18 RAMCO SYSTEMS:Adding Value To Partners

Ramco Systems provided every networking product that was required to the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment during 1999-00 through its partners. Be it hubs, switches, routers and modems. Ramco had them all from Nortel, 3-Com and Tyco Electronics.

In fact, the tie-up with 3-Com was a major event of the last year. With this tie-up, Ramco strengthened its product portfolio considerably and became a total solution provider to the SME segment in networking.

Ramco's agency revenue stood at Rs 63 crore against the total revenue of 170.4 crore. The agency revenue grew at 109 percent compared to that of previous year which was Rs 30.1 crore against the total revenue of Rs 107.4 crore. Thus the company ranks among the top five companies in CI Silver Club which have had over 100 percent growth in agency revenue during 1999-00.

Ramco’s channel philosophy is to add value to its partners and support the channel through the thick and thin of business. Thus, it is not an active participant in the numbers game as far as channel partners are concerned.

The company had 150 partners during 1998-99 and the plan was to add another 30 during last year, which it did effortlessly by going upcountry. It also established offices in Ahmedabad and Kolkatta.

Ramco has categorized its partners at three levels, namely, A, B and C. There is very close interaction between A category of partners and Ramco, and the latter would provide a lot of value-addition to the former starting from the very billing stage.

The second level of channel partner is in the B category where Ramco takes initiatives to help the partner in dealing with the customer and provide him the right solution.

The third, C category of partner deals merely in Ramco-distributed products and does not have much interaction with the latter. But Ramco helps all these three category of partners in equal measure whenever they need any support.

Ramco does the value-addition to its partners in several ways. For instance, to its systems integration partners, it provides leads on business. Other areas of value addition include, providing solutions and technical skills, configure solutions, position the products at the right vertical segments and provide back-end support.

Ramco has emerged as a leading player in the security segment, which it plans to build on this year. It has been nominated as the best partner of CheckPoint, provider of security solutions.