Reseller Middle East March 2018 by Reseller Middle East

ISSUE 255 | MARCH 2018 www.tahawultech.com

BUILDING MODERN DATA CENTRES

PARTNER EXCELLENCE AWARDS Call for Nominations

CHANNEL PROSPECTS IN STORAGE

STRONG AND STEADY

FDC Internationalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Marissa Safe on leading the firm into a positive future

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STRATEGIC VAD PARTNER

CONTENTS

ISSUE 255 // MARCH 2018

COVER FEATURE

STRONG & STEADY

FDC International’s Marissa Safe reveals success factors responsible for the firm’s nearly 30-year-old distribution legacy. FEATURES

HIGHLIGHTS

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

OPINION

PARTNER AVENUES

Havier Haddad from Dell EMC says storage is the cornerstone of channel business.

20 ART OF SERVICES

Sachin Bhardwaj from eHosting DataFort on how managed IT services can be beneficial.

26 BUILDING MODERN DATA CENTRES

32 TAPPING INTO STORAGE

SAMSUNG UNVEILS LATEST FLAGSHIP SMARTPHONE WITH “REIMAGINED CAMERA”

NOKIA GOES RETRO AGAIN WITH 8110 LAUNCH

Reseller ME discusses storage opportunities for partners.

PARTNER WATCH

37 COLLABORATIVE SUCCESS

HOT PRODUCTS

Reseller ME examines the prospects for channel in data centre technolgoies.

Gulf Software Distribution’s Gareth Hansford urges partners to adopt collaborative strategies.

VENDOR FOCUS

40 PARTNER TO PROFIT

Infoblox’ Alexander Foroozandé shares the firm’s focus on partner profitability.

42 GIVE IT A WHIRL

Whirlpool looks to double down on the connectivity space through robust channel partnerships.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

EDITORIAL Calling on the channel community

Janees Reghelini Editor

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

e are excited to announce the return of Partner Excellence Awards 2018. This year with the theme of Bollywood glam, the event promises to raise the bar and exceed expectations. Scheduled for 8th May, 2018 at Dubai’s Emirates Towers, the winners will be decided by a panel of esteemed judges. Keep an eye out for when we announce more details later this month. We have announced the call for nominations and I like to take this opportunity to stress on how crucial the nomination is in the decisionmaking process for our judges. I urge you to take the time out to pen down crisp nominations that will clearly indicate the firm’s achievements to the judging panel. You can go through our guidelines to know what exactly the

judging panel will be looking for. At the end of the day, the partner business revolves around profitability. Those nominations that explain strategies, which have led to profitable outcome in the partner business could have an edge over other submissions. Distributors should elaborate on details of partner support and technology innovation they have brought into their operations in the last financial year whereas resellers need to emphasise on value-driven initiatives and new avenues of growth that have enabled them to go to the next level. This year all nominations have to be submitted through the online process. There is also an option to attach supporting documents. We look forward to receiving your nominations and making the ninth edition of the event a grand success.

Twitter: @TahawulTech

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

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Registered at Dubai Production City, DCCA PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 © Copyright 2018 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.

EDITORIAL Managing Editor Michael Jabri-Pickett mjp@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9158 Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129 Editor Janees Reghelini janees.reghelini@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9167 Online Editor Adelle Geronimo adelle.geronimo@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9135 DESIGN Head of Design Froilan Cosgafa IV froilan.cosgafa@cpimediagroup.com Senior Designer Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com

Designer Marlou Delaben marlou.delaben@cpimediagroup.com

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

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

Operations Manager Shweta Santosh shweta.santosh@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9107

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

DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developers Jefferson de Joya Abbas Madh

Business Development Manager Youssef Hariz youssef.hariz@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9111

Photographers Max Poriechkin Charls Thomas webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100

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

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www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

Redington reveals new global look

edington, the $6 billion distribution and supply chain provider for international brands in the IT and mobility sectors, has unveiled its new global brand identity – a new logo and tagline – ‘Seamless Partnerships’, as it steps into its 25th year since inception. The distributor said that the new logo and tagline epitomises the new direction that the company would like to take in the years to come. Redington’s managing director, Raj Shankar, said, “I am proud to launch our rejuvenated brand and visual identity that fully reflects what we stand for as an organisation. This is not a mere change of brand identity but a coming of age for Redington, a transformation that the company is engineering to take it to the next level. The new identity carries forward our core values on which our company is built – adaptability, collaboration, knowhow, objectivity, simplicity, transparency

and trust. We look to expand our horizons from being a ‘Brand behind brands’ to a platform that enables ‘Seamless partnerships’.” According to the company, the new

well as simplicity in complexity. The symmetrical form shows harmony between Redington and the other organisations that it collaborates. The energy is depicted in the reverse

logo symbolises synergy – while the existing colour green has been retained, different shades have been introduced as well, keeping in mind the everexpanding portfolio and services of the company. It represents the synergy and oneness that Redington possesses as an organisation. The latticed geometric design depicts technological innovation as

white lines, also representing the common thread of Redington’s philosophy and spirit running through the organisation towards a common good. The new tagline – ‘Seamless Partnerships’ – illustrates the way Redington does business and where the brand wants all its energies to be aligned upon, the firm said.

AccelStor, Asbis announce distribution partnership

sbis Enterprises has been appointed as AccelStor’s official distributor to deliver AccelStor NeoSapphire all-flash arrays with storage technologies in over 30 countries in EMEA. The distribution partnership extends to markets such as Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa, said the company. AccelStor’s vice president, David Kao, said “The demands of the digital era mean that enterprises must prioritise improving speed and efficiency, defining a growth strategy based on new IT services. AccelStor aims to provide the innovative storage solution to the enterprise. With the great support and the industry experience of Asbis, together we can provide the future-ready IT solution to meet the evolving demands of

our customers as well as drive business outcomes in Central and Eastern Europe, as well in the Middle East and North Africa region.” AccelStor and Asbis will focus on data centre and cloud infrastructure for various segments including telecommunication and government authority. Asbis has wide experience offering enterprise-level IT solutions and AccelStor’s NeoSapphire all-flash arrays are built to easily handle intensive application workloads and meet the storage needs of these segments, said the company. “We are pleased to start cooperation with AccelStor on a mutually beneficial basis,” said Yuri Ulasovich, COO, Asbis Enterprises. “The AccelStor All-Flash storage solutions expand the Asbis product portfolio and ensure further development of value-

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

added distribution with better business propositions for our partners. The NeoSapphire All-Flash Arrays use a true software-defined approach by designing the all-flash arrays to provide cost-effective all-flash storage with powerful performance for any scenario. We believe that AccelStor will provide a great solution for virtualisation, high performance computing, enterprise clouds, data centres and other key vertical markets.”

2.32 billion units THE NUMBER OF WORLDWIDE DEVICE SHIPMENTS TO REACH IN 2018 Source: Gartner

HIGHLIGHTS

Epson signs Forefront Technologies as regional partner

pson Middle East has signed a strategic partnership with UAEbased Forefront Technologies. As Epson’s specialised Document Imaging distribution partner in the region, Forefront Technologies, will be instrumental in creating a larger market share for Epson scanners, said the firm. Jason Whiley, director of Sales, Epson Middle East, said, “We focus on delivering cutting-edge business solutions that change the way people work. Our imaging solutions enable companies to securely capture, share and edit their documents, saving time and avoiding errors. We also have specialised scanners for retailers, photographers, graphic artists and also home users.” He added that Middle East is a high-performance market for the firm and Forefront Technologies, “with their extensive experience and understanding

Jason Whiley, Epson Middle East

of document imaging solutions is a perfect partner” to expand its footprint in this market. “We look forward to working together, strengthening our position, and achieving our goals in partnership with them.”

We look forward to working together, strengthening our position, and achieving our goals in partnership with them.” Established in 1995 in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone, Forefront Technologies is powered by a professional experienced team and has offices in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Lebanon; apart from the UAE. Georges P. Mehchi, CEO and managing director, Forefront Technologies, said, “We have been extremely active serving the Middle East and African markets for more than two decades now. Our partnership with Epson will help us strengthen our strategy and provide our widespread reseller network across the region with an even more comprehensive range of imaging products and solutions. This will inevitably grow our market share making us even stronger.”

