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PA G E S 5 2 VOLUME O7 | ISSUE 04 NOVEMBER 2019 WWW.EC-MEA.COM

BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY OF REGIONAL ENTERPRISES THROUGH

ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION

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Executives from Automation Anywhere, SAP and Epicor, explain how automation and robotic processes can boost organisation competitiveness and efficiency. .../26

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EDITORIAL

SPEED TO MARKET

ANUSHREE DIXIT EDITOR A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M

GITEX 2019 was abuzz with innovation from all angles. This year, though we witnessed the absence of some otherwise regular exhibitors, the show brought in a significant number of new technology vendors and solution providers. Not only the regional players, we were also excited to meet and see what innovations technology solution providers from rest of the GCC Countries and Singapore, Pakistan, Korea, Africa, India etc had to bring. One common thing or objective that all technology, innovations or companies were bent upon was their ‘Speed to market’. In today’s dynamics where markets are disturbed by newcomers and big tech players, speed is fundamental. Prolonged development processes are making way for agile processes, supported by the right tooling and platforms. On the hunt for a market share with ‘minimum viable products’! We bring out some of those stories here in this issue of Enterprise Channels MEA. Also, our cover story in this issue talks about one such speed to market fundamental— the introduction of robotic processes in mainstream businesses. Technology is now a factor in more strategic decision making than ever before. From big data and business analytics, to break out departments using cloud technology to operate more like start-ups, technology is increasingly the medium in which business takes place. So how can a savvy solution provider take advantage of this shift, and how can a switched-on CIO make themselves indispensable to the business? Well, The World CIO 200 Summit 2019, to be held on December 9-10 will deep dive into these aspects of technology and how CIOs are responding to the change. Global keynotes, global speakers, global insights— Hear our guest speakers take dive deep into #WayBeyond – an approach that will help you build CIOs redesign and rethink their existing business and technology landscape. ë

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NOVEMBER 2019 | VOLUME 07 | ISSUE 04

CONTENTS 22

26. Cover Story

GUEST ARTICLE

FIVE ACTIONS CFOS CAN TAKE TO POSITION THEIR ORGANIZATIONS FOR GROWTH JONATHAN WOOD, GENERAL MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA AT INFOR

INTERVIEW

KEEP IT REAL, MAKE IT REAL

BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY OF REGIONAL ENTERPRISES THROUGH ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION Executives from Automation Anywhere, SAP and Epicor, explain how automation and robotic processes can boost organisation competitiveness and efficiency

THE WORLD CIO 200 SUMMIT QATAR, KUWAIT, BAHRAIN

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ANAS E. JWAIED, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MICRO FOCUS, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA REGION

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TAKING CONTROL OF SENSITIVE DATA PAUL STEINER REGIONAL SALES MANAGER, EMEA ACCELLION

04 EDITORIAL

06 42

INNOVATIONS

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40. Feature Story

FUTURE-LOOKING BAHRAIN

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CHANNEL

STREET UAE-India Economic Forum 2019 Focuses on New Investment Opportunities After China and the US, the UAE has become India’s third-largest trading partner with value of trade pegged at nearly $60 billion, and it is understandable that the two nations now want to raise to $100 billion, getting impetus from a

diversifying trade basket and a timely currency swap agreement for trade at predetermined exchange rate. Emerging trends indicate that the UAE is fast becoming a tourism, manufacturing, logistics, IT,

entrepreneurship and education hub for Indians and companies from India. In this energized scenario, platforms such as UAE-India Economic Forum (UIEF) have become essential for companies and investors where they congregate and network and tap into this unique synergy between the two countries, linked with a strategic partnership. Now, close on the heels of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bilateral meeting with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE-India Economic Forum, now in its fifth edition, is again bringing together key officials and business leaders look at different ways to deepen trade and investment between the two nations. The event is being organized by Business Live Middle East, the region’s fastest growing business website, and held with the support of the Indian Consulate in Dubai and the UAE Ministry of Economy. UIEF comes a fresh agenda, where the delegates will brainstorm on new opportunities for partnerships with sessions on infrastructure, information technology, fintech, healthcare, food corridors, aviation, tourism and start-ups. The UAE-India Economic Forum will be held at Dubai International Finance Centre on November 4.

COMMVAULT LAUNCHES METALLIC™, A NEW BRAND WITH AN ENTERPRISE-CLASS FOUNDATION Commvault launched Metallic, a new Commvault venture. Metallic delivers a new Software-as-aService (SaaS) portfolio that enables companies to affordably protect their on-premises, cloud-based and hybrid file and application data. Launching at Commvault GO 2019, Metallic is a fast, flexible, powerful SaaS solution aimed at the most popular application workloads with enterprise scalability that can be up and running in 15 minutes.

Customers can purchase each offering on an annual or monthly subscription basis. It is available in the US at launch and globally over time. The design of the core backup & recovery offering allows customers to choose whether they want to back up their data leveraging Metallic’s cloud storage, or to a mix of their own existing on-premises or cloud storage. “Many of our mutual customers are migrating their applications and

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data to the cloud. One of the really interesting use cases for Metallic is protecting individual user information within Office 365. Metallic provides the level of protection and governance that every company is going to be looking for,” said Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President, AI & ISV Engagement, Microsoft. “We’ve worked together for decades and Commvault has been right there with us in leveraging our latest capabilities. It’s

exciting to see this new SaaS service coming along on top of Azure that brings together the best of what both companies have to offer.” Whether protecting 1TB or multiple petabytes of data, Metallic customers have the power to grow. The offering’s pre-configured backup and recovery plans combine 20 years of best practices with fast onboarding and flexibility for custom configurations.

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Citrix Delivers Expanded Network Protection Business today is more global and collaborative than ever. People work anywhere, anytime on any number of devices. And they access and share information and ideas across systems and borders. This promises new levels of productivity and innovation that can transform entire industries – and even create new ones. But it also introduces new risks via an expanded attack surface that companies must vigilantly guard against. And Citrix Systems, Inc. is expanding its network protection capabilities to help them do this. The company today said that it is partnering with global cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks to enable easy deployment and

management of next-generation firewalls within Citrix® SD-WAN, providing companies with added layers of security to protect their assets at branches and beyond. “Applications and workloads are migrating to the cloud at a very aggressive rate and security needs to follow them,” said Chalan Aras, Vice President, SD-WAN and Intelligent Traffic Management, Citrix. “With Palo Alto Networks, we can deliver an advanced SD-WAN security solution that enables companies to protect users, data and applications across branches, data centers and public clouds in a simple, flexible way.”

FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE BETWEEN HUMAN TOUCH AND TECHNOLOGY Knowing the central role AI plays, the Department of Health — Abu Dhabi (DoH), the regulator of the healthcare sector in the Emirate, has been the first entity in the MENA region to pursue and launch an artificial intelligence policy for the healthcare sector. Dr. Hamed Al Hashemi, Director, Strategy Division at Department of Health, Abu Dhabi said: “In utilizing tech-based solutions like AI we can build a future-proof healthcare system. These systems are capable of providing more efficient, safe and evidence-based quality of care while forging ahead with bringing new, innovative ways of healthcare services delivery.” “The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has big ambitions to improve the healthcare sector through technology. The second Artificial Intelligence Week in Dubai once again provided an ideal platform for experts to discuss the integration of AI into different sectors, especially in healthcare which is one of the leading sectors to have begun adopting this technology,” he added.

AXS WINS AWARD FOR BEST SMART SERVICE Axs, TECOM Group’s smart gateway for integrated services, won the Best Smart Service category at Awards Cx during the Customer Experience Week Middle East 2019. The awards recognise outstanding customer experience across multiple categories. The smart service centre and online platform axs won the accolade for its new approach to business license renewals, using a smart automation system that grants instant online license renewal. This has significantly enhanced ease of doing business for over 5,600 business partners that operate across various Dubai business communities under TECOM Group, including Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City. During the conference held at Customer Experience Week Middle East 2019, Dr Ayoub Kazim, Managing Director of axs, presented the axs case study and shared insights on ways of leveraging automation to enrich the overall customer experience in a session titled ‘Optimizing the Operations of Corporate and Government Services through Automation – An Innovative Approach’.

AUTOMATION ANYWHERE ACHIEVES 100,000 DOWNLOADS IN ITS BOT STORE TO ADVANCE RPA This achievement underscores RPA as one of the fastest-growing enterprise software categories in the world and enables organizations to gain benefits from automation that include greater productivity and lower operating costs. According to Gartner, “Robotic process automa-

tion software revenue grew 63.1 percent in 2018 to $846 million, making it the fastest-growing segment of the global enterprise software market. Gartner expects RPA software revenue to reach $1.3 billion in 2019.” “Achieving 100,000 bot

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downloads in less than two years emphasizes the rapid trajectory of RPA, while enabling organizations worldwide to maximize operating efficiencies and reduce business costs,” said Max Mancini, Executive Vice President of the Digital Worker Ecosystem at Automation

Anywhere. “Bots and Digital Workers downloaded from Bot Store help organizations complete their automation projects up to 70 percent faster and at half the cost, while leveraging the knowledge of technical experts, developers and our partners.”

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World CIO 200 Kuwait Edition Recognizes Leading IT Decision

SECONDS

EMT PARTNERS WITH SECURENVOY EMT Distribution will represent SecurEnvoy

The Kuwait Edition of the World CIO 200 Summit and Roadshow was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Kuwait City on 3rd November 2019. The Gala dinner, held in conjunction with the CIO networking session was attended by over 90 IT heads and decision makers in the country. The partners of the Kuwait edition were; Veritas Technologies, ITS, Rittal Middle East and Finesse Middle East.

The Kuwait edition’s opening keynote was done by Brett Samuel, Head of Technology, Middle East and South Africa, Veritas. It was followed by presentation done by Muawiya Abu Jubain Chief Operating Officer ITS.

as a distribution partner for its existing Multi-Factor Authentication (“MFA”) solutions, as well as other future product categories, in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (“META”). “EMT Distribution is well positioned to accelerate growth across the META region

The event concluded with recognizing the IT champions of 2019, that included winners in four categories—Legend, Master, Leader and Next Gen.

The evening kicked off with an exclusive briefing by Veritas on Aptare IT analytics, conducted by Brett Samuel, Head of Technology, Middle East and South Africa, Veritas. The roundtable discussion was spearheaded by Roy Joseph, IT Director of Kuwait Hotel Companies and attended by over 15 leading CIOs in Kuwait.

for SecurEnvoy’s product set, in particular its MFA-as-a-Service, which integrates with its on-premise MFA solution” said Phil Higgins, CEO of Shearwater Group plc. VIRGIN HYPERLOOP ONE AND KAUST PARTNER Signed at this year’s Future Investment Initiative, one of the most significant investment conferences globally, the California-based Hyperloop company and the Kingdom’s leading private research institution have committed to working together on fostering the exchange of scientific and technological knowledge to further support the development of the country’s technology and transportation sector.cation with loved ones.

