Redington’s strong channel partnerships; intrapreneurial culture; strategic partnerships with global brands; a robust policy for driving technological adoption and business growth, and more, have helped it script an epic growth, catapulting it to the top of IT distribution space
Riding on a massive digitization drive, virtually every organization today has turned into an IT organization in the post-covid world. Top distributors like Redington Limited are leaving no stone unturned to help accelerate this democratization of technology across the country.
Apart from inking strategic partnerships with leading global brands and setting golden rules for Partner as well as product onboarding, the company’s thrust on a robust partner network has served it in good stead, scripting the holy grail of its spectacular success in India. Redington has also been leveraging New Age technologies like Artificial Intelligence to rapidly expand its AI capabilities and deliver more efficient solutions to its customers.
We had caught up with the company’s maverick CEO Ramesh Natarajan, whose dynamic leadership has steered the company through thick and thin, to understand his seminal vision; the holy grail behind Redington’s stellar success; the enviable partner trust his organisation has earned over time; and the top distributor’s growing AI capabilities in a market dominated by AI adoption.
“Our strong engagement with global brands have enabled us to offer a diverse portfolio of technologies that are highly relevant to our markets.”
In an exclusive interaction with SME Channels, Ramesh Natarajan, Chief Executive Officer, Redington Limited, discusses his business priorities; the factors that scripted Redington’s rise to the top; the evolution of Redington’s strategy to drive technological adoption and business growth in India; his company’s rapidly growing AI capabilities in light of the evolving AI landscape; and much more. Edited excerpts…
What has been the driving force behind Redington’s rise to the top as India’s leading distributor?
Redington’s journey can be attributed to several key factors.
Over the past three decades Redington has forged strong partnerships with the channel, and in many ways we have mutually shaped our journeys. We leverage on our partner network to provide “Go-To-Market” (GTM) that makes the right technology accessible and affordable to consumers and enterprises.
Our strong engagement with global brands have enabled us to offer a diverse portfolio of technologies that are highly relevant to our markets. This has enabled us to meet the varied needs of our customers effectively.
We had a significant milestone with the public listing of our company in 2007, and became the first Distributor in India to do so. This is a testament to the high levels of transparency and corporate governance, which has built trust with our stakeholders.
A key pillar of our success has been the commitment of our talented teams, and the intrapreneurial culture that is crucial in powering our strategic partnerships and driving innovation.
Even as we are recognized as a leading and trusted distributor, we re-dedicate ourselves to stronger partnerships with the channel, brands and the broader ecosystem as we together enable the benefits of digital transformation for customers.
How has Redington’s strategy evolved to drive technological adoption and business growth in India?
Redington’s strategy for driving technological adoption and business growth in India has evolved through three distinct phases.
In the first phase, Distribution 1.0, we focused on primary distribution functions, ensuring that we could efficiently deliver products to our customers. This phase was characterized by our emphasis on logistics, credit, coverage, and capital adequacy, which are core distribution skills.
In the second phase, Distribution 2.0, we enhanced our offerings by incorporating pre-sales support, certifications, channel finance, and digitalization. This allowed us to provide more value-added services to our partners and customers. We made a foray into cloud technologies, enabling consumption models such as subscription, renewals, and annuities.
Currently, we are in the third phase, Distribution 3.0, where our focus is on helping our partners achieve their customers’ business outcomes through digital business models and customized distribution solutions. We see a large part of the business digitally enabled, and facilitate contractual, rather than transactional, engagement with customers. This approach has driven unprecedented value for our partners and customers
In line with Redington’s commitment to environmental sustainability and energy efficiency, its corporate office in Chennai has been awarded the prestigious LEED Platinum certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
How does Redington cater to the unique needs of different sectors with its diverse product and solution portfolio?
Redington’s diverse product and solution portfolio is designed to reflect the broader consumption patterns of the market. We focus on strengthening our core technology offerings while continuously evaluating newer and emerging verticals. Key areas of focus include cloud computing, mobility solutions, the core IT stack, and renewable energy.
Cloud technology has rapidly emerged as one of the industry’s fastest-growing segments, driven by the significant potential for cloud adoption and the rise of born-in-the-cloud applications. We take pride in being a pioneer in cloud distribution in India, with enduring partnerships with all major hyperscalers. Beyond IaaS and PaaS, we are committed to expanding our portfolio of top-tier SaaS solutions, utilizing our Cloud Platform, CloudQuarks.
Our Mobility offering features top-tier smartphone and accessory brands, including wearables and hearables. We are launching exciting initiatives in this sector to enhance reach and coverage, leveraging our Digital Platform and specialized tech applications. These initiatives address specific needs such as reducing supply chain turnaround time, increasing frequency, and providing credit and affordability programs.
On the Core IT front, AI has had the most significant impact, with tech refresh of enterprise IT infrastructure expected in the coming years. The trend of software-defined IT infrastructure will be even more pronounced in the coming times, and we are well positioned to leverage this with our Enterprise IT portfolio. AI PCs have already been launched by several brands, and with new uses cases coming up, we see this as a significant demand driver.
We have a well-established presence in the Solar business for several years now, and seek to play a significant part in the growth of renewable energy in the coming years.
How is Redington positioning itself in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, and what are your plans for integrating AI-enabled solutions into your offerings?
We see AI making an impact on our business along several dimensions. Internally, we have initiated a slew of projects to identify use cases and deploy AI solutions across functions and businesses. We anticipate gains in productivity as well as operational efficiency on an unprecedented scale. We have partnered with world-class brands to deploy the best of technologies towards this. We will also leveraging the learnings from these projects for our AI offerings for partners and customers.
In order to equip partners and drive “speed-to-market” for GenAI uses cases, we have launched RedAI, in partnership with AWS . On the devices front, we anticipate the launch of many more AI PCs and other AI-embedded or AI-powered devices. Our AI applications offering includes tools such as Copilot and Gemini, especially for the SMB market.
As we roll out AI solutions across various industry sectors, we will closely track their performance and impact, making necessary enhancements along the way. We foresee AI emerging as the pivotal trend in the upcoming years.