BlueJeans Network signs up Nuvias as EMEA distributor

The BlueJeans’ platform alue-added supports virtually any distributor device offering the Nuvias has flexibility to deploy within signed a existing video real-estates, pan-EMEA regardless of the end point distribution agreement chosen, according to the with BlueJeans Network, statement released. which offers cloud Steve Harris, EVP services to connect Unified Communications, desktops, mobile devices Nuvias, said, “There are and room systems in one excellent opportunities video meeting. for channel partners in Nuvias will be bundling the rapidly growing voice the vendor’s platform with Steve Harris, Nuvias and video conferencing video conferencing devices market across EMEA, and from Polycom to provide BlueJeans is a great solution to take ready-to-go solutions, which scale from advantage of these opportunities. It is SMEs up to large enterprises. eminently scalable, particularly at large BlueJeans brings video, audio and enterprise level, very easy to use and web conferencing together with the interoperates with virtually any device collaboration tools people use every from anywhere. Our bundles and day, said the firm. partnership with Polycom represent The added integration between an attractive proposition for many Polycom and BlueJeans drives an businesses.” intuitive meeting room experience.

Working together with Nuvias is an important part of the BlueJeans go-tomarket strategy to bring our meetings platform to customers across EMEA.”

Nigel Tyler, director of channel EMEA, BlueJeans Network, said, “Working together with Nuvias is an important part of the BlueJeans go-to-market strategy to bring our meetings platform to customers across EMEA. We are at the forefront of an exciting time as businesses equip their employees, partners and customers with the tools to be productive. With a solution from BlueJeans and Nuvias, it will feel as though your team is sitting next to you in the same room.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

StarLink seeks specialised partners for new market

Nidal Othman, StarLink

tarLink has commenced business operations in Pakistan and invites new and interested IT security specialised partners to join its channel network. This launch comes in quick succession to the recent expansion into West Africa. Pakistan is currently focusing on combating cybercrime with nextgeneration technologies to improve governance. StarLink will initially set up an office in Karachi, followed by further investments in the capital, Islamabad, shortly thereafter. This expansion is in line with the company’s long-term vision to be the largest global “true VAD” by opening new markets to replicate its unique business model. According to the firm, StarLink has successfully deployed multi-layered defence-in-depth pervasive security infrastructures using its solutions lifecycle. StarLink manages, and sells through its channel network of more than 1000 partners, and empowers them to function autonomously. Nidal Othman, managing director, StarLink said, “We have built a remarkable story in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa regions over the last 13 years, and increasing our coverage into Pakistan is an essential part of our international expansion initiative. The plan is to drive our expansion into South Asia by replicating our ‘true VAD’ business model first into Pakistan, and then progressively covering the rest of the region soon.” Irfan Hafeez Panhwar, channel sales manager, StarLink, Pakistan said, “Channel is our core strength and our main focus at this stage would be to enhance our channel network, identify strategic partners and gradually invest in the path to channel autonomy.”

Commvault appoints a new partner in Lebanon

ommvault has appointed SETS as an authorised partner in Lebanon. The appointment is in line with Commvault’s strategy to expand its markets and create a solid support infrastructure for its end-user customers through the firm’s partner network. The partnership enables the distribution of Commvault’s enterprise backup, recovery, archive and cloud solutions to customers across Lebanon and the Levant region. With more than 25 years of experience in the industry, SETS said it will be able to provide customers with comprehensive end-toend professional Commvault services in addition to the company’s latest solutions. Shady Saba, regional director, Levant and Turkey, Commvault, said, “As we continue to deliver customers the industry’s best data protection offerings we are also expanding our partner relationships to bring our solutions to new markets and increase value to partners and customers. We are delighted to be

partnering with SETS to introduce our state-of-the-art solutions to customers in Lebanon and the Levant region.” Maher Chahlawi, CEO, SETS, said, “Becoming a Commvault partner allows us to offer the full Commvault solution to our customers, from design to implementation, delivery and support. Our appointment recognises our technical skills and knowledge as well as our extensive industry experience in Lebanon and the wider Levant region. It also highlights our capabilities as a trusted consultant and solution provider. We look forward to a lengthy and successful relationship.”

Targus signs Middle East distribution deal with Mindware

egional IT distributor Mindware has signed a pan-Middle East contract with Targus, a global supplier of carrying cases and accessories for the mobile lifestyle. The distribution contract covers all the countries under Mindware’s regional umbrella, from the Levant and North Africa to the Gulf and Pakistan. The partnership extends to Targus’ complete enterprise product range. “This regional distribution agreement made perfect sense for us. Targus is, clearly, a valuable addition to our product portfolio as they thoroughly complement our enterprise mobility offerings with topclass, productivity-boosting products. We are eagerly looking forward to a thrilling business partnership in 2018,” said Nicholas Argyrides, chief of sales and deputy GM, Mindware. “With people multitasking on

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

multiple devices and the remote working trend on the rise, staying connected is key. Targus offers a wide and varied range of ‘techcessories’ for consumer and enterprise; we are proud to have been innovating and staying ahead of the curve for more than 30 years. We are delighted to announce our partnership with Mindware and look forward to a successful future delivering innovation and value to the Middle East together,” said Marcus Harvey, Targus EMEA sales director.

Nicholas Argyrides, Mindware

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HIGHLIGHTS

Bitdefender signs distribution deal with Ingram Micro Ingram Micro has signed and a dedicated range of a distribution agreement services and trainings. With with Bitdefender, a global Bitdefender, we are reaching cybersecurity technology the front runner position as company. a value-added distributor of Through this agreement, cybersecurity solutions,” said Ingram Micro is now Marc Kassis, director cyber authorised to distribute security, Ingram Micro META. Bitdefender’s extensive Ahmed Tello, channel portfolio of Endpoint manager, Middle East, Marc Kassis, Ingram Micro Bitdefender, said, “Our Protection Platform (EPP) security solutions, to partnership with Ingram channel partners in the following 11 Micro in the Middle East region is a countries – Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, strategic milestone for Bitdefender to Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, State of accelerate enterprise sales in our 2018 Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United focused market – Middle East.” Arab Emirates and Yemen. He added that the company is looking “Our partnership with Bitdefender to expand the enterprise channel in the Middle East region is opening landscape across Middle East. a new era for the next generation of “We aim to do this by leveraging endpoint security. We are delighted the well-established Ingram Micro to march together with Bitdefender enterprise channel partner to push for the innovation that enterprises, Bitdefender in the right enterprise homes and users are waiting for. direction, put the product in the right Ingram Micro’s objective is to enhance enterprise channel, and reach the right the value proposition to our business enterprise customer with the right partners with relevant vendor solutions professional services,” he added.

NIT signs distribution deal with video management solutions player

immediate beneficial IT, an Ingram impact to our reseller Micro partners and their Company and customers, and we are a regional committed to continuing value-added playing an important role distributor of IP in helping them grow and surveillance and physical strengthen their business. security solutions in the We look forward to a long META (Middle East, and fruitful partnership Turkey and Africa) region, with ISS.” has announced a new Customised products partnership with Intelligent portfolio from ISS plus Security Systems (ISS), a Bassel Al Fakir, NIT the largest partners global player in video channel via NIT, not management and video only maintains but increases their intelligence solutions. relationship with the global video Under the terms of the distribution management and video intelligence agreement, NIT is authorised to solutions player, said the firm. distribute ISS VMS – SecurOS and ISS COO for Middle East and Africa, Analytics Software, to its channel Erik Bladh, said, “NIT is a committed partners in the Middle East and Africa. partner with top geographical reach. “We are excited about our new This mutually beneficial partnership partnership with ISS, which will help will help us to further strengthen and us fulfill the business demands of our expand our business as a leading customers in the most optimal way,” VMS and Analytics Solution Company said Bassel Al Fakir, managing director, in the Middle East and Africa.” NIT. “I am confident we will deliver

Sariya IT signs new vendor partnership for GCC

Amjad Al-Omar, Sariya IT Company

he Danish X-Gen endpoint security vendor Heimdal Security and the KSA software and hardware distributor Sariya IT Company, have officially announced a distribution agreement for the GCC. Heimdal said that its aim is to be the biggest endpoint security vendor in the Middle East by 2020 and views Sariya IT as a strong distributor to get to that position. Sariya IT Company, a software and hardware distributor, supports resellers and systems integrators focusing on security. Heimdal Security and Sariya IT Company have partnered up for developing new channels for the Heimdal Security software line-up. “We are delighted to commence this new partnership with Sariya IT Company. It will be a shared journey between our two companies and it will also be a challenge to grow to number one spot for endpoint security in the Middle East. This is a mutual opportunity, as Heimdal can look to grow in the region and Sariya is known for offering unique solutions to address customers’ challenges,” said Morten Kjaersgaard, CEO, Heimdal. Amjad Al-Omar, general manager, MENA, Sariya IT Company said, “Heimdal is a leading product in Europe and has a great history being part of Operation Tovar with the FBI against ransomware and part of Europol’s nomore-ransom project. With a unique product that can be of great value as an add-on for all our customers, Heimdal Security will give us a chance to offer something new to our reseller base and grow our revenue.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

