Epson concludes 60-city channel event

New Delhi: In a first among vendors, Epson recently concluded its 60-city event, in two months with more than 2,000 partners. The Epson Masters Program for certified channel partners was conducted as a part of Epson's nDimension Channel Program targeted at tier-2 and 3 partners. These partners are typically those who sell more than one product from Epson's portfolio.

Last Friday was the last day of the event, which concluded in New Delhi. About 120-150 partners attended the day long event. On display was the entire range of Epson's products. Attending partners were presented with a kit that included a pen drive pre-installed with a virtual demo of the products. Partners also received a certificate from the vendor.

The program has primarily been targeted at the rural areas. Shedding light on this strategy SM Ramprasad, Senior Business Manager-CPG, Epson India said, “India has a strong rural market which is untapped by most. The growth we will see will be amazing because of this market. We recently sold projectors to a fertilizer company which was using them to show its farmers how to mix fertilizers. This is an example of why we need to come out of our blinkers and look at B, C and D-class cities.”

Sharing more details on the nature of the program, Ramprasad said, “Through the program we are training our channel partners to move up the value chain. We are introducing our channel to newer verticals. They will be trained and educated on our products. We will offer them marketing support, demos and branding support, with the aim to help them increase their sales.”

Speaking about the reason behind conducting such a large scale event, he said, “We see a huge potential for our products across the markets. Apart from the current verticals there are newer ones which we want our partners to see so that they can expand their businesses.”

Epson's current key focus is on the home, SOHO and education sectors. Ramprasad pointed out that there was a lot of scope to grow in sectors like financial and government, with its e-gov initiatives. “In the recent times we have seen a growth in demand from the health sector, which includes nursing homes and pharmacies,” added Ramprasad.

He stressed that more important than expanding the channel base was to keep existing partners loyal and lock them in by showing them that associating with Epson carries a lot of value.