Redington, India's Top Choice: Shaping the Future of Technology Distribution

"Ramesh Natarajan, CEO, Redington Limited shares his views on why Redington is the numero uno distributor in the country and elaborates on the areas of focus in the fast-evolving Tech landscape"

What do you attribute Redington’s success to in becoming the #1 distributor in India? 
Partnership is a core tenet at Redington, and we believe this has been instrumental in our growth and success over the three decades of our operations. Successful outcomes for customers is the result of our collaboration with the broader ecosystem, including channel, brands, ISVs, service providers and so on.

With our partnership with global brands, we offer a diverse and comprehensive portfolio of technologies that is relevant for our markets. 

Notably, we are the first Distributor to have been publicly listed (since 2007), driving the highest levels of transparency and corporate governance. The support of our investor community and banking partners has been a significant enabler for our growth.

Redington’s focus on sustainability and corporate social responsibility has also contributed to the overall success. We have integrated sustainable practices into our business model.

The expertise and dedication of our talented workforce has been the backbone of our achievements. Our employees embody an intrapreneurial culture that is crucial in powering our strategic partnerships and driving innovation. We are proud to have an experienced executive leadership team that has been invaluable in shaping the direction and strong engagement with stakeholders.

We are deeply humbled by the recognition and grateful to the partner ecosystem for making us who we are, and commit to scaling our engagement further.

Redington has been a key player in driving technological adoption and business growth across India. Could you elaborate on your strategy for this, and what the roadmap looks like for FY 2024-25?
Our evolution over the years reflects our commitment to providing relevant solutions to partners and customers. The broad phases of this journey are as follows:

Distribution 1.0 (Reach, Efficiency, Scale): focusing on primary distribution functions such as logistics, credit, coverage, capital adequacy, core distribution skills etc.)

Distribution 2.0 (Value-Added-Distribution): we enhanced our offerings with pre-sales, certifications, channel finance, digitalization addressing the increasing complexity of tech offerings and channel / customer needs. This phase also saw our foray into Cloud technologies, and enabling consumption models such as subscription, renewals, annuities etc.

Distribution 3.0 (Technology Solutions Distribution): we have enhanced our value proposition further, focusing on helping partners achieve their customers’ business outcomes. This includes digital business models, hyper-personalization, customized distribution solutions, digitally enabled workflows, moving from transactional to contractual relationships, Marketing-as-a-Service and so on.

With a diverse product and solution portfolio, which sectors is Redington focusing on, and how are you addressing their unique needs?
The diversity of Product and Solution portfolio reflects the broader consumption of ICT market, and this is a core strength of our offering. Even as we evaluate newer and emerging verticals, we would ensure continued focus on strengthening our core technology offerings. As we do so, we seek to leverage on tailwinds for our core categories.

Cloud has been one of the fastest growing segments for the industry, powered by huge upside for cloud adoption, as well as born-in-the-cloud applications. We have been a pioneer in cloud distribution in India and are proud of our long-standing partnerships with all the hyperscalers. Apart from IaaS and PaaS, we would further build on our suite of world-class SaaS offerings, leveraging on our Cloud Platform CloudQuarks.

Our Mobility offering includes the best of Smartphone and accessory (including wearables / hearables) brands. We have exciting initiatives in this vertical, aimed at improving reach and coverage, with our Digital Platform as well as tech applications that address specific needs of this segment (such as lower supply chain TAT, high frequency, credit, affordability programs etc.).

The Core IT stack is an exciting space to watch out for. Key developments on this front include the advent of AI PCs, “software-defined” enterprise IT infrastructure, trend towards hybrid cloud, growth of data centers and so on. We are closely engaged with brands and partners to bring the best of technologies to market, as we leverage on these trends.

Building on our presence in the Solar business, we also seek to play a significant part in the growth of renewable energy in India, in the coming years.

Can you share more about Redington's market presence within India and its global footprint? How does this geographical reach contribute to your business strategy?

Apart from India, we have a significant presence in the emerging market geographies across 40 countries of Middle East, Africa, Turkey and South Asia, making Redington the 7th largest Distributor globally. 

Across these markets we offer the entire gamut of IT products, Smartphones and Solar products. Our Service & Solutions include Managed Cloud, Logistics, BPM, BPO and 3D Printing services.

Our ability to cross-pollinate learnings from these markets has contributed to our growth. With a “One Redington” approach, we seek to bring the best of people, processes and knowledge for the benefit of each of our markets.

