| Super Session (morning session): sets a new benchmark in driving |
The VAR Symposium 2019 continued the momentum which was set into motion by VAR Symposium 2018. The coming together of key VARs from across the country along with the sales and marketing professionals from selected corporates and technical leaders set the stage ready for this year’s Symposium. The day-long session witnessed new business strategies being discussed, with a special focus on how to maximize partner profitability, thereby steering their business transformation. A total of 125 VARs including MSPs, Integrators, Solution Providers and VARs converged, shared ideas and initiated discussions that define the current partner ecosystem in the country.
The theme for this year’s event was "Partner Transformation”, and the discussions during the day revolved around this topic. The event commenced with the lamp lighting ceremony in the august presence of guests like Vipin Tyagi, ED – C-DOT; Harold D’çosta, CEO – IQSS; Harold Dcosta, Dr Ramesh Subramaniam – Motivational; Kaushik Pandiya, President – FAIITA; Dr. Deepak Kr. Sahu, Editor-in-Chief, VARINDIA and S Mohini Ratna, Editor – VARINDIA.
Dr Deepak Kr. Sahu, Editor-in-Chief, VARINDIA kick-started the event by giving his inaugural speech in which he highlighted the fact of how digitisation is creating tremendous opportunities for economies across the globe. “As a media house, our focus has been Technology, that is at the forefront of everything we do. I think most organisations acknowledge the fact that IT can play an important role to deliver value and competitive edge to the organisation. Many organisations consider such slowdown situation as best opportunity to sharpen their strategy using IT. However, the focus is more on direct tangible outcome projects rather than intangible.”
Harold D’çosta, CEO – IQSS delivered the first speech of the day who spoke on the opportunities in the cyber space in terms of various avenues which could be there for the VARs.
Vipin Tyagi, ED – C-DOT spoke on how satellite links are the primary means of connectivity to remote and far-flung regions of the country and that they are the backup links for large number of terrestrial connectivity in the mainland.
In a first of its kind that was introduced at this year’s VAR Symposium was the Super Session - that witnessed five partners giving their presentation and speaking on Business Transformation; the speakers were Vikas Bhonsle, CEO – Crayon Software Experts India; Manjeet Singh, Sr. VP (Sales) - RAH Infotech; Satish Arora, Zonal Head (North) – Savex Technologies; Prince Dhawan, Assistant General Manager – Sales & Business Development, NTT – Netmagic and Ranjit GK, CEO & MD – Vaibhav Inc.
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| Session II: Keynote Experiential eCommerce - Crafting Meaningful Experiences To Engage Customers And Drive Sales
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Harold D’çosta, CEO – IQSS
“As a value added reseller, we always think that we should have a product that is technologically viable. But cyber space is not only technical but there are also legal aspects to it. Cyber security is not easy until we understand; investing in technology without understanding vulnerabilities is not sufficient. So as a VAS, there is a huge opportunity, provided you understand it thoroughly. Your focus should be on both the parameters – techno-legal (Technical + legal). This will also help you in growing your business. For instance, if you happen to handle the data of any financial organization, and if you are unable to keep the data secured or is shared with any third party, the IT Act of the country says that the organization that holds the data is responsible (in this case you). Data has to be properly secured, as the PM of the country says that data is the new oil. Once the data privacy policy is in place, there will be criminal and civil consequences.”
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Vipin Tyagi, ED – C-DOT
“One particular change which is recently occurring which I would call as ‘SWIM’ where ‘S’ stands for satellite. We are moving towards 5G and these satellites are able to give gigahertz level of connectivity and recognized globally as a medium of surveillance, communication and connectivity effectively. The major challenge in front of the country is how we can connect the little parts of the world. The second alphabet in ‘SWIM’ is ‘W’ what we call Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi 6 has almost the same capabilities as 5G. Portability of Wi-Fi is so easy that it has reached everywhere. There are long and short distances Wi-Fi, solar Wi-Fi. The third word ‘I’ stands for Internet of Things which is very commonly talked about. The IoT is an automation tool. The last word ‘M’ in ‘SWIM’ is actually monitoring and security. Monitoring the behaviour of all the equipment is very important.”
