Kolkata : GATES ICT CHANNEL Summit concludes at the Westin Kolkata Rajarhat with over 250 top executives from the ICT industry. Now in its fourth year, GATES Summit brought together leading channel partners from 18 cities across India for over 800 pre-scheduled 1-on-1 meetings with senior executives from 
international technology brands.
GATES Summit was supported by TOSHIBA as Platinum Sponsor, XEROX as Gold Sponsor and CROWDSTRIKE as Silver Sponsor. These vendors, whose executives each delivered a keynote address, shared their critical perspectives on trends and directions in the marketplace with the gathering of channel partners. A common theme across presentations was how digital transformation is fundamentally changing the way the channel operates and delivers value to customers.
Jagdish Mahapatra, Managing Director South East Asia and India at CrowdStrike says: “We’re excited to engage with channel executives at GATES Summit. As digital threats continue to proliferate, we see important opportunities working with local partners to keep India’s business community secure. At CrowdStrike, we protect customers against all cyber attack types by providing the first cloud-native endpoint protection platform built to stop breaches.”
Research Partners at GATES Summit included IDC India and SPIRE Research & Consulting. Event Partners Startup-O and M&A experts Regent Partnersfacilitated workshops at the event. Taiwan’s foremost nonprofit trade promotion association, TAITRA, led a delegation of Taiwan Excellence brand partners to meet India’s top channel partners at GATES Summit.
Organizers of the 3-day event expressly focused on India’s burgeoning SME segment, inviting those value-added distributors, system integrators and resellers who specialize in serving the middle market. In addition to a showcase of innovative products and solutions targeting the SME segment, the GATES conference program aimed to address their critical information needs.
The panel discussion, titled “Top Channel Voices,” featured senior executives debating the challenges and opportunities for India’s channel partners. “There are so many issues that require constant attention, like compliance,” said Rajendra Seksaria, CEO of Balaji Solutions, who highlighted the need to stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly-changing industry. Kaushik Pandya, CEO of Kalp Systems and Founder President of FITAG (Federation of Information Technology Association of Gujarat), emphasized the importance of building win-win relationships between vendors and channel partners.
Ryan Mackey, Director at GATES, said: “Digital transformation represents a paradigm shift for the industry. This is a pivotal moment for channel partners in India, as they strive to increase their competitive edge and keep pace with these opportunities. This was undoubtedly the main theme at the GATES conference this year, and it demonstrates just how important our platform has become for the channel community.”
GATES SMART PITCH provided vendors an opportunity to deliver a 90-second elevator pitch for their latest product or solution on stage. This informative and entertaining session featured three awards, with winners chosen in real-time through electronic voting by the audience of channel partners.
SMART PITCH Best Innovation: Toshiba
SMART PITCH Top Game Changer: AIFA Technology
SMART PITCH Best Presentation: AIFA Technology
GATES hosted the prestigious India ICT Industry Excellence Awards 2018 at the GALA Dinner. Through live electronic voting, channel partners recognized vendors for their exceptional channel performance in India over the past year. Award winners include:
Category Awards
- DELL was voted COMPUTING Vendor of the Year
- HP was voted IMAGING Vendor of the Year
- TOSHIBA was voted STORAGE Vendor of the Year
- HP and XEROX were voted PRINTING Vendor of the Year (two-way tie)
- DELL was voted DISPLAY Vendor of the Year
- CP PLUS was voted SECURITY Vendor of the Year
- D-LINK was voted NETWORKING Vendor of the Year
- SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC was voted POWER MANAGEMENT Vendor of the Year
- MICROSOFT was voted SOFTWARE Vendor of the Year
- GOOGLE was voted CLOUD Vendor of the Year
Special Awards
- CYBERPOWER was voted NEW TO MARKET Vendor of the Year
- HP was recognized for MARKETING EXCELLENCE
- DELL was voted OUTSTANDING OVERALL PERFORMANCE
