Channel turns a blind eye to green

New Delhi: At the beginning of last year, IT scribes the world over, including our very own India, predicted that Green would be the next big thing. And yes, throughout the year we did see numerous initiatives from vendors in launching green products and propagating this technology. But apparently it was not enough. Has the IT channel embraced green? Evidently not.

It goes without saying that India is a very price sensitive market. Every MNC vendor that enters India quickly understands this fact, so they also know that the way to higher sales and marketshare is through low prices. The Indian mindset has been firm on its 'cheap and best' stance. This may very well have been the reason why despite all the hoopla, green just did not take off with the channel and their customers. The DQ Week spoke to partners from across the country to ask them about green IT and why this technology just was not embraced by them. The general impression was that awareness was low and the job to educate the masses rested on the shoulders of vendors.

An important observation is that earlier green IT was being advocated as being environment friendly. This could be interpreted as paying more to ensure that you are being eco-sensitive. But as the trend caught on, and with the start of the recession, vendors started propagating the cost saving side of it. Green IT was no longer something that was unreasonable, but made business sense. This is the message that vendors need to pass on to the channel so that they in turn can educate their customers.

In the East, the concept of green IT is at a nascent stage with the awareness of this technology being at an all time low. Giving an insight into the scene in East, MM Chaudhuri, Head-Marketing Division of Kolkata-based Balaji Solutions said, “Customers in the East focus on cheap goods and are not ready to pay a higher price for the same. In the channel as well as the consumer space, so far, consciousness about green IT is low or in fact negligible. It is the vendors who should take the initiative to educate customers.” He added that their company had not thought about green IT as either a selling point or as something that would be of use to them.

Convinced that green IT had a bleak future in East, Pravin Jalan, Joint Director, Jalan Infotech stated, “ Eastern India has a long way to go to popularize the concept of green IT, and in 2009 I do not personally foresee a bright future for this concept.” He attributed this to low awareness in East. “Consumers as well as enterprises do not ask for the same and hence the channel is also not taking up this concept seriously,” he added. On a positive note, he mentioned that in the East, by green, people understand low electricity consumption and the use of recycled materials for packaging purposes. Hence there was a visibly increased demand for TFT monitors.

In the West, claiming that vendors have increased their thrust on green concept, and that awareness was growing, albeit at a slow pace, Umang Mehta, CEO of Mumbai-based Roop Technology said, “The awareness level is growing as people have realized that it will help them save power. But vendors need to create more awareness.” When asked whether Roop Technology was propagating green to their customers, Mehta averred that due to the slowdown, they were focusing their energies on fulfilling the demand of consumers rather than offering suggestions.

But clearly, the awareness level in West was an improvement from the East. According to Ashwin Kukreja, CEO of Mumbai-based Real Time Computers, from the upper crust of society they had witnessed an increase of almost five percent in the demand for green product. This obviously meant that people in the region were actually aware of green products. “Around 10 percent of our customers are aware of green IT. In 2009 the demand would increase to around 25 percent at least. This is because most of the vendors are pushing green products. And if the benefits are explained properly a customer will buy them,” added Kukreja. He shared that small PCs, with AMD or ATOM-base processors are good examples of green products, since they save almost 50 percent electricity.

One region where there was a noticeable increase in awareness about green IT was South. Channel partners in this region were very vocal in the fact that spreading awareness about green IT was the vendors responsibility. When asked whether they had witnessed an increased demand for green products in last year, R Mahesh, CEO, Ozone Computers, Coimbatore said, “Firstly there is no awareness among customers about green products. The government should initiate few steps in promoting green concept, along with vendors. Laws should be made on the strict usage of recyclable materials alone.” Mahesh was of the view that the government and vendors should communicate the benefits of green IT through various advertisements. “Definitely we see an increasing demand for green products in 2009. Once there is full fledged involvement from vendors, the demands will surely increase,” he added.

Incidently, Ozone, as the name suggests, is a green-conscious company. “We have been emphasizing with customers to buy green products by communicating the savings that they can make on products like LCD monitors. Moreover, we don't encourage plastics while packing products, and strictly use recyclable materials alone,” shared Mahesh.

Eldho Arecckeel, GM, Aldous Glare, Cochin pointed out that by educating the channel and customers, green IT would see more traction. “Only if the channels are educated can they know the benefits and push the products to customers,” said Arecckeel.

Talking about the awareness level in Rajashan, Arinjay Jain CEO of Kanchan Computech, Jaipur mentioned that at the sub distribution level they are aware of the concept of Green IT and related products that the vendors have come out with. However, customers in Rajasthan are not very aware of the benefits of green IT. He further mentioned, “Vendors have not made an effort to inform us about the benefits. The knowledge that we have is through magazines and related websites. Hence there has never been a conscious effort from our end to educate customers about the same.”

On the other hand, Sharad Agarwal, CEO Pioneer Computers added,“We are reasonably aware of the benefits of green IT and the various products that are available in the market. As far as the demand goes, green products around PCs and printers have witnessed huge demand and the customers stand to make a considerable amount of saving once they install the same within their premises.”

He further added that as and when more and more customers are explained about facts like return on investment, and the other benefits of using green products, the products will witness a huge demand. But once again the channel in this region too felt that there is a need for vendors to make efforts for the same.

From the reactions of the channel it is evident that they feel a lack of support from vendors. Right now the concept of green has just creamed the top half of society. The need of the hour is for vendors to educate the channel on the day-to-day benefits of green technology and how it can greatly benefit the common man and his small business as well. This is what will set the green ball in motion in 2009.

(Inputs from Avishek Rakshit in Kolkata, Lipsha Das in Bengaluru, NR Sethuraman in Chennai, Akhilesh Shukla in Mumbai, Pooja Sharma and Ruth Samson in New Delhi)