Channel Insights June 2022

ON A HIGH

This year we all can agree that the usual summer-induced business sluggishness has not happened. On the contrary, it has been the opposite of slowing down – the economy is thriving, and everyone’s calendar is full of meetings and events, with no time to spare.

According to World Bank, the UAE’s economic growth will accelerate this year compared to 2021, growing at 4.6 percent in 2022 against 2.6 percent in 2021. The country is expected to benefit from higher oil prices and a strong rebound in the nonoil sector. All these non-oil sectors, mainly hospitality, retail, and healthcare, are on a hyper-digital drive to keep up the pace of growth, operate seamlessly, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. An IDC forecast reports that annual spending on digital transformation across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa is set to top $58 billion by 2025. This is great news for regional channel partners.

But with so much happening all around, partners must narrow their focus to key strengths and build their capabilities in advanced technologies to be vendors’ reputed representatives in the market and customers’ trusted consultants. Now, there is no shortage of opportunities; it is a matter of cashing in on what best suits a partner organisation’s overall business goals. Customers want to create long-term digital strategies built on technologies such as cloud, automation, networking, integrated with cybersecurity, and access to as-a-Service and subscription models. In this edition, we have discussed sustainability in the channel ecosystem, which I admit is still in its nascent stages in the region. But it is already a top priority for global customers, and it should be sooner than later before partners begin paying attention to this aspect.

The issue also has lots of other insight-packed content that we hope you will enjoy reading!

Janees Reghelini

contributing editor, Channel Insights Middle East

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Keyston Distribution Acquires Al Masa

Keyston Distribution has announced the complete acquisition of Al Masa, a renowned regional and global provider of the latest technology products, solutions, and services. The acquisition includes Al Masa’s ofces, its teams and its existing deals with local and international manufacturers.

As a result of the new deal, Keyston’s mandate seeks to contribute to the growth of technology companies, drive digital transformation, and technological prosperity, as well as help customers implement their strategies as per the needs of the digital economy.

Keyston’s operations will commence from Dubai and expand across the GCC region and Iraq with future plans to expand to most international markets.

Mahdi Amjad, founder and CEO of Keyston, said, “We are launching from Dubai a new era in the distribution of various information technology products, and we are fully confident in the ability of our team to strive and innovate modern solutions to achieve an unprecedented qualitative leap in this growing sector, which we have pioneered and excelled at.”

Mahdi also stressed that Keyston, with its expertise in international and local supply chains, specialised retail markets, and partnerships in the technology sector, is positioning itself strongly as a leading distribution company in the region to become the trusted partner and authorised distributor for traders who want to obtain the best information technology devices and network solutions for individual dealers, companies, departments, and institutions in the private and government sectors.

Keyston’s aim is to provide unparalleled distribution services for the best and latest information technology solutions to its customers, including retailers and integrated system providers. Moreover, the company will offer its expertise and technical services to ensure the prosperity of markets and meet needs through customised solutions and services.

BlackBerry, Midis Group to Drive Growth in Eastern Europe and MEA

BlackBerry has announced that it has entered into a partnership with Midis Group to expand its go-to-market sales motion across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

A leading technology company, with a network of over 170 afliates and partners across these markets, Midis Group will focus on driving growth for BlackBerry’s Cybersecurity business unit. Midis Group will leverage its on-the-ground expertise, market knowledge, and regional infrastructure to establish BlackBerry-branded local ofces focused on representing BlackBerry’s comprehensive portfolio of unified endpoint management solutions and next-generation, AI-based Cylance cybersecurity products.

“BlackBerry has always stood for security, trust, and innovation,” said John Chen, executive chairman and CEO of BlackBerry. “As a leading provider of cybersecurity products and solutions to governments, large enterprises, and small and medium businesses around the world, we are pleased to partner with Midis Group to further expand our business across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In the face of increasingly frequent cyberattack attempts and intensifying regulatory scrutiny, BlackBerry is committed to helping organisations build up their cybersecurity capabilities and prepare for, prevent, detect, and respond to cyber threats.”

Comprised of more than 5,000 employees who have partnered with the largest firms in the world, Midis Group excels at providing a deep bench of expertise, local infrastructure, and successful execution. Midis Group’s experience in delivering advanced IT products and solutions to their customers has benefited their clients for over 50 years.

“Working together with BlackBerry, Midis Group will ofer a wide and deep portfolio of endpoint management and cybersecurity solutions to help our clients keep their employees connected and secure, while also ensuring the highest level of threat prevention and protection across their IT infrastructure,” said Nabil Bustros, chairman and CEO of the Midis Group.

Rob Eckelmann, Midis Advisory Board Chair, added, “We are proud once again to represent a leading global technology firm, support the business goals of our customers, and deliver both world-class solutions and proven results.”

DID YOU KNOW?

Taeknizon Leverages Pure Storage to Boost Cloud Services for UAE Firms

Pure Storage has announced that Taeknizon, a fast-growing private cloud services company, has deployed Pure’s infrastructure and Pure as-a-Service to enhance the performance and availability of its cloud services for UAE businesses. The solutions also enable Taeknizon to onboard new customers in under half a day and extend powerful ransomware protection to its entire cloud customer base as it’s included in Pure’s solution as standard.

Recognising the pressing need for UAE organisations to digitise their operations through the pandemic, Taeknizon established its cloud business in 2020. Overwhelming demand for these services has driven more than 30% year-over-year growth but momentum was hampered by the need for constant storage upgrades. To keep its growth on track, Taeknizon turned to Pure as-a-Service.

“As a cloud provider, we’re strong OpEx advocates, so Pure’s subscription-based storage was a no-brainer,” said Pramod Deshpande, Lead Cloud Architect at Taeknizon. “We only pay for what we use, and we charge customers based on monthly usage — it couldn’t be simpler.”

With Pure fully managing the infrastructure, Taeknizon’s IT team saves an average of 12 hours per week. Freedom from capacity constraints also gives the team confidence to constantly seek out new customers without concerns of delays to onboarding. With Pure, the company can complete cloud migrations for its customers in under two weeks, and onboard greenfield customers in less than half a day.

Pure provides Taeknizon with proven availability, and consistent single-millisecond latency for its clients’ most demanding workloads, while features such as SafeMode speed recovery and mitigate the efects of ransomware, enabling Taeknizon to provide its customers with powerful ransomware protection as a complimentary service.

With its new storage model proving highly efective in the UAE, Taeknizon is keen to expand its cloud ofering to customers beyond the Emirates. “Before the end of 2023, we plan to establish cloud data centres in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and India with Pure as-a-Service,” Deshpande said.

“We are proud to support Taeknizon as it empowers regional businesses to achieve their cloud ambitions. Backed by our subscription model, they can confidently build these oferings on market-leading flash technology,” said Omar Akar, regional vice president, Middle East & Emerging Africa, Pure Storage.

Mindware Unveils Azure ISV Hub Programme

Building on its status as a Microsoft Gold partner, Mindware, a value-added distributor (VAD) operating in the Middle East and Africa, has announced the launch of its ‘Azure ISV Hub Programme’. The initiative provides independent software vendors (ISVs), including young start-ups or any enterprise having a unique intellectual property, with a go-tomarket strategy and a pool of other benefits that can be unlocked when their solutions are powered on Microsoft Azure.

Silmi Khanfir, director of Cloud & XaaS at Mindware said, “The intention of the Hub Programme is to help purpose-driven ISVs or as we call them, technology partners, save time and money, become more agile and grow their business. The focus is on identifying and distinguishing individual partner needs and providing strategic support in sales, technical and business enablement. By hosting their apps on the Azure marketplace, ISVs get the widest reach and have access to the entire ecosystem of Microsoft partners and end-customers. In addition, if the solutions attain the ‘IP Co-Sell’ status, then Microsoft raises visibility of the solution within its established ecosystem of sellers and encourages collaborative co-selling in order to extend reach, expand deals and accelerate customer wins.”

Azure’s global infrastructure includes 60+ regions and is growing fast. It has a significant set of security and privacy certifications and more than 90 compliance oferings. With 3,500 security experts monitoring to safeguard data and a billion dollars a year spent on security alone, Azure is one of the most trusted cloud Platforms.

ISVs interested in starting their journey can register their interest on Mindware’s portal https://onlinemindware.net/microsoft-isv/ and get ready insights from the company’s video explaining about complimentary starter benefits of upto USD 45,000.

CNS Middle East Announces Partnership with Mendix

To this end, CNS has added another key set of digital assets to their comprehensive portfolio of digital transformation portfolio through a coveted partnership with Mendix, an application delivery Platform-as-aService market player. The partnership highlights the growing interest from customers for low code technologies that can provide the end user with a unified customer experience.

the world’s largest technology brands and leading enterprises delivering mission-critical technology to ensure customer delight. Adopting the Mendix platform will enable CNS Middle East to boost their reach with highly agile rapid application delivery.

