Distys, partners lock heads at Madurai

DQC News Bureau

Madurai: Price protection, DOA and warranty replacements are issues that
dealers in Madurai have now accepted as part and parcel of the IT business. They
complained that the reason this has become a problem area is because vendors are
not defining clear policies on either of the above. To add to it, distributors
insist that they can act only in accordance to vendor policies, which means that
the partners are left in the lurch as far as finding amicable solutions are
concerned.

At the recent IT Panchayat organized by The DQ Week and DQ Channels in
Madurai, partners assembled to voice their concern, while the DQ Week on its
part was playing the role of mediator. Surprisingly, S V Sellva Sekaraan,
President of Computer And Media Society (CAMS) preferred to fight the issue out
with vendors directly rather than enlist help from a third party, especially the
media.

But he was quickly corrected by other association members who said that The
DQ Week has done a good deed in trying to address channel issues that were
festering for long. Said A Muthuswamy, Secretary, CAMS, "Given the need for
partners and vendors to work in unison, occasions like the IT Panchayat are a
valid platform to raise the issues of concern and try and work out a solution.
We cannot expect to get solutions overnight. A meeting between the channel
partners and vendors must be scheduled soon so that we can draw up a vendor code
and discuss various issues of concern."

Price protection

Talking of issues, price protection seems to be the top on the list of
concerns for the Madurai channel. "There is a continuous drop in product
prices due to competition between few vendors in the region. Unfortunately
traders are falling prey to these acts because only few partners are able to
clear off all of their stocks. When a trader has stocks in his store and prices
come down suddenly, he suffers big time and gets a very small amount in the form
of price protection. This has to change," said Muthuswamy. It was also
suggested that vendors inform traders before hand about likely price reduction
so that dealers can set an ideal price for at least a month rather than battling
decreased prices for 15 days. Another demand was that vendors provide dealers
with 100 percent price protection.

Voicing concern over DOA and warranty issues partners accused the
distributors present there of not undertaking replacement of DOA goods. Partners
claimed that the distributors were not helping them to deliver on customer
requirements quickly as far as DOA cases were concerned.

Responding to these statements, P Sadakchar, Location Head (Madurai),
Redington India said, "The problem is that most dealers are not aware of the
correct vendor policies as far as DOA and warranty replacements are concerned
and find fault with the distributors. On our part we at Redington have launched
a centre called 'Redington Reverse Logistics', which partners can contact
via a toll free number and clarify any doubts that they have. We have recruited
enough manpower for handling DOA issues at this centre." He asked the partners
to make use of the facility by logging in their complaints.

Supporting Sadakchar, Ramesh Kumar, Ingram Micro said, "It is the
responsibility of the partner to know the vendor policies. We agree that there
are no clear-cut policies on DOA and warranty from the vendor's side. We would
sit with the association and also the vendors and clarify all doubts as regards
DOA and warranty in the very near future."

Agreeing to his idea Muthuswamy, said, "The association will meet shortly
and call for a vendor/channel partner meet to talk about various issues."

Sadakchar further added that vendors need to be more accountable and should
put right policies in place. "Since distributors also have targets and stocks
to deal with, we cannot keep track of all DOA and warranty concerns.
Distributors only serve as a bridge between the channel and vendors and cannot
be blamed for everything," he stated. Ramesh urged dealers to correctly
register their issues of concern so that distributors can begin the corrective
process and get back stocks in time.

As the arguments on the role of the distributor and the vendor continued,
some of the assembled partners suggested 'stop payment' as the best option
to get solutions for DOA and warranty concerns. They felt that it was time that
distributors and vendors treat the channel as customers and work to find
amicable solutions.

Earlier in the evening, Santosh Kumar Mishra Territory Manager (South) from
Hughes Communications (India) made his presentation and indicated that that the
company was on the look out for partners — both system integrators as well as
sales partners across the country and was hoping to use the IT Panchayat as a
platform to highlight the value adds that they would provide for potential
partners. "We would also look for possible sign-ups while we are here,” he
added.

The panelists at the IT Panchayat included A Muthuswamy, Secretary, CAMS
Madurai; P Sadakchar, Location Head (Madurai), Redington India; R Ramesh Kumar,
Branch Manager (Madurai) Ingram Micro and V Ramesh, Branch Manager (Madurai),
Rashi Peripherals