Marks & Spencer launches UAE online shop

arks & Spencer (M&S) has unveiled its new and improved e-commerce website for the UAE, bringing its flagship shopping experience of more than 10,000 quality clothing and homeware products to customers across the UAE. The revamped website, marksandspencerme.com, offers customers an enhanced way to shop with M&S, said the company. The revamped website, marksandspencerme.com, offers customers an enhanced way to shop with M&S, with greater choice and better availability including more sizes, styles and colours, said the company. Other new features of the site include “quicker navigation and improved search,” making it easier for customers

to find what they want, as well as being fully-optimised for mobile and tablet devices to make it even more convenient for customers to shop whilst on the move. “Online shopping continues to grow in popularity, as customers look for more choice and greater convenience. We know that our customers want a seamless shopping experience,

whether shopping with us online or at our stores,” said Stephen Rayfield, Vice President, Retail, M&S. “Our new flagship website delivers a significantly improved customer offer, with thousands more styles and better availability, through to quicker navigation and the ability to collect orders free in-store.” Tailored content on the new M&S website will showcase products and promotions that are relevant to the UAE. The localised website also features prices in local country currency and offers local credit card payment options. Customers can choose from a selection of convenient delivery options, including delivering to home or office addresses, as well as shipping to M&S stores. Orders over 200 AED will qualify for free shipping, and deliveries to M&S stores will be free.

Fortinet announces FortiOS 6.0

ortinet has announced at its global partner and user conference, Accelerate 18, the evolution of its Security Fabric architecture with the release of FortiOS 6.0. Michael Xie, Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer, Fortinet, said, “As the speed and scale of cyber threats expands, security must take on its own transformation by integrating into all areas

As the speed and scale of cyber threats expands, security must take on its own transformation by integrating into all areas of digital technology and be able to translate user intent into automated business response.” 10

attack surface resulting from of digital technology and be digital transformation (DX) able to translate user intent strategies. into automated business New automated lifecycle response. FortiOS 6.0 workflows, attack surface delivers hundreds of new hardening services, with features and capabilities customized ranking and that were designed industry benchmarking, to provide the broad deliver the next level of visibility, integrated threat NOC/SOC management. intelligence and automated Business, network and response required for Michael Xie, Fortinet entity level tagging digital business.” functionality enable With more than 200 new business precise segmentation, features and capabilities, enterprises providing the critical building blocks for will benefit from new levels of security intent-based network security. operations automation and advanced The Fortinet Security Fabric is an protections for their expanding digital integrated and automated security attack surfaces. framework designed to protect today’s Fortinet introduces new security dynamic networks, said the firm. It capabilities across the key solution areas provides the broad visibility, integrated within its Security Fabric architecture, detection of advanced threats, and including management and analytics, automated response, combined with the multi-cloud, network, advanced continuous trust assessment required to threat protection, unified access, web secure today’s digital business. applications, email, IoT and endpoint Available in Q1 2018, the FortiOS 6.0 security. Industry-leading secure SDrelease provides critical capabilities WAN functionality, threat detection required to secure the digital attack services, and expanded visibility from IoT surface spurred by digital transformation. to multi-cloud networks protect the vast

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

HIGHLIGHTS

Optoma signs new distribution partnership in Turkey

development strategies. ptoma, Mohsin Abakhti, manufacturer Optoma’s regional of projection manager, said, “I am and audio delighted to welcome this products, has long-established, wellformed a new partnership respected company as with distributor, Arena, to our new channel partner expand its activities in in Turkey. Turkey. “Optoma complements Effective immediately, Arena’s existing portfolio Arena will increase the of products and brands to presence of Optoma’s cost- Mohsin Abakhti, Optoma allow them to offer a fuller, effective business and IT more comprehensive range range of projectors across to their customers. And their experience the country. and customer base will strengthen our Based in Istanbul, Arena is a leading presence across the country.” supplier of supply chain management Deniz Aktan, marketing director, services for technology products in Arena, said, “Optoma, with its solid Turkey. The distributor is renowned reputation for engineering high quality for its high level of innovation, professional management approach and and reliable projectors, represents a

great partnership for Arena. The new Optoma business and IT projector range that we will be supplying is perfect for our education and corporate clients.” With dedicated sales personnel in Turkey, Optoma is keen to support customers and develop its channel business in Turkey.

I am delighted to welcome this longestablished, wellrespected company as our new channel partner in Turkey.”

D-Link enters Middle East and Africa CCTV market

-Link Corporation has entered the closed circuit television (CCTV) market with the launch of more than eight different products targeted at this vertical. According to the vendor, the move to enter the CCTV market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) follows the growth that this sector has witnessed in the last 12 to 18 months. The vendor stated that the entry into the CCTV market is a natural progression for D-Link as the company already supplies channel partners and their end-users a complete range of outdoor and indoor IP surveillance cameras. Sakkeer Hussain, director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa (MEA), said the company has decided to officially enter the CCTV market because of a huge interest in security hardware in the MEA geography.

“We will be introducing in the MEA and make decent margins. We believe market between seven to eight different the CCTV part was the missing element CCTV products both for indoors and in the puzzle and it fits in well with our outdoors,” he explained. “In addition to existing IP surveillance products.” the products, we are coming up with He pointed out that channel partners apps and software that enable end-tocan expect to see the product in the end surveillance solution. Users of our market soon with concerted campaigns solutions will be able to monitor their to promote the offerings extensively in home or office with our CCTV cameras the first quarter this year. and get high-definition quality from a brand they have come to trust at a price point that’s affordable.” He explained that because D-Link’s business class cameras support power over Ethernet (PoE), it makes surveillance installation simpler, safer and less expensive. He said, “This is a natural progression for us as we continue to provide solutions that empower our partners Sakkeer Hussain, D-Link Middle East and Africa (MEA) to have the competitive edge www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

Eaton makes strategic changes to partner programme

ower management company Eaton has made a number of key strategic enhancements to its Power Advantage Partner Programme to leverage market growth, better support its channel partners and data centre customers, and continue growing revenues in a competitive market. The move is part of an increasing focus and investment on Eaton’s delivery channel for its data centre strategy. The changes will give the Eaton’s extensive network of resellers even more benefits from their relationship with the company. A revamped online portal will provide access to a complete set of tools, including online training, sales collateral and a new deal registration facility. These resources, combined with business development support from Eaton, will enable partners to boost demand creation, deliver superior service to their end-user customers, and maximise their sales and profitability.

A range of service and solution training courses, modules and tutorials will be available via the online portal. In addition to comprehensive enablement, partners will be able to take advantage of demandcreation assets, including ready-to-use campaigns for fast execution of Karim Refas, Eaton marketing initiatives. The Power Advantage Partner Programme will operate on a tiered basis, with partners given access to different features depending on their eligibility and present stage in the partnership lifecycle. Partners that successfully complete training will receive official accredited certification status, empowering them to enhance their knowledge, customer service skills and sales potential. Eaton will continually develop its training syllabus, giving

resellers the opportunity to enhance their skills and the value they deliver to customers. The additional investment and support that Eaton is providing is a demonstration of its long-term commitment to its channel partners, said Karim Refas, regional channel manager ME, Eaton. “This further investment is part of Eaton’s ongoing commitment to ensure partners get the very best support, enablement, guidance and, most importantly, quick and easy access to information and funding. In such a competitive environment, we know that investing in our partner network is the best way to deliver a great return for our customers, for partners, and our own business as well.”

