ChannelWorld

WhenSubburam Gowra, MD of Secunderabad-based Gowra Bits and Bytes, recently walked into a partner meet organized by a powerful MNC vendor, he could almost predict what was to follow — a routine, insipid presentation by the vendor spokesperson, followed by cocktails and dinner. Says Gowra, without mincing words, “Like these meets, partner programs too need to evolve radically and become relevant tools for us.”

The point Gowra was trying to make is a sentiment that is apparently running across the partner community, more so in the last six months, when key markets started drying up. Says Deepak Jadhav, CEO of Mumbai’s Enhanced Software Solutions (ESS), “When vendors sign up a partner, the first thing they do as a part of the exercise is organize roadshows that merely end up being a farce. They have taken us for granted. These companies need to change their approach for long-term sustenance in the market.” Clearly, partners are on the hunt for the right mix.

Think Global, Act Local
Most vendors have established partner programs which they roll-out in India. More often than not, these programs seem to be designed in a standardized manner to suit a global audience and are not seen as completely relevant to India. Says Rajiv Kumar, CEO, Proactive Data Systems, “Vendors like Cisco often have programs and mandates which may not be very applicable to Indian business conditions, and tend to vacillate towards North America.”

Vendors are quick to defend their respective partner programs though. R Dhamodaran, Senior Vice President, Channel Operations and Commercial Strategy, Cisco India & SAARC, clarifies, “While we do concede that our programs such as SIP, VIP, and OIP are standard programs, there are elements which do not require to be localized.

Interestingly, these three programs lead in India if you take an APAC analysis of Cisco Programs.” Also Cisco launched ‘Switch to Cisco’ a couple of weeks ago. This program, the vendor says, is India specific, and is run through Cisco’s distributors for their partners. Dhamodaran explains, “In times when business is a little hard to come by, and we need to keep the marketshare quotient high, this is a relevant move to help partners.”

Viswanath Ramaswamy - Director Partners & Alliances, EMC India and SAARC, adds, “Many people believe that EMC’s Velocity2 partner program in Asia is the same as the one offered in the US, but that is not accurate. When EMC relaunched the Velocity2 partner program in 2006, we incorporated a number of features that reflected Asian realities, and which have been subsequently adopted by EMC in other theatres such as Latin America.” According to EMC, many of the features of the program specific to Asia revolve around deal registration rebates, tools to allow partners to configure EMC solutions, promotions and incentives, and support for local value added resellers in local language through the APJ Partner Support Center.

However, Subramaniam Madhira, CEO, Omninet Systems, a Chennai-based VAR counters, “While programs are being made, these are standards driven. But the de facto policies locally are more relationship-driven, which means vendors and partners make attempts at times to circumvent these rules.” N Jagannathan, Director & CEO, Fourth Dimension, rationalizes, “Some vendor programs are good, but require greater durability and consistency, alongwith sensitivity to the domestic scenario. No ‘one size fits all’, so there has to be a very specific, customized approach with no clichés.” AL Srinath of Hyderabad-based Shell Networks, adds a rejoinder, “Of course, there is no denying that the programs are localized; we get allocated funds for marketing a lot of activities such as partner meets, but the point that vendors wish to make are not driven in the right manner in these so-called interactive forums, which is a result of MNCs being out of sync with local reality.”

Partners quite often do not reckon with the complexity of the programs they enter into while signing up an alliance. Backends come with their own set of revenues and targets, which are hard to meet during a downturn. While there are partners who succumb to the target rigmarole, there are others who feel they have the option to tell their vendors in no uncertain terms that they cannot be pressurized to perform beyond capabilities. The backend can also be a double-edged sword in more ways than one, with caveats attached to every transaction such as opportunity sale, lead generation, closure of a deal, etc. “Discounts, rebates, and back-ends are often laced with a ‘conditions apply’ clause, which is like a standard menu,” says Jadhav of ESS, who cites that some unpleasant experiences with vendors on backends have prompted him to be wary of availing backends. “We can do without these incentives, if they are ambiguously designed to confuse the partner, and not customized,” he adds.

