Siliguri is a long way from solving its problems, both within and outside the channel space. In the recent IT Panchayat held here on March 14, issues pertaining to distributors and the two rival associations-IT Dealers Association of Siliguri (ITDAS) and IT Forum of North Bengal were raised.

Attended by over 60 channel partners from the region, the event was paneled by representatives from Redington and Ingram Micro, both trying to take stock of channel grievances. The event kick-started with a presentation by Gigabyte and Go IP, discussing the unidentified opportunities in the region. The sponsors of the event were Symantec, Emerson, Gigabyte and Go IP.

Soon, issues related to newly-introduced freight charges by national distributors were raised. Rajesh Bothra of Crystal Technologies complained, “Ingram Micro has introduced freight charges of Rs 150 across Siliguri irrespective of the distance covered. We are also facing problems with replacement of stock and the distributor lacks cordiality.”

Adding fuel to the fire, Gagan Joshi of Landmark brought up the issue of Microsoft threatening channel partners in the region. Dealers complained that Microsoft, in a bid to maximize its sales was accusing channel partners of advocating piracy. Microsoft has allegedly been repeatedly conducting raids in the offices of channel partners and if a partner is found guilty, the company is giving the partner unachievable sales targets.

Partners also revealed that the rivalry between the two IT associations in Siliguri is on the rise and association portfolio holders are misusing their power to maximize their own sales.

Defending Ingram Micro's stance and commenting on the impact of the global slowdown, Bidyut Roy, Area Manager-North Bengal, Ingram Micro said, “Even though India is still virtually unaffected by the crisis, markets across Bengal are pretty down. In such a scenario, we aim to revise our credit policy so that small players could have credit facility.”

Avishek Rakshit
avishekr@cybermedia.co.in

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