E-City reveals ambitious expansion plan for GCC region

-City, the electronics retail arm of UAEbased Albatha Group, has revealed a strategic AED 67 million expansion initiative that is aimed towards reinforcing the company’s market presence in the UAE and the GCC region. The implementation of the new strategy follows after the company marked excellent Jaouad Dakir, E-City performance in 2017. E-City has expressed confidence that the to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and efforts to increase its market presence Oman. The initiative is also expected to combined with a continuously growing help in the creation of job opportunities. electronics consumer market will help Currently, E-City’s stores are located the company drive in a 20 per cent across the UAE with branches in sales growth by the end of this year. the Mall of Emirates, The Dubai Mall According to the company’s senior and Mirdiff City Centre (all in Dubai); executives, E-City will initially move Al Wahda Mall and Dalma Mall (Abu towards reinforcing its presence in the Dhabi); and Sharjah City Centre. UAE and gradually grow its market in “Positive market forecasts and the region. The efforts will commence increased consumer demand has during the second quarter of 2018, prompted us to roll out this bid for focusing on the opening of newer 2018, which is aimed towards making stores across the UAE and moving on

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

a stronger impact and marking our presence across the GCC region,” said Jaouad Dakir, CEO, E-City. “We have earmarked an investment of AED 67 million for the expansion efforts. The company will start its expansion in the UAE – specifically in Dubai’s Deira City Centre and three other locations in the UAE. For the GCC region, we will start broadening our horizon in Saudi and Oman.” Dakir, who led the company’s AED 35 million renovation investment of all E-City outlets in the UAE, highlighted the potential of the KSA market. He added, “The KSA is a big market with a fast-growing segment for consumer electronics. Customers are always looking for a trusted and a reliable brand that is at the forefront of technology and E-City remains steadfast in its commitment to offer distinctive products and services delivered with a customercentric attitude.”

EVENTS

Margin Builder Forum 2018

Reseller Middle East is gearing up to host its inaugural Margin Builder Forum on 8th May, 2018. Attendees will have an opportunity to learn measures on increasing profitability and network with industry leaders.

ustaining profitability has become progressively more difficult as competition gets stiffer in the marketplace. Profitable partners are key to the success of a vendor’s business in the region. However, declining margins have compelled many channel firms to adapt and diversify into newer avenues for growth. Reseller Middle East’s inaugural Margin Builder Forum 2018 aims to shed light on the measures partners can adopt to ensure profitability. It delves into pertinent issues that the channel faces to discover tangible and immediate solutions. These issues range from shrinking

WHO SHOULD ATTEND • IT resellers, systems integrators and solution providers • Decision-makers in IT distribution companies including CEOs, MDs, Business Unit heads • Channel and partner managers from technology vendors WHY TO ATTEND • To gain insights into how to address the most pertaining challenges existing in the regional IT channel business such as declining margins and credit issues • To learn the biggest trends and technologies that will shape the future of the IT channel industry • To network with peers and industry stalwarts on a common platform

margins, vendor pressures, credit challenges, optimising new technology opportunities, lack of resources and differentiation in their offerings. The event will feature keynote addresses, panel discussions and networking opportunities. The panels will discuss key topics such as how partners can increase profit margins and combat channel credit issues as well as outline the characteristics of the future of IT channel industry. Through a host of notable speakers including industry stalwarts and professional consultants, Margin Builder Forum 2018 will help partners draw out effective strategies to thrive in the evolving digital era.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

RME PARTNER EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2017 // EVENTS

SUCCESS SHOWCASE

Winners of Partner Excellence Awards 2017

Reseller Middle East’s ninth edition of Partner Excellence Awards is back in all its glory to honour successful channel businesses.

eseller Middle East’s Partner Excellence Awards returns once again for its ninth year to applaud and celebrate the accomplishments of the IT channel community. Partner Excellence Awards’ primary goal is to commend those players who have gone above and beyond their call of duty to drive business growth despite challenging market conditions. The event will gather over 300 industry stalwarts and recognise players across 26 categories. It has been the industry’s most prominent Awards ceremony over the last decade. Every edition of the Awards is distinctive and becomes the talk of the town. With this year’s theme being Bollywood Glam, the event promises a glamourous evening packed with

Partner Excellence Awards has been the industry’s most prominent Awards ceremony over the last decade. entertainment, food and conversations with peers and leaders. The Awards process involves a panel of esteemed judges evaluating the set of nominations from across the region in a ten-day process to decide the mostdeserving candidates from channel partners, distributors and vendors, across categories. The editorial team of the magazine will name the winners of the Editor’s Choice Award while our

valued readers will select the winners of two Readers’ Choice categories through online voting. One of the winners from 2017, Ramkumar Balakrishnan, president, Redington Value, said, “Over the past decade, we have been recognised more than 100 times by vendors and various associations. But winning an award from a reputed industry publication such as Reseller Middle East is always an icing on the cake because it reaffirms the fact that we are absolutely in the right direction.” Nominations for the Partner Excellence Awards are now officially open. To nominate, go to https://www.tahawultech.com/ resellermeawards/2018/nominatenow.php The deadline to submit nominations is 28th March, 2018

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

APPOINTMENTS

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS Equinix appoints new channel sales director Lizzie Cohen-Laloum, Fortinet

Fortinet names new EMEA vice president Fortinet has appointed Lizzie CohenLaloum as regional vice president for Southern Europe and head of the Carrier/MSSP Business Practice for the EMEA region. She will report to Yann Pradelle, the firm’s vice president Continental Europe. Cohen-Laloum will work with the regional management team to spearhead the firm’s growth and market share expansion across the region. “I am confident Cohen-Laloum will help us achieve the growth targets we have set ourselves for 2018 and beyond,” said Pradelle. Cohen-Laloum joins Fortinet from F5, where she spent 15 years and held a series of sales leadership roles, initially as sales director for Southern Europe and later senior vice president of sales for EMEA. Prior to F5, she worked at Nortel Networks for 10 years, as the international sales director, where she focused on integrating the company’s regionally developed enterprise telecommunication products into Nortel’s global channel sales engagement. Cohen-Laloum said, “I’m very excited to be joining Fortinet, which I consider to be one of the most innovative global network security vendors on the market. My role is to build on this success to further increase our market share through enterprise focus and pursue the growth in the Carrier/MSSP segment by developing partnership with key players in that field. I’m convinced that Fortinet is on a strong success path and I’m looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead.”

Global interconnection and data centre company Equinix has appointed Oren Yehudai to lead its EMEA Channel Partner Programme. Yehudai joins from Palo Alto Networks where he led EMEA inside channel sales and was credited with driving significant growth for the cybersecurity firm through channel sales and partnerships, said the firm. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Yehudai held senior channel roles for several high-growth tech companies including NetApp and ClickSoftware. Based in Equinix’s European headquarters in Amsterdam, Yehudai will lead a team of over 20 dedicated channel people and be responsible for channel operations across the region. The program allows partners to both resell and refer Equinix services, and is intended to help enterprise customers obtain the comprehensive IT services and expertise they need from the channel community they are accustomed to working with. Eugene Bergen Henegouwen, senior vice president, Sales, Equinix EMEA, said,

“With over 13 years of experience in Oren Yehudai, sales, business Equinix EMEA development, consulting and project management, Yehudai is well placed to lead our EMEA Channel Partner Programme. Equinix has seen significant growth in the region within the past few years and we are delighted Yehudai has joined us to help build upon this success, driving channel sales and delivering new partnerships.” Oren Yehudai, senior channel sales director, Equinix EMEA, said, “I am thrilled to be joining Equinix to further develop and grow the Channel Partner Programme across EMEA. Building a successful channel business will increasingly be dependent on being part of the right ecosystems, with industry players needing to work with partners that can connect them with a broad range of vendors, service providers and cloud companies. My hope is that in a few years, Equinix is recognised by the partner community as the place to achieve this.”

Riverbed names new VP for global channels Riverbed has appointed Bridget Bisnette as vice president, Global Channels and Commercial Sales. She will be responsible for Bridget Bisnette, Riverbed implementing the global channel strategy and coordinating Riverbed’s efforts through the channel, managing the partner programme, focusing on enablement to drive partner productivity

It’s been a very exciting six months as we solidified the commercial expansion and evolved Riverbed’s channel strategy.”

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

and integrating them into the commercial sales motions. Over the last three decades, Bisnette has worked across global roles in the IT industry, at companies such as Cisco Systems, Standard Micro Systems, and AST Computers. At Cisco Systems, she held leadership roles in areas such as Enterprise Vertical Partnerships, Commercial Alliances, Channels Marketing Programmes and Channel Certification. “I am pleased to join Riverbed at such an exciting time in the industry and in the history of the company. It’s been a very exciting six months as we solidified the commercial expansion and evolved Riverbed’s channel strategy and partner experience,” she said. “With the launch of Riverbed Rise and other key enhancements to our partner experience, Riverbed is poised to lead the transformation in the industry and deliver mutual success with partners.”

