Price protection, DoA and warranty replacements are issues that dealers in Madurai have now accepted as part and parcel of the IT business. They complained that the reason this has become a problem area is because vendors are not defining clear policies on either of the above. To add to it, distributors insist that they can act only in accordance to vendor policies, which
means that the partners are left in the lurch as far as finding amicable solutions are concerned.

The panelists of the IT Panchayat organized by The DQ Week and DQ Channels in Madurai were A Muthuswamy, Secretary, CAMS Madurai; P Sadakchar, Location Head-Madurai, Redington India; R Ramesh Kumar, Branch Manager-Madurai, Ingram Micro and V Ramesh, Branch Manager-Madurai, Rashi Peripherals.

Partners were assembled to voice their concerns, while the The DQ Week on its part was playing the role of the mediator. Surprisingly, SV Sellva Sekaraan, President, Computer And Media Society (CAMS) preferred to fight the issue out with vendors directly rather than enlist help from a third party, especially the media.

But he was quickly corrected by other association members who said that The DQ Week has done a good deed in trying to address channel issues that were festering for long. Said Muthuswamy, “Given the need for partners and vendors to work in unison, occasions like the IT Panchayat are a valid platform to raise the issues of concern, and try and work out a solution. We cannot expect to get solutions overnight. A meeting between the channel partners and vendors must be scheduled soon so that we can draw up a vendor code and discuss various issues of concern.”

Panelists (L-R): P Sadakchar, Location Head-Madurai, Redington India; R Ramesh Kumar, Branch Manager-Madurai, Ingram Micro; A Muthuswamy, Secretary, CAMS-Madurai; V Ramesh, Branch Manager-Madurai, Rashi Peripherals; PN Pandin, Branch Manager-Madurai, Neoteric Infomatique

Price protection
Talking of issues, price protection seems to top on the list of concerns for the Madurai channel. “There is a continuous drop in product prices due to competition between few vendors in the region. Unfortunately, traders are falling prey to these acts because only few partners are able to clear off all of their stocks. When a trader has stocks in his store and prices come down suddenly, he suffers big time and gets a very small amount in the form of price protection. This has to change,” said Muthuswamy. It was also suggested that vendors inform traders beforehand about likely price reduction so that dealers can set an ideal price for at least a month rather than battling decreased prices for 15 days. Another demand was that vendors should provide dealers with 100 percent price protection.

Voicing concern over DoA and warranty issues, partners accused the distributors present there of not undertaking replacement of DoA goods. Partners claimed that the distributors were not helping them to deliver on customer requirements quickly as far as DoA cases were concerned.

Channel partners participating in a discussion at the IT Panchayat

Responding to these statements, Sadakchar said, “The problem is that most dealers are not aware of the correct vendor policies as far as DoA and warranty replacements are concerned, and find fault with the distributors. On our part, we at Redington have launched a center called 'Redington Reverse Logistics', which partners can contact via a toll-free number and clarify any doubts that they have. We have recruited enough manpower for handling DoA issues at this center.” He asked the partners to make use of the facility by logging in their complaints.

Supporting Sadakchar, Kumar said, “It is the responsibility of the partner to know the vendor policies. We agree that there are no clear-cut policies on DoA and warranty from the vendor's side. We would sit with the association and vendors, and clarify all doubts as regards DoA and warranty in the very near future.” Agreeing to his idea, Muthuswamy said, “The association will meet shortly and call for a vendor/channel partner meet to talk about various issues.”

A partner questioning distributors about the terms and conditions existing for DoA and warranty

Sadakchar added that vendors need to be more accountable and should put right policies in place. “Since distributors also have targets and stocks to deal with, we cannot keep track of all DoA and warranty concerns. Distributors only serve as a bridge between the channel and vendors and cannot be blamed for everything,” he stated. Ramesh urged dealers to correctly register their issues of concern so that distributors can begin the corrective process and get back stocks in time.

As the arguments on the role of the distributor and the vendor continued, some of the assembled partners suggested 'stop payment' as the best option to get solutions for DoA and warranty concerns. They felt that it was time that distributors and vendors treat the channel as customers and work to find amicable solutions.

Santosh Kumar Mishra, Territory Manager (South), Hughes Communications (India) made his presentation and indicated that the company was on the look out for partners-both system integrators as well as sales partners across the country and was hoping to use the IT Panchayat as a platform to highlight the value adds that they would provide for potential partners.

DQC NEWS BUREAU

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