ITServe is an alliance of IT services organizations in USA. Though ITServe has been around for a period of time, this organization has started expanding by starting chapters across USA. It started chapters in midwest, North East and Bay area. The purported objective of this organization is to aggressively promote and protect the interests of it’s member companies in order to promote growth. Even though ITServe claims to be an umbrella organization for all IT companies, more than 90% of companies are owned by Telugu’s and all the leadership is from Telugu community. New chapter inaugurations were done with pomp. However, this didn’t last long. This fledgling organization is now headed for a split. A new splinter group ‘Tech Alliance” has been formed with a kickoff meeting scheduled for April 29th.
As per our sources, this dispute happened after Washington DC chapter meeting on March 4th 2016. Due to this, governing board of ITServe has unilaterally removed the concerned chapter co-ordinator. This has been met with a stiff resistance with new chapter presidents as they don’t have any say in as per the current bylaws of ITServe. Though the governing body was OK in principle to change the bylaws as the organization has been growing rapidly, but not in the short term. This has caused discontent among new chapters.
However, the main point of contention was the President position. ITServe has been around in Dallas Fortworth area for over a decade and as it happens in most local organizations leadership positions are determined informally for future years. ITServe also has presidents lined up for next few years. New chapter leaders wanted the bylaws to be changed for this reason immediately.
Since lot of big wigs were involved, there was simmering discontent brewing for a while. All this came to fore after DC meeting. Insiders opine that few individuals within a leading reputed Telugu Non-profit Organization was not happy with the attention ITServe Alliance has been getting in Chief Ministers Office (CMO). “Due to proximity of ITServe Alliance to AP government’s NRI representative and his connections with CM and Lokesh, IT Serve Alliance has unrestricted access to IT minister and access to Lokesh and Mr. Naidu. Most of these companies signed an MOU with AP government in Vizag investment summit. However, AP CMO turned a blind eye towards the fact that none of these companies are product companies. None of these companies have serious products where as in Telangana you have real start ups emerging” laments a bureaucrat in AP Government IT department.
“From the Dallas inaugural meet, everyone knew that this was bound to happen akin to TANA split. Whenever you have people with dual interests forming an organization, this happens.” opines a Foundation member of a leading telugu organization. Combination of personal egos, political foreseeing, and mismanagement caused ITServe a raising organization to split in no time. We need to wait and see how the splinter group can perform.