Considering the evolving tech industry, what is Redington’s key strategy for empowering its channel partners? 
In view of the fast-paced tech evolution, we have identified that there is a need for holistic platforms to cater to the needs of our partners while empowering them to manage their businesses more efficiently. Some of the initiatives to equip partners in this landscape include :

We have a robust Digital Platform offering - RedingtonOnline - built to address the scale and complexity of diverse business verticals and business models of partners. Apart from operational efficiency, partners can benefit from a wider suite of offerings as well as programs on the Digital Platform

CloudQuarks - our Cloud Platform - enables seamless workflows for the Cloud consumption models.

Apart from these, we have various programs in partnership with brands / hyperscalers to equip partners with tools and expertise:

Ø    AWS supports Redington and its channel partners with business and technical expertise, including training and enablement, solution development, and building technical competency support to accelerate their growth. Redington upskills its partners to cater to end customers with a wide gamut of services from AWS Cloud. Additionally, Redington provides Internet of Things (IoT) services and pre/post-sales support to ensure a holistic approach to customer satisfaction and success.

Ø    We partnered with Google Cloud to empower our existing and potential cloud partners with access to business and technical expertise while helping them develop resources that support and manage their customers.

Ø    In partnership with Microsoft, we introduced the Redington Shiksha platform, a learning platform tailored to assist partners and their customers globally. This platform aims to empower our partners with cloud education and resources to better engage with customers in the cloud domain, ultimately expanding their business opportunities. 

This is a very exciting phase of our journey together with partners. In our quest to solve for unprecedented complexity and build solutions for customers, we now have a whole new generation of tools and technologies that we can leverage on. 

With the increasing demand for cloud-based solutions, how is Redington equipped to support businesses with its Cloud Migration Framework? 
Our S.M.A.R.T.. Cloud Adoption Framework helps organizations understand how cloud-adoption transforms the way they work, align business and technology agendas, thereby making it easier for them to choose the right route forward and confidently assess impact and potential outcomes.

We have combined years of extensive experience and knowledge to develop a unique framework that enables seamless and secure cloud migration. We follow a three-step cloud adoption program that addresses cloud adoption, cloud migration and managed services. With a comprehensive suite of cloud offerings, we help customers establish governance, operational and architectural frameworks to mitigate risks and increase efficiencies, reduce costs, simplify compliance, improve security and accelerate time to deliver on cloud.

We also offer a suite of capabilities and competencies that our partners can use to complement their offerings.

AI is rapidly transforming the tech landscape. Can you share Redington’s proactive stance on AI-enabled solutions, and how you plan to integrate these technologies into your offerings?
AI is undoubtedly a revolutionary trend, with potential for not just productivity and efficiency, but redefining entire business models. However, it is still a relatively nascent domain, and we are working closely with all key vendors in this space to structure several solutions.

Internally, we have an AI committee in place to evaluate and deploy AI solutions within Redington. We look forward to taking these learnings to the market as well.

We have also launched RedAI, in partnership with AWS, to equip partners with Gen AI offerings and solutions.

On the devices front, we look forward to launch of many more AI PCs and other AI embedded / AI powered devices. We have been offering AI tools such as Copilot and Gemini for the SMB market.

How do you see the future evolving for Redington and its partners?
At Redington we are proud of our journey of over 30 years of robust partnerships with the channel, brands and other stakeholders, as well as committed human capital. We are proud to also have played a significant part in the exponential digital transformation of India, over the past few years.

We are driving towards a future that is digitally powered, and highly productive for every participant. We seek to work with our brand and channel partners in enabling meaningful and tangible solutions to customers’ problems. In this endeavour Redington’s core focus on “Innovation, Technology and Partnerships” would be more relevant than ever.

SMBs play a crucial role in the Indian economy. How is Redington supporting SMBs in their digital transformation journey, and what specific initiatives do you have to address their unique challenges?

As a key technology solutions provider, Redington has tailored initiatives that address the unique challenges faced by SMBs. One of them is "Mission 300," aimed at digitally transforming 300 towns and cities across India. This initiative brings together our partner brands, including HP, Dell, Apple, and Microsoft, to develop customised technology solutions that cater to specific vertical markets. Through Mission 300, we provide SMBs with the tools and knowledge they need to compete and grow in the digital age, leveraging digital journeys, social media, and data-driven insights. Redington has also directly engaged with nearly 10,000 SMBs through 150 targeted events and digital campaigns. Our strong partnership model further enhances our support for SMBs. We work closely with our partners to deliver greater value and ensure SMBs have access to the best technology solutions available.