CMDA meet raises issues of concern

MUMBAI: CMDA, Mumbai and HP organized a two-day meet at Silvassa, which saw

more than 150 consumable resellers from Mumbai, Thane, Ahmedabad and Baroda

participate. While HP tried to cheer up its partners, concern regarding various

issues troubling the resellers was clearly evident.

Among the major issues that these resellers raised were those of replacement,

support to the third tier, price fluctuations, refilling of cartridges and

credit terms. While HP tried to show better business prospects in the consumable

arena in the coming few months, resellers seemed more keen on getting their

problems addressed.

"March is going to be a big month for supplies and the channel should

start making inroads into corporate and public sector organizations," says

Uday Bhat, Channel Sales Manager, Consumer Business Organization, HP India. Uday

went on to inform that HP is seriously looking into coming out with a plan to

engage the channel partners in a better way to ensure healthier relationships.

Many partners at the meet were of the opinion that HP should also work

towards recognizing and providing support to the third tier of resellers who

deal in HP consumables. Says one reseller, "Once HP offers its support to

the third tier, it would become easier for them to approach corporate clients

and hence improve their businesses." Uday says that HP will consider this

issue and come up with a favorable solution soon.

However, dismissing the allegations that HP has a role to play in the price

fluctuations of consumables, Uday says, "Price fluctuations are purely

determined by the market sentiments and as a responsible company HP does all it

can to minimize these fluctuations." However, according to him, these

fluctuations cannot be done away with completely.

Some resellers were also seen expressing their unhappiness on the issues of

refilling of cartridges, counterfeits and replacements. They added that HP

should act more proactively to address these issues.

Terming the meet as a success, CMDA-Mumbai, Administrative Director Devang

Shah says, "For the first time we have organized an event of this kind and

we are extremely happy that it has been a great success for us. We are looking

forward to more of such meets in the future."

CMDA-Ahmedabad, VP Harkant Mali, says, "The meet provided us a great

opportunity to interact with other resellers and share our problems." He

also hoped that principals like HP would take more initiatives in improving its

relationships with the reseller community.