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Rajesh Jain
President,
IT Traders Association
How big is the Pondicherry IT market?
We have a small market here. Less than a thousand PCs gets sold through channels. There is also the direct presence of several vendors who have set up manufacturing bases taking advantage of the tax holiday given many years ago. They also grab some business, especially from the government and corporates. The overall market has been healthy for the past year or so, though last month was reported to be dull.
What are the drivers for IT growth?
The Pondicherry government has been friendly to investors by offering tax holidays and other perks, hence there are a number of enterprise and SMB customers who account for nearly 50 percent of sales. The SOHO, consumer and government segments account for the rest. Previously, the channels also enjoyed tax holidays; however post the introduction of the VAT regime all such benefits have been scrapped.
What are the buying trends?
We sell around 300-400 laptops a month. The market is definitely shifting toward mobile computing.
What are the key challenges facing resellers?
Warranty and post-sales support are the biggest issues faced by resellers. Our proximity to Chennai is not helping, and like in many other small markets, most vendors here do not have proper service centers. There are problems associated with pricing parity, plus there’s the issue of vendors not paying the backend rebates properly.
What are the activities of your association?
The association, with around 45 members, has been taking interest in the welfare of the partners, often fighting for their causes. We have forced distributors and vendors to align themselves to ethical channel policies. We had a problem with Redington selling directly to end-users; this has been tactfully resolved. Another issue we managed to highlight and resolve was Elcot’s deal with Acer, which was against the interests of the channels. We have also been forcing distributors to sell only to authorized partners. We have been advising vendors not to announce large backend rebates since they often get discounted, further bringing down the market operating prices. We have also arbitrated on payment issues. |