Dell tightlipped on its channel strategies

New Delhi

April 3 2008

While dealers across the country are openly admitting to being signed up by
Dell India to look after the SMB space, the company is choosing to remain silent
on its channel expansion plans. It is sticking to its statement that officially
it has not appointed any channel in the market.

With the tie-up of Dell with Croma, the former has entered into the retail
business. To reach a large number of consumers in metro as well as non-metro
markets, Dell has reportedly signed up with dealers across the country in states
like New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

When asked to comment on the positive feedback from dealers about Dell's
channel sales model, Rajiv Ahuja, Director-Communications, Dell APAC refused
that they had tied up with any channel partner and stated that an official
announcement would be made if any such deals materialized.

“As of now we are doing our business directly and have not appointed any
channel in the row, but if any modifications take place we will disclose it
officially,” clarified Ahuja.

Hemant Shah, CEO of Ahmedabad-based Care Office Equipment, who has been
reportedly appointed as the company's dealer for western market, shared that
Dell is aggressively eyeing the upcountry market and within one month they would
disclose their channel programs.

“Dell is diverting its business model from direct to channel and they are
crafting their plans accordingly. Their major focus area is the upcountry market
and in order to avoid clash of customers between dealers and the company itself
they have laid down guidelines before the dealers,” shared Shah.

Rajeev Garg, CEO of Ghaziabad-based Aadhar Computers shared that Dell might
not be sharing their channel programs openly because they are in the midst of
freezing their entire channel program.

“As far as customer division is concerned, it is not yet clear and we are
expecting a set of guidelines from the company. Aadhar Computers will take care
of western UP and for other regions in UP Dell has appointed dealers in
different parts of the state,” he shared.

Dell has recently appointed two distributors in southern market, which
includes Chennai-based Devraj Computers who will cater to Chennai and 10
additional districts, and Coimbatore-based Bloom Computers who will cater to
Coimbatore and 21 other districts in southern region. Sogo Computers will manage
the business in Karnataka, while Datacare has been signed up for upcountry
Maharashtra and Kay Kay Overseas will handle Mumbai business.