Delhi's Channel Community gets a Voice

At the beginning of this year in January, I had done some crystal ball gazing
and made six predictions for the market. At that time, it looked like a foolish
thing to do. But now it seems that I was on the right path as one of the
predictions came true within the first quarter of 2005.

Prediction number five said, "Delhi and Chennai channel markets will see
the emergence of new associations". Last month, some of the leading players
of the capital's channel community got together and announced the formation of
PCAIT (Progressive Channels Association of Information Technology). And I hear
that similar thing is happening in Chennai market also.

Without doubt, the channel community in both the cities has realized the
importance of having one single platform as their voice rather than having a
plethora of entities claiming to be the real one.

The most credible feature of PCAIT is the names associated with the entity.
People like RK Malhotra, Ranjan Chopra, Saket Kapur and Keshav Madhav who have
been elected as President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer respectively,
are some of the most respected and leading players of Delhi.

Apart from these four gentlemen, others involved in the formation of the
association gives PCAIT the necessary clout and credibility in a market where
channel community has been rather skeptical of associations. And they had every
reason to feel so as the other association DCTA (Delhi Computer Traders
Association) existed practically on paper.

In fact, almost a year and a half back, I had written that DCTA should be
disbanded altogether. The reason-since its formation in the nineties, it had
never served its purpose. In fact, one couldn't recall even a single activity,
which it had undertaken.

And the worst part of that association was that none of the leading players
of Delhi's channel community was associated with it. On the other hand, PCAIT
can boast of almost the prominent channel partners as its member.

Although these are early days to pass any value judgement on PCAIT, the fact
of the matter is that it has started off in right earnest where the focus is not
on individuals but on team. That is something which will differentiate it from
other associations where the office bearers are more interested in occupying the
chair rather than doing some work for the betterment of their brethren.

Let's all of us wish them the very best for this noble mission.

Asim Raina