Reseller Middle East October 2014

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ISSUE 214 | october 2014

GITEX Preview Interview with Cheryl Cook, Dell PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

Channel prospects in healthcare sector

CONTENTS ISSUE 214 // october 2014

cover feature Review

108

Huawei Ascend P7

hot products

112

Lenovo presents VIBE Z2 Smartphone

37 Highlights

Feature

6

News

99

We help you catch up on all the major news and announcements in the regional channel community.

Opinion 30

Sustaining profitability

Mohammad Mobasseri from emt Distribution shares how channel partners can maintain the business growth.

Safe and sound

Reseller Middle East finds out channel prospects in the healthcare sector.

Partner watch Zensar Technologies’ Ganesh Natarajan on company plans.

104 Taking risks Pro Technology MD, Jamal H. Maraqa, discusses how the market has evolved over the years.

Interview 32

A mandate for growth Cheryl Cook, VP of Global Alliances and Channel at Dell, reveals how the company plans to ramp up the partner eco-system.

Xerox showcases new A3 colour printer

102 Growing steadily

Vendor focus 106 The whole nine yards

Khwaja Saifuddin from WD explains the significance of channel partners going the extra mile to be a trusted asvisor.

113 SanDisk introduces the 64GB SanDisk Connect Wireless flash drive

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Reseller Middle East october 2014

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*Based on internal Dell analysis in July 2013 based on Dell Compellent flash-optimised vs.spinning disk arrays and an internal test performed by Dell in March 2013 with Storage v6.310 on dual SC8000 controllers running OLIP type workloads using IOmeter with a 100% random, 70/30 read/wirte mix and 8K sector transfer size achieved this IOPS performance.

Actual performance/latency will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability **Based on internal Dell analysis performed in May 2013, comparing similar Dell Compellent offerings to EMC VNX Family, HP 3PAR StoreServ, HP EVA, IMB V7000, IBM XIV, Hitachi Data Systems HUS 100 Family,and Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Family and competitive US list pricing from Gartner Inc, Cp Storage, as of June 2013. Š 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Editorial GROUP Chairman and founder

Dominic De Sousa Group CEO

Nadeem Hood Group COO

Georgina O’Hara

Publishing Director Rajashree Rammohan raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9131

Back in black

Editorial Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9133 Assistant Editor Janees Reghelini Contributing Editor Anna Bricker Online Editor James Dartnell Advertising Sales Manager Merle Carrasco merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9161 Circulation Database and Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9142 Production and Design Production Manager James P Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9136 Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9132 Digital www.resellerme.com DIGITAL SERVICES Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy P Maagma Web Developers Jefferson de Joya Photographer and Social Media Co-ordinator Jay Colina

Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor Talk to us: E-mail: jeevan.thankappan@ cpimediagroup.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ ResellerME Twitter: @ResellerME

One of the recurring themes in my editorial note throughout this year has been about the upbeat mood in the channel industry. And our annual survey findings reflect this positive market sentiment.

After a few years of contraction, the regional channel industry has bounced back to clock an impressive double-digit growth spanning across distributors, VARs, systems integrators and retailers. The distribution sector – both broadline and value-added – has shown a healthy growth despite stiff competition and poor profitability. But it is a different story with resellers, especially the ones focused on hardware. Most companies in the region have moved to a ‘just in time’ buying model when it comes to IT procurement, where they are buying only what they need and at the last possible moment. This has taken the wind out of the sails of smaller resellers, who are already reeling under tightened credit requirements and inadequate access to capital. In fact, we expect the credit challenge to be more acute in the coming year as insurers are sharpening scrutiny to reflect the riskier environment. Though vendors do understand the need for financing, they are also constrained by the same terms partners are facing. However, the overall health of VAR segment is still positive than what their balance sheets would indicate and those can diversify into services can still do brisk business. If the survey results are anything to go by, the systems integration sector has also taken a hit due to a decline in consulting business and slim margins from hardware business. Most of the tier-II systems integrators are now rethinking their business models by focusing more on the emerging technology areas and services business to fuel future growth.

While credit and profitability will remain the biggest challenges facing the channel, the dynamics of the industry is also changing very quickly. Vendors, instead of pursuing the conventional strategy of aggressively recruiting new partners, are now looking to trim down and work with those partners who are eager to grow its business. Another important trend is the changing criteria for vendor selection among partners. Brand reputation doesn’t matter anymore as partners are keen to work with vendors that offer more margins, timely delivery and diversified product range. Bigger may not necessarily mean better.

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Registered at IMPZ PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 Printed by Printwell Printing Press © Copyright 2014 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

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highlights

Xerox Emirates & NDIGITEC partner in digital print

DubaiPrint flagship company NDIGITEC has partnered with Xerox Emirates to reach diversified markets with a complete web-to-print solution.

NDIGITEC has invested in the Xerox Color 1000 to support their web-toprint platform Dubaiprint.com. Using

the technology, NDIGITEC aims to offer a wider range of digital media solutions to advertising agencies and brand houses accompanying a round-theclock customer service.

Xerox Production Systems Group (PSG) caters to three main production

environments – Publishing, Transaction Printing and Enterprise-wide Printing through its multiple product categories.

“We intend to give our customers the best solutions. Hence, we took the decision to invest in the Xerox Color 1000. It will also help us expand our market share in this area of business,” Vatche Kavlakian, CEO, NDIGITEC said.

Andrew Horne, General Manager, Xerox Emirates is equally optimistic.

“At Xerox we provide customised solutions that allow our partners to focus on their real business. Our partnership with NDGITEC supports our corporate vision of developing long-term partnerships that optimise mutual profitability and improve efficiencies. Building strategic business relationships with key players within the graphic industry like NDIGITEC will allow us to acquire further market share,” said Horne.

Xerox Emirates foresees tremendous potential in its ecommerce platform with a big percentage of revenue being generated through Dubaiprint.com in 2015.

Ingram Micro Training MEA launches new training lab Aptec, an Ingram Micro Company has announced the unveiling of its new in-house training lab located in a new data centre based in Dubai, UAE. The lab is a strategic investment by the company to meet the growing demand for its vendor authorised training, to improve the speed and accessibility of course materials, and to strengthen and extend Ingram Micro’s training deliveries across the Middle East and Africa.

“The in-house data centre gives us a stronger market presence as well as closer proximity and better access to our customers’ growing training business in the region,” said Zornitza Hadjitodorova, Head of Ingram Micro Training, Middle East and Africa. “The labs will provide a complete

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portfolio of authorized training course material for several key vendors carried by the company,” she added.

The lab is also intended to be a hub for delivering remote, cloud-based training lab sessions across the region in order to increase trainee convenience and significantly reduce travel costs associated with in-person training, said the company.

Additionally, this infrastructure will make it possible for Ingram Micro to roll out the latest courses as soon as they are announced by the vendor.

Ingram Micro Training is a one-stop shop for the skills development needs of IT professionals worldwide and a global strategic partner to technology vendors. The company offers award-winning, instructor-

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led classroom and onsite IT training.

The in-house data centre gives us a stronger market presence as well as closer proximity and better access to our customers’ growing training business in the region.”

highlights

VCE honours Emircom as Gold Partner Emircom has announced its Gold Partner status from VCE Partner Programme for Solution Providers. The solution provider can now utilise VCE tools to grow its converged infrastructure business.

VCE Technology Alliance Partner Programme intends to provide an opportunity to technology partners that offer solutions complementing Vblock Systems solutions and other VCE tools. As a result, converged infrastructure solutions are offered that streamline technology, system administration and maintenance freeing IT staff of the mundane routine.

“We have made significant investments to align our company with many technology verticals and provide our customers with exemplary experiences, one of which is the adoption of a converged infrastructure,” Mohamad Abou-Zaki, Chief Operating Officer,

Emircom, said.

“Converged infrastructure is changing the way we think about, utilise and consume IT. At VCE, we believe we are taking our customers on a transformational journey – one which requires a whole new way of thinking about the management and delivery of services to the business,” said Dany El Khoury, Channel Manager, Middle East and Turkey, VCE. “Our partner programme tiering is designed to recognise those who have both the technological skills and the consultancy prowess to ensure our customers realise the benefits of the most scalable and cost efficient way to simplify and deploy IT infrastructure,” Khoury added.

As a Gold Partner, Emircom will also reap added benefits from the respective partner programmes of VCE’s investor companies, Cisco and EMC.

stats

The total information security spending in MENA in 2014 is expected to reach

$1B

This is an increase of 8 percent over 2013

(source: Gartner)

Westcon Group to deliver HP Enterprise Security in Middle east

Mike Saxton, Senior Vice President, Middle-East and Turkey, Software AG Christopher Green, Divisional Director, Westcon Middle East Westcon Group, a value-added distributor, has extended its global distribution agreement with HP Enterprise Security. Effective immediately, the full HP Enterprise Security portfolio which includes ArcSsight, Tipping Point and Fortify will be made available to Westcon reseller partners across the Middle East region.

This expanded relationship in the Middle East stems from a global agreement signed naming Westcon as HP Enterprise

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Security’s first-ever global distributor. This expanded the distributor’s authority to deliver HP Enterprise Security in many new countries and further deepened a strategic commitment to each business.

The deal ensures a comprehensive sales engagement process for HP Enterprise Security’s channel and better addresses global needs with new programmes and streamlined procedures. Multiple technical engineers dedicated to HP Security projects will strengthen the distributor’s value-add into architecture design, proof-of-concept, support and training, the statement said.

Christopher Green, Divisional Director, Westcon Middle East said, “We are delighted to have signed up with HP Enterprise Security to develop the Middle East market for their ArcSight, Tipping Point and Fortify technologies. We believe this adds considerable value to our existing portfolio of leading security solutions as they continue to drive product innovation in core markets, further strengthens our position as the market-leading security distributor in the Middle East with the ability to deliver

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outstanding support to our customers and channel partners.”

“As the information security threat continues to increase, this agreement will enable businesses in the Middle East to better protect themselves,” said Stephen Walsh, Senior Director, Channel Sales for EMEA & APJ. “Westcon’s worldwide reach, proven ability to coordinate efforts between global customers and resellers, and expertise with leading cloud and service providers that support multinational companies will expand HP Enterprise Security’s presence in the Middle East.”

This agreement will enable businesses in the Middle East to better protect themselves.”

highlights

Prologix named Trango Wireless Backhaul VAD Prologix Distribution has been made an authorised distributor for Trango Systems’ Fixed Wireless Backhaul Applications & Solutions across the Middle East.

The VAD carries the complete portfolio of the point-to-point microwave backhaul solutions provider.

The newest addition to this is Trango’s Giga LongHaul product; an all-indoor microwave backhaul system for 6-11 GHz Licensed Bands designed to provide communication over long distances.

The Giga LongHaul consists of an Indoor Modem Unit (IDU) and an Indoor RF Unit (IR FU).

Full Duplex data rates up to 761 Mbps in a single 60 MHz channel can be achieved when used in conjunction with the Giga

Aditya Sahaya, Director, Prologix Distribution,

Orion IDU, another Trango product.

“Giga LongHaul carrier features are exceptional. They provide support for ring as well as hub and spoke network architectures,” Aditya Sahaya, Director, Prologix Distribution, said. “The redundancy options are provided for both through RSTP, MSTP, and ERPS. There is excellent support for network synchronisation through the use of Sync-E and IEEE 1588v2. The traffic mixes seen current and next gen mobile networks are supported through multi-layer header compression and fixed latency.”

Trango Systems will be at Prologix’s booth # Z-M10 of the GULFCOMMS Hall at GITEX Technology Week 2014, which will take place from 12th to 16th October at Dubai World Trade Centre.

Faro signs up Omnix as new distributor

Jayant Deshpande, Director, CAD Division, Omnix International.

Faro, 3D measurement, imaging and realization technology provider, has named Omnix International as its official distributor for the territory of UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The distributor will offer the vendor’s latest line of laser scanners through its vast construction distribution networks in the region, thereby serving the needs and requirements of surveyors, contractors, engineers and geospatial

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professionals.

Under the terms of the agreement, the company will be selling and providing support for the Faro Laser Scanner X Series as well as its accompanying software SCENE. “We are very pleased to partner with Omnix International to further expand the 3D laser scanner platform across a broader range of Middle East markets. We chose Omnix because they serve already a large customer base, which overlaps with our target customers, with several products based on CAD and digitation. Next to that Omnix is an Autodesk partner, which fits in seamlessly with FARO’ strategic partnership with Autodesk worldwide,” said Chris Holligan, Vice President, Sales, FARO. “The Middle East region is currently demonstrating a large demand for quick, accurate and easy to use laser scanning solutions. Our new partnership with FARO seeks to address this challenge as they have come up with a product that is

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versatile, compact and very user-friendly for the 3D scanning market. We are very excited to offer FARO’s X Series as part of our diverse portfolio through our strong Middle East distribution network.

We look forward to building a longterm business relationship together,” said Jayant Deshpande, Director – CAD Division, Omnix International.

The Middle East region is currently demonstrating a large demand for quick, accurate and easy to use laser scanning solutions. “

highlights

Veeam launches technical training and certification programmes

Fortinet hosts GCC workshops Fortinet held its ‘Power to Learn’ presales partner training sessions across the GCC region last month in Dubai.

The technology training workshops are held on a quarterly basis and provide partners with an understanding of the latest Fortinet products.

The workshops were held in Dubai on September 8th, Abu Dhabi on 9th, Kuwait City on 15th, Oman on 16th, and Doha on 17th. Sessions in Saudi Arabia were held on 15th in Al Khobar, in Riyadh on 16th, and in Jeddah on 17th.

“Fortinet’s ‘Power to Learn’ workshops are an invaluable source of information for our partners across the region,” said Maya Zakhour, Channel Director, Middle East, Fortinet. “We not only train partners on the latest products but also help them identify and understand customer requirements and grow their technical knowledge in the IT security and networking industry. These sessions are designed to help our partners understand our competitive edge and grow their business.”

Multiple products will be covered this quarter, including: FortiOS 5.2 – the latest version of Fortinet’s security operating system, which underpins Fortinet’s products and Advanced Threat Protection Framework.

A session on the FortiSandbox will demonstrate how the new advanced threat prevention appliance enhances Fortinet’s Advanced Threat Protection Framework.

Fortinet’s ‘Power to Learn’ workshops are an invaluable source of information for our partners across the region.”

-Maya Zakhour, Channel Director, Middle East, Fortinet.

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Veeam Software has announced new technical training and certification programmes for both its reseller propartners and end-users, in emerging markets.

The new programme will begin across the Middle East region towards the end of September 2014. The course will educate and certify partners and end-user engineers as Veeam Certified Engineers (VMCE).The designation of VMCE establishes a level of expertise required to implement and configure the company’s software correctly and most effectively. The designation also verifies the engineer has the necessary knowledge and experience to be hired as a Veeam Expert, said the company.

The vendor’s distribution partners such as Aptec–an Ingram Micro company are selected as Veeam Authorised Education Centres (VMAEC) to deliver fee-based education courses with a curriculum developed by the software company. Every class includes both lecture and hands-on elements that allow the students to learn about the technology and its configuration, and then experience the configuration in labs based on real-world customer scenarios. The first VMCE session is planned for 28th-30th Septemberin Dubai, UAE at Aptec-Ingram Micro’s office in Dubai Internet City, Dubai, UAE. “As the only distributor across Middle East and Africa delivering Veeam’s VMCE programme, we are excited to help grow Veeam and the market awareness about

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its products,” said Zornitza Hadjitodorova, Head of Ingram Micro Training, Middle East and Africa. “We have invested in a state-ofthe-art training lab to offer our students a high-end environment where hands-on education thrives.”

This new certification programme is designed to support the systems engineers of Veeam customers, as well as the pre-sales engineers of the vendor’s network of pro-partners, with high-level technical competencies through delivery of technical courses required to achieve VMCE certification.

“The implementation of the new training and certification programmes will no doubt amplify and enhance channel and end-user ecosystem,” said Vitaly Sukhovsky, Vice President, Emerging Markets and LATAM, Veeam Software. “Our goal is to see valued Veeam ProPartners become certified experts encouraged, well informed and determined as the result of this program, which will yield significant returns for them. This training will guarantee that our partners are enabled and equipped with the necessary tools to support and offer additional services to their customers.

The potential, Modern Data Center brings to the enterprise market, will be leveraged by our regional teams to ensure that our partner community takes full advantage of these hot growth opportunities.”

The company will empower its engineers specifically by providing education on Veeam product capabilities, their interaction and alignment with compatible technologies, and both onsite and online instruction on how to most effectively implement Veeam to achieve maximum functionality. This training will include certification programmes that will enable the reseller to offer and deliver highly profitable professional services, and enable the customer to further optimise its investment in the company’s solutions for a much higher ROI and improved SLAs. All VMCE candidates must pass a proctored exam as the final step in earning their certification. The vendor expects 1,000 – 2,000 engineers to earn the VMCE distinction within the next year.

highlights

Avira partners with emt Distribution for MENA

Gabriela Mechea, Sales Director Emergent Markets, Avira Global antivirus security player, Avira has entered into a definitive distribution agreement with emt Distribution to expand its channel base across Middle East and North Africa. The vendor aims to grow its presence and visibility to increase its market share in the region, with the support of the distribution channel base of emt Distribution.

“Middle East is one of the key regions for us, and we are keen on expanding our reach in the region. We are glad to partner with emt Distribution, a specialist security distributor, which has a region-wide channel presence and much desired skills,” said Gabriela Mechea, Sales Director Emergent Markets, Avira. “With this partnership, we expect to roll out our partner programme much more effectively and enable our channel partners with full programme benefits, immediate access to the products and tools, and excellent margins from the moment they sign up.”

Nandini Sapru, Director Sales, emt Distribution said, “We are excited about this new partnership with Avira to distribute their security solutions in the region. With Avira’s bouquet of technologically superior and consistently award-winning solutions, we are confident we will unlock the vast new opportunities for channel partners.” emt Distribution, as the master distributor for Middle East & North Africa is authorised to distribute the complete suite of Avira security products across the region including countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Yemen, among others.

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Aptec joins Brocade MENA partner network Brocade has announced that Aptec has joined the networking vendor’s Alliance Partner Network (APN) as a value-added distributor covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Initially Aptec will focus on promoting and distributing Brocade’s products through its reseller network. The distributor then plans to offer implementation and technical support services.

“We believe that Aptec, with the backing of its parent company Ingram Micro, is well poised to help Brocade garner a larger market share, especially in the IP space and consolidate our company’s position as a leading networking vendor in the region,” says Yarob Sakhnini, Regional Director, MEMA, Brocade.

“Signing Aptec on as part of Brocade’s APN programme is more strategic rather than tactical. We are not looking for short term wins, but rather building on our vision of what our distribution landscape needs to look like, how it will operate and what it needs to deliver.”

The companies have charted plans for a formal training program that will run for the next six months so that the Aptec team gains thorough knowledge of Brocade’s products.

Brocade will also provide Aptec with demo kits so that the distributor can conduct Proof of Concepts (POCs) as well as train its partners.

The two companies will dentify and recruit resellers that have expertise in emerging networking technologies as well as experience in industry verticals like government, telecom, financial services, education and hospitality – sectors that Brocade is focusing on.

Joint training sessions will be held once a month in Riyadh and Dubai in order to get partners enabled and up to speed as soon as possible.

Aptec will enable Brocade data centre solutions to be financed through the Brocade Network Subscription package, which offers channel subscription-based financing and offers customers the ability to pay for technology investments through OpEx rather than CapEx funding.

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Ali Baghdadi, President, Ingram Micro Technology Solutions, META region

We are confident that with the combination of world class technology and activities including partner enablement and targeted marketing campaigns aimed at raising Brocade’s profile, the market will respond favourably and we will be able to grow the vendor’s market share in a short span of time.”

Ali Baghdadi, President, Ingram Micro Technology Solutions, META region, said, “We are confident that with the combination of world class technology and activities including partner enablement and targeted marketing campaigns aimed at raising Brocade’s profile, the market will respond favourably and we will be able to grow the vendor’s market share in a short span of time.”

highlights

BDL Group to distribute Acer in UAE PC manufacturer Acer has signed a distribution partnership with BDL Group for the UAE and other GCC markets.

The Dubai-headquartered distributor will deliver the vendor’s consumer and commercial range of products to its channel partners across UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. The products include tablets, projectors, display panels and notebooks. The distributor was reappointed by Acer as its partner for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, earlier this year in March.

Tamer Ismail, CEO, BDL Group, said, “We are delighted with the extension of our distribution partnership to address the UAE and other GCC countries in addition to KSA. We have worked with Acer in the past from 2003 to 2008 and helped the vendor to develop its notebook business

in KSA, Egypt and Iraq. We believe that the partnership is a win-win situation for both companies,” he added. “UAE remains a strategic and important market for us and we are planning to grow the business in the UAE and the rest of the GCC just like we have done in KSA.” Working towards widening Acer’s share in the market, BDL Group will also help the vendor with postsales support.

David Drummond, Vice President, Acer Middle East and Africa, said, “The relationship with BDL Group goes back many years ago when the company represented the entire range in KSA. We have seen good results of that relationship with BDL in Saudi Arabia in terms of market share,” he said. “Appointing BDL to reach out to the UAE channel is a natural progression for us as the partnership also

Tamer Ismail, CEO, BDL Group sees the company introduce Extensa range in the market. Although it’s early days, we are happy with the success and the different market segmentation that BDL has opened for Acer with the Extensa array.”

