AMI-Partners' Channel Studies Reveal That Partners in India Serve a Broad Cross-Section of Customers - the Majority of Which Are SMBs.KOLKATA, India -- MB Channel Partners Rank Product Quality, Promotional Support and Referral for New Customers as Most Critical Factors When Selecting Vendors As the SMB (1) (Small to Medium-sized Business) Also called "SME" (small to medium-sized enterprise), it refers to companies that are larger than the small office/home office (SOHO), but not huge. sector in India grows to adopt new technology initiatives, most of the leading IT vendors are eager to increase their share of the spoils. In this endeavor, channel partners are likely to be their most important allies. Their partners are instrumental not only in increasing sales to the SMB customers but they also act as the 'voice of the SMBs' since they provide vendors with valuable inputs about SMB mindsets and preferences, thus helping them customize their products for this sector. The above findings were released today by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc., a leading consulting firm Noun 1. consulting firm - a firm of experts providing professional advice to an organization for a fee consulting company business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a that specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services market intelligence -- with a strong focus on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises. AMI-Partners conducts the industry's most comprehensive annual tracking surveys of SMBs in more than 20 countries, including North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. (U.S. and Canada); Europe (U.K., France, Germany, Czech Republic Czech Republic, Czech Česká Republika (2005 est. pop. 10,241,000), republic, 29,677 sq mi (78,864 sq km), central Europe. It is bordered by Slovakia on the east, Austria on the south, Germany on the west, and Poland on the north. , Poland and Russia); Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. , India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand); and Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. (Mexico and Brazil). The SMB Channel Partners - Basic Profile VARs comprise the majority of the channel partner universe, both in terms of number of businesses and revenues. This is a further confirmation that the prime requirement of SMBs from their channel partners is timely sales and support for basic IT products in the computing and networking arena. India channel partners' businesses are closely linked to the country's economy. As a result of booming growth, three fourths of India's channel partners experienced an average revenue growth in the past year. With the anticipated boom in IT spending, channel partners are optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op about their future earnings and anticipate a substantial 19% increase in revenues in the next twelve months. An overwhelming majority of channel partner revenues are generated locally (from customers located in the same city/town). Only 5% of revenues are generated from customers located in another state. Approximately four-in-five of the channel members operate from a single location only indicating sufficient scope of future expansion. However, larger organizations (with over 50 employees) have the propensity to be more distributed and function from three to four locations, on average. Channel partners service a diverse mix of customers - a typical channel partner derives 46% of revenues from small businesses, over a fifth from medium businesses, and another fifth from consumers. The majority of India's channel partners generate sales from repeat customers indicating that channel partners make an effort towards building up a long-term rapport The former name of device management software from Wyse Technology, San Jose, CA (www.wyse.com) that is designed to centrally control up to 100,000+ devices, including Wyse thin clients (see Winterm), Palm, PocketPC and other mobile devices. with their customers. Channel Partners play a vital role in the process of IT adoption by SMBs India SMBs are often strongly influenced by the channel when selecting between different brands of IT products and services. In general, channel partners exert most influence in the computing hardware arena followed by networking hardware Networking hardware typically refers to equipment facilitating the use of a computer network. Typically, this includes routers, switches, access points, network interface cards and other related hardware. & software, and then servers & storage. In general, channel partners exercise less influence in the Internet and software categories. System/network integrators are the most influential partners for India SMBs and exert brand influence over a wide gamut See color gamut. gamut - The gamut of a monitor is the set of colours it can display. There are some colours which can't be made up of a mixture of red, green and blue phosphor emissions and so can't be displayed by any monitor. of IT purchase categories. Additionally, in emerging markets like India, channel partners play a vital role in educating less IT-savvy SMBs about various aspects of IT purchase and usage. These businesses lack sufficient knowledge about IT technicalities and consequently depend on channel partners for guidance. A huge majority of channel partners resell re·sell tr.v. re·sold , re·sell·ing, re·sells 1. To sell again. 2. To sell (a product or service) to the public or to an end user, especially as an authorized dealer. mostly simple and essential computing products such as desktops, portables, printers & peripherals, networking hardware, anti-virus software anti-virus software n → Antivirensoftware f and third-party packaged software See software package. . However, in the next twelve months, channel partners plan to increase their bouquet bouquet a structure resembling a cluster of flowers. of product offerings to the SMB sector by expanding into the following products such as PDAs, internally developed software for resell, networking solutions (i.e. WANs), outsourced IT support, etc. India SMB Channel Partners - select vendors after judicious ju·di·cious adj. Having or exhibiting sound judgment; prudent. [From French judicieux, from Latin i consideration Channel partners evaluate their vendors after considering various factors. "Channel partners would like to build up a stable, long-term relationship with vendors who have high-quality products/technologies," commented Ms. Swati Sasmal, Research Manager, at AMI-India. "Providing quick pre- and post-sale support by vendors is also a 'must' for most channel partners. A few other factors that are given significant weight by channel partners choosing vendors are attractive gross margins and the option of testing out a product before offering it to customers." India's channel partners rate Intel, Samsung and HP as the most popular global vendors along with several local players. Among various marketing tools, channel partners favor means of promotional support like literature, advertisement, giveaways, as well as referrals and vendor financing Vendor Financing The lending of money by a company to one of its customers so that the customer can buy products from it. By doing this, the company increases its sales even though it is basically buying its own products. . They would also like to avail the opportunity of co-branding with the vendor that can help them enhance their brand equity. About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc. AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence -- focusing on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business planning and "go-to-market" solutions. AMI was founded in 1996 under the name of Access Media International (USA), Inc. by Andy Bose, formerly a group vice president at IDC. Since its inception, the firm has built a world-class management team, each with ten to fifteen years' experience in IT, telecom, online communications or multimedia. AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies over the last eight years. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets See SMB. ; its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 20 countries; and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis. For more information on AMI-Partners or our global SMB surveys, please e-mail ask_ami@ami-partners.com, visit www.ami-partners.com, or call 212-944-5100. |
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