“As a distribution industry, we are all moving towards more solutions aggregators than product distributors. The online movement and cloud adoption helped to accelerate the business of our partners so that they can serve the customers in a much more timely manner,” shared Navneet Singh Bindra, VP and Chief Country Executive, Ingram Micro at The Channel Leadership Summit 2021, a flagship event of the CRN India (Indian Express Group) organised for the channel partner and vendor communities on November 23-24, 2021.
The final day of the virtual conference began with a keynote address titled ‘Redefining Business Resiliency for the New Normal’ by Anuj Gupta, CEO, Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic. Gupta emphasised that consumption economies are here to stay, technology will be at the apex of all consumption.
According to Gupta, “With respect to internet availability reaching the last mile; soon, entire India will be connected to one platform. In one and a half years we have connected close to 500 million people on the Aarogya Setu platform. Digitalisation is going to be the way forward and an effective game changer and reskilling has become a major.”
Next, Indrajit Belgundi, Sr Director and GM, Client Solutions Group, Dell Technologies, India took a session titled ‘Drive ahead with technology made in India’. He stated, “Machines are evolving at a fast pace with the use of mixed sensors, software updates and AI and ML. Opportunities for human-machine partnership will drive a progressive shift at the workplace. We are launching products in compliance with government initiatives, such as; Make in India and Dell is involved in making sustainable commercial products for the industry. As a vendor, there is a need to have unmatched supply chain capabilities.”
Following there was a power-packed panel discussion titled, “Riding the Wave of Transformation – Thriving in an Era of Constant Change’. In the panel discussion, Anirudh Shrotriya, Managing Director, Shro Systems expressed that technology should be inclusive and a progressive force in the global environment.
While commenting on the pandemic, Navneet Singh Bindra, Vice President and Chief Country Executive, Ingram Micro India said, “The pandemic has taught us to build resilience in our business.”
According to Byju Pillai, Group Managing Director, Inflow Technologies, “India as a nation is definitely back in the process of growth and development.”
Ramesh Natarajan, Chief Executive Officer, Redington India stressed upon customer success stories that are a good way to show organisational progress.
Sundaresan K, VP Next Generation Technologies and Country GM, Tech Data, India stated that vendors are adopting newer technologies like hybrid cloud, analytics, AI/ML and automation, which is a sign of progress.
According to Atul Gaur, Director, Savex Technologies Pvt Ltd, “Vendors should take risks and work on cutting edge technology. As the future demands, daring innovations will be the key to success.”
Naresh Rana, Senior Sales Manager, Western Digital commented that 5G will be the key enabler for many technologies.
The conference moved ahead with the awards ceremony, where winners were felicitated for their excellent contributions in the categories like AI, blockchain, enterprise security, data centres and many more. The list of award winners is as following:
| Organisation name | Award category |
| ITS Technology Solution Pvt. Ltd. | Enterprise Applications |
| Foetron | Multi Cloud |
| Shivaami Cloud Services Pvt. Ltd. | Multi Cloud |
| F5 Techno Solutions Private Limited | Enterprise Mobility |
| e-Zest Solutions | Artificial Intelligence |
| JNR Management Resources Private Limited | Enterprise Security |
| Secure Network Solutions India Pvt Ltd | Enterprise Security |
| Systech Technocraft Services Private Limited | Enterprise Security |
| Orient technologies pvt ltd. | Data Centre (Server, Storage, Networking) |
| SHRO SYSTEMS PVT LTD | Data Centre (Server, Storage, Networking) |
| Futurenet Technologies (India) Private Limited | Data Centre (Server, Storage, Networking) |
| KPlus Infotech Pvt Limited | Data Centre (Server, Storage, Networking) |
| Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd | Data Centre (Server, Storage, Networking) |
| People Ventures | Document Management |
| Dmacq Software Private Limited | Document Management |
The conference moved ahead with the post lunch session with another panel discussion titled ‘Building Cloud Ready Enterprises’. As a panelist, Narasimha Murthy, CEO, Connectivity Solutions commented that security remains a major challenge for cloud adoption.