CNS Middle East regularly reinvents itself to stay ahead of the world’s developing technologies. The innovation and technology experts of the region constantly look for ways to replace inefective outdated technology with automated digital solutions to create a seamless digital transformation journey with improved data protection, placement, updating and retrieval of their client’s greatest asset – their business information.

Mendix enables organisations with the ability to respond to new opportunities and adapt to new business requirements quickly. The platform utilises visual modelling to build business applications without code and a social collaboration application to facilitate end user involvement and agile project management. The resulting applications are easily modified, extended, and integrated to satisfy everchanging business requirements.

CNS Middle East, established in 1987, has been a digital innovation partner for

Cybereason Names StarLink as Preferred VAD For Middle East and Turkey

Cybereason has named StarLink as its preferred value-added distributor (VAD) for the Middle East and Turkey (MET) regions to empower organisations to deliver Zero Trust security agendas, secure their rapidly growing number of connected endpoints and enhance their overall threat posture.

Under terms of the agreement, StarLink will represent Cybereason across the region and introduce security leaders to the Cybereason Defense Platform and the Cybereason services portfolio. Capitalising

on StarLink’s extensive MET partner network along with its market experience and skilled workforce, security analysts will have access to the Cybereason Defense Platform to swiftly investigate and remediate threats.

“Ransomware continues to be a clear and present danger to MET enterprises, and today’s legacy security solutions exacerbate the problem by inundating teams with alerts that hide the true threats,” said Hussam Sidani, Cybereason regional vice president, Middle East and Turkey.

Don Bosman, channel sales director, Mendix said, “Together, Mendix and CNS are helping enterprises innovate and transform by dramatically reducing the time, efort and risks associated with developing robust web and mobile applications. We are delighted to have this important partnership with CNS as we pioneer the next generation of low-code application development and deployment”

Hatem Hariri, managing director, CNS Middle East said, “At CNS, it is important to us to find solutions that give a seamless and unified customer experience. Our partnership with Mendix will allow us to capitalise on low code to ofer advanced applications that rapidly adapt and respond to our customers’ digital transformation journey putting the seamless customer experience in place.”

“Today, StarLink joins us in the battle against threat actors, and together we can make a major impact across the region by eliminating the false positives that waste security teams’ time to disrupt attacks earlier and prevent future threats from materialising.”

StarLink COO Ahmed Diab believes the partnership will help position Cybereason solutions on “a wider scale” across the region, as the company leverages StarLink’s deep knowledge and experience built over 17 years of successful operations. He also said StarLink would focus heavily on generating cross-selling opportunities through its

integrated solutions.

“Today’s threat landscape is evolving at an exponential rate amid a region-wide cybersecurity skills gap,” Diab said. “This calls for security operations to be equipped with robust tools to provide deeper visibility, rapid detection and effective response capabilities. Our joint focus will be to protect enterprises of all sizes with the Cybereason Defense Platform and empower them with realtime actionable threat information to intercept attacks before they cause damage, downtime and impact brand reputation. We believe in this collaboration and look forward to delivering a far-reaching impact for regional enterprises.”

Hatem Hariri, CNS Middle East

Evanssion, CYBER RANGES to Enhance Regional Cyber Resiliency

Value-added distributor (VAD) specialised in cloud native and cybersecurity Evanssion has announced its distribution partnership with CYBER RANGES by Silensec, a next-generation military-grade full-content-lifecycle cyber range for the development of cyber capabilities and the assessment of competencies and organisational cyber resilience. As per the terms of the partnership, Evanssion will deliver the full extent of CYBER RANGES’ portfolio of cybersecurity training and capability development exercises to enterprises in the Middle East region.

Evanssion together with its extensive partner network will create awareness and large-scale cyber drills for organisations in the region to test their cyber resiliency through CYBER RANGES oferings. The distributor will also hold training sessions for its partners to help them get well versed with CYBER RANGES solutions to be better equipped to position it to regional customers.

Navneeth Ramanan, assistant vice president, Sales for Evanssion, said, “We are thrilled to sign up with CYBER RANGES for the Middle East region. Adding the domain of cyber range solutions to Evanssion’s portfolio enables us to present CYBER RANGES and its world-class oferings to the region at a time when cybersecurity is a top priority for every business across verticals. We will work closely with our partners to promote CYBER RANGES exercises and play a key role in empowering regional businesses to boost their cybersecurity posture, capability, and resilience.”

Dr. Al Graziano, CEO, CYBER RANGES, said, “We welcome the opportunity to work with Evanssion. Team Evanssion is passionate about value-added solutions that unlock tremendous business value for our clients in the GCC region through secure digital transformation, cost efectiveness, ease of implementation and fast ROI. It is not about just their full specialist appreciation of our CYBER RANGES technology and TOAR approach to threat-informed cyber defense. We greatly value Evanssion’s transparent corporate culture, inspiring work environment and technical ambition to service our growing CYBER RANGES market.”

AmiViz Concludes Multi-City Roadshow across the Middle East

AmiViz has announced it has successfully concluded its series of roadshow that was held in Doha, Cairo, Riyadh and Dubai under the theme, ‘Your Security, Our Passion.’

AmiViz aligned with leading names in the cybersecurity business like Tenable, ZeroFox, LogRhythm, Onapsis, Picus, Check Point, Silobreaker, BlackBerry, Galaxkey, Algosec and Ivanti to create a series of roadshows that was well received and attended by hundreds of CIO’s, CISOs, IT Heads, and senior executives from various enterprises hailing from Banking, Oil & Gas, Retail and Government sector.

Majority of the attendees appreciated the well thought out programme and enjoyed the interesting topics that were presented to them during the roadshow. Besides highlighting the latest innovations and updates in their product portfolio, the rich line of speakers touched base with the most relevant concerns of today’s business that has been impacted by cybersecurity in various ways. Speakers also shared best use cases and suggested how best enterprises in each country can counter the cybersecurity risks and overcome vulnerabilities to strengthen their organisations’ security posture.

AmiViz shared the benefits of its marketplace, and how the Customer Experience Center (CEC) Lab with a setup of over 25 technologies integrated with one another. This helps the customers to experience the demo remotely either of a single technology or integration of multiple technologies and understand how it works in their own unique environment.

The company also took this an opportunity to unveil its Customer Loyalty Programme and introduced the key features of the loyalty programme to all the customers attending the roadshow in all the 4 countries.

In a statement, the AmiViz said, “The roadshow was able to meet the objectives and deliver the necessary technical updates and knowledge that will allow enterprises to design their own cybersecurity strategies and enable them to understand the power various technologies, which will help them to improve their incident response time and enhance protection to support their digital transformation journey.”

Navneeth Ramanan, Evanssion

BeyondTrust Partner Programme Enables Partners to Maximise Profits

BeyondTrust has announced that it has enhanced and streamlined its partner programme into an all-in-one global programme. Programme enhancements include the introduction of MSP, GSI and Service Delivery Partner tracks to complement the existing Reseller track. The enhanced partner programme ofers more choices for partners to sell, implement and support BeyondTrust solutions, leading to maximised profits, and improved business outcomes for their customers.

“Fulfilling our commitment to creating an exceptional Partner Programme, we simplified our incentive structure to better align incentives with the equivalent value partners provide to our customers,” said Rob Spee, senior vice president, Global Channel and Alliances at BeyondTrust. “The partner programme has expanded partner opportunities and enables partners

to work with BeyondTrust across the customer journey.”

The addition of the MSP, GSI and Service Delivery tracks give partners the ability to pick a model that is a better fit for the market they are operating in. With a focus on outcomes, partners opting for one of these tracks will have a unique opportunity to build more strategic relationships with BeyondTrust and up-level their value proposition to customers. The changes will also streamline partner engagements and provide customers with more ways to optimise their technology investments.

The enriched and refined, allinclusive programme removes regionspecific requirements and benefits and discount structure for partners. The new global approach simplifies all partner and BeyondTrust interactions, allowing BeyondTrust channel managers and partners to devote more time to developing strategic, mutually-

beneficial sales plans. As they grow their business, Authorised, Silver and Gold partners in Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) will also see increased programmatic discounts for Deal Registration, providing them the opportunity to make higher margins.

“Securing access to critical business applications, services and data is a vital success factor for digital enterprises. In fact, according to findings from our recent Security Report published specifically for the Gulf region, identity and access management is a key security focus area, for the coming 6 to 12 months, for 64% of organisations. As a consequence, BeyondTrust is a very strategic vendor for us and I welcome these updates to their partner programme. It gives us the opportunity to up our value proposition for customers and grow our bottom line,” said Hasanian Alkassab, regional cyber security manager at GBM.

ABSIS and ECS Announce Strong Partnership Commitment

innovative, high-quality and competitive design and product globally to meet the everchanging consumer computer trend.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) and ASBIS Middle East strengthen commitment in successful

partner event on 19th June 2022, in Dubai. ECS has been dedicated in providing its professional,

The new partnership combines the two companies’ passion for experienced performance and will continue to lead the market for Mini PC in Middle East. Year by year ASBIS Middle East has grown solid collaborative relationships with the top worldwide vendors and suppliers of Consumer Electronics, IT products and solutions.

“ECS is pleased to announce the partnership with ASBIS Middle

East, a leading expert in professional distributor of IT product in Middle East. With experienced manufacturing and innovative design, ECS is committed to providing high-performance, reliable, and stable products and longstanding partnership. By cooperating with ASBIS, we believe this will bring mutual benefit for both parties and help penetrate Middle East market and expand further in the future,” said Jonathan Chuang, sales manager of Own Brand Business Unit, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS).

WHY PAM IS KEY FOR PARTNER ORGANISATIONS

It hasn’t been an easy decade for channel organisations in the Middle East, with rapid and continuous changes both in the market and in the solutions they distribute.

Pioneers in the industry have taken the challenge and run with it, becoming trusted digital transformation advisers. But those who have failed to act and adapt have lost market share and now lag behind.

It’s vital that channel organisations continue to evolve, adapting their value propositions and portfolios to respond to new market needs. For example, in the post-Covid world of 2022, enabling remote working and safeguarding

Joseph Carson, chief security scientist and advisory CISO, Delinea, explains how and why partner firms must capitalise on the opportunities in privileged access management (PAM) solutions space.

against cyber-crime are two of the big challenges that organisations face. While hybrid environments have shown clear benefits, they increase data-breach risks as employees are likely to connect using their home equipment and companies rely on legacy security strategies that are no longer efective when workers are not in the ofce.

In this scenario, privileged access management (PAM) – the security controls around privileged user accounts – can help in multiple ways. PAM is at the core of remote cybersecurity and provides the tools and controls companies need to address many of the security issues associated with digital transformation journeys.

Channel organisations that provide robust PAM solutions and high-quality IT support and are able to secure, manage and monitor access to their clients’ most valuable accounts will be in the best position to create new, long-term business relationships.

Companies can’t aford to ignore PAM Almost every business has privileged accounts that control access to systems, applications, cloud workloads, and data. Without them, IT teams can’t properly manage the organisation’s software and systems, and employees are unable to access the data they need to make important

business decisions. However, these accounts are among the biggest targets for cyber-attacks, with experts believing that a frightening 80% of security breaches concern privileged accounts. It’s no surprise, then, that many organisations are looking to implement PAM solutions.

However, most companies find it too costly and time-consuming to properly manage PAM internally. Many don’t have the skills or knowledge required to face sophisticated and constantly evolving cyber-attacks or keep up with laws and regulations, or they simply take the easiest approach they can while accepting there may be increasing cyber-risk.

Therefore, channel organisations have an essential role to play in protecting and managing privileged accounts. First and foremost, implementing PAM requires striking the right balance between deploying robust protection and allowing teams to access the data they need without making daily tasks too restrictive. PAM features such as password masking and changing, credential management, and unusual activity monitoring can then facilitate protection.

Controlling user accounts and access

The rapid rise of remote and cloud-based working during the pandemic has created even more challenges for businesses trying to stay secure and keep track of users,

identities and access. Sometimes previous employees still have access to crucial and sensitive information, increasing companies’ risks and vulnerability to attack.

Channel partners who ofer PAM services will find themselves increasingly in demand to support clients in managing and controlling user account access. To this end, they can also leverage various opportunities that PAM ofers to improve security and provide value to customers. They can use software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technologies and highly encrypted cloud vaults to store and retrieve credentials without admins even seeing them. With privileged identity management tools, they can ensure the correct permissions are given to the right people with the right roles. Also, they can provide customers with accurate information about who accesses what and when.

Not just a one-and-done

Protecting privileged accounts, identities and access is a constantly evolving challenge. Cybercriminals are ever more sophisticated, attacks are increasingly advanced, and the damage that can be done is ever greater. Credential theft is exponentially on the rise as criminals look for openings anywhere they can – in fact, they’ve doubled since five years ago. Remote working is the perfect backdrop for cybercrime to flourish, and companies simply cannot aford to leave matters to chance.

PAM is likely to sit at the heart of clients’ concerns, and channel organisations must continue to evolve and bolster their cybersecurity oferings to successfully manage customer requirements and expectations. They also need to act as trusted advisers to clients, provide accurate information on the latest challenges and suggest the most appropriate solutions. Doing this will enable them to strengthen relationships, add long-term revenue streams and stay ahead of the competition.

Joseph Carson, Delinea

CREATING COMPELLING CHANNEL COLLABORATIONS

With recent disruptions to global supply chains, many businesses are rethinking their structures, operations, and business models. Specifically, some companies are evaluating the spaces they occupy when it comes to global operations and their ability to ofer new solutions relevant to changing markets. External perspectives can

be valuable here, and it’s critical for businesses to find partners they can trust to guide them.

Channel partner programmes (where two or more companies partner with each other to maximise their collective reach and value) can help businesses benefit from these external perspectives and other companies’ expertise. These programmes range from simple distribution agreements to fully

immersive collaborations around knowledge, technology, resources, and ideas.

Successful channel partner programmes can result in new clients, new networks, and new strategies that can ultimately redefine a business. It is therefore important to recognise what these partnerships should look and feel like. With any new business relationships come legitimate

Mohamed Hoteit, sales manager, Eastern Gulf, Axis Communications, delves into the building blocks of a successful business partnership.

scrutiny, and with this in mind, it’s critical to know the elements that are likely to make them successful and long lasting.

Innovation and quality

We tend to think that innovation occurs naturally, or we regard it as a given when factoring it into a business strategy, but innovation can be taken for granted within channel partnerships. Many partners feel that the responsibility for innovation lies with the channel organisation, while 30% of channel partners admit it is not crucial to their business, according to a recent study.

For businesses, the result of innovation should be novel product and service oferings, all connected and enabled by new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and edge computing, serving as an end-to-end solution. Channel partners help make this possible by converging their technical knowhow and providing answers to previously unanswerable questions.

However, constantly striving for innovation should never come at the cost of quality. From drawing board to delivery, quality thinking is essential to ofering a resilient and reliable product. By enforcing quality control, companies can minimise failure and maximise longterm performance, guaranteeing satisfactory total cost of ownership (TCO). This element is crucial in the context of technology sales, and through channel partners, it can be prioritised.

Relationships, trust, and business integrity

Trust is a loaded word. While any two businesses can enjoy a profitable partnership, the longevity of that partnership depends on the relationship between them. A business relationship can be characterised by a number of factors, and the importance of these factors often difers according to specific regions or sectors. For example, a Harvard Business Review report says that trust between managers

in the Middle East is primarily determined by a pre-established sense of trust and respect for each other’s values. Partners need to feel secure when purchasing from each other and engaging over the long term, and they also need to trust the systems the other business deploys, including cybersecurity systems.

When it comes to business integrity, partners must be open and honest, reflect anti-corruption principles, and enact policies that refrain from illegal behaviour or questionable ethical practices. This applies to a company’s entire supply chain. Oversight can be a challenge when multiple suppliers and brokers are responsible for creating an end product, hence the need for products and their applied resources to have transparent origins. A good way to think about

the perceived integrity of a business is to ask yourself how you would feel having the other company’s logo displayed next to yours.

Sustainability and a long-term perspective

With the right partner, businesses can look to each other when they want to expand their outlooks and think about their futures. And this is not limited to just two businesses. Working as an ecosystem and bringing together thousands of partners and decades of consistent working strategies, companies can visualise the outcome of their eforts and build on their hard work. In the case of technology, that means a focus on a product’s entire lifecycle, giving more accurate TCO indicators and truly ofering a complete solution.

But with a long-term perspective comes the need to strategise for a changing world with evolving trends and expectations. The ability to do business in 2022 and beyond will be driven by a company’s approach to sustainability, as emphasised by global agreements such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which speak to economic growth and industrialisation. We see this focus across the entire supply chain, ranging from minimised packaging and renewable power to social responsibility and safe and ethical labour practices. All of this combines into business practices that channel partners can be proud of, setting an example for how sustainability informs collaboration.

Channel partner programmes exist to make companies better. Being able to identify the ideal traits of the right programme, as well as the integrity of the organisation that operates it, is the first step to deciding whether the programme will benefit your business. With a holistic perspective on what a true partner should look like, business leaders can determine the suitability of a technology product and services provider and set their companies on a course for the future.

Mohamed Hoteit, Axis Communications

Successful channel partner programmes can result in new clients, new networks, and new strategies that can ultimately redefine a business.”

FOR SUCCESS

How has D-Link’s channel strategy evolved in today’s distributed and digital-led environment?

At D-Link, our channel partners are our extended arms and are our representatives in the market. We work with our distributors, resellers and systems integrators to best cater to our customers’ networking and cloud needs. The overall strategy continues to be partner-led, and we have now made tweaks considering how the evolving market circumstances are changing our partners’ businesses. It continues to be our priority to provide our partner ecosystem with all the relevant resources they need to operate efciently in the digital landscape. The distributed environment and hybrid work models have led us to create stronger digital initiatives to help partners reach their customers at any time and from any place.

Can you share key milestones from D-Link over the past year?

The past year has been great and 2022 has already seen many positive outcomes. D-Link Middle East saw an increased growth rate last year. Most of this success can be attributed to new product innovations in networking and cloud segments, as well as partner growth in new markets. We also experienced a high growth in the SMB markets, the uptake for our SMB-focused cloud solutions have been popular.

How has D-Link invested in its channel ecosystem?

As new and advanced technologies become mainstream, there is a real problem of skills deficit that is required to deploy these technologies and to maintain them. At D-Link, we take trainings seriously and have invested in regular training sessions for our partners. These training workshops are also a platform for partners to voice their challenges and for us to think of collaborative solutions to help them overcome it. Our key objective is to help partners completely optimise the opportunities that the digital landscape presents. Besides focusing on training and education, we also have D-Link Business Solution Partner Programme, through which partners

can gain high incentives. We regularly update the programme, keeping in mind evolving market conditions and partners’ requirements.

Can you elaborate on D-Link Business Solution Partner Programme?

D-Link Business Solution Partner Programme ofers a platform for two-way marketing information system (MIS) for partners to understand competition, assess market requirements and introduce new products and technologies. It features four tiers - Authorized Solution Partner (ASP), Preferred Solution Partner (PSP), Preferred VoIP Partner (PVP) and Empower Solution Partner (ESP). Partners have the option to grow into one level to another, depending on technical capabilities, market share and business growth. They can grow their sales potential with D-Link Solutions as all four tiers ofer compelling benefits. D-Link partners receive significant support and rewards for accomplishing verifiable D-Link targets on a regular basis.

How can partner businesses invest in upskilling?

Channel partners must make it a point to invest in their own workforce. As a vendor, we can provide all the tools and resources, but they too must understand the importance of how upskilling can directly help with revenues. We believe excellent customer service together

with proficient technical skills can be the perfect combination for a partner’s success in the digital world. They can do this by ofering upskilling opportunities and incentives for those individuals from their team who go the extra mile. We can think of ways together on how this can be designed into a systematic process. We encourage our partners to come and talk to us if they need additional support in this regard.

How can channel partners capitalise on the accelerated cloud transformation that is taking place in the region?

Channel partners are in a unique position to take advantage of the surge in demand for cloud solutions to support hybrid and distributed work models. They can double down on their roles as customers’ consultants and demonstrate the huge benefits they can have by migrating workloads to the cloud. They need to expand their portfolios to include cloud-based oferings. Customers are looking for the right partner to help them navigate all the complexities of cloud. Along with moving to cloud, cybersecurity is another area that is now an urgent need for organisations. Partners need to have strong capabilities to help customers make the transition with as little downtime as possible, and ensure security is integrated right from step one.

D-Link’s Nuclias Connect and Nuclias Cloud solutions are cloud-based and have been a huge success in the market. Through our mydlink cloud services, customers can view, access, and monitor all their mydlink cloud cameras from anywhere. We also have cloud-based routers and access points, all of which are available to our partners to position in their customers’ cloud strategy.

What is the business objective at D-Link Middle East for this year? D-Link’s business objective revolves around innovating to be many steps ahead of the market. We also don’t believe in resting on our laurels, so we are continuously looking at developing new products, solutions and services around 5G, IoT, AI, smart home tech, Wi-Fi 6, cybersecurity and networking.

We believe excellent customer service together with proficient technical skills can be the perfect combination for a partner’s success in the digital world.”

HOLISTIC GROWTH

Alaa Bawab, general manager, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group, Middle East and Africa, details the company’s recently launched global partner framework – Lenovo 360 – and reveals how the channel community can leverage it to grow their businesses.

Please share two regional milestones from the past six months.

In Q3 of our fiscal year (Oct -Nov), we enjoyed our highest level of growth since 2019 – and I think that is a great reflection, not only on the transformation and change the company has undertaken, but also on the potential and opportunities that exists for us in the future in terms of the data center vertical.

We have also enjoyed double-digit growth in every single technology that we ofer within Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG). In addition to this, in the last quarter we have also achieved our highest ever growth for our storage solutions business unit within ISG.

In March we introduced our new line-up of Future-Ready IT Infrastructure for mid-size companies, a complete series of easy-to-use solutions and services to help mid-sized organisations to achieve intelligent transformation and grow their business. Designed to help growing businesses, the suite of edge-to-cloud flexible IT infrastructure solutions includes new server, storage and service oferings that help organisations easily overcome resource limitations, optimise for remote work and accelerate innovation.

The big news for our fiscal year Q1 (April-June) is the UAE launch of ‘Lenovo 360’, a new, first-of-its-kind global channel partner framework designed to provide easier access to

the entire Lenovo portfolio across devices, infrastructure, and services and solutions.

Can you give an overview of Lenovo 360 Global Channel Framework?

Lenovo 360 is a global channel framework, comprising enhanced alignment of channel leadership and teams, new incentive programs, and evolved tools for ease of engagement for channel partners.

Lenovo 360 takes a first-ofits-kind approach, designed to provide easier access to the entire Lenovo portfolio – from device, to infrastructure, to services and solutions – in a cohesive, easyto-use platform. Lenovo 360 combines all our business groups and oferings into one platform that will enable our partners more flexibility when delivering end-toend solutions to their customers through expanded access to people, programs, and tools.

The Lenovo 360 framework is founded on the three pillars of people, programs, and tools.

The power of our people, especially when combined with the

knowledge of the channel, is best-inclass. Lenovo 360 will provide the technical and market expertise to support our indirect sales teams to provide our mutual customers with best-in-class solutions.

Lenovo 360 is a foundation for a global program that ofers unique benefits to specialised partners. It has a basis in growth, customer acquisition, and solution competencies that triggers an expansive set of benefits to our partners.

Lenovo 360 will provide the tools and processes to make engagement, pricing, quoting, partner protection, and support efcient and reliable. It will simplify how we engage and drive speed to price and time to revenue.

How is the new programme diferent from those of other vendors?

Lenovo 360 re-afrms our commitment as a channel-first company. When we look at how some of our competitors are taking a lot of business direct, it disengages the channel and eliminates revenue opportunities for channel partners – Lenovo 360 gives channel partners more opportunity to build and diversify their revenue streams. Lenovo 360 is also unique in that it provides the ability to ofer end-to-end solutions from pocket to the cloud.

How can partners better optimize on market opportunities on advanced technologies?

When we developed Lenovo 360, we also created turnkey marketing materials and campaigns that our partners will be able to leverage, ensuring they can go to market as soon as we do, with the most current product and services information. We’ve also added more resources in the way of Lenovo subject matter experts, as well as a conciergelevel of service that guarantees our partners always have access to the products, services, experts, and talent they need.

Lenovo 360 also ofers our channel partners specific activations such as training, certifications, and channel marketing playbooks. Additional tools include always adding to and improving LPH, the Lenovo Partner Hub; increasing the usability of the Lenovo Bid Portal, a tool that helps our partners expertly quote solutions and packages; and providing partners with access to ready-to-deploy marketing campaigns.

What do you believe is lacking within the regional channel ecosystem and how is Lenovo helping to bridge the gap?

As Lenovo, what we see in the MEA region and globally is that many small businesses and large enterprises alike are increasingly moving toward the ‘Everythingas-a-Service’ model. Businesses are projected to spend $355B in Managed Service Providers (MSPs) globally by 2026, and 78% of global SMBS either already use, or plan to use, an MSP.

Lenovo 360 seizes the opportunity to equip partners with a portfolio that reflects the full spectrum of customer needs from device, to infrastructure, to services, and beyond.

Additionally, post-pandemic, customers are facing many common challenges – the Lenovo 360 framework is designed to produce solutions with these challenges in mind and aimed at delivering four business outcomes for partners, including: enabling greater workforce productivity and collaboration, providing infrastructure flexibility, sustainability improvements, and tailored, industry-specific solutions.

What can the market and your regional partners expect from Lenovo over the next few quarters?

Lenovo is a channel-first organisation, and as such we will constantly be adding value to the Lenovo 360 programme. We will monitor and adjust to our partners needs by adding more solutions, adding more support staf, increasing, and constantly improving our product oferings, services, and tools, and adding additional incentives and programmes that make working with Lenovo the first choice for our partners.

Lenovo 360 seizes the opportunity to equip partners with a portfolio that reflects the full spectrum of customer needs from device, to infrastructure, to services, and beyond.”

PILLARS OF ENTERPRISE SECURITY

Ossama Eldeeb, senior director, Partner Organisation, VMware, South EMEA (France, Iberia, Italy, METNA & SSA,

explores how channel partners can successfully assist customers address cybersecurity challenges.

that security policies are stifling innovation itself. And it’s not hard to understand why; we’ve had years of bolting on new solutions and products, to protect against new threats and try to defend an ever-growing surface area – a trend accelerated just recently, with the rise in hybrid working. The result is that many organisation’s IT estates have become a complex mess of platforms, systems, and solutions that traditional security approaches cannot secure.

We’ve now reached a point where, to provide order within the chaos, companies need the help of trusted partners: skilled third parties that can wrestle a crowded array of security solutions (and perspectives) into an intrinsic defence that not only protects against sophisticated threats but allows enterprises to drive innovative user experiences. Ultimately, security should be like electricity in a house; available for users to plug into as and when they need it, without thinking how the security is being delivered, just that it is.

It is the ability of partners to look holistically at a company’s IT environment alongside the needs of the business that makes them best placed to help develop a plan that will achieve this all-important balance. How? It starts by working hand-in-hand with organisations to understand how security should look across the business. Below are the key points to consider.

The three security perspectives

There are two big non-negotiables for companies today.

The first is delivering exceptional experiences to users, whether internal or external.

The second is securing what has become an increasingly fragmented enterprise – the applications, devices and infrastructure that

form the foundation on which these experiences are built.

But companies are struggling to deliver on both fronts and need the help of partners to overcome the ongoing perception that security is still a barrier. This is particularly true when it comes to delivering change – 61% of IT teams and 52% of developers say

Firstly, partners must recognise that ‘security’ in fact falls into three buckets: users, workloads and operations. While they all need to be secure, they each have diferent perspectives that need to be considered.

• Users need to be able to work, to use the applications, data and services they want, in the way they want it, in the location of their choosing

• Workloads, apps and data in response need to be completely secure, yet just as dynamic – still able to move and share as required

• Operations, meanwhile, the actual implementation of security that can detect, protect, and respond appropriately, needs to deliver total protection without restriction

The question of zero trust

On top of these difering perspectives lies the question of zero trust. To deliver dynamic security in today’s enterprise, more and more companies are looking to adopt this approach to security – one suited to today’s world of apps, data and people that are constantly on the move, constantly accessing networks and constantly sharing information.

Because the applications that users are accessing are evolving. They’ve gone from things in one location to decomposed apps distributed across multi-cloud environments, delivering multiple, manageable microservices to support developers and accelerated innovation. We’re seeing the growth of SaaS-based apps and apps running on hyperscaler infrastructure. Yet the big question is, how many enterprises have actually deployed zero trust efectively to cater for all of this?

The reality is plenty of companies out there think they have. But implementing true zero trust requires the introduction of a

huge number of controls, across apps, endpoints and users. It is a challenge to operationalise and many companies are operating with the belief they have something in place, when the reality is not quite that.

The partner opportunity –be a chameleon

This all adds up to significant complexity and challenge. Yet it also encapsulates the partner opportunity, which is to be that clarity in the fog, that order in the chaos. Helping to operationalise true zero trust, to consolidate vendors and solutions so that each security product does what it is required, to ensure no overlap and no gaps.

In this process, there is a big role to play in bringing together the disparate, siloed parts of the business that struggle to connect with each other. As mentioned above, IT and developers, the teams trusted with enabling innovation, are feeling stifled by security.

The conflicting priorities of the business - to keep everything secure but let people do what they want - has brought many companies to this point. Being innovative and delivering exceptional user experiences will need these diferent teams to work together, collaboratively, and cohesively.

Part of the problem is that developers, IT, security teams, all speak diferent languages. Yet those partners that have supported all these functions at diferent points can go in and talk to them in ways they understand, while getting across the priorities and needs of other departments. They can be chameleons; using their informed yet detached view and role to help solve the problems of the business, not just one internal audience, so that they can drive the coordination that’s needed between the diferent parties.

The next step – assess and understand For partners to do that first they need to understand what the current IT landscape within a business looks like. This detailed

assessment should cover the current As Is: understand what the business wants (strategically) and what it needs from its security, highlight vulnerabilities, and identify consolidated or optimisation opportunities.

The last bit is particularly important to companies. No one wants to be told that their current investments need to be completely ripped out, and even if they do, it’s often not feasible. So rather than scare customers into doing nothing, these assessments provide an opportunity to show which solutions are being underutilised, which vendors ofer complementary tools, and how they can better use what they’ve currently got.

That’s something that really can only be delivered by an external party that wants to go beyond being a transactional supplier to being a strategic partner. And in doing so, help solve how fragmented enterprises can secure their organisations without hampering innovation.

Chaos into order

With the help of partners, businesses have the opportunity to turn chaos into order and complexity into innovation without compromising the security of their users, workloads and operations. Where security has traditionally been viewed as an obstacle to change, it should now be viewed as quite the opposite. It is one of the vital tools to realign the business and deliver on the first big non-negotiable of modern business – great user experiences.

Ossama Eldeeb, VMware

With the help of partners, businesses have the opportunity to turn chaos into order and complexity into innovation without compromising the security of their users, workloads and operations.”

SETTING THE TONE

Sherifa Hady, channel sales director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, shares how she’s de f ining and setting the course for success for partners across the region.

“

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” This famous quote by American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson comes to mind as we talk to Sherifa Hady, a trailblazer in the regional channel sector.

As an industry leader for more than two decades, Hady has a wealth of channel experience and expertise.

In 2020, she joined Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (HPE Aruba) as the channel sales director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, spearheading the firm’s channel division and working in close quarters with the team to create meaningful and mutually beneficial collaborations with the partner community. One of her responsibilities at the networking leader includes helping channel businesses tap into new market prospects, adapt to evolving circumstances, and grow their operations to succeed in the digital era.

“Adapting to changing market conditions is important for business

success. At HPE Aruba, we are everevolving our channel strategy, but the principles around it remain steadfast – customer-first, customer-last and partner-first and partner-last,” says Hady.

“More than 95% of our business growth goes through the channel, and we have no intentions of changing that.”

Having joined the company when the pandemic was still in full swing, Hady

We are going to ensure and promote diversity and inclusion across the whole company worldwide. There is much work to do, but I am excited at the potential.”

led the mission to help partners manage the challenges that came along then.

She explains, “At HPE Aruba, we emphasize on understanding the role the channel partners want to play in the market, how our company fits into that and how we can help them achieve their objectives. For example, during the peak of the pandemic, together with our partners, we had to adapt quickly to cater to the accelerated digital transformation requirements of the market.

“We also saw an increased demand for network-as-a-service and our edge-to-cloud strategy was a great fit for that. Doubling down on services has become a big part of our future, and we help our partners leverage the opportunities here.”

According to Hady, over the last two years, HPE Aruba has increased its market share as a lot more partners understand the company’s strategy and are keen to be a part of the growth story.

“This is a major milestone that we are proud of. Another one includes the success we have had in the services front. We have

HPE Aruba has restructured its business last year to launch a network-as-a-service centre of excellence, where the company ofers in-depth workshops where experts explain the bene fits of network-as-a-service ofering and how partners can capitalise on it. This allows partners to have a hands-on experience and learn how they can customise the company’s services to escalate their operations.

At HPE Aruba, we emphasize understanding the role the channel partners want to play in the market, how our company fits into that and how we can help them achieve their objectives.”

launched our managed services provider (MSP) programme and saw a huge uptake from our partners. We are playing a significant role in helping them change their business model.”

Hady points out that it is no longer about handing out resources or marketing funds to partners.

“As a company,” she says, “it is important that we look at their overall business and look at ways how they can sell and how we can train differently to gain a competitive advantage.

“By adopting a services-led model, you are trying to transform a business from traditional ways to one that is relevant for

today’s digital landscape, which is exciting.”

Towards this, HPE Aruba restructured its business last year to launch a network-as-a-service centre of excellence, where the company offers in-depth workshops where experts explain the benefits of network-as-aservice offering and how partners can capitalise on it. This allows partners to have a hands-on experience and learn how they can customise the company’s services to escalate their operations.

In terms of opportunities for the channel, Hady says we are “at the cusp of a new era.”

She explains, “Just a few years ago, organisations did

not think about or know what a cloud strategy was. Today it is a key consideration as they scale their businesses. Every partner and distributor needs to figure out, with our help, what is their strategy for the cloud, what role they want to play in the future, and what kind of services they want to offer.

“Reselling business will continue, but the regional channel ecosystem also must ensure if the customer is truly benefitting end-to-end from the solution or service they have sold to them. They need to examine how they can expand and renew these customer relationships to create long-lasting collaborations.”

Hady also reiterates that channel partners can leverage huge opportunities by offering the company’s portfolio in key verticals such as hospitality, education, retail and healthcare.

“These are the four areas that as a company, we have got a lot of focus on. We believe that we have the right business outcomes for our customers. And I believe these are huge opportunities for our partners as well.”

Another important area Hady is passionate about is empowering women in the workforce. In fact, she has recently joined the worldwide inclusion and diversity ambassador programme for Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

HADY’S TOP THREE PIECES OF ADVICE FOR ASPIRING LEADERS

1. BE GENUINE. We spend a third of our lives at work, so we better enjoy what we are doing, and we better bring our authentic selves to the workplace. It will help you have job satisfaction and build true connections with colleagues.

2. PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH. You cannot be a leader and not practice what you expect from people.

3. BE CRISP AND CLEAR ON CAREER ASPIRATIONS. As a woman who has been in leadership positions for many years, this is my advice for aspiring women leaders. Take the initiative and be confident.

“We are going to ensure and promote diversity and inclusion across the whole company worldwide. There is much work to do, but I am excited at the potential.”

As for Aruba, Hady says that we can expect the company to host large-scale partner-focused events over the coming quarters and strengthen market initiatives and portfolio.

Hady says, “Our channel strategy will continue to be working closely with our partners. We believe that we will always succeed with our channel, and we’ve been doing great with them. We are proud of our partner ecosystem and look forward to growing successfully together.

BUILDING A GREEN CHANNEL ECOSYSTEM

Achieving sustainability and net zero goals have become more than just checking the boxes today. Customers are increasingly investing in the idea of a circular economy and demanding partners and suppliers to also be environmentally conscious. Experts examine the expectations from regional customers and vendors when it comes to sustainability and the IT channel.

Sustainability has increasingly become a top business priority, as organisations understand its significance and how taking care of its people, planet and profits can directly contribute to growth and innovation. With tech leaders such as Apple, Dell, HP, Microsoft, Samsung, Intel, Lenovo, and the like, pledging to net zero goals, does the focus on sustainability trickle down to the channel ecosystem too? While it still might be too early to discuss this from a partner point of view, it is slowly becoming an important consideration for customers when selecting solutions providers.

Biju Unni, vice president, Cloud Box Technologies, says the awareness is increasing and it will be the norm soon.

“Presently in the Middle East market, smart and aware organisations give weightage to partners who have or are beginning to adopt best green practices. Many RFPs are presently framed listing sustainability or green policy as a key element for the selection criteria,” he explains. “When more federal institutions make this mandatory, the service providers would have to follow suit to be in contention. To be a green organisation therefore would be a major factor in being competitive along with costs.”

Today, organisations understand that sustainability impacts all areas of a business. Ettiene van der Watt, regional director, Axis Communications MEA, says, “Sustainability is a natural part of our operations. It’s the basis of everything we do, and what drives us to develop innovative, long-term and reliable products and solutions for a smarter, safer world. Axis enables a smarter and safer world by creating network solutions that provide insights for improving security and new ways of doing business. When it comes to cost, total cost of ownership is definitely a sustainability factor.”

He explains that if an end customer selects a low-cost brand but must replace the systems every year, their planning, impact on business and environment, will not be sustainable.

“Therefore, it can be stated that sustainability and cost, together are important considerations today.”

Agreeing, Samer Semaan, channel and alliance manager, Middle East, Pure Storage, says customers are now more conscious about long-term durability of current investments. They want to know if they are required to change a legacy deployment at a later stage, will it be financially and environmentally viable and will it cause disruptions to business continuity?

Semaan says, “Five years ago, this was not a consideration — when we used to speak to

I believe that partners can first align their goals with that of their vendors, understand the goals of the countries they are in, and educate their customers about business practices designed to support their net zero objectives.”

Ettiene van der Watt Axis Communications MEA

customers, the discussion was simply around storage features and price. But that is quickly changing as customers begin to realise that investment in solutions like Pure Storage deliver a dual benefit: customers don’t have to choose between sustainable technology and cost savings.”

How can channel partners add value to their customers, keeping in mind sustainability will be a key focus for the foreseeable future?

Brian Duval, corporate social responsibility project lead, Siemon, says partners need to establish and understand what exactly the customer demands are in this area. They need to understand vendor claims and work out who is responsible for which areas. “Not having accountability has made it difcult for network infrastructure deployment professionals to define their role in the ‘green’ world. Thankfully, a small number of globally recognised third party organisations have emerged to set some basic green standards that can help installers build and communicate their environmental credentials and win more business.”

Semaan believes this can be a huge opportunity for partners and they can add genuine value and diferentiate themselves.

He says, “There are customers who are committed to investing

in green solutions but don’t know where to begin. For these organisations, partners can add tremendous value by aligning with vendors, and providing technology solutions that have clearly demonstrated the ability to meet sustainability targets.

“There are organisations that remain sceptical about costs associated with investment in green solutions. For these, partners can act as trusted advisors by laying out the business case for green technologies and highlighting how investing in these solutions can help organisations reduce their TCO while doing the right thing for the planet.”

Sakkeer Hussain, director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East, says, “Partners must seize the opportunity and educate themselves on how green technologies can empower their customers’ operations. They can advise customers on areas where they can become more cost and energy efcient through automation and other green solutions. Those partners who can position themselves as a thoughtleader in this space will see longterm success.”

According to an IBM research, 81%of respondents worldwide belong to one of two shopper segments – value-driven

consumers (41%) who want good value and purpose-driven consumers (40%) who seek products and services aligned with their values. This means partners who focus on carbon neutrality for their own business will be preferred by customers, as it will be aligned with customer objectives.

Unni says, “This would become a reality much sooner than expected and the law of the land would be a key driver in this. We are already seeing this paradigm developing in key engagements especially with eco-conscious enterprises. There have been instances of partners not qualifying for tenders due to sketchy green credentials.”

Concurring with Unni, Duval urges channel partners to consider the green potential of their own practices and demonstrate commitment to protecting the environment.

Partners must seize the opportunity and educate themselves on how green technologies can empower their customers’ operations.”

Sakkeer Hussain D Link Middle East

“Some measures can include ensuring that all jobsite scrap and packaging materials are recycled, putting controls in place to minimise fuel use by reducing trips to and from the project site or establishing energy efficiency and recycling programmes at their facilities. Even simply using one of the many easy online calculator tools to estimate their company’s carbon footprint shows an installer’s commitment and efforts to building green credibility,” Duval explains.

According to Duval, in situations where costs and other product or service deliverables are equal, organisations will choose the sustainable option.

“Many organisations are trending towards stricter risk assessments on partners’ sustainability and will request this information. In this case, the threshold for selecting a less sustainable partner or supplier based on cost savings is pivoting to the point where there is a significant chance that they will accept a price premium for a more sustainable partner.”

That being said, he notes that there are still organisations, both large and small that may not immediately include sustainability requirements in requests for quotes and proposals.

“Potential vendors and partners should nonetheless include their sustainability achievements in any such tenders, as regardless of whether it is on the customer’s radar at the time, it will be noticed and serve as a competitive advantage,” he explains.

Vendors can play a key role in enabling partners to drive sustainability for their own practices and that of their customers. “While there are organisations who do sustainability checks on their suppliers and acceptable standards are set, at this point of time they are an exception rather than the norm in a regional context,” says Unni.

There is no question that the focus on sustainability is a

critical factor for customers. Partners are not yet optimally capitalising on this as an opportunity and if they did, they stand to gain huge benefits.

According to Hussain, the responsibility lies with both vendors and partners to accelerate sustainability. “Driving green practices down to the channel partners’ layer is still a long way of from what is needed. But this can change as more companies demand green tech and sustainability standards. As vendors we have the responsibility to educate partners on the importance. This can be done by demonstrating to them how it can help grow their businesses and reputation in the market.”

Watt adds, “I believe that partners can first align their goals with that of their vendors, understand the goals of the countries they are in, and educate their customers about business practices designed to support their net zero objectives.”

Siemon’s Duval concludes, “Installers, integrators, VARs, and distributors should include sustainability practices in bids/tenders and leverage the environmental qualifications of their vendors. Just as major end-user organisations leverage the green credentials of their partners and vendors in their overall sustainability position, channel partners should seek out green vendors and highlighting their sustainability.

“This connection makes the installer, integrator, VAR, or distributor’s services greener by default – which can in turn help empower end-customers’ green goals. Channel partners should expect their vendors to have sustainability information at the ready, and particularly good ones will have information based on recognised third-party standards.”

HOW PARTNERS CAN DEFINE NET ZERO GOALS?

Businesses can initiate steps for greener markets, put into action steps to demystify the practices and make their staff keenly aware about the need to preserve and strengthen the green goals. This would vary from business to business but there would be common goals and standard action points.

Biju Unni, Cloud Box Technologies

Companies should follow regionally and globally recognised thirdparty standards in order to achieve their goals towards more sustainable business practices. This includes certification according to ISO 14001, which is still one of the most rigorous of environmental certifications. Their carbon footprint claims should be based on regionally and globally recognised standards, such as Greenhouse Gas Protocol or Carbon Trust. They should also consider partnering with thirdparty assessors such as EcoVadis, EMAS, or Blue Planet Friendly and leveraging the measures these organisations define to receive their certifications. Not only will certification from these third-party organisations cement the credibility of a company’s carbon and environmental claims, but they also provide a framework by which the company can organise their overall sustainability plan, identify gaps, and determine corrective actions.

Brian Duval, Siemon

FOSTERING SKILLS

Armed with over two decades of experience across the cybersecurity and software industry, Bashar Bashaireh, managing director, Middle East & Turkey, Cloudflare, has helped global technology providers establish and expand presence and operation in the emerging markets, particularly in the Middle East and Turkey.

Prior to joining Cloudflare, he was the managing director and head of sales for Emerging Markets at CyberRes, the cybersecurity line of business at MicroFocus, overseeing the sales and business development across the Middle East, Africa, Brazil, Russia, CIS and CEE. Before that he led StarLink’s value-added distribution as their CEO across a 22-country operation, managing their annual business of close to $500M. In addition, he held several leadership positions at major technology vendors such as Symantec, BlueCoat, Fortinet and CyberGuard. We speak to Bashaireh about his new role and the company’s market objectives for the region.

What factors prompted you to join as regional head of Cloudflare?

With my extensive experience in cybersecurity for more than two decades, I can see that Cloudflare is genuine in its mission of building a better Internet that is fast, safe and reliable for everyone. Being part of this journey that touches everyone’s life is surely an exciting thing to do.

Having spoken to so many customers in the region, I understand that nowadays more than ever, they need to be able to grow their operations by focusing on their core mission without having to worry about their technology. Cloudflare appears to me as one of the most innovative customer-centric companies in the market. More than just technology, we are on a mission to

Bashar Bashaireh, managing director, Middle East & Turkey, Cloudflare, aims to build and empower talent to continue the company’s growth journey in the region.

help build a fast, reliable and secure Internet for a maximum number of people, businesses, and public organisations.

Cloudflare also has an exceptional company culture with key values such as diversity, principle, collaboration, innovation and transparency.

Finally, I enjoy the opportunity of launching operations from inception in the region. Building successful teams that can deliver future incremental growth, objectives and supporting our customers is an exciting challenge.

Is Cloudflare’s first foray into the Middle East region signified with the new Dubai ofce? Can you give us some details about your intended operations in this region?

Today, Cloudflare’s network currently spans over 75 cities in the EMEA region including 16 physical locations in the Middle East and Turkey. Cloudflare first invested in the Middle East in 2015. Now with data centers spanning more than 270 cities in more than 100 countries worldwide, the company continues to grow its presence to be even closer to Internet-connected users everywhere.

Cloudflare has about 30 team members from diferent functions covering the Middle East. We plan to have a team of approximately 20 people working in Dubai by the end of 2022 and are currently planning to grow that number to over 30 by the end of 2023. We are hiring!

What are the opportunities that you see for Cloudflare in the region?

Cloudflare has been associated with delivering fast content over cloud in a most reliable and secure manner, accounting for at least 20% of the global Internet trafc. Cloudflare can cater for and support all types of organisations (businesses and public sector) including those with a social mission. The Middle East and Turkey as an emerging

market is characterised by a relatively young population, with 70% of it being under the age of 30. This dynamic youth segment has an insatiable demand for both content and knowledge. To that extent, there has been a rapid uptake in Internet use, and digital transformation initiatives have significantly accelerated over the past couple of years. This trend represents an opportunity for Cloudflare to add considerable value to regional enterprises and in doing so, increase its footprint and market share.

In addition, the region made up of 13 countries with fastgrowing and innovation-driven economies presents a unique growth opportunity for Cloudflare to tap into. I can confidently say that this market is at the forefront of technology and early adopters of disruptive technologies such as cloud on a global scale. This is being driven by many factors such as digital transformation where several countries have embraced ambitious programmes transforming them into true digital economies. Cloud uptake has accelerated over the past few years in the region and the necessary regulatory frameworks and related compliance policies are now in place to propel enterprises into the next phase of leveraging the benefits of cloud. This transformation is further accelerated by a mostly young and

content demanding population, that content being gaming, entertainment, educational, sports or online retail.

The recent pandemic has for sure played a major role in building up this momentum and increasing the urgency in speeding up such a transition.

The parallel increase of cyber threats and associated breaches, puts Cloudflare in an unparalleled and unique position to deliver the required content in a reliable, fast and secure manner to individuals, businesses and public sector alike, elevating the levels of productivity and performance in addition to reducing complexity for users.

To do that, Cloudflare has built a global network and infrastructure across 275 cities around the world with 27 in the MET region, delivering the same connectivity at 50ms performance for more than 95% of customers. The innovation path is stunning. Not only do we provide best in class cyber security solutions with Cloudflare’s SASE security platform, Cloudflare One, a Zero Trust network-as-a-service platform that dynamically connects users to enterprise resources, with identity-based security controls delivered close to users, wherever they are, but we also ofer an open strong developer platform with Cloudflare Workers.

What are your immediate priorities as regional head?

Over the last two years, Cloudflare has grown its EMEA team by more than 100 percent and counts approximately 700 employees. For the Middle East and Turkey, the initial functions prioritised for the region include launching new data centers, increasing market share by building partnerships, and expanding our customer base.

One of my priorities is to build a successful team through empowering current team members and attracting future talents that would all contribute towards this journey.

Building successful teams that can deliver future incremental growth, objectives and supporting our customers is an exciting challenge.”

GROWING TOGETHER

Doubling down on cloud investments and understanding how the technology can serve specific business needs is critical to begin creating successful digital transformation roadmaps. In the post-pandemic world, organisations are seeking expertise on multi-cloud and hybrid cloud capabilities, to pilot increasingly complex digital environments. Aligned to market trends and demands, the software vendor Nutanix’s vision revolves around “making clouds invisible, freeing customers to focus on their business outcomes.”

“While that is the vision, the mission is to ‘delight customers with a simple, open, hybrid, and multi-cloud software platform with rich data services to build, run, and manage any application,’” says Adam Tarbox, the company’s recently appointed vice president channel sales for EMEA.

As the company’s new channel chief, Tarbox’s priority is to strengthen existing channel relationships and develop new capabilities.

He says, “We are also focusing our efforts on being even easier to do business with by investing in the simplification and automation of our processes to allow partners to transact faster.”

Another focus area for Tarbox is to enable each partner’s diferentiation with a platform that empowers partners to build not only traditional deployment services, but also create new practice areas.

“When it comes to DevOps or AI, this can provide sources of competitive diferentiation as well as faster time to market of new oferings,” he explains.

There are many areas for expansion for the channel with the key use cases for Nutanix, and the company’s distributors

are playing an important role in driving partners’ businesses.

“Our intention is to help partners to get scale, operational efciencies and engineering support for building and sizing multi-vendor solutions. Our distributors are now fully driving the digitization of the selling process for partners,” he says.

Nutanix distributors are consolidating, acquiring new technology, and building out cloud marketplaces to help partners enable their customer purchasing cycles with less friction.

“Distributors are making use of AI/ ML to bring analytics and market intelligence for partners to drive business faster, which is critical in bringing together the partner and distributor ecosystems. We’re in the age of ecosystem solutions, and the distributors are becoming relevant again in enabling the aggregation of all of this for partners.”

