Darlings of the Channel

Tough times never last,
but tough people do”- this oft-repeated adage suits the Indian
channel partners perfectly. Two years of recession had left them
bruised and battered, but not vanquished. As like the proverbial
Phoenix, the last couple of years have seen the re-emergence of the
Indian IT channel community. Notwithstanding the hardships imposed on
the distributing community throughout 2009 and part of 2010, many
feel that the slowdown acted as a catalyst for them, as it forced the
companies to re-engineer their business strategies, that would
deliver rich dividends later as well. As shrinking business cornered
them further, distributors were compelled to devise alternative
business strategies to keep their boat sailing during recession. Most
of them focused either on consolidation and restructuring or ventured
into newer avenues.

While the channels are the
lifeline of the Indian IT industry, they draw oxygen from the
relationship they maintain with the hardware and software vendors.
One of the best measures to gauge this relationship quotient has been
the DQ Channels-CyberMedia Research Channel Satisfaction Survey.
The objective of this survey is to identify the channel's choice
for the best vendors across a range of product categories in
hardware, software and services. While the survey parameters are
explained in depth (see Methodology) and each category analyzed
threadbare, it is interesting to note a few points which provide
certain pointers towards vendor and channel relationship in India.
While it is an 'MNC show' all around ( href="http://www.dqweek.com/Princy-Bhatnagar-quits-Xerox-joins-HCL-Infosystems">HCL
in desktop is the only
winning Indian brand), there are few who are 'more than equal'
amongst all the available brands.

href="http://www.dqweek.com/HP-moves-from-discrete-to-FlexNetwork-architecture">HP
was the winner across 4
categories-notebooks, x86 servers, laser printers and storage
solutions. Though some may argue about the fallacy of such a
comparison since all brands are not present across categories, it
still implies which vendors have better and stronger relationships
with the channel community. HP has always been considered as the
channel's darling and its winning  position across 4
categories further reinforces this belief. Beyond these four, HP
ranks #2 in desktops, inkjet printers and printing solution.

Other channel favorites
continued to receive over whelming endorsements. Intel is the winner
in 2 categories-processors, motherboards; while Dlink in wireless
networking and its demerged avatar Digilink in structured cabling
found their places in the sun. Every year the survey throws up some
new names and this year too was no exception. Canon was the winner in
2 categories-inkjet printers and printing solutions, where it
displaced HP; while HCL in desktops and Microtek in UPS were other
welcome winners. Interestingly, McAfee won the honors in security
software, while Symantec reached the top in security solutions. It
proves that choices of resellers and solution providers often do not
converge.

The dynamics of channel
satisfaction is changing with the times. Gone are the days when
partners used to remain satisfied with the basic minimum level of
services from vendors. They want vendors to offer the highest quality
of satisfaction at all levels of their relationship with them-sales
and marketing, delivery, installation, products/services and
post-sales service. Partners are now asking for support in the medium
they want and at the time they want. 24X7x365 is something which has
become a norm rather than an exception.