ITAO to increase its member base

Signaling its plans to expand across Orissa and bring in local associations
within its fold, IT Association of Orissa (ITAO) is finally on its way to
increase its 'active' members within its fold.

The IT association presently has 75 'active' members and is pinning its hopes
on taking the number to atleast 250 by the end of March next year. In this
process, a dedicated committee has been formed with ITAO, vesting the
responsibility to GB Gupta of Tristar Software along with four other members.

The association has claimed that it is continuously receiving applications
for membership from the channel community and is deliberating over membership
norms and guidelines in the process. Also, since a preliminary verification
needs to be made for membership, ITAO is not granting membership to applicants
at the present moment.

However, the association is on its way to finalize terms of membership and is
looking forward to incorporate national and regional distributors and vendors
this time as ITAO members. In this regard, the association has already sent
invitations and is optimistic about the responses received so far.

Elaborating on its plans to venture into an expansion mode, Dayananda Ratho,
Secretary, ITAO commented, "ITAO has now shifted its primary focus to expand
into regions in Orissa and increase its active member base . Many of the former
members are not in business any more or have shifted their venture to some other
product range. It is in this regard that we think that we need to increase
membership base first while collaborating with regional associations and then
think of other things."

However, the association while deciding on this course of expansion had to
part with its plans for the proposed IT expo scheduled this December, citing
that members of the association will get busy with the expo and ITAO will not be
able to achieve its expansion plans.

"It takes about three months to arrange for the expo and while organizing
one, members will get too involved in making arrangements, leaving little time
for the expansion plans; thus we are postponing the expo," Ratho justified.

In the last meeting, ITAO members unanimously decided to postpone the
proposed expo to May or December next year, while opting for an IT fair in
C-class regions in collaboration with the local IT association.

"We may opt for an expo in December or January in one of the proposed C-class
cities in the state. There may be a Rs 10 lakh budget, but it's still all in a
preliminary stage and we are talking to regional associations over the same,"
Ratho added.

According to well placed sources in ITAO, the association is planning to
bring in local associations within its fold, inducing 'dual membership' plans
for the channel community and is particularly eyeing local associations in
Sambalpur, Cuttak and Balasore to incorporate them into ITAO.

The proposed scheme of 'dual membership' will be applicable to members of
regional associations, primarily in C-class markets. The member of a regional
association, while retaining his membership of the same will have a choice to
opt for another consecutive membership in ITAO. Thus, a member of a local
association will get to enjoy privileges of eying a part of both the
associations. However, ITAO has dictated the condition that such membership is
applicable only to members of those associations which have enrolled with ITAO
accepting its jurisdiction over the region and abides by the latter's
guidelines.

Plans to emerge as a bigger platform with a huge membership base came in
after several local associations began to seek help from ITAO in solving
vendor-related issues, particularly service and warranty-related issues.

"For local associations, it is very hard to fight a case with a vendor on a
national or state-level, and this is where we thought of forming a united forum
comprising channel partners across the state. As ITAO is the biggest IT
association in the state with considerable influence over the channel community,
uniting under ITAO banner is necessary," Ratho concluded.

Also, the association, is putting considerable efforts in the social forum.
Previously, the association had donated Rs 10,000 to an orphanage and now the
association is working over a blood donation camp to be held in the state
capital soon, reflecting the exemplary social face of the channel community.