Upcountry partners want advisory boards

Kolkata

March 10th, 2008

Enough has been said about the growth in the upcountry markets, and how it is
a lucrative market being eyed by vendors and channel alike. However, this
potential also has a flip side as regards issues pertaining to sales and service
of any brand or product, which are key obstacles for attaining the desired
growth. To address this issue, many upcountry partners are in favor of creating
local advisory boards that will be lead by vendors and will comprise
representatives from the local channel. Inspired by the innovative step taken by
HP, which formed separate Partner Advisory Boards across the metro cities,
upcountry partners too are wanting a similar platform.

Leading the pack, PK Sinha of Patna-based Astric Computers who recently came
back from the HP Partners Summit 2008 held in Dubai said, "I have always
appreciated the move undertaken by HP wherein they have created advisory boards
comprising of top member representatives in each location. Based on their
comments and feedback the company commences corrective measures."
Explaining further he said, "Unfortunately the practice is limited to the
metros only. However, I strongly believe that this practice should also be
spread out to upcountry locations like Patna, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati for the
betterment of these growing markets." According to Sinha, due to the remote
locations of the upcountry towns the problems faced by the partners are more
serious and remain unaddressed. "It is suggested that the principals now
start thinking of creating regional partner advisory boards in all the important
upcountry locations that can provide first-hand information on the challenges
and opportunities based on which sales and services strategies can be modified.
It is very important to address the problems of the upcountry markets to sustain
the ongoing growth or even escalate it," remarked Sinha.

Backing his cause Abhishek Poddar of Bhubaneswar-based SA Infosys said,
"Any such move is always welcome. It is apparent that the requirement is
there to create such a platform which I believe will definitely help to resolve
the pertaining issues related to sales and services in the upcountry locations
faced by both channel partners as well as end-users."

Commenting on the issue, Swarup Sinha of Guwahati-based Advantage said,
"Ideally this is a very apt thing to be done by any principal company.
Measuring the high growth potential of the upcountry markets it is important to
take corrective actions and make desired modifications to resolve the problems
to boost the growth."

As per Paramjit Singh Juneja of Ludhiana-based Secant Technologies, this
action will definitely help in bringing forth and resolving the issues faced by
the upcountry partners and customers. "I am aware of the partner advisory
board created by HP in the metro cities. Unfortunately nothing has been done in
Ludhiana, neither have I heard of a similar thing in any other upcountry
location," he stated. "Similar kinds of efforts were taken by HP four
years back where I was a member and I know how effective it is. And if the
process is followed properly it will improve the companies channel commitments.
I hope all the leading brands follow this step so that together we can grow to
greater heights," he remarked.

According to Sudhir Budhay of Nagpur-based Business Algorithms, the market
demands and requirements, behavior and issues keep changing with every 500km
distance. Therefore it is advisable that the vendors should accordingly create
territory wise boards to take care of the market within every 500km radius.
"Deploying partner advisory boards in the upcountry hinterlands are highly
desirable as it would not only help the local partners in resolving the problems
faced by them but also the vendors will be able to improve their channel
commitments," he said.

However Rajiv Kalra of Shillong-based Indian Export and Import Company had a
word of caution. "It is always better to have such advisory boards
comprising the local channel partners and backed by the principals. But it is
also important to select the right members for the board who can keep it alive
and take active participation in order to achieve the objective. Else it will be
of no use," he said. Arvind Modi of Jaipur-based Bits and Bytes on the
other hand had bitter experiences to share. He observed that merely creating a
board was not enough; rather willingness of the vendors to solve the problems
faced by the upcountry partners would be the key. "I strongly believe that
these advisory boards are nothing but farce. In the case of HP, there's a
full-time big team present in Jaipur. Yet for the last six month none of the
local HP partners has received their backend and incentives. We have been after
their lives but all in vein," he informed. "We interact and give
feedback to the company representatives on a day-to-day basis. Therefore they
are very much aware of the issues faced by us. But nothing is implemented to
address them. A board or a company is made of people and if they are not willing
to take proper action, nothing will happen," he added.

Sharing his thoughts, CP Praveen of Vellore-based Vasavi Computer Academy
said, "I know the kind of problems being faced by the dealer community in
upcountry locations and the treatment they get from vendors. I feel it is all
the more important to have partner advisory boards in upcountry cities."
According to Praveen, these activities will boost the moral of partners, as they
will be confident that someone is there to take care of their issues and solve
their problems. "As an upcountry dealer the major problem we face is that
we are left at large when there is an issue. Only a handful of these partners
are aware of the effects of the issues or the processes to resolve them. But a
majority are left in the dark by the principals who mostly exploit them due to
their lack of knowledge," he stated. "In Vellore, HP had committed the
partners certain incentives on achieving targets set by them but finally nothing
happened. Even a couple of our association's annual expos were sponsored by HP.
For the 2005 event which they sponsored, we received the payment in 2007, that
too only when we started boycotting the partner programs floated by HP," he
informed.

However, like Modi, Praveen too felt that it was not the company's fault.
"I believe no company is at fault, it's the middle-men who are responsible
for such undeserved practices. By creating partner advisory boards the companies
will also benefit along with the channel," he explained.