Cyberoam promotes special rebate programme for Middle Eastern partners

Mike Saxton, Senior Vice President, Middle-East and Turkey, Software AG Ravinder Janotra, Regional Manager, Cyberoam Middle East Cyberoam has announced a special rebate programme for its Gold Partners and Platinum Partners in the Middle East.

Allocated different targets, the partners falling in both the categories will get the same rebate on achieving their targets. It will top other Cyberoam Partner Programme incentives.

Cyberoam security encompasses global corporations of all sizes and industries including education,

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manufacturing, healthcare, finance, retail and IT sectors. Cyberoam’s channel comprises of experienced network security professionals, leading IT solutions providers, application developers, system integrators, managed security service providers and VARs. To claim the rebate, Cyberoam partners need to login to Cyberoam Partner Portal and upload invoices for the same.

On approval of rebate application, reward points will be credited to partner’s account, which will also be communicated by a confirmation mail.

Speaking about the programme, Ravinder Janotra, Regional Manager, Cyberoam Middle East said “This is a firstof-its kind rebate programme and we feel it will translate into tremendous success for our growing partner base.”

“The partner community at Cyberoam is diversified – some specialise in the SMB segment while others have expertise in the enterprise and MSSP businesses. This ensures that all players get maximum

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opportunities for growth. To make sure that partners are able to meet their targets, Cyberoam announces several incentives every year,” Janotra added.

Cyberoam partners also have an opportunity to enter newer product segments with Sophos’ Enduser Protection Suites, Endpoint AV, Mobile Control and SafeGuard Encryption.

This is a first-of-its kind rebate programme and we feel it will translate into tremendous success for our growing partner base.”

GITEX PREVIEW

bigger and better

As the much-awaited GITEX Technology Week approaches, there has been a flurry of activity within the industry. Aiming to outdo past goals, channel stakeholders are looking at different ways to make an impact at the ICT event.

Reseller ME offers the latest on what can be expected from technology brands and partners this year.

Scope ME to focus on storage scalability

Scope ME plans to address the Middle East’s growing need for storage scalability and security in the era of Big Data through its participation at GITEX Technology Week 2014. The company will highlight storage solutions from its vendor partner Coraid and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) technologies from InfoWatch.

The VAD also intends to reach out to potential customers from the region’s rapidly growing e-commerce industry. Earlier this year, the distributor signed a partnership agreement with Authentify and will use GITEX as a platform to promote the company’s solutions such as Authentify xFA and 2CHK which use phone-based out-of-band authentication technology to offer flexible authentication. “As e-commerce transactions have become increasingly popular in the Middle and Africa, regional organisations and their customers have become the

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target of cyber-attacks. There is an urgent need for secure authentication solutions and we believe that by exposing the Authentify brand at GITEX, we will be able to capitalise on market opportunities,” said Fadi AbuEkab, CEO, Scope.

“Over the last year, the region has witnessed an explosion in data volumes.

To remain competitive, organisations must not only accommodate this surge, but must also leverage technology to extract valuable insight from all this data,” added AbuEkab.

“At GITEX, we will present a comprehensive portfolio of solutions that caters to every aspect of data storage, from management to access and security.”

The distributor will demonstrate the EtherDrive, modular data storage, and EtherCloud, storage management platform, solutions from Coraid. And will also highlight the InfoWatch Traffic Monitor solution which combines several content analysis technologies to enable effective protection of information throughout its lifecycle.

The company said it is optimistic about its participation and expects the networking opportunities and visibility to provide a solid return on investment.

“Last year, we received an overwhelming number of leads from customers within

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the telecom, government, enterprise and hospitality sectors. We expect that this year will follow a similar trend as the IT requirements of these organisations have grown exponentially in the last twelve months,” said AbuEkab.

Scope’s stand at GITEX is C110 and is in Hall 1 of the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC).

StorIT to showcase data management, cloud & Big Data solutions

Data storage specialist valueadded distributor in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, StorIT Distribution has announced that it will be showcasing its latest data management, cloud and Big Data solutions at GITEX Technology Week 2014. The distributor will also showcase its extensive portfolio of solutions and technical services from its vendor partners in addition to holding demonstrations for visitors at the leading ICT

exhibition in the Middle East.

“Over the last 12 months, StorIT has achieved many milestones in the areas of Big Data, cloud computing, visual analytics, high performance computing and data management solutions and services in addition to our regular data management and storage solutions and we are very excited with what the future holds for us. We have added several new technologies and solutions to our portfolio and GITEX will be an important vehicle to introduce these to our customers and channel, which will also create new business opportunities for our partners,” said Manju Mathew, Marketing Manager, StorIT Distribution.

“GITEX, being the largest ICT exhibition in this region, is the best platform for us to launch new technologies, promote our diverse line of products, solutions and services, and meet customers and partners from across the Middle East at a single location. We plan to highlight the technical services capability that we offer as a value distributor with highly qualified system integration skills. The exhibition is also an ideal forum for us to announce our new partnerships and our channel expansion initiatives, as well as an opportunity to share the company’s success story,” she adds.

At GITEX 2014, StorIT plans to showcase its turnkey

GITEX PREVIEW solutions portfolio from partners such as EMC, Huawei, Quantum, QLogic, Emulex, Aptare, Moonwalk, Mellanox, SAS, ATTO and Supermicro.

The company also plans to introduce new technologies that will keep its partners ahead in the fast evolving technology landscape.

“The whole distribution (IT channel) industry is changing from a device centric to a customer centric approach.

We foresee serious growth opportunities in the area of Big Data, analytics and cloud computing and we hope to share our vision and strategy with our partners,” added Mathew.

StorIT Distribution will be exhibiting in Hall 6 stand CLD 16. Technology experts from the company and its partners will be available at the stand to meet with visitors, hold product demonstrations and share global success stories.

StarLink to focus on cyber defense

StarLink will showcase its nextgeneration IT Security portfolio with its participating vendor partners at GITEX Technology Week 2014.

StarLink is acclaimed as one of the fastest growing IT Security VADs in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa regions. Over the last couple of years, StarLink has successfully expanded and

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exponentially increased its presence in Sub-Saharan Africa and Turkey. This year further expansion plans are being executed into Southern Europe and North Africa, as well as, North America. Currently over 250 partners are managed across the 14 countries where StarLink has on-the-ground channel management, channel sales and technical resources to support partners.

StarLink, has been participating in GITEX for many years, and as always, expects an excellent response from customers who come to see the latest technologies added to StarLink’s portfolio.

Furthermore, an exponential increase in the number of Channel Partners visiting the stand is anticipated this year due to the successful launch of the StarLink Choice programme.

“Market research shows, the annual cost of cybercrime is a whopping $100 billion.

Also compliance is getting ever more important. At GITEX this year, StarLink will showcase a unique mix of defense-in-depth solutions to combat the latest cyberthreats and address today’s compliance challenges in the Middle East. Our solutions are focused on the key IT security drivers of Access Control, Advanced Threat Protection, Vulnerability Management and Secure Mobility, which we will showcase at GITEX,” said Mahmoud Nimer, General Manager, StarLink.

StarLink technologies are now installed by Channel Partners in more than 500 enterprise and government customer datacenters, and this was further enhanced by its involvement in many mega projects for some of the largest Government and Energy sector companies in the region.

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Canon to show off scanning and docs solutions

data security, maintaining information quality and lowering workplace costs.”

Customised product briefings for each vertical industry and customer case studies will be presented to visitors at the Canon stand A2-6 at Hall 2.

Riverbed announces GITEX presence

Canon Middle East has announced it will be exhibiting its imageFORMULA scanning and document management solutions at the upcoming GITEX Technology Week.

Other solutions to be showcased will include backlog scanning and document distribution for government entities, medical archiving for healthcare companies, cheque clearing solutions and document management for banks, document capture and arching for educational institutions and business workflows for SME and corporates.

“In most firms in the region, paper documents are still the dominant vehicle for capturing and communicating information,” said Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Director, Canon Middle East. “Manual and inefficient processes may make it more difficult and costly to access these files in a timely manner. The seamless and immediate sharing of information in central and field locations is becoming extremely important. Canon’s easy-to-use imageFORMULA scanning solutions simplifies the distribution of business information across a network to specified destinations while simultaneously improving

Riverbed will showcase its Application Performance Platform at GITEX Technology Week 2014.

This platform enables organisations to embrace “location-independent” computing, and is done by leveraging Riverbed’s integrated solutions: SteelHead, SteelFusion, SteelApp, SteelCentral, and SteelStore which span across WAN optimisation, branch converged infrastructure, application delivery, performance management, and cloudintegrated storage.

Riverbed will also announce the expansion of its partner ecosystem in the region with new agreements.

This year, Riverbed also celebrates its expansion to new territories with Turkey and KSA as country models and three regional clusters – namely North Gulf, South Gulf, and Africa anchored by Egypt.

Its geographical footprint is also undergoing an evolution in order to align with its growth in the new markets and to better serve its customers.

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GITEX PREVIEW “GITEX 2014 is one of the most important networking platforms for Riverbed to connect with its vendors, partners and customers,” Taj ElKhayat, Managing Director, Middle East, Turkey, North, West, and Central Africa, Riverbed Technology, said. “We are aiming to increase our visibility and reinforce Riverbed as the leader in Application Performance Infrastructure, by delivering the most complete platform for location-independent computing and enabling organisations to use distance and location to gain a competitive advantage.”

Technology experts from the company will be available to speak to existing and potential customers and channel partners from across the region at Stand D2-3 in Hall 2 of Dubai World Trade Center.

Aruba to display wireless solutions at GITEX

Aruba Networks will demonstrate its portfolio of 802.11ac wireless solutions at GITEX Technology Week from 12th-16th October, 2014 at Dubai World Trade Centre.

It will demonstrate its WLAN Access Points (APs) and mobility controllers that are built for the 802.11ac standard and the wireless experience for 802.11n devices which connect to the network. .

It will also showcase its ClearPass Access Management System.

The company is aiming to position itself as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the WLAN requirements of organisations of all sizes and lines of business.

“Organisations have been forced to rethink their networks,” Ammar Enaya, General Manager, Aruba Networks Middle East, said.

“The workplace of the future will need secure wireless infrastructure to attract #GenMobile talent and provide them with the tools they need for productivity and innovation. Using ClearPass, businesses can dynamically profile devices as they connect to the network, which in turn helps fine-tune policies. The solution then aids policy management and automation, allowing granular control based on user roles, device types, ownership, and location.”

Aruba Networks’ stand at Gitex will be D1-30 in Hall 1.

Alcatel-Lucent to demonstrate communication solutions at GITEX

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise will demonstrate its latest innovations in intelligent network infrastructure and communication solutions at GITEX Technology Week 2014.

Under the theme ‘connected experience’ Alcatel-Lucent will display converged networks, which combine voice, video, data and mobility applications on a single network.

The Unified Access solution comprises a set of BYOD services that enables employees and customers to use corporate or personal, wired or wireless devices on the enterprise network.

The company will also showcase new enhancements in unified communications & collaboration solutions including the OpenTouch Conversation for Web, and the OpenTouch Enterprise Cloud suite of communication and collaboration services.

“Many new devices, such as smartphones and next-generation IP phones, demand additional bandwidth and sometimes have power requirements that

are above the limits of today’s networks,” Baher Ezzat, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, AlcatelLucent Enterprise, said. “Coupled with employees demanding to connect their own devices to corporate networks, companies are faced with increasing mobility and security risks. At GITEX, we will be showcasing an impressive line-up of our latest converged networking and collaboration solutions focusing on specific verticals such as hospitality, travel and education.”

Alcatel-Lucent will demonstrate its Guest BYOD Telephony solution designed for the hospitality industry. Guests can use their own mobile devices to access hotel services, which includes controlling the in-room environment, adjust lighting and temperature, access hotel services, set a wake-up calls, set their do not disturb room status, and more.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise will be located at Stand D 10, Zabeel Hall at GITEX, that is being held from October 12-16th at Dubai World Trade Centre.

Finesse exhibits social media monitoring solutions

Finesse intends to exhibit various social media monitoring tools at the GITEX Technology Week.

Today, seventy percent of customers reference check a product on social media before making a purchase. Hence, the need for organisations to know the customers’ sentiments has grown manifold. Finesse solutions intend to plug the gap.

Finesse will demonstrate the tools for real-time reporting, use of proprietary crawler monitors, automatic workflow management and geo-tagging. Many of these intend to improve processing of natural language, analyse sentiments and gain insights that can be used across all functional departments.

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Finesse will be showcasing the tools at its stall SRH-21 in Sheikh Rashid Hall, Dubai World Trade Center during GITEX from October 12 – 16.

Sophos ready to announce Sophos Cloud and Project Galileo

Sophos will make public a range of network, endpoint and server security solutions at GITEX. These will include Endpoint Antivirus, SafeGuard Encryption and Sophos Server Protection; spotlight would be on Sophos Cloud and Project Galileo.

Sophos Cloud aims to provide an integrated security for all OS platforms whilst Project Galileo intends to bridge the communication gap between Sophos’ endpoint technology, server protection and network security products to provide visibility and control on a single, cloud-based security management console.

Sophos latest version of network security appliance SG Series will also be showcased.

“Sophos’ strategy over the last few years has been to make security simple for our customers.

Our newest addition Project Galileo aims to deliver Unified Threat Management (UTM) on a cloud based platform. We have seen an increased demand for Sophos Cloud and Project Galileo globally and at GITEX 2014, we look forward to offering it to our Middle Eastern customers,” says Thomas Thoelke, Sales Director NEEMEA, Sophos.

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GITEX PREVIEW

Sophos will be participating at the GITEX Technology Week 2014, which is being held in Dubai from October 12-16, 2014.

Focus Softnet to exhibit cloud solutions and mobile apps

features and the cost savings realized from implementing these,” said Ali Hyder, Group CEO of Focus Softnet.

Focus Softnet will be exhibiting at Stand D7-20 in Hall 7 at the GITEX Technology Week 2014 taking place from 12-16 October at Dubai World Trade Centre.

CommVault to tout Simpana software platform at GITEX

Focus Softnet is all set to introduce cloud-based versions of its flagship enterprise solutions Focus i, Focus RT, Focus POS and Focus PMS at the GITEX Technology Week.

It will also introduce solutions for managed services, recruitment, and business process consulting.

Cloud solutions and mobile apps for enterprises and SMBs from healthcare, real estate and hospitality verticals will be the focus. The company will also promote its recently launched Focus CRM on cloud, which aims to help customers track the entire business cycle from marketing to pre-sales to operations through post-sales and services. The cloud-version of the solution enhances to 24X7 accessibility, 99.99% uptime and full time and dedicated support service to the end-user.

“We have been participating in GITEX for the last eighteen years now. The response we receive gets bigger and better every year. GITEX is an ideal platform to showcase our solutions, meet with existing and potential customers, demonstrate our products’

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Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise CommVault has announced it will showcase its Simpana 10 software platform at the upcoming GITEX Technology Week.

CommVault also recently announced new Simpana cloud management capabilities and Simpana Solution Sets, and will also look to strengthen ties with current channel partners.

As part of these discussions, it will educate partners about the recently announced enhancements to its PartnerAdvantage program as they expand into new markets, such as data protection, archiving, mobility and cloud services.

“As many companies in the Middle East are building businesses that target not just regional but global growth, technology is playing a larger role than ever in advancing these organizational aspirations,” said Bassam Hemdan, AVP, CommVault.

“According to Gartner, the

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last ten years has seen IT change from the department that takes care of technology to support the business, to an era where CIOs and IT managers are increasingly expected to play a key role in achieving competitive advantage. With Simpana software featuring unified archiving, backup, reporting, snapshot management, eDiscovery and secure data access within a single software platform, it provides regional enterprises with unparalleled data management capabilities besides the unique ability to unlock business value from data. We hope to meet a large number of potential customers at GITEX and convey these powerful value propositions.”

The annual GITEX Technology Week will be held at the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) in Dubai from 12-16 October and CommVault can be found in Hall 6 of the exhibition at stand number CLD 14.

Polycom to exhibit video collaboration tools

Polycom will showcase its latest portfolio of video and voice collaboration solutions along with live demonstrations of its RealPresence Immersive Studio at the 34th edition of GITEX Technology Week.

Polycom will be exhibiting in partnership with its regional distributor FVC. “Technology is becoming an omnipresent part of our lives in the UAE and this has given rise to a generation of ‘always-connected’ technology natives,” Ramy Alam, Regional Sales Director, Gulf, Polycom, said. “Flexible working provides the opportunity for employees to find a work-life balance that fits their day-to-day routine. In line with this trend.

GITEX serves as the best platform to demonstrate our strengths in open, standards-based voice, video and content collaboration solutions. These solutions are engineered to create a dynamic collaborative workplace, which can cater to the needs of changing business environments. It also gives Polycom the opportunity to connect with the best minds within the ICT industry in the region and we look forward to another successful year at this event,” he added.

Polycom will also be demonstrating its RealPresence Utility Cart and RealPresence EduCart video collaboration tools as well as its Eagle Eye Director tool which is emulates video production techniques in group meetings.

Visitors and participants can visit the Polycom stand at Zabeel Hall Booth: Z – G12, at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre from 12-16 October 2014.

Infoblox to highlight network automation tech

Network control firm Infoblox will showcase its latest innovations in DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management (DDI), secure DNS and network automation technologies at GITEX Technology Week, 12th-16th October, 2014.

Infoblox will also demonstrate its cloud solutions that provide automated core

GITEX PREVIEW network services for virtual machines in the data centre.

“Security of DNS infrastructure should be a top priority for organisations in the Middle East, but unfortunately statistics show that DNS servers and zone data are often neglected, which leave enterprises vulnerable to attacks,” Cherif Sleiman, General Manager, Middle East, Infoblox, said. “These attacks go well beyond DNS DDoS. There are multitudes of different attack vectors, which most DNS servers cannot detect or protect against.

The Advanced DNS Protection solution from Infoblox offers intelligent defense against the widest variety of attack types – not just volumetric attacks – to ensure secure, resilient, and trustworthy DNS services.”

Domain Name System (DNS) Security is an area that Infoblox believes regional organisations will start paying greater attention to as they begin to understand the damaging consequences of inadequate security measures.

Another focus for Infoblox will be on the company’s cloud solution.

Infoblox will be exhibiting at GITEX from stand number D1-27 at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC).

Huawei to flaunt Smart City offerings

Huawei has announced a full program of activities to ‘help build a better connected world’ at this year’s GITEX Technology Week, through its portfolio of Smart City

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solutions and expertise.

Visitors at GITEX 2014 will have the opportunity to preview Huawei’s latest technology across its three core business lines serving telecom operators, enterprise and government entities, as well as consumers throughout the region.

A lineup of regional and global Huawei experts will also be descending on GITEX 2014 to share insights on Smart City development practices.

Huawei’s smart city focus at GITEX follows a recent IDC report that states government spending in the Middle East and Africa is set to top $8billion.

“Our world is increasingly city-centric, and within the Middle East cities of the future will need to become more intelligent through connected infrastructure that can positively transform the way in which citizens and businesses experience their world,” said Shi Yaohong, President, Huawei Middle East. “We hope to work with regional governments in the future to help them become better connected and will be announcing key insights during the exhibition that will help them achieve their smart city initiatives.”

Huawei’s heritage in the telecoms market will feature prominently, the company showcasing advancements in ultra-broadband network technologies such as fiber optics, LTE-Advanced, and 5thGeneration mobile broadband.

Huawei also will unveil a series of new additions to its solutions portfolio, coupled with live demonstrations and interactive case studies offering strategic guidance to governments and businesses

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on how to approach Smart City projects.

Software-DefinedNetworking (SDN), cloud computing, Bring-Your-OwnDevice (BYOD), Big Data and Unified Communications will all feature on the roster.

Huawei will also exhibit its demo truck, which gives visitors the opportunity to experience innovations in data centre solutions, virtual servers & desktops, plus a range of vertical industry solutions. Visitors will have access to a fully-functional Huawei container data centre operating in a live environment inside the truck.

HID Global empowers customers with security identity solutions

HID Global aims to line up a comprehensive portfolio of solutions addressing the customer’s needs for physical access control and identity assurance at the GITEX Technology Week.

The company will incorporate its global theme of – ‘Your Security Connected’ and focus on customercentric innovative identity and access management solutions that securely connect people, devices and applications. It will display smart applications that address the enterprise’s, financial institution’s and government’s security

requirements.

On the smart devices front, the company will demonstrate FARGO printers, physical access control readers and cards and logical access control range. HID Global also intends to highlight emerging technologies that leverage Bluetooth Smart to simplify mobile access.

“HID Global is a trusted provider of secure identity solutions and we are delighted to be participating for the fourth consecutive year at GITEX, the biggest IT tradeshow in the MEA region. HID Global strongly believes in collaborating with the channel partners to address end user requirements effectively,” said Nat Pisupati, Regional Sales Director, Identity and Access Management, HID Global MEA. It will also demonstrate latest technology solutions designed for enterprise, healthcare, education and financial services (banking) verticals.

Commenting on the level of interaction sought at the GITEX, Pisupati said, “We will be available to meet channel partners, end users, OEMs, systems integrators, security and IT managers to understand what key secure identity challenges need to be addressed in the their markets and how our solutions can assist them.”

HID Global will exhibit at Stand B2-4, Shaikh Saeed Hall 2 at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 12-16 October, 2014.

