Systems Integrators 2015
THE REGION'S LEADING SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS published as a supplement to:
END TO END MOBILITY SMART ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS Business Intelligence
Infrastructure & Network
Mobility
Security
Scalability
LOOKING BACK FROM THE FUTURE
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GROUP Chairman and founder Dominic De Sousa GROUP CEO Nadeem Hood
Systems Integrators 2015 Publishing Director Rajashree Rammohan raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5685 Editorial
The changing role of SIs In this age of integrated enterprise, picking the right systems integrator to deploy your IT projects is more important than ever. The technology landscape is changing rapidly and some of the disruptive technologies are changing the IT consumption model as we know it today. Often, enterprises don’t have the wherewithal and skills required to integrate some of the new technologies into the existing infrastructure, which is crucial for business success. A good SI will go a long way in optimising your processes, which can lead to much lower total cost of ownership. In addition, your system integrator partner can also help you navigate the ever-changing technology trends, right from planning to implementation, with testing and consultancy thrown in. In today’s world, the role of the SI is changing too. SIs are no longer all about procuring hardware, software and putting it together into one integrated system; instead, they have to deliver long-term business solutions that provide agile and future-proof roadmaps to demanding IT organisations. In this year’s SI guide, we have turned the spotlight on some of the leading SIs in the market that have the expertise and skills to design and implement solutions your business requires. These companies are absolutely critical to the success of your IT projects and to lay the foundation for best practices. It’s time to see your SI as a strategic partner than just a project-based partner.
Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5678 Editor Annie Bricker annie.bricker@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1643 Deputy Editor James Dartnell james.dartnell@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5684 Online Editor Adelle Geronimo adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5683 ADVERTISING Commercial Director Chris Stevenson chris.stevenson@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5674 Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1647 Sales Manager Merle Carrasco merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5676 Circulation Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5682 Production and Design Production Manager James P Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5673
CONTENTS AlMoayyed computers 5 Al Rostamani Communications 7 BUsiness DNA 8 CNS 11 Condo Protego 12 Emitac Enterprise Solutions 14 gulf business machine (GBM) 16 help ag 22 Intertec systems 24 nanjgel solutions 26 Paramount 29 Al Futtaim Technologies 30 Alpha Data 30 Alrowad IT Solutions 30 Finesse 30 ITQAN 30 MDS UAE 30 Seven Seas computers 30 STME 30 Tech Forte 30
Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5680 Neha Kalvani neha.kalvani@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 3751644 DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developer Jefferson de Joya Photographer Charls Thomas Maksym Poriechkin webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 Published by
Registered at IMPZ PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 Printed by Al Ghurair Printing & Publishing Regional partner of
© Copyright 2015 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.
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Almoayyed Computers government, education, finance, healthcare, telco, and hospitality among others.
S.M Hussaini, GM, Almoayyed Computers
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s one of the leading divisions of the Almoayyed International Group (AIG), Almoayyed Computers (AC) has been one of the foremost systems, solutions and technical services company in Bahrain. Today, AC continues to leverage the latest technology and develop integrated solutions to effectively address key challenges faced by its client-base. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? During the past year, Almoayyed registered a 12 percent year-on-year increase in revenues. The profits remained in line with projections though the change was marginal. Every year, we raise the bar to stay consistent in winning awards and recognitions. This required a lot of hard work to be appreciated by the customers and be good enough to stand out in an ever increasing competitive environment. The continuous efforts towards doing better year-on-year helped the company achieve recognitions. Our recent accolades include being part of Reseller Middle East's Top 10 of Channel Elite and CPI’s Top 20 SIs in the Middle East. This year we were also named as Microsoft’s Partner of the Year 2015. In the past year, we’ve also won a number of large projects across verticals –
What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? The emerging technologies we see impacting the industry include IT security solutions, cloud computing, Big Data, BYOD and enterprise mobility. We also see companies focusing on reducing the TCO and gaining better ROI, which will enable their business to provide improved and faster response to their customers securely. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? First of all, they should look for SIs who are well-experienced and has the ability to execute the project in time; they should have the certified and skilled resources in each domain; and the SI should have strong customer references in the region and in respective area. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? One of the most common mistakes that end-users commit is not validating the scope of work provided by the System Integrator (SI) against their requirement which causes for a particular project to fail. Also, end-users should select the vendors based on the experience, skills and stability of the System Integrator rather than going just by the lowest price. Another fault end-users make is not having a well-defined project objective and changing the scope during the project rollout which can impact the project delivery and result can result in failure. How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? Almoayyed Computers business team will engage with the client at the very early stage to understand the client’s requirement and initial documentation is prepared followed by the detailed
Statement of Work (SoW) with the business benefits. Once the SoW is approved by the client, we follow the five stages in the project methodology: Project Initiation, Planning, execution, control & closing. We also have a built vertical domain expertise which helps to offer the best possible solutions to its clients. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. We have invested, over the years, financially and professionally to be able to deliver value to the enterprise community. In line with this, we have partnered with leading ICT vendors from across the globe to remain a strong systems integrator while providing best of breed options. These partnerships include Microsoft, HP, Oracle, Cisco, Symantec, EMC, VMWare, Avaya, Citrix etc. As part of that strategy, we are moving towards the enhancement of a cloud-ready data centre. It showcases a number of cloud technologies and offerings. It also showcases service delivery in the cloud age. Almoayyed also aims to invest in a state-of-art technology centre to showcase various solutions offered by Microsoft; as well as in setting up the facilities needed for staging and tracking the entire deliverables of largescale systems integration projects. Do you offer any managed services and business consulting or plan to do so in the future? We are not providing any managed services at this point of time. However, having built the Cloud Data Centre in our premises, we intend to offer hosting services at a later date. We also intend to aggressively get into managed services practice next year.
