The Director of Merlion's VAD (Value-Added Distribution) Business Development Department, Yulia Pechnikova, is among the experts in the IT Channel News review article (three parts).
Date: July 31, 2025
Edition: IT ChannelNews
Author: Maksim Belous
The place and role of first-tier partners in the Russian IT channel structure were actively discussed until February 2022, including on the pages of the publication. The tectonic changes over the past 3 years have clearly demonstrated how important skilled, knowledgeable, effective and experienced distributors are for both vendors and integrators/resellers. What tasks and challenges does domestic IT distribution face today, how does it cope with them, how does it plan to develop further – and how does it see the future of the Russian IT channel?
"Three years ago, with the beginning of 2022, we faced a sharp departure of Western vendors and the need to form a new portfolio for import substitution", says Yulia Pechnikova, Director of Merlion's VAD Business Development Department. "Since we started signing distribution contracts for Russian software more than 15 years ago, we already understood this market segment and its needs. Today, the IT market has stabilized. According to HSE estimates, the ICT sector grew by 28% in 2024, and its volume was 8.3 trillion rubles. Priorities have now shifted from urgent replacements to the development of complex ecosystems that include AI, clouds, cybersecurity solutions and local platforms. We actively work with vendors and offer the market solutions for implementing various business tasks, including national projects such as "Data Economy", which received a new impetus in 2025".
Closer to the channel
It is no secret that until 2022, not all hardware and software manufacturers were fully included in the structure of the Russian IT channel.
Yulia Pechnikova, Director of Merlion's VAD Business Development Department, notes that many Russian vendors used to work directly, bypassing distributors: "Today, the situation is different, many vendors are creating a three-level sales model and developing a channel. For example, Merlion recently became the exclusive distributor of Amur computing equipment: PCs, all-in-one computers, servers. For the manufacturer, such cooperation guarantees regional availability and support, and for us, this is an opportunity to expand the offer for customers, especially in the public sector".
Service evolution
The service packages that distributors offered their partners at the beginning of 2021 are significantly different from those that are relevant in the mid-2025.
"In 2021, we offered logistics, partner training and basic technical support", recalls Yulia Pechnikova, Director of Merlion's VAD Business Development Department. "In 2025, our service package expanded significantly. Merlion is now not only a distributor but also a partner: we provide pre-sales, training, architectural development of projects, demonstration environment and analytics for partners and vendors".
The full version of the article with the opinions of other participants is available on the IT Channel News website: part 1, part 2, part 3.
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