Event

COM-IT Expo 2007

The event brought industry and business professionals on to a common platform and served as a landing point for the computer hardware, software and services market, says Nivedan Prakash

The Trade Association of Information Technology (TAIT), Mumbai, hosted the first International IT Exhibition and Conference, COM-IT Expo 2007, from 7th to 10th December in Mumbai.

The COM-IT Expo 2007 was inaugurated by Ramamurthy Sivakumar, Managing Director – South Asia, Intel. Speaking on the occasion, Sivakumar said, “The scale of this event looks enormous and the next four days will show how much excitement it creates in the IT industry, not only in Mumbai but all around the country. TAIT members have done a tremendous job in putting up this kind of event on such a large scale.”

At the Synergies 2007 Conference

Ramamurthy Sivakumar, Managing Director – South Asia, Intel inaugurated the COM-IT Expo 2007

TAIT Members with Ramamurthy Sivakumar at the Synergies 2007 Conference

Visitors having a look at one of the stalls at the COM-IT Expo 2007

The association’s intention was to offer a common platform for vendors and channel partners to showcase their products and technology solutions, launch new products and services, interact with people who make the strategic decisions, enhance brand equity and build network with the Indian IT industry players.
Talking about the Expo, Pravin Dhoka, President, TAIT, said, “COM-IT Expo 2007 is an IT exhibition that has been organized for the first time by TAIT. This kind of Expo, focusing only on IT products, has not happened in Mumbai for a decade. So we took an initiative and brought the whole IT community to one place. It’s like a normal IT exhibition but our mode of presentation is different as compared to others.”

“In this Expo, around 100-150 brands were on display with a large number of exhibitors participating in this event. We have had an overwhelming and learning experience this year. Taking a cue from what we have learnt this year, COM-IT Expo will now be held every year. We have even announced dates for the next year, wherein the event would be organized from 20th to 25th November,” added Dhoka.

COM-IT witnessed distributors, resellers, value added resellers (VARs), system and solution providers and software companies from across the Asia Pacific displaying their products and technology. The companies that participated in this event, included Microsoft, Samsung, Kingston, Asus, HP, Intel, Xerox, Netgear, Sandisk, Zenith, Fujitsu, Gigabyte, HCL, Hitachi, Logitech, LG, Moserbaer, amongst others.

Under the aegis of COM-IT Expo 2007, a two-day conference, called Synergies 2007, was simultaneously organized, presenting insights on industry trends, technology updates, best business practices and other contemporary topics.

The first day of the conference saw prominent speakers like Ramamurthy Sivakumar from Intel, Ravi Swaminathan from HP, Rajesh Khurana from Seagate, Suresh Bala from Microsoft and Moninder Jain from Logitech talking about innovations in business, the latest trends and upcoming technologies.

On the second day, an entire session of the conference was organized by the reputed IT reseller magazine, Express ChannelBusiness of the Indian Express Group. The topics covered by the speakers included Competition Law, Challenging the Large Format, and IT Buying & Vendor Management.

The renowned legal expert, Suhail Nathani who serves as a Partner at the law firm, Economic Laws Practice, spoke on a topic relevant to the IT value chain, Competition Law. He said that India was in a transitional phase and that the country would soon have a new Competition Law with greater scope and power. “We are moving to the new Competition Act which is likely to come into effect by mid-2008. There will be a Competition Commission which will be far more advanced and functional than the present Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1969. The new Competition Law, he stressed, would help sort out the cases involving various market players faster than as under the present MRTP Act.

The second speaker of the conference, Brand Guru Jagdeep Kapoor, tried to alleviate the fears of IT retailers and resellers about competition from large format retail stores. Striking a dialogue with the audience members, Kapoor spiced up his presentations with examples of businesses that became successful by providing a unique value proposition to their customers. Prescribing nine Brand Shaastras, he emphasized that companies must pay attention to various aspects of business starting from customer Need to Exceeding those expectations. If IT channels follow these Shaastraas, i.e. Need, Seed, Heed, Deed, Feed, Speed, Creed, Breed, and Exceed they will Succeed despite the competition from large format retailers.

The third speaker at the conference, Sunil Mehta, Senior Vice President of JWT, spoke about ‘IT Buying and Vendor Management’ presenting a CIO’s point of view vis-à-vis the IT sales process. Being dependent for their growth on the overall economic growth, CIOs in advertising agencies have had to make certain compromises when it comes to buying IT or even cope with budget cuts and purchase delays. A vendor who can be sensitive to such realities can succeed in selling to advertising customers.

nivedan.prakash@expressindia.com