CAPILLARY TECHNOLOGIES SIGNS JOINT VENTURE WITH SAUDI-BASED VEDA HOLDING

FVC PARTNERS WITH VIRSEC

“We are excited to strengthen our presence in Saudi Arabia with the joint venture with Veda Holding. It demonstrates our commitment to the local market and gives us the opportunity to onboard local talent to provide support to our customers in their preferred method,” said Aneesh Reddy, CEO and Co-founder Capillary Technologies. “The retail sector is on the cusp of transforming into a technologyfueled, consumer-driven industry. Capillary Arabia would be fulfilling the gap in the retail tech in the Kingdom. Our proven success record in the region and customer-centric solutions combined with Veda’s robust retail network and superior market knowledge will provide Capillary Arabia with an unparalleled advantage to develop and digitize the retail ecosystem. By providing superior AI-powered technology we are set to help brands tap the immense opportunities by redefining their consumer experience across platforms, improve brand loyalty, and always be consumer-ready.”

ogy with FVC’s partners and customers to

The partnership will enable FVC to distribute Virsec’s cybersecurity solutions throughout the Middle East region. Virsec has validated its patented Trusted Execution™ technolprovide unprecedented protection against advanced cyberattacks. High-profile attacks such as WannaCry, NotPetya, Black Energy, Industroyer, and others have used advanced hacking techniques and memory exploits to hijack control, cause disruption, shut down critical business applications or worse. SAP AND WTA JOIN HANDS SAP SE and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) launched “patterns of play,” a new feature in SAP Tennis Analytics software for coaches, which will allow WTA coaches and players to identify and analyze patterns that unfold during match rallies. Through the patterns of play feature, WTA coaches and players can go beyond single point analysis and can access, customize and compare data and insights following a match to strategize and gain a competitive advantage against their next opponent.

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Ekar Partners with CAFU to Ensure Fleet Always Ready

CAFU uses Ekar’s in-house developed app to identify cars which need refueling, and when the vehicle isn’t in use, tops up the tanks ready to be driven by the next ekar customer. “A positive customer experience is at the core of our operations mantra and the partnership with CAFU ensures that each person unlocking our vehicles will be greeted by a full tank ready to enjoy their driving experience without the delay of filling up. In addition, we cover additional costs including insurance so our drivers can enjoy all the benefits of car ownership, without the financial burdens,” comments Peter Moen, General Manager, ekar UAE. Commenting on the partnership, Rashid

Al Ghurair, Founder of CAFU said: “CAFU’s ambition has been to bring innovation and convenience to its customers. Our partnership with ekar echoes that sentiment and we are excited to roll out this new technology that helps drivers save time and provide easy access to fuel services. We look forward to introducing more of such breakthrough innovative services in the near future.” Since its launch in 2016, ekar has seen more than 15 million kilometers driven by its fleet which currently stands at 500 cars in the UAE and will pass more than 1,500 by the start of 2020. ekar uses state-of-the-art instant reservations and smart access technology for its UAE fleet,

NEDAA DISCUSSES ITS NETWORK DEVELOPMENTS WITH EXPO 2020 BUREAU Nedaa visited the Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau recently, and met with senior officials agreeing to enhance cooperation for the event. A delegation from the company, headed by H.E. Mansoor Bu Osaiba, Chief Executive Officer at Nedaa, was briefed on the latest developments and the work progress for the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. During the 6-month-long global mega-event starting October 2020, Nedaa will be offering its secure platform and range of solutions enabled through Nedaa’s Private Mission-Critical Network designed to support the goal of a smart, safe and secure Dubai. The network will ensure delivery of a personalized and seamless experience for the organizers, security personnel, government organizations handling safety measures, such as the Dubai police, Dubai Ambulance and Dubai Civil defense and other involved parties and addressing the exhibition’s primary requirement for secure and uninterrupted connectivity.

ELAA LAUNCHES A NEW TECH PLATFORM TO REVOLUTIONIZE GOVERNMENT TRAVEL Abdullah AlDawood, CEO of Seera Group, said: “We are a digital-first company, committed to enhancing the standards of customer service and to bring the latest technological know-how to the travel industry. As Saudi Arabia’s and the region’s leading corporate and government travel management provider, Elaa is continuously investing in advanced technology to seamlessly

deliver the travel requirements of our clients. The successful launch of Rehlati is another value addition to our service portfolio, which will further drive our market leadership.” Rehlati enables total automation of approvals, travel policy enforcement, and real-time Travel Order status updates. Rehlati also enhances the employee experience through its transpar-

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ent and trackable online system. Adding to ease of access, local data residency is stored and accessible in dashboards to facilitate effortless analysis of travel bookings. Any new rules or government regulations pertaining to travel can be easily incorporated in the system – together contributing to a more efficient, swift and seamless process. Abdulrahman Mutrib, EVP

Technology & CTO, added: “Our brand transformation to Elaa underlines our commitment to develop the C&G business that provides our customers with deep insights into their business travel throughout the journey. Rehlati as a solution provides decision makers with the right data to reduce business travel cost. It will immensely enhance the efficiency for our clients.

CHANNEL STREET

Lockheed Martin to Showcase Security and Technology at BIDEC

WEB CLIPS BATELCO AWARDED AVAYA ‘PARTNER OF THE YEAR 2019’

Lockheed Martin is set to demonstrate its diverse portfolio of defense and security solutions at the 2nd Bahrain International Defence Exhibition & Conference (BIDEC). Under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and fully supported by the Bahrain Defence Force, BIDEC will run from 28-30 October 2019 at the Bahrain International Exhibition & Convention Centre presenting exhibitors the opportunity to showcase the latest technology, equipment and hardware across land, sea and air. Lockheed Martin began its partnership with Bahrain more than 40 years ago, with the delivery of the L-1011 TriStar commercial airliner. Since then, Lockheed Martin has deepened and evolved this partnership to include robust security and technology solutions to strengthen the Kingdom’s sovereignty. The company continues to grow its on-ground presence in the region

in line with local partner requirements, led by regional Chief Executive Robert. S. Harward. “Our meaningful relationship with Bahrain is anchored in developing partnerships with the Royal leadership and the armed forces,” said Harward. “BIDEC provides us with an opportunity to engage with our local partners and to showcase the progress we have made in advanced technologies throughout 2019.” Bahrain was the first Gulf country in the region to acquire the F-16 aircraft. The current F-16 Block 70 procurement will enable the Kingdom to achieve another regional first— with the addition of the F-16 Block 70, the most advanced and affordable 4th Generation fighter in the world. Most recently, Bahrain became the 18th nation to select the C-130J Super Hercules to support its tactical airlift needs with the acquisition of two C-130Js.

Receiving the award on behalf of Batelco was Abderrahmane Mounir, GM Enterprise, Batelco who said, “We are proud to have been awarded the AVAYA Partner of the Year 2019 by Westcon Group. At Batelco, we value our longstanding relationship with Avaya and appreciate their efforts and commitment that ensures we can provide the latest Avaya technologies for our customers, empowering them to further boost their businesses. “ HYTERA EXHIBITED WITH LOCAL PARTNER NESMA “Hytera has been committed to providing customers with high-quality mission critical products and overall solutions since it entered the MENA market. Its leading technology, advanced products and excellent service have won recognition from customers. From daily operation to emergence response, Hytera has seen big opportunities for cooperation with Nesma, to meet the comprehensive needs of customers, support them to achieve a faster and richer communication network, and innovate for a smarter and safer city,” said Mr. Stanley Song, Sales Director of Hytera in MENA region. BULWARK RAISES CYBER SECURITY AWARENESS IN OMAN

MOVEMENTS Commvault Appoints MERCER ROWE as New Global Head of Channels & Alliances

ServiceNow Appoints SEBASTIAN FITZJOHN as Vice President Ecosystem EMEA

Riverbed Names RICH MCBEE as New President and CEO

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NUMBER GAME

75% UAE Businesses Identify a DataSavvy Workforce as Business-Critical and Key to Driving Businesses Forward

According to Nikhil Sanghavi, Director & Regional ME Head, ‘ARCON is focused on continuously innovating your Privileged Identity/Access Management capabilities to help you stay abreast of the latest threats. The event provided a great platform to discuss on the latest threats effecting organizations and addressed complete solutions for future prevention’’. HITACHI VANTARA ACCELERATES CUSTOMERS’ JOURNEY TO HYBRID AND MULTICLOUD Hitachi NEXT 2019, Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi unveiled expanded and enhanced capabilities for Hitachi Vantara cloud services. This is the first major announcement of the newly formed cloud services portfolio that includes cloud migration services, application modernization services, operations managed services, consulting services and Hitachi Enterprise Cloud (HEC).

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LTI to Acquire Powerupcloud Technologies to help its clients Powerup has executed over 150 projects in cloud transformation. Powerup would add two AI-based platforms to LTI’s powerful suite of offerings. CloudEnsure.io, an autonomous Cloud Governance Platform that continuously monitors an enterprise’s cloud services, detects security and compliance violations in real-time and recommends or executes appropriate fixes. The other platform is Botzer.io, an Enterprise AI Platform that helps organizations adopt AI faster across Natural Language Processing, Image Recognition, Deep Learning use-cases and saves time spent in trial-and-error experimentation. Sanjay Jalona, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, LTI, said: “We see a huge market opportunity for cloud consulting across

SYMANTEC INTRODUCES SYMANTEC ENDPOINT SECURITY

all sectors and regions. Our clients are adopting cloud to digitize their core operations and becoming data-driven organizations. Powerup strengthens our ability to partner with them in their cloud transformation journey. I welcome the customers, employees and partners of Powerup to the fast-growing LTI family.” Siva S, Founder & CEO, Powerup, said: “With its global customer base and agility, LTI makes the perfect home for next phase of growth of Powerup. Our expertise across major public cloud platforms offers us an enormous opportunity to grow, learn, iterate and build well-engineered technology solutions for enterprises. We are excited about the potential of rapid growth and expansion with LTI.”

PWC MIDDLE EAST LAUNCHES DIGITAL TRUST MANAGER Assess, the first module of the platform, offers a range of self-assessments to gauge an organization’s maturity across key risk areas including data privacy, business continuity management, cloud and corporate governance. Visualized through interactive dashboards and automated reports, the platform identifies solutions using industry standards and international best practice, providing bespoke recommendations for improvement. Matthew White, Partner, Digital Trust Leader at PwC Middle East noted: “At PwC, we are continuously evolving - expanding our technical offerings and growing our capabilities. The launch of Digital Trust Manager means that we can meet our clients’ demands for more digitally enabled experiences, whilst helping them address their approach to digital risk. The platform will also enable a broader profile of organizations to benefit from the cumulative expertise and experience of our teams, without the need for on-site consultants.”

