Interview - Sujit Singh

Joining Chennai-based networking major Apcom as a hardware
engineer in 1987, Sujit Singh has risen from the ranks to become its Country Manager for
Sales. Today, Sujit is responsible for Apcom’s sales revenues through OEMs and
systems integrators. He is also responsible for increasing Apcom’s reach across the
country through channel partners. Sujit, in his earlier role as Manager, Distribution
Channel, laid a strong foundation for the channel chain to develop. The well-entrenched
distribution chain for products from vendors such as Compex, Specialix, Eicon Technologies
and Nordx/CDT has generously contributed to Apcom's bottomline. DQCI met Sujit in Chennai
to find out the parameters he takes into consideration while selecting his channel
partners.

What criteria do you use while selecting your
channel partners?

They have to be players in the market segment that we are in. The partners need to have
some kind of a profile of dealing in our kind of products. To pure box sellers I can give
my modems or ethernet cards to sell. To systems integrators I can give WAN-related
products. Today routers are also becoming distribution products. But then everybody
can’t sell routers. Those who sell routers need to have some know-how about the
product. So we select partners with profile that suits the nature of products that we
carry.

How important is the channel in your business gameplan?

To give you a straight answer, the role of channel is highly important. Which means you
need to attract channels, you need to keep them happy.

What measures do you take to keep your channel partners happy?

One is to have right partners in place. We identified this as a key area to work on from
the middle of last year. As a result, company’s top reserves, including senior
managers and business managers in different cities were entrusted with the task of
partnering. These managers were asked to identify how many partners were required in each
region. We said we would follow the classic model of product-based distribution. One
particular product can have two distributors in Chennai under whom there can be many
dealers. Same product can have five distributors each in Mumbai and Delhi. So our partners
are already in place in major metros. Now we are in the process of identifying channel
partners in upcountry cities where we do not have our presence as yet.

What importance do you give to the financial
standing of a partner?

To be frank, we have not been that serious about this aspect in our dealings. Of course,
post-transaction, we are quite strict about clients sticking to their payment schedules.
But what you are asking is how we appoint a guy? Whether we check on the financial status
of a person or not. No, we have not been checking on the financial standing of people who
want to partner with us. We do not have the systems in place for this. I do know
distributors like GPTL and Redington take this very seriously. They have credit control
managers to give approvals. Check balance sheets…Yes, you are right. Keeping in mind
the kind of situation the market is in today, probably we should be doing this.

How big is your network today?

We have 50 to 60 distributors across the country. Each distributor will have at least
three to four dealers making a total of over 250. For cables we have eight stockists and
three to four systems integrators in each region totaling up to 30.

Read the rest of this article in the
coming issue of Channels India