Expectations from vendors
Partners say that their growth prospects greatly depend on strong vendor support. Asked what kind of support they expect from vendors in times like these, 52 percent said that they want vendors to help them with business development by passing on more quality leads and helping
them to close these deals.
Another important expectation is for vendors to provide training for new technology solutions and services. “The IT landscape is changing fast,” says Gupta of Darts, “and we want vendors to help us in aligning with emerging opportunities by providing us the
support to train our staff in providing new solutions and services that are increasingly being demanded by customers.”
About 33 percent of those surveyed want vendors to move their incentive programs into a qualitative mode from the current number-based rebates. “We would like incentives based on the quality of implementation, and want vendors to incentivize cases where we get business for their finance arms,” says Khatri.
Partners also want strong MDF support from their vendors so that they can pursue customer marketing campaigns to spread awareness about new solutions and services and also create new markets.
Conclusion
Clearly, channels seem to have learned a few lessons from the last few months of mayhem they witnessed.
They have been quick to rectify their mistakes and are eager to go up the value chain. The top solutions providers are realigning their business based on clear plans, with a majority venturing into or adding value added services, and betting on technologies that will offer better ROI for their customers.
Meanwhile, the overall confidence index is soaring like the mercury in the month of May.
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