Confed-ITA's SOUL Project materializes

Finally, the Confed-ITA's SOUL (Stand On Your Own Leg) project has
materialized.

However, there is an alteration in the model. Now, it will be implemented at
tier-3 level, wherein there will be an increase of 0.1 percent in product price
and the amount thus collected will be transferred directly to Confed-ITA's SOUL
account, at the end of every month. The funds will be used towards carrying out
various welfare schemes for association members across Tamil Nadu.

Earlier, Confed had proposed a model, wherein the vendors were asked to
increase the MOP by 0.1 percent, the amount being credited directly to
Confed-ITA's SOUL account, within 30 days of the month completed.

In Tamil Nadu, Karthikeyan, CEO of Bloom Electronics, was the first one to
implement the project from August 1, in the memory of Late Ponnarasu of Addons
Computers. Canon and Samsung have agreed in-principle to the initiative. ACDC,
Canon Premium Partner, has started implementing SOUL project from September 1.
Dilip Kumar, CEO, ACDC, said, “This is a very good initiative taken by
Confed-ITA. No association across India has taken such a step to safeguard the
welfare of the channel partners.”

Flake Agencies, the sub-distributor for HP Procurve products in Tamil Nadu,
has also started the implementation from September 1. Lauding PN Prasad and his
team for their hard work, Somenath Chatterjee, Managing Partner, Flake Agencies,
said, “It is an excellent initiative from Confed-ITA. It will be of great help
to the partners in the long run.”

PN Prasad, President, Confed-ITA, said, “With full support of our members we
have started rolling out the project. It is one of the turning points in the
history of channel community in India. SOUL is a bonding project. It will help
build healthy relationships among the four pillars of the channel
community-dealers, distributors, vendors and re-sellers.”