The Indian IT industry, which is growing at a stupendous rate, is still hampered by various issues and the primary reason is lack of
efficient support and service offered by the manufacturers in C, D and E class cities. Most of the players cite these cities as the potential growth areas, but still get a step-motherly treatment as compared to A and B class cities.
‘Sell and Forget’ seems to be the business philosophy of most of the major manufacturers in the Indian marketplace especially who cater to the C and D class cities and other smaller cities in the hinterlands. Though Service support, apart from the pricing, is an important sell factor for channel partners in growing their business, it seems to be of little concern for the manufacturers. Ironically, it is the other S – ‘Schemes’ – most manufacturers seem to be obsessed with for pushing their products. It is a different story that most often these schemes are responsible for the price undercutting by channel partners, in their eagerness to meet the set targets – and the enticing prizes on offer ranging from attractive prizes to exotic free trips abroad.
It is a good sign for the Indian IT industry that more and more manufacturers are now tying up with regional players to tap the
growing potential of the C, D and E class cities as well as in the North-Eastern states. However, apart from a handful of manufacturers, the rest don’t seem to have service support on their agenda, going by the concerns voiced by channel partners at the ongoing Discover India Yatra. In many of the cities the channel partners are losing business to the assemblers who are able to provide prompt service. There is no dearth of announcements from the giant companies and governments alike about taking IT to the masses and increasing IT penetration in the country. But without accompanying service support they sound hollow.
Most of these smaller cities lack service centers, and even the ones in the nearest vicinity do not have skilled personnel. Also, most of
these centers are third-party service providers with little monitoring by the principals. The need of the hour is for manufacturers to set up independent service cum profit centers to help channel partners grow their sales by ensuring customer satisfaction. Complete customer satisfaction should be the motto of the big companies.
While many of the companies have started taking service initiatives in the form of empowering their premier partners to accept warranty products, providing spares stocks and helplines, for the smaller cities it is still a far cry. If the channel partners in these cities want to prosper they will have to take the matter in their hands, rally together rather than crib about poor service support and delayed replacements.
Recently, the IT resellers in Jammu have set a precedent for their counterparts across the country by deciding to deal with only
manufacturers who have a proper service support in place. Will the rest of the channel fraternity follow suit?