Samsung: The New Champ

The verdict is crystal clear. Samsung is the new Channel Champion. For the
twice channel champion HP, it is time to ponder over where it has rubbed the
channel the wrong way as partners have voted it to the second place.

Like in the past two years, this year too, DQ Channels India commissioned
IMRB to undertake the annual Channels’ Choice Awards Survey. The survey
spanned 10 cities where 602 partners cast their votes for vendors to determine
the DQCI Channels’ Choice Gold and Silver Awards for best hardware and
software products, best marketing support, best post-sales support, best
commercial terms, best online support and best relationships.

The DQCI Channel Champion-Gold Award has gone to Samsung on the basis of it
winning five Gold awards and the DQCI Channel Champion-Silver Award goes to HP
with the partners voting the vendor to one Gold and four Silvers.

Twice Channel Champion HP edged to second place. But the team HP promises to bounce back

BEST HARDWARE PRODUCTS

Samsung emerged as the winner for the Gold award for the best hardware
products with nearly one out of every three partners voting in its favor in this
category. Intel emerged at second place. Samsung’s domination, however, was
not as strong in the eastern part of the country as it was in the other three
regions where it emerged at the top of the table. Interestingly, HP emerged at
the top in east.

Good product quality and reliability emerged as the top reason among channel
partners for their choice, with over 62 percent partners citing the same. Says
Amar Babu, GM, Channels, South Asia, Intel, "Our products are
technology-driven feature-rich premium products and partners have liked the
quality of our motherboards and have been pushing them among end-users."

The second most cited reason was good after-sales service. Clubbed together,
both reinforce the argument that the channel wants to sell products that come
with least hassles. The third most cited reason emerged as good demand from
end-customer or product pull. Says Vivek Prakash, VP, Samsung India, "Our
success can also be attributed in our ability to run pull-programs
effectively."

BEST SOFTWARE PRODUCTS

You don’t have to be an oracle (no pun intended) to predict who would have
taken this award. Microsoft emerged at the top to bag the Gold award for the
Best Software Products, with more than half of the partners voting in favor of
the company.

Incidentally no other award category sees such a skew towards one particular
vendor. And this sweep is seen across all regions. On the second spot to bag the
Silver is Symantec for their Norton anti-virus. But the gap separating the two
can be termed as more than wide.

Ease of use emerged as the most cited reason for the choice by over
one-thirds of the partner population. Says Joy Ghosh, Country Manager, Symantec,
"One of the key benefits is the easy installation and use of the product.
Customers too find the product easy to use and hence partners have to provide
minimal after-sales support." And in saying this, it was as if Ghosh could
read what was on the partners’ minds, for product reliability and end-customer
demand were the next most important reasons for partners in deciding the best
software products.

BEST MARKETING SUPPORT

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going," is a saying not
too many in the channel seem to stick to. During the recent slow times, which
are not over as yet, more and more partners were looking at vendors to bail them
out. And many a partner cried foul that vendors were not providing enough
advertising support. So it came as no surprise when Samsung topped the table
here again to get the Gold award for the best marketing support.

HP came in at the second spot in this category. During last year, HP has
strengthened its process of centralized demand generation and distribution under
its Customer Information Center (CIC). HP officials observed that closure rates
were higher if inquiries came in through the CIC. Says Prasenjit Sarkar,
Commercial Channels Head, HP India, "Our inquiry distribution matrix
ensures that customers’ needs and the partners skill sets are best
matched." HP is now in the process of integrating upcountry market
locations too under the CIC.

Avtar Saini (right) and Amar Babu of Intel: Bounce back with two Silver Awards compared to one of last year

Adds Vivek of Samsung, "We have institutionalized processes and this
makes things simple and predictable and the channel likes predictability."

Apart from advertising support, promotional activities were another aspect
that the channel indicated in the survey as playing a critical role in
determining their choice for the award. It is here that Prasenjit feels the new
HP will now have an edge. "With a broader product portfolio, we will be
able to offer bundles and schemes that were not possible earlier." And more
and more of this bundling across product categories can now be seen.

Incidentally Samsung also resorted to cross category bundles during last
year, the bundling of the Lexmark printer with their monitor being a case in
point.

Best Post-Sales Support

It’s like watching a rerun on the local cable network. The best marketing
support winners follow the same order here too. Samsung again takes the Gold
followed by HP at the silver position.

Interestingly Samsung leads over HP by a substantial margin across all
regions.

Satisfactory service and easy replacement were the top reasons that swayed
partners in making their choice.

Joy Ghosh of Symantec: With a Silver Award in the Best Software Product category, Symantec makes its first-time entry into the DQCI Channels’ Choice Awards

Best Commercial Terms

And this again looked like the rerun of the Best Post-Sales Support and the
top two slots going to Samsung and HP respectively.

Credit did not emerge as the most critical factor in the commercial terms
awards. As many as two in five partners felt that payment structure was more
critical than credit period. Incidentally just half as many thought that credit
was the most important criterion.

Margins came in as the third most often cited reason under this award.
Samsung’s domination of this award was complete. It not only came on top of
the table across all regions but also across all partner categories. "It is
our endeavor to ensure that our partners conduct their business with ease,"
says Vivek of Samsung.

Best Online Support

HP emerged at the top for the best online support award, followed by Intel.
HP enjoys a considerable lead over Intel across all regions except the south
where Intel tops the tally. Says Amar, "Intel has the larger corporate goal
of transforming itself as the 100 percent ebiz corporation. So, when
there is focus from the top, things become that much easier."