T&C: Step Up the Act
As the technology landscape is changing by the day, T&C or Training and Certification has been viewed as a key component in the partner program for some years now. These range from refresher courses to training sessions to online courses and certifications — all coming at a fee. Vendors often make it mandatory for partners while signing up that they should get a defined set of technical and sales personnel trained and certified. Partners are also required to keep paying an annual fee for the T&C to retain their Gold, Silver, or Premier status on the partner programs.

But, how relevant are these? Ideally what a partner would expect would be that a training program for his sales or technical resources should equip them with a comprehensive, end-to-end know-how of a product or technology portfolio. Says Gowra, “The T&C quotient has not evolved in a mature way. There should be a deep-diving approach instead of theoretical inputs for my people. This saves quality time.” Concurs Srinath of Shell Networks, “T&C fees are ways and means for vendors to augment their revenues. We invest in them to retain our status,” he adds.

Vendors beg to differ. Their contention is that since customers are constantly seeking specialized support and solutions for their businesses in terms of their IT investments, a partner with certifications in specialized areas has a better leverage point in assisting customers to differentiate between the choices available (among partners), and that the criticality of certification can therefore never be ‘over emphasized’ or unduly played up by any vendor. To illustrate, EMC insists that the T&C factor in its partner program is designed to accelerate a partner’s learning and development cycles for solving customer information infrastructure challenges and delivering value within a consultative approach, and that they have no vested agenda in the whole process.

Ramaswamy of EMC India counters, “It is like asking the question, when you are unwell, would you rather go to a doctor who has been trained and certified to deal with your pain, or would you prefer to go to a doctor who is just keen to have you as a customer?” Dhamodaran of Cisco agrees with the observation, “We deliver complex solutions through multiple technologies, so it is a big comfort for the customer if partners are certified.” Cisco goes on a step further to say that their certification fees are quite subsidized, keeping the size of the partner and current economic conditions in mind. The vendor has a well-known online certification mechanism in place, and can perhaps make a claim that its T&C structure is globally a pioneer of sorts and forms a bulwark.

Rahul Meher, MD of Pune’s Leon India, vouches for the validity of the T&C story. He says, “It certainly gives us an edge in the eyes of the customer, and for software, it is a must. One cannot read ulterior motives into this.” Madhira of Omninet Systems adds, “Partners should not invest if they do not deem it fit, or if they feel their organization already has expertise in a domain.” As a matter of policy, Omninet, while signing up with a vendor whose technology is quite similar to a vendor that the VAR already deals with, takes a judgment call on the T&C and explains its position to the new vendor. Says Madhira, “This positive approach works for us, and we save on wasteful costs.”

Is Our Voice Heard?

Is Our Voice Heard?
The eternal question that rages on as a debate is whether the target audience — the partners — is heard and their opinions considered while evolving a customized partner program. The nature of feedback is a subjective matter, ranging from partner meets to mailers or online surveys through the partner portal. The partner’s voice assumes vital importance, considering the last two tough quarters that the markets have been witnessing. Recently, HP’s National Partner Advisory Summit (PAS) generated news for its first-of a-kind attempt in getting top 25 partners together. The summit focused on reviewing the partner program and making suitable amendments. Post the PAS, the vendor has reportedly introduced significant changes in its partner portal (to help partners track their performance better) and to the claims and reimbursement processes.

HP also initiated a number of programs such as the sales efficiency program to support the first line of leadership in a partner organization. Further, the vendor is also in the process of developing software that would help smaller partners to set up a fundamental backbone to ‘read their business better’, through basic level of information. Says Sameer Mathur, Head - Solutions Partner Organization, HP India, “The partner expectation bucket could be higher, but we are trying to standardize our attempts.” |

Not far behind, EMC uses its annual ‘channel kick-off’ and quarterly meetings with individual partners to know the partners’ mind, the company says. Ramaswamy of EMC India observes, “Our partners do not have to wait for any specific forum to share their feedback – it’s anytime, anywhere.” Keeping recession in mind, the vendor has also various promotion and incentive schemes. The latest one is ‘Strike with Axe’. This promo is for the volume business. All promotional product offered under this scheme will be eligible for deal registration rebates as per the EMC Velocity Partner Program. Ramaswamy states, “Our aim is to work continuously towards increasing the profitability of our partners.”

