Allahabad: Aiming High

Allahabad,
situated at the Triveni Sangam of the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati
rivers, is the second oldest city of India. Being acknowledged as one
of the holiest places of the country, it has seen an era of various
religious changes. It was also one of the main and strongest places
during the freedom movement against British rule. Since then, the
city has come of age and has grown into a major IT hub of Uttar
Pradesh. The Allahabad IT market is primarily geared by the influence
of various educational institutions, due to which majority of
customers are students who prefer to buy Dell and HP laptops. The
Allahabad IT market is driven by 85% laptop and 15% desktop sale.
While in other product categories, Intex rules the peripheral
segment, and LG and Seagate drive the sale of monitors and hard
drives.

Speaking about the
latest trend in the market, Shiv Shankar Singh of Stek Systems and
president of Allahabad Computer Dealers' Welfare Association
(ACDWA) said, “Of late, the demand for Sony VAIO notebooks is
growing and it is likely to be a great hit in the coming days.”
While, Sandeep Agarwal of Shree Enterprises opined that the demand
for all-in-one PCs is gradually increasing. The market is seeing an
annual growth rate of 20% and is garnering more than Rs 70 crore
annual turnover. The city enjoys presence of around 200 dealers, who
besides Allahabad, conduct business in neighboring towns, such as,
Mirzapur, Jaunpur, Sonbhadra, Fatehpur and Pratapgarh as well. The
peak season for sale is between May and November, when the new
academic session starts in schools and colleges. Festivals around the
month of October also attract huge sale from the household segment.
Besides being involved in their day-to-day business, the city dealers
also participate in meetings and extracurricular activities organized
by their most admired IT association, ACDWA. Dealers and distributors
have no complaints or grudges against the association, because of its
active presence in solving issues related to channel partners.
However, channel partners do have some issues with major vendors.
“Companies should make their service structure strong and should
provide 1-year warranty (with warranty cards having all T&C)
instead of 5- year warranty. They should also lower their product
rates. It will make us more capable of justifying our business,”
said Rajan Singh of Aakash Infotech and VP of ACDWA. Channel partners
are also grappling with market operating price and service- elated
issues. The absence of service centers in the city is also one of the
major discontents among channel partners, for which they have to
travel to other major cities like Delhi to deal with service or
repair issues. Channel partners want that prices of products should
be uniform and companies should establish service centers in the
city. Moreover, they expect companies to give some discounts on
products.