QUICK HEAL CASE STUDY

Apke computer me kaun hai? Virus ya Quick Heal?

This famous slogan of Quick Heal has made it very popular among people, its simple mantra
Security Simplified has made a home in peoples heart for all of their computer security
issues
Quick Heal Anti Virus 1st phase
How it started? And before Quick Heal
Mr.Kailash Katkar Founder of Quick Heal was born into a Maharashtrian family in a small village
at Rahimatpur, Maharashtra and grew up in Pune. His father was a machine setter in electrical
company Philips in Pune and his mother was a homemaker. He completed his matriculation in
1985; he took up a job at a local radio and calculator repair shop to support his Family. He had a
keen interest in technical things; he learnt to repair office gadgets such as Facit adding
machines, desktop electric calculators and ledger posting machines.
In 1990 he leased a small 100 sq ft office in Pune and started his own calculator repair shop
with an initial seed capital of Rs 15,000. Within first year he earned a decent income of 45,000
Rupees. But in the unsettling desire for greater success; he started his new venture known as
CAT Computer Services in 1993 parallel to his calculator repair shop. In September 1993, he
won the Annual Maintenance Contract for New India Insurance, followed by another group a
month later. In the first year he managed to generate a turnover of Rs 1 lakh.
While in Annual Maintenance Contract, Kailash Katkar realized, people faced computer virus
problem, and cost of anti-viruses were about 12000-15000 Rupees. Whenever there was a
computer virus problem computer maintenance companies had only one solution formatting,
re-installing dos and uploading entire data again.
Meanwhile his younger brother, Mr Sanjay Katkar was perusing his education in computers
(BCS &MCS). Kailash encouraged his younger brother to come up with some solution for virus
problem, that is, to develop an antivirus tool which can be used to tackle virus without
formatting computer. Sanjay came up with a tool called as Michelangelo which was used to
remove virus named Michal Angelo.
Kailas Katkar distributed this tool for free to his costumers, and whenever his costumers faced
any problem regarding virus, based on the symptoms, Mr. Katkar guided his costumers over
phone to fix the problem. And so Sanjay continued to develop tools for different viruses. Both
the brothers were successful in gaining lot of costumers under Annual Maintenance Contract.

Problems faced during 1st phase

1. Mr. Kailash Katkar was new to this field and had very little idea about how to market the
product. Both brothers didnt have enough finance to start up their venture on a big
scale. Boot Strapping was the toughest part.
2. CAT Computer Services had tough competition from leading Antivirus brands such as
Norton and McAfee.
3. They did not get help from any source such as Intel, Microsoft (As other antivirus
companies had these hardware and software companies like next door, and they could
go to them for any problem regarding development, maintenance etc. But Quick Heal
had no such support and the two brothers had to solve such problems on their own).

Quick Heal 2nd phase

Kailash was encouraged by his costumers to develop anti-virus software. Taking this as a
challenge Sanjay started working on developing anti-virus software.
In 1994-95 Quick Heals first Antivirus software for DOS was launched followed by Win 3.1 in
1995 and Windows 95 in 1996.
Now the next biggest challenge before Mr. Katkar was marketing this software. Being a
technical person Kailash Katkar lacked marketing Skills. He tried selling this antivirus software
by appointing a separate marketing team but it did not work. Quick Heal was an Indian product,
and it had huge competition with leading companies such as Norton & McAfee. Kailash did not
admit defeat, he went on, and taught his friends from Computer Maintenance Association, how
to market the software and how to give maintenance service. Now he started gaining a decent
number of orders.
Kailash welcomed suggestions, comparisons, he took them as challenges and used them
constructively and both brothers kept on developing the Antivirus software. In around 1998
they hired 2 software engineers.
Quick Heal launched its Corporate Website, www.quickheal.com in 1998 with an inclusion of
the product portfolio and a history of the company.
The Company got the first Check Mark Antivirus Level 1 award from West Coast Labs on
Windows XP in 2002 followed by the 1st VB 100% award for Windows 2000 Advanced Server.
Mr. Katkar developed a Distributer Channels to market his product. And the product was well
received in Pune and started moving all over India. Till 1998 Kailash continued computer
maintenance, but he had to stop it and concentrate solely on Quick heal.