Juniper Networks to introduce highIQ networks and cloud architecture

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Juniper Networks intends to announce cloud network solutions, data centre architecture, security solutions and high-IQ networks at the GITEX Technology Week.

These will include an integrated end-to-end analytics solution Cloud Analytics Engine (CAE), a threat intelligence platform Juniper Networks® Spotlight Secure, a software-defined networking solution Contrail scalable to all virtual networks and a data centre MetaFabric™ Architecture.

Juniper is also the Platinum Sponsor of the Cloud Confex taking place at the GITEX on the 13th of Oct. Adrian Pickering, VP, MEA, Juniper Networks, will present Juniper’s vision for ‘Moving Networking to the Cloud Era’ at the Confex.

Pickering spoke to the press with optimism adding, “This year’s GITEX promises to be the best yet. As a business, Juniper has undergone many positive changes over the last year and we are now poised to better deliver on our commitment to customers in the Middle East.”

“Our vision for building high-IQ networks perfectly mirrors the ethos that regional leaders have in adopting the latest technologies to advance businesses and fuel local knowledge”, he added.

Mario Georgiou, Regional Partner Director, MEA & RESE, Juniper Networks and Samer El Kudsi, Sales Director, Enterprise MENA, Juniper Networks will also represent the Juniper team at the GITEX; Juniper will exhibit in Hall 6, CLD 5 at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center from 12-16 October, 2014

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NetApp to exhibit ‘Data ONTAP’ at GITEX

NetApp has announced that it will focus on its open networked storage operating system Data ONTAP solution at GITEX Technology Week 2014.

Situated in the Cloud Hall, NetApp’s booth will feature their FAS, E-Series, Flash and FlexPod portfolio.

ONTAP delivers a unified storage platform that enables data movement across multiple cloud environments and paves the way for software-defined data centres.

NetApp is also partnering with NEC and Axis to showcase a face recognition solution in connection with their E-Series video surveillance storage solutions NetApp will also use the interactive Kaon v-Rack for virtual product demonstrations, which creates interactive 3D product marketing applications Alliance Partner Veeam Software and reselling partner Diyar United Company will join NetApp at their booth.

“This is NetApp’s first time having our own stand at GITEX, and we’re very excited to be a part of one of the world’s leading technology trade shows,” said Fadi Kanafani, Regional Director Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan NetApp. “Having previously showcased our solutions through our partners, we are keen to engage directly with all of our stakeholders in the region this year, including customers, prospects, alliance and reselling partners.”

GITEX Technology Week 2014 will be held between 12th-16th October 2014 at the

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Dubai World Trade Centre, and NetApp will be located at CLD15 in Hall 6 (Cloud Hall).

emt Distribution to display new Range of security and productivity solutions

At GITEX Technology Week this year, emt Distribution will unveil new products from its new vendor partners WhatsUpGold and Bee Ware, in addition to showcasing new products from its existing vendor partners. “emt Distribution is one of the leading global value added distributors with a foot print spanning several continents with offices located in Australia, Austria, Argentina, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, UK and UAE,” explained Mohammad Mobasseri, the CEO at emt Distribution. “The company has been part of the technology distribution landscape for over 15 years with a portfolio consisting of security, virtualisation, communication, and analytics solutions.”

According to Mobasseri, emt Distribution has booked a bigger space at the event this year, in order to be able to showcase more products from new and existing vendors. “We expect all our vendor partners to be present during GITEX Technology Week 2014. As of now, we

have confirmations from Secunia, Kaspersky Lab, WhatsUpGold, 2X Software, Avira, GWAVA, Bee Ware, DenyAll and AlienVault,”said Mobasseri. “GITEX is the biggest IT event in the region and will give us better access to IT companies, experts, and corporate users. Each year, we have new solutions and offerings to showcase at this event, and our aim is to make sure visitors, channel partners, and customers get the latest update about our new technologies.”

At ICT event, emt Distribution will run a ‘Treasure Hunt’ activity through its booth at B2-6 in Hall 2. In this activity, visitors to the event will have to collect three cards – one from emt Distribution’s stand – and the rest two from the company’s two partner stands. The visitors will then have to match the cards and if they are able to form the letters E, M, and T, they get to partake in the daily raffle draw. The winner of the raffle draw gets to walk away with a gold bar.

Mobasseri said that the company is well positioned to provide pre-and post-sales support with their team of experienced product specialists. “Our team possesses leading industry qualifications, and is equipped with all relevant vendor certification to act as ‘Trusted Advisors’ for channel partners and end-users. And this is one of the main highlights we will be reiterating at GITEX Technology Week 2014,” added Mobasseri.

“We encourage partners and end users to visit our booth at GITEX to get latest news, exciting offers, and promotional offers.”

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opinion

emt Distribution

Sustaining profitability Mohammad Mobasseri, CEO, emt Distribution, shares how channel partners and owners can maintain a steady growth for the business. respondents develop sustainability policies at the CEO level, while only 35 percent actually move forward in training managers to integrate sustainability policies into work operations.

Therefore, in order to create a sustainable business, you must get everyone involved, including stakeholders, staff and even customers. Having said that, here are 5 simple tips that can help in achieving a reasonable growth and sustainable business.

Most channel partners or business owners who are struggling with having a proper strategy in place, are always asking themselves if the focus should be on today or plan for tomorrow.

As alarmingly as it may sound, some of them don’t think about the future (tomorrow) at all. On the other hand, many CEOs and shareholders want company directors and managers to be more forward-looking, especially when it comes to sustainability.

According to the United Nation’s 2013 Global Corporate Sustainability Report, 65 percent of

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Eliminate liabilities The very first thing you need to do is to list down your employees, products, services and costs, and to decide which one needs to be removed from the list. Once that is identified, you have to analyse if they were profitable in the first place? This might seem like a drastic step and you might feel it will impact the business heavily, which is why it is crucial to involve key directors and even third party consultants. This way emotion doesn’t come in the picture and it is a pure business decision. Note that this is one of the most critical part of the change.

List down your goals You need to then list down your goals, but remember

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to have one goal at a time to achieve. List of goals and tasks should be sorted out on priority basis and then works towards achieving them. If there are goals within the same level of importance then you have to ensure proper time management skills.

Learn to assign Many managers are not open to assigning tasks to others, especially if they believe only they can do it in the best possible way. This could be pose as another risk for the growth of the business.

Remember as a manager, you have to oversee how the business runs on a daily basis and also look at opportunities to grow the business. As you remove from the list for ‘today’, you also have to add for ‘tomorrow’. It’s not possible for you to manage everything singlehandedly.

Delegating your work is important.

as possible to technology.

In other words, you must automate as much processes as you can, this saves time and increases accuracy, which means you get more time to plan the future.

Review changes regularly Adopt specific measures for your company’s sustainability impact and adhere to routine reporting.

You can only continue the process if you review defined activities regularly, that’s your job as a CEO, manager or business owner, go from 1 to 5 on a regular basis to make sure all steps are done accurately. Good luck with the change.

“Adopt specific measures for your company’s sustainability impact and adhere to routine reporting. You can only continue the process if you review defined activities regularly.”

Depend on technology Technology is your closest friend, you need to leave as much

interview

Cheryl cook

A mandate for growth Dell is now a private company. And that’s good news for the channel, says Cheryl Cook, VP of Global Alliances and Channel at Dell. In an exclusive interview with Reseller Middle East, she reveals how the company plans to ramp up the partner eco-system.

What’s changed since you went private?

There is a real focus on the customer. And inside the company, there is renewed excitement and enthusiasm coupled with positive momentum in our business. It’s liberated our team from unnecessary distractions and management rigour to stay focused on execution of what really matters to our customers.

What does it mean for the channel? Is it much easier to

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do business with Dell now?

I can confidently say that the enthusiasm we feel within the company is cascading into our partner environment. Their business is prospering and we are seeing a good adoption of our portfolio, be it clients, software or enterprise server business.

Earlier this year, Dell has announced the plans to transfer 200,000 Dell Direct accounts into the hands of partners. Do you have any numbers on how many of those accounts have been

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transferred so far?

I don’t have the exact numbers but what we do see is really good results in the growth of the business. We are expanding with our partner community to increase reach and coverage in the market and we have seen positive results in the number of new customers. Our expansion into strategic areas of focus such as enterprise offerings and data centre solutions is growing at a brisk rate.

Are these accounts existing business or just prospective

accounts of the company?

It’s both; some are new acquisitions and some are expanding our reach within the existing accounts. Within our partner community, we have lines of business deal registrations, which is growing by 35 percent.

Are you going to discontinue Dell Direct?

No, we have an omni-channel approach. We have customers that want to continue to interface and transact with us directly, we have a robust online presence and we have

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interview

Cheryl cook

traditional indirect channel business, whether that is through two-tier distribution or partner reseller networks. We will still do business with customers and we advocate customer choice and partner choice.

So your primary route to market will be threefold – Dell-led, partner-led and distribution-led?

Exactly. We are going to be smarter because if you look at how broad Dell portfolio is now, the total addressable market that we can compete is much broader than it was.

We want to maximise our coverage and reach into that market potential.

How do you ensure your partners aren’t competing with your sales team for deals?

We have a deal registration process, which has served well, and most of the feedback from our partners is that it is easy to navigate and well understood.

We are also going to be more predictable and collaborative with our partner community on sharing where we are going to make investments in our direct coverage, and where we want to team and work with them to expand coverage in channel-led geographies.

How much of your business is generated by the channel?

On a global basis, it’s about 35 percent.

Will that change over the next couple of years?

I don’t cap what our potential growth can be. Where I am seeing advances for us is in the mix of our business.

Our partners are uniquely positioned to help us expand

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into data centre, enterprise solutions as well as client business.

Will distribution have a crucial role to play?

I think so. We use distribution here in the UAE and on a global basis we are looking to expand distribution to expand our reach into certain markets.

When you look at the way they can help us by way of partner coverage, reach, enablement and time to market, distribution will indeed play a crucial role in our business.

It’s been six and half years since you launched your programme. Have you been able to win the trust of the channel, given the fact that Dell has its roots in direct sales model?

I think its improving every day and every year. There might have been some questions in the early days, but if you look at the scale of our business, how much of our business is done through the channel already, we have really demonstrated that we want to make sure our partners reap rich rewards and we have made good strides towards a predictable channel engagement.

Dell has made many acquisitions over the last seven years or so. Is your partner programme a patch work of disparate programmes of these companies you have snapped up?

Even with a relatively new partner programme, from the bottom up we have been able to take the best attributes and characteristics of all those programmes and unify it into

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“We are focused on end-to-end solutions. If you look at the trends in the marketplace, cloud, mobility, security, and virtualisation will be predominant areas of focus for us.”

a comprehensive and simplified partner engagement model. One thing I am committed to is maintaining the simplicity of navigating our partner programme.

Have you identified any growth areas that Dell is going to focus on?

We are focused on end-to-end solutions. If you look at the trends in the marketplace, cloud, mobility, security, and virtualisation will be predominant areas of focus for us. We are seeing good adoption among partner community on understanding those natural affinities and adjacencies. If you are an infrastructure partner, it makes to bundle data protection with storage pursuits or security solutions with networking sales.

A major chunk of your revenues still come from PC business. Is Dell still committed to that business?

We have a very strong PC business and remain very committed. The PC business is growing faster and it gives us scale and leverage in our business and supply chain; it helps us provide end-toend nature of solutions that customers are demanding.

Are you going to incentivise partners who make multiproduct sales?

We want to make sure that we are worth the

investments partners make with us. We will continue to offer lucrative rebates for partners who are strategically aligned to our goals and invest in competencies and certifications to deliver better customer experience.

Will the focus be more on top-tier, certified partners?

That’s not the only place where we are going to focus but one thing I have been really delighted about is that as we continue to bring partners into our ecosystem, the number of partners that are achieving certification to step into premier and preferred levels is increasing dramatically. Between Q1 and Q2 this year, we had 700 partners achieve certification and the number of certified partner community globally is well over 4200 now.

This shows the number of partners who are willing to strategically align and build out skills and capabilities around our intellectual property is on an upswing.

Channel elite industry ranking

Ranking of channel players Top 10 ranking NAME

OVERALL RANK

CATEGORY

INDUSTRY RANK

TOP EXECUTIVE

TITLE

REVENUE ($M) 2320

Redington Gulf

1

Distribution

1

Raj Shankar

Managing Director

MDS UAE

2

Systems Integration

1

Sami Esber

President

850

BDL Group

3

Distribution

2

Tamer Ismail

Chief Executive Officer

770

Metra Computer Group

4

Distribution

3

Mohammed Eissa

Executive VP

723 510

Logicom

5

Distribution

4

Sajith Raj

General Manager

Emax Electronics

6

Retail

1

Neelesh Bhatnagar

Chief Executive Officer

500

FDC

7

Distribution

5

Marissa Safe

COO and Vice President

465

Global Distribution

8

Distribution

6

V MÂ Chandrasekar

Group CEO

464 370 320

Almasa IT Distribution

9

Distribution

7

Mehdi Amjed

CEO and Chairman

Mitsumi Distribution

10

Distribution

8

Jagat Shah

Chairman and CEO

NAME

OVERALL RANK

CATEGORY

INDUSTRY RANK

TOP EXECUTIVE

TITLE

REVENUE ($M)

Jacky's Electronics

11

Retail

2

Ashish Panjabi

COO

*300+

Asbis Middle East

12

Distribution

9

Hesham Tantawi

Vice President

294 240

NEXT 15 RANKING (11-24)

Mindware

13

Distribution

10

Mario Gay

General Manager

Alpha Data

14

Systems Integration

2

Fayez Ibbini

Founder and CEO

220

Westcon Group

15

Distribution

11

Steve Lockie

Group Managing Director

205

CNS

16

Systems Integration

3

Ihab Al Saheli

General Manager

*190

Trigon

17

Distribution

12

Arun Chawla

Chief Executive Officer

160

Gulf Shadows Computers

18

Distribution

13

Eyas Shoman

Chief Executive Officer

135

Arrow Electronics

19

Distribution

14

Gareth Morgan

General Manager

*130

Visionaire

20

Systems Integration

4

Aneeta Gupta

Chief Executive Officer

129.8

Al Jammaz Distribution

21

Distribution

15

Asim Al-jammaz

Vice President

125

Despec

22

Distribution

16

Jaison Korath

Group CEO

124

Prologix

23

Distribution

17

Sarwan Singh

Managing Director

100

Seven Seas Computer

24

Systems Integration

5

Nayagam Pillai

Group CEO

95

Experts Computer

24

Reselling

1

Shailendra Rughwani

Managing Director

95

38

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

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FOLLOWING 15 RANKING (25-39) NAME

OVERALL RANK

CATEGORY

INDUSTRY RANK

TOP EXECUTIVE

TITLE

REVENUE ($M) 80

FVC

25

Distribution

18

KS Parag

Managing Director

Exclusive Networks

26

Distribution

19

Fari Boustantchi

Chief Executive Officer

75

Emitac Enterprise Solutions

27

Systems Integration

7

Miguel Villalonga

Chief Executive Officer

60.1

StarLink

28

Distribution

20

Nidal Othman

Managing Director

55

MaxTouch

29

Reselling

2

Ramesh Belani

Managing Director

52

Intertec Systems

30

Systems Integration

8

Naresh Kothari

Managing Director

50

ComGuard

31

Distribution

12

Ajay Chauhan

Chief Executive Officer

44

Oxygen

32

Distribution

21

Khalid Laban

Chief Executive Officer

38

Almoayyed Computers

33

Systems Integration

9

SM Hussaini

General Manager

36.2

Printek Supplies

34

Reselling

3

Manoj Tiwari

Managing Director

35

HelpAG

35

Systems Integration

10

Stephan Berner

Managing Director

34

Al Rostamani Communications

36

Systems Integration

11

Mohammed Zameer

General Manager

30

StorIT

36

Distribution

22

Suren Vedantham

Group Managing Director

*30

Nanjgel

37

Systems Integration

12

Jude Pereira

Managing Director

25

Fast Lane

38

Training

1

Josef Miskulnig

Founder and CEO

23

TOP EXECUTIVE

TITLE

REVENUE ($M) 23

OTHERS (39-47) NAME

OVERALL RANK

CATEGORY

Paramount

38

Systems Integration

INDUSTRY RANK 6

Premchand Kurup

Chief Executive Officer

Lucky Star

39

Reselling

4

KU Shankari

Managing Director

22

Precedence

40

Systems Integration

13

Farook Majeed

Chief Executive Officer

10.8

EMW

41

Systems Integration

14

Serjios El-Hage

Group CEO

10

Spectrami

42

Distribution

23

Anand Choudha

Managing Director

8

Tech Forte

43

Systems Integration

15

Mario M Veljovic

Vice President Solutions

6.1

Finesse

44

Systems Integration

16

Sunil Paul

Chief Operating Officer

5.4

Quality Computers

45

Reselling

5

Vasant Menghani

Founder and CEO

5

Computer Networks Middle East

46

Systems Integration

17

Tariq Bilgrami

Managing Director

3.8

Oscomp

47

Reselling

6

Kunal Sajnani

Managing Director

0.98

Key to rankings: Companies have been ranked on the basis of the latest revenue figure ($M) provided by the channel partner.

Overall rank refers to the rank of the player across all 50 submissions received.

Industry rank refers to the rank of the player within the appropriate category. Categories include distribution systems integration, reselling and retailing. *RME Estimate

www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East october 2014

39

Channel elite industry ranking TOP SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS

TOP DISTRIBUTORS

TOP VALUE-ADDED DISTRIBUTORS

Redington Gulf

MDS UAE

Westcon Group

BDL Group

Alpha Data

ComGuard

CNS

Arrow Electronics

Visionaire

FVC

Seven Seas Computer

Exclusive Networks

Metra Computer Group Logicom FDC

Paramount

Global Distribution

Emitac Enterprise Solutions

Almasa IT Distribution

Intertec Systems

Mitsumi Distribution

Almoayyed Computers

Asbis Middle East

HelpAG

StarLink Oxygen StorIT Spectrami

Al Rostamani Communicatons

Mindware

Nanjgel

Trigon

Precedence

Gulf Shadows Computers Al Jammaz Distribution

TOP RESELLERS

EMW

Experts Computer

Tech Forte

MaxTouch

Despec

Finesse

Prologix

Computer Networks Middle East

MarKET SHARE BY industry activity MarKET SHARE BY industry activity

Distribution 73.33%

Systems integration 17.08%

Printek Supplies Lucky Star Quality Computers Oscomp

Players who gave the ranking a miss Aptec—an Ingram Micro company Aptec, one of the larger regional players in distribution did not reveal 2013 sales figures, citing company policy. The distributor has missed the RME ranking for the second time in a row.

Training 0.21%

Resellers 1.95%

Retailers 7.43%

Base $10.78B, 50 companies

40

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

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Jumbo Electronics Jumbo declined participation in the ranking as it was not willing to divulge revenue figures for 2013. However, we can expect the company to be a part of the survey next year as it aims to introduce a number of market initiatives in the following months.

Channel elite industry ranking

01 Redington Gulf Redington Gulf continues to top the ranking in the regional distribution space with no close second to threaten its position. One of the few companies in the channel space who has been able to efficiently deliver both volume and value business, the distributor has a strong footprint across the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and CIS regions. It boasts of over 16,600 resellers and has a total of 24 warehouses in 14 countries across the regions.

On the volume front, the company has maintained its market leadership in Saudi Arabia for the last two years and has achieved a double digit growth in its value business across MEA. The distributor offers services such as pre-sales and after-sales support, proof of concept along with training to its 30 plus global brands including Avaya, Alcatel, Barracuda Networks, Checkpoint, Cisco, Dell Sonicwall, Red Hat, Symantec, Trend Micro, TrippLite, Veeam and VMWare, under its value portfolio.

It has invested in several channel engagement programmes over the year, such as product training programmes and webinars for SMB partners. Raj Shankar, Managing Director of the company says, “The sales promotion and incentive programme for our channel partners were well received last year. Besides that, we also grew all our businesses, including IT volume, IT value and telco and services, significantly and has experienced a 10 percent growth year-on-year.”

According to the MD, the growth largely came from brand acquisitions in the value space and by investing in product training and webinars. A rather large part of the growth also came by structuring financial solutions for partners.

In this financial year, we will see the distributor increasing infrastructure investments in countries across the Middle East. It also expects the SAP CRM implementation within the organisation to improve customer services. We will also see the company increasing its investments in marketing programmes to reach out to new partners and increase engagement with existing partners through digital channels.

“We will focus on delivering training services and increased presence across digital mediums to make it easier for value-added resellers to engage with Redington Value and will launch cloud services from this segment,” adds Shankar.

2.5

2.0

1.5 2011

2012

2013 2013

Top brands by revenue: Dell, EMC, HP, Lenovo, Samsung

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october 2014 Reseller Middle East

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Raj Shankar, MD Year of start-up: 2000 Number of sales offices: 24 Number of service centres: 48 Total staff: 1500 plus Total engineers / technical staff: 300 plus

Brands in value portfolio

Revenue chart

2010

$2.32BN

Avaya, Alcatel, Barracuda Networks, Checkpoint, Cisco, Dell Sonicwall, Enterprise DB, Eaton, EMC, Fortinet, Gigamon, HP, Lifesize, Molex, NComputing, Nexans, Oracle, Palo Alto, Red Hat, Symantec, Trend Micro, TrippLite, Veeam, VMWare, WYSE

$850M

02 MDS UAE Having set up headquarters in the UAE more than three decades ago, MDS has played a crucial role in the evolution of the regional ICT landscape. With operations in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, the systems integrator has set shop in Kuwait last year.

