VAIT on membership drive

The thirty-member strong VAIT is strengthening its membership base. The association will be adding another 20 members by December 2005. VAIT is inviting resellers of nearby small towns such as
Vaniyambadi, Thirrupattur and Ambur among others to join the association and support in promoting trade in the region. 

According to MB Shoban Babu, Secretary, VAIT, the association is also approaching the local resellers who have not yet registered with the association and is inviting them to become members at the earliest.
Arumugam, President, VAIT said, “The association will play a key role in graduating channel partners to the next level of system integrators in business. The association would conduct several technical workshops and seminars to take the resellers to the next level in business.” 

VAIT is also competing with nearby markets such as Chennai, which attracts the local customers with low-cost offerings. “Chennai is not far from Vellore and customers prefer to go there to buy IT products. They do not consider the after-sales support until they experience problems. So, VAIT is asking its members to educate the customers on the importance of service and is requesting resellers to go all out to provide value-addition in business to retain the customers,” added
Arumugam. 

VAIT is also into fund-raising initiatives for the welfare of the association and is planning to conduct a three-day IT fair in the next couple of months. “We are looking at roping all the big players in the industry and make it a big successful event in the region,” said
Babu. 

Also VAIT, which recently announced the 'One Company, One Dealer' policy, is bringing about a slight change in the policy. “Companies like HP, TVSE and others have different channel policies, which made us bring in slight changes within the policy. As per the modified policy, Vellore will have more than one dealer representing the company, in order to meet the company demands,” said
Arumugam. 

However, these large vendors have also requested for a district-wide representation and the plan is to add in more members from the nearby smaller towns. The association has planned to implement the policy of 'One Company, One Dealer' policy in a move to cover the customers presence in these smaller towns,” he added. 

DQW News Bureau 

Chennai