Partners on hills facing chilled business

New Delhi,

February 8th, 2008

It has been a week now since weather has changed in north India and the
regions that that have been adversely affected are Jammu, Kashmir and Himachal
Pradesh. Mercury in these regions dipped below zero degree and the states have
been receiving rain, hail and snow fall. Not surprisingly, the channel community
in these regions is having a tough time as the bad weather has affected their
business to a large extent.

In Jammu, it has been snowing for the last three days and the roads are
completely blocked leading to very few customers visiting IT dealers.

"We are facing a severe cold weather and this has led to a decline in
the number of customers visiting our shops. All the roads are blocked. I have
lost 50-60 of my business in the last one week and the scene will get worse till
the weather retruns to normalcy," shared Sanjay Langer, CEO of Jammu based
AGM Sales Corporation.

The declining number of visiting customers apart, many of the employees of
solution providers in the region are stuck in off-site locations and are unable
to make their way back to their place of work due to blocked roads.

"As many as six of my employees are stuck in remote locations like Punj,
Srinagar or Baramullah and are unable to come back. In the month of February and
March when lot of financial decisions have to be taken, I am facing manpower
crunch. Moreover, the traveling and lodging expenses is also shooting up. We are
hoping that everything returns to normal soon," shared Inderpal Singh, CEO
of Jammu based Aman Technologies.

Ashfaq Ahmad Bhat from Srinagar based Babbage Computers said that the sales
in his shop has reduced to almost 90 percent as people are not moving out from
their homes and this has resulted in non-liquidation of stocks.

In Shimla also partners are facing loss of 50-90 percent of their business as
there has been heavy snowfall in last one week and customers are spending most
of their time in their homes.

"Due to the weather, the market has also become cold. Customers are not
moving out of their homes and our business is suffering a lot. Business at my
shop has reduced to 50 percent of what I do in normal days," commented
Balkar Singh Dadwal, CEO of Shimla based Computer Care.