Mixing Business, Learning And Pleasure, All Together

India's first ever summit for regional and sub distributors, Disti Summit,
organized by The DQ Week, saw 90 delegates from across 25 cities in the country
congregating in Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. The Disti Summit kicked off with
a keynote by Jitendra Kulkarni, who was earlier CEO of Redington India. He
exhorted that sub-distri­bution was not dead and that regional and

sub-distributors could increase their profits if they made minor tweaking in
their daily routine.

Kulkarni, who now heads Winspire Solutions a company that makes ERP solutions
for distributors, said, “The problem with most of the sub-distis is that they
have no control over the credit that they get and policy enforcement. There are
pending and outstanding payments and no one is tracking them.”

What needs to be done

To make the most of the sub-distribution business Kulkarni propagated that
the owners must get involved to drive perfor­mance in the company. He said, “The
best thing is to keep looking for alternate business models. Also do not park
most of your business with one vendor. Spread your portfolio to increase vendor
numbers, because if you bank more than 30 percent of your business with one
vendor and if that vendor company hits a rough patch, your business will go for
a toss.”

L-R: Rakesh Jain, Supreme Computers; Sanjay Sharma, Samsung India; Prashanto Kumar Roy, Chief Editor, The DQ Week; Arunava Chakrabarthy, Microsoft and Anil Mhaske, Data Care, Pune were part of the panel discussion on 'How to add value to your customers'

According to Kulkarni the three essentials for scaling up distribution
business were, “Strong information systems and processes and clear organization
structure. These are important when you are thinking of scaling your business. “

Elaborating about what could be the options for alternate businesses Kulkarni
said, “There are a lot of things that you can do. Firstly you can look at
becoming tier-one distributor for smaller vendors or niche products. Then there
is the option of graduating to the next level and becoming a regional
distributor.”

Sub-distributors could also think of launching their own brand. Retail is
another option apart from expanding in adjacent industries like telecom,
consumer electronics, white goods and mobile devices.

Adding value

After the keynote there was a panel discussion on 'How to add value to your
customer'. The discussion that was moderated by Prasanto Kumar Roy, Chief
Editor, The DQ Week had a panel which included Sanjay Sharma, VP-IT Division,
Samsung India, Arunava Chakrabarthy from Microsoft India, Anil Mhaske, CEO of
Pune's Data Care Corporation and Chennai's Rakesh Jain, CEO of Supreme
Computers.

The attendees are all ears

Taking off from the keynote the discussion centered on how sub-distributors
were getting bogged down by policies set by vendors and national distri­butors.
It tried to throw up avenues to scale up sub-distri­butors' work. A lot of
partici­pants felt that vendors are usually keen on pitting one partner against
the other so that no one grows and everyone keeps doing their business.

Another discussion that saw heated debate amongst delegates and panelists was
on 'Fund Management'. Moderated by Vinita Bhatia, Executive Editor, DQ Channels
the panelists included Jitendra Kulkarni, Keshav Madhav from Vidur & Company,
New Delhi, Umang Mehta from Roop Technologies, Mumbai and Rajesh Saboo from
Saboo Computers, Kolkata.

When someone from the audience pointed out that vendors are usually dumping
products at the end of the month at whatever price the partner wants. But the
same vendor refuses to listen to them for the rest of the month. Madhav however
insisted that a partner could define his price and product volume to the vendor.

Jitendra Kulkarni, CEO, Winspire Solutions delivering the keynote	Sanjit Sinha, Associate VP-Research, IDC pointing out the emerging trends in the Indian market	Arunava Chakrabarthy, Distribution Programs Manager, Microsoft talking about the distribution strategies of the company	PK Sharma, Comnet Vision, Delhi puts forth his views about how to add value to customers

Disagreeing with him was Ketan Barai of Kaybee Infotech said, “It is probably
possible for bigger players in the market but usually vendors did what they
thought was best. For most of the month they dictated the price and the volume
and only when it was the month end and their sales targets are not being met,
that they give the partner the price that was initially asked for in the
beginning of the month.”

Sanjay Sharma, VP-IT Solutions, Samsung making a presentation	S Nautiyal of Spark Technologies, Delhi makes a point

Prashanto Kumar Roy gives the commemorative memento to Jitendra Kulkarni	Anil Mhaske of Data Care, Pune wins a prize from Supertron

Partners from upcountry location felt that while vendors would always keep
saying how important the market and sub- disti were to them, they do not do
anything for their benefit.

Stretching beauty: The acrobat girl drew the maximum applause	What a show: Performers bend a steel rod

Dance Mania: Partners enjoyed themselves to the hilt as the DJ belted out one hit number after the other	Cheers: Delegates applauding the performers as some click pictures to capture the memories

Ring-o-mania: The ring act had the audience enthralled	Strike a pose: Dancers performing to a popular Bollywood number

Bonding: Partners gather together and relax as they enjoy the dance and music

Growth in IT market

The last session of the day was by Sanjit Sinha, Associate VP-Research, IDC
India who talked about the domestic IT market and the beginning of growth 2.0.
Sinha said, “In 2006, the domestic IT market grew by 22.5 percent, ITeS by 65
percent and exports by 30 percent, leading to an overall growth of 28 percent.”

Summarizing the growth points Sinha said, “Firstly identify the structural
shifts and align yourself holistically. The key drivers in enterprises is
dynamic IT. Evolve your offering in line with the three layers or three
operating principals of dynamic IT. Have patience with the consumer markets.
Moving beyond certain segments/ verticals/ geography is the need of the hour and
lastly you need to keep an eye on the developments in the economy and seriously
devise a plan to handle manpower attrition and rising salary costs and increase
productivity.”

The day also saw presenta­tions by Samsung India, Microsoft India, Su-Kam,
Delta Energy Systems, TVS-E, Supertron and Gigabyte who were the sponsors of the
event.

After a hard day of sessions, the evening was reserved for some fun and
music. It started off by a presentation from Xerox. After that partners were
entertained with some fabulous Bollywood dances and acrobatic acts. The party
which rocked till the wee hours of the night saw partners taking to the floor
and jiving away to the dance numbers belted out by the resident DJ. The
highlight of the evening was a performance by Rakesh Jain of Supreme Computers
Chennai who sang some soulful ditties of Kishore Kumar.

DQC News Bureau