Jamshedpur Channel Grumbles About DoA, Improper Inventory Issues

After Bhubaneswar the next stopover of IT Panchayat was in the 'Steel City'
of Jamshedpur. The event saw participation from almost all partners across
Jamshedpur including the members of Jamshedpur IT Association (JITA).

It was formally inaugurated with a presentation by Shubhashish Roy,
Relationship Manager (East)-Hitachi Data Systems, which was the title sponsor of
the event. It was followed with another presentation by KK Dutta, RSM-East,
Amconics, the associate sponsor of the event.

The panel discussion that is the key attraction of all the IT Panchayats was
moderated by Shivangi Yadav, Executive Editor, The DQ Week while the panel
included Raghavendra N, Regional Manager-Jalan Infotech and Anand A Raj, Branch
Head, Neoteric Infomatique spoke on behalf of distributors. Indranil Gupta of
Computer Wizard and Shailesh Kr Mandawewala of Galaxy Infocom represented the
channel community.

The highlight of the panel discussion was issues related to lack of
door-to-door delivery of products by the distributors to the local partners.
Apart from that issues related to inventory and dead-on-arrival(DoA) were also
discussed during the session.

Partners jointly raised their voices against the distributors especially
against Jalan Infotech mentioning that there has been no facility of
door-to-door delivery offered by distributors in Jamshedpur. They railed that in
the absence of a proper delivery system, the channel has been facing tremendous
problems over the years including theft while the products are in transit.

Countering this complaint Raghavendra said that Jalan had a national policy
of not providing door-to-door delivery to the local partners of those places
where the warehouse is situated. “Since we have our warehouse in Jamshedpur we
do not deliver at the partners' site. But we do provide such facility to those
partners who are situated in and around Jamshedpur,” he mentioned. Rejecting his
statement, the partners pointed out that this is an unjustified policy
under­taken by Jalan and requires immediate rectification.

(L to R) Raghavendra N of Jalan Infotech, Anand A Raj of Neoteric, Indranil Gupta of Computer Wizard and Shailesh K Mandawewala of Galaxy Infocom at the panel

While the argument continued, it was decided finally that the matter should
be brought under the supervision of higher autho­rities of the distributors and
certain modification on the concerned issue should be introduced. The partners
insisted that there should be a certain valuation in the orders beyond which
door-to-door delivery should be provided. While the same grievance was raised
against Caltron Info Trade, Inderjeet Singh, Branch Manager, Caltron assured
partners that he would arrange for a door-to-door delivery in case of orders
with a minimum value of Rs 10,000 and above. “But I would require a minimum of
four hours time to make the delivery,” he added.

While the partners agreed to his clause, they also demanded similar kind of
solution from Jalan as well. Raghavendra assured the partners that he will take
up this matter with the higher authority soon and some positive steps would be
taken by the distributor.

Partners participating in the discussion	Channel partners at the event

Inventory management

The next big issue discussed was the absence of proper inventory
availability with the distributors. “While the stocks for the entry level
products are generally available with local distributors, but when it comes to
the exclusive products, getting them is a big issue,” said Gupta. Mandawewala
and other partners supported him and claimed that distributors were not
maintaining regular stocks of profitable products. “This issue is encouraging
increasing infiltration from bigger markets like Kolkata and Ranchi who
generally have ready stocks with them,” added Gupta.

Like in other cities, the issue of DoA cases raised its ugly head here as
well. However, partners had a mixed reaction on this particular issue. While
some blamed distributors for the pending DoA cases, others opined that this
responsibility mainly lies with vendors.

It was later jointly agreed by the partners that whosoever is responsible for
the DoA cases, be it the distributors or vendors, it is the partners who have to
suffer. Some partners also stated that irrespective of the number of grievances
partners put forth, the distributors are all powerful and rule the channel
trade, not taking the channel's pain areas into consideration.

Nonetheless, amidst this debate some partners, with support from The DQ Week,
intervened and pointed out that with the presence of a strong and active
association, these issues can be handled in a better way and some solution could
be agreed upon as well.

The evening ended with a lucky draw conducted by Amconics and was followed by
cocktail and dinner.

DQc News Bureau