March moments

The month of March is always very hectic for the Indian IT industry. Maxi-mum
sales happen in this month as corporates and government departments wake up at
the last minute to exhaust their pending budgets.

The scenario was no different for us in Cyber Media. March 14 witnessed the
birth of the Kolkata edition of The DQ Week. In September 1996, the DQ Week was
born in Chennai when the first edition was launched from this southern city.
Within a year in August 1997, the Delhi edition also became a reality. Then in
February 2003, the Mumbai edition came into being.

But all these years, we were missing out the eastern region. We have now
plugging this gap by bringing out the Kolkata edition.

According to some estimates, there are close to 5,000 channel partners
operating in the east. But unfortunately, till date there hasn't been much
media focus on them, something they certainly deserve. The DQ Week, we hope,
will plug this gap and strive to be of some benefit to this vibrant community.

The same week as The DQ Week launch, was the annual Channels Choice award
ceremony of DQ Channels, which was held at Delhi's Park Royal hotel. Amidst a
gathering of more than 300 channel partners of the capital, 29 awards were given
to various vendors based upon an exhaustive survey of 827 channel partners
conducted by IDC India across 15 cities.

Not surprisingly, HP bagged the top honors once again this year. However,
unlike in the previous year, this time HP's domination was complete with not a
single close competitor. Out of the 29 awards given, it walked away with 12
trophies including the gold in the Channel Champion category.

The award ceremony also coincided with the unveiling of the new look of DQ
Channels. The newness comprised of a brand new logo, which gives the magazine a
very youthful and contemporary look and also a complete design revamp. Already,
accolades are pouring in from our readers about the changes.

The month of March also witnessed the birth of a new channel association of
Delhi NCR. Called Progressive Channels Association of Information Technology, it
aims to completely revolutionize the channel industry in the capital and its
surrounding areas. You will get to hear a lot about it in the coming fortnight.

Overall, the financial year 2004-05 ended at a very satisfying note. Whatever
we had set out to achieve in April last has been accomplished. But we are not
going to sit back and relax. It is just the beginning. We promise you a lot more
to come in the coming months.