ASIRT discusses software piracy along with Microsoft

Mumbai based Association of System Integrators & Retailers in Technology. (ASIRT) conducted its September edition of Techday wherein it highlighted the issue of software piracy and the promise of higher revenues through software and services.

To understand the nitty-gritty of software business, ASIRT has called in experts like Satish Pokhriyal, legal head, Microsoft India along with the OEM & Retail sales head, Manish Lahoti. They clearly outlined the fact that they are here to help members through their education and engagement initiatives to combat piracy.

Pokhriyal elaborated upon the benefits of genuine software sales and key initiatives undertaken by the company to support channel partners to facilitate sales of legal softwares. Through the interactive session, Pokhriyal addressed various concerns of channel partners with regards to company channel plans, roadmap, and support concerns. While Manish Lahoti indicated that his team is willing to work with partners even for small cases and help them with their attach rate for windows and office OEM offerings. He has offered to run educational sessions on licensing for ASIRT members and offering schemes to benefit ASIRT members.

This Techday also had a panel discussion on the theme ‘Cracking the software chakravyuha in India - A 360 degree perspective'. The panelists included Satish Pokhriyal, Microsoft legal head, Manish Lahoti, OEM & retail channel head, Biren Selarka from Acma computers, Jiten Mehta from Magnamious computers, Vikram Seth, software at work and Deepak Chadha of U&IT retail chain.

Microsoft focused on the need for change in attitudes by the software sellers, they also candidly accepted the changes desired by channels being fair and promised to bring the change that makes software sales a friendly affair. The other participants were forthcoming about how they have built software and services as their key revenue earner along with the challenges along the way. Jiten Mehta pointed out how software and services now contributes over 50% to his revenues. While, Vikram Seth a major Tally Distributor said how genuine software comes with training and support which could be crucial to a customer whereas pirated software users get no help from any quarters.

Deepak Chadha went all out to share how his stores had taken the bold initiative by turning his stores as 'NO PIRACY' zone and actually multiplied his business as this has led to his customers have greater faith and created an environment of customer confidence and trust. For a retailer dealing with end-customer who are mostly consumers, this is an eye-opener for members of the fraternity.

The author spoke about revenue opportunities that are set to explode with US Unfair Competition Act for system integrators. He urged members to grab this 20 bn dollar opportunity before it becomes a commodity and also cement customer goodwill.

Before this, Nilesh Zaveri of APEX Enterprises, ASIRT member, showcased storage products NAS, external disk cases and guided members on how they can build a profitable addendum to their solution and services business. On the other hand, in the evolve session, Deepak Patil; HR consultant made interesting observations during the ASIRT EVOLVE session. His talk "Don't Delegate. Empower your employees!" touched upon many of the finer points of good HR practises in smaller organisations.

Kshitij Kotak, president, ASIRT said, "Very clearly, today the opportunities for Genuine Software sales is huge. Vendors such as Microsoft, Tally and others are going all out to enable partners to sell and make incremental revenues even on trainings, deployment & other services." He further added, "Indian customer who is used to many freebies - including free software, is now waking up to the legal and usage pitfalls of using pirated software and understands value of legal software when the system integrator takes the initiative. It also came as a wake up call that promoting licensed software builds topline and bottomline growth and more importantly creates mindshare that ultimately brands trustworthiness."