Associations Have An Important Role To Play

What is the total number of channel partners operating in the country? While
there are no clear numbers available, it is by and large accepted that there are
minimum 20,000 and maximum 30,000. Even if there are 20,000 channel partners, it
is quite huge by any standard. Most importantly, these partners are widely
spread across more than 600 cities and towns of India.

And when such a large community is present, there is a need to have a body or
bodies to take care of their welfare. That's why associations are extremely
important for the channel community as they have a very important role to play.

Interestingly, in most important B- and C-class towns, associations exist and
are pretty active. The notable ones are in Jalandhar, Jaipur, Kanpur, Indore,
Bhubaneshwar, Shillong, Baroda, Surat, Nagpur, Pune, Pondicherry, Madurai,
Trichy, Cochin, among other cities. All of them are doing a lot of top quality
work in furthering the cause of its channel community members.

Surprisingly, metros are lagging behind on this front. While Kolkata is an
exception as Compass is going great guns there. Mumbai is somewhat okay as far
as TAIT is concerned. However, Delhi and Chennai are absolute culprits on this
front. Both these cities have multiple associations and none of them are very
effective.

In fact, Chennai takes the cake where five associations, i.e. DAIT, ITTA,
Sneham, G-10 and CITRA exist. While the first two claim to represent the
interests of the community as a whole, the last two are trying to further the
cause of supplies resellers. Sneham, is trying to be the voice of system
integrators.

Thankfully, Delhi does not have so many. Rather, two bodies exist at the
moment. They are DCTA and CMDA. While DCTA is more or less defunct, CMDA has a
handful of members who are into the supplies business. However, things are
changing in the capital as a brand new association is getting formed which has
representations from a cross-section of the channel community.

These associations lack a unified body to take care of issues that have
national ramifications. While one such body, NACIT was formed about sometime
back with the active backing of Channels India, it doesn't seem to have lived
up to its initial promise.

This brings us to the initial question, do we really need a national
association? The answer is an emphatic yes. Remember the issue of handling
charges imposed by the top three distys last year? Due to the efforts put in by
NACIT, the charges were rolled back by the distys. Which really proves that
associations really have an important role to play.

Asim Raina