To safeguard their organizations from modern and sophisticated attacks, security teams need simple, comprehensive and flexible solutions. They also need automated assistance with security management to quickly evaluate risks and take action to secure their organization. SES solves for these needs, finding and stopping attacks with analytics honed by Symantec’s world-renowned security experts. Customers can deploy and manage SES via the cloud or on-premises, or a hybrid of both, for all operating systems including mobile devices, with single agent installation. “The Symantec platform now offers tremendous breadth and depth, with a new level of simplification that many security teams will be surprised to see,” said Dave Gruber, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Leveraging a single agent, the new Symantec Endpoint Security platform brings this vision to life, while adding compelling new breach assessment and prevention capabilities, support for in-house threat hunting activities with analytics and managed threat hunting services where organizations lack resources or skills.”

SITA TO MANAGE KEY SYSTEMS ACROSS GHANA’S KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT Ghana Airports Company Limited has extended its agreement with SITA to manage and support all airport passenger processing, baggage management, and airport operations systems across Kotoka International Airport’s newly commissioned Terminal 3 for the next five years. SITA’s technology will be vital in positioning the airport as the pre-eminent hub in West Africa, leading the way in passenger automation and operational

efficiency. This follows SITA’s successful deployment of these systems to support the opening of the new terminal in October last year. These systems include common use check-in desks and self-service check-in kiosks, allowing the airport to maximize its capacity by enabling airlines to cost-effectively share the same infrastructure. The airport will also make use of SITA’s state of the art baggage management technology that will assist airlines

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in reconciling and tracking bags across the journey. Yaw Kwakwa, Managing Director of Ghana Airports Company, said: “Having implemented many of the solutions in use at Terminal 3, together with their experience across numerous African airports, SITA were best placed to support the management of these vital systems that underpin the smooth operation of Kotoka International Airport.” Hani El-Assaad, SITA President,

Middle East, India & Africa, said: “With a rapidly expanding economy in Ghana, Kotoka International Airport has emerged as one of the main and fastest-growing hubs on the continent. We are pleased to support the smooth operation of this important hub. It is an endorsement of SITA’s experience and proven technology that today is used in many airports across Africa.”

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RIZEK signs first of its kind partnership with alibaba cloud in the region RIZEK continues to soar high by signing a MoU for cloud-computing service with Alibaba Cloud. RIZEK becomes one of the first tech start-ups to collaborate with Alibaba Cloud, the cloud-computing subsidiary of the Chinese technology giant. The MoU agreement signing took place at the Alibaba Cloud office in Dubai with senior executives of each

organization present at the signing. Under the agreement, Alibaba Cloud will assist RIZEK in developing innovative solutions that will significantly enhance RIZEK’s data analysis and user experience capabilities. “Alibaba Cloud has the thirdlargest share of the global cloud computing market and the collaboration provides us with an ideal opportunity to use analytics powered

by big data and AI technologies to better understand our customers and provide them with more tailored services”, said RIZEK’s Chief Experience Officer, Layan Barghouthi. CEO of Alibaba Cloud Liu Zhaopi said, “This is the first partnership of its kind with Alibaba Cloud in the region, we are honoured and proud to be partnering with a cutting-edge platform that is aiming to improve

people’s lives”. RIZEK Chief Technology Officer, Ahmad Ghalep Abdelhalim said, “a partnership with Alibaba Cloud will provide RIZEK with the required platform and technical expertise to enrich the user experience by implementing world-class solutions to their required services, allowing RIZEK a competitive advantage”.

MANAGEENGINE TAKES HOLISTIC APPROACH TO PRIVILEGED ACCESS SECURITY FOR ENTERPRISE IT Monitoring and regulating access to privileged accounts are critical to enterprise security. In fact, Forrester estimates that compromised privileged credentials play a role in at least 80 percent of data breaches. As cloud and mobile technologies expand the cybersecurity perimeter, they further compromise the ability of legacy privileged access manage-

ment (PAM) to keep hackers at bay. Increasingly, organizations need a deep correlation of privileged access data with system logs, analytics and other IT management platforms to make meaningful inferences and offer quicker remedies. A 360-degree approach to privileged access security provides that deep correlation, creating the visibility

enterprises need to stay ahead of the curve, eliminate threat vectors and remain compliant. “While enterprises are increasingly aware of the importance of privileged access security, they often do not know how to build and run a complete PAM program. Any gaps in processes or tools could derail the whole program, making it dys-

functional,” said Rajesh Ganesan, vice president at ManageEngine. “With PAM360, we are bringing a holistic approach to not only PAM, but how it contextually fits into overall operations to help our customers successfully implement privileged access security across their entire infrastructure.”

IRIS Health Services Introduces Future-tech Solutions Across Oman As the Sultanate gears up for the launch of the Unified Health Insurance Policy, Oman-based IRIS Health Services is preparing the ground by implementing futuretech solutions to ensure faster and more efficient diagnostic procedures and claims settlements, higher levels of customer satisfaction, and better protection from fraud, waste, and

abuse. In the last six months IRIS, a health insurance third party administrator, has integrated its proprietary and custom-built digital solutions across more than 100 medical services providers in Oman and trained more than 300 hospital, clinic and pharmacy staff to use the e-services, many of which use future

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technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The digital solutions include electronic health cards, real-time eligibility checks, e-pharmacy lists and a Physicians Support Tool, benefiting everyone involved in the health insurance ecosystem from consumers to insurance companies

to regulators and providers. Mr. K. O. Devassy, Chief Marketing Officer at the Badr Al Samaa Group of Hospitals and Polyclinics, the largest private healthcare provider in Oman, said the IRIS systems are making a considerable difference to its operations.

PLETHORA OF SOLUTIONS • Data Storage • Data Protection • Data Analytics • Big Data Analytics • Business Continuity • Open Compute Solution • Manage Services

AUTHORIZED VALUE ADDED DISTRIBUTOR FOR

StorIT Distribution fzco 2503 Clover Bay Tower, Business Bay, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel: +971.4.8819690 | Fax: +971.4.887.1637 | Email: info@storit.ae www.storit.ae

CHANNEL STREET

Batelco Hosts ‘Batelco Talks’ Session on Data Protection In line with its efforts to provide employees with an interactive platform for learning, development and knowledge exchange, Batelco hosted its most recent ‘Batelco Talks’ featuring Buthaina Amin, Director of Legal Affairs at Bahrain Economic Development Board and a Board Member of Women in FinTech Bahrain who shed light on the importance of data protection in the digital economy. This session held recently at Batelco’s Hamala Headquarters

highlighted the importance of Data Protection in a data driven digital economy and included an introduction to Bahrain’s Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL). Ms. Amin provided a brief analysis on the most important issues arising at an international level in relation to data and the methods implemented to tackle such issues, with a special focus on the Kingdom of Bahrain. The session included an overview of the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) recently

enforced in the country, including who it impacts and who the key players are. The session, which was very well received by the employees, concluded with a question and answer session where Ms. Amin provided knowledgeable responses that greatly enhanced the session. ‘Batelco Talks’ is a mini-educational initiative focused on topics that are suitable for rapid business development and technology, presented by a selection of Bahraini

leaders from different sectors. The high participation rates reflect staff ’s interest in targeted educational events and activities, which contribute to raising their knowledge and expanding their awareness in information technology, communication and digital transformation. Such events at Batelco supports the Company’s commitment to investing in the development of staff while also highlighting Bahraini professionals in different specialties.

MOHAP LAUNCHES THE FIRST BLOCKCHAIN-BASED SYSTEM The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has launched the first blockchain-based system to save and share assessment information of health professionals, including doctors, pharmacists and technicians, with local licensing health authorities. The smart system, which will cover healthcare workers in public and private health facilities overseen by the Ministry, will help reduce resource consumption in terms of time and cost, and improve efficiency and data integrity.

Awad Saghir Al Ketbi, Assistant Undersecretary of the Support Services Sector, said: “The Ministry has successfully developed the necessary infrastructure for a blockchain-based decentralized database. In the first stage, we will link the evaluation of health workers system with public and private health authorities and other relevant institutions to create a single digital platform with an access to the portfolio of health professionals. “The sophisticated platform

into a blockchain-based platform by 2021. This can be done through recording and documenting digital transactions using blockchain technology, besides allocating a distinctive imprint of digital data that cannot be hacked or changed. This huge development would increase the level of digital security of national data, reduce operational costs, paper transactions, and speed up the decision-making process, enhance the safety of patients and provide effective and efficient healthcare services.

comes in line with the ministry’s strategy to develop smart systems, provide the best smart e-services, ensure the happiness of customers and implement TRA standards, smart government enablers, and the United Nations E–Government Development Index” Al Ketbi added. He stressed that the innovative project will support the Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021, which aims to capitalise on the blockchain technology to transform 50 per cent of government transactions

Sophos Annual Threat Report Details Top Cyberattacks Sophos launched its 2020 Threat Report providing insights into the rapidly evolving cyberthreat landscape. The report, produced by SophosLabs researchers, explores changes in the threat landscape over the past 12 months, uncovering trends likely to impact cybersecurity in 2020.

“The threat landscape continues to evolve – and the speed and extent of that evolution is both accelerating and unpredictable. The only certainty we have is what is happening right now, so in our 2020 Threat Report we look at how current trends might impact the world over the coming year. We highlight

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how adversaries are becoming ever stealthier, better at exploiting mistakes, hiding their activities and evading detection technologies, and more, in the cloud, through mobile apps and inside networks. The 2020 Threat Report is not so much a map as a series of signposts to help defenders better understand what

they could face in the months ahead, and how to prepare,” said John Shier, senior security advisor, Sophos. The SophosLabs 2020 Threat Report, which is also summarized in a SophosLabs Uncut article, focuses on six areas where researchers noted particular developments during this past year.

