DQ Channels crowns HP as Channel Champ 

Well attended by the vibrant channel community, the event also saw a panel
discussion on how solution providers can take a quantum leap in business

After having swept the annual awards ceremony of DQ Channels by claiming 11
awards in different categories, Hewlett Packard (HP) was awarded the coveted
gold category 'channel champion' award by DQ Chan-nels at its annual awards
func-tion in New Delhi. The silver category channel champion award was presented
to IBM.

Showing a lot of integrity and commitment towards its customer base and
relation-ship with resellers, HP has won 11 awards in various categories -starting
from the products category-best vendor award for desktop, best vendor for
notebooks, best x86 server vendor, best inkjet printer/MFDs vendor and best
laser printer/MFDs vendor as well. The company also bagged the best vendor award
for the secondary storage category.

While best DMP products award went to Epson, the best networking products
award was bagged by D-Link. APC bagged the best UPS vendor award. Owing to the
vibrancy of digital camera segment, a new category was constituted this year and
the award for most popular vendor for digital cameras went to Kodak. Under the
regular awards category continuing its winning ways, best online support Gold
award went to HP, while Sam-sung bagged the silver award in the same category.
Intel was awarded the best relationship management gold award and the silver
award under the same category went to IBM.

Backed by its satisfied channel partner community, IBM bagged the best
comme-rcial term's gold award. HCL was awarded the silver award under the same
category. The best marketing support silver award went to Seagate and the gold
award in the same category went to HP. While Intel received the best brand image
gold award, the winner for the silver award under the same category was HP.

With its firmly entrenched after sales support infrastru-cture in place in
the form of SeaCare centers, Seagate shared the best after sales support silver
award with HP while the gold award for the same category went to HCL Infosystems.
Continuing its software supremacy, Microsoft was awarded the best software
products gold award. Syman-tec bagged the silver award under the same category.
HP bagged the best hardware product gold award, while the silver award for the
same category went to IBM.

Quantum leap for solution providers

Earlier in the evening Prasanto Kumar Roy, Chief Editor for CyberMedia
publi-cations moderated a panel discussion on 'how can solu-tion providers
take a quantum leap'. The panelists for the occasion included, Harvinder
Rajwani of Juniper Networks, Sanjay Mittal of Techpacific India, Devendra Taneja
of PC Solu-tions, Ranjan Chopra of Team Computers, Avijit Basu of HP and GB
Kumar of Intel.

When asked about ways to take a quantum leap, Chopra said that solution
partners may start off with a desire to move up the chain but the key is to
develop deeper customer engagements and this is the way forward. "Going
deeper with customers and finding its problems in the key. This way a solution
provider can make sure to move up the value chain and engage its customers as
well," he added.

Mittal added that value proposition differs from customer to customer and
from time to time. Solution providers must show flexibility to inculcate right
value pro-positions in front of their customers. "I am a firm beli-ever
that it is more a question of value delivery than of service delivery. So
solution distribu-tors should look at niche areas and develop various value
propositions for their set of customers," he added.

Devender Taneja pointed out that each player should have its own vertical
focus and try to engage its customers on a long-term transaction basis.
"Solution providers should look forward to building a bank of people, so if
they have enough stakeholders working in favor of them, opportunities will come
with time. It's all up to an individual to increase the level of
engagements," he added.

Commenting about the mantra of taking a quantum leap, Kumar
informed the gathering that players are so focused about today and tomorrow that
they lack on the long-term perception front. "Everybody is concerned about
today or tomorrow. I think that they should have a long-term perception of
things. They should develop skills in areas like management, technology and
other related areas. This will give them a solid ground to stand on when it
comes to overall value proposition," he added.

Pointing the importance of training, Taneja said that
solution providers should continuously look forward to upgrading their skill
sets. "They should develop skills in the areas of finance, tech-nology
business and enterprise management. They should bank on their customers to move
up that's the only way forward," he added.

CyberMedia News

New Delhi