Special Forum by PCQuest for SMBs

BANGALORE, INDIA: We begin the 7th glorious year of this series of PCQuest events across India, by playing hosts to SMEs in Chennai, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Kolkata, and Surat

Another year, another quarter, yet another chain of events across India, in the all too familiar cities. This is what most would think when we unveil the PCQuest SMB Forum 2012 for our readers. On the contrary, its been a highly enthralling journey and the kind of audiences we get at each city, and the questions they ask reinforces the need to have more such forums where SMEs can come together and discuss their business and tech-related problems in person. Each quarter we get to hear some unique challenges that organizations face, much of which is in sync with the economic conditions prevailing in the country.

This series taught us more on this count. Post-2008 recession organizations are very circumspect when it comes to investing in IT solutions. They need to understand the RoI very clearly before they pump in money into their IT budgets. Also, the power of Web all pervasive with lot of small organizations choosing to use hosted solutions for connecting with their customers. The event is organized as a series of speaker sessions by PCQuest and its partners, rounded-off by a panel discussion at the end, where SME heads discuss their business challenges with IT experts.

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Panel Discussions@PCQuest SMB Forum

Ludhiana

IT is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for the industries in Ludhiana. The panel deliberated on why this is so. from L to R: Hitender Grover, National Program Manager-SMB, APC; Narinder Miglani, Gen Secy Knitwear Club and President Selection Knitters; Nitin Kumar, Product Sales Specialist, Business Video, Cisco; and Anil Chopra, Editor PCQuest.

Chennai

The panel had an interactive Q&A session with the audience, answering their queries on open source software deployments, employee producivity monitoring etc. From L-R: M. Vishwanathan, Sr Mgr IT, Ebm - Nadi International Pvt Ltd; S. Sridhar, AGM IT & SAP Tech Lead Lucas Indian Service; Visweswaran M, CTO, Ma Foi Randstand; Dr. B Muthukumaran, Head Ops & IT Security (India), Secure-IQ; and Clynton Almeida, CIO, Redington. The panel was moderated by Binesh Kutty, Sr. Asst. Editor, PCQuest.

Kolkata

The panel discussed the various security challenges to the IT infrastructure of SMEs. From L to R: Aji Isaac Mathew, CEO, Tech Shu; Koushik Nath, VP-System Engg, Cisco; Hitender Grover, National Program Manager-SMB, APC; Arijit Bhattacharyya, CEO, Virtual Infocom; Arindam Sen, Head-IT, Societe Maison De Cuir; Anirban Banerjee, Head-Institutional Sales, Airtel; Vikram Kumar, CEO, Data Resolve Technologies; and Adeesh Sharma, Operations Editor, PCQuest.

Hyderabad

The panel discussion focused on the latest Web-based solutions for SMEs. From L to R: Sunil Menon, Sr Tech Consultant, Cisco; Umakant Panda, Joint Director-IT, AP Electricity Regulatory Commission; S Vijay Venkatesh, CEO & MD, Syscon Solutions; Naveen Gupta, B2B Head, Airtel; Ravi Mokkapati, Director, Hind Industries; and Adeesh Sharma, Operations Editor, PCQuest.

Surat

The panel here got the audience indulged in business problems faced and how IT can help resolving those. For example: tracking goods, improving productivity, etc. From L-R: Vipul Shah, Territory Business Manager, Cisco; Binesh Kutty, Senior Assistant Editor, PCQuest; Chirag Thakar, Area Sales Manager (Gujrat), APC; Pravin Goswami, Branch Manager (Ahmedabad), Mahavir Sys Power Pvt Ltd; and Suhas Arora, Director, NetSol IT Solutions.

Source: www.pcquest.www.ciol.com