Almoayyed Computers
P O Box 26259 Manama, Bahrain T: +973 17700777 F: +973 36087000 www.almoayyedcomputers.com
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Al Rostamani Communications F
ormed in 2002, A l Rostamani Communications (ARC) has now become one of the leading IT and telecommunication solutions provider and systems integrator, offering Innovative integrated technology solutions and professional services to customers not only in the UAE but across other GCC countries as well. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? In the past year, we have concluded a major managed services contract and application transformation for a major government department. We have also concluded a complete maintenance and managed services with a free zone establishment in the UAE. Moreover, we have implemented a large unified communication system for a multinational hotel and installed a stateof-the-art IP-based Queue management system across 150 service locations. What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? ICT on cloud, BYOD, and LTE and managed IT are the emerging trends that would define regional enterprise IT in the next five years. Currently, enterprises are starting to look into private and public cloud hybrid models, with their key applications on private cloud and the rest on public cloud. Additionally, Big Data and analytics are gaining ground. What is the relevance of a good SI to a successful IT project in an enterprise? The relevance of a good SI is always very important to any IT project in an enterprise. Only a few large corporate houses or enterprises can boast very good in-house design resources to design and conceptualise IT requirements based on the
latest trends in the industry. Moreover, all aspects of the project, from design, build, project management, compliance, testing and handover are specialised skills which are generally not available with the enterprise. However, a good SI should be used to doing these exercises for many different environments and different customers, so the expertise of their resources will be much more experienced in all the components of a project. A lesson learned is a key factor for an SI and this experience can be leveraged by the enterprise. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? “The cheapest proposal need not be the most cost-efficient”. However, this point is generally ignored during a bid process. We have seen many bids which have been won by SIs who do not have the relevant skillset but are cheaper in price, or a project being awarded because of the reputation as a “big” player in the global market. The most important point of evaluation in any bid is the Enterprise’s Business need for the new IT project. Secondly, end-users need to understand the “operational lifetime” of the proposed solution. Then comes the technical evaluation of the solution proposed and matching it with the business need. This is followed by bidder evaluation and resource commitment and finally the pricing structure. Additionally, the end-user should also look for an SI who is capable of migrating them to the cloud. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? A detected requirement study in line with business needs and secondly focus on the cheapest supplier. For a project to be successful it is important that a detailed
Mohammed Zameer, General Manager, Al Rostamani Communications requirement study is performed done by competent consultants and that these requirements are aligned with business needs and the responsibility is awarded to a SI who has good credentials of having successfully implemented similar projects. How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? Our approach to any project starts from a consultancy perspective, this is why our customers are very happy with our service. First and foremost, we outline why they need a certain project and we make sure that all questions they may have before the implementation are answered and documented. As far as the customer is concerned, we are the front end for the entire project. We take the responsibility to get international partner tie-in or local sub-contract works for the entire project. Therefore, the client only needs to oversee the project and the rest of the activities are performed by us. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. For the next year, we hope to increase the overall size of the business through the services revenue stream as well as increase competence in cloud services, and application transformation to cloud and unified communication. We are also investing in training programmes for pre-sales staff in the areas of Big Data and analytics.
Al Rostamani Communications PO Box 30420 Dubai, United Arab Emirates P: +971 4 428 7557 F: +971 4 425 0507 www.arcuae.com
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BUsiness DNA
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usiness DNA is a technology solutions provider established in 2013 as a subsidiary of NCC Group. Build on international standards the company aims to provide the market with fresh, creative and up-to-date approach which can help businesses cope with the growing challenges in the industry. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? Our major achievements over the last year are divided into two parts, the first one is the launch of Souq Planet. This is the first digital supermarket in the Middle East, and we created this concept in response to the high demand for a better personal shopping experience and the prominence of mobile apps in the market. As more and more consumers prefer online shopping, this platform will definitely cater to smart shoppers. The second part of our achievements is winning various projects, which entail providing mobility solutions for companies in the oil and gas sector. What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? As of now, we can see that the industry is leaning towards mobility and cloud. As such, these are IT areas where we are focusing on and are investing a lot in. We believe that the management concept is changing as customer needs increase and evolve. Speedy data management and analysis are also becoming increasingly important for IT players to offer more agile solutions and achieve their goals. We believe that these areas can give us a competitive edge in the market over the next few years. In line with this, we are following various international standards while also keeping local policies in mind.
Tarek El Goweiny, CEO & Co-Founder, Business DNA
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What do you think are the factors driving customers to seek better integration plans and services?
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Customers expect SIs to be customeroriented. For example, before we sell, we ensure that we listen to them first and understand what they require from us. Then we propose economical, innovative and end-to-end technology solutions that best fit their specific needs. Furthermore, we assist them in coming up with strategies that can enable them to reach their business objectives. We act as their consultant first before we sell them anything. In doing so, we develop a good relationship with our customers and simultaneously we get to provide them with the right solution or service that they need. We believe that these are things that customers are looking for in an SI. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? Firstly, they should look for an SI who can give them a measurable, achievable and reliable strategy on ground. Another is having the right knowledge and understanding of various IT provisions that your organisation needs. Customers should also choose an SI who can deliver them the service or solution they need with the best quality and value for time and money. This is why educating the market is very important for us. On our part, what we do is conduct research and surveys about the IT infrastructures that organisations have here in the country. In doing so, we will be able to come up with innovations and solutions that can answer the demands of the industry. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? There are two things. First is deciding or choosing an IT solution without clearly defining what the project is and what it aims to achieve. This is a mistake as some end-users tend to decide on acquiring a particular technology before identifying how it is needed in a certain project. There are risks of them buying technologies that may be
Customers should also choose an SI who can deliver them the service or solution they need with the best quality and value for time and money. incompatible with their systems. Second is staying in the past instead of looking to the future. This means putting costs before value. Some end-users look for cheaper solutions or services instead of considering other factors that in the long-term can give more value to their business. Essentially, this is a blunder that most end-users make – considering the CAPEX rather than the OPEX. How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? We are very client-oriented. We work closely with our current and potential clients in understanding their expectations from the project. We find out what strategies they want to pursue and we also ensure that we know exactly what they need. Then during the project management up to the delivery we make sure that we are with them every step of the way. We see to it that the line of communication is always kept open – this is done through our customer service call centre which is available 24x7. However, we don’t just wait for them to contact us, we regularly check up on them through phone calls, surveys and even one-to-one interviews. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. We plan to focus on our mobile solutions and facilities management solutions. Currently, we are now catering to segments such as ERP, finance, HR and supply chain. However, we believe that the trends are leaning towards mobile solutions and this
is something we plan to develop. We are also planning to leverage the Internet of Things and align our modules with this trend, and this is what we are doing now as part of our R&D initiatives. We are looking into developing and manufacturing our own mobile device. These elements basically fall under our primary strategy which is providing end-toend solutions. Furthermore, we want to stay ahead of everyone, hence our slogan 'looking back from the future.' Do you offer any managed services and business consulting or plan to do so in the future? Yes, we do provide these services but not as separate entities or offerings. Like with consultancy, we do this as part of the services we provide, as mentioned we do advise our clients first on the best options they have before selling them anything. However, by 2016 we plan to have management consultancy as part of our packages. This would entail ensuring the collaboration between our IT experts and the end-users, this is because we do know that not all end-users are IT-savvy. Therefore, we will implement this for various verticals which we think will further prove our commitment to providing quality solutions and services in the industry.
Business DNA
Abu Dhabi, UAE P.O.Box: 44626 Mob: +971558994663 Tel: +97126344944 www.businessdna.ae
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CNS C
NS (Computer Network Systems) is a UAE based system integrator and solution provider that offers business solutions, systems integration and managed services to clients of financial services, telecommunication, governments, education, energy, healthcare and enterprises across the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? We’re focused on providing end-to-end solutions to our customers. Over the past 12 months we’ve introduced to the market a range of new innovative solutions. Our three focus areas are mobility, private cloud and security, and for us this represents a massive progress. We’ve repackaged our offerings to the market – earlier, we were reselling hardware; servers, storage and security products – but this is now being revamped into packages. These enhancements will impact products and solutions offerings to partners. Private cloud, for example, is not just storage, it consists of the computing layer, virtualisation and other components. What emerging technology trends do you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? Our new offerings reflect the needs of the market. If you look at our target verticals - government, banking and general enterprise - they’re all looking to enhance their Infrastructure and to be part of the cloud. Now, they all need mobility services for their end users and citizens. E-services have been transformed to m-services. On the mobility layer, security is needed, so all transactions need to be secured through mobility. Private cloud relates to these demands. Most government entities require consolidation and this can’t happen without the cloud technologies. What factors are driving companies to seek better integration plans or services? Most organisations now require their services to be integrated internally and
Murad Abu Shaikha, Head of Pre-sales, CNS with other entities; you can’t have a fullyfunctioning organisation without interfacing into other entities. Each organisation has its own serval apps which need to talk with one another, with the right services and output for the end user. What points should end-users keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? Many factors, including the SI’s competency, track record and portfolio. Customers need one partner and the ease of project management to ensure the successful project delivery. Most customers are releasing requests for each technology, which is an opportunity for SIs. Competency, capacity and certifications are key. The systems intergrator is the vehicle that transforms vendors’ technologies into solutions. Partnership with technology providers is also critical, as such strong and well-orchestrated partnerships improve the capabilities and enables us to deliver the project. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? Scope and expectations management; Tech is tech, alignment with project objectives is very important. Delivering within the timeline and the delivery of expectations have to be highly evaluated. It’s a balance of engaging with more than one partner. SI competencies and history as well as customers’ internal skills have major impact on projects’ success. Cost should be considered while evaluating the options and equally important are the deliverables How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them
the business benefit they require? We always make sure we engage with customers before the RFP goes out. CNS has a team of consultants that works with customers to understand the needs and objectives. We make sure we work with them at an early stage to devise their roadmap. We have a pre-sales team which defines their needs and solutions. In terms of post-implementation, we have a service delivery team which offers on-site and remote support. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. To be the preferred option for the superset of cloud based solutions through our internal skills and with our partners Do you offer any managed services and business consulting or plan to do so in the future? Managed services offering is core to CNS. We have already invested in building our service delivery centre and today we are proudly servicing many entities with our Managed Services. We are highly engaged with our customers, advising different options for their roadmaps. This goes through dedicated sessions, workshops, and advisory engagements.
CNS
Dubai office: Makeen Building, Garhoud, UAE. +971 4 238 4400 Abu Dhabi office: Shaheen Tower, Al Salam Street, UAE. +971 2 644 2888 Muscat Office: Knowledge Oasis Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. +968 2417 0188 www.cns-me.com – info@cns-me.com LinkedIn: CNS ( Computer Network Systems)
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Condo Protego A
ttributing their success to putting their customers first, Condo Protego is a technology partner trusted by numerous organisations may they be SMEs or enterprises. As a consultative solutions provider focusing on core data centre infrastructure, the company specialises in key areas such as data storage, virtualisation, security, data protection, cloud and Big Data. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? It has been another successful year for Condo Protego, and it’s even more significant as this year marks our 10-year anniversary. The last 12 months has been very rewarding because of the recognition we have received from our suppliers, and the accolades we have attained from leading industry publications. We are also pleased to have maintained our tier one partnership levels with all the vendors we work with. For a consecutive number of years now we have achieved the highest status of partnership with all our suppliers, including Platinum Partner status with both Symantec and Websense, and the Gold Tier status in EMC’s 2015 Business Partner Programme. What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? With the explosive growth in data, we see a growing demand for high-performance storage. All-flash arrays will provide the muscle power needed by businesses to meet and sustain application performance levels, and as costs for this technology continue to fall, flash usage will increase in the Middle East. We will also continue to see companies adopting a hybrid cloud approach as they look to enhance cost and performance efficiencies. Subsequently, companies are increasingly looking forCalthorpe, SIs that can deliver Andrew CEO, Condogreater Protego value in terms of project management
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and consulting. We will also see a surge in the adoption of converged and hyperconverged infrastructures. What are the factors driving companies to seek better integration plan or service? Organisations are increasingly recognising the important role of IT as a business enabler, as opposed to a cost centre. Senior managers now understand that IT plays an integral role in building a competitive edge and bringing profitability. Decision-makers are turning to CIOs for ways to take their businesses to the next level. Companies now expect IT partners to be more than just a low-cost technology reseller. Partners are expected to provide more value through a consultative and advisory approach to help identify solutions that can best achieve a customer’s business objectives. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? Selecting the right SI cannot be exclusively cost-based, as this may result in the loss of valuable time and money caused by delayed projects and the use of technology that does not fully meet customer requirements. Companies must be confident that they are working with a trusted partner that has an established track record of successful project execution. Organisations should also choose a partner that shares the same core values as theirs and have a clear understanding of the customer’s requirements. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? The most common mistake is selecting the wrong technology, or the right technology from the wrong partner. This often occurs because the company bases its decision more on cost than technical capability, and so the selected reseller may not have the technical skillset needed to deploy the technology to its full capacity, or to
Andrew Calthorpe, CEO, Condo Protego offer localised support – thus relying on a break-fix approach. Another mistake many companies make is taking on more than they can handle and not setting clear timelines for project completion. How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? At Condo Protego, we use a consultative approach. We first work closely with the client during the initial project initiation to understand their requirements, help them decide on the most appropriate solutions, and set clear expectations for project timelines, pre-requisites, and deliverables. We then work continuously with the clients to meet and exceed these expectations. We also provide local value-added support, making the transition easier for our customers during the initial stages as well as during the final phase. We offer clients 24/7 support, and we also promise and deliver a 30-minute response time. We also offer regularly scheduled proactive monitoring and operational checks to ensure solutions are running smoothly. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. Our focus for the coming year will be on further expanding our security practice as companies are increasingly recognising data as a valuable asset and are seeking the best practices in the industry to protect it both at endpoints and in data centres. We will also be strengthening and retaining our regional leading position in storage platforms and availability solutions, as well as placing additional focus on our converged and hyperconverged offerings, and information management services.
Condo Protego
PO Box 38434 Dubai, United Arab Emirates P: +971 4 364 2686 F : +971 4 369 7511 www.condoprotego.com
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Emitac Enterprise Solutions
Miguel Villalonga, CEO Emitac Enterprise Solutions
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mitac Enterprise Solutions (EES), a part of Bukhatir Group of Companies, has evolved and grown since 1976. The SI addresses the needs of both technology and business requirements to help organisations leverage leading-edge technologies for business improvement. EES designs, builds and provides solutions for business applications and core infrastructure including systems and storage, data centres and enterprise wide communication and networking. EES delivers unmatched business value to its customers in various verticals through a combination of process excellence, quality framework and flexible delivery models.
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Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? 2014 was a fantastic year for EES, growing our business by more than 20 percent while we continue our transformation journey from a traditional SI to a true solutions and services business. With an equally strong start to 2015, EES opened its new Network Operating Centre (NOC) in Dubai at the beginning of August to control and manage customer installations, further growing our service offering. The details to improve our offshore resource factories that feed our service delivery teams are also being finalised. Furthermore, we have also expanded our service practice with the opening of our new full fledge managed services division. Another milestone was the successful execution and completion of many prestigious large scale projects including FEDNET (in partnership with Cisco and Etisalat) where we built the Network Operations Center for TRA’s flagship project; Emirates Transport – where we implemented the Core Infrastructure, virtualisation, security, migration, backup and recovery project; UAEFA Automation project – where we developed and customised a new product for the football association called “FA Net”; and IFFCO – where we undertook the migration of the data centre from Singapore to Dubai, amongst others. Also, we achieved significant growth in our Software Services business unit, with growth rates exceeding 100 percent. What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? The new trends of IT are becoming mainstream practices and today cloud, mobility enabling social media and
Big Data are present in most of our customers’ IT budgets, but you can be sure that it won’t be the last revolution in the IT industry. Beyond all the trends, we will continue helping our customers serve their end users and clients. Change will never end, and our customers’ businesses and organisations will rely more and more on technology In a nutshell we foresee growth in the following areas in the next five years: • Cloud computing in the private and hybrid cloud form, as we see a number of initiatives where groups of entities are creating projects to share common infrastructure. • Security, as the complexity of the solutions increases and the amount of cyber threats will continue to increase accordingly. • Mobility, as it is being proven that it is the best way to reach users and facilitate services. • Internet of Things, as the amount of connected devices continues to grow and it offers an unprecedented opportunity to develop new automated processes that makes life more convenient. • Big Data, as due to all the previous factors, the amount of information available is exponentially growing. What are the factors driving companies to seek better integration plan or service? Organisations require business integration practices for multiple reasons, from cost and resources optimisation to supporting growth or sustaining competitive advantage and time to market. Technology integration is a fundamental pillar as most of government and private businesses rely on technology to deliver value to their end-users. Some of the main factors which drive the companies these days to seek better integration plan/service include: IT Integration in itself is a significant challenge. Most functions are dependent on the IT departments to execute tasks before moving forward with their own business integration plans. Yet, another important factor is that, it is vital for the IT integration strategy/ plan to be closely aligned to the company’s strategic objectives and goals,
TOP 2O | SYSTEMs INTEGRATORS 2015
and further refined to meet the unique needs of each individual business unit. Without alignment, the IT integration will result in a list of initiatives with little connection to the big picture. The IT function has the highest volume of integration activity and highest number of dependencies from other functions. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? These are some of the points that the end-users should keep in mind while choosing an SI. All these look very simple but often overlooked by many customers before choosing their SI and land up into problems. • The sales engagement is a reflection of the methodology used during service delivery. It is important to validate the quality of the service response from the first interaction. SIs with a poor engagement process often win on price alone and that can have disastrous consequences during delivery. • Pre-sales plays the role of solution or service design consultants, and will play the role of a trusted advisor. It is important that the solution is designed by the team that will be responsible for delivery. Setting the expectation right from the beginning solves a significant part of the potential delivery problems. • The system integrator should understand the business drivers. Each technology investment should have a business driver aligned. • Meet the delivery team. - Meet the team who will be deploying the solution or delivering the service. The project managers and installation engineers are the ones who will ultimately be responsible for the success. • Experience – check the SI references and if possible visit them. That will provide a well contrasted view of the service excellence that is being sold. • Certifications – professionals certified by the relevant technology vendors
will ensure consistency of the solution lifecycle – from design to support. A systems Integrator who is qualified often has good understanding of the solutions. Awards and recognition from vendors are also another good indication of this. • Support – test their support. Do they have a support desk? What’s the escalation process? Is their support team separate from the delivery team? Do they conform to a standard for escalation? • Bigger is not always better. - Brands with large presence in other geographies should not be the sole criteria for your SI selection. Many times frustrated clients have come to us after working with global brands simply because when it comes to the crunch, having local support close to the ground is critical. Therefore look for an SI who cares and supports you anytime every time. How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? We work to build a long lasting relationship with our customers. Our aim has always been to reinvent ourselves constantly to drive business improvement for our customers and maximise value in a world where technology is changing people’s lives. By doing so, we have been successful in keeping them happy all these years. We consider that we succeed in engagements only if our customers reach their expected goals, for which we have to understand their concerns and design a solution that best fits their need. We do not force the customer to buy a solution because it is the latest. We often look for ways to optimise their setup and add the required to ensure their issues are addressed. Our industry knowledge and technical expertise and flexible delivery models help customers harness the best out of their IT investments by creating a reliable and scalable infrastructure. Our systems integration services has a comprehensive portfolio of implementation, support and consulting services solutions with exceptional people supporting business technology
in action - talented professionals who bring technical insight, process excellence and resource flexibility to help customers in various verticals. Support is our yet another strength and we are available for our customers 24/7 with a 24/7 call logging system and a separate support team other than the service delivery team to give our customer’s optimum support Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. Our focus is on completing and expanding different competencies around cloud, mobility and Big Data, covering different technologies (from data centre to software and mobility) and especially evolving the delivery models, where cloud and “as a Service” takes more relevance. An example is the big focus on Microsoft based cloud solutions around Office 365 and Azure. The other area of focus will be services. Owing to the growing customer demand of structured service offering, EES has amplified its focus on growing its outsourcing and managed services unit. EES recently expanded its new service practice last year enabling its clients/ customer to well utilise all the expertise, experience and capabilities of seasoned certified technology specialists to maximise productivity and performance. For this, we have already built a state-ofthe-art NOC for managed services. We are planning to build more customised packaged solutions to meet different customer needs. We currently have three types of service packages to cater to SOHO, SME and ENTERPRISE markets. We are in the process of adding more based on customer need and demand. In addition, we are building a workbench offshore to address the urgent requirements of the customer. We are finalising the details to improve our offshore resource factories that feed our service delivery teams.
Emitac Enterprise Solutions Concord Towers PO Box 8391 31st Floor Dubai Media City, UAE www.emitac.ees.ae
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TOP 2O | SYSTEMs INTEGRATORS 2015
Rodrigo Naranjo, Vice President, Services, GBM
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TOP 2O | SYSTEMs INTEGRATORS 2015
gulf business machines (GBM) F
ounded and operating in the Middle East region since 1990, Gulf Business Machines (GBM) is the number one provider of IT solutions in the Gulf. The company has been leveraging industry leading technologies to drive real business results for clients for decades. Originally, GBM was established through its partnership with IBM. Since then, the two companies have continued to evolve their relationship in order to meet the ever increasing demands of the ICT market. GBM has nurtured partnerships with IBM, as well as with other leading technology players in the region. Partners include major entities like Cisco, and other vendors that are committed to investing in a talented, skilled workforce and in the application of innovative solutions that cater to clients’ specific, complex and diverse IT needs. With on-the-ground, readily available expertise, GBM provides round-the-clock support to clients across the region. This year, the company has seen significant success and expansion, and in the year to
come, we can only expect to see a continuation of that trend. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? One of the biggest achievements that we have come upon this year is one of longevity and commitment. We are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year, which is a significant milestone for us – as it would be for any organisation, particularly in this region. We have been present in the Middle East, in the six locations where we operate, for 25 years and we are quite proud of that accomplishment. We have grown, in spite of an occasionally uncertain political climate, and, more recently, fluctuations in oil and gas industries. GBM is a company that, regardless of uncertainty in the region, have managed to stay stable and committed. We have continued investing in people and assets in the region. We started out as the sole distributor for IBM products. Since those days, we have expanded far beyond the role of a simple distributor and we have grown our portfolio of
People tend to want to keep their data local, and are often hesitant to adopt things like public cloud solutions. As such, cloud and remote management tend to have a slower adoption cycle here. In spite of the relatively smaller economies of the Middle East, the countries in the region are oftentimes at the forefront of innovative ideas that are IT centric.
