Zebra rolls our PartnersFirst program in India

Ravish Khapra

Mumbai

28th September, 2007

Zebra Technologies India recently rolled out its worldwide channel program,
PartnersFirst, in the country. Before launching it, Zebra decided to structure
it keeping in mind the dynamics of local market.

The company has already selected 10 partners who will be part of this program
across three levels - Premiere, Advanced and Associate partners. These 10
selected partners will be categorized across the three levels based on their
revenue, the number of offices they have and their manpower strength.

According to Shailesh Deshmukh, Territory Manager, India for Zebra
Technologies, "We currently have four Premiere, five Advanced and one
Associate partner, all of who will be buying from us directly." The
objective of the PartnersFirst program is give the channel benefits like the
usage of the Zebra logo, a rebate program determined against the partner's
target and sharing of market development funds. A partner will also be upgraded
to the next level of the program, depending on the quantum of business he does.

Deshmukh further added, "One of the reasons to pursue the PartnersFirst
program is to give a logical progression path to our resellers."

While currently these partners are buying from Zebra, the company is
evaluating its options for appointing a national distributor. This is in light
of the fact that the company has witnessed significant growth in business over
the past four years.

Zebra recently appointed Online as one of its distributors in India. Online
is a Dubai-based company with plans of rolling out its operations in India.
Zebra has also begun negotiations with another IT distributor that is a national
player to bring it on board as its logistics partner.

Alongside these appointments, Zebra also hopes to expand its channel base to
75 resellers by the end of the calendar year. Deshmukh added, "Currently we
have got 50 resellers who have signed up with us. Until now these resellers were
buying directly from one of the 10 selected partners. However with Online as one
of our distributors, we will now have resellers buying from Online."