The company has experienced excellent growth in 2013, says Sami Abi Esber, President, MDS UAE Holdings, and this is also clearly reflected in the ranking, as it has moved one position up, compared to last year. “This year we witnessed a growth rate of around 20 percent,” he says. He attributes this growth to the several big IT service projects won last year such as replacing wireless and LAN networks at the Emirates Palace Hotel and also Dubai’s Smart City project. Around 35 percent of the company’s business in 2013 also came from systems and hardware segment while services and training were a close second.

The company’s forte lies in systems integration and it also offers other end-to-end solutions such as software solutions and professional services, computer systems and networking, data centre and critical infrastructure consultancy. Recognising its achievements, IDC has nominated the systems integrator as the number one IT service provider in the UAE for the 10th consecutive year. The company has also made an acquisition last year under managed and cloud services which will drive its growth in 2015, more of which we will hear about in the coming months. It has also entered into an important agreement with Dell as its exclusive software partner in the Middle East and Africa. MDS also works with other top-line technology partners including HP, Apple, Oracle, Lenovo, Cisco and EMC Esber says, “We have also expanded our services offering and our team is focusing more on delivering big projects in systems integration. We are well poised to achieve a growth of 20-25 percent this financial year.” A part of this growth is also expected to be driven from huge projects the company has won in the Qatar and Oman markets.

Going forward, the IT service provider’s primary focus will include managed and cloud services while simultaneously driving its core business of systems integration.

Sami Abi Esber, CEO Year of start-up: 1981 Total staff: 1000 Total engineers / technical staff: 600

vendors profile

Revenue breakup by category Systems and hardware: 40%

Systems and hardware: HP, DELL, Apple, Oracle, Lenovo Software and security: IBM, Maximo, Microsoft, Symantec Peripherals and storage: HP, DELL, EMC, HDS Networking: HP, Juniper, Avaya, Cisco Services and training: HP, DELL, EMC

Software and security: 15% Peripherals and storage: 10% Networking: 10% Services and training: 25%

Top vendors by revenue: HP, Dell, Microsoft, EMC, Emerson Network Power

www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East october 2014

43

Channel elite industry ranking

$770M

03 BDL GROUP A leading IT distribution brand in the Middle East, BDL has grown consistently over the last few years. CEO Tamer Ismail attributes the success to having a close and transparent relationship with its channel partners. He says, “Our continuous success is thanks to a set of many points such as our deep know-how of the distribution business, a solid relationship with the channel which has helped us to penetrate the market effectively, and the passion we have for the business along with my team, which is one of the best. These are our strengths.”

Towards the end of 2013, the distributor moved its long-time headquarters in Saudi Arabia to the UAE, which was a strategic decision according to the CEO. It was also an important year for the company to emphasise its relationship with Samsung in the mobile business in KSA. “We started the business three years ago, however we have experienced significant growth and profitability in the last one year and it has also introduced us to additional 6000 resellers, strengthening our operations further,” Ismail says.

We also saw the company launching its own tablet and smartphones brand – Quantum – in the GCC and African markets, adding to the growth of its mobile business. With Acer as a partner in KSA and also recently in the UAE, BDL has other brands in its portfolio such as Asus and HP which cover all segments. While 2013 was a tough year for the regional channel as there was a lot of instability in the market, it did not affect the group. “We tried to absorb the changes by implementing strategic decisions and having a good forecast from a products perspective and by not overstocking the channel,” he adds.

In the next year financial year, we will see the distributor expanding its product lines and regional presence. “We want to satisfy the needs of our customers, with this in mind, we will continue to be an ICT player with a focus on consumer products,” he says. “And we will continue to support the channel in all the ways we can.” With proper planning and strategic decisions, the company is set to grow even further in the coming months.

Tamer Ismail, CEO, BDL Year of start-up: 1998 Location of sales office: UAE Total staff: 299 Location of support offices: Saudia Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait

vendors profile

Revenue chart 850

Systems and hardware: HP, Asus, Acer, Samsung, Quantum, MSI Components: Intel

800

750 2010

2011

2012

2013

Top vendors by relationship: Asus, Acer, MSI, Samsung, HP, Quantum

44

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

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$723M

04 METRA COMPUTER GROUP The Egypt-based Metra Computer Group is one of the oldest serving IT distributors in the Middle East region. With more than three decades of experience backing the regional distributor, it represents more than 30 brands in both volume and value segments of the business. Some of its top brands across both divisions include HP, Apple, Dell, Intel and Microsoft.

One of the most significant developments for the company in the last financial year was the acquisition of EMPA Middle East, a specialist volume distributor. The EMPA takeover was a part of its overall strategy to further strengthen and develop its value business and also an attempt to widen its business spectrum. EMPA’s brands were a perfect match with the distributor’s existing portfolio of vendors. The company is looking at investing heavily into its value business in the coming months and has brought in a new team to handle the value operations. Today under the value segment, it boasts brands such as HP, Lenovo, Tripp Lite, IBM, Aruba and Ubiquiti.

However, even with such an important development within the company – the EMPA buyout, we haven’t see the distributor being too vocal about it. And this also could be a part of the strategy, but we will have to wait and watch, as now the priority will be to consolidate operations internally and sustain the growth.

In 2013, the company saw a substantial growth from the networking side of the business and with a strong networking portfolio which includes brands such as HP networking, Aruba Networks and Ubiquiti, we expect to hear a lot more on this end in the coming year.

We also expect to see the distributor focusing on strengthening its service centres in the next financial year. At present, it boasts of nine service centres across nine countries and is considered to be its market differentiator. With a presence in 11 countries, the distributor is also looking at developing its business in the Iraq market, although considering the current political situation in the country, this will be challenging. Going forward, UAE, Egypt and Saudi will be key markets for the company.

Mohammed Eissa, EVP Year of start-up: 1984 Total staff: 800 Total resellers: 5000 active partners Location of sales office: UAE, KSA, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq Location of support offices: UAE, KSA, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon

vendors profile

Revenue chart 7.5

Systems and hardware: HP, IBM, Cisco, Aruba, Intel, Huawei, Lenovo, EMC Software and security: Bit Defender, Autodesk, Microsoft, Vision Solutions Peripherals and storage: Western Digital, Intel, Toshiba, Lenovo, Fujitsu, HP, EMC Networking: HP, Aruba, Cisco, Ubiquity, Fujitsu, Huawei

6.6

4.5 2008

2009

2010

2013

Top vendors by revenue: Dell, HP, Apple, Intel, Microsoft

www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East october 2014

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industry ranking

Channel elite

$510M

05 LOGICOM group Logicom has seen a significant increase in its revenues last year as compared to 2012, this could be attributed to its intensive market reach strategies implemented in 2013. Growing 30 percent year-on-year, General Manager, Sajith Raj, since his appointment over a year ago, has been clear about taking the company to the next level.

Logicom’s aim is to continue its commitment towards establishing close relationships with the customer. Differentiating itself in this way, the distributor has carried out a number of investments in-country across the region. With professional teams based in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha, Muscat, Manama, Kuwait City, Beirut, Amman, Erbil, Baghdad, the company ensures that the customer is always close to the Logicom team and has access to local inventory and credit.

In 2013, the company also moved operations to a new facility in Jebel Ali Free zone in Dubai, giving it a quicker reach to market. It offers a number of programmes to the partners which contain technology, planning, marketing and logistics elements, and the company also ensures these are relevant and useful to the channel community. Recently, we have seen it invest in significant activities across the region as well as strengthening its social media presence, which complements its overall strategy of being close to the customers.

The past year also saw the company expanding its reach, with the addition of new partnerships and regional cooperation with a number of new vendors. Logicom was also awarded the Cisco ‘EMEAR Services Distributor of the year’ recognition in 2013.

In the next financial year, we will see the company investing more seriously into the e-commerce and cloud space and strengthen its technology coverage with new additions to its vendor portfolio. Expecting to continue this momentum, the distributor believes the growth will come from new geographies and cloud services.

A crystal-clear focus has enabled the distributor to grow significantly especially when the overall market was undergoing a consolidation phase.

Revenue breakup

Revenue breakup by category

Outside of UAE

40%

60% UAE

Systems and hardware: 67% Networking: 11% Components: 10% Software and security: 7% Peripherals and storage: 3% Accessories and consumables: 2%

Sajith Raj, GM Year of start-up: 1987 Total staff: 350 Total engineers / technical staff: 50 Total resellers: 6800 plus Top vendors by relationship: Intel, Cisco, Microsoft, Kingston, HP

vendors profile Systems and hardware: HP, Cisco, Lenovo Software and security: Adobe, Citrix, CommVault, Microsoft, WatchGuard Peripherals and storage: NetApp, HP, Kingston, Qnap, 770 WD million Networking: Cisco, HP Accessories and consumables: HP, Microsoft, Jabra, & WD Components: Intel, Kingston.

WD

Top vendors by revenue: HP - 32%, Cisco -22%, Intel - 12%, Microsoft - 15%, Kingston - 7%

www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East october 2014

47

Channel elite industry ranking

$500M

06 Emax Electronics Part of the retail conglomerate, Landmark Group, Emax Electronics has had a fairly stable growth last year. It has been named a UAE Superbrand for the third consecutive year in 2013 and is credited for revolutionising the big box concept. With over 56 stores across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain today, the retailer expects to open its 100th store by mid-2017. The company has been focusing on its presales and post-sales services in the last few years and considers it as its market differentiator. CEO Neelesh Bhatnagar says, “We have raised the bar with respect to presales and post-sales. This is where customers need guidance and people now understand the meaning of service.” Presently an electronic anchor store in most prominent malls, Emax has been growing consistently at 30 percent year-on-year for the last three years. The retailer has also launched an online store through the Landmark Group, which has seen a positive response despite the fact that e-commerce is yet to take off in the region. It has run a number of successful marketing initiatives in 2013, enhancing its relationship and reach with customers. One of its promotional activities includes the ‘Golden Boot’ initiative which was held during the World Cup this year.

With the 100th store milestone just over the horizon, the CEO aspires the retail chain to be a place where customers can come and learn about electronics while on the floor. “We need to take the leadership in terms of bringing a technology to the common man’s grasp, allow him to understand what it is all about. I tell my staff that whenever a customer walks in and out of Emax, he should have learned something about technology by walking on the floor, irrespective of whether he made a purchase or not. Personally I want Emax to be a place where customers come and learn,” he says.

The retailer represents more than 800 brands over 20 plus categories across the GCC region.

Revenue breakup

Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO

Year of start-up: 2006 Total staff: 2125 Total retail facing engineers/ technical staff: 150 Countries consolidated in group revenue: UAE, KSA, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain

Revenue breakup by category

Outside of UAE

31.68% 68.32%

Systems and components: 78.3% Software and security: 0.8% Peripherals and storage: 10.35% Networking: 6.65% Accessories and consumables: 3.90%

UAE

Top vendors by revenue: Apple, Samsung, Dell, Lenovo, HP

48

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

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Enable the all-wireless workplace with 802.11ac LEARN MORE: www.arubanetworks.com/11ac

Channel elite industry ranking

$465M

07 FDC International FDC International has been growing at a steady rate over the last few years. Despite volatile market conditions in 2013, the distributor has clocked in 10 percent more growth compared to the previous year. The 25-year-old IT company continues to fortify its portfolio of products ranging from notebooks, tablets, hard drives, motherboards, networking products and security and software. Headquartered out of Dubai, the distributor boasts some of the big brands in the industry including Acer, Lenovo, Western Digital, Seagate, Intel and more recent partnerships such as Synology and ZTE. With the intention of being a serious contender, both regionally and locally, FDC has operations all across the GCC, MENA, LEVANT and CIS regions with offices in UAE, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait to name a few. Recently, the company has also expanded business to Oman and Bahrain. The distributor’s wide channel database allows it to scale up and penetrate new markets efficiently. Going forward, one of the main focuses for the company will be to enhance infrastructure and add more resources in all the countries it has a presence in. CEO Marissa Safe believes strategies need to be laid out clearly and the right brands need to be added to the portfolio, this will help the company to grow even further in the next year. With profitability being a key issue in the industry, Safe says, “Middle East is complicated market and each country within it has its own nuances which as a business you must identify and understand, and accordingly align your operations.”

With dwindling margins in the volume business, players are moving towards valueadded distribution models. Over the last year, FDC too has invested in its value division – ProValue. And with new associations such as Array Networks, ZTE and Netgear, the company plans to further strengthen its offering here. Apart from the value division, its other business units include components, notebook and tablets, printer and mobile accessories distribution. Safe says, the value business will continue to be a focus in the next financial year.

We saw the company investing in several channel engagements, both on a regional and local level. The distributor expects to strengthen its relationship with channel partners and also aims to conduct more education programmes for the channel and end customers.

Marissa Safe, COO/VP

Year of start-up: 1989 Total staff: 180 Total engineers: 25 plus Total resellers: 900 active accounts and 200 preferred partners

vendors profile Software and security: ESET Peripherals and storage: WD, Seagate, Synology, QNAP, Overland Storage Networking: D-link, Netgear, ZTE Accessories and consumables: Tech21 Components: Intel, Kingston, Asus, AsRock, ECS, XFX, Liteon, Plextor, Apacer, Geil, Micron, AMD Notebooks: Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Ilife

Top vendors by revenue: Seagate, Western Digital, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Kingston

50

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

www.resellerme.com

EMC VNXe3200 is Powered

by Intel速 Xeon速 Processor

Channel elite industry ranking

08 Global distribution Dubai-based Global Distribution has only begun focusing in the regional distribution space seriously a year ago. However having achieved success on a global scale, the distributor is confident of making a mark in its home ground.

Having made it within the top ten channel players in this year’s ranking, it is definitely a player to reckon with. The company on a group level has clear strategies in place in four different areas of operations such as territorial expansion, solutions business, managing and acquiring franchises and growing the private label business.

The company has been strengthening its distribution business over the last year by signing up a number of vendors. The distributor believes that no matter how much face value it brings along on a global level, it is important for them to be known in the regional channel space and have trusting relationships with partners. It has signed up with Pure Storage and Overland Storage for the GCC region under the storage unit. And has SolarWinds, Kaspersky and Qnap under its software unit portfolio. The distributor was also certified as the authorised service centre for Pure Storage in the region, indicating its commitment in the channel business.

In line with its growth plans, the company has also brought in a large team on board and also plans to move to a new office by early next year. The distributor is in the process of streamlining functions and processes within the organisation and its focus will be structuring the growth it has seen so far, in the coming months.

$464M

VM Chandrasekar, Group CEO Year of start-up: 2001 Total staff: 100 Total engineers: 35

vendors profile

Revenue chart

Systems and hardware: HP Software and security: SolwarWinds and Kaspersky

Systems and hardware:

15%

Peripherals and storage: Pure Storage, Overland Storage, Tandberg

Software and security:

15%

Networking: HP, TP-LINK

Peripherals and storage:

20%

Networking:

10%

Accessories and consumables:

15%

Services and training:

10%

Others:

15%

Accessories and consumables: TP-LINK, Linkcomn

Top vendors by revenue: Apple, HP, Solwarwinds, Tandberg Data / Overland Storage, Pure Storage

52

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

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Channel elite industry ranking

09 Almasa IT Distribution Almasa IT Distribution has emerged as a key player in the regional channel over the last two decades with a focus on pure value-added distribution. In order to maximise the opportunities present in the mobility space, the distributor launched its own mobility division, Almasa Mobility in 2013 and has been focusing on this offering. Delivering services to the entire spectrum of the IT industry, Almasa works closely with its OEM, wholesalers, small and medium retailers and value-added resellers.

The company has seen a marked growth in its last year’s revenues as compared to 2012 and will most likely maintain this momentum, especially with a dedicated focus on its mobility division. Currently it boasts of brands such as Acer, Asus, Blackberry, Huawei, LG, and Lenovo in this division.

Catering to the MENA region, the distributor represents an array of global brands such as Asus, Seagate, Acer, HP, AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Lenovo, LG, Dell, Fijutsu, Blackberry and other leading brands.

Headquartered in Dubai, with its main logistics hub in Jebel Ali Free Zone, Almasa IT Distribution provides in-country services in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.

$370M

Mehdi Amjed, CEO and Chairman Year of start-up: 1995 Total staff: 250 Total engineers/technical staff: 6

vendors profile

Location of support offices: UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, KSA, Jordan, Egypt

Systems and hardware: Asus, Lenovo, Acer, HP, Dell Peripherals and storage: Seagate, WD Networking: Avaya, LG Components: Intel, Asus, Nvidia, Patriot, Asrock Mobility: Apple, Cat, Alcatel-lucent

Total resellers: 1200 active accounts

Revenue chart 400

350

300 2012

2013

Top vendors by revenue: Asus, Intel, Avaya, Lenovo, Seagate

54

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

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10 Mitsumi Distribution Originated in Africa, the company is one of the largest IT distributors in the region. In 2013, the company focused on creating in-country support centres to help partners with after-sales support.

With 12 branches in the Middle East and emerging Africa, the company’s key strength has been in-country logistics and credit to channel partners in local currency.

Jagat Shah, Chairman and CEO, Mitsumi Distribution says, “This is our innovative approach to have local stock to accommodate our in-countries partners’ stock requirements.”

The company’s revenue has grown by $75 million in 2013 when compared to the previous year and has increased its market share in the existing markets, specifically Nigeria and Tanzania, which were previously dominated by competitors. The distributor has also commenced its value business and signed up various brands in this segment. “We signed up with Polycom, Fluke Networks, Riverbed and APC for Africa region. We were able to increase the number of customers and also able to maintain our existing customer base,” he says. “We grew HP in Libya, Lenovo in West Africa and have grown our service capabilities across the region. We are the number one distributor for Dell in the East Africa region.”

2013 also saw the company signing distribution rights for global vendors such as Lenovo, Acer, Dell, Fujitsu for Morocco and APC, Asus, Epson and iSurf, while it entered into partnerships with Dell Enterprise, D-link, Linksys, HP Enterprise, IBM, Polycom and Riverbed on the value front.

Shah adds, “HP, Dell, Samsung, and Lenovo business were the main drivers for our revenue growth. We have signed an exclusive master distribution agreement with iSurf Technology for Middle East and Africa region.” Next year, we will see the company focusing more to grow its mobility and value-added distribution. “In 2015, we will focus on strengthening our tablets, smartphones and PC portfolio. The African continent remains the biggest contributor to our bottom-line. Developing our mobility channel and partner enablement will contribute positively to our business development.”

Mitsumi will work with its resellers and partners to certify and help them enhance technical skills by ways of trainings and seminars planned across Africa regions.

Revenue breakup

Revenue breakup by category

UAE

15%

85% Outside of UAE

Systems and hardware: 50% Software and security: 3% Peripherals and storage: 6% Networking: 5% Accessories and consumables: 6% Services and training: 4% Components: 6% Telcos: 20%

$320M

Jagat Shah, Chairman and CEO Year of start-up: 1996 Total staff: 220 Total engineers / technical staff: 25

vendors profile Systems and hardware: HP, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Samsung, Asus, iSurf Software and security: Microsoft Peripherals and storage: Western Digital,Toshiba Networking: Tripplite, BenQ, Dell SonicWall, HP Enterprise, HP Networking, Riverbed, IBM, Polycom, Fluke Network, D-link, Linksys 770 Accessories and million consumables: HP, Samsung Services and training: Dell, Toshiba, Acer, Samsung Components: WD, SanDisk Lighting: Philips

Top vendors by revenue: Samsung, HP, Dell, Toshiba, Acer

www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East october 2014

55

Channel elite industry ranking

11 jacky’s Electronics With more than 85 percent of the business accounting for IT, Jacky’s electronics has experienced a stable growth over the years. The retailer clocked in 10 percent growth yearon-year in 2013 and expects to continue this momentum into the next financial year.

One of the major highlights for the company in 2013 was the partnership with Samsung Electronics to open Samsung branded shops across the UAE, owned and managed by the retailer. It has also focused on streamlining its B2B businesses to bring it under one entity.

This includes 3D printing, digital printing and banking products.

COO, Ashish Panjabi says, “There has been a resurgence in the overall economy of the region and we are seeing an increased fold of customers coming in and with more product launches in the technology space and high customer demand, the growth will continue.”

Jacky’s Electronics stores are not the typical huge, big-box format, in fact this is a conscious business decision from the management side. “Our stores are between 1200 to 5000 square feet, which makes it easier for customers to get in and out more quickly. This is one of our market differentiators. We are multi-brand and multi-product, however we do not house every brand and every product. We want to go ahead with a better focus and this will also help our customers,” he says.

From a retail perspective, the company is looking at more locations and innovative concepts, more of which we will hear about in the coming months. Going forward, the retailer is also looking at investing into enhancing the retail experience the customer has in order to bring in more growth. This means everyday operations such as merchandising and product display will have to be carried out from a fresh perspective.

We will also see the player capitalising on the opportunities in the wearable space in the coming year. “We see immense opportunities in the wearable segment, especially with the Apple watch anticipated early next year. Once wearables come in the picture in a stronger manner, then who we compete as retailers will increasingly blur, as then we are up against watch and sports retailers too,” adds Panjabi.

