A positive trend seen in most distribution houses is the move towards implementing more IT applications in the organization. From selling IT products, most distributors are also now adopting enterprise technology to ensure smoother functioning within the company.
For the company, the benefits may be more implicit, given the slow RoI. But for their clients the change is immediate. Communication becomes easier and processes ensure that favoritism is done away and the best bid wins the deal.
Yet, surprisingly, from the hundreds of mid-sized distribution houses that we have only a few have actually made the effort to get tech-savvy systems in place. Given the vast geography of our country, one would imagine that integrated network would be a necessity. Rather most organizations prefer communicating through internet-based chat-sites, with regional offices.
Maybe the reluctance to deploy enterprise technology is due to the misuse these technologies have been subjected to in the past. Companies save thousands of rupees each year in unclaimed settlement dues for “incorrect entries” or “incomplete claim settlements”. But what we need to understand is that most of the time the snags are man-made and not technical in nature.
Most partners feel that tech-systems are a waste of time, money and effort. To reap the benefits of technology, the channel has to learn to use more of it or else the number of “incorrect entries” will only keep increasing.