Confed-IT holds landmark summit

N R Sethuraman

Ooty

November 27th, 2007

In what can be seen as a landmark event in the history of channel partners,
more than 400 partners from Tamil Nadu, representing 13 associations took part
in a summit organized by Confederation of IT Association (Confed-ITA). The
two-day summit saw ideas and decisions, benefiting both the channel and vendors,
being taken by the Confed committee. In his welcome address T Senthil Kumar,
President, Nilgiris IT Association (NITA) asserted that the summit was a conduit
between the vendors and channels, and the convergence would help both in
bilateral growth. He also said that the platform would address all the issues
between the two. Agreeing with Kumar, S Karthikeyan, President, Confed-ITA added
that the summit would be help generate many solutions for the issues that
channels face in the industry. "Tamilnadu has around 750 partners and
members who are a part of Confed-ITA. These members are generating Rs 1,800
crore a year, which is a huge amount, and the revenue is growing by 30 percent
every year across 40 cities," he added.

Karthikeyan asked traders to assess their strengths and weaknesses and
requested them to communicate with other partners in the state, which would help
create good rapport, understanding and unity amongst them. In his message to the
government, Karthikeyan promised to provide support to all the initiatives taken
by the government.

In his guest address, K Thangaraj, Chairman, CII, Coimbatore region requested
all channel partners to provide 'value addition' to the services they offer.
"A trader must not be a mere reseller but a complete solution provider as
the world demands it. I also propose that traders need to focus on indigenous
consensus zones rather than focusing on special economic zones. The government
should support these indigenous zones by providing subsidiaries to the
players," Thangaraj asserted.

Addressing the topic of 'vision and mission' PN Prasad, VP, Confed-ITA
advised partners to stick a logo of their company on all the products they sold
as it would help in building relations with customers. "If you sell a
product with your logo on it, dealers can receive more customers and provide
service support, instead of letting customers rely only on vendors. And we
should excel in the support that we provide to the customers," Prasad
asserted. About converging all associations under Confed-ITA, Prasad said,
"The south zone of Confed could be created, converging all the states in
South India. This could be an initial step towards reaching the All India Confed."
Prasad also suggested the idea of starting a certification program for all
traders under Confed. "Confed can start a certification program for traders
as we have experts in all divisions of technology among us," he added.

Speaking on the future of Confed, Muralidharan Nair, a member of Confed,
said, "Confed will help members to become total solution providers and not
just resellers. In the near future, the goal of Confed is to become a national
body and every city or state association would become a chapter of Confed-ITA."

The summit also saw majors like Intel, Microsoft, HP and Samsung making
presentations for the channel. Vendors were encouraged by the great response
they received from the summit.

Another highlight of the summit was the joining of Chennai-based IT Traders
Welfare Association (ITTWA) with Confed-ITA. MC Jain, Secretary, ITTWA, said,
"The unity we see here is great. It would be a great field to sort out any
issues in a much lesser point of time." Yaspal S Jain, VP, ITTWA, added,
"It is a great privilege to be part of Confed-ITA, which is working for the
welfare of all the people associated with the IT industry." ITTWA has 150
members, and including ITTWA, 13 associations are now a part of Confed-ITA.

Warranty issue

One of the major points discussed during the summit was the warranty issue.
Confed's request to HP in this regard was taken up in a positive manner. The
vendor has decided to implement a pilot project at Coimbatore wherein they would
pick up warranty and repair parts from the channel partner's premises in a 'hub
and spoke' arrangement. This is a win-win situation for channel partners and HP,
and it clearly demonstrated the positive feedback and demands that were met by
vendors. The decision will be implemented in phases across Tamil Nadu.

Suggestions made

As vendors have no mechanism to deliver on-site warranty at many locations,
channel partners end up providing service/pickup and delivery without any
monetary consideration for the same. Confed-ITA members requested vendors to
unbundle onsite charges from the product and they requested that partners should
have the option of selling it along with the product if they are satisfied with
the level of support offered by the vendors. Confed also proposed that all their
members should adopt a uniform warranty policy and standard terms for sale.

Suggestions were made to convert Confed into Confederation of Indian IT (CIIT)
to include all solution providers, resellers and VARs. This suggestion was
inspired from Manufacture's Association of IT (MAIT) and software industry's
Nasscom. A decision was taken to address this suggestion in the coming months
and a resolution would be made as per members.

Confed in future

Confed-ITA has planned to embrace other state units in its fold to make it a
true national level body. The structure for this evolution has already been put
in to place. State units would form Zonal Unit and all four zones would
constitute a national body.

At the end of the summit, Karthikeyan remarked, "All our efforts in the
past two months have reaped fruit as the response we received from traders has
been overwhelming. Our aim was to make each and every partner aware of
Confed-ITA, and involve him or her as active members of the unit. This would
provide them an excellent business atmosphere for trade with which their growth
would be health and wealthy."