Last week, when 2 of our reporters were racing against time to meet the deadline for a story on Delhi-based trade body, Computer Media Dealers’ Association (CMDA), heaving a sigh of relief on Delhi High Court upholding 4% Value Added Tax (VAT) on select IT products, what struck me, was really how much our channels have evolved over the years.
Partners who forayed into this business about a decade back would recall that honestly, there was a time when partners were reluctant to speak with the press. Now, they go on record against vendors and distributors at the drop of a hat.
In this instance, CMDA was alerting channel media about the favorable court ruling and how it brought a breather to the channel community across the country.
Channels can no longer be taken for granted, if vendors and distributors wrong them. They know how to use media to their advantage. And we, channel journos, can only be part of the mutual admiration club; taking the happenings with a pinch of salt.
The resilience of the channel fraternity to grow in the face of all hurdles is an admirable trait. But the channels have now earned a niche to decide on their roadmap to greater glory – either with support of vendors and distributors, or even without.
Truly they’ve come of age. Times are fast changing. Increasingly global vendors are making a beeline to pump money into India. There’re more opportunities for channels and a broader range of products and solutions to offer to the end users.
The channels know how to keep them a few steps ahead of time and more importantly ahead of the competition. Ajay Verma, director (Channel and Alliances) of Symantec India, has a point when he says, “The channel presence is this industry is as deep and wide as the overall geography of this country. There will not be any small taluka, town, city, where IT channel hasn t penetrated and made a difference.”
While this is very much true, having said so, one must add that over the years partners have made a big difference for themselves, and also upon others who had stereotyped notions about them. Anand Kumar, general manager of Brother India, the imaging and printing solutions vendor, rightly says that the partners today are well traveled, have knowledge about products, their acceptability in varied markets from Dubai to New York.
Partners have only given up media shyness and know how to put across their point to the fourth estate. I’ve got a case in point- when partners in a small town like Erode picked up the phone and informed one of our reporters about the persisting service problems being posed by a leading pc and laptop maker in the region. Actually, the reporter was misled and given an exaggerated picture of the problems, where as the particular vendor is doing pretty well despite the fact that stray cases of lapses cannot be ruled out.
In addition to these, I also find that crucially, the partners have given away their once-upon-a-time socialism cult, guided by middle class sentiments.
Wealth and path to profitability no longer mean guilt for them. As one Bangalore-based solution provider avidly puts: “Today the only guilt is, why haven’t I made more — whereas others have?”
Partners are increasingly open about their success stories and want to flaunt them freely and fiercely. Therefore, I’ve instances wherein partners from small towns like Bhavnagar, call up to update us about their specialized software for science class laboratories from standard 10 to 12.
The sum total is partners are well aware that ignorance is no longer bliss; and they’re using media to their advantage. Look at partners from small cities like Coimbatore, it’s their aggressiveness- both, in business acumen and also in dealing with media- that can compel top brass from Microsoft to air dash to Coimbatore and discuss threadbare to iron out all the differences. Welcome to a new era of channel becoming proactive in handling media!