Wrapped in
the picturesque range of Aravali mountains, Ajmer has an integrated
rich cultural heritage. Being famous for its Dargah Sharif, Tomb of
Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, the city is also a base for
visiting Pushkar, the abode of Lord Brahma. Ajmer is not just famous
for its Dargah, but it is also known for its well- cclaimed Mayo
College, and its proximity to Pushkar Lake. Due to the presence of
various educational institutions, the city has a large population of
students. Besides, it is a trade center for manufactured goods
including cotton, wool textiles, leather, hosiery, shoes, soap, and
pharmaceuticals.
When it
comes
to the IT industry of Ajmer, it is not a very prosperous market. In
the last 6 months, it hasn't registered any promising growth,
except during festive season, when it saw a good sale. Moreover, this
time there were no festive schemes introduced by vendors, because of
which most of the channel partners introduced their own schemes to
lure customers. “Customers always wait for festival season for
purchasing. This Diwali, we brought out our own schemes to infl uence
customers, as there were no schemes introduced by vendors,” said
Amit Sharma of KK Softmart. The city is driven by 35-odd channel
partners, who register an annual revenue of around Rs 35 crore. Owing
to the lack of industrial and corporate segments, the city's main
business verticals are education and home segments.
The large
student population usually buy HP, Compaq, Sony and Dell laptops,
while all-in-ones are too in a demand. Ajmer has no active IT
association present in the city, because of which all channel
partners have to solve their problems and issues on their own. “As
we don't have any association in the city, we usually resolve our
issues with vendors by conducting discussions. We want to have a
trade governing body in the city that can take us forward,” said
Shalabh Kumar Agarwal of Symbiosis Computer Visions.
Since, Ajmer
is not a big business hub for IT products, its issues usually goes
unnoticed. For instance, vendors do not provide any specifi c
policies regarding DoA and are lacking on service support. Timely
delivery of products has always been a big concern for city partners,
but the lack of co-operation from vendors has done nothing good for
them. “There are irrational policies meted out to partners and
there are no structured policies in Ajmer that can give a rise to our
business,” said Agarwal. There are some service centers of HP and
LG in the city, but then it doesn't meet the requirements of city's
dealers, for which they have to travel to Jaipur.