TOP CHANNEL ASSOCIATIONS OF INDIA

Associations are a collective voice for any industry. IT channel partners
understand this better. The fact that there are over 50 IT channel associations
across India proves that they are an important part of IT trade. For the first
time ever, DQ Channels in association with IDC India, ranked India's top IT
channel associations based on a comprehensive feedback from committees and its
members.

Fast changing business dynamics in the IT indus- try keep channel partners on
their toes. Today they are faced with numerous challenges. They are to overcome
margin pressure, bring ethical business practices, tackle payment issues and
fight taxation issues. These are issues that cannot be addressed individually.
Associations play an important role in addressing such concerns. However, the
effectiveness with which associations function, depends on the participation of
members, the activeness of committee members and the willingness of members to
raise a collective voice for the industry.

DQ Channels assigned IDC India to evaluate and rank IT associations across
India. Evaluating each and every IT association would not have been a practical
task and hence DQ Channels went through a process of sieving the most active
associations from the list of over 50 channel associations. Interestingly, only
a quarter of them (26 associations) qualified for the same.

Methodology

About 211 interviews across 26 associations, spanning 24 cities were
considered by IDC India for the survey. Analysts met up with Presidents and
official spokespersons for association feedback. Similarly, few active members
were picked up randomly from each association for the member feedback.

We
believe that the ranking given to associations based on member feedback may not
reflect the true picture about the achievements of an association. Hence various
other parameters were considered in addition to members' feedback. A model for
evaluation was developed based on the inputs received from discussions with the
association officials. Some of the parameters evaluated came up during the
course of the survey. They were:

• Business benefit accrued to members in terms of new
  business/increased turnover due to channel events conducted by the
  association.

• Effective communication and representation to the
  Government for the benefit of members' business.

• Percentage representation of members compared to the
  total resellers in the place/city.

• Membership policies and its impact on members'
  business.

• Number of events held and percentage attendance of
  members in these events.

• Policies framed by the association that impact members.

• Member welfare activities conducted.

The survey collected information in three parts. The first
was general information about the associations relating to the start-up year,
member strength, fees, office bearers, full-time employees and election
frequency. This information was collected from office bearers of the

association.

The second part focused on activities of associations.
Special attention was given to the number of internal meetings held, number of
member welfare events (seminars, training programs, exhibitions and others)
held, attendance/participation of members in such events and its outcome.

This part of the survey also evaluated associations'
ability to effectively resolve issues affecting members and issues between
members. The survey also found out if the associations had a presence on the
Internet by way of a website and if any business directory of members were
published and distributed.

IDC India also analyzed the influence it has on local
governments while voicing their concerns for the IT community.

The third part centered on information from members. The
feedback received from them threw light on the effectiveness of member events
that were conducted during the year. Based on member feedback, associations were
evaluated for the effectiveness of channel issues sorted out by associations.
Special attention was given to find out how members felt about the support
provided by the association to members in times of difficulty. Members were also
asked to rate the frequency of interaction it had with office bearers of the
association.

All the above parameters were taken into consideration with
appropriate weightage for evaluating the associations. Three rankings were
derived at for the final calculation. The first ranking was done based on the
analyst evaluation and the second ranking was done based on member feedback.
Both these rankings were then merged with another equally important parameter-ie
the size of the city-to arrive at the final ranking. 

NELSON JOHNY