Surat : Channel partners in Surat appreciated the support extended to them by distributors at the IT Panchayat, held in association with The DQ Week and DQ Channels, which was organized at Surat, Lords Plaza on Nov 22, 2008. While in most other cities that the Panchayat has gone to, the channel have usually been extremely unhappy about distributors and the way they operate in the market. However, this was not the scene in Surat.

The panel consisted of Abhinav Buch, Branch Manager of Redington India, Mitesh Modh, Branch Manager of Compuage Infocom, Sanjay Sharma Branch Manager of Tech Pacific India, Dharmin Shah, Branch Manager of Neoteric and Siddhartha Hamirwasia, Branch Manager of Rashi Peripherals. Vinita Bhatia, the Executive Editor of DQ Channels moderated the panel discussion.

In the due course of discussion Vishnu Thakkar proprietor of Sprint Peripherals explained an incident wherein a distributor supported him in solving an issue. He said, "I bought a DVD writer from a vendor and the company didn't have enough buffer stock. I approached Dharmin Shah, Branch Manager of Neoteric and he coordinated with the vendor and made my work possible."

To support the statement given by Thakkar, channel partners who were present at the event said that they are also happy with the maximum support given by the distributors in the region, which is better than vendors.

In the course of discussion Jignesh Jariwala, Executive Member of South Gujarat IT Association (SITA) questioned Redington about taking over HP Plotter service by Redington. He said, "Is it genuine on part of Redington to provide the services directly? They should go through channel. Before we used to offer HP Plotter related service, but now we have lost our customers as well as business."

Buch said that they are majorly into distribution business and not dealing with sales and service. "You can approach the service team of Redington and definitely they will help you in this regard," said Buch.

The channel in Surat also discussed the need for technical seminars to update and educate them about new technologies. Jariwala said, "We don't have enough information about upcoming technologies. We have to be provided with all relevant information about new products. But no such seminars are organized by any companies."

Sharma said that most vendors are now a days organizing technical seminars to provide required information to channel and the channel may not be aware of them exactly.

Nilesh M Mistry, DGM-Channel Enterprise Solution, Sify who was present during the session explained the available opportunities to collect product information and utilization of that information to the maximum extent. He said, "We have a number of vehicles to collect information. Company websites can be used as a source of product information. There is a tool called SMS alert, which can also be used to maximum extent," said Mistry.

He also suggested that association executive members are a good source of information and somebody has to take this initiative rather than complain about the non-availability of information. He also told the distributors that they can attach new product information in the statement what they send regularly to the local channel.

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