DQ Channels has begun the exercise of compiling the list of the country's top 50 solution providers (SPs) and distributors for the Silver Club ranking. And this exercise has thrown light on the dynamics within the solution provider industry.

For starters, there are not too many true blue SPs in the country. What we have today are partners who have a product mix which they assemble into a solution and offer it to the customer, irrespective of whether this is precisely what the customer needs. Of course this too can be considered solution providing because it fits the customer needs, in some aspect. But this is not how SPs operate globally, where they own the customer and are viewed more as a consultant who is completely aware of the company's existing needs and future requirements and can scale the infrastructure up and down accordingly.

One of the reasons why such a breed of SPs has not developed in India is also because they do not get paid enough. So nobody stops at being a SP in the country; they also want to be hardware and software suppliers. This is because the customer believes that if he has requisitioned for a solution, then the seller is liable for offering all kinds of attached services for free, which is not necessarily true. Partners too have cultivated this belief amongst their customers, because they fear that if they do not offer the service to that customer then their competitor will do so gladly. This has led to the creation of the vicious circle.

The blame for this situation partially rests with partners and vendors themselves. It is they who have led customers to believe that solutions can and will be offered for free or at a nominal cost.

No doubt times are changing and there are a few partners brave and financially strong enough to buck the trend to try and become SPs in the true sense of the word. But their numbers are limited. The reason is that there are not many partners who are capable of offering solutions. The bulk of the partners have not spent enough time, man hours and money to upgrade their technical skills in any technology aspect consistently.

They largely depend on OEM people who understand customer requirements and work with them on the fulfillment aspect of the project. Or they align with a SP who has a similar dive into the client's needs and work out some kind of a revenue-sharing business model with them.

But they will do the final billing to the customer. This is the dominant practice in the channel industry right now. Since we at DQ Channels believe that solution providing in India is maturing and partners need to be prodded in that direction, you will soon see a lot of renewed efforts in terms of the content we generate in our print and online versions, in this direction. Hopefully, we will be able to play some small part in encouraging more partners to go the solution way. If you have ideas on how we can do this, then do mail me.

VINITA BHATIA
vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in

Page(s)   1