Kodak Alaris, the global Information Management solutions company, has announced a slew of channel initiatives to strengthen its channel base in India. The company recently kicked off the India leg of the Kodak Alaris Information Management Partnership Yatra 2016 which aims to touch base with about 500 partners in 14 cities. The company has also announced the unveiling of a Global Partner portal to engage with partners through a new and improved online platform.
In a candid interaction with Channel Times, Vivek Naidu Vice President, Information Management, Kodak Alaris India, talks about the company’s partner relationship management strategy in India.
Below are excerpts from this exclusive interaction:
How do you sum up the fiscal year 2015 for Kodak Alaris in terms of business expansion and partner relationship management in India?
The financial year 2015 was a very momentous year for us. We established a new way of working with our partners. We created new relationships with the SI partners, ISV partners and partners who drive Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) businesses. We also moved into tier 2 and tier 3 locations and were able to build new relationships across the country, specifically in the southern market. On the business front, we created competencies within our internal teams to carry out partner enablement in a systematic manner. We created functions around pre-sales support to our partners. Lastly, we continued to achieve customer wins, specifically in the Banking space. These are great milestones that we achieved in 2015 and we are building on that success in 2016.
What are the current trends in the Information Management Market in India?
We have seen a huge adoption of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) or Document Management Services (DMS) and digitization in the last few years. Today, every bank in India has adopted digitization. The same adoption of automation and digitization is happening in other sectors like insurance, healthcare, retail, logistics, and hospitals. The biggest bulwark of all these segments is the Government sector and we have a strong presence in all these segments.
How do you align yourself with the Digital India initiative?
The Government has undertaken a massive program of digitization of land records, and we are playing a major role in this project. We are working with dozens of state governments where we are helping them to create a district and Taluka level land record rooms. We are also playing a role in the registration of new sales deeds. We are working with about 20 state governments to help them digitize incremental paper which is created as a result of sale and purchase of properties. Apart from that, Courts are another focus as part of the reforms. We are working with about 12 High Courts where our scanners are used along with Capture Pro software to help Courts digitize old case files. So there is a full gamut of activities happening in the Government sector and we are playing a very active and stable role in some of the most mission critical projects.
How are you positioning Kodak Alaris offerings in the Market? What is your key sales pitch?
Our key sales pitch is multifold. We are recognized for technology robustness globally. Importantly, we just don’t provide a scanner as a box, we provide software that makes our scanners easy to use and that drives productivity and efficiency. The third thing is that our hardware and software coexist within an ecosystem, which uplifts our solution offerings in the market.
What value proportion do you offer to your channel partners that sets Kodak Alaris apart from your competition?
Our most important talking point is that we are the best partner to help them grow their business in a healthy and sustainable way. Secondly, we are not just selling equipment or “a box.”. We complement our scanners with software and solutions to deliver end-to-end offerings. And we make sure we are able to mould our component into their solution.
As part of our relationship management strategy, we have announced a new channel policy for our partners. We are conducting a 14 city Information Management Partnership Yatra roadshows to make sure we provide as much information as possible to our partners. We will soon be unveiling our Global Partner Portal to engage with our partners through a new platform. This is something we are looking at unveiling next month.
What are your key thrust areas for the India market in 2016? What is your roadmap for this fiscal year?
We aim to touch base with 500 partners in India through the partner portal and support them and make them self-sufficient. We have verticalized our market coverage this year. We continue to focus on the BFSI and Government sectors. To this effect we have also set up an industry management team for the Government vertical. Healthcare industry is another key focus area for us. We are betting big on our hospital Information management software.