2nd EIITF unveils the SME potential in Kolkata

[ Front (L-R): Aditi Ganguli, General Manager (East), Lenovo India, Rajeev Saxena, Business Head & AVP - SMB Business, HCL Infosystems Ltd., Hemal Patel,CEO-Elitecore Technologies, Shri Partha Chatterjee, Minister In-Charge, Department of Industry and Commerce and Parliamentary Affairs, Public Enterprises, Industrial Reconstitution, IT, Government of West Bengal, B Hari, President, COMPASS, Pawan Jajodia, Past President, COMPASS, Ashok Mohapatra, Regional Manager (South & East), VARINDIA

Back (L-R): Deepak K. Sahu, Publisher, VARINDIA, Bala Rajan, VP- Product & Solutions Group, Zicom, Kapil Awasthi, Security Consultant, Checkpoint Software Technologies, Lakshmi Kumar, DGM-Enterprise Sales- Microworld, Piyush Kumar Agarwal, AGM Marketing - Enterprise Busines Unit, HCL Infosystems Ltd., Manjit Nayak, Additional Director, STPI, Government of India ]

VARINDIA's EIITF (Eastern India Technology Fair) has successfully turned two. The event witnessed once again one of the largest IT industry gathering of 70 SMEs of the state under one roof. The morning session was attended by Arindam Dutta, Chairman Innovation & Incubation Mentor, R Ravi, Head Global & Strategic Initiatives, HCL Infosystems Ltd., Kapil Awasthi, Security Consultant, Checkpoint Software Technologies and Mohit Puri, Country Manager, Watchguard Inc.. 

The momentum was set by the presentation from Arindam Dutta, who spoke about the need of more and more young entrepreneurs as youth is highly tech savvy and full of new ideas. He also brought to light that the government need to provide initial hand-holding to these bunch of new-comers, after the entrepreneurs would take the next step on their own.

If, Sumith Satheesan - Head, Pre Sale- India and SAARC, Cyberoam shared data sharing usage patterns and the related emerging security concerns, then, R Ravi from HCL Infosystems Ltd. set the stage, by sharing details about cloud and how and why SME is really seen keen in this technology in particular. Kapil Awasthi of Checkpoint shared details about how they are enabling Digitizing of SMEs in West Bengal.

The morning session concluded with a Panel discussion on Cloud Services- Opportunity for SMEs, moderated by R.Ravi from HCL Infosystems.  The panelist included Arindam Dutta, Kapil Awasthi, Sumith Satheesan and Mohit Puri The panel discussed the need for SMEs to look at Cloud Computing as an intelligent and cost effective IT infrastructure. It was also highlighted that vendors should take extra efforts for positioning Cloud as the best RoI giving IT infrastructure to them. Dutta in the valedictory note said, Cloud providers will have to assure that they deliver the promise they put on papers. He concluded by leaving a question in everybody's mind that “Why can't West Bengal be a vibrant West Bengal?”

The lamp lighting ceremony of the evening session attended by 300 guests was graced by hon'ble chief guest, Shri Partha Chatterjee, Minister In-Charge, Department of Industry & Commerce and Parliamentary Affairs, Public Enterprises, Industrial Reconstitution, IT, Govt. of WB, B Hari, President, COMPASS, Manjit Nayak, Additional Director, STPI, Govt. of India, Shri Alok Garodia, Chairman, Jupiter International Ltd., Piyush Kumar Agarwal, AGM-Marketing-HCL Infosystems Ltd., Shrikant Gupta, Regional Head- Motorola Solutions India, Rajeev Saxena, Business Head, ECC - HCL Infosystems Ltd., Smt. Aditi Ganguli, GM - East, Lenovo India, Lakshmi Kumar, DGM - Enterprise Sales, Microworld Software Services Pvt. Ltd.,  Hemal Patel, CEO-Elitecore Technologies and Pawan Jajodia, Past President, COMPASS, Mohd. Nasir. Sr. Mktg Manager-CSP- Canon India Pvt. Ltd., Kapil Awasthi, Check Point, Arindam Dutta and Mohit Puri, WatchGuard Inc., 

Manjit Nayak, of STPI, spoke about how STPI has been aiming to use technical know how for the growth of their individual business. He shared that roughly 7,000 companies are enrolled out of which 6,000 are SMEs only, which means huge opportunities within STPI. B. Hari, President, COMPASS, shared the “Role of COMPASS in the promotion of IT in West Bengal”. He also introduced to the gathering to the newly formed confederation of IT associations for the entire eastern region-its mission and vision.

In the audience address, Shri Partha Chatterjee, shared the vision of the new Govt. on Digitizing SMEs in Kolkata. He also brought to light that, the new government welcomes all those who are interested to work for the welfare of the state and penetration of IT. Total IT & BPO industry is 88billion and West Bengal is only having 1.5billion. The issues which are restricting our growth are forwarded to me by NASSCOM and we are working towards it .

Rajeev Saxena of HCL presented his views on "Opportunities for Channel Partners ahead". He welcomed channel community to partner with them and promoted a slogan, "SMEs - Transform Your Business with HCL".

Shrikant Gupta, from Motorola Solutions India, informed the audience about the various business groups of Motorola and then spoke about his division to give the perspective of Motorola Solutions in India. He also highlighted on the contribution of Channel Partners in bringing success to their business modules from Wireless to Wi-Fi.

Sumith Satheesan spoke on Cyberoam's identity-based approach that promises, securing homes to Enterprises in West Bengal. Next, Kapil Awasthi threw light on the services offered from Check Point in the country. Last but not the least, Mohit Puri of Watchguard spoke on their service offerings on Security.

                   The event concluded on an optimistic note with total of 325 people from vendors and partners having meaningful and fruitful networking. The evening saw Govt., IT vendors and partners all geared up to take control of the situation and work towards a common goal of state's development & growth. 

For More Contact:
Syeda Beenish
beenish@varindia.com