The week brought a major update not only for the channel community but the entire nation. The government announced to ban currencies of denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 to curb black money, corruption and anti national activities. The channel has overwhelmingly welcomed the move, however, they have caution adverse effect of the decision on the retail distribution business in the short run.
In yet another crucial move, the government has mandated that only those companies would be eligible for 3 per cent interest subsidy on exports, who are involved in complete manufacturing on mobile and telecom equipment in India. The government has mandated that to avail the benefits of the interest on subsidy, vendors would be bound to use certain percentage of local components for manufacturing.
The week also brought some important updates on the channel integration post mergers and acquisitions of tech big wings. Cisco, which is very aggressive on its server play announced new HPE Competitive Promo program to help Cisco partners win competitive UCS deals against HPE servers. Symantec which acquired Blue Coat this year, also hinted major revamps in its channel strategy post acquisition.
To fix the dropping number of PC business, Lenovo is exploring the data center business and is actively looking for datacenter partners. Lastly, Dell Technologies, provided a preview of the much anticipated Dell EMC Partner Program at its Dell-EMC World 2016 held in Austin recently.
On the distribution front, one time industry leader, BlackBerry announced the appointment of telecom enterprise Optiemus Infracom Limited as its authorized distributor in India.
Read On the major highlights of the week on Channel Times.
Channel Welcomes PM’s Move To Ban Rs 500, Rs 1K Notes
The IT channel has welcomed PM Narendra Modi’s historic decision to demonetize INR 500 and INR 1000 currencies, terming it as “a courageous move to curb anti national activities.” Channel partners said that the move would bring a greater level of transparency in the business and benefit the IT industry in the long run. However, they said that the sudden announcement of the discontinuation of INR 500 and INR 1000 currency notes will impact the retail business in the short term as retail customers prefer to make cash payments on purchases below INR 10-15 K. Read More
Govt’s New Currency Policy: 5 Immediate Impact On The Channel
The government’s new currency policy following ban of Rs 1000/500 currency notes has temporarily shaken the small and medium businesses across the country and undeniably hit the IT channel business, as much of their transactions happen through cash. Considering the festive season is around the corner when sales is at its peak every year, let us look into some of the immediate impacts of government’s new currency policy on the IT channel. Read More
Only Manufacturers Are Eligible For Interest Subsidy, Mandates Govt
In a crucial decision to stop misuse of the government aid, the government has mandated that only those companies would be eligible for 3 per cent interest subsidy on exports, who are involved in complete manufacturing on mobile and telecom equipment in India. The government has made it clear that the companies who seek interests subsidy on export should use over 20 percent indigenous components in mobile devices and 40 percent in telecom equipment manufactured in the country. Read More
Cisco Aggressive On Partner Engagement To Beat HPE
Cisco seems to have intensified its war against rivals, including HPE in the server space. The company has announced a slew of incentive programs for its channel partners to give them a competitive edge over competitors to win UCS deals. The networking company announced new HPE Competitive Promo program at its Partner Summit 2016 in San Francisco last week. The new promo is a global deal registration program to help Cisco partners win competitive UCS deals against HPE servers. Read More
Symantec And Blue Coat Channel Integration By March 2017
Symantec Corporation which acquired Blue Coat in June this year for $4.65 billion, has now expressed its active interest in integration of products, teams, and cultures, and their channels as well. In terms of go-to-market, channels are expected to be their primary path towards distribution and sale of their products,which they will be focusing on post their merger too. Read More
BlackBerry Appoints Optiemus As Its Handset Distributor In India
BlackBerry Limited has announced the appointment of telecom enterprise Optiemus Infracom Limited as its authorized distributor in India. Optiemus will distribute and promote BlackBerry handsets in the Indian market including the new DTEK50 and DTEK60, the latest in the company’s DTEK series of secure Android smartphones with BlackBerry security software inside. The deal is seen as an efforts of a one time leader in the handset business to revive its business through strong distribution network in India. Read More
Lenovo Banks On Channel Partners For Data Center Growth
With PC sales showing stagnated growth in the recent years PC maker Lenovo is engaging on fronts other than PC and is looking at channel partners for business growth in new areas. According to the company, it is now looking at channel partners to focus on the data center business, which is beginning to get traction. The company’s Data Centre Group (DCG) includes servers, storage, software and services. Read More
Dell-EMC Channel Partner Program To Be Effective In Feb’17
At the recently concluded Dell-EMC World 2016 in Austin, the company provided a preview of the much anticipated Dell EMC Partner Program. The newly created enterprise announced that the program is set to formally become effective in February 2017. Designed in collaboration with partners and drawing from the best aspects of the former Dell and EMC partner programs, the Dell EMC Partner Program will provide ample business opportunity for partners. Read More
How To Give Digital Strength To The Channel?
Channel partners are undoubtedly are the major contributors to the growth of IT big-wings. However, they are often left behind in the digital strategies of organizations. While talking about digitization of business, many companies are still focused on the first waves of digital change in customer experience, employee engagement, and sales and marketing. But they largely miss the point of bringing digital footprints in their partner engagement. As a result, partners struggle for critical information required for training and support,which ultimately result into loss of capable and qualified partners. Read More
Cloud, A Key Growth Contributor In Channel Business
The cloud opportunities which were sounded vague and sometimes difficult for the channel to comprehend, were adopted well by them over the past few years . Today, Cloud is emerging as major contributor for channel partners as a recent Pulsant white paper, entitled ‘Channel and the cloud: opportunities, challenges and what businesses really think‘ found that 97% of channel companies had experienced growth over the last 12 months. A major portion of the growth has come from Cloud. Read More