In what can be seen as a landmark event in the history of channel partners, more than 400 partners from Tamil Nadu, representing 13 associations took part in a summit organized by Confederation of IT Association (Confed-ITA). The two-day summit saw lots of ideas and decisions, benefiting both the channel and vendors, being taken by the Confed committee. In his welcome address T Senthil Kumar, President, Nilgiris IT Association (NITA) asserted that the summit was a conduit between the vendors and channels, and the convergence would help both in bilateral growth. He also said that the platform would address all the issues between the two. Agreeing with Senthil, S Karthikeyan, President, Confed-ITA added that the summit would be help generate many solutions for the issues that channels face in the industry. “Tamilnadu has around 750 partners and members who are a part of Confed-ITA. These members are generating
Rs 1,800 crore a year, which is a huge amount, and the revenue is growing by 30 percent every year across 40 cities,” he added.

Karthikeyan asked traders to assess their strengths and weaknesses and requested them to communicate with other partners in the state, which would help create good rapport, understanding and unity amongst them. In his message to the government, Karthikeyan promised to provide support to all the initiatives taken by the government. In his guest address, K Thangaraj, Chairman, CII, Coimbatore region requested all channel partners to provide 'value addition' to the services they offer. “A trader must not be a mere reseller but a complete solution provider as the world demands it. I also propose that traders need to focus on indigenous consensus zones rather than focusing on special economic zones. The government should support these indigenous zones by providing subsidiaries to the players,” Thangaraj asserted.

Addressing the topic of 'vision and mission' PN Prasad, VP, Confed-ITA advised partners to stick a logo of their company on all the products they sold as it would help in building relations with customers. “If you sell a product with your logo on it, dealers can receive more customers and provide service support, instead of letting customers rely only on vendors. And we should excel in the support that we provide to the customers,” Prasad asserted. About converging all associations under Confed-ITA, Prasad said, “The south zone of Confed could be created, converging all the states in South India. This could be an initial step towards reaching the All India Confed.”

G Thangaraj, Chairman, CII Coimbatore delivering the keynote presentation during the summit

Prasad also suggested the idea of starting a certification program for all traders under Confed. “Confed can start a certification program for traders as we have experts in all divisions of technology among us,” he added.

Speaking on the future of Confed, Muralidharan Nair, a member of Confed, said, “Confed will help members to become total solution providers and not just resellers. In the near future, the goal of Confed is to become a national body and every city or state association would become a chapter of Confed-ITA.”

The summit also saw majors like Intel, Microsoft, HP and Samsung making presentations for the channel. Vendors were encouraged by the great response they received from the summit.

Another highlight of the summit was the joining of Chennai-based IT Traders Welfare Association (ITTWA) with Confed-ITA. MC Jain, Secretary, ITTWA, said, “The unity we see here is great. It would be a great field to sort out any issues in a much lesser point of time.” Yaspal S Jain, VP, ITTWA, added, “It is a great privilege to be part of Confed-ITA, which is working for the welfare of all the people associated with the IT industry.” ITTWA has 150 members, and including ITTWA, 13 associations are now a part of Confed-ITA.

Visitors participating in various activities at the stalls

Warranty issue­
One of the major points discussed during the summit was the warranty issue. Confed's request to HP in this regard was taken up by the company in a positive manner. The vendor has decided to implement a pilot project at Coimbatore wherein they would pick up warranty and repair parts from the channel partner's premises in a 'hub and spoke' arrangement. This is a win-win situation for channel partners and HP, and it clearly demonstrated the positive feedback and demands that were met by vendors. The decision will be implemented in phases across Tamil Nadu.

Suggestions made
As vendors have no mechanism to deliver on-site warranty at many locations, channel partners end up providing service/pickup and delivery without any monetary consideration for the same. Confed-ITA members requested vendors to unbundle onsite charges from the product and they requested that partners should have the option of selling it along with the product if they are satisfied with the level of support offered by the vendors. Confed also proposed that all their members should adopt a uniform warranty policy and standard terms for sale.

Suggestions were made to convert Confed into Confederation of Indian IT (CIIT) to include all solution providers, resellers and VARs. This suggestion was inspired from Manufacture's Association of IT (MAIT) and software industry's Nasscom. A decision was taken to address this suggestion in the coming months and a resolution would be made as per members.

Anand Rao Patil, District Collector, Niligiri at the inauguration ceremony

The road ahead
Confed-ITA has planned to embrace other state units in its fold to make it a true national level body. The structure for this evolution has already been put into place. State units would form Zonal Unit and all four zones would constitute a national body.

At the end of the summit, Karthikeyan remarked, “All our efforts in the past two months have reaped fruit as the response we received from traders has been overwhelming. Our aim was to make each and every channel partner aware of Confed-ITA and to involve them as active members of the unit. This would provide them an excellent business atmosphere for trade with which their growth would be health and wealthy.”

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