Aspire Zone Foundation yesterday announced that it has signed a strategic partnership with Mahindra Satyam, a leading global consulting and IT services provider.The global partnership will create end-to-end and innovative venue and event management systems (VEMS), which includes sporting and non-sporting events.The VMES platform is an integrated suite of applications that spans across various functional areas of venues and event management including venue bookings, accreditation, transport, volunteer management and finance. Aspire Zone Foundation will own the intellectual property rights to the product and Mahindra Satyam will exclusively provide all the application development and system integration services along with the professional support required. Under the partnership, Aspire Zone Foundation will manage sales within the GCC and Qatar. Mahindra Satyam will manage all other countries. Both organisations will jointly develop a go-to-market strategy to take the product globally.Speaking after the signing ceremony Hilal al-Kuwari, president, Aspire Zone Foundation, said: “Aspire Zone’s vision to become the reference in sports excellence worldwide will be achieved through a progressive build-up of our capabilities in our core business areas. Towards this we plan to utilise technology as a catalyst to establish our global presence as a leader in sports.”Abdulaziz al-Mahmoud, director general, Aspire Logistics, said: “We chose Mahindra Satyam to due to their experience in supporting the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa and their on-going involvement and dedicated practice in supporting sports technology solutions for event management. Through this partnership, we believe that we can apply best practices and industry standard processes for the benefit of Qatar and further enhance our capabilities as a sporting nation.”Following the signing ceremony, Rohit Gandhi, senior vice president, Mahindra Satyam, said: “We are very excited about this partnership. Mahindra Satyam’s expertise in event management solutions has been witnessed globally during the FIFA 2010. We have an on-going involvement and dedicated practice in supporting sports technology solutions for event management. Aspire Zone has a clear vision to become a prominent player in the global sports arena and Mahindra Satyam is honoured to share our expertise and knowhow as well as our global presence in supporting this ambitious vision.”