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The Himalaya Drug Company, one of the leading herbal healthcare and personal care company, has a well spread out IT infrastructure with a strong data centre set up. The central data center housed at its campus in Bangalore was built using around ten major and 8-10 small servers; Category 6 cables and fiber optic cables. It also has a VPN network that connects all the company\\\\\\\'s divisions. Since it is an FMCG, it also had installed an enterprise wide ERP system that spans the main headquarters in Bangalore as well as offices in 22 locations in India. While this system has been serving the business purposes, but the company was looking for more streamlined set up that made productivity faster.

It had also installed switches of a USbased networking vendor seven years ago to manage the WAN connectivity. But it found that the maximum speed I/O throughput reached was a mere 10/100 Mbps. Last year, the company felt the need for high Gigabit network speeds that could run applications faster by improving their existing network switching equipment. They decided to go for a technology refresh of network switches after weighing in factors such as technology, price and value. Having installed the products seven years ago, they decided to initially consider the same vendor\\\\\\\'s product portfolio. That is when HP Procurve approached Himalaya with a solution that will improve the network speed and improve the management of the network infrastructure. Hence Vijay Kumar D, Chief Manager- IT , Himalaya Drug Company also evaluated HP\\\\\\\'s ProCurve products and weighed in the features andspecs of the two vendors.

Himalaya likes warranty

While both vendors seemed to offer similar features, HP ProCurve seemed far more attractive. The factors that swung the decision in HP ProCurve\\\\\\\'s favour were the drastic cost effectiveness and the lifetime warranty that came with ProCurve. Says Mr Kumar,\\\\\\\"We found the warranty support very attractive, the pricing of the products and ease of implementation were also pluses. HP Procurve switches were 25-30 per cent more affordable than the competitor\\\\\\\'s switches. So we opted for HP Procurve solution. Being in the manufacturing sector, price point is very important to us. The lifetime warranty also meant that there would be no extra cost in terms of Annual Maintenance Contract.\\\\\\\".
In fact HP Procurve prides itself on its unique life time warranty set up. Says Subhodeep Bhattacharya of HP Procurve,\\\\\\\" Our lifetime warranty set up is so strong that both our partners and customers feel assured and their investments are protected for a longer epriod of time.\\\\\\\" The ProCurve warranty includes next-business-day advance replacement, free telephone and email support, and free software updates - for as long as a customer owns the product. \\\\\\\"While it eliminates costly service contracts , the biggest bonus for the IT team is the peace of mind that comes with not having to worry about what to do when something goes wrong. Our support system is always there,\\\\\\\" adds Mr Bhattacharya.

Benefits of the new set up

Himalaya installed 22 ProCurve switches that included the HP ProCurve 5400 series and 1800 series in October last year. The company has made a technological leap over the last decade moving from Hubs technology and then to a 10/100 Mbps network and now a state-of-the-art Gigabit network infrastructure. The company experienced a a drastic difference in speeds of the network. Implementation of the network equipment was fast and simple. The equipment came with network management software which made it easier for the mangers to handle the set up easily, also it was cost effective since earlier the company had to invest separately to buy the software. Mr Kumar also found that application management and monitoring of the network more efficient.

Besides these, Himalaya has also gained business benefits in the form of better data response rates from the 22 connected offices; faster application speeds for vital business processes such as on-field sales and internal ERP. Emphasizes Mr Kumar, \\\\\\\"The company has also accrued a tremendous cost benefit thanks to the lifetime warranty, and cost saving on AMC. For a rapidly expanding company like Himalaya, the ProCurve switches offer the flexibility to add fundamental network control and management capabilities in the future, as well as to scale up to full advanced manageability as and when network and business needs evolve.\\\\\\\"

Success of HP ProCurve switches

HP ProCurve Networking is a supplier of enterprise networking solutions. Its wired and wireless networking products, services and solutions include WAN routers, Ethernet switches, routing switches, wireless access points and network management applications. They allow customers to build networks based on open standards that meet current and future needs for security, performance and reliability.

\\\\\\\"ProCurve switches are based on industry standards, and so they can be deployed and managed easily.ProCurve\\\\\\\'s secure networking solutions reduce complexity, increase flexibility and expand effectiveness to support current and future applications,\\\\\\\" explains Mr Bhattacharya. ProCurve products are engineered to meet HP quality standards and are backed by the ProCurve Lifetime Warranty. HP ProCurve solutions allow organisations to unify communications and processes over a secure, industry-standard network infrastructure. The benefits of this approach include securing communications through ProCurve ProActive Defense, choice in sourcing solutions from best-practice providers, and the ability to preserve existing investments while expanding infrastructure.