partners. On a parallel note, the GBM brand has gone through a major re-visioning and re-launch. We’ve updated the logo of GBM, as well as the colours associated with the company. We have had a great history under the retired logo, but the company decided that it was time for a fresh look. We are also strengthening and reinforcing our programmes. For example, we have enhanced our training initiatives at our sales university - where we gather 300 of our employees to update and refresh our go-to-market strategies. This year we have launched several new training programmes to support our partners and employees. In addition to these achievements, we have also had fantastic performance YTD. We are seeing strong performance across the board. This is particularly notable considering the regional uncertainties the Middle East experienced this year. What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? Compared to other regions, the Middle East is a little bit more cautious to adopt new technologies. People tend to want to keep their data local, and are often hesitant to adopt things like public cloud solutions. As such, cloud and remote management tend to have a slower adoption cycle here. In spite of the relatively smaller economies of the Middle East, the countries in the region are oftentimes at the forefront of innovative ideas that are IT centric. They don’t have to worry about legacy issues when moving forward into new solutions. This gives us a unique position on the global stage. Moreover, we continue to see a lot of interest and involvement in complete data analytics portfolio. People understand that data analytics will be the way forward. Regardless of the pace of adoption of other technologies, data analytics is something that is clearly very relevant. In addition to data analytics, we are also seeing a slow migration into private and hybrid clouds. Though it is a bit slower, it is happening in the region. We aren’t seeing organisations using public cloud very much, because of the
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issues of privacy and data ownership. However, companies are beginning to migrate some of their workloads into a hybrid or private cloud. This allows for enterprises to invest more time and money into their core business where they can make strides for themselves. What are the factors driving companies to seek better integration plan or service? When it comes to finding the right partner or integrator, companies need to understand that IT is becoming more complex. There are always going to be more moving elements each year. The result can be daunting for even the most seasoned IT professional. One can end up with a number of different solutions and vendors governing key aspects of their infrastructure. This can become complex, confusing and costly from a management point of view. Organisations are driven to seek better integration plans to manage and address that complexity. As the landscape becomes more diversified, it is key to have one, unifying aspect to manage the infrastructure. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? Track record, skills and an appropriate delivery model are important considerations with deciding on an integration partner. A partner should have a solid track record both in consistency and in quality of work. In this part of the world we often see companies coming in an out – some integrators simply do not last in this environment. This kind of spotty track record can be a risk for customers. They can end up with a project that becomes strangled or cut off in the midst of a transition or roll-out. In addition the integration partner needs a track record that reflects the ability to manage the breadth of a complex project. This is a very important element from a control point of view – you have to have that kind of accountability with a partner. There needs to be the ability to manage, or put an umbrella, over a broad spectrum of vendors. The
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Track record, skills and an appropriate delivery model are important considerations with deciding on an integration partner. A partner should have a solid track record both in consistency and in quality of work. company needs to be versed in the regulations of the region, and have a depth of local knowledge. In addition, a partner of choice, of course, needs to have the relevant skills for the project. It is important to ensure that these skills meet the delivery model that is appropriate for the customer. Here, we believe it is important to have those skills available locally and on-shore. At GBM, our resources are here in the Gulf. This provides a cost effective, local model. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? One of the major causes of going in the wrong direction is having the wrong expectations. As an end user, you have to articulate both your expected end-goal and the strategy when communicating with a potential integration partner. When the end-user engages with the partner or potential partner, they need to ensure that there are no miscommunications when it comes to expectations. This saves a great deal of pain during the process. The second thing to be careful about is planning. Sometimes people are eager to get into signing contracts and starting the projects, without the proper precision beforehand. How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? One of our cornerstones in GBM is putting higher emphasis on the skills in the transition phase. It is this transition phase that has the potential to cause the most amount of problems. Therefore, the more you invest in that
transition phase, the more the project becomes simpler to manage. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. For 25 years GBM has established a strong presence in the Gulf. We have expanded tremendously and are now a trusted advisor when it comes to IT. Now, the strategy is to leverage our strength in our past, as well as the trust that our customers have given us over the years. We are going to continue to be the advisor for all IT decision making that happens with our customers. For us to be that, we can’t just be a reseller, we are elevating our solutions engine up to a point that it will provide business value to our customer. It is in particular segments in the portfolio, but our shift into having stronger presence in solutions and integration is at the core of GBM's strategy going forward. Do you offer any managed services and business consulting or plan to do so in the future? Yes, we offer managed services from GBM. In fact, we have an extensive portfolio in managed services. We have a centralised delivery centre here in Dubai from which we offer a broad range of managed services. We have created an efficient centre and we continue to elevate our presence in each of our customers IT departments.
GBM
Dubai, United Arab Emirates P.O. Box 9226, T: (+971) 43435353 F: (+971) 43433232 www.gbmme.com
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Girish Narayanan, Managing Director, Granteq
G
the value game
ranteq Distribution specialises in distributing integrated AV, control and IT technologies. With aims to bring unique and innovative offerings to the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region, the company promises to help their partners gain a competitive edge in the market. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? Granteq Distribution is a fast growing company and the last 12 months have brought in a lot of promising opportunities in terms of having a larger reach in markets like Africa, KSA and Qatar. We have also incorporated a focused effort in our business model to closely collaborate with System Integrators and IT resellers as we see a lot of ‘value’ that we can add together on key projects. In fact, we have already signed a number of partnerships in the GCC and we are confident we can close rewarding opportunities with these partners in the near future. Just recently, Granteq Distribution also bagged the ‘Best Unified Communications VAD of the Year 2015’ at The Integrator Champion Awards 2015. What are the emerging technology trends that you see becoming popular in the region? Enterprise IT is on the transformational go and a lot of new IT initiatives are being planned to empower business transformation within these companies. Be it any segment, not just the enterprise level, the prime focus is now on cloud, connectivity, communication and converged services. This clearly reflects the emphasis on adopting key trends in the direction of managing data centres, cloud computing, mobility - BYOD, telepresence and collaboration within the enterprise channel. What are the factors driving companies to seek better integration plan or service? With a lot of new trends, there are also many new players in the market. This in turn is driving market players towards ensuring success in project delivery. In general, SIs do understand the need to establish plans on ‘value plus volume’ based business offerings, instead of a core emphasis on ‘volume’ alone. A lot of focus has also shifted towards applications, where BYOD and mobility are the dominant areas. In fact, we also are penetrating into the automation area for residences as well as education, corporate and hospitality segments. In terms of services, managed services and outsourcing are now the most talked about areas within enterprises which will lead to a lot of movement within the SAAS domain.
What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing as deployment partner? End-users must be sure of their objectives and work on their education to grass root levels in line with what they want to deploy and achieve. In fact, at Granteq Distribution we believe in educating the customer before taking up any project and once the customer has a complete insight, in line with their existing set up and budget we encourage them to decide what works best. Our vendors and channel partners join us for many meetings as we work as a team and ensure that they share their domain and region experience. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? Again, I think it all begins with either lack of a clear objective or absence of complete education on the project being discussed. This education is required at all levels within the IT team, not just in terms of IT decision-makers. If the SI does not encourage education, projects are more likely to fail. How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? Our team understands the customer’s objectives as well as the allocated budget. They spend quality time in understanding the complete project’s design, scope and also ensuring the client has complete clarity on what we will be deploying. Additionally, in line with the client budget our emphasis remains on not just fulfilling their objectives but also adding ‘value’. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. We are following a clear strategy on acquiring a better market reach across Africa, Middle East and India along with a lot of brand awareness campaigns. We bring specific industry focus and have one of a kind solutions, such as telehealth / telemedicine for the healthcare industry, mobile and display solutions for retail and hospitality, collaboration tools for the enterprise level, computer aided language learning labs and intelligible audio offerings for the education sector and more. Hence, our major focus will be spreading maximum awareness to our target areas. Do you offer any managed services and business consulting or plan to do so in the future? We have done business consulting for collaboration and communications needs where we prepared the project’s plan, design and entire workflow for clients as a service. However, we still have to explore our potential on the managed services front.
Your Trusted Distributor of Integrated AV, Control, & IT technologies
Recognized As Best Unfiied Communication sV Added Distributo alue The Year 2015 @ r Of Integrator Cham The pion Awards 2015
TOP 2O | SYSTEMs INTEGRATORS 2015
should focus on the four key information security areas which are quality, structure, procedures and people. Another thing that they can try doing is going back to the basics – meaning they should ensure that they have the fundamental knowledge needed before acquiring the latest technology.
Help AG P
resent in the Middle East since 2004, Help AG caters to enterprise businesses across the region, providing them with tailored information security solutions and strategic consultancy to address their specific needs and enable them to gain a competitive edge in the industry. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? Help AG is very much focused in information security services and solutions. Our company is very technical driven, and this I would say goes hand in hand with the accomplishments we have attained over the last few years. From 2014 up to early 2015, we have been able to increase our business by 70 percent year-on-year. We have also expanded our workforce from 69 people to around 220 employees, who were distributed to the different lines of business we have within the organisation. We also offer strategic information security consulting, where we advise government and enterprise entities to comply with local and international standards such as the ISO 27001. What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? The information security technology trends usually rely on the prospects coming from in and out of the region. Technology trends that are coming into the market include the development of nanotechnology, which is quite big for the government and banking sectors as well as for private companies. Application development is also a segment where we see huge growth potential. Solutions regarding threat mitigation is also another rising trend that we see. This entails the proper regulation of an organisation’s web content. This has a lot to do with the government sector because it’s important for them to ensure that their message is not defaced by any political agendas.
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Stephan Berner, CEO, Help AG Malware prevention and APT solutions are also on the rise and would definitely play a huge role in the enterprise IT industry. What are the factors driving companies to seek better integration plan or service? Some organisations feel that having the latest product and solution for hardware and software is a very important tool for them to grow as a business. However, we believe that without ample knowledge on utilising these technologies they won’t be able to achieve the right integration. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? SIs are usually providing infrastructure solutions from A-Z. Some organisations tend to be indecisive towards the solutions and services that they need. Also a lot of them today has a dilemma of having to deal with more work with fewer resources. What they should keep in mind is that they can rely on companies like ourselves who are services-driven. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? For any company, getting compromised is inevitable. The common mistake that they usually make is investing a significant amount of money into traditional infrastructure which is not critically necessary. What they should do instead is build a security strategy accordingly. They
How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? Firstly we identify the areas which needs to go through technical and commercial evaluation. Any kind of vendor partner that we work with like F5 Networks and Palo Alto Networks, we do a yearly evaluation of their technologies and compare it with other players in the market. This way we can ensure that the service or solution that we offer to our clients is the best of breed and can help them fulfil their goals today and for the years to come. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. We always work on a three-year growth strategy. We focus on three main areas, the first part is strengthening our market share in those areas where we have been present for a while namely Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. Second is expanding our geographical reach, as part of that we have recently opened our KSA office. You can expect us to open operations in other territories by 2016-2017. Lastly, is ensuring that our managed security service strategy is rolled out successfully, attract the right customer-base and increase the business. Do you offer any managed services and business consulting or plan to do so in the future? In May this year we have already launched our managed security services. As for consultancy services, we provide security analysis and risk assessment to our clients.
Help AG
12th Floor, Office 1208 Arjaan Office Tower P O Box 500741 T: +971 4 4405666 F: +971 4 3636742 www.helpag.com
TOP 2O | SYSTEMs INTEGRATORS 2015
capacity to deliver on its goals? Among the common mistakes that we have observed include weak evaluation process, giving price an importance over deliverables and not paying attention to an SI’s track record to commitments. However, the most critical mistake usually is not detailing the scope and expectations from the project.
Intertec P
roviding technology solutions to organisations in a wide array of verticals including banking, government, corporate and hospitality; and with its strong presence in the Middle East and India, Intertec has over the years established itself as one of the industry’s leading IT systems integrator and solutions provider. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? Over the last 12 months, we have bagged major Infrastructure Managed Services (IMS), Application Managed Services (AMS) and Remote Monitoring Services (RMS) contracts regionally. We have also invested in human capital in the fields of cloud and DR, this is to architect and implement varied infrastructures. To aggressively grow our applications business, we have hired a new VP for Applications Delivery with 40+ years of global experience , which include heading HP & Digital Global Systems' application delivery in the past. With his experience, we hope to significantly grow our applications business and new capabilities. In terms of product innovation, we have launched our enterprise application platform for Government Compliance Enforcement with already concluding a major implementation in Dubai Government. We now have about 400 people within the organisation and are focused on strengthening our capabilities in areas such as managed services, IT infrastructure and security, applications and enterprise solutions. What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? Public cloud is definitely a disruptor that will impact IT infrastructure compute business for most regional systems integrators. Other emerging areas include process automation, analytics, security and mobility. We believe that companies that can innovate quickly will grow faster in the next five years.
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Naresh Kothari, Managing Director, Intertec Systems What are the factors driving companies to seek better integration plan or service? Project management, quality and process automation are very important drivers that customers often miss evaluating. Customers also seek SI’s who can monitor processes while ensuring risks are reduced as they work on the projects. As an example, we have enterprise systems implemented for ISO 20000, ITIL, ISO 9001 and other monitoring processes to cater to the customers’ needs. We also have one of the broadest internal capabilities depth in the region, and as a result customers rely on us end-to-end and typically, we have the capability to address 70-100 percent of a customer wallet share. Hence, we are able to partner with a customer’s business, architect and implement optimal solutions and manage the various technology vendors on the back end. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? We believe that end-users should take notice of tan SI's track record to either with themselves or with other customers. They should also evaluate the SI's approach towards project management, transparency and risk mitigation. The rest are details such as certifications, years of experience, number of resources and so on, which are never enough if the prior is not satisfactory on critical projects. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s
How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? Our focus on business benefit starts from the solution architect engagement phase. We are driven by ROI and customer success on meeting objectives. Post-order, we have PMI certified project managers who do internal briefings with all concerned teams, and external kick-off with the customers to align all stakeholders. This alignment is in accirdancewith our objectives, schedule, project methodology and deliverables. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. Practice this approach to everything we do – consult, technology and manage. This way we want to drive innovation with every team and do the necessary transformation. Do you offer any managed services and business consulting or plan to do so in the future? Yes, our vision is to be the number one managed services provider on monitoring and management in the Gulf. Our breadth of services goes across data centre and cloud, networks, endusers and applications. We also have a 24/7 NOC to remotely monitor and manage our enterprise customers. As for consulting, we are transforming our practices. We also have consulting capability on ISO 20000, ISO 27001, shared services and service catalogue, ICT maturity assessment, SOC, contact centre operations and the like.
Intertec Systems
P O Box 27130 Dubai, UAE T: +9714 -2221338 F: +9714 -2274937 www.intertecsys.com
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Increase Productivity
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Manage Cost & Resources
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• Data Center & Cloud Monitoring
• 24/7 Remote Monitoring Services
• Network Monitoring
• Service Desk Management
• Application Monitoring
• Application Management
• Security Monitoring
• Consulting: ISO 20000, ISO 27001, ITIL
• End User Management & Monitoring
• Outsourcing
• ALM & SAM
• Annual Maintenance
Satisfied IT Operations Management clients from Government, Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail and Large Corporates
Contact Intertec Systems: +971 4 4479444 info@intertecsys.com
UAE | Oman | Bahrain | KSA | India
www.intertecsys.com
TOP 2O | SYSTEMs INTEGRATORS 2015
Nanjgel Solutions E
stablished in 2007, Nanjgel Solutions focuses on delivering the best IT security for businesses while practicing various approach to information security giving customers more solutions tailored to their specific needs and fits their security budget. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? Nanjgel has registered a 130 percent year on year growth. During Q2 2015, we have had a 20 percent growth in revenue as compared to the same period in 2014. We have grown both, in terms of increasing the average value of the business from our existing accounts and new customers. We have deployed multimillion dollar key projects with highly reputed organisations across all verticals. These projects involve leading oil and gas, government and banking along with our long standing relationship with vendors like BM, McAfee, Forescout and ObserveIT, to name a few. This has enabled us to earn market credibility which goes a long way to being a strong contender in major projects. We have also added 14 new customers to our already outstanding portfolio. Earlier this year we have also been recognised by IBM at their World Wide Event at Las Vegas (IBM Interconnect 2015) for our IBM Security Portfolio – (ASL). This award was in recognition of Nanjgel’s outstanding revenue contribution and a high number of sales wins for IBM QRadar solutions. We have also received the ‘Best Security Information & Event Management’ award at GISEC awards 2015. These milestones clearly reflect Nanjgel’s continuous efforts to deliver value-based IT solutions that maximise customer satisfaction.
Jude Pereira, Managing Director, Nanjgel Solutions
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What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? Everything is now going ‘mobile & social’ which reflects more data moving globally
TOP 2O | SYSTEMs INTEGRATORS 2015
which emphasises on elements such as collaboration, Big Data and BYOD. This trend clearly shows that today it is all about how data will float faster, rather than ‘what’ data, which in turn calls for more attention in the field of security. With an increasing number of data floating and the security risks it entails, organisations will need to ensure that they acquire and apply ample IT protection. Data security will therefore also be a major area of concern for the industry. At the same time, we also see a lot of focus on IT service management and consultancy at the enterprise level. All these trends are paving the way for enterprise IT to achieve a highly collaborated and secure world altogether. What are the factors driving companies to seek better integration plan or service? Organisations are now breaking barriers to get more agile in technology as well as digital markets. Delivery platforms
deployment. Nanjgel has a number of knowledgeable and skillful security specialists who do not push solutions but instead encourage best practices as per the customer and their set up. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? A project’s successful delivery is no rocket science, but there are some basic points which if kept in mind can produce positive results. Everything starts with the right project initiation and planning, wherein every customer’s objectives should be identified clearly. However, to be able to have a clear objective it is important that the customers also have a complete knowledge of what the project would entail. If they are lacking some of the necessary information needed for the venture they should consult their prospective SI or seek a consultant to know more about the project’s scope.
Our team familiarises with the clients’ existing set up, identify the potential risks a certain project may entail, and offer best possible ways to deal with these risks. are now shifting, with end-users driving innovative changes across the enterprise level. With so many applications and the rise of social media, data is proliferating and better intranet services are also being looked at, as such organisations are moving towards integration planning and services. Additionally, data security will definitely play a key role in this journey of evolution over the years. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? End-users must need to fully understand their current infrastructure and their bandwidth to accommodate the new trends. They must look at SIs or solution architects that can give them an A to Z knowledge before diving into
IT consultants now play a bigger role within the industry as companies begin to recognise the need for them and rely on their expertise for key projects. They also play a vital role in ensuring the success of any project execution. Endusers should also identify the possible risks that may come with a certain project and have an agile system in place for contingencies. So overall, we believe that it’s all about efficient planning and having a thorough education that can enable organisations to accomplish project goals. How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? At Nanjgel, we work on a “value” based model, where we spend a significant
amount of time educating our clients on the scope and need of the project. Our team familiarises with the clients’ existing set up, identify the potential risks a certain project may entail, and offer best possible ways to deal with these risks. Once the customer is satisfied with the information we have shared and are ready to invest in what we can offer them, we work with them on each phase of the projects while ensuring an open line of communication for their feedback. We maintain a strong engagement throughout the project which enables us to deliver what is expected of us and sometimes even exceeding these expectations. We aim to go beyond customer satisfaction. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. We are quite focused on our business strategy for the next two years. This entails acquiring various industry giants across all verticals to be part of our portfolio, as well expanding our presence across the Middle East. With all the discussions about “SMART” initiatives in segments like education, healthcare and government as well as collaboration at the enterprise level, we see a lot potential in data security. Our aim is to get into untapped accounts who are willing to invest in such initiatives and educate our existing customers on the need for relevant changes to be at par with these trends. Do you offer any managed services and business consulting or plan to do so in the future? We have done business consulting in the security space, but we still have to explore our potential on the managed services front. However, we do have longstanding relationships with managed services specialists and work with them on major projects.
