Tech Caravan @Kolhapur: partners engage in healthy discussion

The DQ Week reached the Kolhapur in Maharashtra, also known as city of palaces and temples. Kolhapur is situated on the banks of the river Panchganga and is the location of the Temple of Mahalakshmi, a Hindu goddess. On 28th April, the channel partner meet was held at Hotel Woodlands in Kolhapur.

Kolhapur is known for its hospitality and the local association body which is Computer Association Kolhapur (CAK) members who even when close to month end showed up in numbers to show their support for the cause. The event was supported by Microsoft.

The event witnessed close to 40 channel partners attending the meet. The event kicked off with an informative presentation by Microsoft representative, Aniket Marathe, Partner Channel Development Manager, Microsoft. He addressed the audience in Marathi along with English, which was much appreciated. The local language usage created an ambiance in the meet which led to the entire presentation being highly interactive.

Marathe took an in depth session on Office 365 highlighting the benefits of the solutions while citing various examples on how partners can utilize these solution for their overall revenue growth. Going ahead, he addressed numerous queries raised by partners. Certain questions, which were more local in nature were answered by Raju Patil from Redington..

The evening got even more interesting with the commencement of panel discussion, which was most awaited by partners. Before the panel discussion commenced, CAK chairman Shrenik Bhindage, who informed about the various initiatives embarked upon the association. Following this, Rahul Patil, vice chairman of the association talked about the initiatives and developments that were happening at state level through FITAM.

The panel discussed at length the challenges and threats from LFR and online portals. This was followed by a strong interactive discussion on the significance of services and the changing scenario of partner environment. The audience was also interactive and openly asked questions and sought out solutions as one big group.

Following this, was the networking dinner, where partners interacted with others while a few of the channel partners were seen discussing with the vendor representatives.