The company faced problems in funds because distributors took more time to pay them.
Partners never used to pay on time and banks, angel investors refused to give loans. In year
1999-2000 both brothers thought of closing the company as it had become very tough
financially, but they never lost hope, they motivated each other and continued the journey.
They analyzed where they are going wrong? What mistakes they are making? Upon analyzing
they found that they lacked good marketing people. Soon they found some good marketing
people through a half page advertisement in Times of India. Meanwhile Mr.Kailash realized that
he could do well in Pune because he can directly connect with people; he decided to move to
Nasik as he thought that he could expand his business more, as Nasik was similar to Pune.
The first branch office of Quick Heal was opened in Nashik in 2003. Before moving to Nasik the
revenue from Nasik was about 8000-10000 Rupees and after opening the branch office, within
one month they could generate revenue of about Rupees 1.5 lac.
This motivated him even more and Kailash Katkar decided to do distribution on his own.
Now he stopped the old distribution method and started developing channel partners instead
of distributors. Within 3-4 months they opened branches in Nagpur and Mumbai. In next 6
months they started branch in Vadodara and Indore.
In 2005, Quick Heal introduced DNA Scan technology which is capable of detecting unknown
viruses in real time without depending on latest signature patterns & it released Quick Heal
2005 Corporate edition 2.0. Quick Heal Technologies was the first to detect Black worm. Quick
Heal PC Tuner received Microsoft certification for Windows Vista. In 2006 Quick Heal had a deal
with Microsoft for bundling of Antivirus with Genuine Windows XP, MSWGA.
In 2007 CAT Technologies was renamed as Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd. A dedicated
Research and Development center with a team of experts was created. In an effort to fortify
the post-sales services, sales and support, branches were opened in Aurangabad, Coimbatore,
Vizag and Cochin in 2008.

Problems during 2nd phase

1. Sanjay had to depend solely on books for developing software because; practical
knowledge of software development was not given in schools in those days.
2. Banks and investors refused to fund the company, as it being a software company.
3. Marketing was a huge problem as Kailash was a technical person and distributors didnt
pay on time.
4. Software vendors refused to buy Anti viruses from them giving various trivial reasons.

3rd Phase of Quick Heal

Present scenario
Quick Heal has developed in an excellent way. Not only Antivirus but Quick Heal also provides
number of solutions like, desktop security, mobile security, network security and cloud-based
security, Endpoint Security, Android Security, Unified Threat Management Solution which
include Quick Heal Core Antivirus Engine, Firewall, Web Security, VPN, Load Balancing, Web
Content Filters, Antispam technologies, IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection/Prevention System) and
Bandwidth Manager.
Quick Heal presents different products ranging from Home Products to Enterprise Products.
Companies like Intel, Microsoft send their new products beta version and hardware to Quick
Heal one year before to test the product and to develop product which will be compatible to
the new OS, Hardware etc.
The company has more than 8 million customers in 60 countries. The company has strong
global presence with offices in Dubai, Japan, USA and Kenya. It plans to strengthen the staff
strength in these offices and is looking at opening new office in Europe and Australia in the near
future.
Quick Heal is doing excellent across globe, in Japan Quick heal has got its Japanese version and
it is well received. Quick heal is the first Indian venture in Mobile security. Quick heal is termed
as channel king due to its excellent channel management. Quick Heal claims a 35 per cent
market share in India's consumer anti-virus market. The Quick Heal products are internationally
certified by ICSA Labs, AV-Test, West Coast Labs UK and more. It has also won numerous
national and international awards.
Quick Heal Technologies employs more than 1400 people across 33 branches in the country.
Quick heal focuses on customer needs and strive to give total consumer satisfaction. Unlike
most of Quick Heals larger competitors, the company, for the major part of its existence, chose
not to spend on marketing and advertising its products. Instead, it used that money to deepen
relationships with distributors and retailers around India, sharing 15-18 percent of the revenue
from each product sold. As a result, it claims to have between 12,000-15,000 channel partners
around the country.In 2010, Quick heal was valued at Rs 600 crore, when Sequoia invested Rs
60 crore for a 10 per cent stake.Sales have grown from Rs 10 crore a decade ago, to over Rs 215
crore in FY 13 crossed Rs 250 crore mark in FY 14.
1000

