With rising protectionism in the US, Indian IT firms will soon have another global industry IT body the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) to lobby for them in the US and globally. The trade body, which plans to set up an Indian subsidiary, will do so in the next 2 to 3 months. The development would mean increased competition for Nasscom, which has enjoyed monopoly for the last 20 years in terms of espousing its cause.
Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO, CompTIA, told FE that the US-based organisation has been active in India for past few years through its partners Prometric but would now like to go solo in the country, given India?s huge potential and position as a global IT hub. So far, CompTIA has only been providing vendor neutral certifications to IT professionals and has several tie-ups with IT companies like Microsoft, Dell, HP, Fujitsu and NIIT.
According to sources, the firm plans to first strengthen its presence in the IT learning arena and would later get into the public policy and advocacy space. ?Apart from the industry standards in IT education, CompTIA India will also introduce some of its global best practices and create local advisory councils in service delivery, and security,? said Thibodeaux.
CompTIA has around 2,500 members globally which includes IT companies, manufacturers, distributors, resellers and educational institutions. Its global members with Indian operations would automatically become members of CompTIA India. ?These are tough times for the industry and if some organisation can provide better representation to its issues, then it will make sense to go along with that organisation,? said a chief executive of a leading BPO.
?Lobbying, at the end of the day is a very relationship driven exercise. It is a fact that Nasscom is highly respected within the bureaucratic circles and it would take a lot of time for any foreign body to build in roads into it. However, companies may see an advantage when it comes to policy advocacy on an international level as CompTIA has global links,? said an industry veteran.
Ganesh Natarajan, former chairman of Nasscom, said, ?Nasscom is a strong organisation which has built credibility for itself over the years both locally and globally. Several Indian IT companies are also members of many global trade organisations and same could be the case for CompTIA. But, I don?t see any immediate threat to Nasscom.?
