Cooperation – it’s the way forward!

This blog post courtesy of Keith Warburton of TCA, the UK Channel Community of CompTIA

The Technology Channels Association (TCA) was the not-for-profit trade body for the U.K. IT marketplace. We were in business for nearly 18 years and in that time we consistently provided a wide range of services to our members, who included vendors, distributors and of course; resellers. We always took the view that coopertition is the way forward – we all have more to gain by cooperating with others than we have to lose through competition. Over the years, TCA fostered the concept of “community” by way of various events, activities and services. And, we always encouraged our members to maintain the highest levels of professionalism.

However, we weren’t the only IT trade association on the block! Across in the USA an organization of resellers, called A Better Computer Dealer, was founded in the 1980s, and it had, over the years, become a renowned developer of professional certifications and morphed into CompTIA, a not-for-profit IT trade association with a global reach, whose membership encompasses vendors, distributors and resellers.

CompTIA reached the U.K. some 15 years ago and its first move was to establish itself as a leading supplier of IT certifications. CompTIA’s A+ is now globally recognized, with more than 250,000 exams being sat for each year – a phenomenal success story.

But CompTIA wanted to establish itself as a full-blown channel organization in the U.K. and has been steadily growing its reseller membership during the last two years.

CompTIA and the TCA were working together to develop The Reseller Forum since 2009 and both organizations saw obvious synergies between the two groups – a coming together made absolutely superb sense.

It has taken us a while to work out the best way to fit things together. But the key to it all has been “communities”. CompTIA, as a global IT trade association, operates through communities of enterprises with common interests, and its development in the U.K. will be via communities and providing services that those communities need.  CompTIA has structures and systems to ensure we develop in ways that fully reflect the wishes of members.

Moving forward, the TCA becomes the U.K. Channel Community of CompTIA, and we have some truly exciting developments under way for the whole U.K. marketplace.

The involvement of members in the development of the community is critical. If you were a member of the TCA or CompTIA in the U.K, make sure you participate in our forthcoming events. We already have a fantastic line-up of ways for you to enhance your business, but we need your input so we can do even more for you. Keep coming back to find out more about what we are doing for you and how you can ensure we are meeting your needs as the U.K. Channel Community of CompTIA.