Revenue breakup

$300+M*

*RME estimate

Ashish Panjabi, COO

Year of start-up: 1988 Total staff: 480

Revenue breakup by category

IT: Audio/Video: Photography: Mobility: Appliances: Accessories:

37% 15% 10% 25% 7% 6%

UAE: 95% Outside UAE: 5%

Top vendors by revenue: Samsung - 30%, LG - 15%, Sony - 8%, HP - 8%, Lenovo - 7%

56

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$294M

12 Asbis Middle East Post the economic downturn, the market is now witnessing a high positivity and growth.

But even then, the regional channel has had its share of difficulties. Players who have been innovative and different in their go-to-market strategies and identified opportunities early on, are now reaping the advantages.

Asbis Middle East, the 16-year-old distributor, moved its focus to mobility two years ago and is now seeing the benefits. Although the components market suffered in the last financial year, the broad line distributor has been able to sustain its growth. According to VP for META, Hesham Tantawi, the components segment will stabilise even further in the coming year. “We have grown 18 percent year-on-year in this segment,” he says.

It will continue to focus on mobility and tablets in 2015 and increase its business in the new lines such as smart homes, smart health and lighting. We will also see the distributor developing its solutions business which has helped the company mature as a VAD. With these recent additions, the company is looking at growing by 35 percent year-on-year in 2015.

Tantawi says, “We are growing on our focused segments because we have defocused on some of the other industries such as notebooks. We are the biggest players in components and we will continue to focus on that besides mobility and the new lines.”

According to him, what makes the company set itself apart from competition is the fact that it looks at the end user’s need and accordingly come up with products. “We never sell our products without complete set of software and tools for it. We want to continue getting closer to our partners and customers. This is our competitive advantage.”

Already a stable player in most of the GCC countries, the distributor has developed its channel in the Kuwait market in 2013 and is now looking at expanding into new geographies such as Kenya in the coming year.

Revenue breakup

Revenue breakup by category

Outside of UAE

45 percent

55

percent

UAE

Systems and hardware: 29% Software and security: 11% Peripherals and storage: 23% Networking: 29% Accessories and consumables: 8%

Hesham Tantawi, VP, META Year of start-up: 1998 Total staff: 95 Total engineers / technical staff: 15 Location of support offices: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria

vendors profile Systems and hardware: Toshiba, Lenovo, Prestigio , Intel Software and security: AVG, Symantec, ESET, Netgear, Evault Peripherals and storage: Seagate, Netgear, ReadyNAS, Lexmark, Canyon, Prestigio, HGST, SanDisk Networking: Netgear, TP-LINK (Remarketing), Tripp-lite, 770 Ubiquiti million Accessories and consumables: Canyon, Prestigio Components: AMD, Intel, ECS, Sapphire, Seagate

Top vendors by revenue: Intel – 20%, Lenovo - 18%, Seagate - 23%, Toshiba - 24%, AMD - 15%

www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East october 2014

57

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Channel elite industry ranking

$240M

13 Mindware Over the last 23 years, Mindware has been able to transform with the evolving market landscape by offering and being in sync with the latest technologies. The distributor reaches out to more than 2,500 resellers across the Middle East and North Africa region and brings in effective solutions to the market through strategic partnerships.

2013 saw the distributor partnering with storage solutions provider, EMC, to expand its offering in the storage and Big Data segment. And Lenovo also entered into a distribution agreement with the company early last year for its ThinkPad range of products. These two large brands have helped increase its revenues for last year.

According to Mario Gay, the General Manager for the company, 2014 has been moving on track. One of the changes it has implemented this year has been structuring its three main verticals of business – volume, value and virtualisation along with cloud computing. The distributor has put separate teams in place to handle the three divisions. From the volume front, Mindware aims to further optimise the opportunities from vendors such as Intel, Dell and Microsoft.

“We are looking at creating one unique value segment and this will be our focus moving ahead. We have implemented strategies towards achieving this. And when it comes to cloud and virtualisation, we will be taking a different go-to-market strategy both from a market and company point of view,” says Gay. Expecting to close this year with around 15 to 20 percent growth year-on-year, the distributor says the growth in the next year is most likely to come from storage, servers, security and virtualisation. And the company plans to develop these themes going forward.

“We see a strong growth coming from Saudi, Oman and Qatar markets. We have also started operations in Pakistan this year and have grown our workforce in Qatar,” adds Gay. With strong strategies in place, it will not be surprising if the distributor climbed the rank significantly by next year.

Revenue breakup

Revenue breakup by category

UAE

43.6%

56.6% Systems and hardware: Software and security: Peripherals and storage: Networking:

Outside of UAE

40% 30% 15% 15%

Mario Gay, General Manager Year of start-up: 1991 Total staff: 144 Total engineers / technical staff: 6 Total resellers: 1862, out of which 860 in UAE Location of sales offices: UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon, KSA

vendors profile Systems and hardware: Dell, Lenovo Software and security: Microsoft, Symantec, Citrix, McAfee Peripherals and storage: 770 Symantec, million Kingston, EMC Networking: Emerson, Juniper, Nexans, Pace Accessories and consumables: Dell Components: Intel

Top vendors by revenue: Dell - 22.43%, Intel - 17.64%, Microsoft - 15.40%, Citrix: 11.12%, Symantec: 9.88%

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www.resellerme.com

http://www.datacenterfuture.com/

Channel elite industry ranking

$220M

14 Alpha Data Founded in 1981, the systems integrator delivers end-to-end solutions from introduction and POC of the technology to maintenance and support even after the project is completed. It works with its clients through deep-level business and technical expertise as well as an extensive knowledge of the most cutting-edge trends and technologies. This has been one of its key differentiators in the market.

Alpha Data has established a strong network, with the highest level of accreditation achieved with HP, Microsoft, Avaya, Cisco, Belden and Juniper. The backbone of the company is the creation of strong, long-term ties with both vendors and customers.

Over the last few quarters, the systems integrator has grown at a steady rate and has bagged a number of major project wins, which has contributed to its growth story. The company was recognised for excellence in sales and technical performance of Citrix mobile workspaces technologies in 2013 and also officially became a Gold Citrix Solution Advisor for the region.

The company believes public cloud and managed services will shape the future of systems integration in the region and is aligning the business with these trends. It aims at maintaining its existing enterprise business by always providing excellent service. In the coming year, we will see the systems integrator expanding to new areas such as mobility, cloud, and managed services.

Going forward, we will see the SI maintaining its existing enterprise business by providing excellent services. The company believes the two issues that end-users need to be aware of while choosing an SI to work with are the expertise of the potential SI’s team and their quality of service.

Customers today do not compromise on quality and it is not something an SI should take lightly.

Cost is such a key factor in most customers’ decision-making process, however, they can suffer if they choose a low cost SI. With this understanding, the company’s offerings help customers to improve processes, reduce data centre and infrastructure costs, manage risk and governance and enhance top-line revenue. The company’s business approach is based on establishing long-term partnerships that encourage success through mutual benefit.

Fayez Ibbini, Founder and CEO Year of start-up: 1981 Total staff: 770 Location of sales and support offices: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha Strategic partners: HP, Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, Belden, Juniper Networks, Extreme Networks, Polycom, Samsung, Bosch, Autodesk, ASC

Revenue chart 850

800

750 2010

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2011

2012

2013

Channel elite industry ranking

$205M

15 Westcon Group Expecting to close 2014 with strong double digits, Westcon Group offers value-added distribution for convergence, infrastructure, mobility, security and Cisco centric solutions in the Middle East and North Africa region since 1993.

Having established significant sales channels for brands such as Avaya, Blue Coat, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Juniper, Motorola among others, the VAD also offers proficient solutions in the convergence of voice, data and video application technologies, including VoIP, internet security and wireless.

One of its highlights in the last financial year for the company was being named as one of the best employers in the Middle East and Africa by Aon Hewitt Steve Lockie, Group Managing Director for Westcon says, “Ensuring that everybody in the business is moving in the same direction, whether it is front office or back office has allowed us to lead and stay ahead of the market and move quickly into the new growth areas.”

The VAD also signed up a number of new partnerships with brands such as HP, Palo Alto and F5 on the security front. While these brands are still in the recruit, enable and grow mode, Westcon will focus on driving these businesses further. It has also held a number of channel engagement initiatives last year.

Lockie adds, “Westcon security has experienced a high growth. And the Comstor brand has grown from strength to strength. With our dedicated focus, we have been able to grow effectively from the Cisco front as well.”

In the coming year, the objective is quite straightforward, to repeat the success story and achieve it faster. “We will continue to focus on our people initiative and improve engagements with our employees, it is an on-going process and this is what makes all the difference.” We will see the group paying more focus to the Cisco architecture from a Comstor point of view where it expects to see a significant growth in Unified Communications and data centre solutions.

Revenue breakup by category

Software and security: 22% Peripherals and storage: 5% Networking: 58% Accessories and consumables: 3% Services and training: 12%

Steve Lockie, Group Managing Director Year of start-up: 1993 Total staff: 145 Total engineers / technical staff: 22 Total resellers: 1500 Location of sales offices: UAE, KSA, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq

vendors profile Systems and hardware: Cisco, Motorola, Zebra, Datalogic, Datamax, Honeywell, PAR Software and security: Mindtree, S2 Security, Pelco, HID, F5, Palo Alto, Algosec, Arbor, Bluecoat, Cisco, Dell, Forescout, Juniper, Kaspersky, HP Peripherals and storage: Netapp, Flexpod and Expresspod, APC, Avocent Networking: Barco, AT & T, APC, Avaya, Acme Packet, Avocent-Emerson, NEC, Juniper, Lifesize, Motorola, Meru, Polycom, Proxim, Smart, Snom, Sonus Accessories and consumables: Jabra, Plantronics Others: Dascom Datamax-Oneil Datalogic, HID, Honeywell, NEC, Panduit Pelco Rcg Smart S2 Security Zebra

Top vendors by revenue: Cisco, Juniper, Avaya, Bluecoat, Motorola

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october 2014 Reseller Middle East

www.resellerme.com

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Channel elite industry ranking

$190M*

16 CNS

*RME estimate

A regional systems integrator and managed services player, CNS has focused on providing its customers with innovative IT turnkey solutions backed up by high level services and support. In the last financial year, we have seen the SI enhancing its portfolio and adding global vendors such as EMC to cater to the storage space. It has also been awarded the best storage reseller in the region

by HP last year.

As far as the geographical expansion is concerned, CNS continues to focus on its existing markets, UAE and Oman. However, there are plans to increase its footprint in the coming year.

In order to leverage the opportunities seen from the growth of technologies, mainly mobility, cloud and security, the SI has brought more people on board in 2013. The company continues to focus on meeting and exceeding customer expectations and considers this as its principle of business.

Revenue breakup by Region Outside UAE: 30% UAE: 70%

Revenue breakup by category Ihab Al Saheli, GM Year of start-up: 1987 Total staff: 266 Peripherals and storage: 25% Networking - 25 % Services and training 25 % Software & Security: 15% Systems & Hardware: 10%

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: Microsoft Software and security: Oracle, Fortinet, Symantec Peripherals and storage: HP, Oracle and EMC Networking: Cisco

Services and training: Cisco, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, VMware, Symantec, Fortinet, F5, APC, Windor Nixdorf

Total engineers/ technical staff: 203 Primary market verticals: Government, oil and gas, healthcare, education, BFSI Top vendors by revenue: Wincor Noxdorf: 30% Cisco: 25% HP: 20% Oracle: 15% MSFT: 10%

$160M

17 Trigon Maintaining a balance between top-line and bottom line growth has been a key challenge for the channel players in the region. With 17 years of experience in the market, Trigon has understood this and therefore been able to sustain the growth for the last two years.

With big names such as Samsung, LG, Dell, Netgear, ViewSonic, Xerox, 3M, Acer, Creative, D-Link, Elo Touch, Ergotron, AVM, PenPower, BenQ, Mustek and Transcend in its portfolio, the company has strongly positioned itself as a major player in the distribution of IT peripherals in the region.

The company’s focus has been to grow its retail related product line and focus more on the SME segment in this financial year. For the next few quarters, it plans to expand its products for the B2B segment and focus more on profitability and improve the gross margins. We will also see it expanding its logistics and service centre and moving these operations to a bigger area.

Revenue breakup by Region UAE: 95% Outside UAE: 5%

TOP VENDORS BY REVENUE Arjun Chawla, CEO

Samsung : 35% LG : 13% Acer : 13% Elo & Ergotron : 10% D-Link : 8% Creative : 7%

Year of start-up: 1997 Total staff: 106 Total engineers/technical staff: 12 Total resellers: 300 plus

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: Samsung, LG, Acer, Dell, ViewSonic, BenQ, Xerox Peripherals and storage: LG, Lenovo

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Networking: D-Link, Netgear Accessories and consumables: Creative, PenPower

Channel elite industry ranking

$135M

18 Gulf Shadows Computers Gulf Shadows Computer Systems began operations in 1999, and since then it has grown to become a strong regional player. It caters to the distribution of computers, computer accessories and other IT equipment across the Middle East, Africa and CIS countries. With a comprehensive product portfolio consisting of several global vendors such as Foxconn, Sapphire, Galaxy, A –Data, Elixir as a distributor, it also partners with major brands like TP-Link, Dell, Toshiba, HP, Intel, Epson and Canon. In 2013, the distributor signed a partnership with Zotac to distribute the vendor’s range of graphic cards in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Identifying opportunties in the mobility space, the distributor is now aiming to strengthen business in this area and grow the business.

Top vendors by relationship: Intel, Foxconn, Sapphire, Elixir, Galaxy

Hassan Al Aas, Sales Director Year of start-up: 1999 Location of sales offices: Dubai, Tajikastan, Turkmenistan, Egypt, China, Algeria Total resellers: 2000

Vendors Profile Components: Intel, Philips, Samsung, Foxconn, A-data, Elixir, Sapphire, Galaxy, EVGA, Power colour Notebooks: Acer, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus

Systems and hardware: Dell, HP Desktop Peripherals and storage: XYZ 3D Prinitng Networking: Netis

19 Arrow Electronics The major highlight for Arrow Electronics has been its foray into the region through the acquisition of the regional VAD Computerlinks, last October. The brand will be formally launching itself at GITEX this month. Arrow serves as a supply channel partner for over 100,000 original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers and commercial customers through a global network of more than 460 locations in 58 countries. The distributor’s enterprise computing solutions business is primarily focused on security, networking, data centre and storage. And it offers end-to-end IT infrastructure solutions including data storage, servers, enterprise software, security, Unified Communications and virtualisation, while addressing emerging areas such as social, mobility, analytics and Big Data and cloud. The company’s enterprise computing solutions segment provides enterprise and mid-range computing products, services and solutions to IT solution providers in 35 countries around the world.

Besides enhancing its marketing activities to reach out to the region, we will see the distributor expanding its value-added services and invest more heavily into the channel with partner enablement initiatives which includes training going forward.

Vendors Profile

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

Gareth Morgan, GM Year of start-up: 1935 Regional operations: 2013 Total staff: 16,500 globally Location of sales offices: UAE Primary technology segments: Security, networking, storage Distribution model: Valueadded IT distribution

Top vendors by relationship:

Software and security: F5, RSA, Websense, McAfee, Trend Micro Peripherals and storage: EMC

68

$130M*

*RME estimate

www.resellerme.com

Networking: Gigamon, Firemon, Extreme Networks, Exinder

RSA, Websense, McAfee, EMC, F5

Channel elite industry ranking

$129.8M

20 Visionaire Visionaire provides a complete portfolio of professional and managed services which helps customers to enhance the value of their ICT investments across verticals such as education, enterprise, healthcare, hospitality, finance and banking. The systems integrator believes it can support a customer’s business objectives by aligning ROI with the business needs through seamless functions between systems, processes and people.

Close working relationships through strategic partners has been the key to the SI’s success. This has further been established with large customer-wins such as Zayed University last year. The company was also recognised as the ‘outstanding partner for 2013’ by HP and Microsoft for its frontline partnership for Unified Communications and collaboration, which was another highlight for the company.

Revenue breakup by category

Networking: 40% Peripherals and storage: 18% Systems and hardware: 16% Software and security: 10% Services and training: 5% Others: 5% Components: 4% Accessories and consumables: 2%

Aneeta Gupta, CEO Year of start-up: 1995 Total staff: 600 Total technical staff: 480 Name of vendor certifications: Certifications (both sales and technical) with Microsoft, SMART, Arrive Systems, HP, Aruba, Polycom

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: HP, Huawei, Arrive Systems, SMART Software and security: Microsoft Peripherals and storage: Huawei, Brocade,EMC Networking: HP, Aruba, Juniper

Accessories and consumables: Rave , SMART Services and training: SMART, Arrive Systems Networking: HP, Aruba, Juniper Collaboration: Polycom, Arrive, SMART

21 Al Jammaz Distribution Saudi-based VAD Al Jammaz Distribution’s main focus was developing the channel by inspiring, enabling then empowering them in 2013. It has executed several programmes and initiatives toward demand generation and enabling and empowering the partners. “In demand generation we have developed joint marketing services and activities working together with our partner VARs where we focus with them in different market verticals to generate demand, leads and manage a pipeline together through joint promotion, events and out bound calls to his customers.

We have provided different programmes to our partners in coordination with different vendors. These programmes include workshops and training in different technologies for both the sales team and the technical team of our partners,” says the Vice President of the company, Asim Al-Jammaz.

The distributor aims to develop a strong sales channel including partners and IT pro-community and translate product marketing initiatives to ensure proper channel fulfilment.

$125M

Revenue breakup by category

Asim Al-Jammaz, VP

Networking: 40% Peripherals and storage: 30% Systems & Hardware: 10% Software and security: 10% Services and training: 10%

Systems & Hardware: APC, Cisco Software and security: Symantec, EMC Peripherals and storage: EMC, VCE, Lenovo Networking: Cisco, Linksys, Rockus, Fluke Networks,

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

Year of start-up: 1998 Total staff: 180 Total engineers/ technical staff: 28 Location of support office: Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar, Qassim, Tabuk, Sajer, Wadi Aldwaser, Najran

TOP VENDORS BY REVENUE

Vendors Profile

70

TOP VENDORS BY REVENUE

SMART, Arrive, HP, Polycom and Juniper

www.resellerme.com

Panduite, Technicolor, Bandrich Services and training: EMC, Cisco, VCE, Fluke Networks

EMC, VCE, Cisco, Bandrich, APC

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industry ranking

22 Despec Despec has achieved a high growth rate of 35 percent in 2013 and this is largely because the distributor invested in streamlining its business focus last year. Understanding that every brand has its own market behavior, the company classified its existing portfolio of brands into specific groups across segments.

The distributor has also experienced around 40 percent growth in its retail segment and also brought in new brands such as Pantom Retail in to the MEA region. Besides classification and widening its portfolio, Despec has also expanded regionally last year, commencing operations in Qatar and has invested more into Kuwait. Jaison Korath, CEO of the company says, “2013 was an incredibly exciting year for Despec in terms of the overall reach, revenue market share and brand mix.”

Channel elite

$124M Revenue breakup by category

Accessories and consumables: 80.5% Peripherals and storage: 17 Networking: 2% Software and security: 0.5%

Top vendors by revenue contribution: HP - 72%, Lexmark - 7%, Imation - 4%, ADATA: 3%, Wacom: 3%

Jaison Korath, Group CEO Year of start-up: 1996 Location of sales offices: UAE , KSA , Jordan, Lebanon, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Kuwait Total resellers: 2132

Vendors Profile Software and security: Norton Peripherals and storage: HP, Imation, Verbatim , IBM , Adata, Trascend, PNY Accessories and consumables: HP, Lexmark , Adata, Transcend, PNY,

Samsung, Canon, Printronix, Tally Genicom , Imation, Verbatim , Wacom, Double A , Targus, Xtrememac, ICIDU, Powerocks, Trust, Orient Pearl, HP Paper Networking: D-Link

$100M

23 Prologix Distribution Headquartered in Dubai, Prologix distribution has been in operations since 1998 and has footprints across the UAE, GCC, rest of the Middle East and Africa and SAARC countries. Over the years it has strengthened its positioning as a value-added distributor and delivers solutions in wireless, RF and technology, test and measurement, security and telecom equipment across MEA. It continues to focus on being the one-stop distributor for critical wireless projects and caters to the channel with best pricing options, presales and after-sales support.

In 2013, the distributor has been recognised as ‘Avaya mid-market partner of the year 2013’.

And it has conducted several free technical and sales trainings for customers and resellers for LevelOne, Trango Systems, Fluke Networks and other products over the last year.

TOP VENDORS BY REVENUE Empirix: 12% Microtik: 8% Totolink: 7% Trango: 4% Cambium Networks: 4%

Sarwan Singh, Managing Director

TOP VENDORS BY RELATIONSHIP Trango Systems, Empirix, Cambium Networks, Fluke Networks and AFL

Year of start-up: 1998 Location of sales offices: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Kenya, Nigeria, India, Sri Lanka Primary vertical focus: Telecom, defense, law enforcement, real estate, BFSI, government, oil and gas, education, hospitality

Vendors Profile WiFi and networking: Totolink, LevelOne, Microtik RF and microwave: Cambium Networks, Trango Systems, Sub10 Systems, Motorola Solutions, Simoco, Peplink, Redline Communications Telecom: Sangoma Tehnologies

Video surveillance: LevelOne, Secura Test and measurement: Fluke Networks, AFL, Spectracom, Keysight Technologies, IDEAL Industries, Anite Finland , Empirix, Extech, Anapico, Aaronia

www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East october 2014

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Channel elite industry ranking

24 Seven Seas Computer Seven Seas is a leading systems integrator and an ICT solution provider in the UAE for over three decades. An ISO 9001:2008 certified company and a tiered partner to most large technology vendors including Microsoft, Cisco, HP, Citrix and Symantec, the SI delivers solutions and services in enterprise systems, networking, business continuity, DR and managed services.