GUEST ARTICLE

Five actions CFOs can take to position their organizations for growth Having the right technology to not only access data from across the organization but also to provide meaningful insights to stakeholders can help you build a path to growth.

n J O N AT H A N W O O D , G E N E R A L M A N A G E R , M I D D L E E A S T & A F R I C A AT I N F O R

When CFOs adopt innovative technology, they help build organizations that are more agile, profitable, effective, and positioned for growth. Here are the five actions CFOs can take immediately to get started down the right path: 1. Develop one single source of the truth— Data is the currency of success. Effective data management translates to big opportunities for companies that are intent on growth. But the key to effective data management is creating one source of the truth—a central data repository. Everyone needs to work from the same set of information, if your organization is going to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. Companies can uncover key insights about their customers and business processes by breaking down data silos and building one single source of

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the truth. Whether that data comes from a single source, or more likely, multiple disparate sources, it needs to be visible from one place, so it can be trusted as reliable and acted upon by everyone who needs to make decisions. 2. Make that truth available and actionable—Data is only useful if the people who need it, both inside and outside your organization, can access it and act upon it to make faster, more informed decisions. Data analytics can perform what-if scenarios that help you cut costs, identify new opportunities with existing customers, and even create new business models and processes. The key here is having the right level of data from across the organization and the right analytics to take decision-making to the next level. 3. Connect everything—No system can

operate in a vacuum. Connect all your product, sales, financials, HR, etc. systems and you’re on your way to having the visibility you need to grow profitably. Consider adding cloud-based ERP and product systems, which can be among the most crucial and transformative investments a company makes. Because these systems reach into every part of an organization, from manufacturing and sales, to finance, human resources, and more, they can significantly improve your company’s efficiency and productivity, helping to drive its growth to the next level. 4. Connect everyone—True communication and collaboration can deliver great benefits. Just as all your systems need to be connected, so too do your employees and partners along your value chain. Social collaboration tools available from within the applications people use to get their jobs done make it easier to get work done. Users within your organization and all along your value chain can get information where and when they need it, at their fingertips, without having to break their workflow. The system can capture these interactions, so the information becomes part of the organization’s knowledge base, helping to drive greater insight and productivity. 5. Make it all available all the time—Business happens around the clock, everywhere. Cloudenable all your most important systems and you ensure that your business can operate from any geography, at any time. Looking beyond the cloud, make sure as many of your core systems as possible are fully mobile-enabled. Whether an executive at the airport needs to look at sales forecasts from their laptop or a production manager on the manufacturing floor needs to check parts inventory from their smartphone, that information needs to be available and actionable--or an opportunity may be lost. By selecting and implementing the right technologies, you can forge a smooth, steady, path to growth. ë

INTERVIEW

KEEP IT REAL, MAKE IT REAL

For Anas E. Jwaied, Managing Director, Micro Focus, Middle East and Africa region, it is the will to transform that plays a major role in redefining your enterprise goals, more than the technology itself. In a candid interview with Enterprise Channels MEA, he tells us how Micro Focus and its wide network of partners are up for this transformation wave with freshly devised go-to-market strategies.

Rising from a mere buzzword, the term ‘Transformation’ has emerged as a business mandate today. Aligning to this, tell us about your business year and what is the Micro Focus’ perception of ‘Transformation’? Certainly, Transformation would be the way forward for a successful business strategy. Business or enterprises can no more be strangled in the chains of legacy. We, at Micro Focus, are excited to see that customers in this region are willing to shed their legacies and embrace this transformation – digital, business and technology. Our commitment to the industry, that we fulfill through our cutting-edge solutions and services are also in line with this progressive mindset. From a business point of view, we have exceeded and over-achieved from the goal that we set in the beginning of the year. As a company, we have made several updates to our existing products and solutions portfolio. We have also had great customer acquisitions who have come forward and shown interest in our technology to help them accelerate their transformation journey. How have you seen the customer demands or expectations changing over the years? How are you hand holding them in their transformation journey? In the Middle East particularly, a lot of customers have migrated from and upgraded their traditional IT environment and digitized it. Speed to market is one of the key areas that customers want to focus on. The competitive grounds are shifting and we have to be bucked up for that. Our expertise lies in bridging the gap that lies between the existing infrastructure (technologies) and the emerging ones. Our platform and solutions help the customers to transcend the challenges in migration and attain the speed they need. We have higher ambitions for next year. We are boosting our investments in this region and

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ANAS E. JWAIED, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MICRO FOCUS, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA REGION

INTERVIEW

also expecting to bring increase our team. We shall also be devising new strategies to enable our channel partners to work in sync with this change. We are a hundred percent channel driven company, so one of our prime focus would be to enrich our certification process for our partners and keep them abreast of the new solutions that we are bringing to the market. Since you mentioned channel….. how have you seen your partner ecosystem evolving? Were they fast to adapt and raise the bar as higher as you did? How have you been training them? A reality that goes underlined is that, those who fail to transform…. perish! You can be a vendor, a partner, or a customer— if you are not willing to change there is no growth. At Micro Focus, we are happy that our partners have fully embraced this wave of change. A majority of our partners have stretched themselves and gone the extra mile in transforming their business models, the way they approach the market, present their technologies, market the products and develop in-house capabilities. In this transformation, technology perhaps is the easiest part. People, culture and mindset are difficult to change. If you do not have the right mindset or the willingness to change, transformation will remain just a buzzword. Technology has been in existence for a long time now, the difference is made by the people. At the end of the day, we the people make it happen. Hence, we at Micro Focus strongly value all the partners and ensure that they are in sync with this changes and we have been seeing some strong movements from the partners to and in many directions. In the last twelve months, what kind of new partner programs or incentive program have you launched? How was the reception? Partner investment is a continuous journey and we have introduced many positive changes to our partner programs. We have also reinvented the benefit programs, starting with how we qualify our partners, enable them and then certify them. It is more of a value-driven system, because at the end of the what you want and the customer wants is value. We have a world class partner program today that is rewarding and at the same time, demanding. After the HPE spin-off, we have introduced multiple partner programs which were then consolidated and unified into a value-added reseller and distributor program. What would be the 3 characteristic or quality that a company should have to be a Micro Focus partner? The first quality would be certainly the value of selling. What would make the difference is the system integration capabilities. Being a system integrator gives them an edge over the others in terms of industry and market coverage. The second quality would be industry expertise. We prefer to operate in the industries where our partners have expertise in. The third quality would be culture. We are always in the lookout for companies that believe in people and culture and are willing to invest in enhancing these two aspects. The journey of certifying an individual is a long and painful journey, where it takes time, effort and money. If you don’t have a people-orientated organizational culture to retain such talents, then the pressure becomes high. ë

RAPID

FIRE WITH ANAS

For enterprise who are embarking on their transformational journey, why should Micro Focus be their transformation partner? n We bring end-to-end lifecycle into the market of application delivery n We can help in the building, operation, security and analytics. n We are highly competitive in DevOps and DevSecOps n We held embed security into application development n We deliver on the promise of DevSecOps What are you? Transformation enabler, accelerator or propeller? n Actually, all three. It depends on the customer maturity and where he is in the journey. How is Mircofocus combining analytics and security all together in one go? n We reduce friction by embedding security into your current process n Data-driven intelligence based approach to examine what lies inside the data center n Highly competitive root cause analysis and anomaly alerting As you are moving to next year, what can your customers and partners expect from you? n Our key priority is our customers. n We will not only be vocal about our offerings, but also listen to their story and bring in the best and customized solution Define your emerging and high-yielding market n Our growing markets are UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and African countries like Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Ghana. The growth depends on the maturity of technology adoption.

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COVER STORY

BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY OF REGIONAL ENTERPRISES THROUGH

ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION

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COVER STORY

Executives from Automation Anywhere, SAP and Epicor, explain how automation and robotic processes can boost organisation competitiveness and efficiency. n

B Y: A R U N S H A N K A R < A R U N @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M >

PHOTO:SHUTTERSTOCK

odayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office workers often have to re-enter laborious, time-consuming, and error-prone details such as a customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name and address from one application to another to complete a specific task. Robotic Process Automation, RPA uses software robots to emulate human users and automate these tedious, mundane tasks. Industry reports show that by 2021, 25% of employees will use a digital assistant every day, and that by 2025, enterprises will use 1 billion virtual digital assistants.

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COVER STORY

“WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN THE UPSCALING OF NETWORKS TO SUPPORT THE CAPABILITIES AND REQUIREMENTS OF AI TOOLS” MILAN SHETH, EVP IMEA, AUTOMATION ANYWHERE.

From a local perspective, the UAE leadership is focused on skill development within the government sector to increase productivity and improve customer services. “As for the region, there is a drive to digitise mainly from the government and the ambition to elevate the digital capabilities and services using software bots,” says Milan Sheth, EVP IMEA, Automation Anywhere. “Middle East organisations can use robotic process automation to automate repetitive manual processes by creating, scheduling, managing, and monitoring intelligent bots. Organisations can then redirect resources toward high-value activities and processes,” says Vasanth Kumar, Head of SAP Co-Innovation Labs, AsiaPacific, Japan, Middle East. “End customers should measure progress by overlaying the impact of RPA on their existing business metrics. Can they improve customer service, reduce errors and lead time, increase

MIDDLE EAST ORGANISATIONS WANT ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION TO SOLVE THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:

Systematising time-consuming, manual activities by developing bots that support error-free, scalable tasks

How to reduce the presence of repetitive and manual activities

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How to make customers happier with a better experience

Bringing a new level of operational speed and efficiency to respond to customer needs proactively

COVER STORY

time-to-value and reduce headcount,” says Stephen Edginton, Vice President Engineering, Epicor Software. One can measure the effect of automation, by measuring the volume of usage and the total gain from automation. Another way to measure success is going beyond one automation project. This means that there is progress in the usage of automation in business processes across other lines of business. Establishing a core RPA team to focus on companywide automation, to look for bottlenecks to improve service levels to customers and employees, is another way to measure the progress in RPA.

AUTOMATION ANYWHERE APPROACH Automation Anywhere’s RPA solution provides a fast-evolving technology that uses software bots working side-by-side with human workers to do the repetitive, mundane tasks, liberating

employees to focus on higher-level business value activities. Automation Anywhere Enterprise A2019 is the world’s first purely web-based, cloud-native digital workforce platform. Enterprise A2019 is available both on-premise and in any public, private or hybrid cloud, delivering RPA-as-aService, through any delivery channel anywhere in the world. The platform is now available in more than 14 languages, dramatically reduces cost and infrastructure barriers to RPA adoption. Simply put, users can log on to the platform from any web browser, dramatically increasing the speed of deploying RPA while decreasing the time in which companies derive compelling business value. Automation Anywhere’s RPA products also include IQ Bot, Bot Insight, and Bot Store. Automation Anywhere is already working with major global companies who want to turn to digital workers given the inevitability of a rapidly aging workforce and accelerate growth. We have already seen the upscaling of networks to support the capabilities and requirements of AI tools. “Automation Anywhere is working with the Abu Dhabi government using emerging technologies and delivering government services and solutions to citizens, residents and visitors alike. Automation Anywhere is also working with a number of businesses in the region on similar projects to drive digital transformation within the private sector as well,” says Sheth. Automation Anywhere Advantage is the channel program that allows channel partners to decide which role they want to play, based on the channel revenue commitment. The reason that program is in place is because Automation Anywhere can only enter new markets, regions, and segments, globally through these channels. Automation Anywhere’s channel landscape includes several categories of partners. From Sell To partners to alliances and advisories and fortune 100-500 customers. Another category includes Sell Through partners or resellers for the volume business, followed by value-added distributors. Other segments of the channel are technology alliances, where the company integrates its solutions with third-party vendors for their cloud capabilities and training partners.

