Adobe dumps Wipro, sticks to Tech Pacific

NEW DELHI: "We are not a pull product, we are a push product," said Sandeep Mehrotra, Channel Account Manager, Adobe Systems India, while talking about the company's new channel structure in India.

Adobe will stick to the two-tier channel model but now on will have just one exclusive distributor in India--Tech Pacific. At the same time, its erstwhile distributor, Wipro, will still remain the Adobe Licensing Center (ALC) for the company in India.

Talking about the new initiatives for the channel partners, Mehrotra said that the company’s new structure would have a fixed dealer transfer price (DTP) for all the channel partners irrespective of the numbers they would be doing. This will also curtail the price undercutting issues for the products, a concern for a lot of channel partners. "A fixed DTP will be an advantage to growing partners and also to the established partners. This will proliferate better bottomlines to these partners, which means healthier toplines for us," pointed out Mehrotra.

Retorted Vipul Dutta, MD, Futuresoft Solutions, "Reporting is wishful thinking, let's see who all will do the needful. Rest of the reforms done is progressive in nature but has its own set of loopholes. This move has reiterated the fact that such a niche market is channel partners-driven than market-driven."

Adobe has also started the accreditation of channel partners to increase the knowledge and skill sets in the sales executives to widen the market segment further. The company has set up an extranet in which a sales executive can appear for an online test about the products and gets accreditation online.



The last initiative cued is to set up target based on the performance of the channel partner rather than the market size in a particular city.

Talking about these new channel initiatives of Adobe, Ashish Agarwal, Director, Trifin Technologies, said, "This kind of channel structure is the first of its kind in the country and it might be a mixed bag of reactions. A fixed DTP is a win-win situation for both--the channel partners as well as the principal. This is a long-term strategy for Adobe and it should reap good benefits for them."

Talking about the future plans, Mehrotra said Adobe would like to create an independent channel structure for that.