DCTG calls out to Dubai resellers

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'Setting up a computer business is not any ordinary business,' DCTG founder says.

Members of the Dubai Computer Traders Group (DCTG) are calling out to IT traders on Dubai's ‘Computer Street' to join forces after the group finally received official certification from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

President of the DCTG and CEO at Expert Computers Shailendra Rughwani urged resellers to take the opportunity to band together.

"After the formation of DCTG I suggest that all IT traders in Dubai should get together to unite and protect each other," said Rughwani. "Right now we're facing very fierce competition. There are problems of bad debt, high inflation and low margins so it's advisable to share advice and information - to live and let live - so that we can all increase our profits."

The group will have its inaugural meeting soon after the GITEX trade show, Rughwani said.

The group hopes that by joining forces, legitimate resellers will be able to protect themselves from counterparts who undercut competition and corrode margins before being forced to leave the market due to profitability problems.

Rakesh Bohra, general manager at Computer Wi-Fi Zone and a founding member of the DCTG, believes that stamping out illicit behaviour would restore a level of respect the group believes is lacking in ‘Computer Street', otherwise known as Khalid Bin Al Waleed road.

"We should be able to unite, and be secure against those who come into the market and then run," he said. "Setting up a computer business is not any ordinary business, you have to be educated about computers and if the owner doesn't know about computers how can he expect to set up a business? We are skilled professionals, there has to be a level of respect in the market."

"We spend so much time learning about the technologies - every day my staff spend two or three hours learning about new technologies. We would like to be respected and paid our remuneration for repairing, assembling and maintaining computers," he added.

Top of the agenda for the DCTG is the issue of profitability. Resellers in Dubai have been cursing the price-cutting culture in the community for some time, and the group is proposing that members of the DCTG co-ordinate their pricing. The group will be administering price lists for its members to adhere to when carrying out general services, in an effort to elevate profitability across the board.

"We are the only group of business that when you talk about business you hear ‘2%' or ‘3%'; there is no other business in this world that I've seen that people talk about anything less than 10% to 15%," said Bohra. "So every shopkeeper will have a certificate on their shop window, showing he's a member of this group, he has a fixed price list for repairing laptops and desktops, maintaining software and for these certain general things, you would have a fixed charge," he declared.

The group is also looking to put a stop to illegal product circulating through Dubai channels. It claims eliminating pirated and counterfeit goods from the market only leaves customers with products worth paying for. As a signal of its intentions, the group has appointed Jawad Al Redha, Middle East chairman of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an honourary member.

"There is a need for us to build up profitability across the whole industry," admits Bohra. "We want to educate our sellers, the customers, the system, the whole country - not to buy fake products like the flash disk devices, MP3 players, MP4 players which are labelled as 1GB but are actually 128MB or 256MB. There's a lot of work on compliance in the Dubai Economic Department's compliance division and we want to work with them and with the media to clamp down on these people," he said.

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READERS' COMMENTS

DCTG
Posted by Omar Chaudhry, Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday 29 August 2007 at 16:42 UAE time


Its a great step taken by resellers in Dubai. 
I wish that resellers here in Pakistan, also wakeup and take such measures. Such steps are in interest of whole of the Resellers community.

Member of DCTG
Posted by Usama A. Khan, Dubai, UAE on Monday 27 August 2007 at 10:02 UAE time


Its a great step... i will be interested to become a member, i would like to know where to contact and to whome ? please pass there contacts to me or my contacts to them.  
 
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