SAP APPROACH The SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation solution supports intelligent RPA to execute processes across multiple systems, cloud solutions, and software-as-a-service offerings. Features of SAP services include cloud deployment, a future-proof core for ongoing relevance, APIs that are designed to improve bot performance

and continuity, and automation with prebuilt bots for SAP software. Because an organisation’s data is distributed across diverse information systems and accessible from a variety of business applications and devices, organisations should ask which RPA is best for their business needs: Attended RPA or Unattended RPA. Attended RPA or Digital Assistant runs on the desktop, also referred as Robotic Desktop Automation, triggered by the user. The bots aim to automate a part of a process. Sometimes a whole process. Sometimes to simplify the process itself. The robot can carry out checks on the data for guarantees on regulatory compliance, data quality, and results, and hand back control to the user if needed. Attended RPA deployment is very fast, taking only a few weeks, and has rapid ROI in terms of saving time for employees. Because there is no impact on existing information systems, RPA solutions can benefit organisations for years to come. Unattended RPA or Digital Workers has autonomous software robots working on their own across information systems or in the cloud. The robots are triggered by an event or scheduled periodically with a purpose to automate a whole process. While autonomous robots complete their tasks without human intervention, they remain under human control and have robot supervisors. Because these robots require infrastructure and programming of APIs, they are often more complex and longer projects. Increasingly, Middle East organisations are taking a hybrid approach of starting with Attended RPA on the desktop, then extended Unattended RPA to handle more complex projects. Among the examples are utilities measuring previous consumption then advising customers on the next-best action, telecommunications companies analysing if customers are available for promotions, banks accelerating customer eligibility checks for loans or credit, and new online apps or services that use historic data. “One of the biggest metrics is that organisations should measure the improvements in the user experience for employees and customers. For example, SAP research shows that RPA can boost productivity and free up 15-30% of an employee’s time to focus on tasks that deliver greater value to the organisation and improve the customer experience. Organisations should also measure employees’ well-being and satisfaction, and the company’s own change management processes,” says SAP’s Kumar. As organisations now have more unstructured data than ever before, increasingly Middle East

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COVER STORY

“ONE OF THE BIGGEST METRICS IS THAT ORGANISATIONS SHOULD MEASURE THE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE USER EXPERIENCE FOR EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS” VASANTH KUMAR, HEAD OF SAP CO-INNOVATION LABS, ASIAPACIFIC, JAPAN, MIDDLE EAST.

organisations are looking at providing RPA robots with AI capabilities to deliver new levels of business speed and efficiency. By bringing together machine learning, conversational AI, intelligent RPA, and machine learning applications bots will be able to automatically understand content from text documents as a human does, or to analyse human language and interact with the customer. However, this learning happens based on historical data and decisions are taken based on the trained knowledge. Channel partners play a vital role in helping Middle East organisations to tie in their RPA experience to wider digital transformation strategies, especially to identify if RPA is needed for small pilots or to meet organisation-wide business goals. First, organisations must understand the bigger picture of automation. While RPA automates processes, it does not improve processes. Companies should exactly define the process that needs to be automated. All structured processes that are high in volume and follow clearly defined rules and instructions are the primary ones which fit the RPA criteria. Channel partners should co-innovate with stakeholders and consider how existing processes can be refined, which may include analytics or machine learning paired with RPA. Next, channel partners should work with IT teams for documenting and cataloging each bot’s functionality and how its code works, so that additional AI or machine learning capabilities can be added on later. At the same time, organisations also need to protect people, not jobs. This

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may involve developing new skills, especially as human oversight is still needed for RPA processes. Larger enterprises may want to even create an RPA Center of Excellence for developing best practices and strategies, cataloging bot capabilities and dependences, and reskilling the workforce.

EPICOR APPROACH Epicor provides industry specific business software designed to meet the needs of organisations in manufacturing, distribution, retail and service sectors. Customers that leverage its solutions have typically outgrown their existing legacy ERP solutions and are in need of a modern ERP solution, with embedded rich industry capabilities that can serve as the platform to grow their business. Epicor software solutions have open APIs, intuitive interfaces and embedded automation capabilities that allow for easy integration with leading RPA agents. As a business software platform provider, customers build their businesses on Epicor ERP and are able to leverage all advances in technology to yield higher productivity. “Technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning when combined with RPA, can help automate decisions and remove the latency from manual processes, particularly ones that cross business systems. Typically, our customers leverage the full suite and power of our core industry specific solutions. Since our system allows for full automation of processes across functional areas, with inbuilt powerful business

process management, the need to automate via RPA is largely negated,” says Epicor’s Edginton. “However, where legacy or overly complex non heterogeneous systems are still needed for compliance or corporate policy, we see RPA as a powerful tool to complement Epicor ERP. We do, from time to time, get asked if Epicor ERP is compatible with RPA agents. And while our answer is yes, we always follow that up with why, to understand the true business use cases and help ascertain if RPA is in fact the right solution for the job,” he adds. When RPA works interactively, it utilises a software licenses and can become brittle depending on approach. APIs and our platform integration capabilities and electronic data interchange can be a better solution in many cases. RPA is just one of many tools that can help businesses accelerate digital transformation. So rather than starting the discussion with how can we use RPA, customers would be better served to focus on understanding their unique business requirements and then finding solutions that best meet those needs. For executives looking to invest in RPA, they should start by thinking about what RPA will enable their business to do, that is not possible with other solutions. Look at processes that can be measured, highly manual, laborious processes or ones that are prone to error. They should think about building resiliency into the RPA approach. This way, as systems and interfaces change over time, the RPA does not need heavy maintenance or rework. As an example, let us assume that a supplier has a legacy system that you have to interface with when placing orders. There are no EDI or API options and they will not accept the orders via email, the only option is to navigate their old legacy system. Now let us assume that you employ five people to carry out these changes and ensure that the suppliers’ legacy system is in sync with your ERP solution. This is where RPA could prove useful - by automating all these processes, RPA could enable you to reallocate almost all of the resources to more business-critical tasks. Cost savings and accuracy are just some of the benefits over the lifetime of RPA. That being said, if the suppliers’ system supports EDI, then that option may have a better ROI and allow for trading with more progressive suppliers. The key here is to measure what matters to you as a business and choose the tools to invest in after you have identified the areas to automate. Customers need to be clear about expectations, stay grounded and continuously measure and review. ë

INTERVIEW

TAKING CONTROL OF SENSITIVE DATA

“The Accellion secure content communication platform helps it executives lock down and govern the exchange of confidential enterprise information with the outside world without getting in the way of users. Thousands of global cios and cisos trust accellion to give their organizations protection, privacy and peace of mind”

for¬ward very quickly. We are a global company with over 270 partners worldwide, including almost 100 in EMEA.CIOs and CISOs rely on the Accellion secure content communication platform for complete visibility, compliance, and control over the communication of customer data, intellectual property, and other sensitive information across all third party communication channels, including email, file sharing, mobile, enterprise apps, web portals, SFTP, and automated inter-business workflows.”

PAUL STEINER

REGIONAL SALES MANAGER, EMEA ACCELLION

How do you summarize the year 2019 for Accellion? 2019 has been an extremely great year for us. We have been in business for twenty years now and have been active in the region for over fifteen years and steadily growing. From a market point of view, what kind of transformation have the years 2018 and 2019 brought for Accellion? Digitization is a big trend today and no more a buzzword. The trend is taking off and going

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Simplicity in sophistication is very complex to achieve. What is the simplicity factor that you offer to the customer? Simplicity is one of our key priorities. We focus on four critical areas; simplicity, flexibility, secu¬rity and visibility. At Accellion, we believe that if the technology or a product is not easy to use, then it is of no use. We do not force people to change their user behavior. Accellion empowers employees to securely share confidential information from the applications they use all day, every day, like Office 365, G Suite, Salesforce, and others. Security and flexibility seldom go hand in hand.How are you ensuring that both these elements work in sync? Rather than providing a static solution that customers must amend their policies and workflows to accommodate, Accellion offers a robust platform that provides many integration, automation, and deployment options to meet our customers’ specific security, business process, and IT infrastructure requirements. For example, customers can choose an on-premises or private/ hybrid cloud deployment. In addition, customers can keep their sensitive information wherever it is currently stored; they don’t have to migrate their content to our platform to ensure its stored and shared securely.

In the DLP area, now-a-days organizations are working with multiple vendors. How flexible are Accellion solutions when it comes to co-existing with other vendors? As you can probably tell by now, our platform is vendor agnostic in many areas, including data leak prevention, enterprise content management, cloud service providers. Ultimately, with the Accellion platform, you can securely share any file type or size, from any location, using any device. It doesn’t matter where the file is stored or which channel you use to share it. How competent is Bulwark Technologies as a partner in matching up with your skills and solutions? We have been working with Bulwark for 8 years. A majority of our customer acquisi¬tions have been through Bulwark, so they are one of our key strategic partners in this region. They have very well-trained account executives and also possess the expertise, go-to-market strategy and experience in demonstrating to their customers the capabilities and benefits Accellion provides. Vendors play a great role in enhancing the skill sets of channel partners. What kind of partner enablement sessions have you undertaken? Training and partner enablement are very vital as the industry and the technology landscape is evolving every single day. We touch upon many areas of IT, hence it becomes furthermore important for us to make training an on-going discipline. We also work very closely with our partners in this process. We are focused on selective distributive partners and this strategy has helped us in reaching the right customers. Bulwark is a great example and a strong hand behind our success in this region. ë

INTERVIEW

TRANSFORMATIVE VAD Bulwark technologies strength has been in managing the dynamic changes and challenges in the information security space in the region by adopting adequate measures with a systematic time-bound approach.

sets and competencies in the channel ecosystem? Technical expertise /product support are some key factors Bulwark maintains all times and our vendors, channel partners and customers see a great value in that. When we sign up with any new vendor or any new product, there are multiple sessions of training our team undergoes to ensure proper inhouse expertise is built around those products before we take them to customers / partners. We also ensure that our partners are well-trained as well so that they understand the product and able to position the same correctly. Training our partners is an on-going process and we do this on a regular basis with the involvement of our entire team and our vendors.

JOSE THOMAS,

MENACHERRY, CEO, BULWARK DISTRIBUTION

How does Bulwark define and justify the buzzword ‘Transformation’? Today, we are talking about various auras of transformation— business, digital, customer experience— and digital transformation forms the core of all these. We are celebrating twenty golden years of providing cyber security excellence in the region, and we as a VAD are justifying this transformation in association with our trusted vendors who are further strengthening this wave. From workplace collaboration and communication, to IoT and networking, to security and mobility, Bulwark works with some of the niche names in the market. What is your take on the whole debate around the lack of skills

One of the primary role of a channel partner should be pulling the customer out of the vendor lock-ins, because that has been one of the predominant challenges that the customers are facing during their transformation journey. Being a VAD and working with so many vendors, how do you make sure that technologies and vendors can co-exist? We interact with our customers on a regular basis and discuss their issues during our interactive sessions. As you are aware, the pace at which the digital world is growing, it is an impossible task for any vendor to address all the security concerns and breaches happening around. The way the hackers are getting sophisticated with time, it is proven that the entire ecosystem must be more skilled to resolve issues in a timely manner. To address such scenarios in an effective manner, there need to be more vendor-channel-customer interactions and we at Bulwark are a big advocate of this enablement. Being a transformative VAD, Are you a vendor advocate or a customer advocate?

