Faridabad: In need of an IT association

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Faridabad,

one of the major industrial hubs of Haryana, generates around 60%

revenue of the state. It is home to many large-scale companies like

Lafarge, Shova, Imperial Auto, Star Wire India, JCB, Escorts, Yamaha,

Knorr Bremse, ACE, ABB, ACC, IndianOil (R&D), Havell's, L&T,

Mahindra Defence, Bharat Gears, et style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">c.

The

city is emerging as an IT hub for the small and medium level

enterprises providing the resources such as skilled and qualified

professionals with a lot of scope of doing business due to proximity

to the national capital, New Delhi. Badkhal Lake, Suraj Kund

tourist complex, Aravali Golf Club, and Raja Nahar Singh Palace are

some of the famous tourist spots of the city.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">The

Faridabad IT market is growing at a healthy rate of around 20% y-o-y

basis. Dealers are of the opinion that market for desktops has slowed

down in the SOHO business vertical as people are opting for laptops

which are compact, multi-user and portable. “Desktops are selling

in the corporate and government segment but when it comes to general

users, they prefer to buy laptops,” said Nidhi Sehgal of Klassic

Computech. Dell, Sony-VAIO, HCL, Acer are some of the brands which

are in high demand in the market. The Faridabad IT market has a

presence of around 100 resellers and 20-30 assemblers.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Dealers

say that multi-brand showrooms have taken away their major chunk of

business as these showrooms buy products in bulk, and style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">they

provide

a better pricing model for the customers besides providing

finance facility. One trend in the market is that the

customers first visit Nehru Place market in New Delhi to get all

necessary details about the product, then they demand the product in

Faridabad.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">Talking

about the vendor-dealer related issues, dealers say that they solve

it at an individual level as vendors do listen to their problems.

style="font-size: 13pt;" size="3">One

major problem with the Faridabad IT market is the absence of any IT

association as there is no forum to sit together to discuss various

issues. Sanjeev Malhotra of Prolab Computers said, “We consider it

as a major disadvantage in the IT business as there are times when we

need help to solve a problem and now when there is no help, our

business suffers.” Echoing similar sentiments, Sehgal said, “We

are sad that we don't have any association at the local level.

Everybody is fighting the battle on their own.”