Distributors: Customers want solutions from both east and west

According to distributors, customers in Southeast Asia want to work with vendors from both the US and China, depending on their offerings and capabilities.

Businesses in Southeast Asia continue to invest heavily in their tech journey. With AI still dominating most business investments, making the right choice with technology partners and vendors to work with is no longer just about having the best return of investment.

While conversations around ROI is still present, several local distributors in the region have stated that customers are preferring to work with a variety of vendors in their tech journey. What’s more interesting is that customers are beginning to see more value in some of the products and services offered by Chinese tech vendors but still want to use US-based products as well.

CRN Asia reached out to these local distributors to understand how they are dealing with this scenario. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the distributors said that while products and services from US vendors are still seeing a strong demand in the region, weakening local currencies, business strategies as well as availability of skills are seeing an increase in some companies preferring products and services from Chinese vendors.

Examples of these include the changes in pricing by some Chinese tech companies to make products a lot cheaper as compared to the ones offered by US vendors. The increasing investments made by China in the region is also seeing some businesses opting for Chinese tech solutions to boost their business strategy.

“From a product perspective, we have done even some integrations within the Western and Eastern products. We don't see many differences. There may be some features that will be reduced because of the standards and the users are different. They all work well. From a customer's perspective, language is of course a barrier. And the culture is different,” said one distributor.

Another distributor shared that Chinese tech vendors are always curious about what US vendors are doing in the industry. However, he also mentioned that he never gets asked the same thing from US-based vendors. Be it the technology or the cost; the US-based vendors feel that they know what they are doing and are confident in their products and services.

“Perhaps the experience they have is much wider as compared to those from China,” he said.

Chinese tech companies have also increased their presence in the region to support local customers. Be it in solving customer pain points or reskilling or even strategizing the business, these capabilities offered by Chinese tech companies are definitely seeing a strong interest by local companies.

It’s all about giving customers choice

According to Ananth Lazarus, Managing Director for Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) APJ, this is actually not a new phenomenon for distributors in the region.

“Many leading distributors have vendors spanning the world. The ecosystem must provide the power of choice to customers and cater to their evolving demands. Distributors are the best positioned to help their ecosystem and customers provide the best of breed products and solutions,” he said.