Thumbs down to Microsoft audit plans

href="https://www.dqweek.com/canon-expands-relationship-with-microsoft">Microsoft
is currently auditing the
accounts of some of its Associate Distributors (AD) in the country
and it further plans to cover all of them. The audit is conducted by
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">PricewaterhouseCoopers
India. According to sources, MS has five ADs selling its products in
India. “An audit of distributors is a regular practice followed by
all responsible companies and is part of good corporate governance,”
said a Microsoft spokesperson.

At present, the audit is in process at
Modi InfoSol, a Microsoft AD in the Delhi region. “The audit by MS
is going on from the last one month,” confirmed Anuj Modi of Modi
InfoSol. However, this decision taken by the software giant has not
gone down well with its partners. The ADs feel it is something that
they can manage on their own. “I am associated with MS from the
last eight months. This audit should not have been conducted by
Microsoft. I feel as if they are policing us all the time. They do
this because they want us to sell only their products. The audit has
not yet happened in our company but it is likely to happen in the
next six months. I am already apprehensive about it,” said Abhishek
Ghai of Fortune Infonet and a Microsoft AD based in Jaipur.

Also few ADs were of the view that
audit can easily be managed by the partners themselves and does not
require intervention from any vendor. “I not only deal in Microsoft
products, I do other brands as well. I feel the mindset is disturbed
if you are constantly watched by a third party. We are ready to give
all the required documents to prove our loyalty towards the brand.
But we certainly don't prefer someone else ordering an audit for our
company,” said an AD in Maharashtra on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, there is still lack of
clarity as to how Microsoft is going to execute its audit plans for
the remaining distributors, For how long is the audit going to take
place? Why did they feel need of an audit now and earlier? These
questions were asked repeatedly by The DQWeek but Microsoft
chose not to comment on the issue.