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Most of the partners present at the IT Panchayat, organized by DQ Channels
and The DQ Week, claimed that distributors have forgotten who their customers
are. “They are more aligned to the vendors and ignore the interest of the
dealers,” claimed a partner from RK Media. In fact, Anurag Doshi of Taurus Micro
Systems noted that distributors in Bhopal are nothing more than cheque
collection points and product depots and do little more than offering credit.
Anupam Chaurasiya of eSys Technologies and Ajeet Singh of Rashi Peripherals
represented the distributors, while Manuendra Gaur, Latest Devices and Anurag
Doshi spoke for the channel. Vinita Bhatia, Executive Editor, DQ Channels,
moderated the discussion.
Flexible credit limits
Gaur wanted to know why distributors were not more accommodating about
credit limits, with partners who have been doing business with them for several
years.
To this Singh claimed that distributors have a policy of not extending credit
limits, because in the past they have suffered huge losses when partners failed
to pay up.
Partners also asked about the price disparity. Said one partner, “Prices
offered to the Indore dealers are lower than those offered to us in Bhopal,
prodding partners and end customers to buy from Indore. This can be controlled
if distributors offer price parity in both the cities.”
Besides this, Gaur noted that often, stock allocation is not done properly
between Indore and Bhopal by distributors. Indore is over stocked, while Bhopal
does not get as much inventory, which is another reason why people buy from
Indore.
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| (L-R) The panelis: Anupam
Chaurasiya of eSys Technologies, Ajeet Singh of Rashi Peripherals; Manuendra
Gaur of Latest Devices; Anurag Doshi of Taurus Micro Systems |
Expansion of the channel
Another grouse that partners had with distributors was that the latter were
injudiciously adding more partners to their network, which showed that they did
not have any loyalty to their existing dealers. This also affects the overall
sales of these dealers as they have to deal with increased competition, which
often results in them under-cutting prices to sell more.
But Singh claimed that distributors have a reason to add more partners to
their network. “We have some sales expectations from dealers, but when this is
not met then we have to add more partners,” he said. But he assured that despite
adding new players, the distributor's commitment to his earlier dealers is not
diminished.
The issue about dead on arrival (DoA) was also raised and Gaur wanted to know
that if distributors insist on immediate payment, why couldn't they offer
immediate replacement of DoA products. Singh replied that this was because
distributors do not have adequate buffer stocks. This is surprisingly
considering how vendors keep going to market with statements about having a very
good buffer stock inventory at all their offices.
Doshi also revealed that a new association Bhoj IT and Office Automation
Association (BITOAA) is in the offing and should be officially announced later
this week. Looks like the IT Panchayat was the right catalyst in the formation
of yet another association in the country, giving partners a platform to sound
out their issues. Page(s) 1
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