Turnover in Crs

500
Turnover in Crs
0
2003-04

2013

2014

2017 Target

DISTRIBUTION STRATAGY OF QUICK HEAL

WORKING
Quick heals main branch looks over all the sub branches and channel partners. Sub
branches and channel partners receive a target to fulfill and they work to achieve the
same. They distribute the products to the retailers who further reach out to costumers.
Support centers play a vital role in maintenance and providing after sale service to
customers. Quick Heal has branches in around 32 cities across India. Quick Heal partner
network is spread across 60 countries over the world. It collaborates to give customers
the best possible solutions. The company takes pride in assuring that customers and
partners are connected for mutual benefit. The company provides aggressive profit
margins and offers attractive schemes, making it convenient for partners to generate
more revenue.

Core Competencies of Quick Heal

Quick Heal products are so designed keeping customers, manageability and ease-of-use
in mind. Quick Heal is at par when it comes to features as compared to the competition
but does have some unique additional features. Unique features like PC2Mobile Scan
that scans and cleans your mobile phone from your PC and Safe Banking that identifies
all the Indian bank websites and protects users transactions conducted on any of these
banking websites by loading the browser in a sandboxed environment. Other
advantages that Quick Heal offers to its customers are: complete product portfolio and
a tailored approach, proximity to customers through an extended services and support
network throughout India and through a strong channel partner ecosystem across the
globe. Excellent Customer Support Infrastructure separate for Retail and Enterprise. The
different types of multilingual support available are Email, Chat, Telephonic, Remote
and Local. Strong Quick Heal brand recognition and reliability. Control over technology
components through its own production facilities,

Present Market scenario for Anti-Virus companies:

1. A recent survey conducted by Norton uncovered that 62% of online adults have
been victims of cybercrime. This has amplified the need for Indias connected
population to deploy effective antivirus solutions that make security simpler.
2. Demand for the tablet security and mobile security solutions are increasing day
by day.
3. Even though large number of people uses free AV this is coming down as now
with increased threats the free AVs cannot protect real time as compared to
paid AVs. The current scenario in AV market in India among home users / Retail
is on growth path at an approx. rate of 20% plus as the awareness for use of
licensed and paid AV is increasing day by day and this coupled with the reduction
in cost of Antivirus software.
4. Free and pirated software are estimated to have almost nearly 60% of market
share. So lot of work need to be done in terms of customer education and
awareness.
5. India is one of the most vulnerable countries worldwide when it comes to
smartphone security risks. The biggest focus area is to make people aware of this
and protect them so that they are safe online.
6. Most dangerous threat at the moment is BIOS chip hack. BIOS chips are used to
boot a computer and load the operating system, but the malware would remain
even if the operating system was removed and re-installed. Another most
dangerous threat considered at the moment is the rise of targeted attacks.
Targeted attacks will continue to become more sophisticated in 2016.

Present Challenges before Quick Heal

1. Quick heal faces a tough competition from other Antivirus companies in USA. Quick Heal
has not got desired response in developed markets like USA, Europe & UAE.
2. Current Turn Over is around 300cr while company is targeting 750 cr till 2017.
3. The ever changing environment of cyber security, Cyber War and threat; Quick heal has
to be on its toes to tackle these new problems.
4. The availability of open-source antivirus software poses a challenge to the growth of this
market.
5. The other reasons being rapidly changing customer requirements and increased
competition among vendors that makes it impossible to engage in premium pricing but
on the other hand it also makes the availability of security solutions to customers at
lower costs.
6. Market conditions continuously change, so it needs to keep on revisiting and updating
business plans regularly
7. Strong competitions amongst the vendors, price wars, availability of freeware as well as
piracy of security solutions are constant. The Indian market is not only price-sensitive
but quite uncontrollable.
Questions:
1. Do SWOT analysis for Quick Heal Technologies
2. Should Quick Heal go for an IPO? Why?
3. Suggest Integrated Marketing Strategy for Quick Heal to succeed in Developed
Countries.