Nanjgel Solutions
Shatha Towers, Office # 2204 Dubai Internet City Dubai T: + 9714-4330560 F: +9714 -4537281 www.nanjgel.com
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TOP 2O | SYSTEMs INTEGRATORS 2015
Paramount I
t's solutions and services ranging from developing security policies, security awareness training to delivering end-to-end solutions such as perimeter security and secure content management among others. Paramount has come a long way since it was founded in 1992. Today, the company continues to grow as it helps top organisations in the Arabian Gulf Region to understand, monitor and mitigate risks in their IT infrastructure. Can you briefly outline your company’s major achievements over the last 12 months? In the knowledge intensive business, it is absolutely essential to be able to assemble an effective team of people with broad knowledge and skills about the industry. In line with this, we recently on-boarded close to 60 security engineers and consultants, taking Paramount’s overall headcount to 140. Our management structure has undergone several changes, we have promoted people within the organisation and gave vice-presidents of our business segments P&L and balance sheet responsibilities. This leadership pipeline that we are building not only distinguishes us in the marketplace but also ensures high standards for post-sale support to our customers. Furthermore, we have attained key certifications such as ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 20000 and ISO 22301, making us the only IT Company in the Middle East to have acquired all four. During the past year, we have also crossed AED 100 million in revenues and now we are targeting to achieve AED 200 million in the next three years. What are the emerging technology trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years? This region will be no different from the rest of the world. IT will grow around Big Data, mobility, cloud and social media. All four areas introduce new threat vectors and therefore demand new ways to integrate security. We have been exploring potential
projects on all four of these areas. For instance, we have a cloud backup of our ERP Microsoft AX that enables us to recover our business within 24 hours from anywhere in the world. We focus on our own business continuity before we preach to customers. This is done at an extremely low cost and we are ready for the mass market in the SME sector. What are the factors driving companies to seek better integration plan or service? We live in a vendor-driven market. The reality is that the customer is often so carried away by the latest offerings being rolled-out by big tech players that they often tend to overlook the other entities involved. There is very little to distinguish between leading vendors today. The key is in the quality of the value-add of the local systems integrator, such as implementation methodology; project management methodology; integration capability; and help desk process, among others. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a project’s capacity to deliver on its goals? Our belief is that in a vendor-driven world, these issues are relegated to the background and the client is often saddled with great technology but incorrectly configured and badly integrated, which at the end of the day results to wasted investments. However, we believe that this will change and herein lies the technology future of this region. How does your company work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require? Firstly, during the initial interactions we make our customers understand the current status of their systems’ security. We then help them build a future vision of security and then co-create value by designing a roadmap for enhancing the security posture of his environment. Preparing the required documents with the key deliverables is the next step. Afterwards, we allow the client to appreciate the importance of getting
Premchand Kurup, CEO, Paramount Computer Systems the combination of people, process and technology right. The vital aspect is the combination and not the technology. When clients get this combination right, eight out of 10 times they derive the desired business benefit. Define your company’s strategy for the next 12 months. Our mission is crystal clear - we want to be the most respected company in the information security space in the Arabian Gulf Region. We want to be the employer of choice for information security professionals. We aim to make business decisions that will lead to the achievement of these two objectives. As part of our strategy, we also want to attain and maintain having incredible human assets; process maturity; marque clients; an amazing value network; good geographic footprint across the region; a strong balance sheet; and above all the will to succeed. Do you offer any managed services and business consulting or plan to do so in the future? Consulting and managed services are the cornerstones of our offering while technology is only an enabler. We have always focused on being customerbackward and not technology-forward. This is the only way in which true value can be created for customers.
Paramount Computer Systems FZ-LLC PO Box 25703 Dubai, United Arab Emirates P: +971 4 391 8600 F : +971 4 391 8605 www.paramountassure.com
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TOP 2O | SYSTEMs INTEGRATORS 2015
Al Futtaim Technologies
www.alfuttaimtechnologies.com
Al-Futtaim Technologies, one of the region’s leading system integrators, is part of the Al-Futtaim Group. Al-Futtaim Technologies provides complete business solutions for large, medium and small customers. These include networking solutions, IP telephony, infrastructure, contact centre solutions, business applications, ELV systems, professional audio visual & broadcasting solutions, and managed services.
Alpha Data www.alpha.ae
Alpha Data, is the leading system integrator with over 30 years track record. Founded in 1981, Alpha Data has grown from two employees to a 700-strong workforce building ICT infrastructure solutions for thousands of organations.
Alrowad IT Solutions
www.alrowad-its.com
Alrowad IT Solutions was established to be a leading national provider of information technology solutions and integrated services in the GCC countries. The system integrator is credited with the development of some major electronic systems designed to support e-government projects within the country and the region.
Finesse www.alpha.ae
Finesse provides technology solutions and services to banking, education, energy, healthcare, hospitality and retail segments. Finesse system integration services include the supply, installation and integration of hardware, software, and onsite support services.
ITQAN
www.itqan.ae
ITQAN is one of the UAE’s leading systems integrators, known for providing enterprise clients with world-class solutions addressing their local business needs. With a multinational team of more than 150 IT professionals, the company has offices located in major UAE cities and several business partners across the Gulf. The company has offices located in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Al Ain.
MDS UAE www.mds.ae
MDS UAE is part of “Midis Group,” one of the largest technology companies in the Middle East. The group is known for its advanced offering of ICT services, distribution, system integration, software and hardware products along with data center consultancy, infrastructure and standby power solutions.
Seven Seas computers
www.sscomp.ae
Seven Seas Computers is an ISO 9001:2008 certified company since 1983 and a tiered partner to all major technology vendors and are the pioneers in delivering technology solutions and services in enterprise compute, data networking and security, voice and telephony, Microsoft licensing and solutions, value-added services, business continuity and disaster recovery, data centres, audio visual, access control, CCTV, video conferencing and above all outsourcing and managed services.
www.stme.com
STME has established strategic partnerships with a broad range of IT system manufacturers, to enable the delivery of the best-of-breed solutions of any scale or complexity. Since 1982 STME was built on a solid foundation of storage provision to provide turnkey integrated system solutions for some of the Middle East’s most important business-critical data. Acknowledged as the region’s premier end-to-end enterprise IT solutions provider, STME delivers unparalleled service through a team of highly qualified solution design specialists.
STME
Tech Forte
www.tforte.com/
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Tech Forte embarked on its operational journey under the umbrella of Global Distribution in 2011. The SI offers end-to-end enterprise-class IT solutions including infrastructure solutions, managed services, application management, professional services, IT hardware and top tier data centre support to clients in the region.
GBM offers an extensive range of IT infrastructure solutions
Founded and operating in the region since 1990, Gulf Business Machines (GBM) is the number one provider of IT solutions, leveraging industry leading technologies to drive real business results for clients. GBM brings the power of the world’s most renowned technology providers, IBM from its outset and the addition of the Cisco portfolio in 1999. GBM today holds both the Master Collaboration and the Master Security Specializations from Cisco, the only partner across Gulf to be awarded these distinctions. GBM lives the ever-evolving culture of the local IT landscapes in which it operates, continually investing in training and development to ensure its experts can fully understand and interpret the growing needs of their clients. As a result, GBM is always well-equipped to address the everevolving, industry-specific IT demands in every market. www.gbmme.com ABU DHABI • BAHRAIN • DUBAI • KUWAIT • OMAN • PAKISTAN • QATAR