Redington recently announced a strategic partnership with Zoho. The announcement will see the technology solutions provider acting as a distributor for a range of Zoho applications to its channel partner network in India. The agreement is for a single year initially and will be renewed based on the outcomes of that first year. This seems quite a short period. Redington will need to ensure that its partner network is fully aware of the Zoho solutions for it to be a success.
What will Redington distribute?
Redington will include the following applications within its portfolio.
- Zoho Workplace: A suite of solutions that delivers an enterprise collaboration platform. It includes Zoho Email, Zoho File management, Zoho Chat, Zoho Spreadsheet, Zoho Word Processor, Zoho Presentation, Zoho Social Intranet, and Zoho Online Meeting.
- Bigin by Zoho: A Pipeline-centric CRM solution for small and micro businesses. It includes functionality such as sales deals, support tickets, customer onboarding, order delivery, customer testimonials, contracts, and more. Bigin also integrates with other Zoho apps.
- Zoho ZeptoMail: A transactional email delivery solution to businesses of all sizes. ZeptoMail is a secure email service that is optimized to deliver your all-important transactional emails reliably.
The relationship will open up access through the Redington partner network to a wider audience of Indian MSMEs and small businesses. The selected applications are those that will assist small businesses to automate processes and transform their businesses. In some ways, it is surprising that Zoho Books was omitted from this list.
Mr R Venkatesh, President of Technology Solution Group, Redington Limited, said, “We are excited to embark on this strategic collaboration with Zoho as its distributor partner to offer cutting-edge solutions to businesses of all sizes. Businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are pivotal in fuelling economic growth and fostering innovation. Through our partnership with Zoho, we aim to empower businesses of varying scales with robust software solutions designed to enable them to succeed in today’s fiercely competitive environment.”
Finding out more about the Zoho partnership
Redington has more than 43,000 channel partners across 38 markets and has a presence in 30 countries. It is headquartered in Chennai. It has 48 sales offices across the countries and the largest share of its partners are located in India.
Bishan Singh, Head of Channel Ecosystem at Zoho Corp, stated, “More and more Indian businesses today are rapidly embracing the cloud to achieve operational excellence, elevate customer experiences, and unlock new growth opportunities. With this growing demand for cloud solutions, we are excited about partnering with Redington. Redington’s well-connected network of channel partners will help Zoho in serving the SaaS needs of a wider set of customers across the country.”
Enterprise Times also asked some questions of Singh about the announcement.
Is this a distribution deal just for India?
Singh replied, “Yes, this partnership is for India. We are glad that Redington has joined our partner network in India in a mutually beneficial partnership. Redington’s well-connected network of channel partners will help Zoho in serving the SaaS needs of a wider set of customers across the country, while Redington will be able to provide their customers with robust software solutions designed to help them succeed in today’s fiercely competitive environment.”
Another route to market
Unlike some vendors, this is not a sole distributor partnership. Zoho will continue to sell its solutions both directly and through reseller partners in the country. I asked Singh whether the relationship would extend beyond India.
He replied, “While we do not have any immediate plans for this, for the select set of products we mentioned earlier, we may extend the partnership to a few other markets. But it will be determined based on the outcome, success in the India market, and also on the market drivers in any new proposed market. It’s too soon to commit to a timeline.”
Redington partners will be indirect resellers of Zoho and will not be considered or onboarded into the Zoho partner ecosystem.
What it could do is open up access to a huge number of Indian firms that Zoho has not yet managed to reach. With Zoho pricing already in line with the market this could be a huge success both for Redington and Zoho. However, with the contract only lasting a year initially, how will Redington ensure success?
Marketing Zoho
I asked Singh whether any marketing funds were allocated (or co-funded) by Zoho as part of this relationship.
“At this stage, we have not allocated dedicated funds. However, down the road, if there is a specific need for a particular segment or sub-geo, we will evaluate the same. We are open to doing joint activities and investments.”
However, while there is no direct marketing involved, Zoho does invest in brand marketing within India, and many will have heard of the brand, even if they do not have a clear understanding of what they do.
Singh explained how Redington would promote Zoho through its network. He said, “Redington will promote the select Zoho products (Workplace, Zoho Mail, Bigin primarily) to its reseller network. Redington team will undergo an extensive enablement program, and in addition, there will also be periodic enablement sessions for their reseller network.”
In addition, Redington will also provide services for some of the products including Zoho Mail and Zoho Workspace.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This is potentially a major deal for Zoho. It gives access to the Indian element of the Redington network’s 43,000 channel partners. If the relationship works, Zoho might choose to extend it into Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, where Redington also has a presence.
However, Redington has relationships with over 300 technology brands, several of which rival Zoho, notably Microsoft and Salesforce. It will be interesting to see how this relationship develops. With Redington wanting to add further Zoho Applications into the sales mix, will it look to add ManageEngine to the mix as well?
