Please tell us about Tech Data India presence and resources.
Tech Data has 13 offices in India with innovation centers in Mumbai and New Delhi. Our solutions portfolio spans across data center, cloud, security, analytics & IoT, mobility, and education, from the world’s leading vendors.
We support our partners at every stage of their journey: plan and procure, integrate and test, install and implement, educate and optimize, and extend and end.
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Shop, Tech Data’s Award winning Ecommerce Platform Will Launching in India this Year and will Further Help our Partners Unlock High growth Opportunities.
Sundaresan Kanappan, Vice President and Country General Manager, India, Tech Data
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How have you transformed within to cope with the market growth?
Tech Data is constantly transforming to ensure we can best support our partners. One key transformation which supports market growth in India has been in education; specifically within our Innovation Center. Tech Data’s Indian Innovation Center (TDIC) has been established in two locations – Mumbai and New Delhi – and provides our partners with access to leading enterprise hardware and software in a live product environment. We help partners effectively create differentiated solutions, speed the sales cycle and reduce the total cost of sale by:
- Eliminating the need for costly trial programs
- Strengthening our relationship with resellers and partners
- Augmenting partner and vendor demo pools
- Raising competency levels
These facilities are used by:
- Partners for instant access to industry-leading enterprise hardware and software solutions
- Systems integrators to gain a realistic environment to provide solution verification
- ISVs to test and run their applications on varied platforms
- End customers to experience live demonstrations and understand the technology before they invest
- OEMs to simplify buying decisions
What is the IT distribution market landscape? What is the total size in INR?
Our government has identified Information Technology as one of 12 champion service sectors for which an action plan is being developed. They have also set up a US$ 745.82 million (Rs 5,000 crore) fund to help realize the potential of IT as a champion in service sectors. This means that IT distribution is a large and evermore important part of the Indian economy; both in terms of domestic productivity but also exports. Tech Data is ideally placed to support and grow this market with our global footprint and world-leading solutions portfolio.
According to one report India’s IT &ITeS industry grew to US$ 181 billion in 2018-19. Exports from the industry increased to US$ 137 billion in FY19 while domestic revenues (including hardware) advanced to US$ 44 billion. Spending on Information Technology in India is expected to grow over 9 per cent to reach US$ 87.1 billion in 2018.* Revenue from digital segment is expected to comprise 38 per cent of the forecasted US$ 350 billion industry revenue by 2025.
Could you tell us about your turnover and YoY growth globally?
In fiscal year 2019 Tech Data’s worldwide sales grew 11 percent to more than $37 billion. In Asia Pacific, net sales were $1.2 billion, an increase of 14 percent compared to fiscal year 2018.
There are new technologies like Cloud, IOT, Big Data & Analytics, Blockchain, AI etc. influencing the market, is Tech Data daling with these products? If yes what is the kind of grow in this segment?
Over the next decade cloud will continue to evolve, combining with edge computing for analyzing data at source for better IoT solutions and expanding towards IoE (Internet of everything). We expect to see growth in the area of open source solutions, more continuous integration and continuous delivery (CICD) for higher developer productivity, and increased integration of AI and RPA in daily tasks and processes.
Tech data provides cloud solutions based on the partner requirements around on-premise migration (lift & shift), SAP HANA on cloud, open source on cloud, LOB or app management on cloud for agile requirements and more. We are investing in cloud, along with IoT, security solutions and services to drive growth opportunities for our partners.
What is your channel strategy?
Our strategy is to move to higher value. We will achieve this by continuing to invest in next-generation technologies, strengthen its end-to-end portfolio, transform Tech Data digitally and optimize its global footprint.
How do you maintain a competitive advantage over Redington, Ingram Micro, HCL Info, Compuage, etc.?
Tech Data’s position at the center of the IT channel positions us to serve both traditional and born-in-the-cloud vendors, conventional partners, new customers such as ISVs and MSPs. This partner ecosystem together with our innovative digital platforms like StreamOne and Shop give us high value-added capabilities to deliver next generation solutions that enable our channel partners to scale in multiple markets serving a multitude of customer needs.
Shop, Tech Data’s award-winning ecommerce platform will launching in India this year and will further help our partners unlock high-growth opportunities. The site features a comprehensive online product catalogue, visibility into online orders and quotes, featured promotions and much more.
Additionally, Tech Data recently took another important step in strengthening our next-generation technology offerings with the formation of two new global practices. One focused on security solutions, the other focused on analytics and IoT solutions. These global practices bring together subject matter expertise from across our business to build on our current offerings and allow us to further accelerate our next-generation technology value proposition across our three regions.
What is your policy towards partner credit line?
Tech Data’s finance solutions are designed to give our partners access to flexible ways to purchase technology. With more finance options available, it opens the door to a world of new opportunities to help our partners grow their businesses.
We recognize that, if you are able to change IT expenditure from a capital expenditure to an operational expenditure, it often makes it easier for organisations to commit to an IT project. To help with this, our finance solutions incorporate a range of leases, subscriptions and loans our partners can mix and match to support their goals.
What value added services you are offering to the partners, because these days most of mainstream distributors are turning VAS?
In April, 2018, Tech Data introduced our StreamOne Cloud Marketplace to our Indian partners. The provisioning, billing and end-user lifecycle management digital platform allows partners to scale, launch and manage a broad range of cloud services, including Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). It also enables partners to deliver advanced offerings such as assessment, migration, security and monitoring – enabling hassle-free cloud transitions for their customers.
The digital platform provides simplified access to premium cloud services from trusted providers, enabling our partners to offer cloud services with minimal investment and quickly drive recurring revenue. The platform currently offers a broad range of Microsoft O365 and Azure services, which our customers can leverage to cater to their end users’ cloud requirements, and we plan to continue adding to the portfolio of services available on the platform.”
The StreamOne platform, developed by Tech Data, provides partners with the capability to manage the entire end-user lifecycle for consumption- and subscription-based cloud services. Partners can easily leverage tools and resources that enable them to learn about, invest in and manage cloud services. Tech Data’s specialized support makes it easier for partners to efficiently transition their business models as well as unlock vendor and service provider program benefits.
What is your total product mix? Also tell us about your brand associations in India.
We pride ourselves on the breadth and depth of our product mix. Some of our key vendors include Citrix, NetApp, VMware, Oracle, Hitachi, F5, Dell EMC, IBM, Microsoft, HPE, Checkpoint and Lenovo.
In recognition of the successful partnerships with these brands, some of our most recent awards our team in India has secured include HPE Compute Value Added Distributor of the Year, Citrix Partner of the Year, IBM Asia Pacific Excellence Award,
What is your product roadmap for 2019?
We continuously review and expand upon our portfolio in strategic areas, ensuring we are providing the most comprehensive solutions for our partners. Cloud, analytics, IoT and security, are some of the key areas Tech Data is investing in as we move forward, recognizing the immense opportunities that lie ahead.
Since Tech Data is a global company what are the best practices that you have implemented in this country?
Tech Data was built on a strong foundation of shared values—principles that continue to keep us grounded in our mission and help us navigate uncharted territory in an ever-changing IT landscape. These values— integrity, excellence, accountability, collaboration and inclusion— serve as the cornerstone of our culture, giving us a shared sense of purpose as we strive to deliver the best experience possible to our channel partners and to each other. Within Tech Data and in our communities, the actions we take are a reflection of who we are and have a tremendous impact on the reputation of our company.
We follow standard best practices of Tech Data global and The Code of Conduct applies to everyone at Tech Data. This includes our Board of Directors, executives, employees and agents acting on behalf of Tech Data around the world. We also expect our business partners to follow these same principles. The Code connects us all, ensuring consistency in the way we do business, regardless of culture or location.
