Bengaluru, April 30: Partners in South India have now started looking at moving out of business completely or making IT a parallel business. The trend has spread in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, though Karnataka still does not seem impacted.
Kerala has been one of the key impacted markets and according to one market source, nearly four small partners have decided to shut their office. The major reason for this is said to be the increasing number of home appliances shops with increased percentage of IT sales.
In Andhra Pradesh, some partners have already found their ways to improve their profits. “I had seen many partners who had moved out completely to other businesses,” says a partner. He points to the case of a particular partner who was doing well selling IT products, and suddenly got into textile business and is selling sarees now.
In Tamil Nadu many partners have got into real estate business. It is also said that almost half of the key partners in Coimbatore have made investments in real estate. Other alternative businesses include tours and travel, IT-education, internet cafes and DTP places.
Another recent trend is that many vendor executives are quitting their jobs to get into into electronics business. “I know a few people who have moved out of IT and ICT distribution and joined some ceramics and tiles industry. Even I am looking for a job as I could not complete my sales numbers,” laments an executive. “I have recently moved from core IT to security industry and have started selling CCTV and surveillance solutions. I believe it will give a better career prospects compared to IT,” he further added.