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

New CEO at Toshiba tasked with rescuing the chipmaker Toshiba has appointed Nobuaki Kurumatani to lead the Japanese electronics firm that has been marred with finance scandals and crisis over the last few years. The Board of Directors of Toshiba Corporation appointed Kurumatani for the post of representative executive officer and chairman of Toshiba Corporation, as of April 1, 2018. The Board has also decided to reappoint Satoshi Tsunakawa to his current position of representative executive officer and president of the company after the ordinary general meeting of the shareholders scheduled for June this year. Kurumatani as CEO, and Tsunakawa as COO will together execute the management of Toshiba Group, said the firm’s statement. Kurumatani is the first outsider that the company has appointed as CEO in more than 50 years. A Bloomberg report said that the new CEO, a former banker from one of Toshiba’s main creditors, will face the challenge of restoring confidence in the 143-year-old conglomerate and finding ways to achieve growth

without the key engines of governance structure and semiconductors and nuclear rebuild its corporate culture power. by driving forward Group Kurumatani said, “I am unity.” honoured and delighted to Kurumatani is currently accept this appointment, the president of CVC and deeply aware of the Asia Pacific Japan (CVC), challenges I face. I will draw and a member of Sharp on all my experience and Corporation’s Audit & Nobuaki Kurumantani, devote all my efforts to Supervisory Committee. Prior rebuilding Toshiba Group, by Toshiba to joining CVC in May 2017, recovering and strengthening he was deputy president and its financial base. I will reexamine a director of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial the business portfolio and allocate Group, where his career was devoted necessary resources needed, and to corporate planning, public relations also inject a spirited commitment into and internal auditing. the Group’s activities to improve its Kurumatani added that the past few years have not been easy for Toshiba, but he has confidence that by overcoming all the difficulties This company has a it has faced will shape a stronger long and impressive Toshiba Group. history of creating “This company has a long and new technologies and impressive history of creating new technologies and turning them into turning them into massive massive businesses, and I see my most businesses, and I see my important responsibility as reactivating most important this cultural DNA, and bringing all responsibility as reactivating management resources together to this cultural DNA.” focus on reviving Toshiba.”

OKI Europe announces new general manager for META OKI Europe has appointed Veronika Seehof to the role of general manager, finance and administration for Middle East, Turkey and Africa region with immediate effect. With more than 17 years of international experience, Seehof has held several senior finance and operational positions for multiple corporates in Dubai prior to joining Oki. As a strategic finance leader with focus on business and corporate performance drivers adding a significant value into Executive Team. Seehof’s financial expertise, strategic and operative insights and her depth knowledge of the region allows her providing key guidance to

the accounting operations and financial reporting, and providing direction in terms of strategic change with focus on strategic growth. The appointment is part of the organisation’songoing commitment to deliver business development in the Office Solutions, Professional Print and Vertical Industry segments across the globe. “We are thrilled to have Seehof join our team,” said Mathias Militzer, vice president (META). “With her experience and expertise, I am confident she will contribute significantly to growing our business within these vital regions.” Seehof said, “I am excited to be joining OKI Europe. I believe, that we will create a great team synergy and

I am looking forward to be part of OKI team. I am looking forward to supporting Mathias’s Leadership and the further OKI Europe growth”. In her current role, Seehof will ensure the financial consistency and transparency, optimisation of current processes as well as a balance portfolio of OKI META growth initiatives.

I believe, that we will create a great team synergy and I am looking forward to be part of OKI team.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

OPINION // DELL EMC

Partner avenues

Havier Haddad, senior channel director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Dell EMC, shares insights on why storage is the cornerstone of business for the channel.

he amount of data generated every day across the globe has grown exponentially in recent years. For businesses, data has introduced significant disruption in the market, providing modern organisations with data analysis capabilities that give organisations an advantage in targeting and reaching their customers. According to the latest Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide by IDC, revenues for Big Data and Analytics (BDA) in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are expected to reach approximately $3.20 billion in 2020. Born on the web, disruptive firms are having a transformative effect on their industries, while ‘traditional’ companies are digitally transforming in an effort to sustain their relevance and gain competitive advantage over less agile rivals. Social media and user generated content continues unabated. While data generated by the Internet of Things is set to dwarf all that has passed before. As a direct result of this monumental surge in data, storage is fast becoming the most critical aspect of data processing for modern digital business

applications. There are three key drivers when it comes to requirements for storage. The first, and most common historically, is simply best practice. Firms have always stored data in one form or another as a matter of record. The second is regulatory compliance, next year the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force featuring tough punishments for those companies who fail to comply with new rules around the secure storage and handling of personal data. The third and most powerful requirement for storage is Big Data Analytics that promise to drive efficiencies and predict future demand trends. At a time when businesses are recognising the value of the insights gained from Big Data, we can see that storage has never been more critical. As we see more connected devices and a move towards both artificial intelligence and machine intelligence, it’s obvious that data is at the heart of this progress. As Michael Dell notes: “If AI is a rocket ship, the data is the fuel.” Armed with this data, businesses can shape product development to make sure their solutions are relevant to dynamic customer needs. However, Big

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Data presents a significant challenge; overwhelming storage and compute requirements can quickly become too much for facilities not leveraging modern high-performance technologies. For SMEs in particular, utilising best-ofbreed data centre architecture that takes advantage of hyper-converged infrastructure will be fundamental to stay agile and keep up with demands while removing capital budget bottlenecks. Whether a business’ storage requirements are enterprise level, entry or midrange, all-flash, cloud, or software-defined, it’s important that they have access to next-generation storage platforms. These will enable organisations to process more data, with higher efficiency, reduced latency and bandwidth penalties. It will also mean greater security provisions with consideration for protecting data at rest, in motion and in use, backed up to avoid data loss combined with effective access management, policies and incident response plans. Storage solutions management Storage is a mission critical consideration for modern business infrastructure. It provides greater

“To achieve digital transformation, organisations need a trusted advisor to help guide them along the path and make sure they realise greater business value from their IT investments. Channel businesses are perfectly positioned to enable this transformation.”

Channel businesses are perfectly positioned to enable this transformation and to do that they must equip themselves with all the right tools and the necessary knowledge to be able to provide expert advice at the point of need. flexibility in terms of workload, scalability options to cater to dynamic demand and most importantly, it introduces a compelling competitive advantage for organisations in all verticals. The good news is options in storage are wide ranging and costs are coming down, meaning the massive growth in storage requirements does not have to break the bank. However, for the uninitiated, the volume of options might seem overwhelming.

With the complexity of these new technologies and a burgeoning IT skills deficit across the global job market, companies — particularly those in the SME segment — often find themselves without the skilled technicians and consultants to guide them through the implementation process and provide advice on how to maintain new infrastructures post-transformation. This is where the channel comes in. To achieve digital transformation, organisations need a trusted advisor to help guide them along the path and make sure they realise greater business value from their IT investments. Channel businesses are perfectly positioned to enable this transformation and to do that they must equip themselves with all the right tools and the necessary knowledge to be able to provide expert advice at the point of need. This should stretch across the sales process, from pre-sales advice, configuration, architecting, through to implementation and after-sale support. To deliver this, partners may need to demand more from the vendors they work with – from knowledge, product and service guarantees, to product bundles that give businesses a blueprint on which to build more bespoke solutions – so that customers can reap the rewards of the valueadded services. These added incentives for the customer will help partners to strengthen customer relationships and effectively position themselves as longterm trusted advisors. From a vendor perspective, in addition to offering modern technology and valuable end-user incentives – such as loyalty-based rewards across storage technology portfolios – it’s necessary to provide extensive training, workshops and product support to maintain up-to-

date knowledge, skills and credentials throughout the partner network. This will ensure that partners are able to provide real-time advice to guide their customers through the implementation process and that the customer receives a new and enhanced level of productivity and profitability from their IT investment. To increase the partner proposition, vendors can add-in storage assessment and migration tools to improve servicing, drive satisfaction and strengthen relationships with the customer. Successfully leveraging enterprise data Data is quickly becoming the lifeblood of enterprise and to ensure secure storage, with high-accessibility and rapid processing power, businesses must look to transform their infrastructure and adopt modern storage solutions. However, one thing is for certain, not all needs are the same and the one size fits all approach to technology is fast on its way out. Today’s market demands personalised offerings with attached services and benefits that make sense for the individual end user application. In such a complex environment, the channel will provide invaluable assistance in identifying the needs of businesses and helping companies to determine their entire storage strategy from conception to implementation with unique solutions offering. Partners should utilise and develop their extensive expertise and product knowledge to ensure they are futureready, are adding more value to their customers, that implementations run smoothly and that enterprise IT teams are ready to maintain new infrastructure, robustly secure it, and leverage all of the available benefits for the success of the wider company.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

OPINION // EHDF

Art of Services

Sachin Bhardwaj, eHosting DataFort, director, Marketing and Business Development, explains how managed IT services can be beneficial instead of in-house IT infrastructure.

n today’s business environment, organisations need to adopt new technologies in order to expand their operations and improve productivity and customer experience. Even small to mid-size organisations will not be able to function, let alone scale-up their businesses without a strong IT infrastructure to support their growth. Many companies do not have the required resources to support a dedicated in-house IT team. Faced with mounting costs and an increasingly complex IT environment to manage, organisations are now more than ever looking at managed IT services as an alternative to in-house IT infrastructure management. There are a number of benefits that a managed IT services model offers: • Converting CAPEX to OPEX and reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) • Minimising technology investment • Access to skilled resources without having to spend on continuously hiring and training IT staff. • Access to state-of-the-art infrastructure without having to build • Upgrading infrastructure very fast without having to worry about buying, deploying, maintaining, etc.

