THE 6TH ISODA SUMMIT CALLS FOR CO-OPETITION RATHER THAN COMPETITION

The flagship annual event of InfoTech Software Dealers Association (ISODA), the ISODA TechSummit 6, held on Feb 4-7, 2016 at Langkawi, Malaysia, was grand success, by all reports.

The association is a platform for software dealers, who are engaged in the business of reselling packaged software products across India. This event is held annually for the members of ISODA   to participate and exchange business concerns and views.  It facilitates peer-to-peer dialogue, setting the base for insightful contributions from a cross-section of experts. “The Tech Summit plays a role akin to that of an ideal community builder, said Mr. Tushar Parekh – the TechSummit 6 Chairman earlier.

The official theme for the Summit 2016 was,  ‘Partner 2 Progress’, with the agenda focused on identifying  new opportunities, by a series of specialized sessions and informal as well as formal  networking opportunities between members and principals.

Reports from ISODA committee say that the Summit was a grand success with the sponsoring OEMs as well as the ISODA Members. There was a strong sense of camaraderie, collaboration and partnership throughout the event; exactly as envisaged from the theme Partner2Progess. “Based on the feedback of the sponsors, the participation from the members, sponsors and media, the interactions during the Summit and the feedback submitted by the members, we are glad that the objective of the Summit was met completely – collaboration. We will keep tabs on the follow-up activities and ensure that the members and sponsors achieve more, “Added Mr Parekh, speaking about the summit.

The messages from both the sponsor and partner communities were clear. The Sponsors presented in a crisp and clear manner on technology developments, increasing complexity of customer requirements and what was required to increase the skill sets of partners to be relevant.

There were 2 panel discussions during the Summit that excited everyone’s thinking processes.

The first discussion was- “Uncloud the Mind” which assured many takeaways for the members regarding the Cloud Market, preparedness, readiness and above all the trends. The second discussion, “The Security and you” had participants from the security market and senior ISODA members, where they discussed the trends in the Security business with cloud and BYOD being accepted so rapidly.

“The partners understood where the market is leading to, what changes they need to make in their approach to be relevant in these markets and above all, forge new alliances in domains they were not present in, said Mr Parekh.

The key takeaways for the members were:

• Collaboration among members was important, to increase portfolio coverage
• Network with representatives of visionary OEMs in the Security, Cloud and Infrastructure Management domain
• Insights from peers to understand their best practices to excel amongst customers
• ISODA Excellence Awards opened up discussions amongst the members on what some partners were doing to make a difference to their customers and how these can be replicated by all, and
• Most importantly, the need to understand the trends, follow where the market growth is, forge new alliances and above all, continue to be the trusted advisor to customers

The Summit is the stepping stone for a lot of new sponsors to get a set of more than 80 Business Decision Makers in one place. “Forging of alliances is quick, trends understood at the top level, actionables immediately put into force and restructuring to ensure profitability, skills and growth understood well are some of the key benefits to the members. Today members understand the pain areas at the customer place, and may not necessarily have a partnership and skills and expertise in those areas,” commented Mr Tushar Parekh.

With ISODA’s theme of Partner2Progress, not just sponsors but even members amongst themselves are forging new alliances for co-opetition rather than competition. Above all, TRUST is something that all ISODA members have inculcated among themselves for mutual business growth.