Globus Infocom focuses on its channel partners

As a distributor for Mitsubishi Electric products, Ashish Dham, MD, Globus
Infocom is upbeat about the opening of the vendor's manufacturing plant, which
it claims is the first of its kind in India. This facility will manufacture
indigenous audio-video products, and Dham wants to provide hands-on training to
its channel partners on them. He talks to Sandhya Malhotra about his business
plans.

What is your channel model?

Globus Infocom categorizes its channel partners into Globus Masters Distributors
(GMDS), Globus Presentation Dealers (GPD) and Strategic Business Partners (SBP).
Each category is created depending on the partner's business potential and
achievements. To help partners achieve their targets, we have a 'Coop fund',
which is allocated to creating brand awareness through road shows and
exhibitions.

We have chart out quarterly scheme promotions for our partners to further
incentivize them. Among the recent ones were 'Wild and Wet', 'Your Next
Car' and 'Karlo Europe muthi main'.

Being the exclusive national alliance with Mitsubishi Electric, what are
your future plans for the Indian AV market?

Mitsubishi Electric has recently opened its first manufacturing plant in
India at Dehradun. The plant will manufacture LCD and DLP projectors, LCD TV,
plasma display panels, video wall/LED walls, school pad and board. Customers in
India will not benefit immensely because of this facility as the products will
locally be available for 10 percent discount as compared to those that were
being imported earlier. Mitsubishi Electric will open its Delhi-based office in
November. This will facilitate better coordi-nation and strengthen the current
alliance that both the companies have.

How would you get benefited with this manufacturing plant?

This 8,000 sq feet spread will set up the assembly line and will have strict
quality control parameters. This means that there will be fewer defects and
therefore, fewer warranty related issues, which is one of the biggest pain areas
for partners. Our dealers can also enhance their skill sets by getting hands on
experience on the products. For the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2010, this plant
will manufacture high-end prod-ucts like video wall/LED wall. We will also be
pioneers to introduce indigenous AV products in India.

What are the major verticals of your business and what is their market
share?

Globus AV products are doing business in an array of verticals. They are armed
forces, Government institut-ions, public sector, private sector, service sector,
home, railways and professionals. Defense chips in 90 percent market share to
its business.

That apart, Mitsubishi brands are all tested and certified in all government
departments and registered with DGS&D rate contract. Globus sold 4,500
projectors last financial year and set a target to achieve Rs 100 crore through
channel business.

What kind of services do you offer to channels?

The company is very focu-sed towards services. Weekly training and
certification programs are a routine feat-ure. The company has 18 service
centers all over India and provides installation and delivery at the customer's
do-orsteps. Globus has adopted a policy of no excess stocking and demo support
through specialists for partners.

What plans did Globus Infocom chart out for channels partners?

The company had conduc-ted a series of channel partner meets called 'Power
of Fusion' for the month of July and August. They were scheduled at Chandigarh,
Bhopal, Kolkata and Guwahati. Previously, they were held at Mumbai, Delhi and
Bangalore.

Give a brief description about the 'Power of Fusion' meets?

This program was first held in New Delhi in association with DQ Channels. It
was primarily an effort to change the IT partners' focus towards mid- and
high-end audio-video (AV) products. The event was quite successful and we had a
very good response. Today, we have more than 400 channel partners across India.
One advantage is that partners get higher margins by selling AV products.

What other developments have taken place in Globus in the recent past?

Recently, US-based GTCO CalComp appointed us distributors for its SchoolPad,
a Bluetooth wireless device that allows users to interact with their computer
from anywhere in the class room and create a truly engaging lesson. It has been
designed to suit Indian rural and remote areas and become part of government's
'Serve Shiksha Abhiyan' as it makes learning easy through graphs, pictures
etc. It can also be used for family planning, social and adult education in
villages after the school timings. Other than schools, the pad will be targeted
at higher educational institutes, engineering and medical colleges, IIT's,
Defe-nse M establishments, confe-rence rooms and hotels and corporate offices.