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The Technology Channels Alliance (TCA), announced earlier in the year, has now been formally incorporated in Dublin and is open for business.
The TCA (not to be confused with the Technology Channels Association, which merged with CompTIA six years ago and no longer exists) is looking to recruit local and regional distributors across EMEA to share information, ideas and best practice – and to drive business for IT channels across the region.
Several disties including Westcoast, Exertis and Esprinet formed the organisation, which will work with the vendor community ‘to help it understand and make full use of the benefits of working with local and regional channel partners across EMEA’.
Robert Norum, chief executive of the TCA, said: "Our intention is to provide local and regional distributors in EMEA with a voice, and the TCA will represent the interests of local and regional channel players.
"Our intention is to provide local and regional distributors in EMEA with a voice, and the TCA will represent the interests of local and regional channel players.
"We will be asking our members to sign up to a charter. They need to be professionally run, have a good reputation, and be trustworthy to do business with. New members will have to be ratified by the board, but if you are a genuine technology distributor headquartered in EMEA, you will be welcome.
"We don’t want anyone to feel excluded; it is going to be a democratic organisation with a ‘one member, one vote’ approach on key decisions."
Three former members of the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) are founder members of the TCA and will sit on the board of the EMEA-focused organisation.
There is also the opportunity for corporate resellers and retailers to join as associate members, and for distributors with headquarters outside EMEA to join as affiliate members.
The organisation will run events, conduct research and produce case studies to help its members work more closely with vendors and each other to address issues and capitalise on local and regional opportunities. It will also ‘promote new technology in the wider sense by giving back to the community’.
Alessandro Cattani, chief executive of Esprinet, said: "We have an ambition to create what we call a ‘chain of knowledge’ all the way from vendors through the channel to end users, and the TCA will drive this agenda."
Niall Ennis, chief executive of Exertis, added: "Regional players are a hugely important part of the technology channel in EMEA and provide a focus and a range of services tailored to each of the countries in which they operate."