• •

24/7 Service Desk access Guaranteed SLAs which provide a high quality of service

MSP market in the Middle East is seeing a surge as enterprises look to sidestep the need for investment in ICT infrastructure and skills that are an expensive distraction from their core business. From network and data centre management services to disaster recovery, storage and backup, server management, security and IT support, it is possible to offload the day-to-day provisioning of significant chunks of the IT function. This liberates financial and human resources to focus on productivity and efficiency. Companies can opt for various IT infrastructure outsourcing options, which range from fully managed hosting to cloud hosting and collocation, as well as remote monitoring and management of their IT. Traditionally, large businesses have been relying on the expertise and services of managed hosting providers to offer secure, flexible and scalable solutions. However, over the last few years, we are seeing a growing trend among SMEs choosing to work with service providers for their data centre

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

and infrastructure management requirements. According to IDC, the managed and data centre service markets in the UAE will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8 percent between 2013 and 2018 to reach a total of $971.8 million by 2018. Data centre hosting makes up approximately 18 percent of the Managed Services market revenue in the UAE. Industry sectors such as banking and finance, aviation, media, government, IT and telecom in particular, have taken to managed services as ensuring a ‘secure and reliable system’ is critical. In fact, according to a recent survey by Frost & Sullivan, the managed services market in the GCC region is projected to reach $3,116 million by 2018. Security is one of the biggest concerns because of which companies show resistance to MSPs. To overcome this, MSPs should ensure that they have the best and latest security systems and practices in place, offer round-theclock monitoring and management of the IT infrastructure and comprehensive customised managed services - all with a guaranteed service level agreement that meets international industry standards.

COVER STORY // FDC INTERNATIONAL

STRONG AND STEADY

Photo credit: Naveen Srinivasan

Standing the test of time, FDC International has remained a stable player in the region over the last three decades. Marissa Safe, COO and vice president, FDC International, reveals success factors responsible for its nearly 30-year-old distribution legacy.

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

COVER STORY // FDC INTERNATIONAL

he regional IT market has shouldered its share of challenges over the recent years. Political instabilities, currency fluctuations, declining margins and other unfavourable market conditions have compelled many distributors to exit the Middle East technology scene. However, long-term player FDC International has stood the test of time and weathered the storm.

THE DISTRIBUTOR HAS CLEAR GOALS FOR 2018 – REDUCE COSTS, MAINTAIN MINIMUM INVENTORIES AND DEVELOP EFFICIENT COLLECTION PROCESS FROM THE MARKET.

Company: FDC International Year of start-up: 1989 2017 revenues: $320 million President: Dr. FB Safe Vice President and COO: Marissa Safe Total resellers: 1000 plus Top vendors: Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Seagate, WD Top vendors in value division: Cyberoam, Huawei, Sophos, Synology, TP-Link Location of sales offices: UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman

The almost 30-year-old distributor, who saw its profits dwindling over the last three years, continues to be one of the steadiest players in the region. COO and VP Marissa Safe says, “Despite challenging market conditions, we have been able to stay stable all these years. We have remained committed to our vendors and partners. Our policy has been – when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” Closing last financial year with $320 million, the distributor has been selective about the vendors it has on board. Safe says an important lesson the company learned in 2017 was to entertain only those vendors who appreciate the efforts and the business development approach FDC follows. “As a business development distributor, we have put in immense efforts in terms of promoting the brands, developing the market, transferring information and supporting customers and partners alike. We have also backed our partners even without banks and insurance firms offering any credit support,” she says. However, according to Safe, many manufacturers do not appreciate FDC’s “business development, value-driven” kind of model. “They don’t recognise the differences between us and a regular trading distributor who do not undertake any risk or invest in market opportunities.” FDC’s competitive advantages include its robust relationships, in-depth in-country business, collection of local currencies over and above traditional warehouse and logistics support. “We have now streamlined our business to work with those vendors who truly understand our unique value propositions and strengths. Today all the vendors we have in our portfolio are ones who recognise our market differentiators.” Safe explains that the distribution and channel business is all about profitability. “If a vendor treats both kinds of distributors in the same manner, then we are undertaking more cost and subsequently become less profitable with that manufacturer.”

“The future of FDC will reflect the past of FDC as that was full of success, growth and strong market presence.”

Dr. FB Safe, FDC

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

COVER STORY // FDC INTERNATIONAL

“Despite challenging market conditions, we have been able to stay stable all these years. We have remained committed to our vendors and partners. Our policy has been – when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” The distributor has clear goals for 2018 – reduce costs, maintain minimum inventories and develop efficient collection process from the market. She adds, “We have our own credit team that carries out the due diligence on customers. We don’t rely on insurance firms. The ultimate goal is that our business will grow with people who appreciate FDC and our efforts, especially during these difficult market circumstances.” From its total revenues last year, $20 million was brought in by its value division. The company is looking to grow that number during 2018. “We need to be cautious here. We don’t want to be one of those companies who overstock and is not serious about the business. We have developed clear strategies and identified vendors with whom we want to grow our business. We want to be prepared when an opportunity knows at our doors.”

According to Safe, the company’s channel strategy is to ensure it doesn’t oversupply to its partners. “We never want to put our partners in a position where they cannot pay on time or they have to resort to slashing prices. They should only engage in profitable business.” The distributor has outlined four prerequisites for its channel network. The first one is that partners should be focused on FDC and look at a long-term association with the firm. Next, partners should not only work on low-end products but also develop its capabilities with mid-range and high-end offerings of a vendor. Safe says, “The third aspect is that if partners get a good deal, they should not undercut the price points and should do other businesses as well. The final point is that they should be able to resolve their problems and always pay on time. Being financially sound is an important element that we

have to consider, especially in today’s circumstances.” She adds that FDC assists partners to be profitable by strategising on products, preventing oversupply, ensuring no internal competition exists and by providing education to enable them to sell solutions. One of the things Safe wishes she had done better is to have evolved at an earlier stage. “We should have ventured into mobiles years ago. All players must keep an eye on market developments and keep evolving especially as the IT space is so dynamic.” On a concluding note, FDC’s president Dr. FB Safe, says, “If one goes through the history of last few years, many companies have come and exited the market, however we have stayed strong and experienced a mature growth. The future of FDC will reflect the past of FDC as that was full of success, growth and strong market presence.”

“We never want to put our partners in a position where they cannot pay on time or they have to resort to slashing prices. They should only engage in profitable business.”

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

PRESENTS

27TH MARCH 2018 AT HABTOOR GRAND RESORT

Network World Middle East Awards 2018 Is your network a platform for business innovation and growth? If the answer is yes, we would like to hear from you. Now in its 9th year, Network World ME Awards has established itself as the major event that recognises and celebrates networking excellence. The 2018 NWME Awards are open to companies anywhere in the Middle East. It aims to honour IT and business pros who have demonstrated innovative leadership on all sides of the networking industry. Nominees can apply for the awards at no cost.

