ASIRT’s Synergy Biz Conclave 2024 Bridges Innovation and Collaboration in IT

The Association of System Integrators and Retailers in Technology (ASIRT) recently hosted the 3rd edition of the Synergy Biz Conclave at Treat Beach Resort in Gholvad, near Mumbai, on August 2-3, 2024. The flagship event of the Mumbai-based channel association saw a distinguished gathering of over 140 member CEOs, industry leaders, technology experts.

In his inaugural address, Bharat Chheda, President of ASIRT, extended a warm welcome to all sponsors, members, and guests. He highlighted how the Synergy event strengthened ASIRT’s position as a leading voice in the technology ecosystem and how the Synergy Biz Conclave 2024 underscored ASIRT’s pivotal role as a catalyst for innovation and growth in the Indian IT industry. He further emphasized the impressive response from both the channel community and brands. “Over the past 12 years, we have successfully organized more than 140 on-ground events. Our association has grown to over 250 members, with a cumulative turnover exceeding Rs 4,000 crore.”

Deepak Pandey, Sales Head West, Mid-Market and Volume Business (SMB) at Lenovo, highlighted the company’s growth story in India. “In 20 years, Lenovo has expanded its presence with over 1,500 direct and indirect employees across four regional offices and three manufacturing sites. Lenovo is ranked #2 in the PC market and #3 in the server market. Our SSG and ISG groups contribute nearly 40% of our India business.”

Pandey also introduced Lenovo’s new industrial edge-to-core portfolio, designed to withstand temperatures of up to 60 degrees Celsius.

Russell Chen, South Asia Sales Manager, International Business at Synology, discussed the company’s role in enhancing business data resilience. “Synology is trusted by half of the Fortune 500 companies and is endorsed by 98% of customers and enterprises.”

Chen outlined three pillars of data protection to safeguard businesses: Access and identity management, data security audits, and data recovery and backup plans. “Security is our top priority. We offer solutions like Secure SignIn and Approve SignIn with two-factor authentication for access and identity management. Our Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) handles data security audits. For data recovery and backup, we adhere to the 3-2-1 backup rule: Have at least three copies of your data, keep these copies on two different mediums, and store at least one copy off-site.”

Sameer Mistry, Director & CIO of ITCG Technologies, spoke about empowering channel partners to drive technology growth. He highlighted ITCG’s professional services for four categories of partners: those with sales, presales, and tech capabilities; those with domain expertise excluding cybersecurity; sales-only partners without tech capabilities; and ISVs/OEMs who do not maintain their own support teams. “ITCG PSO assists partners with product implementation and configuration, and supports multi-city opportunities where partners lack a presence. We also offer sustenance and support to customers with SLA management through modern pay-per-use solutions and services.”

Mistry added that ITCG PSO provides one-time services, including firewall audits, cloud infrastructure assessments, phishing simulations, dark web monitoring assessments, and cyber awareness compliance training. “We are expanding our services with pay monthly (pay-per-use) plans, remote monitoring and management, and SOC-as-a-Service/Managed SOC.”

The company has built a team of 65 certified professionals to offer services to partners, with plans to grow to 150 experts. ITCG Technologies currently reaches 170 locations, acting as a single point of contact for professional services.

This year’s conclave featured an impressive lineup of sponsors, including Title Sponsors Lenovo-Bluecom, Platinum Sponsor Synology-Data Skill, and Gold Sponsors ITCG Technologies, Enjay IT, Tally-Neotech, Indio Networks, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Proteus and Rincon joining as member sponsors. Their support underscored the event’s commitment to fostering a collaborative environment where knowledge-sharing and mutual benefits thrive.