Confed-ITA's unique Soul Project

CHENNAI, INDIA: Confed-ITA today launched a unique scheme keeping in mind the welfare of the channel partners who are a part of the umbrella body. Aptly titled 'Project Soul', which came into effect from today that is April 1, 2009, is aimed at supporting Confed members by setting up a fund.

The project has been conceived by S Karthikeyan, immediate past President and current Advisor, Confed-ITA. According to the project on every purchase of Rs 100 from Tier-1 distributor the members contribution to the fund will be ten paisa. (For an instance Rs 3 per printer of Rs 3,000 value and Rs 30 per laptop of Rs 30,000 value).

Channel partners in Confed-ITA would be contributing a small percentage of their turnover towards building a corpus which will be used entirely for channel members welfare. The fund will be administered by persons appointed by Confed-ITA’s Executive Committee (EC) team and the funds can be spent as per the guidelines laid out by EC or Trustees.

Utilizing this fund, the association has decided to create a permanent place and structure for Confed-ITA at all major towns to conduct meetings, to create facilities for recreation activities; insure the partner community and enhance the skills of the members in conducting the business in a better manner.

Project Soul has its roots in Coimbatore IT Association (CITA). When one of the channel partner in Coimbatore died in an accident, the association came forward and helped the partner’s family to sustain in the business. CITA members started routing all their UPS requirements from the firm of the affected member, which is now managed by his wife. CITA and Numeric Power System appointed this firm as distributor and all members of CITA sourced their UPSs from this firm, which contributed Rs 50 per UPS to this firm.

Speaking on the new initiative, PN Prasad, President, Confed-ITA said that “Project Soul” would help Confed and its members to stand in their own leg and grow on their own without being dependent on their principles sponsorships for each and every activity. “We have started to write about this initiative to all the distributors and vendors. This is a very good initiative from Karthikeyan that will help us to grow independently and take care of our partner community. The amount would be contributed at the time of purchase from all tier-1 distributors or vendors and there is no need to levy this charge at all subsequent levels of trade,” Prasad informed.

He also said that if this is implemented for all products, Confed-ITA would have ample funds at its disposal and can undertake much larger welfare and social projects. “Our partner community has to demonstrate that we care for each other and for the society in which we live and earn. It is giving back time. But for that we need to stand on our own legs and that is why this Project Soul becomes very important. Its success depends entirely on our members’ willingness to contribute 10 paisa per Rs 100,” Prasad claimed.

Commenting on this initiative, Karthikeyan said that the association has written to its community and is waiting for their responses. “We have written about this initiative to our partner community and based on the approval, the initiative would be taken forward. 'Project Soul' comes to effect from April 1st, 2009 and we hope that it will become a huge success,” Karthikeyan said.

Fund Benefits:

No member of the channel community will suffer due to unforeseen mishaps like accidents, frauds etc as this fund will be helping these members to survive, recoup and recover.

All members would be insured against accidental death, cover cost of hospitalization and medical insurance for the members and their families.

Skills of the members in conducting their businesses and better management practices would be enhanced.