Distriutors, Partners Lock Heads At Madurai

Price protection, DoA and warranty replacements are issues that dealers in
Madurai have now accepted as part and parcel of the IT business. They complained
that the reason this has become a problem area is because vendors are not
defining clear policies on either of the above. To add to it, distributors
insist that they can act only in accordance to vendor policies, which

means that the partners are left in the lurch as far as finding amicable
solutions are concerned.

The panelists of the IT Panchayat organized by The DQ Week and DQ Channels in
Madurai were A Muthuswamy, Secretary, CAMS Madurai; P Sadakchar, Location Head-Madurai,
Redington India; R Ramesh Kumar, Branch Manager-Madurai, Ingram Micro and V
Ramesh, Branch Manager-Madurai, Rashi Peripherals.

Partners were assembled to voice their concerns, while the The DQ Week on its
part was playing the role of the mediator. Surprisingly, SV Sellva Sekaraan,
President, Computer And Media Society (CAMS) preferred to fight the issue out
with vendors directly rather than enlist help from a third party, especially the
media.

But he was quickly corrected by other association members who said that The
DQ Week has done a good deed in trying to address channel issues that were
festering for long. Said Muthuswamy, “Given the need for partners and vendors to
work in unison, occasions like the IT Panchayat are a valid platform to raise
the issues of concern, and try and work out a solution. We cannot expect to get
solutions overnight. A meeting between the channel partners and vendors must be
scheduled soon so that we can draw up a vendor code and discuss various issues
of concern.”

Panelists (L-R): P Sadakchar, Location Head-Madurai, Redington India; R Ramesh Kumar, Branch Manager-Madurai, Ingram Micro; A Muthuswamy, Secretary, CAMS-Madurai; V Ramesh, Branch Manager-Madurai, Rashi Peripherals; PN Pandin, Branch Manager-Madurai, Neoteric Infomatique

Price protection

Talking of issues, price protection seems to top on the list of concerns for
the Madurai channel. “There is a continuous drop in product prices due to
competition between few vendors in the region. Unfortunately, traders are
falling prey to these acts because only few partners are able to clear off all
of their stocks. When a trader has stocks in his store and prices come down
suddenly, he suffers big time and gets a very small amount in the form of price
protection. This has to change,” said Muthuswamy. It was also suggested that
vendors inform traders beforehand about likely price reduction so that dealers
can set an ideal price for at least a month rather than battling decreased
prices for 15 days. Another demand was that vendors should provide dealers with
100 percent price protection.

Voicing concern over DoA and warranty issues, partners accused the
distributors present there of not undertaking replacement of DoA goods. Partners
claimed that the distributors were not helping them to deliver on customer
requirements quickly as far as DoA cases were concerned.

Channel partners participating in a discussion at the IT Panchayat

Responding to these statements, Sadakchar said, “The problem is that most
dealers are not aware of the correct vendor policies as far as DoA and warranty
replacements are concerned, and find fault with the distributors. On our part,
we at Redington have launched a center called 'Redington Reverse Logistics',
which partners can contact via a toll-free number and clarify any doubts that
they have. We have recruited enough manpower for handling DoA issues at this
center.” He asked the partners to make use of the facility by logging in their
complaints.

Supporting Sadakchar, Kumar said, “It is the responsibility of the partner to
know the vendor policies. We agree that there are no clear-cut policies on DoA
and warranty from the vendor's side. We would sit with the association and
vendors, and clarify all doubts as regards DoA and warranty in the very near
future.” Agreeing to his idea, Muthuswamy said, “The association will meet
shortly and call for a vendor/channel partner meet to talk about various
issues.”

A partner questioning distributors about the terms and conditions existing for DoA and warranty

Sadakchar added that vendors need to be more accountable and should put right
policies in place. “Since distributors also have targets and stocks to deal
with, we cannot keep track of all DoA and warranty concerns. Distributors only
serve as a bridge between the channel and vendors and cannot be blamed for
everything,” he stated. Ramesh urged dealers to correctly register their issues
of concern so that distributors can begin the corrective process and get back
stocks in time.

As the arguments on the role of the distributor and the vendor continued,
some of the assembled partners suggested 'stop payment' as the best option to
get solutions for DoA and warranty concerns. They felt that it was time that
distributors and vendors treat the channel as customers and work to find
amicable solutions.

Santosh Kumar Mishra, Territory Manager (South), Hughes Communications
(India) made his presentation and indicated that the company was on the look out
for partners-both system integrators as well as sales partners across the
country and was hoping to use the IT Panchayat as a platform to highlight the
value adds that they would provide for potential partners.

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