ChannelWorld

SHARAN: We are now gearing up to strengthen our partners more instead of just playing the number game. Our current priority is depth and we are not keen on hurried recruitment any longer. We already have a low administrative cost with simplified approach. Our flexible services model allows partner to leverage this strength while supporting the sales of partners. We want to work with partners to increase their profitability which has been their key concern.

SHARAN: The partner portal was revamped on the basis of the feedback given by our partner network. The portal now displays better and more user-friendly navigator tools apart from more add-on tools for the site. The Enterprise Architecture certified partners will also have access to search partner tool. There will also be a feature that will assist partners in campaign building. The other salient feature would be sales training and marketing tool which was highly demanded by the partners. The partner certification process will also help partner substantially.

SHARAN: Due to a prevalent strong branding in the market, we did not have to struggle much to get partners on board when we adopted the channel model as a part of our business model. In fact, partners were keen to be associated with us. All we had to be careful was about the conflict management with direct and indirect model of business. But we are balancing it really well as we are a training oriented company with products constantly evolving with the technology. This product competency has always given an edge to our partners.

SHARAN: We have a clear visibility of the SMB categorization as we have an arm that’s fully dedicated to the SMB business. If the small enterprise is less than 10 users we direct them to the distributor whereas for medium enterprises that has more than 50 users, there need is solutions. We along with partner cater and provide solutions. And that’s precisely why we demand customer visibility. So that we can offer best possible solution to the customer that would inevitably help partner.

SHARAN: Dell has currently received substantial business from the top 8 towns of the country. Almost 80 percent of our business comes from the metro cities. The small and medium sectors need a lot more customized solutions. Every industry vertical at SME level are now responding to IT which is indeed a good news. One has to understand their needs and cater to it accordingly.