Face off between Bhavnagar's ABCD & BITA

Conflicts are emerging between the two IT channel association in Bhavnagar-the
Association of Bhavnagar Computer Dealers (ABCD) and the Bhavnagar Information
Technology Association (BITA. The bone of contention between them is over
recently held dealer meetings in the city. ABCD officials said they were not
intimated about these meetings and their members could therefore not participate
in it, which does not bode well for the association.

Ketan Trivedi, Secretary, ABCD said, "We have not been officially informed
about two or three dealer meetings that were held in the city recently. In some
cases, we were informed at the last moment and therefore our members could not
attend it. This is affecting the business of our members who could have
benefited from these events. We expect that should intimate us well in advance
about these meetings so that our members can participate."

He added that often vendors get in touch with certain dealers in the city who
then inform a few partners about the event. "But these members belong to the
other association," Trivedi added.

But BITA officials have a different opinion about this subject. Govind
Bhetaria, one of the founders of the newly formed BITA said, "Vendors always
inform us about these meetings well in advance. Either they send a mail or they
call to give us information about the same. I don't know what the problem
between vendors and ABCD is as it is the vendor's prerogative to inform the
local associations. As far as BITA is concerned, we don't have any problems in
communicating with vendors."

While this instance can be termed as a non-issue, there have been other
skirmishes between the two associations in the past, though not in a very overt
fashion, according to dealers in the city. This could be because of the
formation of BITA. It is learnt that ABCD was the first association in the city
and was started almost 10 years ago. But it was not registered under the
Socities Act.

"Because there was no action in ABCD, some of us decided to exit the body and
start a new association," said Betharia. Since then, dealers say, that the two
associations have issues with each other. But most partners were unconcerned
about it and were only interested in their own business developments.

Hitesh Joshi, Proprietor, Naman Computers and an ABCD member said, "I don't
know what's happening between the two associations. There may be some problems
at the association level, which does not directly affect me. We formed the
association to resolve our problems and help our business and not to create
problems that will affect the business of other association members."

Hemanth Shah, Member, BITA said, "It's true that the companies directly send
the invitation to the association about the meetings. In BITA, there are dealers
who directly deal with vendor companies for their business and hence they
receive information about meetings early. But there are no issues that members
like me get involved in about ABCD or BITA."

In the past, there were talks about merging both the associations but due to
some personal issues between the executive council members of the two bodies,
this move failed.