Software reselling is becoming difficult...
"How |
|
Alok Gupta |
Increasing prices, rampant piracy, insufficient customer awareness
and a number of other issue have made software reselling a difficult business
proposition today. And vendors are not doing much in this regard.
Unfortunately, vendors have also been increasing prices of their products in
the recent past. To cite a few examples, Microsoft OEM product prices have gone
up by 10 percent in the last one year, Autodesk product prices have gone up by
as much as 50 percent in the last six months. There is no way vendors can
justify these hikes.
Show customers the value...
Piracy as an issue will also be addressed when customers are shown the value
in purchase of a software product. How many software companies can come forward
and say that the support offered justifies the product prices? Just having a
toll-free customer helpline is not the solution. There are many other issues
that leaves the customer disillusioned.
Enhance customer awareness...
There are a number of issues that the customer has to be made aware of,
which vendors are not doing. Knowledge gaps range from lack of product awareness
and availability to utter lack of awareness of rights. It is extremely important
that the customer be also made aware of the IPR issues that surround software.
This can be of great help in curbing piracy.
Global prices but no international services
Software per se is a service. And software in India sells at international
rates despite the fact that all other services are priced much lower. And to top
it all, the quality of support offered to Indian customers is not up to
international standards.
License agreements are ambiguous...
The end-user license agreements that accompany all software packages are
quite ambiguous. Many a time, there is no mention about the right to transfer.
Since it is an agreement, there must exist a right to cancellation of the same
with company refunding the entire amount. This is stated in principle but not
practiced. Also there are no rights conferred to a buyer who may end up not
using the product.
Version protection is not offered...
The partner is not offered any version protection. The launch of a new
version leaves the channel partner stuck with old stock, the mobility of which
is hit. Customers wait for the newer version. Vendors refuse to take back the
old stock. With wafer-thin margins in reselling, it becomes difficult to absorb
such costs.
Price hike arises due to value addition...
“There |
|
Sandeep |
The price rise of any product, software or otherwise, has more to do with
the value addition that goes into it. Product prices also go up, when the
product has undergone a massive overhaul.
From an Adobe perspective most of our products have a 12 to 18 month
life-cycle. And in that duration a lot of value-add goes into the version
change. And we price it at the same level offering more features at a same
price.
Identifying pirates is difficult...
It is not easy to identify the software pirate. And we require the support
of partners to help us in this process. However, enough leads are not generated
at partners’ end. Consequently, the blame rests on us. It is something that
can be accomplished only when partners work with us as a team.
Awareness is adequate...
The media, associations and software companies have created enough
awareness. And I don´t think there is a lack of education. There is a lack of
will to invest in software. Hardware takes priority and software is assumed to
come free with it.
There is investment in support...
Most software companies realize that support is a critical component of the
entire relationship with the customer. We have a toll-free line in Philippines
which caters to the Pacific and South East Asia. So it would be wrong to say
that the investment in support is missing.
Also we even fly in support engineers from Singapore to meet up with
customers and help them get comfortable with our products.
Everything is in black and white...
Every product shipped out carries a license agreement. And there is
everything in black and white. The customers more often than not don´t read the
document. And it is not possible for the software company to go out to each and
every customer to explain the same.
Free updates are guaranteed...
The problem of version protection largely arises from what business model
the software company partner follows. If they follow a stock-and-sell model,
problems will exist.
At Adobe, we guarantee free upgrades if the purchase of an older version has
been made within two months of an upgrade announcement. And the upgrade media
and everything is shipped directly to the customer without channel partner’s
involvement.