More than 100 top IT solution providers from across the country gathered at the summit to share their experiences

The two-day event saw the participation of over 100 key solutions providers from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Jammu, Indore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Goa, Coimbatore, and Pune, checking-in at the Hotel Retreat, Madh Island, Mumbai. These busy bodies had supposedly canceled meetings, trips, outings, incurred wrath of their families to be a part of the event.

Prakash Bajpai, president (Broadband and IDC), Reliance Infocomm began with a congratulatory note. “The current wave of success would not have happened but for the entrepreneurial skills of solutions providers,” he said. According to Prakash, Reliance Infocomm started to build a nationwide telecom infrastructure as early as 2001 and is now set to increase its presence in 2000 cities and towns.

“With the kind of technology and innovations, today, customers are talking a new language,” said Prakash, adding, “Tomorrow, we will have Gigabyte Ethernet technology or the Metro Ethernet technology that will bring about a change in the way technology eases things.”

BRAND INDIA: Panelists were of the view that solution providers should strive to build brand India, abroad

Prakash also pointed out the poor spectrum available for broadband applications and called on the government to solve the spectrum issue. According to him, there is a big market opportunity in hosting applications space.

Overseas Business Associations
Panelists: Sanjiv Bhavnani (Visesh Infotecnics) and Nitin Shah (Allied Digital)

It is time to take brand India overseas. There are many entry points to start overseas operations. Sanjiv Bhavnani, CEO & MD, Visesh Infotecnics feels that one should have a clear objective and vision in mind. “When I enter a country I feel the style of that country, whether it suits my style. I entered Thailand in 1995 for specific consultancy work through recommendation. As relationship grew, business also grew, over time they took equity in my company,” he reveals.

“The objective, investment, vision and the core competence are the important factors for a successful overseas venture,” says Nitin Shah, MD, Allied Digital. “There is no businessman in this world who will not willingly take stake in your company if you are capable,” he stressed.

At the same time, not all markets are easy to enter. Sanjiv feels entering the US or the European markets cane be an uphill task, whereas countries like Yemen, Malaysia, etc are relatively a cake walk.

Giving the keynote address Jitendra Kulkarni, CEO, Redington, congratulated DQ Channels for hosting the Summit, Jitendra remarked that the summit has come at an apt time, when solutions providers have begun to play a key role as an interface for customer in the world of IT products and services.

Merging with the Best
Panelists: RK Malhotra (OA Compserve) and Sudhir Sarma (Network Solutions)

Talking about the success it achieved in the market by getting acquired by a large company like IBM, Sudhir Sarma said, every company either burnout or succeed when it reaches a certain size. “Our entire business was focused on entire market place with a solutions approach and hence we could succeed,” said Sudhir.

According to Sudhir, there are three sources to raise funds, it is either through a venture capital, or an IPO or by a merger and acquisition.

Talking about the dangerous of partnerships, RK Malhotra said, “One has to take a calculated risk in a partnership while factoring the growth of the company.” It is good to have a partnership for going overseas, as it helps to grow faster compared to the growth it can have within the country, says Malhotra.

“If you have the right technical people and the right processes, and if you have developed your own tools, it is much easier to go overseas,” says Sudhir.

Best HR Practices
Panelists: Devendra Taneja (PC Solutions) and N Jagannathan (Fourth Dimension)

A common human resource problem that every solutions provider encounters is that of attrition. “Attrition is here to stay,” says Devendra Taneja. “The only difference will be the level of severity. Young people want spending power they are not bothered about which company they are working for,” points out Jaganath.

According to Jaganath, more important is getting the right people, and even more important is retaining them.

The panelist gave tips on how training, profit share, special incentive can solve attrition to a large extent. “Scaling up people to the next level if the person deserves also help in retaining good people in the company,” added Devendra.

The panelists also answered queries from the audience on how it makes a difference to get the HR process right to manage it employee.

QUESTION HOUR & YOGA: Participants solving their problems in a yogic way

Fund Management
Panelists: Ranjan Chopra, CMD, Team Computers and TG Ramesh, Director, Precision Group

In a very brief session, both the panelists got the audience asking for more tips on fund management, while Ranjan and Ramesh unleashed their expertise on fund management.

Ramesh touched upon the importance of working capital and how it is important to bridge it for smooth functioning of the business.

All the session were followed by small bouts of quiz. Not just that, sponsor such as Xerox, Motorola, and Netcore, made the most out of the event by giving presentation on their products to the high-profiled gathering of solution providers.

To make the event more promising, DQ Channels also arranged Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC India to present some facts and figures on the IT industry. “The IT industry is changing from a single industry to two new groups,” he said. “One that is a matured one and the other that is evolving and growing,” he added.

Healthy Lessons
After a hectic deliberating the ills and travails of the solution provider industry, it was time to look at the ills that plague or body and soul.

The second day's session at the Solutions Providers Summit started off with Yogacharya Avneesh Tiwari's discourse attempting to bring succor to every participant's life by presenting an array of knowledge and yoga activities that charged everyone up.

Participants were not short of queries on how to look at life from a different perspective, and the Yogacharya had a solution to each one of them.

After, the rejuvenation it was time to call it a day, and the delegates and participants returned to life pepped up and focused.

Nelson Johny    
nelsonpj@cybermedia.co.in

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