Unity and Size are the strengths of ACMA

How old is ACMA? Please share the details of the Governing Body of ACMA? 

Ahmedabad Computer Merchants’ Association (ACMA) was formed in the year 1996. You can see the functioning details of the ACMA Governing Body as well as the ACMA IT Show Committee from our website: www.acmaindia.com. 

Please elaborate on the election system and what is the current number of your members?

We hold election to elect a new Governing Body every two years, which means that the tenure of each new Executive or Governing Body is two years, as per our Association’s constitution. We have a very fair and transparent election process supervised by the seniormost member of ACMA as an electoral officer. Currently, we have a strength of 350-plus members in ACMA. 

How do you tackle the channel-vendor issues? Please share some details, if possible? 

But sometimes if the vendor is at fault and is not ready for any talk, we exercise pressure on them by stopping purchases from them. 

Are fraudulent and fly-by-night kind of activities prevalent more in the metros? What measures do you adopt to minimize them? Do you think the situation is better in the metros or in smaller towns? 

In the metros, these kind of activities are always found more because of its geography and vastness. Target pressure and lack of day-to-day information causes these kind of problems. The easiest way to minimize these kind of activities and keep fraudsters away is to share the information of such malicious activities among the members through emails on a regular basis to be vigilant and keep them aware about the modus operandi of such fraud people. In Gujarat, we have 24 registered IT associations and we all share information or any channel problem with each other through their governing bodies and in turn all the 2,500 members of all the 24 associations get the information with the click of a key and get the desired and required alerts. 

How is the situation in Ahmedabad?

The situation in Ahmedabad is fairly good business-wise and no major issues with vendor or cases of frauds have been registered with ACMA for a year and a half.

Do you come across more of vendor-channel issues or channel-channel issues? 

Most of the time, it is Vendor-Channel issues only related to service or false commitment of incentives or delayed payments of TOD/ incentives. Very rarely, the issue of channel-channel has arisen during the last 14 years since the inception of ACMA. 

What kind of support do you have from the IT vendors?

So far, most of the IT vendors have supported ACMA wholeheartedly, except a few specifically Intel, Dell, HP, Sony, Microsoft, Samsung. APC, HCL, Zenith and Intex. These are the companies which are not at all channel friendly. These companies never care for the support of ACMA for their any kind of activities in our region. Canon and LG are the most admired companies, policy-wise, behaviour-wise, communication-wise and channel friendliness-wise. Also, to name a few, EPSON, AMD, BenQ, Logitech, Asus, Biostar, Xerox, TVS-E, IBALL (The Best), Zebronics (Topnotch), Kunhar, etc. are very much Association-friendly and Channel-friendly principals. We get strong support from these vendors in terms of channel-friendly policies, active participation in any of the local activities like ACMA IT Trade Fair organized by ACMA and monetary support to some entertainment or cultural or social gathering of ACMA members. 

How do you take the voice of the channel to the principals?

Unity and number is the strength of any trade association and we are the largest in Gujarat. So, naturally, we have our voice and say with the principals. Also, 60% of the Gujarat business is happening in Ahmedabad only and that is why the principals have to listen to us seriously and they cannot ignore our channel. 

Do you organize any IT fair or exhibition to bring the IT community together? If no, do you have any plans for it?

Yes, we do organize IT trade fair/s such as ACMA IT Show every year in the month of December mostly on a very large scale to bring Vendor, Channel Partner and Buyer at the same platform to understand each other and put all of them in a Win-Win situation. This year also, ACMA IT Show 2010 will be organized in December. 

What is your target for 2010? 

We have certain predefined activities every year like Annual General meeting of all the ACMA members which is already overdue this year (June 2010). Then, we will be having a cultural programme of “ACMA Sharadotsava” – a fun-packed family Dandiya programme with dinner on Sharad Poornima (September 2010). This will be followed by a family get-together during Diwali (November 2010). After these events, we will have our commercial event of ACMA IT Show 2010 (December 2010). We will also be organizing ACMA Cricket Match in February 2010 and some charity activity like Blood Donation camp or a charity walk in March 2010.