Major vendors and ICT channels come together to address the surge in customer demand for managed services

Many of the IT industry’s leading vendors and channel organisations will be participating in the summit which will explore the surge in customer demand for managed services and how the industry needs to evolve to serve this demand both from SME and Enterprise companies. The event has attracted top speakers from companies such as IBM, HP, Symantec, Arrow ECS, ccapps and a record number of more than 240 senior executives from the UK’s leading Managed Service Providers, Systems Integrators and Solution VARs have already confirmed their attendance.

“We have the strongest line-up of speakers ever assembled for a managed services event in the UK,” claimed John Chapman, Content Director for the Managed Services and Hosting Summit. “We lead off with Tiffani Bova, distinguished analyst at Gartner and one of their foremost speakers at major global events, who will set the scene for the day revealing significant findings from their recent research on the role of the channel in the rapidly expanding world of Managed Services and Hosting.”

“In the rest of the morning session we will look at the ‘Secrets of Success’ for the budding Managed Services Provider with insight from Tim Walker, Managing Director of Taylor Made Computer Solutions, who have been one of the early implementers of the Managed Services model in the channel. He will be joined on stage by Steve Pearce, VP of Business Innovation at Arrow ECS, one of the most respected professionals in our industry. Steve will explain how partnerships are a fundamental building block of a successful Managed Service practice.”

The Secrets of Success section of the content will conclude with a panel debate on ‘The Role of the Managed Services and Hosting Provider’, including the morning’s speakers and senior spokespersons from some of the events Gold sponsors who include: Autotask, AVG, CA Technologies, Dot Hill, EVault, Interxion, Tarmin and Webroot. Other sponsors include: Adaptec, AppRiver, Gigamon, Hitachi, Aptare, Huawei, Asigra and Knight Corporate Finance. Following two sessions of Boardroom and 1:1 networking sessions the event resumes after lunch with an in-depth look at ‘Managed Services in the Enterprise’.

The final presentation of the day will be delivered by Simon Porter, VP Mid-Market Sales Europe at IBM, who will provide delegates with IBM’s vision of the future for the IT industry and the managed services and hosting market. Following his enlightening session the day will conclude with a panel of all the afternoon’s speakers debating “Where do we go from here – the future of the channel as MSPs”.

Presentation line-up:

· Keynote - Hybrid IT: How Internal and External Cloud Services are Transforming IT and the Role the Channel Will Play in the Future - Tiffani Bova VP, Distinguished Analyst at Gartner Research

· Keynote - The Future - an IBM viewpoint - Simon Porter, VP Mid-Market Sales Europe, IBM

· Positioning, Pricing and Projection – Tim Walker, MD, Taylor Made Computer Solutions

· Managed Service Providers and the Emerging Channel Model – Steve Pearce, Vice President, Business Innovation, Arrow ECS

· Panel Session - The Role of Managed Services and Hosting Provider

· Aligning services to business objectives – Daniel Proctor, CEO, ccapps

· The opportunity through Information management and protection – Symantec

· Best Practice in becoming a Cloud Services Brokerage - Eliza Rawlings, Chief Business Officer, Cloud Direct in partnership with HP

· Delivering Enterprise Class solutions – Jerry Crossfield, MSP Sales Manager, IBM UK & Ireland MSP Leader

· Panel Session - Where do we go from here - Future of the Channel

“We have assembled a packed agenda covering critical issues that the channel faces in delivering managed services,” concluded John Chapman. “The mixture of high level thought leadership presentations, in-depth sponsor Boardroom business sessions, 1:1 networking and challenging debates will ensure that all delegates leave both exhausted and stimulated.”

Organised jointly by IT Europa and Angel Business Communications, the Managed Services and Hosting Summit is the UK’s leading managed services and channel event. It takes place at the Lancaster London Hotel on 26 September 2013. Full details can be found at: http://www.mshsummit.com