Policy and justice work hand in hand. Unless we have a clear policy of what solutions we are taking to the customers, we will not be able to do justice to them. Unless we have the expertise on the product, we will not be able to meet the customer requirements. Many organizations have already invested and implemented solutions from time to time to address the ever-changing security concerns of different nature. So, there is a dire need to do proper analysis of their existing IT setup and identify the security concerns that the customers have for their type of industry / activities and then suggest the right product. It is also important that our partners understand the product as well. To answer whether we are vendor or customer’s advocate, we would say that we are both, as we take the product from the vendor, learn about it and then give it to the customer with best practices followed in similar industry verticals. At the same time, we also give the customer feedbacks to our vendors helping them to have the right product roadmap as per customer needs. We advocate our vendor solutions as well as we are the greatest advocate of our customer requirements. If we talk about numbers, where has Bulwarks set its eyes on for 2020? For Bulwark Technologies, the focus is about understanding the business and trying to give our best solutions with proper skills & expertise. Our aim is not just to target increase in revenue, but to ensure customer happiness with quality of product and services we offer. We also invest our time and efforts on evaluating new technology / products in order to provide the most suitable solution for the challenging security concerns customers are facing from time to time. By strengthening our existing portfolio of products and with the addition of new products, we will be able to address the ever-increasing requirement of securing the digital assets and information, we expect significant growth in our revenue for the year 2020. ë

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INTERVIEW

EMAIL SECURITY BECOMES CENTRAL

Mimecast made available its latest Email Security Risk Assessment (ESRA) during GITEX 2019. The quarterly assessment is an aggregated report of tests that measure the efficacy of widely used email security systems. In conversation with Richard Amarasingham, regional partner manager, Mimecast. cyber resilience postures that address the threats at the email perimeter, inside the email network, and also beyond their purview, to eliminate the threats that abuse the trust in their brands out in the wild. What are the key findings from the ESRA report of 2019? This quarter’s ESRA report found a significant increase in Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, emails containing dangerous file types, malware attachments and spam being delivered to users’ inboxes from incumbent email security systems. The latest ESRA found a 269% increase in BEC attacks, in comparison to the same findings in last quarter’s report. This trend was also reflected in recent research, the State of Email Security 2019 report, which found that 85% of the 1,025 global respondents experienced an impersonation attack in 2018, with 73% of those victims having experienced a direct business impact – like financial, data or customer loss.

RICHARD AMARASINGHAM,

REGIONAL PARTNER MANAGER, MIMECAST.

How was the year 2019 for you? 2019 been a very fruitful year. Our team has expanded, and we have also significantly grown from an investment perspective. One of the prime reasons for this has been the rapid increase in the rate of cyber-attacks across the world, especially here in the Gulf. We have taken a proactive approach to these threat vectors and the team has been highly successful in bridging the gap. Email security has been a priority for many companies compared to

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previous years. What kind of transformation have you seen from a market point of view? Email has been around since a long time and we do not see it fading away any time soon. Email security has become central because everyone uses email for their daily communication and thus protecting the corporate data/details sent through emails become pivotal. Emails have also been the most exploited platforms when it comes to phishing attacks. Today organizations are required to think bigger and create proactive

How has your partnership with Bulwark been so far? Bulwark has been a critical partner for our journey in the Middle East. They have been a longstanding partner and we highly appreciate the skillsets and certified professionals that they have in the team. They have kept abreast with all the innovations and upgrades to cater successfully to our customers in the region. The market continues to evolve and we see a great synergy in this association and we look forward to drive more results together. What is your priority for next year as the regional partner manager for Mimecast and how are you transforming the offerings that you take to the customers? Accelerating growth would be one of our top priorities. We are continuing investments in the region, including a new and structured channel programs to support global advancements in terms of products and services. ë

INTERVIEW

BUILT FOR PURPOSE

We view dynamic application security testing as the key element of a complete web security portfolio. A mature enterprise will never just use one type of a product to protect itself, but while some web security solutions might be optional, a web vulnerability scanner is a must. The greatest benefit that Acunetix as a product can bring to the enterprise is the reduction in resource costs, ease of use, and exceptional performance.

KEVIN ABELA,

VP GLOBAL CHANNEL SALES, ACUNETIX LTD

Tell us about your understanding of the present web security market and the maturity of modern organizations. The present web security market sees a gradual shift in focus. Almost all web-related threats are based on vulnerabilities that have been around for ages. Technologies to discover such vulnerabilities and protect against them have been mature for quite some time. However, tools that employ these technologies are not always practical for businesses, especially large enterprises. Initially, web security tools were designed to be used manually by security analysts and penetration testers. However, the increasing skill gap in the industry introduced the necessity to automate processes as much as possible. That is why modern web security solutions focus on reducing resource costs. This is achieved by not only automation but also integration within enterprise environments. The ultimate goal is to

have as little manual interaction as possible and to manage security using tools that are already established in the business.

what they do best and what they like doing most: advanced penetration testing and discovering challenging new vulnerabilities.

How niche is your fully automated web vulnerability scanner and what benefits can it bring to the enterprises? First of all, Acunetix is not just a fully automated web vulnerability scanner. It’s a complete web security solution built around that scanner. Acunetix features automatic vulnerability assessment as well as vulnerability management. But most importantly, it can be integrated in less than five minutes with many well-known tools, such as Jira and Jenkins, so that it can transparently work as a part of a complex environment. Second of all, we would not call ourselves niche, but rather a specialized pioneer. Many of our competitors offer extensive portfolios of products that are built for different purposes. Unlike them, we have been focusing on one thing for the last 14 years. This allowed us to invest all our resources and expertise to develop a very mature solution. Also, we built our scanning engine using a low-level language, which is currently quite rare in the industry, and which gives us a great performance advantage.

How has your partnership with Bulwark Technologies been so far and what kind of extended services have they provided? We have been working with Bulwark Technologies since 2016 as one of our key partners in the Middle East region. Together, we have engaged with several government and public entities across the region and are further strengthening our partnership to ensure continued growth for Acunetix across the Middle East and in North Africa. Bulwark Technologies help us to deliver local support including installations and deployments. We are also working together to extend their services to provide Acunetix training to our partners and customers. Recently, we participated together in the GITEX Technology Week in Dubai and are looking forward to planning further events in 2020.

There is a great deal of disparity when it comes to the availability of skilled resources. What is Acunetix’s value proposition with automation and intelligence here? Enterprises cannot afford to have highly skilled resources performing mundane tasks. With the decrease in the availability of such resources, businesses not only need to limit the workload for engineers but also keep them happy. And nothing makes a skilled security engineer more bored with their job than having to manually scan the same things over and over again. Our value proposition aims to free up those resources as much as possible so that they can focus on

One advice: What should be on the checklist of enterprises to keep their web assets safe and secure? If we were to recommend one thing to enterprises, it would be to evolve towards SecDevOps as quickly as possible. A SecDevOps approach eliminates many bottlenecks associated with a dedicated security team and greatly increases security in general by focusing on education and general awareness. Also, we recommend that you don’t fall for buzzwords and promises of new, exciting technologies to protect you better. You don’t need artificial intelligence or blockchain to discover common vulnerabilities, some of which have been around since 1998. And it is such common old vulnerabilities and human errors such as web misconfigurations that still cause the biggest breaches of data. ë

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INTERVIEW

THE TOP USES OF ROBOTS TODAY No longer a futuristic fantasy, robots in the modern world fulfil a variety of jobs across multiple industries

TALAL SHAIKH, DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES AT THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE (MACS) HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY DUBAI

The idea of robots has been around for centuries from the time of Greeks. The modern iteration came about with the birth of industrial revolution which witnessed a demand for machines which would work continuously using electricity. During the 1950’s industrial robots were programmed to be used in the factories for manufacturing tasks that were repetitive and without human intervention. Today we have robots that can learn by executing tasks and with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). The usage of commercial and industrial robots today is growing. Market intelligence firm Tractica forecast continued growth in the nonindustrial robotics sector and states that global robotics revenue from both the industrial and non-industrial segments will reach $248.5 billion annually by 2025, up from $48.9 billion in 2018. Talal Shaikh, Director of Undergraduate Studies for the School of Mathematics and Computer Science at Heriot Watt University Dubai discusses the different ways by which robots can be used to benefit humans. • Healthcare – Healthcare is predicted to be a promising industry for robotics. Medical robots are starting to make waves in medicine, with collaborative robots even making their way into operating theaters! Some tasks they are capable of are as follows – relieving medical personnel from routine tasks, making medical procedures safer and less expensive, performing accurate surgery and transporting dangerous substances. In the UAE in 2014, the Ministry of Health and

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Prevention (MOHAP) launched its first robot to conduct catheterization and cardiac surgeries in Al Qasimi Hopsital, and later in Rashid Hospital. Benefits include 99.1 per cent clinical success in complex cases, 95 per cent reduction in radiation exposure to the primary operator in addition to speed and accuracy in fixing stents. And in April 2019, MOHAP further launched the Robotic Surgeries Programme in Gynaecology and Obstetrics owing to robots’ capability of accessing the most complicated parts in the human body and the steadiness of the robotic arm during the surgery. • Personal Care and Assistance - A humanoid robot is one whose body shape is built to resemble the human body. Studies show that the humanoid robot market will grow from $320.3 million in 2017 to $3.9 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 52%. One of the areas of application is in personal assistance and caregiving. According to the United Nations, the number of older people globally is projected to reach nearly 2.1 billion by 2050, meaning that technology will have a growing role in the care sector. Humanoid robots will be capable of performing tasks such as assisting bedridden patients with simple services, issuing reminders when to eat, or drink or take medication, to exercise and more. They will also be capable of monitoring vital statistics in case of health issues such as diabetes. • Jobs in Dangerous Environments - Robots score in their ability to undertake certain jobs and tasks which may be hazardous for humans. Additionally, they can take over jobs which are tedious and execute them with remarkable efficiency and precision. One example is industrial welding, a task requiring high levels of skill in an environment populated by noise, intense heat, and toxic fumes. Another is deep sea exploration, which comes with hazards such as sea predators and pressure sickness. A third

example is in the nuclear energy industry, which is extremely hazardous for humans – robots can pick up radioactive material, chop large pieces of debris into smaller chunks, and robot hands enable operators to remotely handle materials like during the Fukushima Nuclear power plant disaster. • Safety and Security – From tireless patrol robots to military-style robots that can handle car bombs, they are today being deployed as extensions of police departments and security staffing teams. In fact, Zion Market Research predicts that the global security robot market will reach USD 3.72 Billion By 2025. Closer to home, in May 2017, Dubai Police employed the world’s first operational robot policeman. The Robocop can recognise gestures and hand signals, communicate in six languages including Arabic and English and respond to public queries. Similarly, Dubai Municipality uses robots to help save lives on the beaches of Dubai. These robots are the most state-of-art technology used in the safety system of the municipality and can be used in the event of high waves or heavy ocean currents which may be hazardous for human lifeguards. One robot is capable of saving four to five people at the same time. And Dubai Customs authorities are in the process of implementing application of a robot which gathers data to compile into threat assessment and issues alerts to the control room. • Autonomous Vehicles - A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous vehicle (AV) or robotic car is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and moving safely with little or no human input. They can navigate highways and allow for less stressful journeys from one place to another. In recent times, we have witnessed much progress in this area – car companies like Tesla and Mercedes Benz, large ride-sharing companies like Uber and tech companies like Google are working in this space. While there are some challenges such as safety, laws and capabilities of vehicles to be worked out, as AI systems continue to evolve, it is likely we will begin to see fully autonomous systems operating on our streets. Dubai has launched the ambitious goal of self-driving transport where by 2030, 25% of all transportation including mass transit, will be smart and driverless. ë

