5th edition of WIITF – 2015 (Western India Information Technology Fair)

The premier business event on how Disruptive Technologies are affecting the IT landscape was held recently in the financial capital of the country – Mumbai. The fifth edition of WIITF – 2015 (Western India Information Technology Fair) served as an ideal platform to explore the intersection of technology, innovation, vision of CIOs, Technology Gurus and investors. The summit, besides focussing on the segments where disruptive technologies find usage, also focussed on the challenges faced by the CIOs and how the process can be simplified to create business strategies, develop and evaluate solution effectiveness.

Making it truly a global platform to connect the industry leaders in Mumbai, WIITF was inaugurated in the august presence of 250 luminaries and was witnessed by CIOs of corporates and solution partners from across Western India. The Summit was inaugurated by Shri Ashish Kumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange; Shri Vineet Goenka, Co-Convenior – IT Cell, BJP; and Shri Paras Shah, CEO, Neoteric Infomatique Ltd. Other distinguished guests joining the inaugural ceremony included Mr Vishal Jain, Director, Inspira Enterprise India Pvt. Ltd; Mr Pramoud Rao, MD, Zicom Electronics Security; Mr Kshitij M. Kotak, Chairman, ASIRT; Mr Sandeep Kothari, CIO, Travel Food Services; Mr Meheriar Patel, Head of Technology, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; Mr Sanjay Mehta, CEO & Investor, MAIA Intelligence; Mr Uday Bhaskar Rao, CIO, iRam Technologies; Mr Yunus Khan, National Business Head (IMS), Canon India; Mr Navin Mehra, Regional Manager, Fortinet; Mr Rohit Biddappa, Sr Manager, Enterprise Marketing & Corp.comm, NVIDIA; Mr Navin Sabharwal, Channel Manager – STG, IBM Global Services; Mr Jagannath Pattnaik, CEO, NNR IT Solutions; and Mr Gaurav Midha, Group Manager – IT, Rolta India Limited.

The event was supported by Canon, Fortinet, Ingram Micro, Alcatel Lucent, Neoteric, Inspira and Max Security.

The summit focussed on the opportunity to discuss some of the important aspects of technologies like the requisite infrastructure, metrics for measuring ‘technology glitches’ inside the organization, key trends, issues & challenges in implementing the technology on demand inside the organization, role of ICT in building and crafting smart cities and so on. Being a real opportunity for the VARs, WIITF tried to understand on how CIOs are reacting to it and whether any big risks are coming with such digital investments.

The summit also deliberated on the rise of Big Data and the emerging efforts to put the power of analytics in the hands of CIOs. Disruptive technology is changing the world, not to mention the way companies are developing products and services, interacting with customers and running their businesses. Its unique business models are impacting industries and organizations like never before. There is a digital transformation happening by leveraging disruptive technologies, resulting in many organizations experimenting it while others making big investments in it. For CIOs, CTOs and IT professionals, this has a significant impact on the decision-making processes that form part of their IT strategy. IT strategies need to be flexible enough to adapt in response to the changing landscape of new technologies, organizational conditions and business goals in order for a company to be a disruptor and not the disrupted. Hence, technology is fuelling the next waves of growth and especially the social media is driving better customer engagements, giving the ability to directly connect to people.

The summit offered opportunities for networking and learning opportunities through keynote sessions by experts, corporate presentations and panel discussions with the CIOs and industry associations, policy-makers and influencers and entrepreneurs from across Western India.