May the force be with us

Bangalore

July 26th, 2007

The best way to resolve any issues pertaining to the IT business is to come
together as a united force and escalate the problem to the vendors, felt
partners who met at Trichy for the IT Panchayat, organized by The DQWeek, on
July 21st. "Doing the kind of business we do, it is very important that we
stand together as a single entity. Only then will we be able to get quick
solutions to our issues," said B Kuberan, President, Association of
Computer Traders - Trichy (ACTT).

Agreeing with him was Uttam Chand, VP of ACTT who said, "As partners in
the business we must make sure that all of us earn profits by doing what we do.
Joining hands and standing up together for a common cause is the best way to
ensure that by. In fact our association is working to bring all partners
together on a common platform and discuss the points of concern which we can
then take up with our vendors."

Post-sales service issues


The biggest issue of concern for the 55 odd partners who had assembled at the
event was the delay in getting solutions from their vendors. Since no vendor has
a service center in Trichy, partners felt that processing service orders took a
very long time causing them an expense both in terms of time as well as money.
The need of the hour, was for vendors to consider setting up of service centers
in Trichy, they felt.

The other issue on top of the partner minds was the need for vendors to
safeguard the interests of genuine dealers so that they are motivated to take up
the challenges of the growing market. Given the growing competition, vendors
should put in place some sort of discipline and prevent too many players
occupying the market, partners felt.

In the ensuing discussion, dealers indicated that their other areas of
concern were warranty rejections, DOA, claim settlements, vendor poaching, lack
of buffer stock and direct sales activity. Vendors need to give clarity on
warranty terms, reasons for rejecting warranty and calculation of warranty
period as well as DoA cases while also offering price protection to partners.

Indicating that the association would work together with partners to help
resolve all issues, S Sudarshan Kumar, Public Relations Officer of ACTT said
that as part of the agenda for the year ahead, the association would organize
exhibitions and awareness programs to help partners get a better know-how.

In fact, the association is all set to organize one expo in the first week of
August and The DQ Week is media sponsor for the same. On its part, The DQ Week
promised to do it best to help dealers to resolve these issues.

The panelists at the event included B Kuberan, President, ACCT; Uttam Chand,
Vice President ACTT; Vinod Kumar, Treasurer, ACTT, Suresh Kumar, Partner,
Multitask Computer Services and H Wilson, Managing Partner, Cemos Electronics.