We are making efforts to grease the relation between our solution providers and the traditional reseller community

Microsoft is making efforts to developed a close relation between the its
Dynamic partners and resellers who sell their products. Rajeev Mittal talks
about the various engagement programs that the company has developed to help
then generate business leads for each other and to work in an environment that
is more congenial

What are the upcoming strategies of Microsoft for the channel community?

Right now, we are running various programs, such as the Microsoft Partner
Program that is aimed to enhance our relationship with the channel ecosystem,
and specifically leverage on our relationship with resellers and solution
providers (SPs). The Small Business Specialist Channel (SBSC) program is one of
our strategies to add value to customers.

At present we have 6,000 partners under various categories. Of these 480
partners are a part of the SBSC program spread across 26 cities in India. Under
this program Microsoft helps the partners differentiate their offerings to
customers depending on the customer's needs and requirements. We are aiming to
convey our partners through this program that they need to be customer centric
and should deliver not only a product but also the real value of that product.

Another program is Solution Partner Program, which has 100 members as of now.
These partners try to align key technology focused organizations to grow their
business around specific areas like security, collaboration and search and
business intelligence.

Besides this we have the Partner to Partner or P2P Connect Program that is
aimed at increasing the relation between traditional channel partners and SPs
who provide ERP and CRM solution.

What steps are you taking to create an enhanced relation among your
channel partners?

To have a better relation in the channel ecosystem, we are making efforts to
grease the relation between our SPs and the traditional reseller community. The
program embarks on developing a close relation between the Dynamic partners,
those who drive ERP and CRM solutions, and the resellers, who drive our
products. We have developed various engagement programs between the two and
promote them to expand their footprint in collaboration with each other.

Have you made any modifications to your distribution model?

Yes, we have brought some changes in our distribution model keeping in mind
the vast geographical spread and the necessity to have our presence in those
locations. We have introduced “reach enabled resellers” or sub distributors who
are positioned between the distributors and resellers. This is targeted to get
more reach in partner organization and the outcome is to get more customers.

Do you face a lot of challenges while imparting these training sessions?

We run different kinds of training programs for the channel. Since July we
have trained 2,500 people from 900 partner organizations. We did encounter some
hurdles while imparting training to the team of our SPs and channel partners.
Some of them were lack of awareness about the benefits of IT among small
business. Another challenge that we are facing is apprehension among the
partners for investing on the technical skill enhancement of their employees.

Rajiv Mittal Group Director Microsoft Corporation (India)

Has there been any changes in the strength of the channel partners due to
economic slowdown?

We consider the economic recession to be an opportunity for us as well as
for the partners. Instead of decreasing the number of partners, we are intending
to increase our presence across geographical location. This is the time to boost
penetration and we are targeting to expand our presence from the current 100
locations to 400 in the next six months. We would be focusing on upcountry
market in a big way that would help us to bring down the piracy level also. This
is the time to target large number of different customers rather than
concentrating on limited ones, so that the business is being generated in a
consistent manner. We are making plans to break into newer markets and acquire
new clients by having more partners in different regions.

Amrita Tejasvi

(amritat@cybermedia.co.in)