Communication is key; how one vendor leverages Connect events

Whenever conferences or events are scheduled, considerable energy is expended on their promotion. Organizers reach out to vendors while they launch marketing programs to better promote and attract candidate participants. Speakers are sought to address topics of interest, and all the while, efforts are made to keep a theme front and center in the minds of those planning presentations.

For 2023, the calendar told a very positive story for the NonStop community. No matter your geographical location, there was always somewhere to go to hear more news from the NonStop team. While it proved taxing for many of the supporting NonStop vendors to provide coverage for each event, the NonStop community should be encouraged by just how extensive the scope became, even as it stretched from Australia to Norway and many stops in between. 

For one such participant, NTI, it was a challenge determined to be well worth accepting. As the NTI team continued to grow, NTI was able to staff events wherever they took place. When it came time for the major events such as the recent NonStop TBC 2023 Conference and the pan-European BITUG event, NTI showed up in force with representatives from management, marketing and sales, customer support, and development.  

This represented a considerable investment in the NonStop community. More importantly, it provided an opportunity for NTI to reinforce its leadership position having just added a major new customer as well as securing the support of additional NonStop vendors – the latest addition being TIC Software – as part of NTI’s expanding partner ecosystem. Leadership comes in many forms with many staking out the high ground, but for NTI coming off as big a win as it just did, such a claim cannot be denied.  

Working with Connect and responding to Connect’s challenges was something NTI was willing to do. It would have been hard to miss how together the Connect and NTI joint promotional activities that included the end of event festivities as it was hard to miss NTI’s level of sponsorship. For those that ventured to the top floor of the hotel, there was a welcoming pedestal sign pointing the way to the evening celebrations held by NTI and its partner, TANDsoft each night in the Presidential Suite.  

Fully engaged with Connect and the NonStop community in this manner represented not just an investment in the community but was tangible evidence that, indeed, the NonStop community warranted such a high level of support. If 2023 represented a transformational time for NTI as it challenged the status quo with its message of continuous adaptation and reflected on how impactful change happened in 2023, what then for 2024? 

“In recent years, talk of replacing incumbent replication technologies has been mostly, well, talk,” said Tim Dunne. NTI’s Global Director of Worldwide Sales. “In 2022 and especially in 2023, companies that previously just talked about migrating off legacy products began taking action. Insisting upon thorough proof-of-concepts and then making tough decisions highlighting DRNet® as the logical replacement to legacy replication solutions. Having then chosen DRNet®, companies were able to ensure and enhance customer satisfaction while greatly reducing overall costs and acquiring direct support. 

Following post-event reviews by NTI, the numbers began speaking for themselves, just as they are happening within the NonStop vendor community. The number of conversations with customers and prospects escalated, as did the requests for further information. Following numerous sidebar exchanges with the NonStop community that included the participation of NonStop users and other vendors, the NonStop team, and Connect, all the signs were there that favorable momentum was building in support of NTI initiatives. 

This momentum continues into 2024 in part due to 2023 success stories achieved by delivering timely results thanks to a finelytooled replacement methodology,” said Dunne. “What once appeared to be a bridge too far, is now a readily attainable objective given DRNet® as it spares the NonStop user the frustration often associated with seemingly endless, service-intensive, projects involving other product offerings that previously may have taken place.” Such an outcome is exactly what the NonStop community members look for as they perform a traditional cost of ownership and risk/reward analysis. “Sometimes, it is the independent vendor that truly delivers on the promise of a better path to pursue,” said Dunne. 

As 2023 drew to a close, NTI updated its website home page, drawing inspiration from robots, octopuses, penguins, and bees. Supporting the theme of continuous adaptation, these images illustrated the value of choice with no strings attached, the ability to adapt to change, the fortitude to weather any disaster, and naturally, the ability to communicate. Including images of bees with their specialized body language to point the way to the pollen solutions further reinforces the importance of communication.

Events are only one aspect of communication as there remain numerous digital publications, newsletters, blogs, and social media posts that NTI leverages for the sake of telling its story. However, the many organized interactions with the community represent the cornerstone of the Connect community’s contribution to the NonStop community that affords NonStop vendors the best connection to the global world of NonStop 

2023 saw a major uptick in event attendance, and already the event calendar for 2024 on the Connect website is presenting a formidable list of upcoming events leaving us to ponder the most important communication of all – will vendors like NTI see you somewhere in the world in 2024 and will you be joining in one of the many conversations that these events seem to always create? Even now, I can hear the buzz beginning to rise, so perhaps it’s not just the bees that are excited by the prospect of finding the best solutions in a timely fashion! 

Author

  • Richard Buckle

    Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor and more recently as a thought leader, industry commentator, influencer, columnist and blogger. Well-known to the user communities of HP and IBM, Richard served on the board of the HP user group, ITUG (2000-2006), as its Chairman (2004-2005), and as the Director of Marketing on the board of the IBM user group, SHARE, (2007-2008).

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