TAIT On Top Again

The Traders Association of IT has done it again. For the third time this
association from Mumbai has emerged as the most favored channel association as
per a survey conducted by IDC India, which was commissioned by DQ Channels.

Pune's Computers and Media Dealers Association (CMDA) came in second, which
is a whopping jump from its last year position at #9. In fact it has been the
highest mover amongst all other associations in the survey this year. This is
one association, which won for its regular activities for improving the lot of
its members, in terms of their business and quality of personal life as well.

The third winner was a surprise package. It was the Nagpur-based Vidharbha
Computer Manufacturers & Dealers Welfare Association (VCMDWA), which till last
year was at #8.

The toppers

TAIT managed to bag the envious #1 position because of its highly satisfied
members, who gave good feedback about the activities conducted by the
association. It has actively helped its members by organizing seminars on issues
that affected its members most. These includes managing the margin crisis,
handling the octroi issues as well as measures to combat the threat from large
format retailers (LFR).

TAIT, which was established in 1996, has a total of  380 members of
which 250 are active. It has 10 office bearers who are full time employee. Last
year the association bought an office for conducting its affairs with a separate
conference room that could be rented out to its members.

TAIT, which represents around 2,200 partners in Mumbai holds monthly meetings
and organized eight events last year. Three of these were seminars, held in
conjunction with vendors, to improve the skillsets of

its members. Last year the association also held an exposition-COM IT-where it
saw a visitor footfall of two lakh.

Pune's CMDA has been repeatedly in the news the whole of last year for all
the activities it has been undertaking. Its ranking in the DQ Channels Channel
Association survey significantly increased as the association was very effective
in resolving its members issues related to octroi problem. In several cases it
has been successful in bringing about internal arbitration between members as
well as with vendors.

CMDA also decided that rather than merely talking about the LFR threats it
would set up an IT Mall to counter it. It signed up with DSK Developers and is
currently finalizing the appropriate property. The association is also the first
in the country to have an ISO 9001:2000 certification.

Established in 1989, CMDA has increased its member base from 175 in 2003 to
350 currently, of which 150 members are active. It has six members on its
executive council and employs three full time employees. The body has 45
meetings annually, which comes to one meeting a week. Its annual expo saw one
lakh visitors and business worth Rs 20 lakh was generated at the event.

Nagpur-based VCMDWA, ranked at #3, added the maximum number of partners with
its membership strength going up by 47 percent to cruise at 110 partners. It
moved up from the last years #8 because of its successful handling of claims and
accounts disputes with a national distributor.

New Delhi's Computer Media Dealers Association (CMDA) was a non-mover at #4 a
position it held the year before as well. The associating was in the news when
it challenged a Samsung circular that denied post-sales support for products
sourced from non-Indian distributors. CMDA won the case in court, which
literally brought it out of its hibernation and later the association worked
with Microsoft to spread awareness about the latter's anti-piracy drive.

The Jalandhar Computer Dealers Association (JCDA) might not have been able to
add any new members to its rolls though it represents 175 partners in the city.
But its members were impressed with its various activities like holding a
workshop on Linux, besides donating a PC to a school and provided funds to a
member suffering from health problems. Despite this, it lost its #2 position
from last year to settle at #5 because members were dissatisfied with the
asso­ciation's policies and wanted more events to improve their knowledge base.

The next five

The Surat IT Association (SITA) too fell from #3 to #6 because members were
not happy with the level of lobbying that the association did with governmental
agencies and resolution of vendor related problems. The association managed to
add only six percent more members in the last year and its current strength is
213 partners. But it got a lot of positive feedback for its successful IT
exposition that witnessed good footfalls from the public.

Kolkata's Computer Asso­ciation of Eastern India (Compass) was another
non-mover on the charts and stood at #7, despite having a successful expo.
Members stated that the body was not proactive in resolving dealer issues and
though the association has 270 members, only 50 of these are active.

