An Overview of NASSCOM Membership

The National Association of Software and Service Companies or NASSCOM is a not-for-profit organization which was established with the aim to help India emerge as a significant player in the global IT order by selecting a conducive business environment, promoting intellectual capital of the member companies and strengthening the talent pool and by simplifying procedures and policies involved. It aims to upscale and rescale the IT workforce of India in a way that the country has a future ready talent to enhance and build the quotient of innovation across different industry verticals, learn new age skills, create domestic and international market opportunities and push for policy advocacy which shall help in the ease of doing business and to further innovation.

NASSCOM helps establish strategic directions for the IT industry, upscaling and developing the workforce, establishing sustainable practices that further social change and digital change in India, establishing best practices for collaborating with members, and facilitating international affiliations and partnerships.

NASSCOM was established in 1988 to provide complete support to the IT-BPM industry. It constantly aims to build the structure which is imperative for the development of the IT bpm sector using policy advocacy and by helping develop strategies that can further support these industries. It acts as a facilitator of trade between the BPO industry and the IT industry of India. It is the apex body of heading India’s $227 billion IT-BPM sector. It helps in giving the IT industry an entrepreneurial boost. It helps in bringing all the industry stakeholders together to gather, engage, and represent them with other industry players to accelerate growth. NASSCOM has become the only premier officiated platform where the BPO and the IT industry can directly interact. NASSCOM member countries and associate member companies are primarily in developing software, software products and software services, BPO services, consulting services, engineering services, e-commerce services, and web services.

Benefits of Obtaining a NASSCOM Membership

There are many benefits of obtaining a NASSCOM membership, and they are as follows:

• Being a member allows companies to get an insight into the industry trends
• Members have an opportunity to engage in industry-specific policy advocacy.
• Members have the opportunity to build their network and establish and share amongst other members best practices for the industry.
• Members get to leverage growth opportunities for their businesses
• Members can collaborate with each other for innovation, engaging with startups
• members get the chance to enhance their brand due to increased visibility
• members get the opportunity to push their agenda through industry forums and councils
• members get to leverage global trade development
• membership enables skill development.
• Furthering innovation to bring digital change and inclusion to bring social change in India.

Membership Criteria to Obtain a NASSCOM Membership

Companies can obtain a regular membership and associate membership at NASSCOM. To receive a NASSCOM membership, companies should meet the following criteria:

• Companies must be registered in India and must be focused on providing IT and BPM services and products.

• Companies registered in India with an annual revenue which exceeds ₹2 Crore from the IT-BPM industry are eligible to obtain a regular membership.

• Companies registered in India with an annual revenue which does not exceed ₹2 Crore from IT-BPM operations can be registered as associate companies.

• Institutional membership is provided to firms which support or provide related services to IT-BPM organizations like research institutions, venture capital firms, financial institutions, infrastructure providers, management consultants and real estate.

Membership Fee to Obtain a NASSCOM Membership

There are five categories based on which the annual subscription fee is decided. The categories are as follows:

• Large

Companies with annual revenues which exceed ₹500 Crores every year from IT-BPM services and products are included in this category. This category has five sub-slabs.

• Growth

Companies which have an annual turnover which is more than ₹50 Crore, but less than ₹500 Crore fall under this category. This category has three sub-slabs.

• Emerging

Companies with an annual turnover of more than ₹2 Crore but less than ₹50 Crore fall under this category. This category has three sub-slabs.

• Associate

Companies registered in India which are IT startups or organizations providing IT-enabled services and products with an annual revenue from IT-BPO Operations which is not more than ₹2 Crore fall under this category.

• Institutional

This category includes companies which provide support services or solutions to other companies in the IT-BPM sector.

Documents Required to Obtain a NASSCOM Membership

The following documents are required to obtain a NASSCOM membership:

• Memorandum of association of the company
• Articles of association of the company
• For companies which are not startups audited balance sheets
• For startups, a certificate of projected turnover
• A corporate deck which shall include the profile of the founders of the company, and customer details pertaining to the products and services of the company.
• The company requires a licence to conduct business activities, then such business license shall also be required.

Process to Obtain a NASSCOM Membership

NASSCOM Membership can be highly beneficial for companies in India's IT-BPM sector as it would help companies to collaborate with other members and help one’s company market it better, attract better talent and trust in the company and thus increase its profits. To become a member company of NASSCOM, one is required to follow the enrolment process as mentioned below:

• Fill in the NASSCOM application form. The application form must have requisite information pertaining to general details of the company, contact person for NASSCOM, company head in India, total revenue of the company based on which the fee shall be calculated, the total number of employees in India, the profile of the company.
• Calculate the requisite membership fee based on the company’s annual revenue from the IT-BPM operations.
• Attach the requisite documents with the application form. The documents which are required to be uploaded are the incorporation certificate of the company, memorandum of association or articles of association with the company, audited balance sheet or certificate of projected turnover for startups.
• Once the form has been duly filled and documents have been attached, submit the form and pay the requisite membership fee.
• Once the form has been submitted, and the application fee has been paid, the application shall be sent for approval. The membership approval process takes seven days.