How old is ITAO? Please share details of the Governing Body of ITAO? The Information Technology Association of Orissa (ITAO), a non-profitable and a registered organisation, was formed way back in 1998 with the sole motive of mobilising IT activities of the State. It also aims at uniting the IT fraternity (both professionals and business sector) by providing a common platform.
Please elaborate the election system and what is the current number of your members? Almost 75% of the IT channel fraternity are members of ITAO. The strength of the Association members is more than 100. As per the rules and guidelines set at the time of its inception, elections are held every year for appointing President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. The Association recently elected its new office-bearers for the year 2009-10 in the month of September, wherein the new appointments were made, besides electing a handful of Executive Members. Manoj Lalani of Lalani Computech Ltd. is the President and Manoj Kumar Mahapatra of Expro Computers is the Association’s new VP. Dayananda Ratho of Cyber Software & Services has been elected as its Secretary and Navratan Bothra of Lalani Infotech Ltd. has been appointed as its Treasurer. Then, we have 15 Executive Council Members. The Annual General Body Meeting, which witnessed the election of new office-bearers, was held on 5th September, 2009 and was attended by ITAO’s Life Members.
Are fraudulent and “fly-by-night” kind of activities prevalent in Bhubaneswar? Such activities have become part and parcel of each and every city. No business is clean and healthy. What is important is to remain cautious and be transparent in all the dealings to avoid coming across such fly-by-night operators.
How is the competition across the cities in Orissa? The competition is not that bad in the city. The market is still in the developing stage and it offers partners like us a huge amount of untapped potential.
What kind of support do you have from the IT vendors? ITAO is in its twelfth year of operation in the State and throughout these years of its functioning, it has earned wide recognition not only within the State but also beyond its boundaries. The kind of support that it receives from all the major IT vendors is apparent from the consistent growth that the Association has witnessed in the last couple of years. The Association has also been proud sponsors of different IT Expos and fairs that have been organized so far.
Since when have you seen the vendors’ focus increasing towards your State? It started in the past four years.
How aggressive is the government sector? In fact, a lot of demand originates from the government verticals as a result of e-Governance projects. Not only this, these e-Governance initiatives are opening the doors for MNCs to enter the State which is boosting IT penetration in the State amongst home users, SoHo and SMB verticals.
Whats your Mission 2010? The mission of our Association has been spelt out from its very beginning. It aims at creating public awareness regarding IT in the State as well as enhancing the IT users’ knowledge about the different IT products or services in the market. ITAO has been quite successful in building an environment conducive to the growth of IT activities and spreading awareness by organising seminars, conferences, exhibitions, Expos and fairs across the State. Over the years, Orissa has become one of the hottest IT investment destinations in the country and ITAO's members conider it as an opportunity to further its objectives of facilitating IT consciousness and growth vis-à-vis the coming of different IT vendors to the State.
Do you organise any IT Expo or any IT fair ? The ITAO is organising a full-day Customer Summit on 19th February, 2010. This will be an ideal vehicle for OEMs to reach to Orissa’s leading corporate houses and SMEs under one roof. Most of the leading IT buyers of these houses will be present in this meeting. Our objective is to provide OEMs and vendors an opportunity to meet the Channel and Customers through this Seminar and product presentaion.
ITAO is organising this one-day event for OEMs and resellers. The event is Channel Summit on 20th February, 2010 from 9am - 6pm. Communication is most important in today’s IT trade. OEMs / vendors look forward to the best possible mode of communication with the Channel fraternity. All OEMs and vendors have world-class products suitable to customers and have a great potential but getting the right channel and reaching out to them is a challenge. The ITAO's objective is to provide OEMs and vendors the right opportunity to meet the All Orissa Channel under one roof and in one day so that OEMs / vendors get an opportunity to meet the whole lot of IT channels of Orissa. This will be of immense help to them and with a very limited cost the whole channel fraternity can be addressed.
This event will be followed by IT awards the following day. This is to organise and encourage IT vendors, distributors, retailers and institutions for their contributions to the IT industry and education in Orissa. First is the Product Category, where the best of OEMs will be awarded. Second is for the Channel of Orissa, where Channel partners from all across Orissa will be awarded. Others is the third category where government’s nodal agencies, technical institutes, best IT-enabled corporates, etc. will be felicitated. There will be two sets of awards – Product Awards to OEMs and Channel Awards to Channel Partners.
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How old is ITAO? Please share details of the Governing Body of ITAO? 
