Redington adopts a customer centric approach while aiming for more growth

P S Neogi
Joint COO
Redington

2018 - a year of growth

In the year 2018, Redington is in the process of transitioning from a Value Added Distributor to a Solution Oriented Distributor. We intend to add solutions/services capabilities that can be offered by our partners as their own assets. 

We are also developing capabilities and infrastructure that would completely transform the way partners and vendors conduct business with Redington. It would be fully digital, seamless and technology driven, minimizing human interaction at transactional levels.  

We definitely aim to become more and more customer centric in our approach. For us “customer” means partners.

Changing role of partners

Our partners face increasing challenges and competition when dealing with customer-retention. The customers are looking at increasing value from our partners to offer them business outcome based solutions. They are also looking at our partners to help them decide on the best technology that is most appropriate for their customized needs. 

We recognize that many of our partners are looking at us for helping with skill-sets and knowledge that will allow them to approach their customers with a more solutioning based approach, from concept to implementation stage, followed by professional services, thus forming a stronger bond with their customers.We therefore plan to develop capabilities that our partners can leverage to offer all-round services to their customers.  

In the era of disruptive technologies, the role of each and every player in the ecosystem is going through a change. A channel partner has to not only convert an enquiry into a successful buy, but is now actually expected to play a more meaningful role in the customer’s technology ecosystem. With effective use of Big Data and Analytics, partners can play a very important role in helping his customers maximize the business outcomes. 

 
Skilling the workforce

At Redington, recruitment and trainings are being increasingly targeted towards Pre-Sales, Technical Sales, Consulting, Solutioning, Implementation and Managed Services skill-sets and capabilities. 

These technically skilled resources will act as the extended arms for vendors and channels partners for prospecting, demonstrating, offering, implementing and managing Technology solutions of our partners’ customers. All partners would not necessarily require all the skills and resources on offer. They are free to decide where Redington’s resources would be of optimum use to them. 

Support from OEMs continue

Our vendors continuously challenge us to upgrade our skills and offerings so that we can be effective partners for them as they aim to take their products and technology to the customers. They help us with trainings and enablement and often run specific programs that reward us in one way or the other for adding to our technical skill sets in their technology/product domain.

From vendors we would request continuous support in helping us upgrade our skills and once such skills are internalized and demonstrated, we seek support towards utilizing those resources and infrastructure for incremental and higher value business. Our earnings from such skills and infrastructure necessarily needs to be commensurate so that we can keep investing continuously in keeping ourselves up-to-date on the technology.