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QATAR KUWAIT BAHRAIN

FEATURE STORY

FUTURE-LOOKING The Bahraini government has always been forward thinkingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; be it in pioneering AI driven policies and programs or embracing a cloud-first policy by creating favorable regulatory environment. n B Y: A N U S H R E E D I X I T < A N U S H R E E @ G E C M E D I A G R O U P. C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K

ahrain is emerging as a regional frontrunner in digital transformation, having long recognized the important contribution of technology to its economy in propelling growth, accelerating economic diversification and generating jobs. The Kingdom has been quick to implement reforms to enhance the operating environment for technology-driven businesses.

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One of the key drivers of Bahrainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth is its positive business environment. It offers a triedand-tested legal and regulatory environment and has the least restrictions on foreign ownership. Bahrain is also the proud home to a respected financial services sector with more than four decades of experience. According to government figures, the number of Bahraini tech start-ups has grown to 75 companies, which highlights the

FEATURE STORY

BAHRAIN growing importance of entrepreneurship to the kingdom’s economic growth. Global CIO Forum recently held the 2019 edition of The World CIO 200 Summit in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The event held under the patronage of His Excellency Ali bin Saleh AlSaleh, the Chairman of Al-Shura council Bahrain witnessed the participation of some of Bahrain’s brilliant IT minds and decision makers. The presentations and power panel that was conducted during the event spoke high about the Kingdom’s digital ambitions and how the supreme leaderships are prepping up for further enhancing the landscape. Bahrain’s organizations are increasingly digitally transforming. As a result, Bahrain’s IT market is continuing to grow, especially with the adoption of real-time software to transform citizen and customer experiences. Channel partners play a key role in helping guide Bahrain’s organizations

in their digital transformation journeys.

BAHRAIN ECONOMIC VISION 2030 According to recent data from the World Economic Forum, Bahrain ranked first in MENA for ICT readiness and individual ICT penetration – coming 14th globally overall among 139 economies. The vision 2030 was launched in October 2008 by his majesty King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa is a comprehensive economic vision for Bahrain, providing a clear direction for the continued development of the Kingdom’s economy and, at its heart, is a shared goal of building a better life for every Bahraini. According to Bahrain e-Government, The launch of the Vision followed four years of extensive discussions with a range of opinion leaders in the public and private sectors, including

governmental institutions and organizations, as well as international consultancies and bodies. The Economic Vision 2030 focuses on shaping the vision of the government, society, and the economy, based around three guiding principles; sustainability, fairness, and competitiveness.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with Batelco and Avaya, has transformed the ministry’s communications and collaboration capabilities, with a strategic ICT implementation to connect all ministry employees around the world. The ministry worked closely with Avaya to transform its citizen services by integrating and digitalizing its communications and collaboration capabilities through a two-phased project. With zero interruption to services in the first phase, Batelco’s on-the-ground professionals and the ministry’s IT

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FEATURE STORY

“AS BAHRAIN’S ORGANIZATIONS DIGITALLY TRANSFORM ON AWS CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE, TREND MICRO IS BRINGING ITS GLOBAL EXPERTISE AS AN AWS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY PARTNER AND AWS SECURITY COMPLACENCY PARTNER.” BILAL BAIG, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR – MENA, TREND MICRO

team deployed the latest Avaya solutions, linking all regional offices and the ministry in Manama. The second phase of the project is expected to be extended to all ministry employees and embassies around the world. According to a report, Future government and digital transformation are driving Bahrain’s IT market. This transformation is with at an aim is to reach a record-high of $186 million by 2021. One of Bahrain’s biggest opportunities is to run on the cloud to optimize costs and business agility, and

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to scale up. SAP is seeing strong Bahrain interest on SAP’s Saudi Arabia Digital Hub and cloud data center. Fostering Bahrain’s innovation community and youth development, Bahrain Polytechnic has launched the country’s first SAP Next-Gen Hub. The virtual space, at leading universities, enables the SAP ecosystem of customers and partners to co-innovate and co-create with students. “Being at the forefront of smart technology adoption is significantly improving the way in which government departments like the Ministry

of Foreign Affairs are able to meet the needs of their most important stakeholders. By connecting all its offices together through a holistic and flexible communications infrastructure, the ministry has shown yet again its commitment to its people, while ensuring efficiency in its operations,” said Fadi Hani, Vice President for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Avaya.

THREAT HURDLES As organizations in Bahrain and the Middle East increasingly move to the public cloud, this also expands their cyber-threat landscape. Bahrain continues to see an increasing number and variety of cyber-threats against individuals and organizations, especially with the global surge in fileless attacks that are designed to disguise malicious activity. Globally, detections of filless attacks were up 265% compared to the first half of 2018. For Bahrain in the first half of 2019, according to the Trend Micro report “Evasive Threats, Pervasive Effects: 2019 Midyear Security Roundup,” Trend Micro blocked 1,685,643 email threats and 163,236 attempts to access malicious URLs, and also detected 60,457 malware threats. “As Bahrain’s organizations digitally transform on AWS cloud infrastructure, Trend Micro is bringing its global expertise as an AWS Advanced Technology Partner and AWS Security Complacency Partner to support secure AWS-hosted

FEATURE STORY

“BAHRAIN’S IT MARKET IS CONTINUING TO GROW, ESPECIALLY WITH THE ADOPTION OF REAL-TIME SOFTWARE TO TRANSFORM CITIZEN AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES. CHANNEL PARTNERS PLAY A KEY ROLE IN HELPING GUIDE BAHRAIN’S ORGANIZATIONS IN THEIR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEYS.” REHAM ALMUSA, COUNTRY MANAGER, SAP BAHRAIN

ity, and to scale up. SAP is seeing strong Bahrain interest on SAP’s local cloud data centers in the region, including in Saudi Arabia. With the SAP C/4HANA customer experience suite, boosted by Qualtrics CustomerXM, Bahrain’s organizations can listen, gain actionable insights, and evaluate corporate impact to deliver unparalleled experiences. As AWS recently opened its first AWS Region in the Middle East in Bahrain, SAP and AWS are collaborating to bring hyper-scale cloud delivery to Bahrain’s organizations. Now, Bahrain’s organizations can more readily certify AWS for production deployments of SAP applications, platforms, and databases.

GOVERNMENT ACTION PLAN (2019-2022) applications and servers in Bahrain and the region. At the recent AWS Summit Bahrain, Trend Micro also raised awareness on the best practices for Bahrain and Middle East enterprises optimizing cybersecurity in the cloud,” says Bilal Baig, Technical Director – MENA, Trend Micro.

THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY According to Reham Almusa, Country Manager, SAP Bahrain, In the Experience Economy,

Bahrain’s organizations can no longer deliver only products and solutions – they need to deliver enhanced experiences. “By combining the customer “x-data” with operational “o-data,” organizations can better understand customer beliefs, emotions, and intentions. As a result, Bahrain’s organizations can digitally transform into Intelligent Enterprises with greater business visibility, focus, and agility.” One of Bahrain’s biggest opportunities is to run on the cloud to optimize costs and business agil-

The plan focuses on the achievements of its kingdom and its people, in the balance of expenses and revenues. The plan was developed in terms of policies and instructions desired within next 4 years to sustain security and stability along with providing necessary services to the people. When Bahrain becomes stable society, it will create a sustainable community and economy, bringing in new developments and initiatives for the development of its government and its people along with the security and services. ë

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INTERVIEW

WHY SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAINS ARE CRITICAL FOR THE CHANNEL

Complex infrastructure environment of modern organizations are beckoning for a seamless solution that provides a single pane of glass view. Commvault is bucked up to address this opportunity in digital transformation with its unique ability to work across multiple technology platforms. On new implementations, partner programs and much more.

The need for sustainable business practices is becoming weightier by the moment. With headlines dominated by protesting students and images of plastic waste polluting our waterways and oceans, we now live in a world that is awakened to the necessity for businesses to ensure they are not negatively impacting our planet but helping to reduce their carbon footprint. As Gen Z enters the workforce with clear purpose and enlightened consumers put pressure on businesses to offer transparency around supply chains, all industries are faced with the same prospect: adapt or be disrupted. Success is, and will increasingly be, defined by a business’ ability to demonstrate its focus on sustainability. That means more than just lip service, and for the channel it requires smarter collaboration and shared goals. From energy hungry data centres, to increasingly complex supply chains, the technology sector has a huge role to play. Like all other industries there are environmental, social and economic implications. In fact, the technology that is set to tighten up sustainable practices will by default be data-centric and lead to further pressure on the channel to build environmentally sensitive, resource savvy supply

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chains and practices. By now we all know that a data explosion is on the horizon. According to an IDC report, the Global Datasphere – a measure of how much new data is created and replicated each year – will grow by more than five times over the next seven years. The total amount of new data created in 2025 is forecast to increase to 175ZB from 33ZB in 2018. The report suggests that nearly a third of the Global Datasphere will be driven by growth of video surveillance, signals from IoT devices, metadata, and entertainment. One of the top five fastest-growing segments of data creation is attributed to user-created and user-consumed online video like YouTube. We’re on the cusp of an incredibly exciting moment technologically and businesses are looking for trusted advisors to provide intimate knowledge of their environments, to guide them through tailored transformations that enable them to seize the opportunities afoot. And sustainability must be a part of this equation. Some businesses may still be ‘scratching their heads’ when it comes to truly understanding what the term sustainability means for them. For example, Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP)

