Are You Happy with the Vendors?

Tough times do not last,

tough men do'-this oftrepeated adage suits the Indian channel

partners perfectly. Two years of

recession had left them bruised and battered, but not vanquished as

like the proverbial Phoenix, the last couple of years have seen the

reemergence of the Indian IT channel community. Notwithstanding the

hardships impelled on the distributing community throughout 2009 and

part of 2010, many feel that the slowdown acted as a catalyst for

them as it forced the companies to re-engineer their business

strategies that would deliver rich dividends later as well. As

shrinking business cornered them further, the distributors were

compelled to device alternative business strategies to keep their

boat sailing during recession. Most of them focused either into

consolidation and restructuring or ventured out into newer avenues.

While the channels are the

lifeline of the Indian IT industry, they draw their oxygen from the

relationship they maintain with the hardware and software vendors.

One of the best measures to gauge this relationship quotient has been

the Channel Satisfaction Survey conducted by DQ Channels, the sister

publication of DQ Week. The objective of this survey was to identify

the channels choice for the best vendors across a range of product

categories in hardware, software and services. Not just such surveys,

even the interactions we have with both partners and vendors

throughout the year often bring out what relationship they are

sharing and whether they are mutually satisfied.

It is interesting to note

that the dynamics of channel satisfaction is changing with the times.

Gone are the days when partners used to remain satisfied with basic

minimum level of services from vendors. They want vendors to offer

highest quality of satisfaction at all levels of their relationship

with the vendors-sales and marketing, delivery, installation,

products/services, post-sales service. Partners are now asking for

support in the medium they want and at the time they want. 24x7x365

is something which has become the norm rather than exception. Gone

are the times when vendors can get away with faulty replacements,

serving second-hand replacements or often delaying interminably on

payments. It is not just the channel partners themselves but even the

associations are now proactively pursuing any problems with vendors

and not letting the matter sleep till it gets resolved to everyone's

satisfaction.