|
Sumit Gupta
Secretary,
MPTCTA
How big is the Indore IT market?
It is difficult to estimate the Indore IT market because the partners here also cater to markets outside the city. We have more than 300 resellers, including traders who do not have VAT registration. Our association has 124 members.
What are the drivers for IT growth?
Indore is the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, and hence most of the corporates in the state are based in and around the city. We have a flourishing soyabean processing industry, also a booming automobile industry. There is also a growing education market, and a few software companies too.
The corporate and government segments contribute to 40 percent of the sales, while the rest is generated by SOHOs and SMBs. However, post-Diwali 2008, there has been a marked drop in sales.
What are the buying trends?
Over the past five years we have witnessed a gradual shift in the preference of users from assembled PCs to branded PCs. Today, nearly 60 percent of the PCs sold are branded. Also, the sales of notebooks have grown exponentially. We have witnessed a boom in IT retailing.
Which are the key challenges faced by resellers?
Though post-sales support is not an issue since most major vendors have their service centers in Indore, quality support is still a challenge. That is why most large partners prefer to service their customers themselves.
What are the activities organized by your association?
Established 14 years back, the Madhya Pradesh Telcom and Computer Traders Association is one of the most active associations in the country. We hold regular meetings to update our members. We have been holding an event called Fonocom for the past 12-13 years; this is an annual computer exhibition. We also hold an annual event, usually outside Indore, where we take all the members to an outstation location and conduct a number of community building activities. We have raised and tried to solve issues faced by members. One of the recent cases was when Microsoft’s anti-piracy drives resulted in legal problems for some of the members. |