Jamnagar finally gets an association

Vinay Dalvi

Mumbai

October 1st, 2007

Inspired by the channel associations in the neighboring cities of Ahmedabad
and Surat, the channel community in Jamnagar has decided to for an association.
Jasmin Kamdar of Binary Systems and one of the five-committee members said,
"We have realized that the best way to negotiate with the vendor companies
is by forming an association. That's why we went ahead and formed the Jamnagar
Information Technology Association (JITA)."

In the past the channel community in the city had issues with respect to
service with companies like Viewsonic, which used to take a month's time to
offer post-sales support. They also faced problems with respect to getting local
payments. Partners hope that with an association in the city, these problems can
be effectively tackled. "If we are united we can negotiate with the
transportation authorities as well for logistics and fight with the state
government agencies about octroi related issues," Kamdar added.

Another member from Jamnagar who is actively involved in the formation of
JITA is Ashwin Kothari of Kothari Infosys. He hoped that with the formation of
the association there would be a price stability in the market. "Earlier,
dealers would sell products at any price and there was no price regulation,
which was affecting the entire business at large. Now onwards we will decide the
prices in the association meetings only and our members will adhere to it. This
will bring a price parity so that all of us will have good business," he
claimed.

Jamnagar has 65 large IT channel partners of which 48 have joined JITA. The
association has five committee members besides Kamdar. These include Chetan
Bakrania of Purshottam Consultancy, Sachin Mehta of Bitmap Informatic, Ashwin
Bhatt of Tritonic Systems and Chirac Maniar of CP Consultancy.