__fc How many channel partners does Red Hat have in India?fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__At present we have three distributors, namely Sonata, Integra Dataware and GT Enterprises, all from Bangalore. Of these, GT is only interested in Linux.
We also have 26 authorized Red Hat channel partners who sell directly to the end user. We empower their sales force. We look for people who have the capability of talking about Linux.p__
__fc What do you offer the channel partners?fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__We offer tangible benefits. The return on investment for channel partners is high. We also offer support services and training, besides a 60-day support pack to handhold the customer.p__
__fc How do you select your channel partner? fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__A potential channel partner must have the drive to popularize Linux. There is no exclusivity clause. But his acceptance with CTOs should be extremely high. He should know how to implement a mail server.p__
__fc What are the revenue options available to your channel partners?fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__They can sell corporate training products, installation services, annual support contracts as well as on-call support contracts. They could help the customer migrate to Red Hat.p__
__fc Do you provide training?fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__Normally, as part of the Authorised Channel Partner Program, workshops are conducted at least twice a year. Technical training is conducted once a year for our 26 Red Hat Authorised Channel Partners.p__
__fc Do they get any discounts?fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__Yes, they do. Red Hat certified engineers and resellers get a 20 percent discount on training and certification.p__
__fc Are there any incentives for performance?fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__We have a performance-based incentive program, which is based on the number of customers. We will also be announcing a reward system to give incentives to sales persons of our channel partners.p__
__fc What about margins?fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__Our channel partners would get margins as high as 10 to 15 percent of the pure product cost. They can make 25 percent by reselling Red Hat�s support services. p__
__fc Could you elaborate?fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__There are various contracts to be sold like implementation contracts, support contracts, on-call support contracts, as well as corporate training services. A client might need a mail messaging system or an advanced server-system-based clustering solution to be implemented. Then there are support contracts for such systems.p__
__fc How much are all these contracts worth? fc__b____newline____b Amit Bhoraskar:b__An implementation contract for a mail messaging system will cost Rs 1 lakh plus per annum, while an advanced server-based clustering system would cost Rs 3 lakh plus. Support contracts would cost between Rs 30,000 to Rs 1 lakh. On-call charges for a mail server would cost Rs 15,000 per call, while it would be Rs 25,000 for a mail messaging system and Rs 30,000 for an advanced server system.p__