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Vikas Bhonsle, CEO – Crayon Software Experts India
“The Gartner prediction of 2019 spoke about The Intelligent Digital mesh architecture and it is all about how AI is powering everything that we work with, and which will ultimately lead us into the future. It spoke about the digital world where the real and the virtual are coming together to create a new digital reality. It also spoke about people, processes and things and the convergence of all of these which essentially was driving the continuous innovation process in our country. First, autonomous things is using AI to drive high levels of capabilities in hardware and software like drones, autonomous cars etc. Second, Augmented Reality or Augmented Analytics is all about using interfaces engineering data science. The third trend is AI driven development. It also talks about Smart Spaces which is all about creating environments where we have n number of capable systems.”
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Satish Arora, Zonal Head (North) – Savex Technologies
“We have multiple functions within the distribution house, the one which we feel is the differentiator - pre and post sales. We have a very capable team of post-sales who help our channel partners for the installation after the sale of products. We have an extensive vendor ecosystem that we work with and are growing really fast. We have a capable team of channel partners who have built on a wide array of capabilities. Savex is the third largest distributor with 39 sales offices and 42 stock locations across the country across 650+ cities of the country. We are headquartered in Mumbai. Savex believes in long term relationships with both our partners and customers. We enjoy working very closely with our vendors. In terms of milestone, we are about to touch two billion organizations in terms of revenue. We are catering to more than 7000 partner base.”
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Prince Dhawan, Assistant GM – Sales & Business Development, NTT – Netmagic
“Headquartered in Japan, NTT Netmagic provides space, power and connectivity. Customers can co-locate their hardware in Netmagic’s data-center. We are very strong in the cloud services. We are offering all the three flavours of cloud - public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud. We have seen for the last two years that customers are investing on security services. To mitigate ransomware or any kind of security challenges, enterprises are spending on security services. Netmagic is selling security as a service. The next service is VAPT which is Vulnerable Assessment Penetration Testing as we do security audit for the customer. We have launched a cloud management portal through which customers can see the performance of all the cloud providers through a single dash-board. Certification wise we have all data-centers certifications. We are working with our partners with two models - one is TransferWise model and the other is the ORC model. We also keep doing customer events with partners. We have payouts better than industry standard and we reward our partners with every deal.”
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Ranjit GK, CEO & MD – Vaibhav Inc.
“We commenced our entrepreneurial journey in 2012 and started as a channel partner with Vodafone. We have had a wonderful journey with Vodafone Idea. Had it not been for Vodafone, we could not have added so many products and services to our portfolio, and been a channel partner in the telecom space. In 2016, we started our focus on start-ups, where we have pitched many products and customised solutions. From there, we expanded our capability to the enterprise segment. Our vision is to deliver the best possible solutions, and add more value to our customers. We keep learning, analyzing and innovating to serve our customers better. There are a lot of government initiatives that have come up for us, besides a few notable wins that we have to our credit. We started with 3 mobility clients, and today enjoy a wide spectrum of customers across the country.”
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Manjeet Singh, Sr. VP (Sales) - RAH Infotech
“When Newton first came out with the gravitation theory with the apple, it was definitely not for eating. But there was a reason behind it. I believe if there is complete freedom given to anyone, the innovation will automatically start from within. And this will what lead to success. We as a technology partner try to add value while serving our customers; we bring in the right set of solutions & services for them, besides being a trusted advisor to them. We are a vendor specialize in Network solutions, cyber security, cloud solutions & services and Data Management, Back-up & DR. We have just signed as a technology partner for Tata Communication to address businesses' cloud requirements. We have grown as the fastest growing Technology VAD over the years. Our vision is to become the most admired brand in value added technology distribution.”
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