The Baroda IT Association (BITA) moved up three places to settle at #8.
Members gave it a positive feedback for the success of its annual exposition.
Over 30 vendors participated at the event, which saw the footfalls of 1.5 lakh
visitors.

The Madhya Pradesh Telecom and Computer Traders Association (MPTCTA) in
Indore was the fastest mover in the entire listing. It improved its position
from #16 in 2007 to #9 in 2007. With 60 of its 110 members active, the
association had a successful exposition that saw the participation of 26
vendors.

The Panipat Computer Dealer Association (PCDA) was a new entrant and managed
to hold its own at #10. The association worked hard to resolve service issues
that its members faced with APC and HP. This won it good favor amongst
respondents, placing it ahead of other associations that were in the reckoning.

The other movers

Bhubaneshwar's Information Technology Association of Orissa (ITAO) sadly moved
down by a spot not because members were unhappy with its performance, but due to
the inclusion of

newer associations that were ranked higher.

The Computer Association Nashik (CAN) entered the survey this year, but
managed to come at #12. Its claim to fame in this survey was its annual IT
exhibition that saw good vendor participa-tion. The association was also able to
get over 50,000 visitors for the event with its mass advertisement campaigns.

Once an active association, the Ahmedabad Computer Manufacturers Association
(ACMA) has been lying dormant for quite sometime which can explain why it fell
by three ranks to #13, slipping a notch below its last year's position of #12.

Bangalore's Association for Information Technology was a fast mover in the
survey moving up 12 points to rest at #13 from the previous year's #26. Contrary
to what was reported in trade publications earlier, it appears that the
association has managed to resolve internal member issues effectively.

Two other newcomers, the Yavatmal IT Association came in at #14 while the
Association of Computer Entrepreneurs in Ludhiana followed it at #15. The
latter's close neighbor, Amritsar IT Association came up next

at #16.

New Delhi-based Progressive Channel Association of IT (PCAIT) fell several
rungs down to settle at #18. The association, which was every active till a year
ago, suddenly stopped holding its meetings and was unable to have any
spectacular initiatives for its members.

Pondicherry's Information Technology Trade Association (ITTA) too lost ground
and came in at #19, five spots below its last year's positioning. It was
followed by newcomer Ankleshwar Bharuch IT Association at #20.

Methodology

Operatives from IDC India got in touch with 34 associations in the country
to find out how active they have been in the year gone by. In each association
members of the executive council were asked basic questions about the body.
These included details of the number of registered members since 2003 to gauge
how many new partners have joined.

Responses were also solicited about the number of executive council members,
if the association had any full time employees and the periodicity of holding
elections.

To gauge the lobbying power of the body, the survey questionnaire sought to
find out how many times the body had made representations to the government and
the number of partners who were part of the delegation. Details were also
collected about the nature and number of activities organized by the
associations annually.

The operatives then got in touch with registered members of the association
who were not part of its executive council to find out their satisfaction levels
with the way the body was functioning.

The ranking was based on three parameters-analyst evalua­tion (50 percent
weigh­tage), size of city (10 percent weightage) and member feed­back (40
percent weightage).

Some key findings

The survey threw up some very interesting facts. Almost all the top ranking
associations held the successful expositions. TAIT's Com IT was the most
successful on the basis of the amount of business generated, which was Rs 35
lakh, while Compass's event saw over four lakh visitors participating in Kolkata
event. This proves that members wants their local bodies to have more
expositions as its increases their chances of doing more business on a unified
platform with minimal expenses.

All new entrants to the survey got very good ratings from their members. One
could consider this an initial euphoria related to having a common body that
will address their problems. But if these asso­ciations want to continue holding
onto their ranks they will have to be more proactive in organizing seminars and
workshops for their members.

Members also gave their thumbs up for associations that lobbied with
government bodies and vendors to make the trade smoother. Here is another lesson
that the executive council of associations can learn. If you want to be popular,
be active.

DQC News Bureau