The DQ Week Exclusive : ASIRT appoints board members

After being officially launched on March 16th this year, the Association of System Integrators & Retailers In technology (ASIRT) gets its office bearers. In the governing body of the association, Kshitij Kotak from the Mumbai-based Fortune Grecells Pvt Ltd has been appointed as the President and Chetan Shah from the Mumbai-based Xpress Computers as the Chairman of the association.

Commenting on the electing of the board members, Kotak said, "As the President of the ASIRT association, I would be responsible for conducting several member initiatives wherein the major pain points for improving their business would be genuinely addressed." Other designated posts for the association include the Vice Chairman taken up by Gaurang Bhatt, Ravi Bhavnani as the Vice President - Digital, Vice President of Events is Atul Khatri, Arvind Singh as the Vice President Communications, Pravin Rege has been assigned the position of Treasurer, Dhananjay Thakar as the Secretary-Retailers, and Pankaj Shah will act as Secretary System Integrators.

ASIRT has been promoted by 17 system integrators and retailers. In fact, ASIRT has already got incredible support within Mumbai's SI and retail community with over 60 online sign-ups already. "Now, after having the official board members and their roles, we are planning to conduct our first ASIRT Tech Forum on April 3rd this year wherein we would be explaining the go-to-market strategies and discuss some business hampering factors like low margins, price wars, unsustainable fiscal health to our system builder, integrator and retail community who have been reeling under these pressures," said Chetan Shah, Chairman of ASIRT. He also added that ASIRT would be coming up with an online portal named ASIRTCONNECT, which will go live on 1st April this year to enable unparalleled opportunities to this community.

Speaking further on the future plans of the association, Kotak said, "We are looking ahead to improve the business avenue of our members despite the odds. Currently, we are focusing on Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. But, seeing a huge response from all the system integrators and retailers across the country, we will be expanding our presence nationwide by this December." The association aspires to increase its membership over 100 members soon.