N K Mehta, CMD, Secure Network Solutions said that proper cost optimisation for cloud will enable organisations to maximise their cost savings.
According to Dhirendra Kumar Shrivastava, Head-Sales, Inspira Enterprise India, “Digital transformation strategy should center around the cloud.”
Varoon Rajani, Co-Founder and CEO, Blazeclan Technologies expressed, “Skill gap that exists in the market continues to be a challenge and controls for developers should be monitored.”
“Security vendors have become mature and they are giving multiple services for organisations,” mentioned Umesh Shah, Director, Orient Technologies.
Prateek Garg, Founder and CEO, Progressive Infotech highlighted that cloud adoptions will only grow if there is proper application development.
“Without cloud, it is tough to have proper digital transformation within an organisation,” stressed Bipul Patra, President – Technology and Strategy, Embee Software.
Next, there was a special address session titled ‘Preparing for a digital first era: Our learnings and best practices’ by Ramesh Natarajan, Chief Executive Officer, Redington India. He said, “Digital transformation has become an absolute imperative for people to get connected to the business coordinates. It is more about reinventing the business model. Remote workforce management is the current, relevant, and key characteristic of digital transformation and cloud adoption is going to be a major area of focus where flexibility is the key to have a great customer experience.”
Next, was another special address on ‘Cybersecurity and Cloud Security is No Longer an Option. It is a matter of survival and Sustainability’ by Sharad Sharma, Vice President – GSI, ISV and Global Alliances, Cloud4C Services. Sharma expressed, “Ransomware attacks have grown by 350 per cent since 2018. Total 1.5 million phishing sites are created every month. Government, manufacturing, construction, utilities type of industries are mostly targeted by ransomwares and you cannot maintain a strong team without a secure remote work strategy. Consumers wish to work with companies that can keep their data safe.”
Following this was a panel discussion titled ‘Federation of All India IT Associations, FAIITA: Driving the IT channel towards Phygital sellers’.
Kaushik Pandya, President, FAIITA; Navin K Gupta, General Secretary, FAIITA; Devesh Kumar Rastogi, Sr Vice President, FAIITA and S Karthikeyan, Vice President, FAIITA participated in the discussion.
Kaushik Pandya, President, FAIITA explained, “We have more than 100 associations who joined FAIITA from every nook and corner of India. Our basic motive is to help in uplifting the channel body and the business of brick and mortar.”
S Karthikeyan, Vice President, FAIITA said, “The pandemic changed everything. It gave us an opportunity to re-think, re-invent, re-imagine. There is a dearth of personalised after-sales support for products purchased online. Digital marketing strategy should be worked properly before launching a product.”
The last day of the conference ended with another awards ceremony where winners were felicitated for their excellent contributions in the categories like AI, blockchain, enterprise security, data centres and many more. The list of award winners is as following:
| Organisation name | Award Categories |
| ITCG Solutions Private Limited | Unified Communication |
| Som Imaging Informatics Pvt. Ltd. | IP Creation |
| Ingram Micro India Pvt. Ltd. | Big Data / Analytics |
| Ingram Micro India Pvt. Ltd. | Enterprise Applications (Digital Workforce Transformation) |
| Ingram Micro India Pvt. Ltd. | Enterprise Applications (Global Portal For IT Professional Services ) |
| Ingram Micro India Pvt. Ltd. | Enterprise Applications (Micro E-commerce Portal) |
| Ingram Micro India Pvt. Ltd. | Data Centre (Server, Storage, Networking) |
| Hitachi Systems MicroClinic Pvt Ltd | Data Centre (Server, Storage, Networking) |
| Digitaltrack Solutions Pvt. Ltd. | Data Centre (Server, Storage, Networking) |
| Patwa Kinarivala Electronics Ltd | Enterprise Security |
| CDP (India) Private Ltd. | Robotic Process Automation |
