Channels' Choice Awards: HP Hogs The Limelight

The annual Channels' Choice Awards of DQ Channels witnessed healthy
interaction between vendors and channel partners during a pre-event panel
discussion. The 10 new awards in various product categories were well received
apart from the traditional awards. HP emerged a winner in many categories, and
newcomers to the awards-HCL and Seagate-were highly appreciated.

It was an evening that brought a good mix of winning, meeting competitors and
getting gyan about developing the business and making profits. The Channels'
Choice Awards of DQ Channels held on March 18, 2005 in New Delhi awarded vendors
in various product categories based on feedbacks from the channel community.

HP not only romped off with the maximum awards, i.e. six, but also won the
coveted gold award for being the Channel Champion, while IBM was adjudged the
silver in the same category. There were some firsts also attached to the
Channels' Choice Awards. HCL and Seagate for the first time emerged winners.
Also, a new concept was developed, and 10 new awards were constituted. The
channel community voted its vendor of choice across 10 product categories.

Going For Quantum Leap

If the awards had the audience applauding the vendors and their teams on
winning, they had many a lesson to learn too from the panel discussion that took
place. The topic for the same was on strategies that solution providers can
adopt to go for a quantum leap in their business.

Panelists debate on strategies that solution providers should adopt to go for a quantum leap in their business

The panelists for the talk were a healthy mix of the channel community,
including vendors. They were Sanjay Mittal, VP of Tech Pacific; Ranjan Chopra of
Team Computers; Devendra Taneja of PC Solutions, Harvinder Rajwant-Channel
Manager, India of Juniper Networks, HP India's Country Manager,
StorageWorks-Avijit Basu and GB Kumar-Director Sales, Intel. The moderator for
the discussion was Prasanto Kumar Roy (PKR), who is Group Editor, Business
Magazine Group.

PKR started the discussion stating the fact that businessmen are always on
the lookout for enhancing margins. He put forth the question on how profitable
it is to sell solutions if greater margins are to be obtained. Ranjan opined
that the value of a solution changes from customer to customer. "The lower
the value of any solution, lower is the margin. Thus, it is imperative to
customize the solution, which will lend a uniqueness," commented he.

Providing Specialized Solutions

When Kumar was asked what it takes to go in for a quantum leap in the
current fiscal, he said that being a distributor and a systems integrator (SI)
was different. According to him, having a local downstream presence was
essential to succeed in volume distribution. In the product category, he felt
that if more value-adds were given to servers and motherboards, it would be
beneficial for the firm.

Talking about SIs, Kumar elaborated that value addition could be in terms of
number, type of solution or establishing different models of a product. Another
area he felt businessmen could venture in to go in for a quantum leap are VoIP
and broadband.

The talk then moved on to get the opinion of vendors on requirements for
raking in more moolah. Avijit stated some factors he felt were essential.
"According to me, portfolio management, balancing value and volume and
creating a stable infrastructure is vital to move ahead," he said. For
Harvinder, whose company is into providing network solutions, having a
specialization attributed to the solution offered takes the company the extra
mile ahead of its competitors.

No Dearth Of Opportunities

Devendra summed up the first round of the discussion saying that compared to
2002-'03, the market situation has greatly improved. "Opportunities will
keep coming. The need is that once it comes, the customer has to be engaged for
a longer period. All players have enough space and scope for growth in a niche
vertical or focus area," he stated.

Justifying his statement, he said that not all opportunities are taken up by
Wipro and Infosys. The challenge is to identify it correctly and address the
same systematically. Harvinder said that once the area of expertise is chosen,
the solution deployed and if the end customer can relate to the SI, then he can
consider his job done.

At the time of deploying solutions, Devendra pointed out that CIOs should
trust solution providers and should be willing to take risks. "They cannot
expect the channel partner to take the entire onus on them, as things may not go
as planned, giving a cause for blame-game to begin," said Devendra.

From An Entrepreneur To A Businessman

Towards the end, the discussion then steered to ways of becoming a
successful businessman along with taking a quantum leap. Ranjan said that to
undergo the change from a mere entrepreneur to a businessman, one has to
patiently think and plan for long-term.

One also has to learn the most basic ropes like reading the account books.
Sacrificing comforts is another thing he stressed upon. In the age that we live
in, few are ready to let go of the comfort of an air-conditioner and a soft
chair to lean on.

He gave another way also of promoting to a businessman. "We need to cash
in on the human and physical capital, but because our level of patience is low,
we tend to lose focus," opined Ranjan. Kumar's opinion on the same was to
impart training, which will impart environmental changes, do a SWOT analysis for
the channel. Training on goal setting is equally essential he felt.

A characteristic that Ranjan pointed out was relaxed and focused thinking
skills. "Problem solving skills in technical and banking areas are
vital," commented Ranjan. For Sanjay, the stumbling block is managing the
working capital and to see that the customer pays on time.

Thus, in an evening, wherein vendors and channel partners got valuable
information from personnel of leading companies, there was not more they could
ask for. They also left with food for thought to give their business an impetus.

DQ CHANNELS NEWS BUREAU

GYAN FROM THE DICUSSION