TAIT unveils channel cleansing initiative

Mumbai, July 13

Mumbai's premier IT trade body,TAIT
intends to build a utopian channel community through an ini-tiative aimed at
eliminating payment defaulters and fraudsters from doing busi-ness. Through the
initiative called TAIT Verified Channel Partner Program (TVCPP), the association
aims to certify trading partner after verification of its credentials.

To do this humongous task TAIT has appointed a credit verification agency
called Veeraraghavan & Co. The agency will verify the business and personal
details of a company as needed by any member and provide a confidential report
to the concerned member.

According to TAIT spokesperson, Umang Mehta, the IT industry recently has
seen a spate of payment defaults and fraudulent activities with many channel
members losing lakhs of rupees and leaving some bleeding financially. “This
program seeks to remedy many of the problems in the channels by verifying the
credentials of the trading partners,” said Mehta.

This program seeks to remedy many of the problems in the channels by verifying the credentials of the trading partners. Umang MehtaSpokeperson TAIT

By being a part of this program, members can get their trading customers'
details verified. The TAIT-appointed credit verifi-cation agency will verify the
business and personal details of customer and the details will be made available
through TAIT. “All the provided details will be strictly confidential and will
be in TAIT's custody. This information can be very useful in case any problem
arises later on,” said Mehta.

The program is currently being launched for the entire channel community in
Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai irrespective of whether they are TAIT members or
not. However, only TAIT member will get information free of cost. All others
will have to pay Rs 1,000 for each veri-fication service.

When asked about the effectiveness of the system Mehta said, “This program
has been launched by TAIT to help the IT trade community. While TAIT will take
maximum care to ensure that the information provided by the agency is true and
correct, TAIT does not take any responsibility towards any liability arising
from the program.”

However, TAIT is not leaving any efforts to make this program a success. It
has asked all its members to do business only with “verified” members.
Beside, it is also planning to convince all leading distributors to do the same.
“Non-verified members will not enjoy credit and good standing in the
market,” Mehta added.

While the program has been launched on July 7, 2006, the success will depend
on how many partners join this program. If all the members take this program
seriously, channel partners feel, it surely will reduce frauds and defaults in
the IT marketplace and bring about the much needed stability and sanctity in to
the system.