NOMINATE NOW www.tahawultech.com/nwmeawards/2018 For sponsorship enquires, please contact Natasha Pendleton, Publishing Director, Mobile: +971 56 787 4778 STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PARTNER

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HOSTED BY

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

FEATURE // DATA CENTRES

rganisations rely on technologies to accelerate business growth and efficiencies. Increasing workloads have driven firms to transform data centres to cater to demands in the digital era. Data is the single most important asset for an organisation and the way it is stored, archived, accessed, analysed and backed up spells out how successful a business is. Research firm IDC predicts â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;modernisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as one of the ten key predictions for the global data centre market over the next three years. The study predicts that by 2020, the heavy workload demands of next-gen applications and new IT architectures in critical business facilities will have

BUILDING MODERN DATA CENTRES

Reseller ME examines the prospects for channel partners as organisations look to modernise data centre infrastructures and assets in the digital era. 26

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

compelled 55 percent of enterprises to modernise their data centre assets through updates or new deployments. Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego, says, “The Middle East has reached a tipping point in data centre modernisation, as organisations need the underlying IT infrastructure to meet the business demands of the datafication era.” From government agencies to banks and universities, every organisation needs to store, secure, and analyse data for new business insights and to enhance their business competitiveness, she adds. According to Yasser Zeineldin, CEO, eHosting DataFort, the data centre of today is no longer only brick and mortar walls. He adds, “Data that was once considered sensitive and not allowed to leave the organisation boundaries is today being hosted with either local or international service providers. “According to a Research and Markets’ Global Data Centre Services Market (2016-2022) report, the global service market for data centre market would reach $76,207.1 million by 2022, at a CAGR of 14.8 percent.” The report indicated that the increasing expenditures on data centre technology, the need to reduce data centre operational cost, and growing complexity of data centre are some of the significant factors driving the growth of the market. “The demand is further enhanced due to growing awareness about the

technology and its widespread adoption by end users,” he says. According to Zeineldin, the company has seen the use of data centres in not only the enterprise sector but also in SMB. “We have seen a high demand for the services by the SMB Sector. And on the business vertical side, we envisage greater demand by the government, BSFI, telecom, healthcare and retail sector in the coming years.” Equinix’ managing director for Middle East and North Africa Jeroen Schlosser believes factors like the recent reports on Google and Amazon eyeing countries such as Saudi Arabia to setup data centres, Amazon already present in Bahrain, and AliCloud in the UAE, it is becoming increasingly clear how Middle East is becoming a tech hub and how “data is the new oil”. He says, “According to a recent analysis by Frost & Sullivan, the managed services market growth within the Gulf Cooperation Council states is set to expand from $1,073 million in 2012 to $3,112 million by end of 2018. The GCC states have been proactive in their efforts to develop better information and communications technology (ICT). Infrastructure development programmes have focused on transforming these countries into knowledge-based societies. Lower oil prices, currency depreciations, and challenging business environments are driving organisations to increase business process efficiencies while

“The Middle East has reached a tipping point in data centre modernisation, as organisations need the underlying IT infrastructure to meet the business demands of the datafication era.” Savitha Bhaskar, Condo Protego

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

Yasser Zeineldin, eHosting DataFort

“Data that was once considered sensitive and not allowed to leave the organisation boundaries is today being hosted with either local or international service providers.”

maintaining or reducing OPEX and CAPEX.” Agreeing, Sanjay Sainani, regional vice president IT and Data Centers, Huawei Middle East, points out that total cost of ownership has become the determinant on whether a customer hosts its own IT or move to a service provider. “This trend is powering a strong growth in service provider-led investment in the data centre space as they ramp up to be ready for the XaaS business demands,” he says. “New data centre technologies and approach of modular and pre-fabricated data centres, allow investors the flexibility of Build-AsYou-Grow and short deployment time leading to better financials and the ability to meet new demands with ease.” The operating expense required for a data centre over a period of three

Gary Williams, AESG

to five years can amount to equal or more than the capital expense needed to build it. “Data centres are energy guzzlers, and in the Middle East even more so as the hot environment puts additional demand on cooling energy consumption. There is a visible shift towards selecting high efficiency solutions including power conversion and cooling. High efficiency UPS’s, aisle containment in row cooling, automation through DCIM trends are picking up as customers seek more on saving OPEX to improve TCOs,” Sainani adds. “Yes,” Zeineldin says, “this has been the biggest change in the data centre industry over the last few years. We have also noticed a shift towards better efficiency and cooling and this has greatly affected energy management.” The demand for data centre

“For regional providers, commissioning serves as a perfect value-add service that increases the scope of the project and extend contracts beyond the one-time implementation.”

solutions and infrastructures will only continue to rise over the next few years. There are infinite opportunities present in terms of technologies and markets. However, when it comes to partners, how can they play a serious role to take advantage of the prospects? According to Mark Hosking, data centre and virtualisation leader, MEA, Juniper Networks, partners have a significant role to play. He says, “As the market shifts towards a more software-defined approach, channel partners should ensure that they retrain teams to be relevant and add value in such environments. Sales teams need to be ready to engage with IT stakeholders beyond the infrastructure units and technical engineers need to develop skills in the areas of software programming and automation.” He also adds that the services teams should focus on improving their ability to go beyond delivering technology solutions and instead demonstrate how they can help clients transform their operational processes. Hosking believes that channel partners can create opportunities for revenue by focusing on their customers’ desired business outcomes when deciding on the appropriate data centre solutions for them. He explains, “From a technology perspective, this means providing solutions that adhere to open standards, ensuring clients are not confined to proprietary data centre architectures. This flexible approach will also help address a common challenge that both partners and customers face, which is coping with an IT landscape that is rapidly changing.” Sainani advises partners to invest time and resources in training on new technologies, solutions and bestpractices to stay ahead in the data centre business. The opportunities that exist for partner business is varied. He adds, “Right from making data centre facility even more demanding of availability, security and reliability; assessing and upgrading existing data centre

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

FEATURE // DATA CENTRES

“As the market shifts towards a more software-defined approach, channel partners should ensure that they retrain teams to be relevant and add value in such environments.” Mark Hosking, Juniper Networks

facilities to meet new demands to upgrading power, cooling, adding DCIM and replacing batteries at existing facilities are few avenues of opportunities for partners. Facility maintenance contracts are low hanging fruits that can bring run-rate business to partners.” Partners have a huge opportunity in ensuring that all aspects of a data centre work together seamlessly to achieve desired results. The data centre commissioning process looks at this area in detail. It includes verifying and documenting that the facility and all related systems and assemblies are planned, designed, installed, tested, operated and maintained to meet the needs of the customer. Gary Williams, director of Commissioning, AESG, says that

although great attention is given to the design and implementation of data centres, including subsequent upgrade cycles of the active equipment such as servers and storage, little or no emphasis is given to ensuring critical systems such as cooling, power, and fire and life safety run at optimal performance. He says, “This not only results in long-term fiscal impact due to inefficiencies creeping into the operation, but can also lead to downtime, thereby crippling IT services. For regional providers, commissioning serves as a perfect value-add service that increases the scope of the project and extend contracts beyond the one-time implementation.” Equinix’ Schlosser adds, “Channel partners play a key role in the

data centre market in taking the services to the last mile, expanding the delivery and support coverage. With the cloud services touted to be a major trend, channel’s role has crossed over from sales enablers to IT transformation agents. “Building a successful channel business will increasingly be dependent on being part of the right ecosystems. Channel businesses need to work with partners that can connect them to broad ecosystems of vendors, service providers and cloud companies.” The modernising of data centres presents a number of opportunities for channel partners. It depends on individual channel business to identify the profitable areas and swiftly develop their skillset to offer differentiated solutions for customers.