The top two reasons cited by maximum number of channel partners were the
factor of always-available online support and good after- sales support.
Incidentally, telephone help lines and daily updates were considered not as
important.

Relative strengths and weaknesses of Channel Champions has per Chi-Square analysis
Consumer Demand/Pull for the product Ready availability of products Innovative Product launches by the vendor Net Margin provided by the vendor Pricing-Quality parity for the product Fairness of vendor in price dealings with different channel partners Commercial terms provided by the vendor After sales service programme & policy of the vendors Warranty program and policy of the vendor Quality of advertising support/ POP material, product brochures etc. Provided Arrangement of promotional events, demos and road shows Channel partner intensive training initiatives Recognition of authorised dealers in advertisements Openness and availability of decision makers at the vendors’office Proactive response of vendor side officials to channel issues Channel friendliness of vendors' representatives/ officials Foreign trips for channel partners IT and Internet intensive process implementation by vendors

Best Relationships

Business in this part of the world runs on relationships. Says Vivek,
"Indians are an emotional lot and have a higher EQ than their western
counterparts." And it was precisely this aspect that most vendors today
work towards.

While most vendors have been successful in building bonds with their partners
and their organizations, now they are devoting a greater amount of energy and
time to deepen and strengthen these.

A jubilant Microsoft channel team on winning the Gold for Best Software Product

Samsung here again emerged at the top to take another Gold and HP took home
another silver. Says Vivek, "We took our relationship with our partners to
the personal level to enrich the same." This, the company did on the
strength of the information that they had collected over the past three years.

HP is also known for its close proximity to the channel. It was prompt in
clarifying its position and policies after the merger in its Partner Empowerment
Policy. Says Prasenjit, "In India, the policy was sent out much sooner as
compared to other parts of Asia Pacific." The task for HP during the last
six months was mammoth as it had to ensure that the merger is successful at the
ground level too. And HP ensured it did. HP officials today are in a position of
quoting cases where pre-merger Compaq partners are bringing in orders for HP
products and vice versa.

HP has also put in place an elaborate mechanism to ensure that accounts are
mapped and no conflict arises at the ground level.

It is here that schemes and incentives programs play an important role to
keep the partners and their workforce motivated.

Samsung’s NetGains and HP’s E-Points, which will now see a new character,
have been instrumental in building a mind share for the respective
organizations.

Channel Champion

After emerging at the top in five of the seven categories, Samsung emerged
as the clear and deserving winner: the Channel Champion-Gold for the year.

Samsung emerged at the top of the table across all regions except the eastern
part of the country, where partners clearly chose HP as the favorites. But it
was not good enough for them to take the Gold award.

While the partners rated product quality and overall response as the top
reasons for their choice, Vivek of Samsung had a different story to tell.
"Our objective is to help partners grow and at times we act as consultants
to them to even refine their business model," says he. "We have tried
to be patrons to our partners," is how he puts it. Prasenjit feels that
even in the light of adversity, the channel should be given an opportunity to
grow. Many times it comes through measures as simple as reducing of prices.

Vivek further adds that Samsung emerging at the top was a team effort.
"People running the channel are critical," he says. He feels that the
best measure of their success comes from the desire in the channel to do
business with them, which he says is very high.

Vivek is looking at the new year with a clear focus on the customer.
"Customer activation is going to be the key focus," says he. And all
that to make selling easier for partners.

And Prasenjit too is quite gung ho about the days ahead. Says he, "We
have a lot going for us now, than we did before the merger or immediately after
it."

Strengths versus Weaknesses

In order to find out the relative strengths and weaknesses of the vendors
that came out as the most preferred vendors by different channel partners, we
have run a Chi-Square test.

Using the data, we first computed the expected satisfaction scores. The
observed satisfaction scores were then taken and the differences between the
observed and the expected values for these vendors were plotted to provide an
insight to the channel partners’ perspective about those particular brands.

The analysis provides only a picture of the relative strengths and weaknesses
of the individual brands. And that the interpretation regarding any one brand
cannot be compared with any other. It is not an absolute measurement and must be
used relatively for individual brand.

Also the negative scores are only relative and against the positive
performance of that brand. Therefore, it can be safely interpreted that, if the
brand is strong in certain parameters then it is relatively weak in the other
for which the scores are negative, hence, there is an opportunity to perform
better in those areas.

Let’s look at how the Channel Champions performed.

While the channel is satisfied with Samsung’s after- sales programs, it
would not hurt to proactively respond to channel issues, the channel thinks more
can be done. And interestingly the channel thinks Samsung needs to get more
innovative in its product launches.

Coming to HP’s performance, while partners are more than satisfied with it
with regard to their Internet intensive processes, after-sales support and
organising of events and promotions, partners find recognition through ads
lacking. HP definitely needs to communicate about its CIC to its partners. But
like the cliché goes; a pat and a brickbat go together.

Mohit Chhabra

Score at a Glance

Score at a Glance Top three vendors for the Best Hardware Products Top three vendors for the Best Online Support Top three vendors for the Best Software Products Top three vendors for the Best Commercial Terms Top three vendors for the Best Marketing Support Top three vendors for the Best Relationships Top three vendors for the Best Post-Sales Support Channel Champion percentages