The panelists for discussion on ‘IT Marketing: Products vs. Services’ were Mr Asheet Makhija, Regional Manager-Lotus, IBM; Mr Pradeep Balsankar, GCS Consulting, Mr Rohit Sharma, Global Logic, Mr Manmohan Singh, Tata Consultancy Services and Mr Alhuwalia, Intelligent systems. The keynote speaker for the discussion was Mr Radeshwar Davar, Account Manager a New Sales, Wipro InfoTech Ltd. The panel explained that services cover a broader horizon whereas products market is a niche area catering to a specific segment. India can carve itself a place in the products market through innovation and by catering to the global audience in order to move up the value chain.

The panelists for discussion ‘Emerging Business Models a Trends and Technologies’ included Mr Piyush Jain, MD, Uneecops; Mr Gautam Krishna, Business Development Head, Uneecops; Mr Baba Varanasi, Black Belt, Six Sigma, Office of Innovation, CSC; Mr Satyendra Singh Tomar, Business Development Head UK, CSC; Mr Radeshwar Davar, Account Manager-New Sales, Wipro Infotech Ltd. The keynote speaker for the discussion was Mr Asheet Makhija, Regional Manager a Lotus, IBM. Various technologies such as SaaS, Web 2.0, and virtual world were discussed. The panel expressed that SaaS is a peripheral service and the delimiting factor could be infringement on intellectual knowledge. They also stressed on the importance of focusing on the patterns of customers and on emerging trends.

The discussion was followed by ‘PlannIT a The B-Plan competition’. The teams from SIMSREE, Mumbai; NITIE, Mumbai; FORE school of management, Delhi and IMT, Ghaziabad were short listed from around 50 entries. The team from FORE school of management was adjudged the winner of PlannIT and the team from IMT Ghaziabad were the runner-ups.