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.