Shimla association revived

Shimla IT Dealers' Association recently came out of its inactive state to
form an adhoc committee. This is the first time since the association was formed
six years back, that an election was held. Heading the committee is Jayant
Upadhyay of Eline as President, Rajat Goyal as VP, Anil Sharma as General
Secretary and Neeraj Sood as Press Secretary. “The reason members came together
to form this committee was so that we can register the association,” informed
Satnam Singh of Access Marketing.

The need to register the association came from a rising issue of concern in
the state of HP. A major chunk of the revenue in the state comes from the
government sector. However, partners in the region revealed that most government
orders were being routed through HP State Electronics Development Corporation (HPSEDC).

Shedding more light on the issue, Singh said, “About 80 percent of the
business in the state comes from government sector, but we resellers are not
getting any of it. This is because the government makes all its IT purchases
through HPSEDC and the corporation goes direct to the vendor, leaving us
nowhere. It should be an open market, not closed and monopolistic as is the
situation currently.”

Satnam added that once the association is registered they would be able to
make a representation to the state government. “After the registration members
can decided whether they want the adhoc committee to continue heading the
association or whether they want a new team. If a new team is elected they will
carry forth the task of meeting government officials to speak about making IT
orders available to independent dealers as well,” informed Sood, the Press
Secretary.

Shimla IT Dealers' Association was formed about six years back but was not
very active, with meetings and activities happening once in a while. The last
meeting was held about two months back. Upadhyay informed that going forward the
association would aim to create awareness about IT in Shimla. “Computer literacy
is very low here and we want to change that. We are planning on holding seminars
and literacy programs that will target the general public. We will also take up
the issue of fake dealers operating in the region,” said Upadhyay.

Speaking about the threat posed to resellers in the region by HPSEDC,
Upadhyay said, “There are some departments that buy from dealers but overall it
is an issue for the local channel. We plan to take this up in the next meeting
we have. The procedure for registering the association has already started and
should be complete by the end of this week.”

Apart from drawing up a list of the prevailing issues in the region so that
they can be addressed by the association, members will also speak to the
distributors in the region about removing the freight rate. “Distributors have
started collecting this freight amount from us about a year ago. We have to
shell out about Rs 100-200 per machine. This puts much pressure on us as we have
low margins and yet have to sell at lower prices in order to compete with nearby
markets like Chandigarh,” informed Sood.