INTERVIEW

VANGELIS LAGOUSAKOS, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CHANNEL AND DISTRIBUTION SALES – MIDDLE EAST, TURKEY AND AFRICA AT DELL TECHNOLOGIES

is a process by which public authorities seek to achieve the right balance between the three pillars of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – when procuring goods, services or works at all stages of the project. This is the point at which channel partners could find themselves in a tight spot, when a potential customer asks at the point of tender how their busi-

ness is working towards minimising its impact on the world? Those prepared with comprehensive and concrete proof-points are more likely to win the deal – and rightly so. As the IT industry grows and data centres boom, it is important that partners take this seriously. But ultimately, businesses need to be led by example – and that needs to be set by the

government. Improvements in sustainability practices can be influenced from the outside in, with the EU Public Procurement Directive of 2014 stating that businesses must consider how sustainable their IT choices are, instead of focusing on competitive pricing, the initiative is there. But this needs to backed-up by and scaled out with businesses across all industries being held to account under the same guidelines – creating standardised and easily navigable goals. Take for example, the EU Commission-funded EURECA project, which was set up to help public sector organisations across seven European countries to identify the environmental and financial impacts of their data centres. In 2018, after three years of work, the project revealed that assessing 350 public sector data centres helped save 45 gigawatt hours of energy a year and €4.5m in cost savings annually. This calls to attention both the environmental and financial burdens that hidden unsustainable practices and technologies can bring to an organization, as well as the substantial gains that can be made from tweaks to existing process and operations. With pressure from end-customers and policyled sustainability requirements and government initiatives raising the bar, channel partners need to look internally, too. After all, trust in a company starts with transparency and customers expect it. This means creating open, knowledge sharing relationships with partners and peers in order to progress sustainable working practices – and from collaboration, innovation is born. Supporting and empowering those in the supply chain to evolve and align will only bolster transparency and trust. Ultimately, progressing towards sustainable supply chain goals gives businesses a competitive edge, while contributing to the ongoing innovation set to enable future businesses – in a world where environmental and social resources are gold. But no partner is in it alone, the extraordinary is only achieved together and that includes sustainability. ë

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INTERVIEW

THE DYNAMIC MARKETEER

“Today, marketing is also all about understanding the customer behavior by using data as the key driver. Analytics is as important to marketing as business because be it technology or marketing, customer is always at the center.”

At Sophos, we work with both small and large business across different verticals like finance, retail, education, healthcare etc. As the regional director for NEMEA marketing, I am responsible for not only the marketing strategies in these regions but also creating brand awareness and strategies around how we work with our channel resellers. I spend fifty percent of my time on partner enablement, engagement and looking at channel programs that can help our partners market Sophos in their respective region and territory.

NEMEA, SOPHOS

2018 and 2019 has been years of radical transformation. How have you seen this change? Certainly. Technology, as we all know, has transformed and forced enterprises to transform the way they work and behave. This applies to the field of marketing as well. We have been focusing on digital account based marketing and looking into the latest systems and programs that move away from conventional marketing norms and allow us to focus on buyer intent so we can provide the information they want when they want it. . At Sophos, we have introduced AI to our product portfolio and have very much embraced the public cloud, working with providers such as AWS and Azure to ensure we secure our users benefiting from Cloud technologies. Today, marketing is also all about understanding the customer behavior by using data as the key driver. Analytics is as important to marketing as business because be it technology or marketing, customer is always at the center.

Tell us about your journey with Sophos and how integral have you been a part? It has been seven years with Sophos and it has been fantastic so far. I love this industry and it is amazing to see how cyber security has become an integral part of our daily lives. Be it a mobile phone or laptop, everybody needs security. Being with Sophos further reinforces this priority.

So, with all these changes, how are you trying to bring a change in your go-to market strategy? We are certainly looking at how we change our level of investment in different areas, like; working on segmented marketing rather than general marketing. Segmentation is important because understanding a customer’s journey and ensuring that they want to hear from us is equally impor-

ANDREA CARTER,

REGIONAL DIRECTOR, MARKETING

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tant. The way how you approach the market has changed, hence our focus is to work on targeted campaigns to reach the right customer in the right region with the right message. What do you think is the unique value proposition that Sophos as a brand brings to the market? I would say ‘Simplicity’. We are taking out complexity from security and making it simpler to understand and deploy. At Sophos we offer ‘Synchronized’ security, which is a complete and end-to-end solution that is simple yet wholistic. A cliched but very relevant question. How are you inspiring the path for more women leaders to embrace the field of technology? I think it starts at a very young age. We are trying to encourage students and young girls to think about the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) etc and getting them interested in those. I believe having people like myself and other women leaders as mentors and talking about the fun in working with technology will inspire more women to join the industry. We are seeing a radical change with more and more women stepping up in this field. We have also seen a rise in our internship program this year where forty-one per cent of our interns were females, which is so far the highest that we have had. At Sophos, fifteen per cent of our engineers are females which is five times more than any average in a tech company. So, as a brand we are very much poised to embrace this and have a diverse work force, not just for gender balance but also for race, religion, disabilities etc, making sure that everybody is given an equal opportunity in this industry. I am a strong advocate of the suggestion that we need to keep introducing programs that ride high on initiatives where women inspire women. I am certain that the society will change and in the next ten years there will be a significant rise in women in technology. ë

INTERVIEW

AT THE FOREFRONT OF AI

At SAS, we encourage businesses to focus on people, process, and technology conversion prior to implementing AI. This can ensure platform readiness and practical technical knowledge, which are both crucial to AI application. An organization must be well-armed with data science skills and make suitable platforms available to conduct analysis, which in turn will give an effective viewpoint of an organization’s approach to AI.

AI has become the mainstream and is fuelling more aspects of businesses. But how data-driven innovation can be brought to life and put in action to resolve real business problems? In the past, data was perceived as a by-product of a business activity. It had little value after the process was completed. While there might have been one or two other applications that needed data access but these were usually one-off activities. Today, alongside the evolution and advancement of the business environment, the value and true potential of data is realized and accepted with the help of analytics. Analytics has made data the secret sauce of many new business models and initiatives. For example, by leveraging data analytics a bank can get a handle on its multi-channel customer interactions by analyzing log files. A health insurer is able to better predict customer dissatisfaction by analyzing speech-to-text data from call center recordings. Moreover, data analytics can deliver on a variety of fronts of public management - keeping costs under control, increasing productivity, citizenship management, economic development, public safety, smart cities, taxes and benefits, improving public health and safety and maintaining a vibrant economic environment. In short, these organizations across industries can have a much more complete picture of their customers and operations by combining unstructured and structured data. At the recently held SAS Analytics Roadshow, SAS claimed that they see a strong desire among IT leaders to leverage

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AI and analytics to drive digital transformation in their organization. How can SAS enable them to transform data into actionable insights through advanced analytics? Regardless of the industry, organizations today have access to a huge amount of data. In order to convert this data into useful insights, an organization requires an effective analytics and AI strategy. This strategy will need to be aligned with the organization’s business objectives, being supported by technology and the top management to orchestrate and govern their analytics ecosystem through the entire Analytics Lifecycle – Data, Discovery and Deployment. • Data – the foundation for decisions. The data flooding your organization is complicated and fast-moving. It’s time to embrace all of that data by leveraging the right technology to find new ways to solve problems. • Discovery – the first steps toward intelligence. We at SAS help organizations explore even the biggest data sets and be creative about finding the truth hidden in the data. • Deployment – turning discovery into action. What good is a discovery if it doesn’t change the way you do business? This phase takes the insights gleaned from discovery and turns them into part of your production analytics environment. So, organizations should consider the entire analytics life cycle, from data ingestion to exploration to modelling to deployment and make sure that the accuracy and speed is able to provide competitive advantage to them. It needs to be able to handle complex problems of any size with proven methods. This is what we provide.

INTERVIEW

ABED HAMANDI

REGIONAL DIRECTOR OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FOR MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA AT SAS

Our SAS Platform is built on a strategy of using analytical insights to drive business actions and supports every phase of the analytics life cycle. It communicates perfectly with the outside world, including open source tools, in generating powerful insights from it in such an easy way that the business users themselves can draw inference from this whole process, thus, off-loading the IT team of this burden. How does SAS help the BFSI sector drive profitable growth and improve competitiveness? The entire financial ecosystem is undergoing a radical change in the wake of digital transformation. Fintech, regtech, open banking, data privacy and regulatory compliance technologies are all playing a critical part in shifting the paradigm. SAS believes that hyper intelligent, AI-driven banking institutions that can provide personalized, trusted customer experiences, as well as meet risk and compliance mandates will be relevant to the evolving BFSI industry. Prominent banks to name very few among a long list of successful implementations and flagship transformational projects done in MEA like Commercial International Bank in Egypt and Emirates NBD have partnered with us for our industry leading solutions and services which enable them to enhance their customer journey and adhere to local regulations and global standards through advanced analytical monitoring, reporting and business intelligence. ĂŤ

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INNOVATIONS

KEY CAPABILITIES n A powerful distributed architecture supports scalable, non-blocking performance to future-proof your network for tomorrowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unpredictable demands n Has built-in, high-speed uplinks and include models with 24 SFP+ ports and fulldensity 60W PoE with multi-gigabit Ethernet for a high-performance network n A cloud-centric design with a fully programmable OS delivers automation and simplicity, including easy-to-use configuration tools for error-free installs n Built-in monitoring and analytics across the network provide operators with immediate troubleshooting and problem resolution insights.

Aruba CX 6300 Switch Series Next-gen stackable switches for the cloud, mobile, and IoT future. The Aruba CX 6300 Switch Series is a modern, flexible and intelligent family of stackable switches ideal for enterprise access, aggregation and core deployments PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT INFO@ GECMEDIAGROUP.COM

NEXANS LAUNCHES ENSPACE HIGH DENSITY FIBRE PANELS Nexans, the worldwide leader in cables and cabling systems, announced the launch of its High Density patch panels to complete its LANmark-OF ENSPACE range, which already comprises of Ultra High Density panels.

KEY CAPABILITIES n The new ENSPACE HD panels are available in 2 versions n 1U with 96LC connections and 2U with 192LC connections n These complement the existing range of ENSPACE UHD panels, which can hold 144LC connections in 1U. n The ENSPACE HD panels are designed for server racks or patching zones which donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t require ultra high density. n The ENSPACE modules can be installed from the front and the rear of the panel without disconnecting already installed trunks or cords n The modules are available in 3 types to support different installation and protocol requirements: MTP-LC adaptor modules, LC adaptor modules and MTP adaptor modules.

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SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 2019

CONTINENTS

COUNTRIES

3000+

C-LEVEL EXECUTIVES

B R O U G H T BY

W W W. G LO BA LC I O FO R U M . C O M