By: Swaminathan Balasubramanian

Kula Lumpur: Infotech software Dealers Association [ISODA], one of the key pan-India association for software resellers and large system integrators had completed their eighth version of their annual flagship event ‘Tech Summit’ in Malaysia. The three day event had many security vendors, distributors and channel partners participating in the event. The summit had a theme around financing and how partners can manage finance effectively.

The summit had a theme related to finance and in his opening keynote, Atul Modi, chairman of the summit, welcomed everyone and emphasized the importance of finance and how to handle payments with internal and external stakeholders.

Tushar Parekh, Chairman of ISODA, in his speech said that the goal of the forum was to interact with top 50 vendors and increase the strength to 500 members and launch new chapters. He also said that the association will have committees addressing the tax, media etc. He also said the association is going digital with digital agencies.

Cisco, Check Point software, Radware, LG electronics, Kaspersky, Red Hat, Sophos, Ipswich, Stratus, Seclore, Edimax, Force point, RAH Infotech were the sponsors of the event. Some of the key aspects of security including Mobile security, cloud security, security of IoT, security needs for small and medium business were discussed.

Highlights over the three days were:-

The discussions and sharing of knowledge of our member speakers with their peers on how they chose to deal with the challenges we are collectively facing with respect to financing and funding in keeping with the theme of Tipping Point - Breaching the Finance barrier.

The interactions with the members and the sponsors were conducted in such a way this time ensuring quality face time with each and every member to the sponsor representative. Significant updates in the engagement approaches with novel concepts interspersed with short, light-hearted knowledge and QnA sessions using available & interactive cloud and smart-phone based technology translated into members and all other participants being present to all sessions conducted.

According to the organizers, a key takeaway that members who may be part of subsequent Tech Summit teams got to know, it is possible to significantly raise the bar on the overall experience of an event like this, within a decent budget, without the use of an external event management company and actually make it overall positive and contribute back to the ISODA while giving the sponsors more than what they paid for.

Round-Table networking:
To increase the quality time spent by every participant with the sponsoring vendor, the association had created a concept of round-table discussion. Accordingly, the members were allotted row and were made to sit in pre-allotted seats. Not just announcing goodies for the most-interactive table, the event-designers ensured that every sponsor has some quality time with every table using a ‘round-robin’ method.

Atul Modi, organizer of the summit, terms this team effort, “A lot of thought, brain-storming and deliberation went into some feedback on a couple of the earlier TS’ on the engagement levels sponsors expected vis-a-vis what actually got delivered, beating down ROI from attending/participating.

This resulted in the introduction into the novel concept of dedicated round-table networking sessions that is the next best to one-on-one interactions, in some ways even better since queries and ideas from other members around the table added to the take-away for each. Traditionally it has been a challenge to ensure maximum value to a sponsor In the form of maximum member attendance as well”

To counter this, the association had formulated the round table networking session to ensure each sponsor gets to spend time with each member in a focused setting of groups of 8-9 people. “Basically allowing sponsor to judge members interest and knowledge of the subject as well as allowing for members to interact and express their interest in the solutions being provided by the sponsors.

Each sponsor was also given a ‘mark-sheet’ to evaluate various aspects of these sessions and inputs gathered from these would help subsequent Tech Summit Management Committee in further fine-tuning them to maximize benefit/clear ROI.”

In some of the key takeaways, the sponsors had given for the participant, an optimal, personal engagement and understanding of each sponsor represent individually, their solutions, special offers, model of alignment to add these as new revenue streams to their existing and any other aspects that channels business growth for them, and in turn the sponsors’.
The members, through the presenters, got clear understanding of the ‘Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016’ and PoA based on the same when facing long outstanding in line with the TS8 theme ‘Tipping Point - Breaching the Finance barrier’.

Testimonials:

Here are some of the key testimonials given by some of the participants.

Shrenik Bhayani, General Manager, Kaspersky Lab (South Asia): ISODA is a great platform with a good and refreshing environment to meet different partners with the goal of growing their businesses in India, where they can share opportunities, I am glad to be part of the round table conducted by the organizers, which was very interactive, allowing open conversations and ideas to develop. The entire conference was very lively and interactive with active participation from attendees kept the session engaging throughout the days of the conference.

Jitesh Chauhan, Director, Rubik Infotech: ISODA tech summit has been a pleasant networking event. It’s an event which as an Isoda members wait to network with each other. This year take summit was excellent hosted by Anuj and his team members. Kudos to Anuj for holding such a content full event. My take away from this summit is got to know about Cisco entry into security portfolio and what the industry is heading towards. I also had a great interaction with OEMs and looking forward of doing some fruitful business with them. The internal slot which was shared by some of the ISODA members was really eye catching and helping to know other friends of Isoda that they can work together to lot of solutions.

Venkat Murthy, Prime Mover, 22by7: ISODA Tech Summit is one of the best events I had attended in my life so far. The summit was a wonderful place to know about the current market situation and technology trends /best practices to be followed.

Dhirendra Khandelwal, Managing Director, E Square System & Technology : It was a nice platform to interact with partners across the country and the event was quite informative. However, it will be great if we can take up some activity which will help partner scale up to next level in terms of capability, market readiness and revenue.

Kavita Singhal, Director, Kamtron Systems: ISODA is the only platform that beings IT partners, vendors and distributors together with great networking opportunities for business growth and making new friends. ISODA unite all the members like a family and help each other. Tech summit 8 was well-organized with uttermost care for every participant. Round table was conducted in an unique way that gave opportunity to all the vendors to connect individually with all the participants.