see the numbers growing. We have tried to retain the same pricing but have had to go with slightly lower prices because of the price conscious nature of the market to remain competitive.

Which are your significant customer verticals?
The Home users and small business users segment forms a major chunk of our business. However, the corporate buyer segment is also growing and we are developing new business solutions and tools to address their needs. Moving forward, we will be increasing our focus on the corporate segment as well.

When is the new version of your product line scheduled for a rollout?
We are planning to launch the new version of our product at the beginning of the New Year, which may include  new technologies as well

How are you growing your portfolio?
We are extending our portfolio in the usual way such as introducing solutions for the Macintosh platform, mobile phones etc. In addition, in Central Europe, we are starting to provide services for security audits, penetration testing etc. We are trying to build it up in the home market and then looking at rolling out in other markets in future. As I mentioned earlier, security is more about the services provided.

Do you see the brand name significantly growing along with sales growing?
We are among the leading names in security when it comes to brand awareness. We are always trying to improve that. The global research on brand awareness shows that the brand is known by over 500 million users. This research covered KSA and Egypt from the region where we have seen a good growth in awareness of the brand. In terms of sales and brand awareness, we have seen a steady growth in the region.

How will you strengthen your investments in the region?
This region is promising. We will look at increasing the team, adding more technical resources. The number of installations is growing and so we want to make sure we are able to provide the entire package and support our existing clients and partners.