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This sleepy town, was once the capital city of the erst while Gaekwad rulers
and is well known for its art galleries, museums and palaces. Now Vadodara is
making its presence felt as a key business center for IT in Gujarat.
This is evident from the increase in the number of channel partners operating
in this city. There are over 286 registered partners, while there were only 100
till a few years ago.
Adds Amit Shah of AB's, "At the moment, Baroda is a virtually
unexplored market, so there is a lot of scope for more players to enter the
market, without poaching on their peer's business."
CLOSE BONDING
Despite this increased competition, partners share a strong bonding amongst
themselves and this is because of their close-knit association. However, most of
these partners are still in the trading business, with just 4% of them focusing
on the solutions business.
 But the realization that trading is not a well-paying business is seeping in.
The local association, Baroda IT Association (BITA) is doing its best to help
members make a transition to provide the entire platform of hardware and
software as a single offering.
"The response is very good and we hope to see the emergence of more
solution partners," says Jugal Mehta, Treasurer, BITA. But Nilesh Kuvadia
of IT Consultany Group notes that most partners are not qualified to get into
the solution business, as they do not have trained personnel to offer pre- and
post-sales support. "A good vision is necessary to get into the solution
providing business, but this is lacking in partners," he adds.
RAMPANT SOFTWARE PIRACY
There is just one dedicated software reseller in the city and that is IT
Consultany Group. And the reason partners are not keen to venture into software
reselling is because users expect and demand software for free.
Says Nilesh, "Majority of corporates, SOHO and home customers are
unwilling to buy licensed software because of its high cost." He pegs the
piracy to be 80% in the city. Even dealers are not very keen on pushing licensed
software sales, for fear of losing the customer to his competition.
Another sore area for most partners is the octroi, especially in software.
Says Paritosh Gupta of Beam Computers, "Software attracts 4% octroi and
while we are even willing to pay it, the attitude of the octroi officials is
unbearable. The government should change with the times and abolish this
tax."
BITA has already made several representations to the government in this
regard, but no positive outcome has emerged. The association's executive
council is now planning to emulate the distribution process of vendors like
Samsung and LG, so that
payment of octroi does not become a troublesome event for partners.
VINITA BHATIA in Baroda
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