Channels turn a blind eye to green

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
green been embraced by the IT channel? Evidently not.

The DQ Channels 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 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.

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.

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.”

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)