15:50: IT Panchayat continues to break new ground

DQW News Bureau

Gurgaon: It all started in Nagpur on Oct 14, 2006 when the first IT Panchayat
(ITP) was held. Little did one know the impact this initiative by The DQ Week
and DQ Channels, would have on the channel landscape of the country. Now, 15
months down the line, ITP has traveled to 50 cities across India, going to the
nook and crannies across the country, addressing the issues of the channel
community and in turn becoming their voice, which is booming across to vendors.

If we look region-wise, in the last 15 months ITP has traveled to 19 cities
across North India, 11 cities in West, 11 cities in South and 9 cities in the
Eastern part of the country. In the same period it has not only been responsible
for bringing the voice of the association to the fore but also in generating
enough interest in the community to bond together to form associations.

In December '06, an ITP session in Siliguri resulted in the formation of IT
Dealers Association of Siliguri (ITDAS). Talking about the same, Gitesh Tibrewal,
President, ITDAS said, “Since long the local IT trading community was aspiring
for an association, but somehow it never materialized. The DQ Week IT Panchayat
held in December '06 provided us with the much-required neutral platform where
the idea was strongly floated and influenced the dealers present there. From
there we successfully took it further and thus the IT Dealers Association of
Siliguri was formed.”

Then it was Bhopal, where though there was already an association in place,
it was not making any significant impact. So when the ITP made a stop in the
heart of India in September '07, it did enough to rankle the partners out of
their self-imposed stupor. That is how Bhoj Information Technology and Office
Automation Association (BITOAA) came into existence. The association, which was
formed as a result of ITP, has active participation of 180 members.

And then ITP ended the year with another high; this time our event in
Agartala saw the birth of another association. Speaking about the same,
Biswanath Das, President, IT Association of Tripura (ITAT) elaborated, “We
were planning to form an association in Agartala since long. But due to some
reason or the other it never happened. I must thank The DQ Week for holding the
IT Panchayat in Agartala and inspiring us to come together and form an
association.”

But that is not all. Wherever ITP went it got fabulous backing from the
channel partners. In fact, in some places after reading about the event the
partner associations themselves came forward and invited the Panchayat to their
cities. Shiv Shankar Singh, President, Allahabad Computer Dealer Welfare
Association, after reading about the Panchyat, invited The DQ Week team to bring
the event to the city, to a rousing reception. Close to 80 partners turned up to
debate and discuss the issues that were plaguing the community. Similarly,
though Aligarh is a small town, the association there also saw an opportunity in
ITP to let their voice be heard. Putting forth his views Vijay DN Bhargava,
Secretary, Aligarh IT Association (AITA) said, “Our association has always
been reading about IT Panchayat been organized in various towns so we thought
why not invite the team to conduct such a forum in Aligarh, which also has a
good IT market but not a highlighted one. The association members are very
enthusiastic about it and I am sure it will help the dealers in raising their
concerns with the vendors and distributors.”

Unprecedented support for ITP has been pouring in from all quarters. It has
managed to touch a cord with partners across the country. “It is very rare
that the Bhubaneswar channel community has come out and discussed these
persistent problems in such an open forum. I must thank The DQ Week for
conducting such a show and giving us an opportunity to discuss these problems
openly and trying to resolve them,” said Rajesh Dora, Ex-President, IT
Association of Orissa (ITAO).

Talking about the importance of the event, Bhupender Singh Verma of Himtron
who attended the event in Simla said, “IT Panchayat is a wonderful platform
but I would like to suggest that more vendors should come to this event and
share the panel with distributors and the local IT channel community.”

Speaking in the same vein, Pankaj Kapoor of Lucknow-based CSPL stated, “I
have seen a lot of events, but this is one such event where I can get to know
the channel community as well as the distributor community on a single platform.
This is really a good experience for all the resellers.”

Enumerating the advantages of ITP, K Balachandran, Proprietor, Southern
Associates, Trichur said, “While we have enough partners and many
associations, the problem is about getting proactive. It is time that we move as
a single entity and work for our common interest. There can be no better
platform than the IT Panchayat to begin that endeavor.”

But it was KS Venkatesh, VP, Deal-IT Association, Mysore who summed up the
sentiments of perhaps the entire channel community aptly when he remarked, “The
DQ Week has been endeavoring for the cause of the partners and providing us with
platforms like the IT Panchayat to voice our concerns and be rest assured that
we would get amicable solutions.”

Similarly there are many who have benefited from the presence of ITP in their
cities. Vendors like Seagate, Hitachi, ICICI, Hughes, have tied up with ITP to
reach across the channel partner spectrum in the country. New entrants into the
field like Amconics, Realtime and Tutis have used the ITP platform to educate
the channel about their products.

So while we have covered a long journey, not one to rest on its laurels, the
ITP continues to be a format for voicing the concerns of channels and continues
its trek across the country.