The financial capital of India, Mumbai recently witnessed the VARINIDA’s 8th Western India Information Technology Fair – 2018 taking place in the presence of many high-profile guests from the ICT industry. With the theme of "Opportunities for VARs in Digital Transformation”, the event was attended by top IT and telecom honchos, senior government officials, industry leaders, VARs and SIs, making it truly an elite platform to connect with the industry leaders.

The evening commenced with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp amidst the distinguished guests that included Rachana Bhusari, Chief Manager (SME), NSE; Dr Kuiljeit Uppaal, Image Scientist & CEO, Krea; Champak Raj Gurjar, President, FAIITA; Dr Harold D’ costa, Director, Intelligent Quotient Security; Rajesh Ramnani, Director, Hyper Converged Solutions, DellEMC; Sameer Bhatia, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Seagate Technology; Devan Sarma, Regional Business Head – West, Canon India; Navin Mehra, Regional Sales Director, Fortinet Inc.; and Ketan Patel, Founder & Director, Creative Peripherals & Distribution.

Throwing light on the theme of the event, Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief Editor, VARINDIA, remarked in his speech that the role of VARs and partners has become truly vital and stronger with the support of various IT associations at the state and national level. He also took the opportunity to share a few excerpts from a recent survey VARINDIA has conducted with 300 CIOs/CTOs/CISOs in ten different verticals. “The facts of which are very interesting. There is no doubt that digital technology helps to open new doors to innovation. Digital transformation is on top of the minds of the CXOs in 2018.”

The first speaker for the evening was Dr Kuiljeit Uppaal, Image Scientist & CEO, Krea, who presented her insights on how the image building and positioning is important in everyone’s life. Rachana Bhusari, Chief Manager (SME), NSE Ltd, was the second speaker who enlightened the partners and VARs on the opportunities in getting registered in National Stock Exchange (NSE). Ketan Patel, Creative Peripherals & Distribution, also spoke on his experiences after registering his company into NSE.

In the corporate presentations, Rajesh Ramnani, Director, Hyper Converged Solutions, Dell EMC, spoke on how Dell brings newer opportunities for the VARs in the era of Digital Transformation. Sameer Bhatia, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Seagate Technology, made his presentation on how Seagate brings newer opportunities for the VARs. While Devan Sarma, Assistant Director, Regional Business Head – West, Canon India, addressed the audience by speaking on how Canon through its different products and solutions offers opportunities for the VARs. Navin Mehra, Regional Sales Director, Fortinet Inc., gave his presentation on how Fortinet is planning to bring new opportunities for VARs in the era of digital transformation.

Fire Side Chat Session

The Fire Side chat session right after the corporate presentations caught the fancy of every guests. In a rapid-fire format, the session saw Dr Harold D’ costa, Director, Intelligent Quotient Security, giving his insights on a few pertinent questions raised by Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief Editor, VARINDIA concerning the cyber security world. 

Award Winners Session

It was then time to recognize the VARs from Western India, who are hailed as the real heroes of the IT industry by VARINDIA. Ten VARs from Western India were awarded in the categories of The Best Reseller, Western India; Best Value Added Reseller (VAR), Western India; Best Value Added Distributor (VAD); Best ISV; Best System Integrator; Best Solution Partner; Best Regional Distributor; Best Network Integrator; Best Cloud Solution Partner; and Best Partner (Information Security). The names of the winners respectively are: Aarvee Computers, Bluecom Infotech, Inspira Enterprise India, Techlink Infoware, Pentagon System and Services, Orient Technologies, Creative Peripherals & Distribution, Magnamious Systems, Shivami Cloud Services and Essen Vision Software.

Lucky Draw Session

There was also a lucky draw contest held at the end of the event and the lucky winner walked away with a gift sponsored by Seagate.

Product Display