Ranjan Chopra is the most powerful channel partner

New Delhi: There has been an upheaval in the power club of the channel this year, with several people who had made it to the list of the Most Powerful Channel Partner in 2008, missing in the same list in

2009. But one person has not budged his place of pride and that is Ranjan Chopra of Team Computers.

Chopra has topped the list for the second year in a row.

This is the third year that DQ Channels has released the list of the 10 Most Powerful Channel Partner in the Indian IT industry. These people have carved a niche for themselves in the channel community. While the vendors refer to them before planning strategic decisions, their peers look at them for guidance and inspiration.

While coming up with the list, the thumb rule was to focus on the people and not just the company. DQ Channels gathered feedback from representatives of over 25 vendor companies as well as national distribution houses, asking them to give the names of five channel partners who are a crucial cog in

their wheel.

Revenues were not the sole criteria for selection. Instead, these respondents were asked to focus on how well the contender has grown his company, the innovation he brings to his business, his negotiation skills, his charisma, his ability to deal with difficult situation and his progress over the years.

Once the names started pouring in, DQ Channels selected those names that came up repeatedly. After culling the top 10 names, DQ Channels traced the order in which they featured on the nominations tendered by the vendors and ranked them accordingly.

Five people continued to remain in the Most Powerful Channel Partners list in 2009. These included Ranjan Chopra of Team Computers; Rakesh Jain of Supreme Computers; RS Shanbhag of Value Point; Devendra Taneja of PC Solutions and Prateek Garg of Progessive Infotech.

Of these, Rakesh Jain moved to #2, up from his #6 position last year, while Devendra Taneja lost his #3 position and slipped to #8 this year.

RS Shanbhag moved down one rung from #2 in 2008 and so did Prateek Garg of Progressive Infotech who too lost one rank and came to #9 this year.

The newcomers in the list this year are Anil Mhaske of Data Care Corporation, Sunil Dalal of Softcell Technologies, Ajay Sawant of Orient Technologies, G Balakrishanan of Avnet India and JK Baid of Eastern IT Group.

POWER CLUB 2009

1. Ranjan Chopra (Team Computers, Delhi) 2) Rakesh Jain (Supreme Computers, Chennai)
2. RS Shanbagh (Value Point, Bangalore) 4) Anil Mhaske (Data Care, Pune)
3. Sunil Dalal (Softcell Technologies, Mumbai) 6) Ajay Savant (Orient Technologies, Mumbai)
4. G Balakrishnan (Avnet India, Mumbai) 8) Devendra Taneja (PC Solutions, Delhi)
5. Prateek Garg (Progressive Infotech, Noida) 10) JK Baid (Eastern IT, Kolkata)
6. JK Baid (Eastern IT, Kolkata)