Sanjay Sehgal
Sr. VP SMB & Telco
TP-Link India Pvt. Ltd. is a global provider of reliable networking devices and accessories, involved in all aspects of everyday life – a proposition that was built as early as 1996. Thanks to the uncompromised quality of TP-Link’s broad range of products, the company is consistently ranked by analyst firms like IDC as the number one provider of Wi-Fi devices, catering across more than 170 countries and serving billions of people worldwide. With a proven heritage of stability, performance, and value, TP-Link over the years has built an excellent brand persona and a portfolio of products that meet the networking needs of all individuals. As connected lifestyle continues to evolve and the company is expanding to exceed the demands of tomorrow, CIO Insider engages in an exclusive interaction with Sanjay Sehgal, the company’s Senior VP of SMB & Telco to explore the company’s journey.
In conversation with Sanjay Sehgal, Sr. VP – SMB & Telco, TP-Link India
TP-Link has a legacy of close to 25 years. Where is the company positioned in the networking solutions map of India? How do you leverage the experience to set trends in the industry?
Over the last two decades, TP-Link has built a strong customer base in India, after becoming the most preferred brand for Wi-Fi devices PAN India. Having fared exceptionally well in the areas like customer engagement, product range, and customer services, we have been endorsed by Gartner in its Magic Quadrant for our engagements in the niche segment of Wired and Wireless LAN. TP-Link ranks amongst the top three in IDC’s list of networking vendors in India (for WLAN Networking).
With a proven heritage, TP-Link has created a robust portfolio of Consumer & SMB networking products. Now, as the connected lifestyle continues to evolve, we are expanding its business to
domains like SDN, Smart Home, IoT, and Security technologies in order to meet the demands of tomorrow.
What are the USPs that help TP-Link to live up to its reputation in the industry after almost 25 years since its inception?
We believe in doing small things right and doing them well. We start from small things with great attention to detail instead of chasing instant successes. Trust and Power are our mantra. Trust denotes our customers’ confidence in us, the recognition of our partners, and our self-confidence in facing challenges, while Power implies our vision and momentum to become an irreplaceable power in the field of high-tech products.
We always strive to make the latest connectivity solutions accessible to more families in the country
Tell us about your latest products. How does those products make life easier for your customers in such a dynamically growing networking era?
Organizations today are becoming more dynamic and innovative, consequently the number of devices connected to the network are increasing. The growing and complex network involves more clients - both wired and wireless, more bandwidth demanding applications, and more customized services. With this comes growing demand for manageable and reliable network systems; however, IT budgets are limited.
An office should be for conducting business, not for practicing your IT skills. So how can a customer manage diverse and complex networks in a time-saving and economical way? This is where we come in.
‘Omada’, the Greek word for ‘team’, perfectly captures TP-Link’s ambition of developing an integrated and efficient network solution. Our Omada SDN Controller gathers security gateways, switches, and Wi-Fi products, and provides comprehensive, software- defined networking across demanding, high-traffic environments such as campuses, hotels, malls, and offices with robust wired and wireless solutions. Omada SDN Controller is a command center and management platform at the heart of the Omada network with a single platform; the
network administrators can configure and manage all Omada products which cover all routing, switching, and Wi-Fi needs.
What is the kind of thought process, technology frameworks and innovations that power your flagship offerings?
Our R&D team comprises more than 2,000 engineers from top-class universities. Decades of experience and vastly accumulated resources make our research more efficient and allow us to create higher quality products even than our closest competitors.
Furthermore, we are one of the few major wireless networking companies that operate with in-house manufacturing facilities to ensure standardization and intact quality of deliverables. The control over components and our supply chain is a key competitive differentiator. With our robust infrastructure coupled with supporting facilities, we ensure steady supply while controlling the cycle time & improving production efficiency, maintaining high quality standards across the manufacturing cycle, and reducing production cost without sacrificing quality, and reducing delivery time.
Where is the company headed in the years to come? What’s TP-Link’s future roadmap?
Since its establishment in 1996, TP-Link has been paying close attention to the development in the product market. That's why we have the capability to react rapidly to the changes in the market. We always strive to make the latest connectivity solutions accessible to more families in the country.
Going forward, we are investing in the future – in the areas like Connectivity, Home Automation, Security, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and AI. For instance, the next-gen Wi-Fi 6 technology is designed to improve overall spectral efficiency, especially in dense usage scenarios. We are combining this cutting-edge technology with more emerging tech like AI, WPA3, TP-Link Mesh, and HomeCare Pro to make our products smarter and more powerful.
We are looking forward to tremendous growth in the fields of IoT devices and business networking, which help customers embrace the trend of connecting anything and everything. We believe the combination of advanced technology and continual innovation in every iteration will contribute to a smarter future.