Catering to sectors such as SMB, hospitality, healthcare, banking and finance, the ICT player has been able to gain a sizeable market share even in global markets such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. Over the last year, the SI has invested in growing its workforce considerably in order to cash in the opportunities in emerging technologies.

$95M Revenue breakup BY CATEGORY

Software and security: 35% Systems and hardware: 25% Networking: 18% Peripherals and storage: 9% Services and training: 8% Others: 3% Accessories and consumables: 3%

Top vendors by revenue: Microsoft - 31%, IBM - 15%, HP - 21%, Cisco - 17%, Avaya - 6%

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: HP, IBM and DELL Software and security: Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec, Websense, McAfee, Symantec.Cloud, CITRIX, CA, RedHat, VMware, Vaeem Peripherals and storage: HP, IBM, CA, CITRIX, NETAPP, EMC Networking: CISCO, HP, IBM, Aruba, Panduit, Brandrex

Accessories and consumables: HP, APC, Services and training: HP, Cisco, IBM and DELL Others: Polycom, Arecont, Life Size

Experts Group began operations in 1994 and over the years has diversified its business to focus on re-export and become an emerging distributor and reseller for IT hardware from global brands including Dell, Acer, Toshiba and Epson. With competitive pricing, faster deliveries and prompt after-sales services as some of its market differentiators, the company stays updated with current market trends and requirements, and accordingly aligns its business to meet the demand.

Believing that strong teamwork and good customer relationships can help its market share grow further, Shailendra Rughwani, Managing Director of the company says, “We are looking forward to developing new markets for our products overseas. We also plan to focus on our bottom line which is very important presently. That being said, we expect to have a higher revenue growth in 2014 compared to 2013.�

Revenue breakup by Region UAE: 60% Outside UAE: 40%

Shailendra Rughwani, MD

Revenue breakup by category

Systems and hardware: 60% Peripherals and storage: 20% Services and training: 10% Components: 10%

Vendors Profile

Year of start-up: 1994 Total staff: 60 Total engineers / technical staff: 10 Location of sales offices: Bur Dubai and Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai Primary vertical focus: Surveillance and biometric security solutions, computer hardware, UPS & accessories Name of vendor certifications: Canon, Sony, Fujitsu, Hp, Qsan, Virdi, Cametron

TOP VENDORS BY REVENUE Accessories and consumables: HP Components: Epro

Systems and hardware: Sony, HP Peripherals and storage: Toshiba, WD Networking: Cisco

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

Year of start-up: 1983 Total staff: 320 Total engineers / technical staff: 210 Primary vertical focus: Oil and gas, hospitality, healthcare, education Name of vendor certifications: Microsoft, Cisco, HP, IBM, Vmware, CITRIX, Symantec, CA, AVAYA, MITEL, McAfee, Websense, Polycom, EMC, NetApp, Panduit, APC

$95M

24 Experts Group

74

Nayagam Pillai, CEO

www.resellerme.com

Sony, Epro, HP, Cametron

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Channel elite industry ranking

$80M

25 FVC Value-added distributor, FVC has had a high growth in 2013 which has significantly contributed to its revenues. One of its major highlights was the Barco partnership in line with plans to expand into the high-end interactive and audio visual space.

The company is also renewing its focus on the information and security business and has partnered with Watchful Software and also is working with brands such as Aruba and Sourcefire to build up the complete security portfolio.

KS Parag, Managing Director, says, “We have also accelerated the WAN optimisation and WAN acceleration business. We grew this business extensively. And today by working with brands such as Riverbed, we have dramatically showed the value of WAN optimisation and acceleration and network performance management to companies and channel partners together in order to leverage it.”

The VAD has built a complete services portfolio and plans to continue to grow its Unified Communications and AV business in the coming year by expanding its channel breadth.

Revenue breakup by category

KS Parag, Managing Director

Unified communications: 50% Networking: 25% Software and security: 15% Services and training: 10%

Year of start-up: 2000 Total Staff: 140 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 50 Location of support offices: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Cairo, Casablanca, Nairobi Primary vertical focus: Education, oil and gas, telcos, banking and finance, MNCs

Vendors Profile Software and security: Aruba Networks, Sourcefire, Palo Alto Networks, Watchful software, Edgewater Networks Networking: Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Riverbed, Cyan, Datwyler

Unified Communications and collaboration: Polycom, Barco, Vaddio, Vbrick, Revolabs, Digium

26 EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS Exclusive Networks Group forayed into the Middle East region with its acquisition of the security specialist distributor, Secureway, which was formalised earlier this year. Delivering across the EMEA region, the distributor is positioned as a ‘superVAD’ and offers vendors a compelling proposition through its ability for faster and more economic market penetration. It aims to provide its value-added resellers and channel partners immediate access to emerging technologies and will offer additional benefits of competitive differentiation, growth and margin retention. Besides the merger, another significant highlight for the company in this financial year was winning the EMEA distributor partner of the year award at F5 Networks Agility Partner Awards 2014.

In the next few quarters, the distributor aims to expand to new markets such as Australia and New Zealand and is identifying new avenues for partnerships with new vendors. It will also focus on growth and increasing its workforce, to strengthen its position in the market and build its presence further in KSA.

$75M Revenue breakup by Region

Outside UAE: 55% UAE: 45%

Revenue breakup by category

Systems and hardware: 60% Software and security: 30% Services and training: 10%

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: F5, Fortinet, Infoblox, LogRhythm, FireEye Software and security: Lumension, LogRhythm, Vasco, FireEye, Leiberman Software, HID

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www.resellerme.com

Networking: F5, Fortinet, Infoblox, FireEye Services and training: WhiteHat Security

Fari Boustantchi, CEO Year of start-up: 2005 Total Staff: 64 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 17 Location of support offices: Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, UK, France Total resellers: 1000

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Channel elite industry ranking

$60.1M

27 emitac enterprise solutions EES, the systems integration component of the Emitac Group, has been providing technology-based solutions for over three decades in the UAE. The company attributes its strength to the strong reputation it has built based on many successfully implemented projects and services in the UAE enterprise market over the years.

In 2013, the systems integrator broadened its solution portfolio including data centre solutions, enterprise software licensing, networking and security, IT service management, mobility and business intelligence and has had a significant growth in the endpoint management solutions and software asset management area. It also won several large scale projects such as ADJD, TRA/ Etisalat ITSM project, Global Aerospace Logistics for data centre project and Mashreq bank for server infrastructure project to name a few, adding to its success stories. The company’s CEO, Miguel Angel Villalonga says, “We are seeing a growth rate of 40 percent year-on-year, which is a massive step forward for an established business.”

Revenue breakup by category

Miguel Villalonga, CEO Services and training: 28% Peripherals and storage: 25% Software and security: 24% Systems and hardware: 20% Networking: 3%

Year of start-up: 2000 Total Staff: 140 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 50 Location of support offices: Dubai, Abu Dhabi Primary vertical focus: Government, telcos, banking and private

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: HP Software and security: Microsoft, HP Software, Oracle, Asset, Juniper, Symantec, McAfee, Aruba, Cisco, SafeNet, HP Networks

Peripherals and storage: HP, EMC, Oracle Networking: HP Networks, Juniper, Symantec, McAfee, Cisco, Aruba

28 Starlink

$55M

2013 was the year of growth for value-added distributor, StarLink. This is clear from the revenue figures, having almost doubled in 2013 compared to the previous year.

Most of this growth has come from extensive expansion plans. It successfully launched its Turkey operation with an on-ground presence in Istanbul and put a sales and technical team in place. The company also grew its workforce across the Middle East, taking its total staff to over 50.

The distributor continued to execute its strategic partner programme and aligned closely with its top partners to provide an effective platform for growth.

The VAD has termed 2014 to be the ‘year of the channel’ and is developing market strategies and channel initiatives with this focus. Nidal Othman, Managing Director of the company says, “In terms of recruitment and expansion, we have successfully launched our South Africa operation, with an office in Johannesburg and recruited the initial members of our local sales and technical teams. From a revenue standpoint, we are on track to achieve revenue growth of 35 percent year-on-year, expecting a turnover of around $75 million for 2014.”

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Revenue breakup by Region

Outside UAE: 87% UAE: 13%

Revenue breakup by category

Nidal Othman, Managing Director

Software and security: 92.5% Services and training: 5% Networking: 2.5%

Year of start-up: 2005 Total Staff: 134 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 49 Total resellers: 170 Location of support offices: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Africa, Turkey Primary vertical focus: Banking and finance, oil and gas, government, telco

Channel elite industry ranking

$52M

29 MaxTouch Computers Established in 2003, Maxtouch Computers is a SMB solutions provider and also distributes for several global brands such as Acer and is a partner for brands such as Cisco. One of its major highlights in 2013 has been the distribution agreement with Tripp-lite. With $52 million revenues in 2013, it is definitely a reseller to watch out for.

Director of the company, Ramesh Belani says, “Within retail, we are strongly focusing IT accessories with EPPCO/ ENOC franchised ZOOM outlets in all metro stations, gas stations and Zoom markets. We have also been associated with all Emarat gas stations and Emarat franchised outlets.�

Keeping in line with the market developments, we will see the company entering into in-country distributions in the coming year.

Revenue breakup by Region

Outside UAE: 63% UAE: 37%

Ramesh Belani, Director

Revenue breakup by category

Systems and hardware: 50% Networking: 15% Peripherals and storage: 14% Accessories and consumables: 11% Services and training: 7% Software and security: 3%

Year of start-up: 2003 Total Staff: 45 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 12 Name of vendor certifications: Cisco, Tripp Lite, HP, Juniper, Avaya, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, Liteon, Apacer, Acer Location of support offices: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jebel Al, Nairobi

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: HP, Toshiba, Acer, Samsung Software and security: Juniper, Tripp-lite Peripherals and storage: LiteOn, Apacer, Sandisk

Networking: Cisco, Juniper, Tripp-lite Accessories and consumables: Sandisk, Imation, HP, Targus Services and training: Tripp-lite, Toshiba, Juniper

30 Intertec Systems Intertec is right on track to meet its objective of achieving 30 percent by 2015. The 23-year-old IT systems integrator and solution provider enjoys strong market credibility with its customers, employees and partners. With more than 20 high-accreditation alliances with industry leaders, it has over 800 customers from the BFSI, government, corporate and hospitality sectors across the Middle East, Indian subcontinent and the UK. It follows PMI project methodologies and intensely use systems to manage its internal and customer interactions. What has helped the company achieve a huge growth in the last year has been the decision to focus on growing its services business in the applications and IT infrastructure space. The SI has had a growth rate of 25 percent year-on-year.

$50M Revenue breakup REGION Outside UAE: 91% UAE: 9%

Revenue breakup by category Naresh Kothari, MD

Systems and hardware: 60% Software and security: 30% Services and training: 10%

Year of start-up: 1991 Total Staff: 300 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 100 Primary verticals: government, corporate, hospitality, oil and gas

Vendors Profile Networking: F5, Fortinet, Infoblox, FireEye

80

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Services and training: WhiteHat Security

31 ComGuard

$44M

The main highlight for the security distributor during last year has been the introduction of an independent team known as Strategic Alliance and Quality Assurance team, which works in tandem with the other teams at the company to bridge the technology gaps within its portfolio. This also ensures the best of service is provided to the distributor’s channel partners and associates.

From being a pure-play enterprise mobility player, 2013 also saw Psilog, the distributor’s sister company emerge as a broadline distributor as it signed partnerships with global brands including Dell, Toshiba, Prysm and Citizen. Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO of the company says, “In 2014, ComGuard has been growing organically by expanding our technology portfolio, by signing up new niche vendors in the information security space such as Nexthink for IT analytics, Niksun in cyber-security, Sophos in data security, Content Keeper for web filtering and security and Ghangor Cloud in fourth generation DLP. This in turn helps us reach out to the customer segments we possibly could not address earlier due to lack of the right mix of solutions.”

Revenue breakup by Region Outside UAE: 60% UAE: 40%

Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO

Revenue breakup by category

Software and security: 40% Peripherals and storage and networking: 30% Services and training: 20% Systems & Hardware: 10%

TOP VENDORS BY REVENUE

Vendors Profile Systems & Hardware: Beyond Trust, Winmagic Software and security: Kaspersky, GFI, EC-Council, Acunetix, Gateprotect, HP Enterprise Security, WinMagic, Tripwire, Content Keeper, Nexthink, Niksun, Ghangour Cloud

Year of start-up: 2002 Total staff: 120 Total engineers/ technical staff: 60 Total resellers: 900 Location of support offices: Dubai - Dubai Knowledge Village, Jumeirah Lakes Towers and Jebel Ali, Saudi Arabia, India - Bombay, Delhi and Bengaluru

Networking: Array Networks, Bluecat, AirTight Accessories and consumables: EnGenius Services and training: Kaspersky, ArcSight Others: SafeNet, Meru Networks

HP - 30%, Kaspersky - 30%, Safenet - 15%, GFI - 15%, Watch Guard - 10%

$38M

32 Oxygen Middle East Established in 2004, the value-added distributor is a mobility solution provider, with a focus on designing, distribution and implementing high performing, scalable and secure wireless solutions in the Middle East region.

An official distributor for several wireless vendors such as Aruba Networks, it is also known for its mobility products such as enterprise wireless products, home and small office wireless products, wireless end-devices and applications.

The distributor has had a number of channel engagement initiatives throughout the year and is looking at enhancing its value-added solutions portofolio. Besides distribution, its core competencies include Professional Service Engineer, customer training, employee training and empowerment and reseller training and support.

Going forward, we will see the company aiming to position itself as a VAD with comprehensive solutions.

Top vendors by revenue

Revenue breakup by Region

Outside UAE: 80% UAE: 20%

Revenue breakup by category

Wireless and mobility: 80% Software and security: 10% Networking: 5% Services and training: 5%

Top vendors by revenue: Aruba, Fortinet, Vidyo, MobileIron, Vocera

www.resellerme.com

Khalid Laban, CEO Year of start-up: 2004 Total Staff: 80 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 35 Total resellers: 300 Primary vertical focus: Hospitality, government, retail, health care, banking and finance, oil and gas, construction Location of support offices: UAE, KSA, Egypt

Reseller Middle East october 2014

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Channel elite industry ranking

$36.2M

33 Almoayyed Computers Bahrain-based Almoayyed has won two government contracts – Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and Cisco Framework Agreement in 2013, which took the systems integrator to a unique positioning in the market. Apart from this, it has also signed up with a number of long-term contracts with the public sector entities. The company has seen a strong growth in the finance vertical which is a key segment in the Bahrain market.

General Manager, SM Hussaini says, “We have continued our winning performance in the finance sector. We stayed a leader from the infrastructure stand-point and bagged a few good applications deals comprising of core banking solution and mobile banking solution. During the year we invested in retraining our staff and getting re-certified by our partners to stay current, and have a strong positioning in the cloud era.”

Almoayyed Computers’ strategy is to focus and benefit from the opportunities presented by the advent of cloud computing.

The company is looking at offering a host of services around cloud covering infrastructure as well as applications.

Revenue breakup by category

SM Hussaini, GM

Software and security: 57% Services and training: 18% Systems and hardware: 12% Networking: 10% Peripherals and storage: 3%

Year of start-up: 1979 Total Staff: 155 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 85 Name of vendor certifications: Microsoft LSP, Microsoft Gold, HP Gold, Cisco Gold, Oracle Gold, HP/Microsoft Frontline, VMWare, Citrix, Symantec, Avaya

Vendors Profile Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec Systems and hardware: HP, Oracle, EMC and Cisco Software and security: Informatique, Citrix, Zylog, IBM Maximo,

Networking: Avaya, Cisco Accessories and consumables: HP Services and training: HP, Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft

$35M

34 Printek Supplies Revenue breakup by Region The specialist consumables reseller has grown quite a bit in 2013. Offering printer consumables such as ink, toner, cartridges from global brands such as HP, IBM, Sony, Brother, Canon, Lexmark, Xerox, Dell, Imation, Samsung and Epson, it expects to grow even further in the coming year. The growth is expected to come from new geographical areas within the GCC and the company has already put expansion strategies in place in order to maximise the opportunity.

Printek Supplies represents leading manufacturers of impact and non-impact printer supplies, magnetic and optical data storage media and traditional office products.

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october 2014 Reseller Middle East

www.resellerme.com

UAE: 70% Outside UAE: 30%

Manoj Tiwari, Managing Partner Year of start-up: 2004 Total Staff: 15 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 2 Location of support offices: UAE and KSA Brands in product portfolio: HP, IBM, Sony, Brother, Canon, Lexmark, Xerox, Dell, Imation, Samsung and Epson

$34M

35 Help AG Help AG has had a fairly good 2013 with several highlights to mark the year. The systems integrator successfully completed over 20 high-profile projects in the last year alone and has about 200 active projects. Currently serving around 97 customers in the region including government organisations and financial institutions which demand high level of security solutions, the company has also launched the Help AG Security Analysis division. This offers critical services such as security review, penetration testing, configuration architecture review, vulnerability assessment (including mobile platforms) and social engineering and exploitation.

Last year, the ten-year-old company entered into a number of new vendor partnerships such as HP, AccessData and Proofpoint and extended its relationship and commitment to existing partners. It also became the first reseller in the United Arab Emirates trained and certified to offer the Juniper Networks Junos WebApp Secure solution.

In the coming months, we will see the SI focusing on existing markets, UAE and Qatar, and will look at expanding into KSA.

Revenue breakup by REGION

UAE: 75% Outside UAE: 25%

Stephan Berner, CEO

Revenue breakup by category

Year of start-up: 2004 Total Staff: 76 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 50 Location of support offices: Abu Dhabi and Doha (Qatar) Primary vertical focus: Finance, government, oil and gas, education, healthcare, aviation, telco

Software and security: 70% Services and training: 30%

Vendors Profile Software and security: AccessData, Algosec, Blue Coat, Cyber-Ark, F5 Networks, Fire Eye, HP Enterprise Security, Infoblox, Juniper Networks, Mi-Token, nCircle, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, Riverbed, RSA, Sourcefire and Symantec

$30M

36 Al Rostamani Communications The systems integrator delivers solutions in infrastructure, enterprise communications and IT/networking across verticals such as the government sector, oil and gas, utilities, financial sector, hospitality, transportation, retail and construction.

Mohammed Zameer, GM of the company says, “We have carried out many projects across different verticals, including a major data centre project for a financial services company and end-to-end technology solution Marjan five-star hotel, comprising ICT, Wi-Fi, UC, ELV and IPTV systems. In addition to that, we have completed an IT security project for an oil and gas company, and an IP-based queue management system installed across 100 customer service locations.�

In the coming year, we will see the SI increasing its overall size of the business through the services revenue stream. According to the GM, it will also increase its competence in cloud services, application migration to cloud and Unified Communications in the coming year.

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: Fujitsu, HP, Cisco, IBM Software and security: McAfee, Symantec, VMware, Microsoft, Veeam, Juniper, Dell, Fortinet Peripherals and storage: Netapp, HP, Fujitsu Networking: Cisco, HP, Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper, Schneider, NEC, D-Link

Revenue breakup by category Accessories and consumables: Schneider Electric, APC Services and training: IOActive, Iconective Components: Sagemcom, Aztech, Media5, IPM, NagraVision

Networking: 27% Services and training: 23 % Software and security: 20% Systems and hardware: 15% Peripherals and storage: 8% Accessories and consumables: 7%

www.resellerme.com

Mohammed Zameer, GM Year of start-up: 2002 Total Staff: 222 Total Engineers 50 Total technical Staff: 112 Name of vendor certifications: Cisco, Vmware, Netapp, Alcatel Lucent, McAfee, Symantec, Leviton, Veeam, Microsoft, Dell,Fujitsu, NEC, Schneider Electric, HP, Fortinet, Juniper, Oracle

Reseller Middle East october 2014

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Channel elite industry ranking

$30M*

36 StorIT Distribution

*RME estimate

The 12-year old distributor has been a consistent performer and has developed its market positioning as a specialist value distributor over the years.

Catering to areas such as data storage, data protection, data management, high performance computing and Big Data analytics solutions and services, the VAD offers turnkey solutions and differentiates itself by pioneering into new avenues of growth.

Earlier this year, we saw the distributor launching a new subsidiary, Data Science Technologies to deliver focused Big Data analytics solutions and services to the Middle East. In fact, one of the main reasons the distributor has been able to maintain its growth is through its focused approach in all that it delivers.

From demand generation, needs analysis, consultancy, solutions design and architecture, proof of concept to project implementation and technical support, the distributor aims at continuing to raise the bar and excel with the help of its partners in the region.

The company is the authorised Middle East distributor for global technology providers such as EMC, Quantum, SAS, Qlogic, Mellanox, Silver Peak and Huawei.

Top vendors by relationship EMC, Qlogic, Quantum, Emulex, Mellanox

Suren Vedantham, Managing Director Year of start-up: 2002 Total Staff:37 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 7 Location of sales offices: UAE and KSA Primary vertical focus: Oil and gas, banking and finance, telecoms, education and research, airline, retail, media and broadcasting

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: Huawei, SuperMicro Software and security: EMC, Huawei, SAS, Quantum, Aptare, Moonwalk

Peripherals and storage: EMC, Huawei, Quantum, Qlogic, Emulex, ATTO Networking: Mellanox Services and training: EMC, Huawei, SAS, Mellanox

$25M

37 Nanjgel Established in 2006, the systems integrator supports its Qatar and Saudi Arabia offices from its headquarters located in the UAE. Partnerships with 10 plus technology vendors enable the player to work directly with most of its clientele. This is because the solutions it offers requires a high level of expertise to deliver it efficiently, says CEO Jude Pereira.

“Most of our engineers are certified in the solutions we offer which bring the highest value to the client in terms of creating an opportunity, designing, implementing and finally supporting them for the same. We have had around 100 percent growth year-onyear, with the number changing at times,” he says.

The main market differentiator for the company is the level of experience and expertise it has with the solutions offered to the customers. “Whenever we implement a solution we have a 360-degree approach, we deploy the solution, customise it to have complete visibility, define the policies and rules, so that we can gain control and finally build all the dash reports and alerting as per the business requirements so we can gain manageability,” he adds.

Revenue breakup by Region

UAE: 60% Outside UAE: 40%

Revenue breakup by category

Software and security: 80% Services and training: 20%

Top Vendors

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

Year of start-up: 2006 Total Staff: 34 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 22 Location of sales offices: UAE

Technology platforms:

By revenue: IBM, McAfee, Forescout Technologies, Efficient IP, Observe IT By relationship: IBM, McAfee, Froescout Technologies, Lieberman Software, Observe IT

84

Jude Pereira, MD

www.resellerme.com

Windows, Unix, Linux, Solaris, Virtualisation

Channel elite industry ranking

38 Fast Lane

$23M

Fast Lane is a fast growing IT training provider globally. It provides consulting and specialised insight to the complete spectrum of networking requirements. Its training portfolio includes all the high-end networking technologies and products from data centre and cloud computing, network security, wireless networking, service provider NGN, to video TelePresence, Voice-over-IP & Unified Communications.

Over the last year, the company has upgraded its remote labs with the latest Cisco Nexus 5500 switches. Josef Miskulnig, CEO and President, Fast Lane, says, “We have also made new investments in the latest NetApp storage devices for labs that have been expanded with FAS3210 controllers as well as the latest SAS Disk Shelves to make the student experience updated with the latest products.”

Fast Lane also put increased emphasis in developing its own vendorcombo course curriculums like Cisco/NetApp and Cisco/VMWare. Last quarter it has added Palo Alto Networks to its portfolio of vendors. “We tend to carefully choose our vendors. Our main differentiator refers to our efforts in teaming up with specific vendors that are leaders in their technology area, strategic alliances, and carry non-competitive portfolios,” says Miskulnig. “We are anticipating bigger growth for the coming year especially with the addition of the next-generation firewall pioneer, Palo Alto Networks due to the growing demand and importance of the NextGeneration Security Solutions in the Middle East and Africa region.”

Revenue breakup by Region

Outside UAE: 63% UAE: 37%

38 Paramount Computer Systems Founded in 1992, Paramount is a systems integrator in the security space. Paramount is a regional provider of technology and services for securing the information assets of enterprises. From the development of a security policy, security awareness training, to the delivery of end-to-end solutions that encompasses perimeter security, secure content management, identity and access management, vulnerability assessment, risk, policy and compliance management; Paramount helps leading organisations in the Gulf region, understand, monitor and mitigate the risks in their IT infrastructure.

Josef Miskulnig, Founder and CEO Year of start-up: 1996 Total Staff: 30 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 15 Location of support offices: Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Algeria, Kenya, Lebanon, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Kuwait, Iraq Top vendors by revenue: Cisco, Cisco Ironport, Cisco Tandberg, Netapp, Palo Alto Networks

$23M

Revenue breakup by Region

UAE: 61.77% Outside UAE: 22.75%

Top vendors by revenue: McAfee - 25.04%, RSA - 11.94%, Websense - 11.49%, HP (Tipping Point) - 6.94%, Imprivata- 4.7%

Premchand Kurup, CEO Year of start-up: 1992 Total staff: 87 Total engineers/ technical staff: 54 Location of support offices: UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain

security Vendors Profile McAfee, RSA, Websense, Tippingpoint, Imprivata, Palo Alto, Juniper, Fortinet, Barracuda, F5, NCircle, Bluecoat, Courion, FireEye, Lancope, Quarri, AccelOps, Axios, AvectoXceedium, Kanguru, Lumension, ArcSight, EMC, Mobile Iron, Splunk, EDMZ EnCase, CyberSecurity, TrendMicro, CISCO, Vasco, Mirage, Message Labs, TITUS, Infoblox, Beacon, Core Impact, Bluesocket, SafeNet, ISS, Guardium, EZMCOM, SolarWinds

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www.resellerme.com

Channel elite industry ranking

$22M

39 Lucky Star Lucky Star Computers has grown over 15 percent more than the previous year in 2013 even with plunging hardware margins and severe market conditions. Established in 1998, the reseller has grown to a $22 million company in the last 16 years with seven showrooms altogether, out of which two are located in India and one was opened up recently.

K.U. Shankari, Founder and CEO of the company says, “We are focusing mainly on the SMB sector. In 2013, we have added one more showroom at Computer Plaza to focus on the high-end workstation and server products.

Also we have elaborated on the distribution channel side in the Indian operations. We have added more to our portfolio on that front.”

The CEO says now the focus for the company will be to action out all the plans it has undertaken in the last year and expects to see an increase in the revenues with the new showroom.

Revenue breakup by category

K.U. Shankari, Founder and CEO

Systems and hardware: 70% Software and security: 10% Services and training: 10% Peripherals and storage: 5% Networking: 5% Accessories and consumables: 5%

Revenue breakup BY REGION UAE: 80%

Year of start-up: 1998 Total Staff: 37 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 6 Name of vendor certifications: HP, Lenovo, Dell

Top vendors by revenue

UAE: 20%

Top vendors by revenue: Aruba, Fortinet, Vidyo, MobileIron, Vocera

40 Precedence Technologies

$10.8M Revenue breakup by Region

Precedence Technologies offers a complete range of IT services that allow customers to bridge the gap between IT and business objectives. Having witnessed a steady growth rate of 30 percent year-on-year for the last four years, the company has added enterprise storage and servers and security divisions in the last two years. The company plans to continue and increase its focus on data wired and wireless and unified communication.

Farook Majeed, CEO of the company says, “We have achieved highest level of partnerships with our leading networking partners. Today we have a staff of 60 and have expanded with our new office opening in Abu Dhabi.”

Majeed aims to take the company to AED 100 million within the next three to four years. “We believe we have been recognised as one of the top five leading networking infrastructure companies in the UAE.” In the next financial year, we will see the company increasing its focus on networking infrastructure and services and expand its customer footprint in Abu Dhabi.

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UAE: 100%

Revenue breakup by category

Networking: 70% Systems and hardware: 10% Security: 10% Services: 10%

Farook Majeed, CEO

Year of start-up: 2004 Total Staff:60 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 35 Total resellers: 170 Name of vendor certifications: Avaya-silver, Aruba-platinum, Mitel-Business, HP-Gold, Cisco-specialized, Pelco, Samsung

Channel elite industry ranking

$10M

41 EMW Middle East EMW Middle East has had a successful 2013, having won several large projects in education, hospitality and media in Abu Dhabi.

The systems integrator has experienced a commendable traction in the mobility space and was awarded the largest Juniper wireless LAN project in EMEA. According to CEO Serjios EL-Hage, the company has seen a significant growth in the education sector with the deployment of Juniper Networks for Abu Dhabi University Network Infrastructure and the Brocade services support at UAEU main campus in Al-Ain. The SI aims to focus on mobility in this financial year and as a part of these plans has increased its workforce in both its locations, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. El-Hage says, “2013 was a great launching pad to position EMW ME as the mobility leader in the enterprise market especially with the Dubai Mobile-Government initiative that fits perfectly with our solutions portfolio.”

Revenue breakup by category

Serjios El-Hage, Group CEO Networking: 70% Services and training: 15% Software and security: 10% Systems and hardware: 5%

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: Dell, HP Software and security: Airwatch, Catavolt, CloudPath, Crittercizm, Interactive Intelligence, Metelcom, Microsoft,MobileIron, TigerTMS, Vmware and Z-Scalar Peripherals and storage: EMC Networking: Arista, Brocade, Bluecoat, Cisco, Fortinet, HP, Juniper, Metelco

Total Staff: 140 Total technical staff: 80% Top vendors by revenue: Brocade, Cisco, Juniper, ININ Main verticals: Education, government and public sector, hospitality, retail and media

$8M

42 Spectrami IT security and storage distributor, Spectrami has had quite a few highlights in 2013. From opening its new office in South Africa, increasing its local presence in Saudi Arabia to adding more resources and enhancing its product portfolio, the distributor has been up and about. The company has expanded its product portfolio by adding new technologies such as Good Technology, Violin Memory and Packet ninja to its existing portfolio. Anand Choudha, Managing Director says, “We launched our customer experience center for Actifio last year and also increased our channel presence across the region. We also signed up partnerships with major systems integrators such as Paladion Network, GBM, Ejada, PCS, and Help AG. We achieved first sales in the region by selling 10G solution for malware protection to a major telcom operator.” The company acquired 70 new customers in 2013.

Spectrami expects to clock record revenues for the year 2014 and has served more than 150 plus enterprise customers in the region. “We will continue to expand our reach in African continent.

This year we have moved into much bigger office space to accommodate our growing team. The new office is designed to offer better and bigger customer experience center for our channel partners and their customers on various technologies that we represent. We also have an authorised training centre facility at the new premise for Actifio, Fidelis and other technologies. Overall there has been an emphasis in development and growth which reflects in numbers of customer acquisition, revenues and territory and product portfolio expansion,” adds Choudha.

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Revenue breakup by category

Anand Choudha, MD Software and security: 60% Peripherals and storage: 35% Services and training: 5%

Year of start-up: 2011 Total Staff: 20 Total Engineers: 4

Vendors Profile Software and security: Tenable, Logrhythm, Fidelis XPS, Good Technology Peripherals and storage: Actifio, Violin Memory Services and training: Tenabtle, Logrhythm, Fidelis XPS, Good Technology, Actifio, Violin Memory

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Channel elite industry ranking

$6.1M

43 Tech Forte The systems integration arm of Global Group, Tech Forte delivers turnkey solutions to the regional markets in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe (MEAEE).

According to Mario Veljovic, Vice President, Solutions MENA, Global Distribution, the systems integrator is quite strong in the public sector and education verticals. “We have proved our engagement and enhanced our portfolio with a first installation of Huawei technologies with ministries and schools. Tech forte on the right track,” he says.

With the nature of systems integration evolving from its traditional sense, Veljovic believes ‘focus’ will be the key aspect for players in this segment. “We focus only on two verticals because selling a server to a hospital and a construction site are two very different kinds of things. When you have a strong focus, then you are also able to look at offering holistic solutions, which is where our strength lies.”

Revenue breakup by category

Mario M Veljovic, VP Solutions

Systems and hardware: 60% Accessories and consumables: 15% Services and training: 10% Software and security: 5% Peripherals and storage: 5% Networking: 5%

Year of start-up: 2012 Total Staff: 35 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 15 Name of vendor certifications: HP Silver, Huawei Gold

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: HP, Dell Software and security: Adyton, SonicWALL Peripherals and storage: Pure Storage, HP

Networking: HP, Cisco Accessories and consumables: Linkcomn

44 Finesse

$5.4M Revenue breakup by Region

Established in 2010, Finesse is a young player in the regional systems integration space. Clear strategies from a domain, technology and delivery perspective have helped the four-year-old company grow at an escalated rate. With over $5 million in revenues last year, the company is determined to touch the $100 million mark in the next six years. Cofounder and COO, Sunil Paul expects to hit this milestone by carrying out operations in a focused manner. Paul says, “We are primarily an IT systems integration firm with a strong portfolio in banking. Our three main technology focus areas are BI and analytics, enterprise content management and GRC. And from a delivery stream point of view, we are concentrating on cloud, mobile and social media.”

With more than 185 people employed across the region in countries such as Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, it also has a year-old support centre in India and a small-scale operation in Canada.

Although it has partnerships with big technology brands such as SAP and Oracle, the company’s strategic positioning is to bring in niche solutions to the region. The systems integrator has seen success with vendors such as Tagetik, Qlikview, OpenText and Metrix Stream.

UAE: 80% Outside UAE: 13%

Revenue breakup by category Sunil Paul, COO

Services and training: 65% Software and security: 30% Systems and hardware: 5%

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: Dell, IBM Software and security: Qlik, Opentext, EMC

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Services and training: Own

Year of start-up: 2010 Total Staff: 187 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 168 Primary market verticals: BFSI, education, energy, healthcare and hospitality

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Channel elite industry ranking

$5M

45 Quality Computers Established in 1988, Quality Group has been one of Dubai’s homegrown IT companies. Started out from Khalid Bin Waleed Street, 25 years ago, the group has put plans in place to move operations to an 85,000 square feet, twostorey headquarters in Dubai Investment Park (DIP). Quality Computers, a subsidiary of the group and a regional IT distributor has been focusing on increasing its workforce to handle the mobile and solutions business. Partnerships with key brands such as Intel and Microsoft is going to further propel the distributor more seriously into the tablet and mobility business. A distributor and reseller of over 20 leading global brands in IT such as HP, WD and Epson, the company plans to strengthen its position in the market in the coming year.

Revenue breakup by category

Sysyems and Hardware: 50% Software and Security: 15% Accessories and Consumables: 15% Peripherals and Storage: 10% Networking: 10%

Vasant Menghani, Founder and CEO Year of start-up: 1988 Total Staff: 300 Total Engineers: 30

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: Hp, Dell, Touchmate Software and security: Microsoft, Escan, Unistal, Symantec Peripherals and storage: WD, Seagate, Touchmate, Toshiba Networking: Linksys

Accessories and consumables: Touchmate, HP Services and training: Touchmate, Microsoft, Intel, APC Components: Intel Others: APC, Epson, Symantec, Touchmate

46 Computer Networks Middle East A regional systems integrator in the communication systems, applications and services space, Computer Networks Middle East (CNME) builds, deploys and manages data and voice networks for enterprises. Catering largely to small and medium-size enterprises, it helps facilitate customer relationships, enhance productivity and maximise profitability.

Established in 1995, the systems integrator has grown over the last few years and plans to increase the workforce by 25 percent in the coming year to be able to support this growth.

We will also see the company establishing a new office in Dubai to be able to better support their customers. And it also aims on expanding its footprint outside UAE for services and consultancy. Apart from identifying new products, the systems integrator also plans to work towards winning significant accounts from the government sector in the coming year.

Revenue breakup by Region

UAE: 80% Outside UAE: 20%

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Tariq Bilgrami, MD

Revenue breakup by category

Year of start-up: 1997 Total Staff: 18 Services and training:70% Systems and hardware:20% Software and security: 10%

Vendors Profile Systems and hardware: F5, Fortinet, Infoblox, LogRhythm, FireEye Software and security: Lumension, LogRhythm, Vasco, FireEye, Leiberman Software, HID

$3.8M

Networking: F5, Fortinet, Infoblox, FireEye Services and training: WhiteHat Security

Channel elite industry ranking

$0.98M

47 Oscomp Terming itself as a ‘one stop’ systems integrator, Oscomp focuses on delivering end-to-end services to small to medium enterprises in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the UAE and some parts of the GCC region.

Revenue breakup by category

Revenue breakup by Region Kunal Sajnani, MD

UAE: 90% Outside UAE: 10%

Systems & Hardware: 35% Services and training: 25% Networking: 15% Software and security: 10% Peripherals and storage: 10% Accessories and consumable: 5%

Year of start-up: 2003 Total Staff: 18 Total Engineers/ Technical Staff: 5 Top distributors by relationship: Redington Gulf, Logicom Dubai, Aptec, Magnum Connect, ThinkCell GmbH

Distributor Profile Systems & Hardware: Redington, Logicom, Aptec, Magnum Connect Software and security: Think-Cell, Redington, Aptec, Logicom, Comguard, Bulwark

Peripherals and storage: Quality Computers, Aptec, Redington, Logicom, Magnum Connect Accessories and consumables: Buraida Computer, Satrah, Printek, Hicom

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Healthcare sector

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

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Safe and sound Modern healthcare is increasingly becoming dependent on hi-tech IT systems and solutions. Reseller ME investigates why partners should align their focus to this sector and explores the channel opportunities present.

Technology has revolutionised most regional sectors to a previously unimaginable level. While the use of technology is apparent in verticals such as banking and government, the demand for changing existing processes with advances in technology is higher today in sectors such as education and healthcare.

Earlier in the year, Gartner forecasted that healthcare providers in the Middle East and Africa region will spend $2.8 billion on IT products and services in 2014. This is an increase of 2.8 percent over 2013 revenues, which itself conveys the whole story.

The opportunities in the regional healthcare sector for IT solution providers is infinite,

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considering the demand and growth of the vertical.

Technology is changing the relationships between doctors and patients. From electronic medical records, remote access of patients’ medical history and information on smart devices, network security, video collaboration, storing medical data to offering seamless Internet connection

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feature

Healthcare sector

for patients to browse and help with recuperation, there really isn’t any area where technology won’t have an impact in the healthcare sector.

According to Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Manager, Cisco UAE, in the coming years we will increasingly see healthcare institutions and providers utilising care-at-a distance technology to connect patients in Turkey with physicians or specialists in the US or the Far East, for vital healthcare consultations. “These are applications that are happening right here, right now, and the technology and its use-cases are only going to become more immersive and effective in the healthcare sector,” he adds.

With a more connected environment in the region, Abdulal says there is a potential for heart-rate monitors and sensors implanted in clothing to record diabetic sugar levels which will help in curating a single electronic patient record that will eliminate a manual approach to tests, and this datadriven patient management will result in improved healthcare effectiveness and efficiencies.

Indeed, modern technology has changed the structure and organisation of the entire medical field and continues to be a disruptive force, says Noman Qadir, Director, Channel, Middle East & Africa, Citrix. “In the UAE alone, IT spending in healthcare reached an estimated $16.8 billion in 2013 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 16 percent through 2014 according to a report by US-UAE Business Council,” he says. “Given the

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highly mobile nature of the jobs of healthcare providers, it is important that they have an effective way to collaborate while protecting patient privacy and data security.”

According to Maya Zakhour, Channel Director, Middle East, Fortinet, the transition towards more patient-centric care and decentralised monitoring means providers, patients and payers need to access information that originates outside the hospital setting. “The trends toward personalised medicine, prevention, and wellness means

the way to the hospital data centre. “Only with security as the foundation can healthcare organisations build IT services and applications that meet the requirements of the business and healthcare mandates.

Healthcare is also a growing segment in the region, and this presents tremendous growth opportunities for the channel to help provide.”

When it comes to offering services by the channel, it doesn’t stop at security, BYOD or networking solutions. Stefan Sommer, Director Marketing & Business Management EMEA,

is the fact that most of the processes and existing technologies function are siloed. Healthcare IT infrastructures are spread across disparate locations, making IT operations and security management a highly complex task.

Maged Eid, Regional Director, Nexthink, says while IT tools and solutions need to be readily available to healthcare providers, they also need to be secure and protected at the same time. “The risks from issues of downtime or noncompliance of security policies

The risks from issues of downtime or non-compliance of security policies are not only financial - patient lives can depend on this.”

Maged Eid, Regional Director, Nexthink

stakeholders need to connect information from various points within the healthcare value chain − including providers, laboratories, payers, and patients. The more this private information is opened to outside entities, the greater the chance that these systems can be compromised either intentionally or accidently.”

Zakhour further says that the sensitivity of patient information has created the need for end-to-end security solutions throughout the entire healthcare network, right from doctors’ offices all

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MMD, a multimedia display manufacturer, says, “We are covering display solutions for the clinical review. For this field we see anti-bacterial materials, DICOM appliance and special medical power supply as main features in particular for the clinical review sector.” He also says channel partners can make the most of these opportunities by equipping themselves with appropriate knowledge about clinical review monitors.

Channel prospects Today, the challenge the healthcare industry is facing

are not only financial - patient lives can depend on this.”

And this is where channel partners can make all the difference, identifying areas to bring in seamless integration.

Although the potential in healthcare for the regional channel appears to be vast, do partners know how to go about optimising these opportunities?

Most industry experts say no, they believe channel partners are not going about these prospects in the right way. They need to go beyond the norm to stand out.

Qadir from Citrix agrees

and says that with major transitions taking place in the healthcare industry, channel partners definitely have unique opportunities to evolve their business models and offer more value to their customers.

“And at the same time, they can differentiate themselves and grow profitably. In addition, partners can approach healthcare facilities with robust technology solutions that will help companies embrace mobile work styles to improve both patient care and organisational performance,” he adds.

It is clear that channel partners need to be innovative in their approach to beat competition in this market. And in order to do that, the first step is to educate themselves about the market potential. Partners should understand in what areas a particular technology can prove to save costs for a healthcare organisation and be able to advice that to the decision-maker effectively.

“The competition is often fierce, but we support our partners with beneficial pricing and on the technical side, we have a team of dedicated presales and after-sales technical

Partners can approach healthcare facilities with robust technology solutions that will help companies embrace mobile work styles to improve both patient care and organisational performance.”

