After a period of interruption, the event marked an emotional reunion with local partners, conceived as a space for reflection, the exchange of ideas, and the building of a shared future in today’s dynamic technological landscape.
Licenses OnLine, the most important value-added distributor in the region, gathered its main business partners at its seventh edition of the LOL Partner Exchange in Argentina.
To start the day, Liliana Buso, Sales Director for Argentina and Uruguay at Licenses OnLine, expressed her excitement about the return of the event:
“It is very gratifying to have our partners here after a pause. We are resuming in a framework that encourages the reactivation of investments that had been halted due to the country’s situation in recent times, and it allows us to revive the main objective of LOL PEX as a hallmark: to bring trends, vision, and opportunities in a networking space, share our strategy and purpose with our partners, and build a solid and shared positioning for the future.”
Carolina Losada, CEO of Licenses OnLine, in turn, said:
“These meetings aim not only to tell you where we are, what vision we have, what our alliances are saying, but also to talk, get closer, and listen to what you need from us.”
The executive shared the company’s regional vision by detailing the “Smart” concept that guides the company’s strategy, derived from its SmartHub platform, which concentrates 100% of the cloud business and orders, facilitating the visualization of statuses, subscriptions, renewals, and quotes.
According to her, this concept extends to Smart Business and Smart Partnerships, highlighting that “LOL’s business does not exist without alliances.” The CEO also emphasized the solidity of the business model:
“Seventy percent of our business is recurring, 30% is monthly—meaning we bill monthly—and the other 40% is annualized, which offers very interesting future predictability.”
Among LOL’s main areas of growth are geographic expansion—with the opening in the Dominican Republic for the Caribbean and entry into the Brazilian market, adding up to 14 offices in Latin America—as well as cybersecurity, application delivery and development, hybrid cloud, and Generative Artificial Intelligence.
Regarding Argentina, Losada shared IDC data showing that investment in IT and software grew and will continue to grow:
“The first half of this year has shown exponential growth due to the lifting of some restrictions and the financial alternatives offered by LOL to operate,” she said.
To conclude, the CEO invited partners to approach and review business together:
“We have the most competitive offers in the market,” she assured.
Along the same lines, Buso resumed and said:
“The most faithful way we have to support our partners is by taking care of the financial and operational health of businesses with a conservative vision and dynamic action that allows us to bring alternatives that match need with possibility. We have grown 80% in the first half and expect to close the year with the same trend.”
According to the executive, this growth is focused on security and infrastructure, with technological investment niches in the Fintech segment, the public sector, and the energy and mining industries.
Licenses OnLine currently has in Argentina more than 500 partners, more than 2,000 clients per year, and more than 8,000 orders.
“Understanding that some alliances change course and may affect efficiency and profitability in many partners and clients, we chose to protect the business. We acted quickly by incorporating and strengthening alliances that could help deliver efficiency without compromising quality, scalability, and continuity with their customers,” Buso said.
In line with consumption trends, the company is strategically orienting its actions towards cybersecurity, automation, artificial intelligence, and the cloud, incorporating alliances with brands such as Scale Computing, Teramind, Canonical, and Grupo IB.
The Agenda
LOL Partner Exchange proposed an innovative agenda giving space for reflection and the exchange of ideas. After presenting LOL’s commitment to its partners, Martina Rua, a journalist specialized in innovation, invited those present to explore the impact of GenAI on business.
The journalist led different panels with representatives of the main vendors that are currently part of Licenses OnLine’s portfolio. The objective of these conversations was to explore the transformation brought by the digital era, highlighting the integration of artificial intelligence, the cloud, and security as crucial elements for innovation and value generation in organizations.
Finally, Estanislao Bachrach, PhD in Molecular Biology specialized in neuroscience, made the attendees reflect on the impact of change processes on the brain and how that translates into organizations. From his perspective, good leadership is the one that sustains the motivation of its teams even when they are on a plateau, and it is very important to recognize them at each stage, even if the desired change has not yet been achieved.
The Voice of the Vendors
LOL Partner Exchange this year had the support of Microsoft, Check Point, Acronis, Adobe, RSA, AWS, f5, Exaagrid, Veeam, Sophos, Cohesity, Kaspersky, Oracle, Red Hat, Cyberark, N-Able, Netwirness, and Canonical.
From Acronis, Rodrigo Villarino, Cloud Sales Advisor, said:
“These events are key to getting to know each other and to continue advancing in business development with the channels hand in hand with Licenses OnLine.”
From Check Point, Alejandro Botter, Security Engineering Manager, highlighted the importance of being part of this type of event:
“It gives us the possibility of sharing the vision of what the company has been doing. LOL is a super strategic partner, we work very closely, not only here in Argentina. LOL ends up being our local hands in each country, supporting business and development with partners in presales and quoting.”
Ricardo Formas, Channel Manager at Cohesity, highlighted:
“Licenses OnLine is a cornerstone for us. It is what we seek in the Partner ecosystem: a distributor that helps us with its knowledge, with its experience, to expand the message—the message that has to do with the protection of sensitive data, with cyber resilience and, from that, generate more business.”
Alejandro Wasserlauf, Territory Sales Manager at Exagrid, stated that it is very important to be part of an event like LOL Partner Exchange:
“Mainly because it gives you a space to talk and convey a message to the channels more massively. LOL is one of our main distributors, and supporting them is reinforcing that relationship.”
Marina Hasson, SMB Director LATAM at Microsoft, was blunt about the relevance of such an event:
“At Microsoft everything we do, we do with partners, so working and having these spaces with partners is fundamental, because there is a process of joint business development that allows, together with LOL, the development of the entire channel ecosystem. It is very consistent work that is focused on developing our joint channel ecosystem, developing practices that allow the partners’ business to grow and that also help the clients’ business grow.”
Finally, María Latorre, Territory Account Manager at Sophos, said:
“These meetings are very important, because you can interact both with all the distributor’s people and with the partners. LOL is a strategic ally, which allows us to reach the end customer and the partner, adding training, support, and financing—all that we need and our partners need to reach good business.”
Closing
To conclude the meeting, Sebastián Losada, Marketing & Alliances Manager for Latin America at Licenses OnLine, enthusiastically shared:
“This edition is much more than an event, it is a call to open a new chapter in the country.” In this way, the executive expressed confidence in the LOL community, its sponsors, and alliances to: “Write pages that today are blank and can transform the impact on our market, in the country.”