Network application delivery vendor Citrix has also stepped up the pace and come out with what it terms as CSA authorized. This extension of its solution provider program attempts to make it easier for existing partners to expand their product portfolios and allows new partners to start selling Citrix products immediately with less upfront investment. These changes provide Citrix solution advisors at any level the opportunity to sell Citrix delivery center products while working toward certification requirements. The authorized program will also be implemented in India soon.

Says Souma Das, Area Vice President, Citrix India Subcontinent, “Several barriers have been eliminated by allowing the Citrix solution advisors to sell immediately upon enrolling in this new program and generating revenue as soon as a new product is released.” Citrix has also stipulated that only those partners who complete certification are eligible to participate in Citrix Advisor Rewards, an industry-leading program that pays partners up to 15 percent additional margin on qualifying product sales. Additional benefits including technical support and on-going lead generation, and enhanced visibility on Citrix.com are also available.

Cisco, from its end, has tried to tightly integrate its marketing program SMSO to its financing arm, Cisco Capital into addressing partner concerns of credit, cash flow, and market expansion, which the company has collated in the recent partner meets. Besides ‘Switch to Cisco’, the working capital issues of their registered partners are taken care of through hire purchase, pay-as–you-go, Easy Lease and Progress Payments schemes, amongst others. Leads to partners in remote geographical areas are mapped though a process that the vendor has put in motion. Cisco has also come out with Smart Net, one of its services offerings in which a partner, who enters into a three-year contract with Cisco, can avail of zero percent financial arrangements with Cisco Capital. Dhamodaran adds, “We believe these changes were essential after having thoroughly heard partner concerns.”

Microsoft talks of its partner portal, which it says is a critical forum for partner feedback. The readiness programs too are a platform where partner feedback is facilitated. Other than that, the company says that partners can readily engage with Microsoft’s PAMs across 16 cities in India. Says Rajeev Mittal, Group Director, Small and Medium Enterprise, Microsoft India, “Microsoft Partner Program and the local programmes we have been offering a number of incentives for sales people and partner organizations and increased the number of product categories which we incentivize — we have seen partners being positively inspired with these.”

Symbiosis is the Name
In the light of changing business circumstances, proactive channel partners feel that they don’t need to look at their principals to listen to them and prefer to rely on their own acumen. Srinath of Shell Networks, after having been part of the recent partner meet, has gone about trying to build what he terms as a vendor-partner ecosystem. Shell Networks has communicated to all its vendors that it would be splitting the leads it gets on a project from one vendor between all of them. In this way, it would be ensuring that the customer would get an end-to-end solution. Srinath has also set up a POC for ISV partners. These ISVs would use the POC for prospective customers, and pull Shell into the project for the solutions component. He says, “This is a proactive win-win way for us. Vendors should also take a leaf out of this and make the POC structure interesting, and the programs in turn should be vertical specific.” Jagannathan of Fourth Dimension agrees, and puts it bluntly, “Partner programs can be made interesting if vendors really make the effort to take our feedback. I prefer to believe that our opinions are usually thrown in the trash can.” Jadhav of ESS echoes a similar sentiment, “Market development and business strategy guidance from the vendor is often superficial. Partners should be signed on selectively in the first place, and then there should be dedicated time for them to grow. To date, not one single vendor has approached us for feedback.”

Despite fighting discontent from sections of partners about irrelevant SLA clauses, pressing revenue targets for backends, lack of feedback, shallow training mechanisms, and lack of support in steering across complex programs, vendors seem to be determined to see partners through a difficult road ahead, with innovations to the programs, keeping in mind their partner fraternity. Says Dhamodaran of Cisco India, “Managing a diverse partner base is not an easy task. We’re trying our best to fix things wherever possible.” Partners can perhaps hope to see the optimal mix in their SLAs evolve in a better way, what with market dynamics changing rapidly and with both parties having long since realized that their relationship could be mutually beneficial.