Sify gets aggressive in channel space

Sify Technologies has been in the channel space since the past four years,
albeit as a passive player. But the company is now all set to change that
perception. In March this year the company decided to ramp up its channel focus,
and since April till date they have managed to rope in 200 resellers. “We plan
to have 1,000 resellers by September this year,” shared Anil Pant, VP-Channels,
Sify.

Sharing details about why Sify decided to focus on the channel model, Pant
said, “There is a huge market out there. If you look at engineering colleges
alone, it is a billion dollar market. No one sells direct, every one goes
through resellers because that's the only way to address this market.”

Speaking about how the channel can benefit from partnering with Sify, Pant
elucidated, “The beauty of this model is that resellers don't have to make any
investments as we are not dealing with products here, just services.” He added
that partners can look forward to over-riding commissions (ORCs) and of course
margins. “Once a resellers gets a customers in he can get an annual commission
on it for however long the customer remains with us,” said Pant. The upfront
commission would be between eight to 10 percent while the recurring commission
would be around four percent.

The sales team of Sify would provide support to the resellers in closing an
order and would also pass on leads to them, thereby working in tandem.

While Sify has traditionally been associated as a player in the
networking/connectivity space, Pant high-lighted the various products in Sify's
portfolio, which range from voice, security, document management systems and
other services. The company also recently launched its thin client solution.