B Swaminathan
Kumbakonam: Confed ITA is geared up for the new team and the association is planning to conduct their annual flagship event viz AGM and summit in Puducherry. Sujay K Vijayan, president-elect of the association shares his plan for the association.
Swaminathan (Swami) What is your plan for the summit?
Sujay Vijayan (Sujay) The summit is slated to happen in April at Puducherry. The event is planned to happen for two days where the agenda is designed in such a way members, distributors and vendors [sponsors] take value out of the event.
Swami: What is new on cards?
Sujay: Generally the events are vendor-driven. However, not just this expo, but also the entire tenure will be driven through the sub-distributors who are again our members. Volume players who are supporting the association and its activities will be given priority. That way, we are creating coupons which distributors can buy. The coupons have different values and when the members do any billings from the distributors, the latter will send the coupon along with the invoices. The members can redeem the same for any association-related activities in stead of paying money. This way, for the member, it will
be an enthusiasm to sell more and redeem the money. That way, the regional and sub distributors who are supporting the association will be given priority. Also, we ensure that this coupon is strictly for the distributors who are members of the association. First of all this is a business association. We are all in the association only because we are in the IT business. That way, we want to ensure a win-win situation for both resellers and the distributors to ensure a smooth value-chain. We are also planning to have an event overseas. The members can also redeem the coupon for this event. The details of the event will be shared later.
Swami: How is the response for this?
Sujay: So far so good. We had seen good number in the sale of coupons. Many distributors had personally called me and appreciated. If they are making business, why will they hesitate to give offers for their own buyers? I am sure this will change the phase of channel business in Tamil Nadu.
Swami: Whatever you had told holds good for product sellers. What is for service partners and software segment?
Sujay: We are in touch with an ERP software who will be supporting the association and will recruit our members for training, franchising and other deployments. Also, their software will be sold at cost-to-cost exclusively for the members for their internal use. There are some members who are using high-end ERP products. However, there are many who still use spreadsheet software for their purpose.
Swami: What are the other innovation in the pipeline?
Sujay: The biggest challenge is the unavailability of skilled human resource. We are planning to start academic practice on behalf of the association. It will be a collaboration with the existing vendors. The vendors will train the employees of the members. That way, the members will also have no issue in find the right human resource.
Swami: What is there for sponsors?
Sujay: The sponsors will have special parallel sessions and breakfast meetings with the prospective channel partners in the summit. This will be additional interaction opportunity for the vendors and spend quality timing with the partners. Also, with more distributors coming into the center stage of the association activities, I am sure that will directly impact in the number of any vendors who are sponsoring the association.