Both box moving and DevOps: how distributors support partners in the coronavirus crisis

The classic channel is a one-dimensional structure: the vendor is usually aimed at interacting with distributors, and they are already in contact with partners on the front line, face to face with the client. An exception may be formed by corporate or budget mega-customers, which, in any case, are few in every market. However, the current crisis has demonstrated that the most far-sighted vendors actively interact with partners, striving to weave a reliable network from the rods of one-dimensional communications; working hard to keep the sales channel in this difficult time - despite all the troubles - due to the mutual assistance and well-coordinated work of all its participants.

Distributors play a key role in this new network structure. Strictly speaking, in recent years it has been questioned more than once: the interest of vendors in direct contacts with second-level partners has steadily grown along with the rapid development of omnichannel. Sometimes it got to the point that many experts (not always even third-party ones, sometimes holding high management posts) quite loudly predicted the imminent end of distribution as a phenomenon in a world where any partner can easily place an online order for direct delivery from a vendor warehouse. However, just on the eve of the coronavirus crisis, the value of IT distributors as a reliable pillar began to become increasingly evident, which helps solution providers to conduct successful business in local markets.

The tasks that a distributor solves today are incredibly diverse. It takes on partners' financial risks, provides consulting services, promotes the latest products and services, trains technical specialists, and even develops its own software developments to support the channel. Often, the working distribution tools themselves - partner portals, online courses, test cloud installations, DevOps products - become examples for partners of how to effectively and quickly respond to this or that IT challenge today.

At the same time, the more familiar duties of a distributor are still there: formation of a well-functioning supply chain, global and local logistics, inventory management, support, protection, and support of transactions, orchestration of channel sales. And, of course, the classic box moving, which in itself is far from the main element of the mosaic of channel interactions, but without which the normal operation of the channel is, in principle, unimaginable. According to Frank Vitagliano , Chief Executive Officer of the Global High-Tech Distribution Council, "Distributors keep the industry alive in normal times, but their leadership and operational excellence are essential in times of crisis."

At the beginning of this year, the IT industry experienced unprecedented multidirectional pressure: on the one hand, the demand provoked by self-isolation for some high-tech goods and services; on the other hand, the temporary halt of many industries and the disruption of supply chains. Distributors found themselves in the very center of the raging market element, and in this "eye of the storm" they made every effort to help partners cope with the crisis in every possible way.

This is not the first crisis in the Russian market in the last 10-15 years, but it is all the more important to continue to assist the channel, which over and over again withstands more and more blows, one is no weaker than the other. How do the leading domestic IT distributors, the winners of the relevant CRN/RE rating for 2019, support their partners? We reached out to the reseller preference leaders with a few questions about how exactly they interacted (and continue to interact, because it's too early to relax!) with the channel at this challenging time.

Let's talk about the main thing

What kind of difficulties did the partners experience at the earliest stage of the coronavirus crisis, during the period of massive forced self-isolation, and what questions did they ask distributors? It all depended on what kind of partners it was <...>

The period of forced self-isolation turned out to be difficult, especially for those companies that have retail stores, - notes Tatyana Skokova, Director of MERLION's Wide-Profile Distribution Division: “But online trade has compensated for offline sales in sufficient volume. In addition to goods for organizing remote work and study, goods for gaming (video cards, peripherals, consoles, etc.), large household appliances, gardening goods - everything that people use when they find themselves at home or in the country - was in high demand. <…>

More of good laptops

In the first months of self-isolation, virtually all IT market participants noted a surge in demand for laptops and video conferencing tools. But was this surge of interest temporary, situational, or did it reflect some strategic change in the structure of demand for high-tech goods - at least in the medium term? <…>

Tatiana Skokova: “As office life is being restored, we see that sales of the corresponding purely office equipment (consumables, printing devices, projectors) are returning to the pre-quarantine level.” <…>

Safe as houses

Distortions in consumer demand could not but affect the partner warehouse structure, and later the distribution one. In China, where most of the production capacities of various vendors are concentrated, entire regions, transport hubs, factories, and plants were quarantined for a while. Therefore, it is natural that goods' shipments were partially postponed, and supply chains were reorganized on the fly. <…>

Interruptions in the supply of goods were observed as a consequence of the lockdown in China due to the coronavirus, - Tatyana Skokova confirms: “Some industries have not yet fully recovered; there is a shortage of supplies. But our company went through this period without interruption, with a good filling of warehouses both in terms of assortment and quantity. We were able to meet the needs of our partners in full”.

Read the full article on the CRN website.