Westcon India is trying to tap into the smaller cities and align itself with solution providers who are willing to go beyond offering just hardware and software. Rajiv Unnikrishnan elaborated on the company's solution offerings and channel strategies

What sets Westcon apart from the rest of the distributors in the country?
Besides undertaking marketing activities for our partnering vendors, we also create proof of concept centers for the solutions we provide, implement the solution at the client site and conduct channel development activities to help them understand the solutions they are selling. We also engage with end-customers to generate leads for our channel partners. This is far removed from merely providing products to the channel.

So how do you engage with partners differently from other vendors?
We conduct specialty training and certification for our partners, which goes beyond classroom training. We even have a vendor co-branded certification program incentivizing partners who undergo more trainings and certifications. This way, the partners can handle customer questions well and resolve all client queries directly.

We also work closely with the partners to help them implement solutions and we share implementation revenues with them.

What solutions are you currently offering in the Indian market?
We are currently adding new partners who can offer enterprise mobility solutions besides the security and storage ones. We have introduced offerings from just five vendors-Motorola, SonicWall, F5 Networks, Zebra Technologies and AirDefence-but will keep adding more as we go.

Besides this, we will also get into the domain of physical security, which includes surveillance cameras, access control devices and management solutions to control these products. The latter will take data from the various devices and generate reports for the IT manager.

Often vendors have solutions that a partner might be willing to sell but there is a huge communication gap between them. How do you plan to bridge this gap?
I think training is the easiest way to interest partners in solutions. To do this, we will have 'webinars' on the latest technologies of our partner vendors. We will also have real time seminars in lead generation activities as well.

Most importantly we want to reach out to solution providers in the smaller cities of the country and make them aware of these solutions because that is where we think there will be a quicker uptake for them.

What channel-enablement programs will you be unveiling in India?
We will initially launch our MailVision, which is a weekly newsletter that discusses upcoming technologies to update our partners regularly on our new tie-ups and new product launches. This is very important for us, because we do not intend to rollout all our vendor alliances at the same time in India as we might not be able to cater to the vendor needs. Instead, we will add one vendor at a time in the country.

Right now, we have a database of 200 partners and are currently identifying those amongst them whom we can add to our network.

Our actual billings have just started and we will soon know how many of them are regular and active partners.

Vinita Bhatia
vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in

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