Priorities for 2009-10
Nevertheless, the channel is not exhibiting any irrational exuberance about the economic turnaround. It understands that the only way to sustain growth in challenging times is to become more customer-relevant. No wonder then that the top priorit ies for partners for the current fiscal include deep-selling to existing customers, cost optimization and enhancing productivity, offering solutions and services that customers are increasingly demanding, and putting in place a go-to-market strategy to tap sectors which are likely to do better than others.
Nearly 81 percent of respondents say that their key priority is to target more cross-selling and deep-selling opportunities among existing customers.
Respondents believe that in challenging times it’s always prudent to mine more opportunities within existing accounts rather than chase and acquire new accounts.
“Our agenda is to increase our share of the IT spend of our existing customers, and this we are doing by increasing our solutions and services offerings in keeping with the changing demand,” says R S Shanbhag, MD, Valuepoint Group.
Most respondents say that they have become more aware of their customers’ needs. They are spending more time sitting with their existing customers to understand their pain-points and offer them solutions and services they need. Many have improved their interface with key customers by creating dedicated account managers.
Others are identifying missed opportunities and trying to tap them. “In boom-time we got focused on large deals and overlooked smaller ones. We are now identifying these smaller opportunities. No opportunity is small in tough times,” says Akhil Ranjan Jha, CEO, Comprehensive Consultancy.
Nearly 66 percent of respondents said that their top priorities include creating internal efficiencies by making the sales organization more result-oriented by strengthening lead generation and management, implementing automation systems, retraining staff to be more efficient, and moving to automating support to better utilize their technical resources.
On the cost-cutting front, respondents have already started implementing several measures like increasing the component of performance-based variable pay, focusing on streamlining accounts, and optimizing communication costs. A few of them have implemented innovative cost-cutting measures such as automating the use of power in offices to save electricity, and creating collaboration and knowledge systems.
Despite cost and pricing pressures, partners are not hesitant about pursuing geographical expansion, and this is evident from the fact that 62 percent of the respondents plan to expand their operations. “We are looking at expanding into category C- and D-cities in Maharashtra as we see a lot of demand coming from micro-verticals in smaller locations,” said Ketan Barai, MD, Kaybee Infotech.
Many plan to expand to regions where spending by government and the education segment is high.
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