Technological innovation brings benefits. It increases productivity and brings to citizens new and better goods and services that improve their overall standard of living. Every organization in every industry will need to infuse technology into every business process and function so that they can do more with less. A recent study by Harvard Business School documented that "leading digital companies generate better gross margins, better earnings and better net income than organizations that have not adopted a digital-first business growth strategy".

Digital transformation is all about becoming a digital enterprise. The Annual Channel Leadership Survey (CLS) 2022 is an integrated report we bring every year in the Anniversary Special Issue (in the month of September). This is the 15th year we are bringing the CLS. The survey is focused on the emerging technologies and contemporary product evolution (hardware/software/services) by technology vendors for addressing the needs and challenges of today’s customers. The VARs/Partners in the country have shared their feedback in choosing their right OEM.

After the release in the VARINDIA September 2022 issue (CLS 2022 report will make us understand who is ruling the roost), there will be a survey to find out the real leader in the Industry in terms of overall sales performance, Service support, Product availability, Channel initiatives and Sharing on-time incentives.

The 23rd Anniversary issue is also going to discuss how 200 Channel Partners are considered as the role model on their anticipation about tomorrow. This survey is based on the survey of Indian Partners (Physical and Online). Besides we have also considered various reports of Gartner, IDC, Marketandmarkets, Future Market Insights, Mordor Intelligence and others.

The winners will be felicitated at the Star Nite Awards - 2022, which is slated to take place on 11th November, 2022 at Hotel Roseat House, Aerocity, New Delhi.

During the survey, we find certain critical issues like, several channel partners raise issues about lack of information like technical, stock, dispatch information, and many basic and transactional information. To address these issues, many companies have taken initiatives to create partner portals. The portal will have all basic technical information, marketing information etc. Seamless integration of company portals can help to place orders directly and partners can see the stock levels, available credit limits, dispatch date, confirmed delivery date etc.

Secondly, many times the channel hesitates to share customer data or more details as they don’t trust the sales person or organization due to fear of losing business to other channels. But by creating and proving transparent channel policy this barrier can be eliminated.

To address certain issues, a few corporates have created platinum, silver, premium clubs to offer special privilege memberships based on business performance. Certain companies form a channel advisory board consisting of channel owners, company channel head, and company business head. They discuss market challenges, channel conflict, change in policy etc.

Based on channel feedback, OEMs continue to make improvements to processes to increase simplicity, besides showing deep commitment to growing revenue through the channel. Let's have a look at how the OEMs view the channel fraternity and their support in able to penetrate into the market.

The VARINDIA Channel Leadership Survey Report 2022 is: