Reseller Middle East October 2017 by Reseller Middle East

250 ISSUE 250 | OCTOBER 2017

www.tahawultech.com

Reseller Middle East celebrates two decades as the channelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier business information source

Download the FREE ResellerME app and explore your favourite magazine PUBLICATION LICENSED BY DUBAI PRODUCTION CITY, DCCA

ONE ENGINEERING CLUB’S UNIQUE RACE FOR CLEAN ENERGY T H E E X C E P T I O N A L S T O R Y O F PAT R I C E R O L L A N D

For 25 years, the ThinkPad has been the go-to hardware for the world’s most ambitious people. Like Patrice Rolland, a software engineer from Montreal who amazingly harnesses the wind to drive eco-friendly vehicle design. With his team, he has built wind-powered cars in the Netherlands all designed, produced and controlled by one central brain, the ThinkPad. At Lenovo, we work every day to innovate and improve tomorrow’s ThinkPad - to give every ThinkPerson the right tool to match their ambition.

2 5 Y E A R S O F T H I N K PA D. C E L E B R AT I N G E V E R Y T H I N K P E R S O N .

F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n o n w h e r e t o b u y, v i s i t L e n o v o . c o m /a e

Intel® Core™ Processors Intel Inside® . Powerful Productivity Outside.

I n t e l , t h e I n t e l L o g o , I n t e l I n s i d e , I n t e l C o r e , a n d C o r e I n s i d e a r e t r a d e m a r k s o f I n t e l C o r p o r a t i o n o r i t s s u b s i d i a r i e s i n t h e U . S . a n d /o r o t h e r c o u n t r i e s .

STRATEGIC VAD PARTNER

CONTENTS

ISSUE 250 // OCTOBER 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE

A BLAST FROM THE PAST

Industry veterans walk down the memory lane, sketching a picture of the key facets that crafted the industry two decades ago.

EVENT

HIGHLIGHTS

NEWS

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

OPINION

28 GET SPECIALISED

Frank Basinski from Red Hat explains why the channel must focus on becoming vertical proficient.

32 TRAIN OF THOUGHT

Cisco’s Scott Manson on the challenges of cybersecurity skills shortage.

FEATURE REVIEW

XIAOMI MI6

77 HOT PRODUCTS

MICROSOFT TOUTS THE NEW SURFACE PRO IN UAE

34 TOP DISTIES AT GITEX

GIVING DUE CREDIT Tahawul Tech’s Your Voice series gathered experts to discuss channel credit issues.

INTERVIEW

WILLING AND ABLE Enabler One’s co-founders Nehul Goradia and Rishikesh Trivedi share plans for 2018.

FEATURE

66 MONETISING DATA

Experts on how regional channel partners can exploit Big Data and analytics opportunity.

VENDOR FOCUS

71 DPARTNERSHIPS ECODING

We profile top ten distributors to rub shoulders with at the 37th edition of the trade show.

Gemalto shares updates on its revamped partner programme.

APPLE MARKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY WITH IPHONE X LAUNCH

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

DESIGNED TO DOMINATE Engineered exclusively for gaming. Powered by Killer.

Perfectly suited for :

The WRT32X takes gaming to the next level. The router built purely for gaming features AC3200 speed and the Killer Prioritization Engine. The Killer Prioritization Engine identifies, prioritizes and accelerates gaming network traffic above all other devices in your home to deliver a faster, superior gaming experience. The Killer-enabled WRT32X also synchronizes with Killerenabled PCs, including Alienware™, MSI™, GIGABYTE™ and Razer™, to give gaming traffic the highest priority on your network.

• The Killer Prioritization Engine identifies, prioritizes and accelerates gaming network traffic above all else. • The Killer Prioritization Engine reduces peak ping by 77%.

• Blazing fast 1.8GHz Dual-Core processor for simultaneous highspeed data processing. • Custom-built gaming user interface and firmware for ultimate gaming traffic control.

EDITORIAL The best is yet to be

Janees Reghelini Editor

E-mail: janees.reghelini@ cpimediagroup.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ TahawulTech Twitter: @TahawulTech

FOUNDER, CPI MEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Publishing Director Natasha Pendleton natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139

Published by

Registered at Dubai Production City, DCCA PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 © Copyright 2017 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.

Reseller Middle East was born over two decades ago as CPI Media Group’s second title in its current portfolio, having established its first magazine, CNME, a few years before. From being called RAM – Reseller, Assembler, Manufacturer to today’s Reseller Middle East, the publication’s aim was and will continue to be to reflect market evolutions and be the true ‘voice of the channel’. This month we are celebrating two decades of channel publishing and revering the firm’s founder, Dominic De Sousa, whose legacy we are carrying forward proudly. The regional channel industry has undergone a massive transformation over the last several years. This month we have veterans, who have lived through it all, share the industry’s gradual journey from being product-

focused to solutions-oriented, hardware to software-driven. It certainly has been one incredible ride, for all of us in the region. With the opportunities that emerging technologies bring and the increased emphasis on digitalisation within organisations, I believe the best is yet to come. The market circumstances may seem tougher than the previous years, however, it is an exciting time for those firms who identify and leverage the prospects. This is true even for us as we ensure to remain innovative and differentiated for the coming 20 years as well. Two hundred and fifty editions of reporting and covering developments in the IT channel for over 20 years is an accomplishment that I am privileged to be a small part of.

EDITORIAL Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129

ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130

Editor Janees Reghelini janees.reghelini@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9167

Sales Manager Merle Carrasco merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9147

Online Editor Adelle Geronimo adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135

CIRCULATION Database and Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4440 9119

DESIGN Senior Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com Designer Neha Kalvani neha.kalvani@cpimediagroup.com

PRODUCTION Production Manager James P Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9159

Operations Manager Shweta Santosh shweta.santosh@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9107 DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developers Jefferson de Joya Abbas Madh Photographers Max Poriechkin Charls Thomas webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 DIGITAL www.resellerme.com Printed by Printwell Printing Press

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

Huawei invests $250 million in partner programmes Huawei has launched a new, integrated partner programme that will include all of the company’s global solution partners. To facilitate this, in 2017, the firm is also investing $250 million in partner programmes, including $70 million in co-marketing. The new Huawei Solution Partner Programme incorporates independent software vendors, independent hardware vendors, systems integrators, and consulting partners. Huawei said it will provide them with the technical, marketing, and sales resources they need to design, build, and market Huawei-based solutions. According to the firm, its solution partner programmes have already attracted over 1000 partners. The number of Huawei OpenLabs, in which Huawei and partners can collaborate and test new solutions, has also grown from five to 16. By 2020, there will be 24 OpenLabs. Additionally, over 100 solutions have been released by Huawei Solution Partners, and are now available in the Huawei Marketplace. “Companies are investing in digital transformation. Huawei and our partners are uniquely positioned to assist them to navigate this process,” said Albert Liu, president, Partners and Alliances, Huawei. “Huawei’s innovative products and solutions provide extensive opportunities for our partners. Now the Huawei Solution Partner Program provides a simpler path for partners to succeed and grow.”

Redington Gulf signs distribution partnership with Xerox Emirates

erox Emirates has appointed Redington Gulf as its authorised distributor in the UAE. Through this partnership, Xerox Emirates aims to expand the reach of its A3 office entry level multi-function Printers’ (MFP) and Xerox Scanners in the SME segment and grow its market share by over 200 percent. According to Xerox Emirates, the partnership gives the firm access to Redington Gulf’s “strong and extensive network of IT resellers, supply chain facilities and capitalise on its vast experience in the IT volume distribution segment.” “The addition of Xerox to Redington’s brand portfolio will enable us to provide a more comprehensive set of solutions to our channel partners in both single and multi-function printing device segment. Redington will conduct channel awareness and recruitment programmes to increase

(L-R) Chris Govier, Xerox Emirates and Ashish Bharti, Redington Gulf

market share of Xerox in the reseller channel across UAE.” said Ashish Bharti, president, Redington Gulf, Volume Division, Middle East. By partnering with Xerox Emirates, the distributor aims to broaden its portfolio of IT offerings in the A3 office entry level Multifunction Printers (MFP) and Xerox Scanners segment. Xerox Emirates will also add value to this new partnership by offering training programmes, special offers and incentives which will benefit Redington Gulf and its reseller network.

GE, HPE enter $25 million partner agreement for META region GE has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) that will bring GE Digital’s digital industrial solutions at scale to the Middle East, Africa and Turkey. The three-year agreement with HPE, is the first collaboration of this scale and scope in the region, and will focus primarily on cybersecurity solutions in Operational Technology, with the potential to move into other digital solution in the future. In the first year of the partnership, GE Digital Cyber Security solutions will be distributed through the HPE Channel Partner Network across the META region, with a particular focus on the Gulf, Levant, Northern Africa, South Africa, and Turkey. By using this existing Partner Network with more than 1,500 partners in the region today, HPE and GED together will bring critical digital and cyber security solutions to industrial controls and infrastructure networks.

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

(L-R) Johannes Koch, HPE and Ali Saleh, GED MEA

To enable this outreach, the HPE Partner Ready Programe will ensure that more than 340 HPE specialists and Channel Partner technical and sales resources will be trained and certified on GE Digital solutions to deliver the solution on HPE storage and server infrastructure. In addition, HPE’s own security capabilities for information technology infrastructure will complement the solutions provided by GE for the operational technology environment. Johannes Koch, managing director, Middle East and Africa, HPE, said, “This agreement for Middle East, Africa & Turkey builds on our global partnership with GE to help our customers and partners take advantage of the Industrial Internet of Things and drive digital transformation across their business.”

UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGES Audio can seem daunting for IT professionals, yet it is increasingly becoming a new responsibility for IT departments. Shure understands the pressure you are under to deliver the best solutions across your organization’s activities. As a basic guideline, we recommend you focus on FOUR KEY CONSIDERATIONS when implementing a new solution: SIMPLICITY

STABILITY

Visit us at www.shure.eu for more information

SCALABILITY

STANDARDS

HIGHLIGHTS

Synnex completes purchase of Westcon Americas’ operations Synnex Corporation has announced the completion of its $600 million acquisition of Kevin Murai, Synnex the WestconComstor Americas businesses and minority investment in Westcon EMEA and APAC businesses. According to the statement released, the acquisition solidifies the firm’s position as a leader in security, UCC and networking. “I’m excited to welcome the Westcon-Comstor Americas team to the Synnex family,” said Kevin Murai, president and CEO, Synnex. “We believe this talented team and their recognised leadership in the security, UCC and networking space will enhance our value proposition in the market place. The acquisition of Westcon-Comstor Americas continues to build on our strategy of positioning the business to where technology is growing.” According to the company, the acquisition strengthens its market position in North America and adds an established presence in Latin America. The firm said, “It also creates a strategic partnership with Westcon-Comstor EMEA and APAC businesses, enabling a seamless global experience for partners.”

$715M FORECASTED VALUE OF PUBLIC CLOUD SPENDING IN META IN 2017 SOURCE: IDC

SonicWall signs up Ingram Micro for Egypt and KSA markets

ecurity solutions provider SonicWall has announced that Ingram Micro, regional technology distributor, is now distributing SonicWall products in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Republic of Egypt. As part of this relationship, Ingram Micro is now distributing all SonicWall products, including SonicWall’s Next Gen Firewalls, Email Security, Wireless Security, Secure Mobile Access, Wan Optimisation and Central Management solutions. Additionally, Ingram Micro will bundle SonicWall products with complementary and adjacent technologies to offer a comprehensive value proposition for its customer base. “Ingram Micro is committed to constantly enhancing the value

(L-R) Shahnawaz Sheikh, SonicWall and Marc Kassis, Ingram Micro META

proposition we provide our business partners, including offering a dedicated range of services and relevant large vendors,” said Marc Kassis, cybersecurity director, Ingram Micro META region. “We are delighted to be adding SonicWall to our portfolio in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, a strong partnership that helps us offer more robust cybersecurity solutions to through our customers throughout the region.”

Dell EMC inks distribution deal with Mitsumi for Africa Mitsumi Distribution has been appointed by Dell EMC Middle East, as an Authorised Dell EMC Enterprise Distributor for the Africa region. The distributor said that the move demonstrates the vendor’s confidence in its ability to help grow the brand across the region. Mitsumi has played an integral role in helping to grow the Dell business across the region, since the Dell Consumer, Commercial and SNP African distribution partnership first began in 2009. As an authorised distributor, the firm will distribute Dell EMC storage products including all-flash arrays, hybrid storage platforms and networked-attached storage solutions in Angola, Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mayotte, Nigeria, Reunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan,

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Tanzania and Uganda. Other Dell EMC Mitesh Shah, Mitsumi enterprise Distribution IT offerings include servers, converged infrastructure and cloud infrastructure products. “Over the last two years, we have invested heavily in our team and business to ensure we have the correct skill sets in place to drive growth and capture the Middle East and Africa market share. We are also concentrating on developing our product distribution capability and reach. We look forward to working with Dell EMC and we are sure that this partnership will offer a wide product offering to all the enterprise partners based in Africa,” said Mitesh Shah, managing director, Mitsumi Distribution.

World class brands. Just a call away. At Trigon we take pride in our distribution network, spreading across more than 15 countries – the Middle East, Africa and Asia. With 20 successful years in the business of distribution of world-class IT peripherals and services to our partners - dealers, resellers, retailers and corporate clientele, we at Trigon continue to innovate in all areas, building on the strength of our people and the quality of our brands. Our warehouse and logistics network, after sales support backed by state-of-the-art software, ensure seamless distribution. Trigon is one of the first IT distributor in the UAE to be awarded the coveted ISO certification. Together for a better tomorrow Bahrain: Dubai: Bahrain: Dubai: Kingdom Tower Bldg. 8, P.O. Box: 32610, Dubai, UAE P.O. Box: 75149, Manama P.O. Box: 32610, Dubai, UAE. Office 15, Exhibition Road. Tel: +971 4 342 6060 Kingdom of Bahrain +971 4 342 6060 P.O. BOX 75149, Manama, Bahrain Fax: +971 4t:354 7779 +973 172 92904 f: +971 4 354 7779 Tel: +973 t:1729 2904 E-mail: info@trigon-gulf.ae +973 5183 172 95183 e: info@trigon-gulf.ae Fax: +973f:1729 e: bh@trgononline.com www.trgononline.com Email: bh@trigononline.com

KSA:

Saudi Arabia: Office 508, Ofﬁce 508, Al Rossais Commercial Center Al Rossais Commercial Center, Olaya Street, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Olaya Street, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia t: +966 11 460 3114 Tel: +966 11 460 3114 f: Fax: +966+966 11 460113112 460 3112 e:Email: ksa@trgononline.com ksa@trigononline.com

www.trigononline.com

Oman: Oman: Office 503, Trade Centre Trade Center 5th Floor Ofﬁce No.503, MBD East, Ruwi-Muscat MBD East Ruwi, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, Sultanate of Oman +968 24819423 Tel:t: +966 11 460 3114 f: +968 Fax: +96624819425 11 460 3112 e: oman@trigon-gulf.ae Email: ksa@trigononline.com

HIGHLIGHTS

Mindware introduces Cloud Marketplace Platform Regional value-added distributor Mindware has announced the launch of its Cloud Nicholas Argyrides, Marketplace Mindware Platform, aimed at its Middle East and Africa partners. The platform includes an extensive array of subscription offerings, all conveniently aggregated on an online management tool. On the core of the new platform lies Microsoft and the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) agreement recently signed by the two companies, now taking the 25-year old cooperation into the new cloud era of distributing software services, said the firm. Utilising the Mindware Cloud Marketplace and its Microsoft CSP services, the distributor’s resellers can now own the complete customer lifecycle, allowing them to easily sell Office 365, Azure, Enterprise Mobility and Dynamics 365 subscriptions and, in turn, helping their clients take advantage of compelling cloud services by owning the entire billing process and directly managing support. “We chose to go live at a time coinciding with Microsoft’s start of fiscal 2018 - to inaugurate a new beginning in the way we do business with our partners” said Nicholas Argyrides, chief of sales and deputy general manager, Mindware. “Admittedly, launching the platform took us a bit longer than anticipated. Nonetheless, perfecting its functionality and usability for a seamless user experience was a top priority,” he added. “We are now ready to execute.”

Juniper Networks appoints Nuvias as pan-EMEA distributor

of Things (IoT) and Software uvias has been Defined Networking (SDN) appointed as a - areas where Juniper also pan-EMEA invests. distributor for The distributor said that Juniper Networks’ full range it will work with Juniper to of networking, security, identify key vertical markets data centre and cloud and geographies for solutions. partners and provide them Under the partnership, with the skills to transform Nuvias will support Juniper’s Paul Eccleston, Nuvias their customers’ data continued growth plans for centres with the firm’s networking and EMEA, particularly in the mid-to-high security platforms. end enterprise market. Paul Eccleston, CEO, Nuvias, said, The distributor has designed, “We are equipping partners with the together with Juniper, a full channel necessary skills to pursue opportunities partner development and acceleration independently, generate additional programme that complements the revenues, and deliver innovative vendor’s existing channel programme. services to their customers. Juniper It will offer technical, sales and invests in partners that bring in new marketing training to help maximise business and this agreement presents the business opportunities in high growth markets such as cloud, Internet a fantastic opportunity for the channel.”

TP-Link to educate customers on SMB offerings TP-Link Technologies has announced a new strategy to help channel partners to raise awareness of its SMB products and solutions in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) market. According to the vendor, the strategy to reinforce its SMB business comes at a time when the company has started to implement programmes aimed at helping channel partners improve their responsiveness to the needs of SMBs in the region. Denny Liang, vice president, TP-Link MEA, said although the last 12 months have been challenging for the regional IT industry, smart initiatives and various collaborations through public and private partnerships (PPP) are opening up opportunities for SMBs in the region. According to the VP, the company is looking at improving its channel partners’ business performance and better customer satisfaction as these are the two biggest drivers of

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

IT spending among small businesses. “A one-size-fitsDenny Liang, TP-Link all approach MEA doesn’t work anymore and dedicated solutions focusing at SMBs need to be provided and that extends to other aspects as well, such as marketing, pricing, and margins,” he said. TP-Link, according to Liang, together with its distribution partners is helping channel partners to stay competitive by offering them best price points for the products and solution that are in demand in the SMB space. Liang pointed out that given the current market conditions and business climate, it is critical that channel partners have the right products and solutions from TP-Link and its distribution partners to support SMBs comprehensively.

Business Continuity Starts Here DATA ANALYTICS SCALE OUT STORAGE BACKUP & RECOVERY

Simple. Powerful. Protected.

HIGHLIGHTS

HP launches global partner training programme HP has announced the launch of HP University, a ‘one-stop solution’ to empower and equip the company’s 18,000 worldwide partners. The new programme was announced at the company’s global partner event, HP Reinvent, and aims to combine sales skills, education, product training and certifications to enable HP’s partner ecosystem to migrate to evolving business models, such as contractual and subscription sales. It will combine online and instructorled training throughout 170 countries. Offered in 11 languages, the programme was piloted and tested with strategic partners in three markets prior to deployment. “HP offers partner-focused, consultative training with a thoughtful approach to drive the bottom line,” said Thomas Jensen, vice president, WW Channel Sales Strategy, HP Inc. “Our global partner-focused HP University allows our vast ecosystem to focus on driving channel growth with relentless execution, a simple and clear education programme and streamlined, effective operations to maximise growth and profitability.” More than 30 worldwide partners beta tested the programme prior to deployment. Offerings include instructor-led, face-to-face training in addition to sales skills development, highlight HP core competencies, including security, Device-asa-Service (DaaS), mobility, and managed print services.

60%

OF SAUDI FIRMS EXPERIENCED VIRUS AND MALWARE INCIDENTS IN THE LAST YEAR SOURCE: KASPERSKY LAB

StarLink now an Authorised Training Centre for Symantec

tarLink has announced that it is now an Authorised Training Centre (ATC) for Symantec in Europe, Middle East and Africa to support the vendor with its regional enablement initiatives. The value-added distributor announced that it would now provide the entire suite, end-to-end certification sessions for Symantec products and services through Instructor-Led Trainings (ILT) at different locations namely UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa or through Virtual Classroom Trainings (VCT). These certifications are conducted by instructors who are subject-matter experts, trained by the principal vendor and who can mentor on the most complex IT security landscapes, said the firm. According to StarLink, these courses are designed for IT professionals who intend to undertake basic and

advanced levels of certifications. Upon completion of the training sessions, the candidate becomes eligible to undertake the Prometric online exam to obtain the certification. Each course has its own set of key takeaways. IT professionals become equipped to identify and evaluate scenarios and deployment options based on organisational needs. They can implement and troubleshoot advanced configurations as per vendor best practices. “We understand how important it is to be constantly up-to-date with technologies in the IT industry. Aiming towards this objective, our strategy is to provide our customers with focused trainings on various products and services that can assist them in effectively managing their IT resources and help them grow within the IT space, gradually,” said Anuj Jain, director, Customer Success, StarLink.

FASYL joins IFS Partner Network as a channel partner FASYL to provide organisations in 11 African countries with access to endto-end business solutions from IFS. IFS, the global enterprise applications company, has announced that integrated information technology solution and software service provider FASYL, as a business partner for sub Saharan Africa, will join the IFS Partner Network to empower more businesses across the African continent with business solutions from IFS. Both firms will work together to offer enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM) and service management solutions to companies in asset- and product-centric sectors such as manufacturing and utilities. Resources from FASYL will be

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

certified through IFS Academy – Gawie van der Merwe, the official IFS South Africa training and certification programme. They will be equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to ensure customers realise the most value from IFS Applications, said the firm. Gawie van der Merwe, managing director, IFS South Africa, said, “FASYL’s vertical specialisations and its commitment to service excellence are closely aligned with our plans to grow our presence in Africa. Together, we are well positioned to help African organisations implement high-quality, end-to-end solutions that enable them to achieve their full potential.”

Leading New ICT, The Road to Digital Transformation

GITEX Technology Week 2017 Oct 8-12, 2017 | Dubai World Trade Center, UAE Visit Us at #Z-D20, Zaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;abeel Hall

#HWGITEX17

GITEX Mini-Site

@Huawei_ME

e.huawei.com/ae

LEADING

ICT

HIGHLIGHTS

ISYX Technologies announces Managed Services initiative ISYX Technologies, an IT transformation company in the Middle East and Africa, has unveiled its exclusive “future-ready next-generation” Managed Services (MS) initiative. As part of its new MS offering, the company has also invested in building network and security operation centres in the UAE. According to the company, it boasts of cutting-edge infrastructure, robust platform and complementing skill sets with a strong focus on service excellence. Sharoon Shamsuddin, CEO, ISYX Technologies said, “Technology is transforming business at an extraordinary pace. At ISYX, we bring best-of-breed technologies and practices that can help our clients transform and thrive on the change. With our wide spectrum of services offerings, we help clients harness the power of innovation to create new business outcomes. With this revitalized next-generation Managed Services added

to our portfolio, we begin a new chapter in our clients’ Sharoon Shamsuddin, ISYX transformation Technologies journey. Our services offer simplified hybrid infrastructure and applications management with modular services.” ISYX’s next-generation Managed Services portfolio includes Application Operations (App Ops) and Support Services, Datacenter and Infrastructure Services, Infrastructure Transformation, Network Services, Service Management, Service Desk, Workplace Services and Security Services. According to the company, it delivers efficient, scalable and secure IT services through its robust integrated platform built on ITIL standards, which ensures service delivery aligned to ISO 20000 & 27001 standards.

Fibrenetix signs up VAD Technologies for the Middle East Manufacturer of video optimised servers and storage, Fibrenetix has announced a new distribution partnership with VAD Technologies in the Middle East surveillance market. Fibrenetix highlighted that they offer a comprehensive range of high-performance video optimised servers and storage for surveillance installations. According to the firm, it offers solutions for the complete spectrum, from small hotel projects with 50 cameras, right up to airport or city installations with thousands of cameras. Jes Nagel, CEO, Fibrenetix, said, “Appointing VAD Technologies as distributor in the UAE is part of our investment plan to streamline our distribution channel, and to guarantee

(L-R) Mario M. Veljovic, VAD Technologies and Jes Nagel, Fibrenetix

a dedicated and professional channel to service our resellers.” Dubai-based IT value-added distributor VAD Technologies has built a comprehensive technology solutions portfolio to cater to the fast-growing physical security market in the region. Mario M. Veljovic, general manager, VAD Technologies, said, “Over the years we’ve learned the importance of a solid manufacturer support system. Far too many manufacturers in this industry pay lip service to the issues of product warranty and support. Fibrenetix has stepped up to the plate with an impressive 10-year spare part programme, something that’s of high importance to our resellers selling into aviation and homeland security.”

Hubnetix signs up Ethos Technologies as UAE distributor Hubnetix has announced a new partnership with the Middle East distributor, Ethos Technologies. Through this distribution agreement, Hubnetix will stabilise and strengthen its marketing and distribution channel in the United Arab Emirates and extend it to other Middle East countries over time. Hubnetix’s latest product range to be distributed by Ethos Technologies includes LANline, CABline, NETline, POWline and VEUline. Muhammed Shabeer, regional business director, Hubnetix Middle East. “We are delighted to be partnering with Ethos Technologies for the distribution of our product range. This strategic partnership will strengthen the distribution network of our products, bringing it into more markets and to more customers across the region. With Ethos we are able to deliver outstanding support to the channel partners and customers”. Imtiaz Ghani, general manager, Ethos Technologies, said, “Hubnetix is a highly versatile, progressive and innovative manufacturer with a big future and so we’re proud to be able to use our proven expertise and experience in the marketing/ distributor channel to help bring these virtues into focus.”

73%

OF BUSINESS IN MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA ARE COMMITTED TO BEING ‘INFORMATION-BASED ’ SOURCE: PURE STORAGE

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

The regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smarter choice for reselling leading IBM Software Solutions

Our network of IBM Business Partners is the heart of our mission. Each of our strategies will have positive impact for your business, and your success will be the index of our achievement. GSDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience of the market is incomparable and we build on it. Our dedicated team is ready to support during the full opportunity lifecycle, from building the solution to financing your deal, and much more.

Analytics

Commerce

Cloud

MobileFirst

Security

Watson Analytics

Take action now and join our network of success. For more information visit www.gulfsoftware.com or contact us at +971 4 4239 105 | info@gulfsoftware.com

HIGHLIGHTS

Red Hat, DataTAAG host partner workshop on open source tech and digital transformation Red Hat together with DataTAAG has recently hosted a workshop focused on helping organisations optimise open source technologies to power their digital transformation. During the event, attendees were able to also get a chance to network with business leaders and tech innovators to gain a deeper understanding of products such as Red Hat OpenShift (PaaS) and Red Hat JBoss (Middleware) to further drive your business’s efficiency, speed and flexibility. Adrian Pickering, regional head, Red Hat, MENA, said, “We are seeing open source technologies being widely accepted across the region in various enterprise verticals as well as in the public sector.” “We are seeing increased uptakes of open-source based technologies in the fields of financial services, travel, logistics and oil and gas,” said Pickering.

“As organisations become more adoptive, open source gives them the opportunity move away from expensive licence-based technologies. At the same time, since open source is strongly tied to the community that supports and contributes to it, Red Hat provides its customers with a variety of services and support around our offerings such as 24/7 support, trainings and certifications.” Speaking about the event and the partnership with DataTAAG, Pickering highlighted Red Hat’s channel-centric approach. “DataTAAG is one of our up and coming partner in the region,” he said. “We are doing a lot of things alongside them across multiple customers and verticals. We wanted to show them our utmost support as we believe that it’s important that we demonstrate our commitment to help them succeed in their respective

markets. Equally for us, it is an opportunity to broaden the awareness of both our organisations. Not every customer that DataTAAG has are using Red Hat technologies, so it is an opportunity for us to educate them on the advantages and opportunities that working with us can offer.” Najaf Ali, CEO, DataTAAG Middle East, said, “Our partnership with Red Hat has grown significantly over the last two years of being their partner. As a Red Hat Premium Business Partner, we have experienced notable growth both in the technology and business aspects of this partnership. As organisations in the region are well underway in their respective digital transformation journeys. We can see more and more organisations are adopting open source technologies and we believe that Red Hat’s offerings can bring them tremendous advantages.”

HIGHLIGHTS

ievo appoints NIT as META distributor ievo, the Newcastle-based manufacturer of fingerprint biometric solutions, has announced that Network Information Technology (NIT), an Ingram Micro company, has been named the distributor for their product range for the META (Middle East, Turkey and Africa) region. According to the firm, after establishing a strong foothold in the domestic and European markets, this is the next step in a long-term strategy to gain market share in export territory markets. The new partnership is central to growth plans and builds upon the work already done on increasing the knowledge base of not only the ievo Ltd brand, but biometric security solutions in general, the company said in a statement. Stephen Thompson, export sales manager, ievo, said, “It’s an exciting time for us at ievo as we expand into a new territory. We have been seeing a substantial growth in the Middle Eastern markets with regards to security products and specifically biometric solutions and we are pleased to have the support, reach and expertise of the market from our partners at NIT. Bassel Fakir, managing director, NIT added, “ievo has a reputation for partnering with leading and innovative technology companies to expand its range of solutions to the access control market. Their integration opportunities and established partnerships fully compliment the range of products we as a distributor can offer.

44.6%

OF SMALLER GLOBAL ORGANISATIONS AIM TO ADOPT CLOUD IN THE NEXT THREE YEARS SOURCE: GARTNER

Ring signs new partnership with ABM for MENA

(L-R) Mohammad Meraj Hoda, Ring and Ghassan Bendali, ABM Middle East

Smart home security solutions provider Ring has announced that it has signed a valueadded distribution (VAD) agreement with Arab Business Machine Middle East (ABM) for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). “Your home is not an asset – your home is a place that has much more meaning to it and it is something you want to protect and also monitor,” said Mohammad Meraj Hoda, managing director, Ring. “Ring re-imagined the doorbell so consumers could respond – using a smartphone – to someone at their front door from anyplace, anytime while simplifying the technology with the combination of app, cloud and security hardware. ABM is

well placed in the MENA region to position our smart home security products with its broader reach across key retailers, Internet Service Providers and online stores.” As per the agreement, ABM will distribute Ring’s latest suite of smart home security products such as Ring Video Doorbell, Ring Video Doorbell Pro, Video Doorbell Elite, Ring Floodlight Cam and the new Ring Spotlight Cam and conduct channel engagement, training and activation programmes for partners. ABM will also set up go-to-market strategies with key retail partners and provide the needed infrastructure for micro-channel to engage with the Ring brand. “We see exciting new possibilities in this partnership with Ring across the MENA region and it will help ABM to better address our customer’s needs in today’s environment of ever-increasing demand for home security solutions,” said Ghassan Bendali, general manager, ABM Middle East.

Pivot3 expands Global Partner Programme Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions provider Pivot3 has unveiled its expanded Global Partner Programme to support partners in addressing the HCI market. The new programme includes a wide range of resources and benefits designed to help partners of all sizes differentiate and profit as they bring Pivot3’s solutions to customers, said the firm. “Pivot3 is in hyper-growth mode. We built our new Global Partner Programme with the best resources and investments to allow partners to grow along with us,” said Mark Maisano, VP, Channel Sales, Pivot3. “We’re 100-percent channel driven, and are committed to working side by side with our partners – from channel events and customer support to service delivery – to build their sales pipeline and support their complete success.” Pivot3’s Global Partner Programme is

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

expanding into two partner tiers, Premier and Associate, Mark Maisano, Pivot3 with the ability to enhance profits with the Service Delivery designation upon successful completion of the Pivot3 Certified Service Delivery Professional certification. The firm is also formalizing its Partner Advisory Board, allowing partners the opportunity to provide feedback and participate in pilot programs around new product launches with exclusive previews, pre-training and the ability to be first to market. The programme now offers three new sales and technical enablement certifications, including the Pivot3 Certified Sales Professional, Pivot3 Certified PreSales Technical Professional and Pivot3 Certified Service Delivery Professional.

THE FRENCH TECH PAVILION @ GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 08-12 OCTOBER 2017

Come and meet the most promising software & hardware French companies in Hall 4 For more information, contact : Fayssal MAJID Project Manager fayssal.majid@businessfrance.fr Christelle PEYRAN Trade advisor christelle.peyran@businessfrance.fr Miryem OUKAS-MESSIDI Communication Manager miryem.oukasmessidi@businessfrance.fr

WWW.BUSINESSFRANCE.FR

MANY THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS

APPOINTMENTS

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS Logicom announces new GM for UAE and Gulf Logicom has appointed Spiros Rafailovits as its new general manager for Spiros Rafailovits, UAE and the Logicom Gulf region. Rafailovits has more than eighteen years of experience in IT distribution. He first joined Logicom in 2015 as the sales manager for UAE and Gulf, and has previously held various roles with some of the industry’s largest vendors. “Over the last years Logicom has become the leading regional distributor in the countries we operate,” he said. “Driven by our core values, our people, and our determination for success, we feel it is important to continue towards the same direction and capitalise on our strong foundations, while further positioning ourselves in the volume segment and further investing and expanding in the value space of the business. “Our Logicom Cloud Market Place initiative and the trust vendors have shown with the appointment of new or the expansion of our distribution contracts, depict that we are on the right track. Despite the dramatic changes and challenges we witness in the region every day, it is imperative that we act on the opportunities ahead of us, capitalising on the innovations and implemented management changes. I am more than confident that with the immense pool of talent found in Logicom and the team’s dedication to our goals, we will further strengthen our position in the market with our partners and vendors over the next years.”

An overview of the latest people movement within the IT channel business.

Sage appoints new EVP for Africa and Middle East Global player in cloud accounting, people and payroll, and Pieter Bensch, Sage payment systems Sage has announced that ICT industry veteran, Pieter Bensch, has assumed his new role as the company’s executive vice president for Africa and Middle East. Bensch will lead the growth of Sage’s business across the region and focus on expanding its leadership in the market for cloudbased accounting, people and payroll, and payments software. According to the company, he will also oversee the local strategy to help business builders and

entrepreneurs move to an adminfree world by 2020. He will work closely with Aaron White, regional director for Sage Middle East, to deliver the Sage vision in the Middle East. Bensch said, “I’m joining at Sage at an exciting time when its business is enjoying rapid growth through Africa and Middle East and its cloud-enabled products are gathering momentum. I’m looking forward to working closely with the regional team as we strive to help empower entrepreneurs and business owners to spend less time on admin and more time on what they love doing. With a highperformance culture, hunger for success and smart technology, Sage is a perfect fit for me.”

Commvault names new area VP Commvault is consolidating its leadership position within the Middle East, South Africa and Turkey (MESAT) with the promotion of Wael Mustafa to the position Wael Mustafa, Commvault of Area Vice President (AVP) for MESAT. As AVP for the region, Mustafa will be focused on delivering market leading solutions to regional organisations to transform their data into powerful strategic assets. The appointment indicates Commvault’s continual expansion in the Middle East, with Mustafa committed to fostering new and existing customer

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

relationships still further; focused on Commvault technical innovations to establish new partnerships, and expanding the businesses focus on vendor agnostic, hyperscale, cloud and as-a-service data management offerings. “I am looking forward to facing the challenges and opportunities that my new role will bring,” said Mustafa. “I personally see great opportunities in the region as Commvault is increasingly recognised by our customers, partners, and industry analysts as a leader in the market due to the breadth and quality of our solutions.”

GITEX PREVIEW

NEW REALITIES

The 37th edition of the GITEX Technology Week promises to assist organisations discover, transform and innovate with advanced technologies that are driving digital strategies. We profile the top players you shouldn’t miss at the tradeshow.

ALE PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

C25, a robust communication server that seamlessly connects and converges communication platforms for small and medium businesses. Visit them at: Hall 1, D1-30

Baher Ezzat ALE

ALE, operating under the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise brand, is a global brand for enterprise networking, communications and services. As part of the firm’s participation at the 37th GITEX Technology Week, ALE will demonstrate its new technologies designed to help enterprises improve the connected customer experience, increase employee efficiency and accelerate decision making. “We will be showcasing, Alcatel-Lucent Rainbow, a cloud-based relationship management platform that connects business users, business contacts and systems designed to improve team communication and collaboration,” said Baher Ezzat, regional general manager, Middle East, ALE. The company will also put the spotlight on its newly expanded Mobile Campus solutions and a new approach to Wi-Fi through the Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess Stellar WLAN access points. “For this year’s edition of GITEX,” Ezzat added, “ALE will be launching and hosting live demos for its latest cloud-based unified communications and collaboration solutions, Alcatel-Lucent OXO Connect

ARBOR NETWORKS FLAUNTS NETWORK-CENTRIC SOLUTIONS

Alaa Hadi Arbor Networks

At GITEX Technology Week, Arbor Networks will showcase its product portfolio focusing on network-centric security solutions for DDoS attacks and advanced threats. “We have network visibility and DDoS mitigation solutions for both service provider and enterprise networks, as well as a platform that helps businesses prove and resolve advanced threats quickly, reducing the risk to their business,” said Alaa Hadi, regional director, High Growth Markets – Russia/CIS and Middle East, Arbor Networks. “Our products are built on the fundamental premise that security starts with visibility. Our solutions are based on flow instrumentation and packet capture to deliver broad and deep intelligence into network traffic” The company will be showcasing the integration between Netscout’s latest next generation, real-time information platform, ISNG, and network threat analysis solution,

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

Arbor Networks Spectrum. This solution brings Netscout’s patented smart data technology to advanced threat detection, delivering pervasive visibility for the entire enterprise.” This technology, according to Hadi, will help Netscout customers leverage common service delivery infrastructure in physical, virtual and cloud environments. “This gives security teams pervasive visibility across users, applications, protocols, and network flow data. It also provide security teams with superior intelligence based on the highresolution wire data using either dedicated or shared ISNG collectors.” Visit them at: Hall 1, G2-30

ARUBA DEMOS ITS INTELLIGENT MOBILITY SOLUTIONS

Jose Vasco Aruba

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, will be demonstrating its mobility and IoT solutions that empower organisations to serve GenMobile at GITEX Technology Week. Jose Vasco, managing director, MEMA and CCEI, Aruba, said, “We are in the midst of a huge transition away from networking technologies that were designed for the 20th century before mobile, IoT and cloud existed. Vasco added that the surge in mobile and IoT means that the network must deliver more than just connectivity. “It is expected

to provide actionable insights about the use of mobile and IoT to justify future investments, so that businesses can adopt new technologies and serve the needs of GenMobile – while keeping the network secure and taking into account cost efficiencies.” On display at GITEX will be the latest offering from the company – the Aruba asset tracking solution that is fully integrated into the Aruba Wi-Fi infrastructure and helps organisations easily track valued assets and automate inventory management. “We will also be demonstrating the latest Aruba 8400 Core Switch Series purposebuilt for emerging mobile-cloud business applications and changing traffic patterns that are being driven by the massive flood of data sources and growth in IoT,” said Vasco. Aruba will also showcase its entire range of mobility and IoT solutions under the umbrella of the company’s ‘Mobile First Platform.’ Visit them at: Hall 7, CLD-6

AVAYA GOES BEYOND THE ‘DIGITAL EXPERIENCE’ Nidal AbouLtaif Avaya International

Avaya, at GITEX Technology Week, will showcase how it is working with organisations to design solutions that go beyond the digital experience, presenting real-world use cases from its customers across the Avaya International (Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific) region for the first time ever at the event. The company will also demonstrate how its open, standards-based approach allows organisations to integrate emerging technology trends such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain to simplify adoption and deliver

measureable results. Avaya will bring these concepts to life at GITEX through a series of exhibition areas devoted to specific vertical industries, including banking and finance, healthcare, hospitality, public safety, and more. Nidal Abou-Ltaif, president, Avaya International. “This year’s GITEX is the perfect platform for Avaya to demonstrate how we are working with customers and partners around the world to deliver flexible, future-proof solutions that meet customer expectations in today’s fastmoving digital world.” Visit them at: Zabeel Hall, Z-C20

CANON UNVEILS NEW B2B PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Shadi Bakhour, director, B2B Business Unit, Canon Middle East. “We are drawing inspiration from our customers’ challenges to help improve their businesses; our new concept of ‘Explore, Inspire, Improve’ is reflective of these efforts where we provide a business process consultancy and work with our customers to build the best solution for their organisation, based on their business priorities. We’ve been inspiring customers to explore the power of imaging for over 80 years and GITEX is the perfect platform to showcase our expertise. We look forward to connecting with tech pioneers and futurists from all over the world,” he added. Visit them at: Hall 4, D4-1

CENTRA PROMOTES VATCOMPLIANT, CLOUD-READY CRM OFFERINGS

Shadi Bakhour Canon Middle East Nisith Naik Centra Hub Canon Middle East, as part of its participation at the 37th GITEX Technology Week will unveil its new B2B value proposition, as it aims to position itself as a B2B services- and businessoriented brand. The company will showcase solutions and applications that cater to verticals such as interior décor, photo production and customer communication among others. According to Canon, technological evolution of its products for businesses, allows for streamlining of business processes and achieve growth, through a business wide digital transformation. “The Middle East has a long history of innovation, adaptability and an appetite for the new and exciting. We believe there is great potential for the region to drive sustainable economic and digital growth. Canon’s new innovative solutions are, therefore, aimed at helping organisations digitally transform, by enabling them to simplify tasks, curb unnecessary costs and save time and resources,” said

Centra Hub will promote the upgraded version of its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution with inbuilt and VAT-compliant entry-level accounting module at GITEX 2017. “Centra Hub believes in delivering nextgeneration solutions that bring together people, platforms, and processes through effective, easy-to-use and integrationready CRM and HCM systems. Through our solutions, we aim to help organisations adopt the latest digitisation trends and are empowering them to streamline their processes for better customer and people support,” said Nisith Naik, CEO, Centra Hub. Centra CRM is also cloud-ready and built on thin-client architecture, that will benefit existing customers through upgrades and meet the expectations of new customers as well.

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

GITEX PREVIEW

“We are excited about our second year of participation at GITEX 2017, which is the single largest regional ICT platform, to introduce our best-in-class, cloud enabled, CRM, HCM and vertical solutions for a focused audience,” said Naik. “Through this year’s participation, we hope to increase Centra Hub’s product and solution visibility, meet with existing partners and customers and sign on new reputed partners across the regional and global markets.” The company will also showcase its other solutions such as Real Estate Management Systems (REMS), Computer Aided Facility Management Systems (CAFM) and Human Capital Management (HCM) at the show. Visit them at: Hall 8, E8-10

and data centres. “We’re also excited to introduce our new MEA leadership who will also give insights into some of our new research findings and anecdotes from customers.” For its partner initiatives, Oshiga highlighted that CommScope helps them become experts in the field of IT while proactively preparing them for new market trends. “Partnerships such as PartnerPRO Network enables our partners take on and complete larger and more challenging projects, while boosting their reputation and revenue.” Visit them at: Hall 1, F1-40

DELL EMC CELEBRATES YEAR ONE MILESTONES

COMMSCOPE TOUTS WIRELESS AND FIBRE OPTIC SOLUTIONS

organisations with their digital transformation from edge to core to the cloud. The tradeshow will be a great opportunity to share with IT decision-makers and LOBs our broad capabilities that will enable them to be more competitive, optimise costs and drive innovation.” Amin also highlighted that GITEX is the perfect opportunity to share Dell EMC’s latest updates and plans around products, solutions, initiatives and partnership among others. Visit them at: Hall 6, CLD-7, CLD-2

EPICOR SHOWCASES REVAMPED ERP SOLUTIONS

Monzer Tohme Epicor Software Mohammed Amin Dell EMC META

As the world embarks on a potential fourth Industrial Revolution, it is the 30 to 50 billion connected devices that will continue to spur the unprecedented growth of the digital era. The need for fibre, especially for the telecommunications sector is a key trend. “Our vast portfolio of network infrastructure includes some of the robust and innovative wireless and fibre optic solutions,” said Femi Oshiga, sales director, DCCS, CommScope MEA. “We have a talented and experienced global team that’s capable of helping customers increase bandwidth; maximise existing capacity; improve network performance and availability; increase energy efficiency; and simplify technology migration.” At GITEX 2017, the company will be focusing on sharing insights and showcasing its fibre and wireless technologies for connected buildings

A year after the historic $67 billion merger, Dell EMC has experienced revenue growth during the first half of 2017, fueled by cross-selling of server, storage, client and converged infrastructure solutions. In fact, an independent IDC survey revealed that 91 percent of customers surveyed worldwide believe Dell and EMC have delivered on the promises made to them ahead of the merger. “We are looking forward to GITEX as the launchpad for our one-year celebration since the merger, and as a platform that brings us closer to our partners, customers, and numerous other stakeholders,” said Mohammed Amin, senior vice president, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Dell EMC. “In a market, wherein digital is a priority and is driving disruptive projects, the relevance of Dell Technologies and Dell EMC has never been starker. This year we are bringing to the market the power of our family of strategically aligned businesses to help

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

As part of its participation at GITEX Technology Week 2017, Epicor will tout its range of global enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions including the latest version of Epicor ERP, Epicor iScala, Epicor iScala for Hospitality, and Epicor Human Capital Management (HCM). “Launched in June 2017, the latest version of Epicor ERP builds on the strengths of its cloud-first architecture. It offers greater flexibility and control, international financial and compliance capabilities which will be critical to smooth implementation of the upcoming GCC VAT regulations, and new data analytics packages for improved decision making,” said Monzer Tohme, regional vice president, Middle East and Africa, Epicor Software. “Meanwhile, Epicor iScala for Hospitality enables companies streamline by efficiently integrating all operations, from intelligent technologies, room reservations, and F&B to event sales, human resources, and finance, on a single platform.” Industry 4.0 calls for a future of agile, affordable manufacturing, fuelled by

technology enablers such as the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, cloud computing, mobile devices and big data. ERP will become even more central to production in this environment. “As such, in addition to developing solutions specifically for Industry 4.0, we are actively working with the partners to ensure they are educated on the pending changes to how manufacturers can integrate and optimise Epicor ERP with their existing solutions so that data is shared effectively across all systems,” said Tohme. Visit them at: Hall 7, B7-29

EQUINIX HIGHLIGHTS THE BENEFITS OF INTERCONNECTION

Jeroen Schlosser Equinix MENA

Global data centre and colocation provider, Equinix, during its participation at GITEX Technology Week, will help regional enterprise organisations understand new growth opportunities, reduce costs and scale to the digital edge on Platform Equinix. “During GITEX, we will be reaching out to MENA enterprises and make the event more valuable by allowing them to book 30minute-dedicated sessions with our Global Solution architects,” said Jeroen Schlosser, managing director, Equinix MENA. “This will ensure that they are aware about the key steps their organisations need to take to digitally transform and innovate.” Equinix, according to Schlosser, enables enterprises to plug directly into business ecosystems already supporting high-performance architectures for financial services, media, insurance, cloud, network and many other industries across the globe. The company will also be pitching ‘Rethinking the Data Center with Interconnection.’ “We will talk to enterprises about the transformative power of

interconnection, and the key benefits of colocation in Equinix data centres here in Dubai or any of our other 178 locations,” he said. “The show is the perfect platform for highlighting how interconnection is changing the world.” Visit them at: Hall 6, CLD-27

FOCUS SOFTNET PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON MULTI-LINGUAL, VAT-READY ERP

intelligence tools, and provides real-time reporting using multi-dimensional posting of transactions. Focus Softnet will also be showcasing Focus i. In addition, Focus Softnet will highlight its vertical market capabilities including Focus RMS (Retail Management Suite), Focus WMS (Warehouse Management System), Focus MRP (Material Requirement Planning), and Focus e-RMS (Restaurant Management System). Visit them at: Hall 8, E8-10

HUAWEI DEMONSTRATES THE ‘POWER OF ICT’ Ali Hyder Focus SoftNet

Focus Softnet will be placing the spotlight on Focus 8, its flagship ERP, which has been upgraded with multilingual capability, GCC VAT readiness, and cloud platform enablement at GITEX Technology Week 2017. “VAT will impact both consumers and businesses in the UAE and wider GCC,” said Ali Hyder, group CEO, Focus Softnet. “Focus Softnet has been working closely with customers to prepare IT managers and CIOs to assess their readiness for VAT implementation. They also need to update and upgrade their systems to ensure smooth implementation and prepare themselves in advance for any possible challenges they could face ahead. Focus Softnet has the experience and expertise of implementing VAT and GST for our customers in other countries and we are using this experience to help our GCC customers become VAT-ready as well.” The company will also be showcasing its vertical-focused solutions, mobile apps and cloud-ready business software solutions at the region’s premier ICT event. Technology experts from the company will be holding demonstrations for cloudready version of Focus 8, the company’s flagship product, which integrates business

Alaa Elshimy Huawei Middle East

Huawei has highlighted its commitment to bring tailored solutions to sectors that are relevant to the Middle East’s journey to digitalisation. With the firm’s Enterprise Business Group, it aims to deliver services focused on the enterprise infrastructure, enterprise communications, data centres, and industry applications, supporting the cloudcomputing era and driving innovative new business models. To further enable Middle East organisations in their digital transformation journeys, Huawei, during its participation at the upcoming GITEX Technology Week, will showcase and educate its audience on its transformative solutions for various verticals including public safety and e-Government, transportation, digital banking, and smart utilities. “Huawei will demonstrate the power of new ICT, its value to specific sectors in the region and the need for collaborative partnerships in the exciting journey ahead,” said Alaa Elshimy, managing director and vice president, Enterprise Business Group, Huawei Middle East. “We will present the

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

GITEX PREVIEW

latest in IoT, cloud, SDN and Big Data, and launch new IT and IP products and solutions, such as, next-gen intelligent cloud security solution, among others.” He added that the ICT company will also unveil a slew of new initiatives including new business, technology and industry alliances as well as showcase the latest jointly developed solutions from Dubai OpenLab. Visit them at: Zabeel Hall, Z-D20

INFINET WIRELESS FLAUNTS HIGH-BANDWIDTH WIRELESS SOLUTIONS

optimisation, remote environmental and health monitoring. “Prominent among the InfiNet solutions for Smart Cities is the InfiLINK XG 1000,” said Mokrani. “Launched during GITEX 2016, this product family is able to provide throughputs of up to 1 Gigabit per second over the air in 5 GHz license-free frequency bands, effectively doubling the capacity of InfiNet’s previous highest performing product, the InfiLINK XG.” Visit them at: Zabeel Hall, Stand Z-J10

KODAK ALARIS TOUTS EXPANDED INFO CAPTURE ECOSYSTEM

Kamal Mokrani InfiNet Wireless

The Middle East market is central to Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) development and manufacturing company InfiNet Wireless’ growth strategy. “In 2016 alone, our business in this region outperformed our other operations across the world, growing at over 22 percent over the previous year,” said Kamal Mokrani, global vice president, InfiNet Wireless. “Today, it is our second biggest market after the CIS region where we started more than 24 years ago,” he added. “Despite the slowdown in several Middle East economies, we continue to see strong demand for our solutions, especially in the service provision and video surveillance market verticals.” To further demonstrate its commitment to the Middle East market, InfiNet Wireless is taking part at GITEX 2017, where it will showcase its highbandwidth wireless solutions for ‘Smart City’ applications such as homeland security, traffic management and

Alaris S2000 Scanner

Kodak Alaris is expanding its information capture ecosystem, delivering on the promise of digital transformation for organisations in the Middle East and around the world. At GITEX Technology Week 2017, the company will expand the previously announced Alaris IN2 Ecosystem by unveiling the Alaris S2000 Series Scanners – a new family of network/ wireless and USB connected desktop devices – and showcase its software and services, which are designed to take the complexity out of information capture and improve the way people work. The Alaris IN2 Ecosystem will be the focus of the booth at GITEX. The headliner at GITEX is the Alaris S2000 Series Scanner, which according to the firm, increases productivity by automating much of the work traditionally done by people and host computers. Embedded Image Processing within the scanner delivers crisp, high-quality images

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

without requiring a host PC. Active Feed Technology aligns the leading edge of paper to avoid misfeeds and multi-feeds and Controlled Output Stacking places paper neatly in the output tray. As a result, users spend less time preparing documents for scanning and dealing with messy output stacks. Visit them at: Hall 4, C4-10

LINKSYS DEBUTS NEW GAMING ROUTER

Amanullah Khan Linksys

Linksys will showcase its consumer and business offerings at GITEX 2017, with an emphasis on SMB competitiveness, serious gaming and the regional takeup of mesh networks. Furthermore, Linksys will unveil the new Linksys Channel Partner program – a custom-built initiative to equip partners with resources and training materials they can use to boost their profitability. “Middle East businesses are early adopters of the most innovative technology and is a hub for emerging smart cities,” said Amanullah Khan, managing director, Linksys, META. “GITEX Technology Week connects business and technology enthusiasts with the technology solutions that will move their countries forward. It’s an opportunity for Linksys to showcase ground-breaking products and solutions for companies and consumers alike, enhancing productivity and the customer experience.” GITEX will also be a platform for the regional debut of the Linksys WRT gaming edition router – the WRT32X, which incorporates the

Killer Prioritization Engine (KPE), a device developed by Linksys and Rivet Networks. Visit them at: Hall 2 under ‘Gulf Comms’

MANAGEENGINE SHOWCASES ITSM OFFERINGS

Nirmal Manoharan ManageEngine

ManageEngine will promote its IT Service Management (ITSM), IT operations management, Windows Server management, endpoint management, mobile device management, security information and event management (SIEM), and IT analytics products at GITEX Technology Week 2017. “With several advances in disruptive technologies such as mobility, big data analytics, and cloud, organizations are realising a void between their IT and business goals. This void is a leading cause of complexity in user experience and requirements. Our objective is to eliminate the complexity in IT management and bridge the gap between IT and business goals by building contextual integrations within our products. This will also help reduce silos and operational costs. With IT service management being the heart of IT, we have plans to announce new developments in this space,” said Nirmal Manoharan, regional director of sales, ManageEngine. At the show, the company will also unveil enhancements in IT security and ITSM at the event. ManageEngine experts will also be available to give product demonstrations and talk one-on-one with customers and partners. Visit them at: Hall 8, A7-10

NEXANS HIGHLIGHTS DATA CENTRE INNOVATIONS AND FTTO SOLUTIONS

Tarek Helmy Nexans

At GITEX Technology Week, Nexans will place the spotlight on its Data Centre Innovations and Fibre-to-the-Office (FTTO) solutions. In addition to showcasing its LAN cabling solutions, experts from the company will hold product demonstrations for customers and partners at the region’s leading technology event. Tarek Helmy, regional director, Gulf and Middle East, South and East Africa, Nexans Cabling Solutions, said, “Yesterday’s networks are under pressure to cope with the increasing bandwidth demands of today from the Internet of Things (IoT), BYOD, cloud, video and the likes. Convergence of networking technologies, new expectations including availability, reliability, scale-out, always-on, are driving data centres to be redesigned and rearchitected. “At GITEX, Nexans will demonstrate how our data centre innovations, ‘Smart Choices for Digital Infrastructure’, will help managers support flexible, cost-effective bandwidth architectures, optimised space usage and faster modular deployment.” The company also aims to promote its LANactive solution, which is based on Fiberto-the-Office (FTTO)-switch in both, office and harsh environments. In addition, Nexans’ broad portfolio of LAN cabling solutions for Data Centres including Nexans LANmark-7A (Cat7A) and LANmark-8 (Cat8) will be on display. “Both of which are designed for a scalable and a cost-effective high-speed data centre applications and help customers scale up to 25G and 40G Ethernet over copper cabling,” added Helmy. “Furthermore,

the LANmark ENSPACE solutions for data centres, which include patch panels, micro-bundle cables in OM5 and low-loss connectors that can help data centres meet growing data demands.” Visit them at: Hall 4, Stand B4-10

OLEDCOMM DISPLAYS LIFI TECHNOLOGIES

Benjamin Azoulay Oledcomm

Oledcomm, provider of communication technology – LiFi, will present its latest innovations at GITEX Technology Week. The company provides Li-Fi-enabled lightbulbs to transmit data at speeds as fast as 50 megabit per second (Mbps), which according to Oledcomm, is about 10 times faster than current Wi-Fi technology. During the show, the company will showcase four of its latest LiFi innovations. “First is the lamp dedicated to healthcare environments, especially in areas where the WiFi is highly restricted,” said Benjamin Azoulay, CEO, Oledcomm. “This lamp is called HEPTA and it enables doctors, patients and visitors connect their devices without any risk to make interference or emit radio waves.” The company will also highlight its Panel LED light equipped with the LIFINET technology, a bi-directional solution for securing a fast and safe connection. “We will also be showcasing a complete solution for retail industry including malls or any indoor areas as well as offices,” said Azoulay. “The light acts as aa geo-fencing marker and when users are crossing their path they can receive a notification on their phone or on the trolley terminal.” Lastly, Oledcomm will present its camera enabled solution that can help customers interact with a non-intrusive advertisement stands/kiosks equipped

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

GITEX PREVIEW

with LiFi technology. “The user, while using his or her smartphone, will be able to direct device’s camera to the screen while standing in front of it and collect vouchers, special offers or any other information.”

POLYCOM FEATURES SOLUTIONS FOR ‘WORKPLACE OF THE FUTURE’

ORACLE FOCUSES ON NEXT-GEN CLOUD APPS

Arun Khehar Oracle

Cloud innovations that are helping enterprise, startups and public sector entities increase business agility, enhance return on investment (ROI) and deliver an exceptional customer experience, will highlight Oracle’s presence at the 37th GITEX Technology Week. “At Oracle, we are on a mission to connect people and business to information and GITEX is a great opportunity for us to showcase the incredible momentum and success of our customers and partners,” said Arun Khehar, senior vice president, Business Applications, ECEMEA, Oracle. “The UAE remains a priority market for Oracle and we continue to introduce latest innovations to help our customers achieve unprecedented digital business value. This trend continues at GITEX, as besides many other exciting solutions, visitors will be able to experience Oracle’s latest next-gen cloud applications and the enhanced IoT cloud with built in AI and machine learning features.” A completely reinvented exhibition area with more than 20 specially designed interactive pods for live demos will offer an engaging experience to visitors. At GITEX 2017. Visit them at: Hall 5

Ahmed Sousa Polycom

Global provider of video, voice and content collaboration solutions, Polycom, will present its offerings for enabling the ‘Workplace of the future’ at GITEX Technology Week. “We aim to promote human collaboration through our latest portfolio of video, voice and content sharing collaboration solutions that enable flexible working and create collaborative workplaces for employees across the SMB, education and healthcare sectors,” said Ahmed Sousa, regional manager, Solution Architects, MEA and Turkey, Polycom. This year, the company will also be showcasing the Polycom Pano for the first time in the region. “The Pano is the easiest way to share content at work, enabling anyone in a business meeting can share up to four streams of simultaneous content side-by-side, from any device, without the hassle of juggling cables, pucks or dongles,” said Sousa. Also present during Polycom’s participation at the show is the RealPresence Immersive Studi Flex, which according to the company, can be customised to the user’s space and budget and offers Microsoft Skype for Business functionality at a 37 percent lower cost than other leading solutions. Sousa said, “RealPresence Immersive Studio Flex combines high definition audio and an 18-foot video wall with three 4K UltraHD display screens making virtual meetings as comfortable as sitting in a home theatre and as collaborative as being in the same room.” Visit them at: Hall 7, B7-10

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

PURE STORAGE DISPLAYS CLOUD-ENABLED, ALL-FLASH DATA SOLUTIONS

Christian Putz Pure Storage

Pure Storage’s end-to-end data platform — including FlashArray, FlashBlade and its converged offering with Cisco, FlashStack—is powered by software that’s cloud-connected for management from anywhere on a mobile device and is supported by the Evergreen business model. Christian Putz, director, EEMEA, Pure Storage, said, “At GITEX 2017, we will be launching our latest cloudenabled, all-flash data platform, powered by the combination of FlashArray//X in the region. It is the company’s first all-NVMe, enterprise-class, all-flash array for high performance structured data workloads.” According to Putz, built on proven FlashArray architecture, FlashArray//X, the company’s first all-NVMe, enterprise class all-flash array, enables true global flash management with new Purity DirectFlash software and NVMe DirectFlash Modules from Pure Storage. “This eliminates performance bottlenecks associated with legacy technologies,” said Putz. “This end-toend, software-to-raw flash optimisation over NVMe dramatically improves system performance and allows customers to further unlock the value of their data. The ompany will also feature its FlashBlade, the company’s all-flash array built for high-performance unstructured data workloads during the show. Visit them at: Hall 7, CLD-15

RIVERBED HIGHLIGHTS NETWORK VISIBILITY SOLUTIONS

Ellie Dib Riverbed

Participating under the theme ‘Experience the future of application networking’, Riverbed will showcase its SteelCentral portfolio at GITEX Technology Week. SteelCentral is the firm’s visibility solution for end-to-end network, application and end-user experience monitoring. “As the industry’s only solution to deliver full visibility across the network, applications and end-user experience, Riverbed SteelCentral is perfectly designed to deliver the end-to-end visibility businesses need,” Ellie Dib, senior managing director, METNA, Riverbed. “The solution now provides integrated visibility into ‘Digital Experience,’ reduces the risk during application migrations, both on and off the cloud, enables businesses to manage outcomes across the application lifecycle, and delivers integrated network and infrastructure troubleshooting and monitoring.” According to Riverbed, SteelConnect is the industry’s first and only product that unifies deployment and orchestration of hybrid WANs (Internet and MPLS), branch networks (LAN and WLAN), and cloud environments, including one-click connectivity to AWS and Microsoft Azure. The company will host live demos of it solutions at the tradeshow. “Our focus this year is on IT decision makers and CIOs,” said Dib. “It’s imperative to approach high-level executives to demonstrate why their businesses need our solutions. GITEX gives us the ability to make a significant impact in a relatively short amount of time and we have designed our product demos to be concise and yet highly informative.” Visit them at: Hall 7, B7-10

SUSE DEMONSTRATES LATEST TECH FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Paul AbiChahine SUSE

SUSE, as part of its participation at GITEX 2017, will demonstrate how customers can accelerate their digital transformation with the SUSE high performance platform for SAP HANA, S/4 HANA. Paul Abi-Chahine, regional director, EMEA East, SUSE, said, “From high-availability, zero downtime, Infrastructure- and Containeras-a-Service to software-defined storage, much of the innovative flagship technology driving digital transformation is based on open source and will be part of the portfolio SUSE will showcase at GITEX.” As for partners, he said that he believes that working together presents a lot of opportunities for both parties. “They benefit directly from the high demand of SUSE products, continuous growth and attractive margins,” said Chahine. “We have relaunched the SUSE Partner Programe roughly a year ago to reflect the needs of our partners in the digital era with all its dynamics. We offer partners exclusive access to information, technical and sales training with certifications, joint customer and partner events and marketing and sales support in all stages of the business. In addition, the huge SUSE Partner Ecosystem, which is unique in the industry and stands for innovation in the data centre, makes SUSE an attractive vendor to do business with.” Visit them at: Hall 5, MAC6-33

SYNOLOGY INTRODUCES NEW NAS AND NVR OFFERINGS

Nick Jheng Synology

Synology, Network Attached Storage (NAS) vendor specialising in NAS, IP surveillance solutions, and network equipment aims to help users centralise data storage and backup, share files on-the-go, implement professional surveillance solutions, and manage network in reliable and affordable ways. “At GITEX, Synology will be demonstrating its devotion to bring advanced technologies to businesses and individuals in the Middle East,” said Nick Jheng, sales account manager, Synology. “These include a centralised file portal for NAS users to create an even more streamlined cloud experience, a versatile on-premises business backup solution for servers, cloud services and virtual machines, advanced VPN management tool, and other enhancements on the DiskStation Manager Operating System (DSM)to provide more stable services. The company will also be introducing new capabilities of its NAS and NVR offerings. “We will be showcasing our upcoming Desktop Plus Series products include the DS218+, DS718+ and DS918+, which are armed with advanced Intel solutions, providing doubled transcoding performance and better RAM expansion options,” said Jheng. “We will display our new flash solution in the FS1018, which will bring top-notch performance to compact desktop storage. For surveillance solutions, we will be unveiling the NVR1218 and VS960HD.” Visit them at: Hall 6, CLD-34

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

OPINION // RED HAT

Get specialised Frank Basinski, director partner programmes and enablement, EMEA, Red Hat, explains why the channel must focus on becoming adept in specific verticals.

ncreased vertical focus has been happening for a while at the channelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cutting edge, and IDC believes that 2017 is the year it becomes mainstream. The analyst house predicts that by 2018 at least 20 percent of partners will have restructured to create vertically focused customer-facing sales and solutions organisations. However, is it as black and white as this, and what are the main obstacles partners are facing in creating the crossover between industry and technology? Thanks to the rise in thirdplatform technology and a dramatically shifting customer landscape, partners are focusing more and more on their vertical offerings and expertise. New research commissioned by Red Hat underlines this, with over half of the resellers, VARs, SIs, MSPs, CSPs, ISVs and consultants surveyed in the UK, French and German channels having extended their product and service portfolio towards specific vertical industries in the past 12 months. The key driver for partners, is that customers are increasingly looking for guidance and solutions from

the channel to help facilitate their digital transformation and to achieve a holistic, cross-sector business approach. These new demands are spelling out a clear message for partners and it is this: like those who sat on the sidelines with digital transformation, those not investing in vertical specialisms will soon find themselves missing out on valuable business opportunities, plus risk exposing their lack of cross-sector services to existing clients. Vendors similarly will prioritise collaboration with vertically driven partners in order to increase profitability and expand their own portfolio; with partner programs and certifications weighted heavily towards nurturing this level of industry depth.

Frank Basinski, Red Hat

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

So, what can they do to not only weather this, but increase business prosperity and opportunity? Know the industry lingo The challenges associated with creating vertical specialisms very much depend on the starting point of the partner. System Integrators are already ahead of the playing field, whilst others are at varying points in the journey. That being said, most partners have figured out that if they specialise in vertical (or horizontal) solutions they will have a significant advantage, and avoid a business model only set up to compete on price. A vertical approach allows partners to be more relevant and form stronger relationships with their

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Those not investing in vertical specialisms will soon find themselves missing out on valuable business opportunities, plus risk exposing their lack of cross-sector services to existing clients.â&#x20AC;?

customers. peaking the language of the customer shows a deeper understanding tailored to the market their end customers are operating in. Partners immediately step up from being an infrastructure provider to becoming a trusted advisor – a key differentiator at a time when competition is only intensifying. Primarily, we are seeing this trend play out across our partners’ sales infrastructure. This allows partners to build a valuable proposition and unique IP, differentiating themselves from the competition. However, it is important for partners to concentrate on providing a solution focused approach rather than a product one. Devoteam, one of our Premier Business Partner is a great example of how and why partners benefit from an industry-centric approach. For one of the largest financial services organisations in the UK to achieve its digital transformation, Devoteam had to first understand its main business stakes. This meant becoming experts on

disintermediation, new regulations, end customers new uses and omnichannel strategy. Only by taking this approach with all its clients is Devoteam able to consistently provide services and technology that fit to their clients’ business and industry challenges. Leverage third platform technologies In its report, IDC also predicts that harmonious to the adoption of vertical specialisms in the channel will be the increased investment in third platform technology, with new ecosystems and alliances emerging around cloud, social, mobile and big data. Take advantage of repeatable solutions To invest in their industry expertise, while carving out a USP against their competitors, repeatable solutions are just one potential strategy partners can look at. Repeatable solutions mean identifying an industry specific issue,

building out a solution to tackle this and recognising that this solution can offer the same value proposition for other customers in that space and can be replicated quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. We have seen some of our partners utilise this strategy to great effect. The fact is that vertical specialisation is happening naturally and digital transformation will only intensify this. We continue to encourage all our partners to invest in building up their industry expertise or to take a close look at what might already exist within their organisation’s and bundle this up into a vertical offering. Ultimately, following a vertical specific approach, supported with tailored expertise and solutions, will ensure that partners fully understand the challenges end-users come up against on a regular basis, which can be the key to unlocking new business opportunities and keeping existing clients satisfied.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

INTELLIGENCE THREATENED? Protect Your Critical Data & Eliminate Repetitive Task

DO YOU WANT? To stop threats faster

Immediate protection upon deployment

To enhanced it operational efficiency

Comprehensive protection from a single vendor

Get Help From Professionals:

+971 44428910 sales@nanjgel.com www.nanjgel.com #2204, Shatha Towers, Dubai Internet City, P.O.Box: 500804,Dubai, UAE.

AN N I VE RS A RY

BEST IT SECURITY SYSTEM INTEGRATOR AWARD 2017 - (5 YEARS CONSECUTIVELY)

2017

EHOSTING DATAFORT // OPINION

Centre of attention

Ganesh Bhat, head, data centres, eHosting DataFort, says, it is critical to have measures in place to minimise data centre outages.

ata centre outages are no trivial matter or inconsequential irritant in today’s world. In fact, numerous real world examples of recent times reveal just how much of an alarming and negative effect they can have on a business. An outage of less than an hour, for the Amazon’s US site in 2013, resulted in losses exceeding $4 million! An outage at just one of the data centres used by UK ISP Telehouse, in 2016, disrupted Internet connectivity for more than 5 percent of their subscribers. While your enterprise may not necessarily be of the size and scale of the examples mentioned, but you have every reason to wish to avoid a similar fiasco. Data centre outages are never good news and can even, on occasions, be disastrous. Data centre companies in the UAE have empowered several businesses by lowering their operating costs and simplifying their day-to-day functions. Nevertheless, few vulnerabilities can extract as heavy a price, as a disruption in the functioning of IT infrastructure. The emergence of the UAE as a business hub in the region has resulted in a surfeit of colocation data centre firms in Dubai. This not only provides local enterprises with easy access to their service provider,

but also gives them many more options in choosing the right one. Network connectivity is one of the more common reasons for which an enterprise can experience a data centre outage. What makes it particularly dangerous, as a vulnerability, is that there are so many ways in which it can occur. From physical connection disruptions – due to cables or equipment – to software crashes, hacking and human error, there are a number of factors that can disrupt connectivity. Not only are these factors diverse, but they also precipitate a high cost of repair when they occur. In addition, redundancy – an important preemptive strategy against disruptions – is not possible for all physical network connections due to budgetary limitations. Data centre companies in Dubai serve some of the most important corporate entities in the region as well as globally and are expected to provide the highest quality of service. In order to accomplish that objective, it is important to emphasise planning the network in a fashion that reduces the chances of a disruption in connectivity. Care should also be taken to ensure that the network is designed in a fashion that accommodates the ability to fix such problems in the shortest possible time and with minimal expense. As in any other part of the world, data center service providers in Dubai

cannot guarantee against all disruptions in service due to connectivity. However, companies that prefer an in-house data centre, are perhaps even more vulnerable. The risks inherent to networks and the prohibitive cost of ensuring complete redundancy are, of course, common to both strategies. An in-house data centre, however, along with the previously discussed issues, introduces additional factors that can precipitate disruptions. Most in-house data centres usually have too many singular elements and nodes that can cause a disruption due to their failure. An in-house data centre, for instance, is likely to have a single carrier and a single network provider, exposing it to higher probabilities of disruption. In-house data centres also tend to have lower in-built redundancy – which colocation data centres can provide at less expense. Few technologies have become as central to business function as various aspects of IT infrastructure. Networking and communications are intrinsic to the functioning of a modern enterprise. Along with the convenience such technologies provide comes the possibility of disruptions that can damage reputation and cause monetary loss as well as downtime. It is, therefore, critical to ensure that preemptive steps are taken to minimise these risks when implementing a data centre solution.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

OPINION // CISCO

Train of thought Scott Manson, cybersecurity lead, Middle East and Africa, Cisco, delves into the challenges of cybersecurity skills shortage in the industry.

e are quickly moving into an era of accelerated digitisation, where technology connects everything –people, processes, data, and things. These connections will create a sustainable impact for every aspect of society. It’s predicted there will be over 500 billion connected things by 2030. In order for enterprises to embrace the opportunities this digital transformation can bring, they need people with the right technology skills. And, in this age of digitisation, the demand for skilled IT security professionals is growing every day in both the private and public sector, and much of today’s security training is dangerously out of step with current threats. Enterprises are finding cyber-

attacks to have increased in both frequency and impact and they are continuing to struggle with traditional security threats such as lost devices, insider threats, malware, hacks and social engineering, while simultaneously trying to keep sophisticated attacks by non-traditional threat actors at bay. Global reports indicate that cybersecurity is faced with a skills crisis. How grave is it? Well, the RSA Conference and ISACA’s State of Cybersecurity: Implications for 2015 report found that more than half of the global professionals surveyed said that fewer than 25 percent of cybersecurity applicants were qualified to perform the tasks necessary for the job. Many factors, including increased attention to

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

cybersecurity by governments and enterprises as well as an evolving threat landscape, are combining to create an expected exponential increase in cybersecurity jobs that will require skilled professionals. According the Cisco Annual Security Report, there is currently a deficit of 1 million security practitioners, increasing to 1.5 million by 2019. What’s the solution? On the surface, it seems simple: train more people with the right IT skills. But it’s more complicated than that. There are not enough teachers with the right training. Most fundamentally, there is a lack of students who are interested in learning these tech skills. It’s going to take everyone working together - schools, corporations,

government agencies and local communities - to solve these problems and fill the skills gap from the bottom up. Here are five steps we must aggressively pursue to begin closing the cybersecurity skills gap to ensure that organisations have access to the competent, qualified skilled candidates they need: • Drive awareness of the cybersecurity career field: Students are exposed to a number of careers from a young age, but being a cybersecurity practitioner isn’t usually one of them. We need to equip guidance counsellors and STEM teachers with more information on cybersecurity careers and the benefits they offer—from the impact cybersecurity professionals have on organisations to the roles they play in safeguarding infrastructure, data, people and society. • Help college students develop strong foundational cybersecurity knowledge: University programmes need to be directly linked to the knowledge and skills that cybersecurity jobs require. • Focus on skills-based training: Enterprises are looking for cyber professionals who don’t just know what a threat is, but also how to detect threats, mitigate their effects and use their skills to guard against future threats. They want proof of skills— the kind of skills that are best built in lab environments where individuals can respond to real threat scenarios. When you’re protecting the data for thousands,

“On the surface, it seems simple: train more people with the right IT skills. But it’s more complicated than that. There are not enough teachers with the right training. Most fundamentally, there is a lack of students who are interested in learning these tech skills.” or perhaps millions, of individuals, “learning on the job” just won’t cut it anymore. • Invest in your cybersecurity workforce: To accomplish the shift from knowledge-based learning to skills-based training, organisations need to invest in their workforces. This type of training can be more expensive, but the outcome is exactly what companies are seeking—experienced cybersecurity pros. • Companies also need to invest in retaining their workforces: Studies show substantially more women leaving the field early than men, and this is a real problem we need to address. Open additional pathways to cybersecurity careers: Four-year degrees in cybersecurity or related fields are excellent. However, we need to open additional pathways to industry in order to widen the talent

pipeline. This might include a shorter technical school program or investing in training to bring staff from unrelated business units into the cybersecurity function. Whatever the answer, it is implementable—and, given the current skills gap, not a subject many should find debatable. This is an exciting time in tech and it’s about to get a whole lot more interesting. Defending against the bad guys has never been as challenging and as rewarding as it is now. Globally, 26 percent of organisations are facing staffing shortages, and 35 percent are facing expertise shortages with security jobs growing at 12 times the rate of the overall job market, and three times the rate of general IT. One thing is for sure—there has never been a better time to be a cybersecurity professional.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

FEATURE // GITEX 2017

TOP DISTIES TO MEET AT GITEX 2017

GITEX Technology Week 2017 aims to reflect the transformation that is taking place within the regional IT industry by exhibiting applications of emerging technologies such as IoT, analytics, cloud and security. We profile top ten distributors to rub shoulders with at the 37th edition of the trade show.

AlJammaz Distribution AlJammaz Distribution is participating at this year’s GITEX with a two-pronged objective. The first is to meet and reinforce relationships with GCC partners and examine 2018 market opportunities. The distributor will discuss how to address these new prospects and win them through joint go-to-market strategies. The second is to demonstrate the new technologies that can help partners’ customers to operate better such as collaboration solutions from prominent vendors, its digital cloud distribution platform, IoT and digitisation solutions and new cybersecurity solutions.

HEADS UP The distributor will be launching its fully automated digital cloud distribution platform to its IT VAR partners, backed up with specialised team in hyper cloud.

Meet them at: Hall 3, C3-1

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

Asim S. AlJammaz vice president “GITEX is an opportunity to meet industry experts on one platform and share ideas, market trends and factors for driving growth. Channel partners should focus on cloud and hyper cloud services, cybersecurity, collaboration, wireless and mobility, solutions and processes that can help enterprises and SMB in their digital transformation journey.”

Arrow Electronics ECS At GITEX 2017, Arrow will showcase a range of next-generation hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), servers, flash storage, softwaredefined infrastructure, and advanced security solutions from leading technology vendors. The distributor will be exhibiting solutions from global vendors such as Dell EMC, RSA, Check Point, McAfee, Trend Micro, Ixia, Thales and Forcepoint.

HEADS UP Partners can look forward to new product announcements from the distributor.

Vimal Kocher managing director “Our goal is to enable solution partners to understand, execute and deploy comprehensive security solutions across a spectrum of delivery platforms, from data and endpoint security, threat prevention, and security analytics, to automated security and monitoring solutions. We see GITEX Technology Week as a great platform to align with partners, technology vendors and show organisations on how to adopt daily security practices to prevent, detect, and respond to potential security challenges.”

Meet them at: Hall 2, G2-1

Bulwark Technologies The specialised IT security value-added distributor aims to reiterate the importance of building a strong, integrated security infrastructure in the region at this year’s trade show. The firm will be showcasing latest technologies spanning advanced malware protection, user behaviour and insider threat prevention, in addition to its other security technologies at GITEX 2017.

HEADS UP The market can expect to hear new vendor partnerships as the distributor is currently in talks with multiple firms to take up their products through its established channels.

Meet them at: Hall 1, C1-20

Jose Thomas Menacherry managing director “During the week-long show, we aim to undertake activities to acquire new partners to increase the penetration of our channel base in the region. We will facilitate reseller and vendor meetings, introducing the latest offerings for the regional market. Our channel partners will also get the opportunity to bring their end customers and familiarise them with the new offerings.”

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

FEATURE // GITEX 2017

Ingram Micro Ingram Micro’s focus at this year’s ICT trade show is around convergence of cloud and security. The distributor believes its expertise in technology solutions around mobility, cloud, and supply chain enables its business partners to operate efficiently and successfully in the markets they serve. According to the firm, agility, deep market insights, trust and dependability that come from decades of proven relationships set Ingram Micro apart and ahead.

HEADS UP We can expect the synergy between Ingram Micro companies – Aptec and NIT to create a strong value proposition to market.

Svetlana Sorokina marketing director “At GITEX 2017, channel partners can benefit from networking with world class ICT vendors, knowing the latest market and product updates and gaining an insight into cutting-edge technologies through live demo lounges at the show.”

Meet them at: Hall 4, C4-1

Logicom At this year’s GITEX Technology Week, Logicom will be highlighting updates around its Cloud Marketplace such as annual billing scheme for Microsoft Cloud, security and collaboration solutions. Partners and customers can also reach out to the distributor’s team of cloud experts who will be available to deliver solution demos and discuss cloud opportunities. The firm will be presenting its complete vendor portfolio at the show.

HEADS UP The distributor will be launching new solutions at the show, from client and server computing, storage, enterprise networking and wireless solutions to different software and security solutions from key partners.

Meet them at: Hall 4, A4-1

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

Michael Papaeracleous director of distribution “Logicom has made significant investments in building capabilities that allow us to deliver cloud services to our channel partners. We have embarked on a digital transformation journey for ourselves, our partners, and their customers aiming to provide a superb digital experience in the cloud solutions acquisition and support process.”

Redington Value At GITEX 2017, Redington Value aims to showcase its extensive portfolio around IoT, Big Data Analytics, cloud and cybersecurity. The distributor’s focus will be on offering comprehensive solutions around developing and implementing these technologies.

HEADS UP The firm will emphasise on its key initiatives – Red Vault and Citrus Consulting. Red Vault is a data centre that helps replicate customers’ infrastructure and develop solutions based on their requirement. Connected with the training rooms at the Redington Value facility, it also offers a hands-on experience in terms of enabling the channel. Citrus Consulting is the distributor’s consulting arm, which has been in full production with several projects underway. Meet them at: Hall 4, E4-30

Ramkumar Balakrishnan president “We want to add value to our customers’ business environments and help them navigate through the emerging technologies that we are presented with today. IoT, cloud computing, Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and advanced security forensics are no longer buzzwords as we see increasing applications of these in the current market. Channel partners must assess their skillsets and resources to ensure they have the capabilities to execute projects involving the new technologies.”

Sheikh Maktoum Hall, SM-3

StarLink At GITEX 2017, StarLink aims to empower its partner ecosystem to assist enterprise and government customers in the region gain visibility into security, applications and the network. The distributor will also take the opportunity at the show to recognise its strategic partnerships with vendors for innovation, vision, integration and commitment and channel partners for their contribution towards leadership and revenue growth.

HEADS UP Stay tuned for new vendor announcements from the distributor at the show.

Mahmoud Nimer general manager “Every year StarLink exhibits at GITEX to nurture partner, customer and vendor relationships, each of whom have the opportunity to network as well as meet with our management and product teams to learn more about our security framework, solutions lifecycle, business strategy as well as our vertical security trend matrix.”

Meet them at: Hall 1, D1-1

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

FEATURE // GITEX 2017

StorIT StorIT will use GITEX as a platform to meet up with its existing and new partners and customers, introduce new products and services and sign up new partnerships. The distributor will also showcase its entire stack of solutions across data storage, data protection, data management, high performance computing and managed services.

HEADS UP The distributor will showcase new partnerships formed earlier this year and its established solutions portfolio.

Meet them at: Hall 6, CLD-19

Manju Mathew marketing manager “The enterprise storage market in the Middle East is growing and has definitely evolved over the last few years. The most popular solutions are cloud, virtualisation and softwaredefined-storage because they can be easily integrated with the existing infrastructure and all of them have scalable architecture. While the newer trends like IoT, Big Data and converged infrastructure will be key drivers, enterprise storage and data management will continue to be the main game players that partners must continue their focus on.”

Synergix International Founded in 2000, Synergix International continues its objective of driving computer network technology advancement in the Middle East and North Africa region. It has been successfully meeting its objectives in providing solutions within the Middle East and African market with diversity, efficiency and reliability as its corporate philosophy.

HEADS UP The distributor will be showcasing new products from Infilink and INNO and present its new partnerships with 3Z and Rebasoft.

Meet them at: Hall 2, 201

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

Alan Pourmirza managing director “At GITEX 2017, we look forward to meeting our customers and partners, establishing new relationships and offering hands-on experience on all our technologies. Partners can make the most of the show by providing a practical experience and special offers to all visitors.”

VAD Technologies VAD Technologies caters to the enterprise and SME markets through a strong channel footprint across Middle East and North Africa. The distributor is looking to strengthen its existing relationships with vendors and partners, as well as build new ones.

HEADS UP We can expect to see the distributor finalising on a number of new partnerships at the exhibition.

Mario M. Veljovic general manager “Partners should look out for new disruptive and innovative solutions at this year’s trade show. Customers are demanding for the best solution for their requirements. One-size-fits-all strategy isn’t good enough any longer, therefore partners must focus on customised offerings. GITEX is a great platform for building new relationships.”

Meet them at: The firm will be present across its vendors’ stands

Wherever you are. Wherever you go. Whatever the future brings. Check Point keeps you one step ahead.

Consult with the Security Experts to know more about INFINITY @ Hall 2, Stand G2-1

+971 4 367 2194 infogcc@checkpoint.com

SPONSORED

LEADING THE PACK

HPE Aruba makes headway in channel leadership and innovation.

ruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is a provider of next-generation networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes worldwide. The company delivers IT solutions that empower organisations to serve the latest generation of mobile-savvy users who rely on cloud-based business apps for every aspect of their work and personal lives. “Mobility is a priority, both for business and application, in day-to-day life of people in our region,” Osama Al Haj-Issa, regional channel director, MEMA. “This region has more acceptance of mobility because mobile penetration is one of the highest in the world and accordingly users require proper connectivity in business, while traveling, on the road, outdoors or in business places.” Dependency on mobility is at a peak and innovative solutions are needed to meet this growing demand across business segments such as healthcare, infrastructure, aviation, hospitality and more. “We serve this great demand in the region, whether it is from a SMB or an enterprise, through our channel and keep highest levels of customer satisfaction,” said Al Haj-Issa. Subsequently, awareness regarding Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is increasing and there is a growing focus on IoT related infrastructure. “As we in HPE Aruba place strong focus on access to infrastructure and lead this market, we have started our IoT go-to-market by securing IoT devices and identifying trends so that

proactive decisions can be made in relation to IoT devices and applications,” he added Having experienced significant business growth during the past six months both locally and globally, Aruba aims to further demonstrate its commitment to innovation and to the market through its participation at the upcoming GITEX Technology Week, which will be held from 8th-12th October 2017 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. During the show Aruba will be showcasing its mobile-first approach, which is optimised for the digital workplace. “Our main objectives are to reach out to new potential clients as well as educate our existing customers on our latest technologies with our recent announcements,” said Al Haj-Issa “Additionally, we also aim to grow in key verticals such as education, hospitality, healthcare, government, retail, oil and gas. “We will also be showcasing our integrated wired and wireless access layer portfolio, secure IoT support, and advancements in network management and security solutions, which will enable customers to get ready for the mobile-cloud world. The move to mobile-cloud allows organisations to see business benefits—recruiting and retaining top millennials, lowering operating costs, boosting productivity — in the move to the digital workplace.” In addition, Aruba will also be launching a number of new products at GITEX, including a new asset tracking solution that can monitor an organisation’s IoT devices by integrating fully with Aruba’s Wi-Fi infra-

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.resellerme.com

structure. The company will also display its 8400 Switch series, which is purpose-built for emerging mobile-cloud business applications. Lastly, it will be unveiling a new Wi-Fi solution, OfficeConnect OC20, which is designed to give small businesses secure and reliable business-grade Wi-Fi with easy to set-up APs and an intuitive mobile app. In this regard, Aruba believes that 2018 will be a year of innovation and growth in the mobility and IoT space. “We have introduced important advanced switching, location based and cloud platforms that serve top enterprises and telcos who sell to SMB and others,” said Al Haj-Issa. Currently, these platforms are being offered to various customers through Aruba channels who are ready to deploy them by 2018. As for Aruba’s channel initiatives, the company aims to introduce enhanced services models to help partners better support their customers. “We want to continue on our strategy of selling through our twotier channel model and trust our partners with end-user services,” said Al Haj-Issa. “We are focused on supporting partners in SMB market, jointly with our value-added distribution model and supporting enterprise, public sector and similar customers with platinum, gold and few silver partners. Our strategy also encompasses working with ecosystem partners in various verticals and third-party solution providers.” Aruba will be exhibiting from the HP stand CLD-6 in Hall 7.

Hemayun Bazaz, Regional Channel Manager, SMB, MEMA As Mobility trends continue to transform the way we communicate, collaborate, and access information, customers are taking a wireless-first approach to connectivity. They need mobile networking solutions that allow them to easily accommodate multiple on internal networks while keeping them safe with the most robust security features available. We offer our partners and customers a portfolio that brings value that is seen more as an investment rather than a cost. Our solutions, including Aruba Instant and Aruba caters to various industry segments including education, retail, healthcare, manufacturing and hospitality among others. The traction weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve experienced with our partners in the SMB space indicated that our solutions are quickly becoming the WLAN solution of choice for this segment. As part of our strategies in strengthening our reach in the SMB space, we have introduced a number of sales enablement support sessions help new partners develop new solution expertise. We also introduced promotions designed specifically for the SMB channel. In addition, we have also created a channel team dedicated to the SMB market. The team will focus on partner recruitment, enablement and demand generation. Aruba also has specific initiatives like channel Sales Academy and Aruba Channel Sales Champion are there to motivate and incentivize our Channel Sales Force.

Ahmed Rezk, Channel SE Manager, MEMA Aruba Channel Enablement team focuses on the skills of the partners in three areas: Sales, Pre-sales, and Post-Sales. First of all, we assess a partnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; resources and based on the results, we build an enablement plan for the partners along with their management. The enablement plan consists of awareness sessions covering all the products and solutions offered by Aruba, in addition to, in-depth training courses delivered by HPE Education and Training services funded by HPE-Aruba. We do pre-sales and technical competition also between the partners to increase the learning curve and the loyalty.

Ahmed El Sayed, Distribution Manager, MEMA We are firm believers in value distribution, our distributors have adopted this model and applied it to their Aruba business execution plan. Our distributors have played a major role in developing our channel partners. On top of their logistic and financial expertise, they act as their advocates supporting them to grow their business by running DG activities, sales and presales training workshops and partners verticals focused events. They have leveraged their capabilities to increase our market share and increase channel coverage Aruba offers the best of bread channel partners programs (PRFN) and distribution compensation model that drive solutions focus, partner development, increasing coverage and business growth. We also have a sales and technical development roadmap, which is executed by our sales and presales teams on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. We ensure that there is consistent communication on sales strategies and technical solutions updates. We also offer co-marketing investments on a quarterly basis helping VADs to create demand. Incentives based on sales growth and solutions focus. Lastly, we provide sales and pre-sales close engagement helping VADs closing deals and technical consultancy.

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

YOUR VOICE // COMBATTING CREDIT CRUNCH

Amer Khreino

Massimo Falcioni

Shailendra Rughwani

Vijay K. Peter

Giving due credit The Middle East IT channel firms continue to battle with credit challenges, while it is also the pillar on which business happens in the region. Reseller Middle East, as part of Tahawul Tech’s Your Voice series, gathered experts across distribution, reselling, systems integration and insurance firms to discuss how channel players can arrive at a solution to this problem and define the responsibilities of each stakeholder.

redit, is unquestionably a crucial aspect of the channel business. Distributors provide credit to partners who don’t have enough financial means to roll out IT projects, and many resellers opt for disties who have the capabilities to deliver comprehensive credit and financing terms. However, in the recent past, the regional market has been plagued by credit issues, which have adversely impacted various segments of the channel ecosystem. Faced with overwhelmingly heavy and bad debts, several channel firms have fled the market, over the last few years. “Currently the IT channel market is experiencing a stable growth,” said Shukri Halima, head of Risk and Operations, Financial Risk, Howden Insurance Brokers. “There has been a significant difference in terms of players fleeing the market as compared to five or six years ago.” Halima added that upcoming events like the Expo 2020, have opened up more

opportunities for businesses in the region. Although the market is growing, credit issues continue to exist. Because of the volatility of the market, banks have recently slashed the credit terms. “The biggest problem, in my opinion, is the lack of credit understanding and discipline of partners in the IT channel ecosystem,” said Dharmendra Sawlani, managing director, Smile Computers and president, Dubai Computer Group. He further said that there are also no specific regulations governing channel credit transactions. “Ideally, we should have a Federal Credit Insurance Authority in the region, but at the moment it is something that we lack.” Another issue Sawlani shed light on is the long credit payment periods. “I believe that our industry is fast-moving enough and we do not need huge credit limits,” he said. “If you give over 60-days credit terms to anyone then you’re basically financing the whole chain. We should

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

be focusing on financing our own businesses, not our partners’ business or our customers’ business.” When credit systems collapse, every segment of the channel is impacted. But who really is responsible? Shailendra Rughwani, managing director, Nirsun Technologies, said, “From the vendor, all the way to the reseller – everyone plays a role in either effectiveness or failure of a credit transaction.” According to him, vendors often push the goods down to the distributor and place unnecessary pressure on the latter who then passes it on to the resellers. “At a certain point, resellers will be unable to handle the pressures and workloads, which results to them pursuing risky operations or asking for too much credit.” Garreth Scott, sales director, Credence Security, agreed but added that apart from vendors, disties, resellers and systems integrators, one key segment is also at fault

Shukri Halima

Mario Veljovic

for credit failures. “The end-users,” he said. He added. “We can always push back the vendors and make them realise how or why it will be difficult to move the products at a certain point. But the reality is endusers are more often than not play a big role in the disruption in the credit cycle.” Scott recalled that there have been times when even some of the biggest companies across major industries from the region have not kept up with their credit terms. “They would only give 20 to 40 percent upfront payments, which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said. “However, the problem occurs when the 120-days payment period is extended because of several reasons such as unavailability of signatories or delays in cash flows.” Before reseller or a distributor begin doing business with any party, it is imperative that they check their credit worthiness. Just by taking the efforts to know their partners or customers a bit more, can help in avoiding credit issues. It is important to check on the company’s market reputation and try to do a risk assessment. Mario Veljovic, general manager, VAD Technologies, said, “You should try building your own risk assessments. At VAD, we have actually gone to a great extent to ensure that we have everything we need to know about a customer before offering them credit.” He added organisations should think outside the box and find new ways to improve the credit systems. “Today I spend 50 percent of my time on just gathering as

Garreth Scott

much information as I can about a partner or a customer, prior to granting them credit. In addition, we have introduced a new system wherein we ask a company for an attested document supporting the signatory’s authority. We believe this is necessary because if anything goes wrong, we’ll have hard proof to support us.” Veljovic said that ultimately, transparency is key in having good credit transactions and he hopes that the implementation of VAT will help drive more discipline in the market. From a credit insurers perspective, Massimo Falcioni, CEO, Coface, shared Veljovic’s sentiments explaining that at the end of the day, the more information an insurer has, the more they can underwrite. “There is common misconception that banks and insurers function the same way,” he said. “At a certain level, that is not true. When you get a loan from a bank, you provide them with a guarantee or collateral that’s of the same value of the funding expected to get.” Insurers don’t ask for these guarantees because they rely on their capability to assess their customer, he said. “We ask for the right documentations such as financial reports. We then assess their businesses’ operations and their behaviour in the market. The more detailed this information, the better the insurance firm can perform the rating of the company and its buyers. So, for us information is key.” However, channel players should not be solely reliant on assessments from organisations like Coface. Vijay K. Peter, area finance director, Westcon-Comstor,

Dharmendra Sawlani

“When I joined the company, initially we had a policy with a trade credit insurance provider, so whatever credit limit they set, we would usually go with it. We became reliant on them for so long that we don’t even do our own assessments anymore,” he said. “But we wanted to do more business and, of course, a part of this is reaching out to more customers. So, we decided that it would be ideal to create an internal team to perform risk assessments. Upon doing so, we learned more about the customers, which is as it should be, and we found that, more often than not, they are credit worthy.” He added that while TCIs are important assets, having a proactive approach within the channel is also ideal. Managing credit is another big area that customers tend to overlook. “Credit management is both an art and science,” said CEO, Raqmiyat. “It is not something that can simply be defined or fared by processes and regulations. The distribution channel needs to be creative in terms finding news ideas on how they can extend or manage their credit limits.” In addition, Khreino said that banks should also provide innovative funding programmes. “In the past, banks have hesitated from providing ample funding because of the issues in the market. Resellers or businesses then resulted to the use of post-dated cheques, which is a system that has been abused in the market for a long time. Therefore, the financial sector should also evolve to offer new financing options for channel players.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

ARE YOU READY?

FOR CLOUD NETWORKING

66%

companies expect SD-WAN to help achieve core strategic goal of expanding cloud usage.

*source: Forrester - The Future Of The WAN Is Software-Defined, 2016

SPECIAL FEATURE

250 and counting Reseller Middle East celebrates over 20 years as the voice of the channel.

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE // TRIBUTES

Jay Cadiramen (ex-editor) My first day at RAM- Reseller, Assembler, Manufacturer, as the magazine used to be known back in the 1990s, was as a reporter sitting in on an interview between Publisher Dominic De Sousa and a key figure in the industry. Before we got to the interview Dom gave me a piece of advice: “just keep asking questions”. Dom’s force of personality and passion for filling the magazine with useful and interesting articles and editorial meant that our small three-room office in Deira was always busy and bustling with visitors. The size of the office also meant that oftentimes, when conducting a telephone interview, it would be to the dulcet tones of Dom singing at his desk (later, when we moved to a larger office and had a telephone intercom system, Dom would sometimes turn on the intercom and sing to the whole office). Dom’s larger than life personality and sheer passion for publishing buoyed the office and the industry, and meant that the magazine had tremendous support from key players right from its inception. This, coupled with a stable of diligent and keen writers and extremely talented graphic designers, meant the magazine went from strength to strength quickly. Once we moved to our new offices in Bur Dubai I took on the mantle of editor of Reseller World Middle East, as the magazine then became known, under the mentorship of managing editor Dave Reeder. Leaving the magazine in 2000 was bittersweet for me - my colleagues were like family and Dom’s zest and Dave’s guiding hand would be much-missed as I embarked on the next stage of my career. Yet the magazine has continued to evolve and get better each and every month and it’s exciting to be part of this historic issue. Cheers to many more!

Mita Srinivasan (ex-editorial and sales member) Issue 29, 1999 I remember working as a sub-editor to Jay Cadiramen, the editor of RAM- Reseller, Assembler, Manufacturer, way back in the late 90s. Over time, the magazine was called Reseller World Middle East as part of the IDG Group and eventually it became Reseller Middle East as we know it today. When the magazine started out, the IT industry was nascent in the region with UAE and Saudi Arabia as the dominating markets. We were learning as we went along (definitely true for me). It was hardware-driven with the reign of trading mentality. Linux was just beginning to make waves (I remember Jay had a Linux Penguin on his desk), Microsoft set up BSA (Business Software Alliance) to manage piracy, which was then extended to other software such as Symantec’s anti-virus offering and so on. Enterprise computing was virtually non-existent. Only a handful of companies qualified as enterprise, and, more often than not, the vendors dealt with them directly, handholding some of the systems integrators. Post Jay moving on, with remote help from Dave Reeder (before he moved to Dubai permanently), I spent time doing face-to-face meetings to understand the pulse of the community in order to help create content that was relevant. We hosted educational workshops to raise the skills in the sector, roundtables to create a communication line between vendors, distributors and resellers, tackling the issues of the day: margins, grey markets, co-op marketing funds to name a few. How times have changed. It’s a lot more varied and expansive these days. The industry is now applications and software driven. There are more skilled distributors as ‘value-add’ has become default and box-moving has been edged out. The buyers are savvier and need a savvy IT industry to meet their needs. Over the next 250 issues, I am sure with the advent of IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and much more, the Reseller Middle East team will continue to evolve with the industry and keep the region informed and on their toes.

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

SIMPLIFY WITH

UNITY StorIT Distribution fzco

PO Box 17417 Jebel Ali Freezone Dubai, UAE +971.4.881.9690 | info@storit.ae | www.storit.ae

SPECIAL FEATURE // TRIBUTES

Jeevan Thankappan, group editor When I relocated to Dubai in 2005 to join CPI Media Group, I took over the reins of Reseller World Middle East (we removed ‘world’ from the masthead couple of years later). The domain of partners was an alien one to me as I came from a background of writing about telecom and enterprise technologies. “It is all about margins,” said my editorial director, and it was partially true. The epicentre of channel was what is called as Computer Street in Bur Dubai, which was bustling with resellers and retailers of various hue and colour. Box-moving and re-export to other parts of GCC and Africa was the name of the game back then, and the term value-added distribution was just about gaining currency. Over the last decade or so, I have been privy to the changes in the channel business in this part of the world. The evolving dynamics of the market saw some of the global biggies such as Tech Data and Avnet exit the region, as adapting to local culture became increasingly important. E RVIC What makes the Middle East channel market so unique? Unlike // WWW.resell

erMe.coM

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

issUe 188 // aUGUsT 2012

other parts of the world, you don’t get business done here unless you have a partner network. Even the biggest brands, which do direct business elsewhere, must go through the channel in the region. Even if they have direct-touch accounts, the fulfillment part needs to be done by partners. They could make or break your brand. Probably, the biggest change I have seen over these years is the welcome move by partners to selling business solutions rather than products. With wafer-thin margins, even the volume disties are adding value to the wares they sell, and resellers, on their part, have realised that technology buyers are no longer interested in point products to address their business challenges. These are tough times. Credit and profits margins are being squeezed like never before. But, I am positive the channel here is tenacious enough to ride out this storm, and our 250th issue is a beautiful paean to the survivors.

Unveiling v alUe

The differen

T faceTs of

service deli

very

AnAlysis FDC Inter natio working towa nal is rds crea symbiotic ecosystem ting a

FEATURE

Issue 188, 2012

Greene

inTERviEw iSTYLE is cashing in explosive on demand for the products in the regi Apple on

r pa s t ur

REviEw HP Omni 27, contender the latest in in-One desk the Alltop space

Natasha Pendleton, publishing director Reseller Middle East’s journey over the last two decades has been nothing short of remarkable. The publication has flourished along with the regional channel industry, striving to be at the forefront of each transformation curve sculpting the landscape. In order to continue this path to success, we will ensure to push ourselves into newer domains and not remain in our comfort zones. Our recently launched integrated platform, Tahawultech.com, is a testimony to this promise. We aim to redefine the regional technology coverage through this digital platform. Digital transformation goals have taken the industry by storm and as a leading 25-year-old publishing firm, we understand its significance. Our endeavour with Tahawultech.com is to reflect this expertise as well as stay one step ahead of market evolutions. Our success would not have been possible without the support of our advertisers. Another aspect of our digital platform will see us offering new and innovative ways such as video marketing to build our advertisers’ brand value. We hope to continue our associations for years to come. Having joined CPI Media Group, earlier this year, I’m honoured to be a part of this historic legacy left behind by the firm’s founder Dominic De Sousa. We aim to take the magazine to the next level over the next 250 editions.

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Introducing Your Retail Network-as-a-Service Securely Connecting People, Places & Things From failover and M2M to primary connectivity and SD-WAN, Cradlepoint is making retail networks more secure, agile, flexible, and less complex than ever before.

Learn more at: cradlepoint.com/gitex17

Visit Cradlepoint @ Gitex Technology Week 8th - 12th Oct 2017 Stand location E4-6 hall # 4

emeasales@cradlepoint.com

SPECIAL FEATURE // TRIBUTES

Marking milestones CPI Media Group founder Dominic de Sousa’s sister and current owner of the publishing firm, Maria de Sousa, commends Reseller ME and pays tribute to her brother’s legacy.

His competitive spirit, indomitable whirlwind of energy and font of innovative ideas saw his brainchild scintillate in the firmament of Dubai’s leading publishing houses.”

t is with immense pride and pleasure that I applaud and congratulate the team of Reseller Middle East as it celebrates its 250th edition this month, having played an integral role in the channel industry over the last 20 years. This is yet another tribute to Dom’s legacy, CNME being the other magazine that achieved the 300th issue milestone in January this year. Dom, ever the entrepreneur and visionary, engaged his talents in the realm of publishing and launched his company CPI in 1991. His competitive spirit, indomitable whirlwind of energy and font of innovative ideas saw his brainchild scintillate in the firmament of Dubai’s leading publishing houses. Reseller Middle East covers a plethora of technology, product development and innovation stories. It encompasses the vital role of keeping all stakeholders updated on the latest transformation in the IT community, which also includes being an all-important advisory platform. My gratitude to the Reseller Middle East team and to all the sponsors, advertisers and readers of the magazine. I wish Reseller Middle East continued success and fulfilment in its magnificent performance.

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

You are invited to visit the

Kodak Alaris stand at Gitex located in Hall 4, Stand C4-10 8th – 12th October, 2017

Visit us to see how you can be part of Alaris IN2 Ecosystem Our goal to help partners:

Expand

Connect

Grow

your offerings with our portfolio of world-class distributed and production scanners, capture solutions, and service.

with more leads through demand generation programmes and sales enablers delivered by our partner portal.

profitable revenue with our lucrative channel programme and incentives.

MARKETING & SALES TOOLS

DEAL REGISTRATION

LEAD GENERATION

• Redesigned benefits and bonuses to support how today’s business gets done • Registered partners have access to limited incentives

• Registration for deals that meet requirements • Simplified process in our Partner Portal lets you register deals faster, with fewer steps

• Additional incentives increase with your partnership commitment to Kodak Alaris Information Management

For more information visit www.kodakalaris.com or call +971 4 347 5022

• Qualified leads from Kodak Alaris Information Management global campaigns • Marketing automation tools and assets to create your own campaigns

SPECIAL FEATURE // ROUNDTABLE

Graham Porter (GH) ME head of channels, Veeam

BLAST FROM

K U Shankari (KS) managing director, Lucky Star Computers

Reseller MEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ex-editorial and sales member, Mita Srinivasan along with industry veterans Graham Porter, Philip Hughes and KU Shankari walk down the memory lane, sketching a picture of the key facets that crafted the industry two decades ago. 52

ould you elaborate on your role when you started out in the regional IT industry? MS: I was working on the editorial and sales side of Reseller ME. Back then, it was called RAM - Resellers Assemblers Manufacturers. The publication was focused around the PC assembly market, which used to dominate the industry then. There were memory companies whose fortunes rose and fell based on the prices of the memory and Intel chips. There were people who

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

lost businesses and built empires because of this. PH: I entered the regional market in 1993 and joined distribution with Computer 2000, which was a prominent player during that time and was later acquired by Tech Data. I remember there was about six to eight months where we struggled because we were trying to sell original software. When we had our first delivery of Intel CPUs, that was the moment business exploded. This was because now we had the availability, stock and status. We got

THE

PAST

Philip Hughes (PH) managing director, Eventcloud

Mita Srinivasan (MS) director The Market Buzz

motherboards from MSI, Asus and other similar brands. Memory had started to come in too. At that time, it was about availability and pricing. GP: I started off with Saudi Business Machines (IBM) back in 1994. It was the same year I started attending GITEX. GITEX used to be held in Riyadh for a few years, however, it didn’t really take off. At that time, we had to resort to marketing gimmicks to attract footfall to our stands. I remember we once got Bill Gates videos on a CD and said things like “come to the IBM

stand and meet Bill Gates”. We needed to make our PCs and printers a lot more attractive. Also, one of the highlights of GITEX in UAE used to be about the parties and the networking circles. Back then, Dominic De Sousa, CPI Media Group’s founder on stage, doing his Elvis act on the last night of GITEX, was an evening the industry looked forward to. Everybody wanted to get away from the formal parties. KS: Back then, GITEX used to be a lot more exciting. All the retailers would go the extra mile to think of

innovative marketing strategies to make themselves unique at GITEX Shoppers. Today we see very less differentiations. Around two decades ago, I was just about setting up my business – Lucky Star Computers. We had our first stall at GITEX in 1999. How strong was the assembly market back then? MS: In those days, it was all about hardware, components, assemblies and building your own PCs. Firms such as Compaq, HP and others were struggling because the

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE // ROUNDTABLE

“Back then, Dominic De Sousa, CPI Media Group’s founder on stage, doing his Elvis act on the last night of GITEX, was an evening the industry looked forward to.” months. There was a minor price change and products became available in South East Asia, which led to this client leaving the regional market within a month. The margins were outrageous. It was not until 1998 when I moved on to APC that we started to see firms such as HP, Compact and Sun beginning to build the brand value again. Dominic De Sousa

assembly PC market was much more attractive to consumers. This was because customers could customise their purchases. Brands such as Lenovo and Acer were not thought of in those days. It was only Compact, HP and IBM. It was extremely hardware-driven industry at that time. KS: Till about 2004, assembly PC market was dominating and even Compact could not beat our pricing. PH: We had a client who went from nothing to $2 million in six

What is the biggest difference from then to now? PH: In a line, the biggest difference is money, mettle and MBAs. In the old days – we call it ‘the wild west’ – there was money, marketing budgets, creativity, innovation and mettle. Today the industry is lacking in these aspects. People who come in now are much more professional and educated. They all have been through the machinery of post graduate courses. However, the issue is that they have the formal education but lack in hands-on experience in solving problems. Back in the day, we would meet with colleagues

“The market is becoming more data analytical oriented. There is a huge demand for upcoming technologies.” 54

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

from other firms and discuss best practices. 20 years ago, we would find regional managers of most companies sitting together once a month, having lunch and discussing how they were managing their challenges. Today, customers know what they want. The idea of selling solutions have finally taken off. GP: It was quite a young industry back then. When I was with HP in 1999, we had a lot of novices join the firm who didn’t have experience but they eventually grew into their roles. KS: Previously, there were more family-owned businesses within the resellers. It has become more structured and formal now. Today, people are in IT because they have a related educational background or a passion for technology. Back in the day, somebody who had money would begin any IT reselling business without adequate market knowledge. What were some challenges in the IT channel market around 20 years ago? KS: Grey market was and continues to be a huge challenge. MS: Most problems that were discussed back then continues to exist even today. Issues such as bottomline, marketing and co-op funds, payment terms and so on afflict the industry. KS: Delayed payments and bottomline challenges also led to many players fleeing the market. While

we do have absconding firms even today, the frequency has reduced this year. This gave rise to Dubai Computer Group (DCG) association to mitigate such issues in the market. How do you expect the next 20 years to shape out? GP: Today we see businesses straining to sell products. The pertinent questions now are ‘How do you add value? How do you differentiate from competition?’ Technologies that are gaining popularity within regional enterprises include security, cloud, softwarebased technologies. As a vendor who provides solutions around these technologies, we want to see people trained in them. We still have credit issues going on in the market. Many people are investing in cloud without having an idea how it will pan out. But the question is, are you willing to take a risk? We will see a lot of changes over the next 20 years. The primary focus will be on adding value and identifying the channel who can deliver it. MS: I believe partners will have to focus on specialisation. They need to look at niche areas where they can excel and really dominate. This means they need to start investing in people a lot more than what they are doing currently. Also, they need to find ways to retain their workforce. KS: The market is becoming more

“The biggest difference is money, mettle and MBAs. In the old days – we call it ‘the wild west’ – there was money, marketing budgets, creativity, innovation and mettle.” data analytical oriented. There is a huge demand for upcoming technologies. We have to treat our employees as our shareholders. Then, they will be invested to grow the business along with you. All my employees will be my partners over the next 20 years. I believe service will be the biggest industry for the next five years. PH: In 2020, the country is expecting around 20 million visitors coming into the region. This would mean analysing a deluge of data, creating innovative apps and organising largescale events. The next six months will be crucial for businesses in the region. We have an economy that is recovering from some of the financial issues in the global market. We are seeing the emergence of even more small and GITEX 1984, Gulf News (Source: Aptec)

“Most problems that were discussed back then continues to exist even today. Issues such as bottomline, marketing and co-op funds, payment terms and so on afflict the industry.”

medium firms; all these businesses will need new-age technologies to increase their operational efficiency. Channel partners need to transform their businesses to evolving market developments in order to capture this growth.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE // FROM THE INDUSTRY

Ali Baghdadi, SVP and chief executive, Ingram Micro META

Cloud platforms, subscription payment models, hardware-asa-service, specialty areas such as security, IoT, analytics and BI are demanding a new kind of channel distributor.”

Twenty-years ago may sound like a different era, however, by then, Aptec was already a 17-year-old UK firm with subsidiaries in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. At that time, relationships between IT vendors and channel partners were mostly tier-one and based on non-cancellable agencies. Aptec Gulf was formed with a relatively new concept of two-tier distribution. In order to focus on the swiftly-growing Middle East region, Aptec UK was sold to Metrologie France and its subsidiary was purchased by German buyers. Following which, Aptec was partially acquired by CHS Electronics. Two years later, I bought back 100 percent shares of Aptec. The market was dynamic. We signed on a wide portfolio of vendors including Compaq, HP and Microsoft. Identifying that the channel partners required industry knowledge and know-how, we had introduced the Aptec University. The main issues that the channel industry faced back then were around lack of knowledgeable staff and credit facilities. The demand was high and resellers attempted to do everything – retail, fulfilment, integration and little in the way of specialty. However, specialty was still handled by the big IT vendors. We began training resellers on specialty of the time – local networking and document management, for example. GITEX was a lot smaller and Aptec has been a participant every year since 1981. During that time, some of the biggest players on a global stage were Techdata, CHS Electronics and Ingram Micro. Locally, Redington was starting out, Karma Electronics was big, however they folded their business soon after. GBM and SBM were the face of IBM, both as a reseller and distributor of PCs. While HP was focused on printers and supplies, Microsoft and Oracle were key software vendors at that time. Distribution is now changing rapidly. Regional distributors are trying to find their place in a technologically evolving world. Cloud platforms, subscription payment models, hardware-as-a-service, specialty areas such as security, IoT, analytics and BI are demanding a new kind of channel distributor. Retail is shifting more to an e-commerce model and hardware products are becoming software-defined and in the cloud. Increasing number of players are trying to move into the value-added distribution space to keep up with the rapid pace of change. It is a race, however, not everyone can afford to be in it.

Issue 124, 2007

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Marissa Safe, CEO and VP, FDC International Twenty-five years ago, the IT channel atmosphere was completely different. Product selling was dominating and the industry was at the beginning of its growth stage. At that time, notebooks were not the main facet of business. Motherboards, memory chips, PC assembly governed the market tides. When I entered the region from USA, I noticed that not many players were in the original product space. FDC was formed by focusing only on original products. Back in the day, business was price-dominated. We began focusing on bringing in new manufactures who were recognised globally but new to the region. FDC was and continues to be known for quality products. We were one of the first ones to introduce Lenovo to the region. I remember working with all the main resellers. We were in constant dialogue with Tarun Nandi from Bluebell and Sunny Menghani from Quality Computers. There were others who have now departed from the market. The industry size was a lot bigger in the old days and has been drastically reduced over the years. As the IT industry was making money back then, there were ample budgets to invest in education, seminars, product promotion and the like. Later the recession period was upon us and I believe at that time, some of the players didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realise that they were trying to increase their revenues in a shrinking market. This subsequently compelled many reselling firms to exit the region. Grey products are more of an issue today than back then. Although it existed at that time, the industry was growing and it would get absorbed. Today with shrinking market size, this is not possible. Some of the larger distribution firms two decades ago were SMB Distribution and Computer 2000. There are lesser number of distributors today as compared to a few years ago. One big difference that we have observed is around profitability. Today, IT profitability has declined for all the stakeholders. It was much bigger previously. Back then, the risk was less, market was safer and people were ready to give bank guarantees. Banks and insurance firms had much more confidence to support the IT industry. However, it is important that these institutions understand that there are long-term players like ourselves who have been prompt with payments and managed to grow our business. A multi-distribution model was working well before as the market size was much larger. However, going forward, vendors must have a focused distribution model to derive more value.

RME Annual Industry Survey,

Back then, the risk was less, market was safer and people were ready to give bank guarantees.â&#x20AC;?

2011 www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE // FROM THE INDUSTRY

Steve Lockie, group managing director, Westcon-Comstor

The biggest difference in the regional IT distribution today, as compared to 20 years ago, is the maturity of channels and specialisation.”

Twenty years ago, the regional market was quite different. It was concentrated and hugely export led. In Saudi Arabia and around the Gulf in general, there were only a handful of key partners. In the UAE, the business was centred on Computer Street and the deals that were done here on long hot days were core to our activities. When it comes to key topics discussed within the channel industry back then, not a lot has changed. The market was much more component based and software piracy was starting to be recognised as a genuine issue. The African, Russian and Iranian markets were booming and the various nationalities were clearly in evidence along the street. Partners used to keep an eye on who was selling at what cost. There were many instances of ‘runaways’, which became quite frequent. At times, even before the player could flee the market, the rumour mill would already be talking. The biggest challenges during that time were around finance and turning inventories. The criticality of buying processors at the right time, being first to market on new releases and ensuring you had disk drives manufactured in Japan rather than other countries (where manufacturing was deemed less advanced despite automated factories and quality assurance) caused significant price and supply opportunities. GITEX was even more cosmopolitan and was where deals would be struck across the whole Middle East and Africa region – it was truly a melting pot with the opportunity to make or lose significant sums of money depending on what agreements you could strike. Looking back wouldn’t be the same without noting the legend that is Tarun Nandi of Bluebell. His market knowledge, control and ferocious deal making skills were truly impressive. In distribution, we battled with Mahdi Amjad at Al Masa, Marissa Safe at FDC and of course Ali Baghdadi at Aptec, all fine business people and great competitors at that time and to today. The biggest difference in the regional IT distribution today, as compared to 20 years ago, is the maturity of channels and specialisation. I remember vividly asking for a show of hands at a reseller event we hosted and how when asked to note their reseller type as retail, wholesale, exporter, integrator, PC dealer or manufacturer, the same hands went up with every category. It truly was the forefront of the regional IT channel and everybody was prepared to do RME Annual Indu stry Survey, 2011 whatever it took to turn a profit and grow.

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Arun Chawla, chief executive officer, Trigon Trigon was established 20 years ago, making us one of the oldest distribution firms in the region. We have witnessed the evolution of the industry. Two decades ago, the regional channel industry was limited and mostly comprised of dealers, resellers and traders. The retail landscape was just about shaping up, therefore, the marker was dependent on resellers and dealers. The main topics that industry peers used to debate on were around how to increase profitable sales and design the right product mix. If you think about it, this continues to be important even today. Back then, the market size was huge and there was room for every reseller to exist and generate good profits. The margins were also quite large previously. Resellers’ biggest challenge was how to focus on good product mix to remain a market leader. Today, one of the problems the market faces is maintaining a balance between top-line and bottom line growth. While most players manage to achieve a top-line growth, they don’t pay enough attention to their bottom line. Both GITEX Shoppers and GITEX Technology week used to be held simultaneously. The event served as a platform for distributors and vendors to showcase their latest offerings and product range. Some of the biggest vendors back in those days were ViewSonic, Acer, Philips, D-Link, Yamaha, Compaq, Toshiba, HP, Canon and Ricoh to name a few. We were distributors of ViewSonic, Peacock, Tulip, D-Link, Yamaha, Morse and PixelView when we started out. One of the biggest differences we see today is that while the market used to be dictated by dealers and resellers previously, now it is dominated by retailers. The retail industry has grown exponentially over the last few years. To succeed in this competitive market, players need to become niche and skilled in specific verticals.

Back then, the market size was huge and there was room for every reseller to exist and generate good profits.”

Issue 212, 2014

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

THE REGION’S NUMBER ONE PROVIDER OF IT SOLUTIONS

LOCAL PRESENCE GLOBAL EXPERTISE

ABU DHABI • BAHRAIN • DUBAI • KUWAIT • OMAN • PAKISTAN • QATAR

www.gbmme.com

FROM THE INDUSTRY // SPECIAL FEATURE

Hesham Tantawi, vice president, ASBIS Middle East Distribution The regional market was just about shaping up more than two decades ago. We had companies such as IBM providing PCs, but these machines were as big as my desk here. They didn’t have hard drives, instead had punch cards for recording data. Gradually, the PC assembly market came into play and we were selling for brands such as IBM and ALR. Dell was not there in the regional market and HP was associated only with printers. Compaq started out in the late 80s. The profitability of the market was a completely different landscape than what we are seeing right now. Margins for distributors were minimum 45 percent while for second tier, it was at least 25 percent. It would cost customers around $700 to purchase a complete PC. Though it is still the same value, the difference between the device then and the one you get today is drastic – the features have been greatly improved, leading to much higher performance. Back in the day, we discussed about price protection, industry and technology changes. For example, it wasn’t just a monitor, players would want to know about the different kinds of technologies embedded into the monitor. Grey market was a problem back then and we cannot deny it is not one even today. Although, it differs from time to time. The market transitioned from assembly PCs with the introduction of notebooks. The first notebooks were from IBM and weighed around 5 kilos. We also needed electricity to connect as there was no battery. The first portable computers were introduced by Compaq. OEMs had grown significantly over time and Dell had entered the market. Some of the big distributors back then included Aptec, SMB Distribution and Tech Data. There is also consolidation happening in the industry now – the number of distributors five years ago is not the same as today. The biggest difference from then to now is that the industry was moving fast and the lifecycle of a product was, at times, just three months. This taught us the dynamics of stocking – how fast we have to sell and move the products. We also learned how to price the products differently at the beginning of its lifecycle and at the end. Also, as there was no Internet back then, the media played an important role for our businesses. Going forward, machine learning and data doctors, people who analyse and organise data, will transform the industry. Industry Survey, 2011

The profitability of the market was a completely different landscape than what we are seeing right now.”

RME Annual

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

INTERVIEW // ENABLER ONE

WILLING AND ABLE Channel advisory firm Enabler One’s co-founders Nehul Goradia and Rishikesh Trivedi share go-to-market strategies and plans for 2018.

hat were the gaps in the market that led to the formation of Enabler One? Nehul Goradia (NG): The IT market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is changing exponentially with the increasing adoption of new technologies and the emergence of many new players. Most organisations are unable to justify or capitalise on their market penetration spend as they’re unaware of the nuances of the local markets. Although viewed as one territory, MEA consists of many countries with their own cultures and operational methodologies. At Enabler One, we help firms bridge this gap by bringing in our years of experience of having launched multiple organisations, brands and products in various geographies.

execution’. With in-depth experience in alliance and channel development and brand marketing, Enabler One, brings domain as well as market expertise for technology organisations. NG: With a defined objective of helping organisations achieve a better ROI from go-to-market investments, our enablement programmes are governed by the following ethos – helping clients reduce their time to market, connecting them with the right people: whether partners or customers and lastly, enabling and enhancing their brand visibility.

Who is your target audience and which verticals do you specialise in? RT: Considering that our existing clients range from start-ups to distributors to global technology Can you explain the business objective providers, our target audience is any of Enabler One? organisation with a technology product Rishikesh Trivedi (RT): A unique goor service offering. We don’t have a to-market advisory firm, Enabler One, defined vertical since we work across provides market penetration, market share all technology domains such as cloud, enhancement and brand management security, infrastructure and applications. strategy services. We not only consult However, our focus is predominantly in but support our clients from ‘strategy to the B2B technology space.

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

What kind of services do you provide? NG: We don’t have a pre-defined service or even a packaged service offering. Bearing our ethos in mind of helping organisations get the best of their go-to-market investments, we work with our clients across their strategy definition or execution scenarios to help them meet their objectives. We do this by utilising a wide variety of customised activities such as market insight analysis, product fit analysis, building their channel strategies, enabling demand generation programmes to enabling their brand positioning and many other such activities. Each of our offering is unique to each client. What kind of demand have you observed from the region? RT: There has been a positive response from the market. Our offering and approach resonates with our clients since we’re not viewed as generic business consultants but a team that has industry knowledge and experience.

How is Enabler One different from other consultancy firms in the market? NG: There are various organisations in the market providing different activity pieces of our holistic offering: ranging from lead generation to digital marketing. Enabler ONE is unique from the perspective that we offer myriad services but with deep market knowledge and insight. The learning curve for our clients and ourselves on various projects is therefore shorter as well as our inputs are not only at a macro level but at a more micro level, specific to the client and their desired market. What do you think is the biggest challenge in the IT channel industry? RT: Looking at the past couple of years, we believe that one of the biggest challenges that the IT channel industry will face is sustainability. There is an element of skill gap, especially with regards to new technologies such as marketing automation tools, analytical tools and cloud computing, which are still either outsourced or unavailable. These new technologies are helping organisations bring more automation as well as operational flexibility and it is imperative to address the skill gap. The other is reinventing themselves. Most channel partners still take a brand and product approach, which doesn’t allow them to differentiate from their peers making it difficult to demand better value for their services.

“We believe that one of the biggest challenges that the IT channel industry will face is sustainability.” Rishikesh Trivedi, Enabler One

What are the elements partners should look at in order to sustain profitability? NG: Innovation, service-driven models, expansion into new technologies as well as territories are some elements partners need to consider to stay profitable. Most partners are yet to redefine themselves and their client or sales approach. This was acceptable in the old days when technology sales was product or brand driven. Partners need to modify their approach to take advantage of the various new brands and offerings coming into the market to provide unique solutions, which is a mix of technology and services, to their clients. RT: Customers today are willing to experiment with unknown brands if the technology is innovative as well as commercially competitive. Over the last two decades, there has been significant improvements in business in relation to internal operations. Now the focus is turning towards efficiency and

“Most partners are yet to redefine themselves and their client or sales approach.” Nehul Goradia, Enabler One

effectiveness of customer acquisition and retention processes. This would include campaign automation tools, digital advertising networks, data-exchange platforms, AI and Machine learning to segment customers based on intent rather than only demographics, niche community building for collaboration, and many more. These offerings bundled with services provide significant profitability options to the channel. How do you see the industry evolving over the next two years? NG: Security continues to be a major concern and we are observing an increase in cloud computing adoptions. Further, we’re seeing a surge of new players entering the market offering niche solutions and services and many global solution providers looking at new geographies. These new and niche players are looking at addressing the innovation gap. Further, we’re also seeing a big drive within the start-up ecosystem to build offerings around Smart Cities, IoT, security and so on, with many ‘techpreneurs’ looking to address these different potential growth spaces. What are Enabler One’s plans for 2018? RT: We ourselves are in a start-up phase and hence our plans for the next year is to establish ourselves as the go-to advisory firm for any technology player looking at entering the MEA market or growing their existing presence either locally, regionally or internationally.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

FEATURE // BIG DATA ANALYTICS

MONETISING DATA

As data becomes the most vital asset for an organisation, increasingly decision-makers are investing in Big Data and analytics tools to enhance their operations. Reseller ME speaks to experts to find out how regional channel partners can exploit this growth opportunity. ata has been considered as the ‘new oil’ by most regional firms over the last few years. However, what these organisations do with the collected data have still a lot to be desired for. How many companies deploy Big Data tools to derive maximum value and make critical decisions about business operations? IDC forecasts global revenues for Big Data and business analytics will grow from $130.1 billion in 2016 to more than $203 billion in 2020. The opportunity for channel partners is quite evident. Sobhi Shashaa, VP, Enterprise Technology Solutions, Raqmiyat, says, “2016 was a landmark year for Big Data with more organisations storing, processing, and extracting value from data of all forms and sizes. In 2017, systems that support large structured and unstructured data will continue to rise.” He added that the region will demand platforms that help secure Big Data while empowering end-users to analyse it. “Enterprises with complex, heterogeneous environments no longer

want to adopt a siloed BI access point just for one data source. Customers will demand analytics on all data platforms that are data and source-agnostic. The convergence of IoT and cloud create new opportunities for self-service analytics.” This results in an increased demand for analytical tools that seamlessly connect to and combine a wide variety of cloud-hosted data sources. According to Shashaa, such tools enable businesses to explore and visualise any type of data stored anywhere, helping them discover hidden opportunity in their IoT investment. “Making data accessible to business users is one of the biggest challenges of our time. The rise of self-service analytics platforms has improved this journey. We’re seeing a growing trend of data becoming a core part of the enterprise IT landscape. And in 2017, we’ll see more investments in the security and governance components surrounding enterprise systems,” he adds. There is no debate that every organisation across the globe would

OCTOBER 2017 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

need data to grow their businesses. Big Data Analytical tools will be applicable for all customers in all verticals. Once channel partners understand the enormity of the opportunity this presents, they will see that it is not a question about Big Data being relevant for them or not. It is about how they can best help customers make sense of the deluge of data that they are presented with on a daily basis. Jeroen Schlosser, managing director, Equinix MENA, says, “The channel can add value by describing to businesses, not just how to manage Big Data, but how they can monetise it. The channel’s role also lies in working with organisations to select the right analytics solution and eventually, help their customers reduce costs.” In today’s business environment, customers expect to access data and associated analytics from any device and any engagement channel, anywhere and at any time, without delay, he adds. “As consumers, they’ve become used to this ‘omnichannel’ user experience.

TOP SPENDERS ON BDA GOVERNMENT 20.4% 19.2% FINANCIAL SECTOR 13.3% TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOURCE: IDC - WORLDWIDE SEMIANNUAL BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS SPENDING GUIDE

www.resellerme.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017

BIG DATA ANALYTICS // FEATURE

By dispersing data and applications strategically to the edge, near both stationary and roaming consumers and employees, the interconnected enterprise can achieve its omnichannel objective. Fast, proximate interconnections to the systems, partners and cloud services required to deliver information and insight enhance the user experience even more, ensuring employee and customer satisfaction and retention.” While the opportunity exists, it is not as easy for partners to go and capitalise them. One of the challenges could be identifying where to focus the investments within this area. “Partners need to map out how to target the kind of insights customers are demanding and actualising opportunities represented by clients’ data analytics requirements. Regional organisations also face challenges in finding skills to support Big Data and analytics deployments, and rely heavily on partners to support them until the solution goes into production,” says Schlosser. This is where vendors can play a vital role by supporting channel partners and enabling them to meet their customers’ demands. “Digital marketing techniques such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), content, campaign, data-driven, e-commerce, social media and e-mail direct marketing

Sobhi Shashaa, Raqmiyat

“The channel can add value by describing to businesses, not just how to manage Big Data, but how they can monetise it.” Jeroen Schlosser, Equinix MENA

will be catalysts in awareness. Marketing via weekly magazine and seminars will also help boost the product and this will enable the channel to create more enquires,” says Shashaa. “Vendors have to be willing to make the investment in channel data management.” Solution providers may get wary with that level of intrusion into their businesses. However, as long as vendors are willing to drive business their way in exchange for access to data, the relationship should remain mutually beneficial, he adds. Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC) says that there is a lot of focus around customer analytics to gain insights and improve overall performance. However, according to Schlosser,

In 2017, we’ll see more awareness and demand for self-service discovery, which will grow as a natural extension of self-service analytics.”

it is clear that many industries are still struggling to understand the use cases they can leverage within their sectors. The report indicates that the government sector (both state and federal/local government) was the largest spender on BDA solutions in MEA in 2016, accounting for 20.4 percent of spending. He adds, “It was followed by the financial sector (19.2 percent) and telecommunications (13.3 percent). Other industries with longer-term potential include manufacturing (both discrete and processed manufacturing), healthcare provider, resource industries, utilities, and transportation.” Shashaa adds, “Going forward, data monetisation will become a major source of revenues, as the world aims to create 180 zettabytes of data in 2025, up from less than 10 zettabytes in 2015, according to IDC. According to him, firms who were discarding data because they had too much to process will now be able to do so with machine learning and new Big Data hardware and software. “This will encourage customers to keep and use the data at lower cost. In 2017, we’ll see more awareness and demand for self-service discovery, which will grow as a natural extension of self-service analytics,” he says.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // OCTOBER 2017