Tigerpaw Opens 2nd Partner Summit With A Roar

It was classic James Foxall when the president of Tigerpaw Software opened that vendor's second annual partner summit wearing bright orange Chucks. Anyone who knows the friendly and easy-going Foxall wasn't surprised at his attire or his down-to-earth and enthusiastic welcome to the gathering of nearly 400 Tigerpaw partners in Dallas.

Foxall introduced the theme of the conference – Converging Technologies – by encouraging Tigerpaw's rather diverse user base to learn as much as they can about other's tech offerings while at the conference. Tigerpaw's users reflect its longevity – it was launched in 1984 by Foxall's father – and its roots in telecom. Today, Tigerpaw enjoys partners in markets ranging from managed services to telecom, as well as A/V, security, POS, and data/networking.

In his opening remarks, Foxall told the audience that this conference was a chance for all of them to learn from each other's experience in light of the growing impact of converging technologies. "If you aren't moving to become a converged company – you are going to be in trouble," he told the crowd. "Your customers aren't going to want to work with a bunch of suppliers, they want one trusted partner. To help you with this, we're going to take the time to explain to you why you need convergence and to get ready to handle it."

That theme was reflected in Tigerpaw's careful pick of vendors – which include platinum sponsors Level Platforms and Toshiba.