Noman Qadir, Director, Channel, Middle East & Africa, Citrix

consultants and engineers, who can really help in overcoming most of the obstacles. We conduct regular trainings on a quarterly basis to equip our partners with the latest up-todate technology and trends, so they can approach potential clients with full confidence,” explains Sakkeer Hussain, Sales and Marketing Director, D-Link Middle East & Africa. “Regular participation in our trainings on new product standards and technologies help our partners to pitch the right products in this vertical. With our costefficient solutions, our endcustomers will be satisfied, too, as they realise better returns on their investments.”

Eid from Nexthink, believes channel partners must provide technology and

solutions that improve patient care, maximise performance, manage risks, and enhance operating efficiency across the entire patient care cycle.

“The challenge for healthcare organisations is to make sense of the massive amounts of clinical, financial, and operational data generated each day across their IT infrastructure and endpoints,” he says. And partners offering IT analytics solutions that can deliver on the promise of providing actionable insight and predictive capabilities can help make healthcare IT departments more efficient.

“This in turn results in the delivery of high quality patient care and improved patient satisfaction,” he adds.

Regular trainings and

These are applications that are happening right here, right now, and the technology and its use-cases are only going to become more immersive and effective in the healthcare sector.”

Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Manager, Cisco UAE

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education programmes are tools which will help partners sustain business in this sector. Understanding this, Polycom, a video, voice and content collaboration and communication technology provider, offers free online training and enablement resources that are designed to help its channel partners identify propositions in the healthcare sector which can align with their business objectives. “All our partners also have access to Polycom’s dedicated partner portal and marketing resources to help them market our solutions. In addition, we have a dedicated team of healthcare technology experts to help with customer engagements and a wealth of healthcare marketing material that is made readily available to partners,” explains Andrew Graley, Director, Healthcare, Education & Government, Polycom EMEA. The future of the healthcare sector in the region is bright with extensive growth forecasted for it.

Channel partners need to look at this vertical with a specific focus and devise effective strategies to make an impact and stand out from the competition.

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partner watch

ZENSAR TECHNOLOGIES

Growing steadily Reseller ME sits down with Ganesh Natarajan, CEO and Vice Chairman, Zensar Technologies, to gain an insight into the company’s modus operandi and the way ahead.

A fourteen-year-old company, Zensar Technologies commenced operations in 2000. Today with a stable growth rate of 21 percent year-on-year, the company is largely focused on two verticals – manufacturing and retail distribution (MRD) and on the entire gamut of financial services including insurance and banking.

Currently operating in eight countries, the Middle East and Africa is its third largest market. Recently, the software solutions and services provider signed a partnership with Agile Financials in order to strengthen its foothold in the region. Ganesh Natarajan, CEO and Vice Chairman, Zensar Technologies, outlines the company’s modus operandi and the current market trends.

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Could you elaborate on your recent partnership with Agile Financial Technologies?

The partnership focuses on banking, insurance and financial verticals. We operate through channel partners who have a strong domain and delivery status. For the last six months, both teams, ours and Agile’s, have been involved in understanding the products, actively engaging together and they have also got opportunities across various regions. Ongoing support and various addon services that customers need including infrastructure management will be provided

by Zensar. We have strong domain skills and this has been witnessed in the insurance space. That is an excellent complement with Agile’s products.

When did the Middle East operations begin for Zensar?

We started out in the Middle East four years ago. Today we are active with retail clients and scaling up substantially.

Last year, we appointed Sekhar Dash, Regional Head of Middle East, Zensar Technologies to run this business. We have an office located in Jeddah, KSA. And also have partnerships in Bahrain and Qatar. Our focus is to have a solid presence in the region and stay invested there.

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What are some of the opportunities in this region?

The DIFC segment is predominantly a product-led process here. Institutions look for product profile and then look for auxiliary services. If you look at the insurance segment, systems have been acquired more than a decade ago. All of them are ripe for change. We are witnessing a replacement cycle that has already begun.

We need robust technologies to drive businesses forward.

What are some of the trends specific to this market?

Last four years, there have been heavy investments into cloud while pay-as-you-go services have also become mainstream.

What we have noticed is that not only are data centres moving into cloud, but everyone is also focusing on software-as-aservice. Apart from that, there has been a strong growth in mobility in the region. What we see today is the rise of the omnipresent enterprise. The third trend is enterprise social media. People didn’t understand the customer connect earlier.

Today it is one of the biggest investments we are making. We are setting up what we call as social listening centres, listening to what is happening on social media and then analysing that data are some areas where we have invested in. Analysing the patterns within social media is important to the enterprise. The

reason I believe we can be much more successful than some of our very large competitors is because we are nimble, we can make it happen. We have complete commitment to this model of engagement. It is a global strategy, implemented strongly locally.

What are some of the plans for next couple of months?

On a global level, we are targeted to grow 20 percent this year in spite of it being a slow market. We have a threedigit growth plan for the next three years. Currently, we are in nascent stages in the Middle East, however we have been placing the foundation stones in the right places for the last six months. The foundation stones includes – establishing regional partnerships, regional offices, getting regional people on board to work with us and meeting our core partners and going and enriching our customers. We are investing a lot into our key customers here and helping with their key operations. We are enhancing capabilities around digital enterprise. We are scaling up with existing relationships and expanding into different regions and different verticals.

We have now chosen three markets to heavily over invest – GCC, continental Europe and China. The growth opportunities in these three areas are phenomenal.

partner watch

PRO TECHNOLOGY

Taking risks Jamal H. Maraqa, Managing Director and Founder, PRO Technology, explains how the market has transformed over the years.

When Pro Technology began its business in early 1998, it was one of the few players focusing on storage at that time.

Managing Director and Founder, Jamal H. Maraqa, says this was in an attempt to differentiate itself from the big players.

He adds, “Other computer companies were hesitant to invest in this field because it is expensive and sophisticated.

I started the company with

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a focus on high-end storage systems and digital archiving.”

Today, the sixteen-year-old company caters to mainly four business divisions, enterprise solutions, Apple business – it is one of the first few authorised Apple resellers in the region, digital printing and distribution.

“Our strategy was to do different lines of businesses.

This way it helps to differentiate ourselves and we can serve our customers better. In our distribution division, we have picked up several high-end

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brands and distribute these products in our markets. We have brought unique lifestyle products that are IT focused into the market. Going forward, we plan to continue our focus on these four divisions.”

Over and above that, the company is focusing on how to align the business with the transformations taking place in the market. Maraqa believes the iPhone and the tablet business along with cloud are bringing about major changes. “How to align the business to be able to offer services that will still be valuable to the customers and end users is something we are working on today.”

New and emerging technologies are challenges in the channel by itself, says Maraqa. Owners and managers need to look at how to change the structure to adapt and to be able to compete and justify his presence in the market around the new technologies. “Another challenge we have noticed is that we have started facing competition from a vendor.

Usually being a reseller or a SI, we share information. However, we have found on several occasions that vendors are coming to the market on their own and going to the customer directly. And even if they do the deal through resellers, margins are not justified.”

However, Maraqa says this is something the resellers need to find a way out of. “Partners need to see where they can make more money and invest

into that area by being focused.”

With internal competition, a partner might look at diversifying and this has both, pros and cons. While the reseller might be wandering away from the initial business focus, he might now have a chance to identify new business avenues.

The founder is clear about the way ahead, he says there are no expansion plans on the horizon and has even shut down offices in KSA, Sudan and Jordan a while ago.

“We are focusing only in the UAE and here itself there are tremendous opportunities in sectors such as education, government and banking.

There is a huge development in adopting Apple computers and tablets in the educational market and being one of the certified apple educational resellers, we have plans to recruit a teacher. Apple has a system of certifying teachers to adopt technologies,” he says.

Stating that the secret to success is through hard work alone, Maraqa says the company has had a significant growth in 2013 – around 47 percent. And while 2014 has been a challenging year because of market conditions, the company is on track to meet the anticipated revenues.

Maraqa expects the growth to come from largely lifestyle products and the Apple business. Today the company has about 80 employees in the UAE with a branch in Libya.

Vendor focus

wd

The whole nine yards Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, WD, explains the importance of channel partners going beyond the norm and earning the status of a trusted advisor.

The channel market is undergoing a transformation today. With stiff competition and very little product differentiation, it is a challenge to stand out. What then makes all the difference are the little things. How are you positioning your business, what kind of services can a customer avail from you and most of all, do customers consider you as their trusted advisor?

Earning this status from customers is not easy.

One way to go about it is by going the extra mile, offering

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more than what the customer might have walked into the store for. With this in mind, WD has invested and focused on educating and training the channel partners on what they are selling.

Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, WD, says, “This has been our endeavour for the last two years and we have now started seeing the fruits of our efforts. It is not about getting the shelf space with the reseller partner but educating them to know exactly what they are selling. They need to be a trusted advisor. This is the key aspect that is missing from the reseller community.”

october 2014 Reseller Middle East

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Although majority of the resellers were good sales people, Saifuddin says, it was from the perspective of the reseller and not the customer.

Customers walk into a store with various requirements and might also need consultation about a purchase. “However, resellers were not identifying that because in most cases, they themselves were not educated or empowered enough. We started conducting on-the-counter educational campaigns and lunch time off-sites. We also ensure that we revisit these trainings regularly and renew the education process.

These trainings were also linked to certifications and online activities.”

Completing 10 years with WD this year, Saifuddin is credited with developing emerging markets such as Turkey, central Africa and Pakistan, which enjoy more than 50 percent of the market share today. The challenge at that point of time, he says, was working on the relevance of the hard drive.

“There are two ways of going around it – set up the relevance of the product and then market the relevance of the brand. And to do that, you either speak of the features the product has or talk about the benefits which for a layman is much more interesting,” he adds.

In the past year, the company has driven the business by focusing on its My Cloud range and also by launching other

segment-specific products such as its Purple drives. It has been a fairly good year for the company and according to Saifuddin, the new products will continue to drive the business in the next financial year as well. Another key driver for the storage vendor has been its NAS solutions. “SMEs are growing at an accelerated rate and businesses are becoming smarter, therefore, people need more and more storage in their workplaces. The growth of SMEs will be a key driver for the NAS segment,” he explains.

As far as the channel is concerned, the vendor aims to build and enhance on its existing partner network. He says, “Our key objective is to develop as much confidence as possible in the complete ladder of events, to have the confidence to stand with the brand for the partners.

We want to increase our partner engagement and invest more on partner education on the new products so that they are able to advice customers effectively.”

The company has also invested in services and customer satisfaction levels by being active on social media. “We promote our WD forums because we want to listen to our customers. Our products are designed based on the feedback we receive from our customers. Partners are involved here from a customer satisfaction point of view and we will continue to focus on developing and strengthening our partner network.”

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Though Chinese made smartphones may have a bad rep in the market for being poorly manufactured, Huawei’s new Ascend P7 is surprisingly sturdy, classy and simply fun to use.

The aptly named sequel to the P6, the P7 proves that Huawei can actually create ultra-thin devices that stand up to heavy usage.

The first thing one notices about the phone is its size. The brightly backlit, high-definition screen clocks in at 5-inches with 1080 x 1920 pixels - large enough to satisfy anyone looking to stream video, view pictures, browse the web and more. However, screen size isn’t the only impressive design feature. The Ascend P7 boasts a unique, all-glass construction adding to its slick, sophisticated aesthetic.

Combine the large screen, all-glass body and well-placed control buttons, and it’s clear from the moment one unboxes the phone, that the Ascend P7 is a cut above the average mobile phone.

Casual and business users alike know that the real value of a smartphone lies in its ability to serve the many and

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varying needs of its user. The Ascend P7 has the looks to impress, but more importantly, the strength to deliver no matter what the task. Running the Android OS on a Quad-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A9 processor, the Ascend is open to the full array of apps available on the Android market through the Google Play store. Run multiple apps, take incredible photos, organise home pages and folders with ease, the Ascend P7 is surprisingly functional and fun to use.

As with most smartphones on the market today, the creators of the P7 took social media sharing and pic snapping seriously. The Huawei designed keyboard makes for easy messaging and text correction, the primary 13 MP camera is well placed and the 8 MP secondary camera is also quite functional. The Ascend P7’s native speakers are surprisingly clear.

The Ascend P7 is very slightly thicker than its ultra-thin predecessor, but the frame, sandwiched between two plates of Gorilla Glass makes up for any clunkiness.

Our verdict: Sleek and fun to use, Ascend P7 is the answer to your computing needs on-the-go.

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Porsche Design Blackberry P’9883 Although over-priced, the smartphone packs impressive features to meet the demands of the luxury user.

The luxury P’9983 smartphone combines the stylish design of the Porsche Design brand with the productivity of Blackberry 10.3 technology. It comes with a unique PIN number exclusive to the P’9883 user that adds value to one’s socioeconomic profiling by associating the user to the Blackberry Porsche Design club – owning a P’9883 is a status symbol fitting the pocket of a club member only.

The smartphone is shelled in stainless steel casing with Porsche Design logo and chassis supported by special glassweave technology. The camera lens is built of sapphire glass which produces better images than its predecessors via 4 Depth of Field video stabilisation technology.

The first QWERTY Porsche Design smartphone, P’9883 is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.5 GHz processor with 64 GB storage, 2GB RAM and an additional MicroSD that supports external memory of up to 128 GB. Weighing approximately 140g, the smartphone cashes on 802.11 GPS capability to support 4G mobile communication. The smartphone’s hardware specs justify the productivity it promises to deliver. One of the USPs of the phone is a 2100 mAh fully-charged battery that runs unabated for 48 hours.

Also noteworthy is the smartphone’s display screen built with 3.1-inch diagonal AMOLED technology capturing 330ppi for depth of colour. It is also powered with 8MP back camera that records high definition videos at 1080p and 2MP front camera that records high definition videos at 720p. The smartphone comes with Micro HDMI slot that allows the user to view the device’s content on the TV screen.

A business user also benefits from the smartphone’s added software functionality visible in the two latest additions, BlackBerry Priority Hub and BlackBerry World, for downloading business and productivity apps. For the casual user, the Amazon app store meets most requirements.

What an existing Blackberry user is likely to struggle with is the incompatibility of the P’9883 with any earlier version of Blackberry OS app for PCs. Transferring data from an earlier generation Blackberry to the P’9883 requires one to follow a protocol. One has to download a Blackberry Blend app into the computer to link it with the smartphone and enable syncing of

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content. However, this can be easily worked around and isn’t a big inconvenience.

It is an upmarket device that lets the user’s sense of style justify the phone’s over-priced value. A unique PIN number is proof to the fact that it is a merger of class and functionality suiting the taste of a luxury user. Retailing at twice the price tag of the recently launched iPhone 6, the P’9883 can be purchased from any Blackberry store or Porsche Design outlet for a retail price of $2,000.

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Canon launches inkjet printers for SMB

Lenovo presents VIBE Z2 Smartphone The VIBE Z2 sets a higher level for sleek trend-setting design with advanced performance and professional-grade photography features. Slim at just 7.8 mm thin, this smartphone takes vibrancy to the next level with its extra-bright 600nit rating on a 5.5-inch (1280x720) HD display, making it one of the brightest screens on the market today, to produce ultra-sharp photos and video playback, even in bright sunlight.

The VIBE Z2 is the company’s first 64-bit powered smartphone, which means it will be able to take advantage of Google’s future versions of Android that supports high-performance 64-bit computing. The device runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 64-bit Quad Core 1.2GHz processor and is backed by a 3000mAh battery for all day battery life. Saving large amounts of data is simple with 32 GB of internal storage, and 4G LTE data speeds offer faster downloads and streaming while on the go. The VIBE Z2 also provides dual SIM support, which allows the phone to support two carrier plans, great for combining work and play in one device or for frequent travelers. The Lenovo VIBE Z2 will be available in titanium grey.

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Canon Middle East has launched MAXIFY, a new range of business inkjet printers designed to support the demand from small and home offices for high volume, colour printing.

The inkjet printer range consists of four multi-functional devices (MFDs), the MAXIFY MB2040, MB2340, and the MAXIFY MB5040 and MB5340 as well as one single-function printer (SFP), the iB4040. According to the company, the MAXIFY range enables it to offer greater choice to small business customers that are looking for professional quality colour printing as well as high-quality copying, scanning and faxing.

The MB2040 and MB2340 will support home office environments with a recommended print capacity of up to 1000 pages per month, while the MB5040, MB5340 and iB4040 have been designed for small office printing and support higher print volumes of up to 1500 pages per month. The new devices also maximise productivity in the office with a First Print Out Time (ISO-FPOT) as low as seven seconds and A4 print speeds at 23 ipm for black-and-white and 15 ipm for colour.

The range also delivers cost-effective colour prints thanks to new high-yield XL ink tanks.

Xerox showcases new A3 colour printer The WorkCentre 7970 from Xerox is designed to meet heavy volumes of work and helps in faster turnaround times. It is equipped with speeds that help increase productivity and workflows that simplify daily office business, according to the company.

The new WorkCentre 7970 delivers copy and print speeds – in black and white and in color – up to 70 pages per minute. The device is equipped with a high-capacity paper tray that holds up to 2,000 sheets of paper and offers first page output at 6.9 seconds. For large workgroups or document-intensive offices that need to create high impact color documents – such as marketing materials or sales presentations – the new product offers 1200×2400 dpi with Digital Image Registration Control that ensures precise colour matching. The device can also handle a wide

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range of media types and weight, helping users create a larger variety of documents to meet their business needs. The device is enabled with Xerox ConnectKey technology so documents can be securely printed, scanned or faxed to any cloud, office or building around the world. For additional convenience, the remote control panel allows the user to operate the printer remotely whether they are in the office or on-the-road.

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Touchmate launches Windows 8.1 tablet Touchmate has launched Windows 8.1 OS based Matrix Tab, TM-MID800W. It is a multi-functional, all-in-one tablet which is powered by high speed Intel Quad core 1.8 GHz processor with turbo boost technology, enhancing the device’s performance. Available in gold or silver colours, the 8-inch IPS screen offers 1280x800 resolution.

It has 32GB built-in storage memory and is equipped with 1GB RAM for fast browsing and quick internet access, playing high-definition games, watching movies and video recording.

It features a5 MP primary camera and a 2 MP front-facing camera. The device also supports wireless printing. The device is available for AED 699.

SanDisk introduces the 64GB SanDisk Connect Wireless flash drive SanDisk has launched the 64GB SanDisk Connect Wireless flash drive, which offers users wireless memory expansion for their mobile devices. In addition, recently released software updates enhance the performance and functionality of both the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive and Wireless Media Drive.

The SanDisk Connect product line enables consumers to wirelessly stream and store content on-the-go without Internet access.

In addition to the release of the 64GB SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive, the vendor has been continuously updating the software to improve performance and accessibility of the drive while keeping a cellular data connection. For the Wireless Media Drive, updates also include a web app that enables wireless access from PCs and Mac computers, as well as Windows 8 based tablets, and the ability to play back movies purchased on iTunes.

HTC unveils Desire 820 HTC has announced the Desire 820, the successor to the Desire 816. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, with integrated 4G LTE Cat 4 connectivity and 64-bit, multi-core CPU, this new addition to the HTC Desire family delivers content on-the-go at exceptional speeds and with stunning clarity on its 5.5-inch high definition screen. Sporting a premium imaging experience and powerful HTC BoomSound, the colourful, stylish HTC Desire 820 sets a new benchmark for midrange smartphones, according to the company. Featuring an 8MP front-facing camera, it delivers solo poses and effortless group shots.

Available in an array of colours and featuring HTC’s unibody design, the robust polycarbonate device will be available with major retailers early 2015.

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Reseller Middle East’s assistant editor offers her thoughts on the Middle Eastern technology channel.

Channel surfing

Column

Prioritising objectives I’ve experienced my share of trade fairs and exhibitions, but the anticipation, excitement and build-up to GITEX Technology Week is altogether something else. It brings out the best and worst in everybody. With really tight deadlines, everyone is on the edge and under immense pressure and at the same time, it’s all about pushing yourself to the limit.

This will be my second experience at the ICT event and frankly, I’m quite excited to see what the channel players have in store. Although there are many players who have consciously decided to give GITEX a miss this year, I believe the event will be better and even more large-scale than the previous editions.

After all, every business is also about being seen and heard, and this is the opportunity that GITEX offers to the industry. We have seen that the channel business is slowly but steadily recovering from the economy. 2013 was more of a consolidation phase for many channel players and while that continues to be the case for some, most are ramping up their offerings and solutions and entering into newer areas where opportunities thrive. In line with this aspect, we will see some exciting new launches at the event in terms of rebranding, product and solutions offerings, expansion plans, new partnerships and lots more.

From a partner perspective, the event offers a whole spectrum of prospects.

They should attend it with clear strategies and goals in place and try to make the most of it. However, at the end of the day, it is also about deciding what adds the most value for your business to grow even further. The first step is to figure out what is the objective of attending the event and if the investments required make relevant business sense.

At Reseller Middle East, we look forward to meet you at the event and hear more about your company’s developments and gain an insight into the market. We will be there throughout the week with news and coverage updated in our newsletter ‘60 Minutes’, which is printed each hour on all five days.

This is also one of our prime issues of the year with the survey results listed out. While the overall market seems to be moving towards a positive growth, only with adequate planning and foresight will we see a sweeping improvement.

Look forward to catching up at GITEX 2014.

Janees Reghelini, Assistant Editor, Reseller ME

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