SP Summit Lights Up Emerald Valley

The fourth DQ Channels SP Summit was organized with great fervor at Kathmandu,
Nepal from Jan 9 to 11, 2009. The event marked an outstanding participation of
around 100 solution providers (SPs) from all corners of the country. The Summit
was conducted in association with Sun Microsystems, Microworld Technologies, LG
Electronics, Emerson Network Power, Tandberg, Kaseya and Nepal Tourism Board.

The first two days of the event saw a series of panel discussions among
vendors and SPs. The topics of discussion included importance of branding in
contemporary times, managing finances during the slowdown, managing attrition
and succession planning.

Recession impact

In the first session, the focal point of concern was the recession with
discussions revolving around its impact on ones business and the scenario that
partners have to face as time proceeds. SPs concluded that though hard times are
yet to come, being a V-shaped recession, a recovery was expected to happen very
soon.

Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC India brings the delegates up to date with the trends and technologies that will rule 2009	Anil Gupta, National Sales Manager, Microworld Technologies holding forth on the need to have a tightly knitted network security perimeter in place and how to exactly beat the recession with security solutions

The discussion gained momentum when solution providers raised their queries
about the upcoming trends in the IT industry and adoption of SaaS model.
Partners put forth their queries about the potential and relevance of this model
in Indian economy. One of the vendors opined that adoption of SaaS will not
happen overnight in India and by the time the model gets prevalent in the
market, solution providers would get enough time to modify their business
strategies according to the market scenario.

Gopal Krishna, Product Manager-B2B LCD Monitors, LG Electronics talks about the various technologies in display solutions that will add value to a partner's business	Sujit Narula responds to a query by Girish Krishnamurthy, MD, Kaseya. Krishnamurthy took a session on transforming the services business for future growth

The event continued with a note by Dinesh Behl of Sun Microsystems, who
talked about the initiatives and strategies that Sun Microsystems has taken to
strengthen its position in the Indian market and the potentials that SPs can
generate out of every solution.

Dinesh Behl of Sun Microsystems talks about the importance of innovating during difficult times	RS Shanbhag of Valuepoint Systems shares his views on the discussion

Girsih Krishnamurthy, MD, Kaseya spoke to partners about aligning their
business with customers and rewarding them with optimal performance and improved
uptime security. Presentations were also made by Anil Gupta, National
Head-Sales, Microworld Technologies, Mandeep Gupta, Country Manager-Channel
Business, Emerson and Gopal Krishna, Product Manager-B2B LCD Monitors, LG
Electronics.

Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC India presented the roadmap of IT
industry in 2009. There was also an interesting presentation by Sanjiv Bhavnani
of Visesh Infotecnics on building valuations of a business. He shared his views
about understanding strengths and the market, building a storyboard, holding the
management team together, working out a winning strategy, putting milestones to
road maps, being open to feedback and making room for changes and the importance
of keeping stakeholders involved.

As the event came to an end, SPs took the opportunity to visit to the famous
temples around the valley. They also did not miss the chance to try their luck
at the casinos and get an unforgettable glimpse of Mount Everest.