Nutanix is launching its new Elevate Distributor programme. Through this programme, partners can zero in on distributors that they can work with

who have the skill sets and capabilities to drive velocity and growth in their businesses. The tiered programme also provides benefits and resources to help support distributor operational efciency, sales velocity and profitability.

“Partners can now use the Nutanix partner portal to identify proven Nutanix distributors that have the knowledge, resources and operational capabilities to drive new growth. A distributor’s Elevate program level will help partners identify the right distributor to work with who has competencies that will support their own sales and technical teams, as well as the digital distribution capabilities to ensure they are transaction as quickly and friction free as possible,” explains Tarbox.

To thrive in a digital-first landscape, Tarbox believes partners need to expand their skill sets to focus on new technologies.

“The next wave of data centre architectures will be transformed by AI/ML, low-code/no-code approaches to application development, and more of those applications starting in cloud rather than moving to the cloud. Partners need to find new ways to diversify their solutions and drive new revenue streams. We see that partners are looking to vendors to help build up their skills bench to provide services that drive things like AI digitisation through low code, no code DevOps methodologies.”

Adding that hybrid work, subscription, and everything-as-a-service will continue to shape partner growth opportunities ahead, he concludes, “Nutanix is continuing to evolve our go-to-market to enable partners to capture market opportunities in a number of ways.”

Adam Tarbox, vice president channel sales EMEA at Nutanix, urges partners to commit to expanding on skill sets to optimise opportunities around new technologies.

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF TRADE

TEXUB, a B2B marketplace headquartered in Dubai, ofers a digital ecosystem for global IT and mobility trade. Suchit Kumar, CEO of TEXUB, explains why the company’s business model will work well for both IT buyers and sellers.

How

did you come up with this business idea?

This was an idea that we came up with about two years back. Having been a part of Dubai Computer Group for a long time serving the IT community, I could understand the pains of the trading industry. The industry slumped before COVID-19, and we could see that markets are opening up again in the wake of digital transformation. This is what made us create this B2B platform. The whole idea is not just doing it in Dubai but getting a global perspective. And it took us almost two years from planning to launching. Finally, we have started onboarding and will start trading in the first week of July.

It’ll help our partners because they can grow both in terms of business and geography without adding to their operational costs; a buyer can come to our portal and look for sellers across the world and take advantage of internationally competitive prices. On their part, sellers get an opportunity to sell globally. Our role will be that of a facilitator to connect buyers and sellers with this platform.

Are you a product-focused marketplace?

We are product-focused and we don’t do digital services at the moment. However, we diferentiate ourselves from other B2B marketplaces in a couple of ways – we have a nonsubscription model and focus only on IT and mobility. In addition, we are global, not country-centric.

How transparent is your pricing model?

The pricing model is transparent where the buyers and sellers are anonymous - they’re all coded. The buyer can look at pricing and select which buyer to

buy from based on prices and logistics hubs. So, we are more of a managed marketplace.

How do you ensure data security?

This is a crucial issue. To address this, we have signed up with an Israeli company called L7 Defense to help us with API security after evaluating many cybersecurity companies in the market.

How do you plan to attract quality suppliers?

If you look at the mindset of any supplier, what they want is to expand the business and, at the same time, lower the costs. We provide a platform that can do both. Since the launch, we have seen the excitement is equal among even distributors and vendors, apart from the wholesalers.

Do you take care of logistics, fulfillment, etc.?

We do end to end. Basically, the price quoted by the seller will be based on which hub, and it will be their responsibility to deliver to the chosen hub. From the hub

to the buyer, we give them the choice of arranging their own logistics, or we are ready to ship it to them.

How many hubs do you have?

We have two hubs in the US, one each in Amsterdam, Mumbai, and Dubai. We are in the process of opening another one in Singapore.

Have you onboarded any suppliers yet?

When we did the launch, we intentionally kept the clock zero and said we’d start onboarding suppliers within a week or two. That process has started now and will continue for the next couple of months. First, we’d to upload the products, sort out legalities, and put the API connectivity in place, and that can happen only after the launch. As I mentioned earlier, we will start trading in the first week of July and within a year, we will have a good brand selection on this platform.

Do you vet the suppliers?

That’s the most important thing, and we have very stringent measures in place because if the KYC for the seller fails, the business will fail. We will onboard a supplier only after obtaining all the required documents and reference points.

How do you plan to evolve?

We are not planning to do B2C at the moment, but we have a plan in terms of how we would like to evolve. We are pioneering the future of IT and mobility trade and giving this opportunity of business without borders. We are also starting an incentivization programme for people who are trading on this platform. Starting next January, we will give them an opportunity to get warrants that can be converted into equity at the end of three years. So, we are making them shareholders in the future.

MARKETING MINDS

Marketing is an important function across all businesses in all sectors. If partners didn’t pay attention to this task before, they are certainly seeing its value today. Investing in digital marketing strategies are becoming fundamental for growing revenues, acquiring new leads and enhancing brand image. In this section, marketing leaders who deal with the regional channel business shed light on how partners can improve their marketing plans and become active marketeers for their own businesses.

MANIKANDARAJ R

manager, marketing and demand generation, Citrus Consulting Services

Why should regional channel partners invest in digital marketing tools and personnel? In a nutshell, while entering new markets, channel companions can ofer a short direction to profitability. Your company needs a robust advertising method to take advantage of aggressive benefits in any market, so why not invest in the area where your customers spend the most time, the digital space?

How can partners efectively use Market Development Funds (MDFs) from vendors? MDF produces leads and speeds up business growth when utilised correctly. In an ideal world, a partner would invest in software, create incentive programmes, sponsor customer events, and devote funds to long-term strategies with specific KPIs for each activity, resulting in the best return on investment.

Which is the biggest digital marketing trend in 2022? AI in marketing, marketing automation and chatbots

NIKITA KANDATH

regional marketing manager, EMEA Emerging Markets, CommScope

Why should regional channel partners invest in digital marketing tools and personnel?

Channel enablement is key to every business. Incorporating marketing strategies within that enablement programme is critical not only to educate resellers and partners on what they can ofer to customers through vendor technologies and products but to create brand awareness within the industry. This will also result in generating outcomes while driving mutual growth. The easiest and most efective way to do this is through digital marketing since its easy to measure and it opens doors to a portal showcasing online or real-world training in marketing essentials.

How can partners efectively use Market Development Funds (MDFs) from vendors?

Planning is critical for defining the activities using MDFs. Partners should only plan their MDF programmes around those activities that are measurable and can provide an efective ROI. Partners can efectively use MDF to create incentive programmes, sponsor customer events thereby generating leads and invest in digital campaigns.

Which is the biggest digital marketing trend in 2022?

Artificial Intelligence and marketing within the Metaverse

SHEEBA PANDITA

head of marketing, iSolutions

Why should regional channel partners invest in digital marketing tools and personnel?

With endless opportunities, digital marketing can have an overawing efect. By using digital marketing tools, one can ensure that they are able to reach the audience at large in a way that is super efective and measurable.

How can partners efectively use Market Development Funds (MDFs) from vendors?

MDF is nothing but a platform to grow sales and partnership. It can be used in diferent ways keeping in mind the company’s strategy and the long-term vision. Client acquisition is very important, which unlocks new opportunities for sales. And having continuous engagement with existing accounts and cross-selling are highly recommended. MDFs help to achieve these goals.

Which is the biggest digital marketing trend in 2022?

An exceptional customer experience!

APARNA CHATURVEDI

marketing manager, Newcom Computer Systems

Why should regional channel partners invest in digital marketing tools and personnel?

Digital marketing is the key to the future. Digital marketing tools allow partners to easily reach their customers and potential buyers. Tools like social media, content and video marketing, and other efective marketing initiatives play a significant role in increasing visibility and demand. Channel partners can engage with customers at every buying stage and improve their business growth.

How can partners efectively use Market Development Funds (MDF) from vendors?

Every campaign has an end goal by default – for some, it is only branding and for others, it is sales. Partners can efectively utilise the marketing funds by strategising a plan and running relevant initiatives and promotions across online and ofine platforms. The marketing strategy should be made after understanding the goals set by the vendor. Partners need to assess which marketing tools will be most efective to achieve the desired goals across diferent digital channels. They need to evaluate their own and third-party media campaigns. Partners should execute a pioneering digital marketing strategy for the vendor and distributor to garner lead generation and ROI.

Which is the biggest digital marketing trend in 2022?

Artificial Intelligence will be key to digital marketing, with its ability to analyse more data more quickly, and predict customers’ next move.