Saturday, December 22, 2007

Tally Concretizes Channel Structure, Sets Higher Growth Targets

Publication : Channelstech2
Date : 21 December, 2007

Eying three times YoY growth in the next three years staring 2008, Tally India has given concrete shape to its existing channel modalities and has chalked out roles of value addition for its Master Tally Partners (MTPs). The formal tier-ing up of its channel structure is to ensure price-parity for channel partners, geographical focus for MTPs and new customer accounts for the vendor.
Speaking to ChannelsTech2, Kalyanaraman, President & Head of Global Services Business at Tally Solutions said, “Our primary objective was aggressive growth plans for next three years and to achieve this, our partner ecosystem has to be vibrant and on the same pedestal. With realignment, we have given our existing II tier channel structure a formal characteristic and clearly defined roles.” Tally’s Ist tier consists of regional distributors called MTPs and the IInd tier comprised of all the resellers.

With the restructuring, the vendor wants the MTPs to go beyond the role of a conventional distributor and develop areas of focus and development in their respective geographies. “We want our regional distributors to play VADs and acquire deeper penetration in their focused geography.” This is to ensure that the vendor taps the unattended accounts including the SMEs concentrated in these areas and bring new accounts to table.

While the second tier of channel partners get a pricing-structure to match and thorough backend commissions. “We have optimized backend commissions and set a pricing mechanism protecting channel margins. This makes the system far more transparent, accountable and profit generating plus they get to crack new accounts, untapped hitherto,” Kalyanaraman added.

While the objective of growth is the primary motive to facelift its channel strategies, similar restructuring would follow in its Service Providers set and Education partners set apart from the Product Business partners. “While the objective is the same, we will tweak the plan suiting the respective needs of that field of business,” he further added.

While Tally has conveyed the restructuring plan and defined the roles of channel in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore,Chennai and Kolkatta, it aims to cover about 11 A class cities by the end of this year. Kalyanaraman concluded, “We would cover about 40 cities by the end of next quarter for a clear growth roadmap and introducing even new levels of technology.”

Tally Solutions believes that maximizing focus and targeting deeper growth would be achieved only by rejuvenating the channel structure and ensuring healthy channel margins and opening newer avenues for the partners.