“Partners should invest time and resources in training on new technologies, solutions and best-practices to stay ahead in the data centre business.” Sanjay Sainani, Huawei Middle East

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

PRESENTS

27th March 2018 | Habtoor Grand Hotel and Resort, Dubai UAE

#CISO30

Nominate now Security Advisor ME’s CISO 30 awards recognise 30 organisations (and the people within them) that have delivered ground-breaking business value through the innovative application of risk and security concepts and technologies. Winners will be recognised in March 2018 at the inaugural CISO 30 conference taking place in Dubai. Here is what you will need to complete your nomination: • The name of the project/initiative, a brief description of its objective • A more detailed narrative describing the project • Some empirical facts/metrics that demonstrate the project/ initiative’s value • Additionally, you will also be asked to provide details about key contacts in the nominated organisation Award nominations may be submitted by an organisation itself, by public relations professionals representing a nominated organisation, or by solution providers/partners of a nominated organisation. The deadline for submission is 7th March 2018. Thank you in advance for your nominations and good luck

When: 27th March 2018 Where: Habtoor Grand Hotel and Resort Dubai UAE Who: CISOs/CIOs/CTOs Chief Risk Officers GRC teams Infrastructure and technology decision makers Security evangelists and consultants

www.tahawultech.com/ciso30/2018/ For sponsorship enquires, please contact

Kausar Syed, Group Sales Direcror Mobile: +971 50 758 6672

FEATURE // STORAGE PROSPECTS

TAPPING INTO STORAGE As new and emerging technologies enable quicker generation of massive amounts of data, storage requirements have escalated. Enterprise customers are seeking robust storage solutions that can accommodate their rapidly growing data efficiently. Reseller ME discusses how channel partners can take advantage of the opportunities present in this sector. 32

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

FEATURE // STORAGE PROSPECTS

emand for efficient storage technologies continue to rise in the region as enterprises have to deal with the exponential pace of data generation. Customers are looking for innovative ways to securely store their critical information so that it is easily accessible and manageable. A Future Market Insights report valued the Middle East and Africa data storage market at $2,790 million in 2016 and projected it to reach $8,431.3 million by end of 2025. According to the report, major factors contributing to the growth of the data storage market in this region include increased investments in infrastructure, a significant shift in data centre investments from being server centric to more data and storage centric, and increased adoption of entry-level and mid-range storage devices. Rising demand for smartphones and other mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT) technology and huge social media uptake have led the demand for advanced data storage solutions in the region. Christian Putz, director, Emerging Markets, EMEA, Pure Storage says that

the focus on Big Data, analytics and automation has been another key driver. He says, “In the era of revamped travel via Airbnb, and streaming services like Netflix, our economy has moved irreversibly towards experience and personalisation, which hinges on an organisation’s ability to extract value from their data. This is especially true for the UAE, where an organisation needs to offer a seamless, user friendly customer experience, particularly in the banking and finance, retail and hospitality sectors.” He further explains that in order for customers to take advantage of the true

value of data, they require platforms on which complex workloads such as advanced analytics can run. “Customers’ ultimate goal should be to create competitive advantage through improved business operations and customer experience.” Sanjay Sainani, regional vice President IT and Data Centres, Huawei Middle East, believes that the regional data storage market has been steadily growing, mainly driven by investments from telecom operators and financial institutions. “Business enterprises have been using compression techniques and duplication to data servers (storage blade) and rack servers to manage the development and growth of Big Data,” he says. “However, due to tremendous growth witnessed across business enterprises, the currently available technologies are not adequate to meet the growing requirements of the enterprise.” This is why businesses are moving towards scale-out architecture such as storage virtualisation and hyperconverged infrastructure from traditional scale up architecture. “This offers enterprises an improved and scalable platform solution that is cost effective and efficient,” he says. According to Sainani, partners have a number of avenues within the storage domain. He believes they should focus on enterprise-class container management and identify the opportunities that machine learning can add to their storage offerings. He says, “We expect the increasing availability of machine learning algorithms to give rise to new storage management processes. These algorithms can produce storage management processes that can learn and adjust operations and settings to optimise workload services, quickly identify and fix the root causes of abnormalities, and broker storage infrastructure and manage large-scale data to minimise cost.” Partners also have an opportunity with Management-as-a-Service

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

FEATURE // STORAGE PROSPECTS

(MaaS). Sainani expects cloudhosted MaaS offerings to be the way most shops will manage their increasingly hybrid architectures. “Many will start to move away from the burdens of on-premises management software,” he adds. Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego, says, “It is important for Middle East channel partners to serve as truth-tellers to customers, advising on which storage solutions best meet their business needs. Software-defined storage, such as VMware vSAN, is the foundation for converged and hyper-converged that can reduce complexity, deliver high performance, and provide the flexible and scalable infrastructure that can expand as organisations grow. Depending on the workloads, Dell EMC VMAX all-flash storage, and Dell EMC Unity all-flash and hybrid flash storage can optimise performance and efficiency with cloud-based storage analytics.” However, there are several challenges hindering partners from optimising the growth present within this technology. “Partners need to educate the C-suite on the business benefits, with upfront investment in advanced storage solutions delivering longterm growth,” adds Bhaskar. Putz says as per Pure Storage’s recent Evolution 2017 survey, 73

“Focusing on large turnkey solutions end-to-end is going to be key to maintain profitability in the storage business.”

percent of businesses in the MEA region are committed to being informationbased companies and as such, are embracing digital transformation. “However, technical complexity (53%) and reliance on IT to deliver strategy (41%) have prevented businesses in the MEA region from truly becoming digital. Public, private and hybrid cloud, SaaS and traditional on-premises all have momentum, but businesses still lack confidence in where to place specific workloads.” Partners need to be prepared to help customers with their digital transformation journey. In order to do this, they need to understand customers’ challenges and be experts in the technologies that they offer.

“Partners need to be prepared to help customers with their digital transformation journey. They need to understand customers’ challenges and be experts in the technologies that they offer.”

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

“While businesses in the MEA region are making significant steps towards digital transformation, there are some key barriers to progress. Cloud confusion seems evident in workload fragmentation and cloud repatriation according to our survey. As data volumes continue to grow and unlock greater opportunities, managing and harnessing data with a future-proofed approach is essential for organisations in the region,” Putz explains. According to Bhaskar, over the next few years, there will be a major “re-sorting of Middle East channel partners.” She says, “The most successful channel partners will need to shift from being box sellers to trusted partners that offer value-added services. “This shift requires partners to invest in training, and gain practical experience by storage solutions type and by industry vertical.” Resellers are constantly trying to increase their profitability. Sainani says focusing on large turnkey solutions endto-end is going to be key to maintain profitability in the storage business. He adds, “Signing long-term IT contracts, bundling professional and managed services along with solutions, creating various variants/categories of storage products specific to different industries will drive partners’ growth in this segment.” Untapped opportunities are present for channel partners in the storage space. They need to identify the areas within storage they want to focus on and develop expertise in order to become customers’ trusted partners.

SPONSORED

Enterprise Systems

Knowledge is power

Enterprise Systems’ Training Academy offers partners and solutions providers specialist development programmes to deploy its brands efficiently.

raining is a fundamental activity for any organisation of any size. High-level training combines technical and business training, brand awareness, and research and development initiatives. Enterprise Systems Trading LLC has launched its Training Academy at the start of 2018 to provide specialist training and development programmes for sales, presales and post-sales for all its brands. Enterprise Systems Academy will offer sales and technical training aimed at front-line staff, managers and leaders, and those responsible for delivering services to end-users. For every level of knowledge and expertise, Enterprise Systems Training Academy can enhance partners’ ability to effectively deploy and use the applications and technologies it distribute. Programmes are available by area of focus and for different skill levels. Courses include rigorous study and hands-on learning, complimented by tests and exams to validate partners’ competencies. The skills and knowledge partners demonstrate through training can help them to make an immediate impact

THE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE PARTNERS DEMONSTRATE THROUGH TRAINING CAN HELP THEM TO MAKE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT ON CURRENT PROJECTS AND HELP ACHIEVE EXCELLENCE IN THEIR FOCUSED FIELD. on current projects and help achieve excellence in their focused field. It will also help employers respond to the changing demands of their clients, who identified knowledge, attitude, behaviour and competence as the factors most likely to affect purchase, re-purchase and recommendations. The Enterprise Systems Academy will have a clear focus on people development and assessment to recognised standards, helping employers recruit and retain staff with the required skill-sets. Pouya Parsafar, CEO, Enterprise Systems, said, “End users are increasingly suggesting that the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of the sales/technical

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

person managing them is more important to them than it was five years ago. At the same time, sales people are asking for help, so they are better equipped to handle their customers’ demands. “The launch of Enterprise Systems Academy will provide a much-needed link between what end-users want and what sales/technical teams can offer, providing a skill boost to help organisations deliver what end-users, shareholders and stakeholders expect.” All programmes will be designed to achieve benefits for individuals and their organisations with results driving improved service delivery. Enterprise Systems Academy programmes will also develop a range of skills including emotional intelligence, effective communication, team-working, training delivery and coaching. Enterprise Systems Training Academy regularly creates exciting incentive programmes tailored to its partners’ needs. The firm’s incentive programmes are designed to motivate partners’ sales, pre-sales and post-sales team in order to secure and deliver solutions from its portfolio of leading vendors. To oversee the work of the new Academy, Kiarash Azali, COO, said, “Working within the Middle East region, our clients reveal that most of their organisations have difficulty meeting customer service objectives because employees lack the appropriate skills. The launch of our new Enterprise Systems Academy will address this shortfall through close collaboration with employers and will play an integral role ensuring partners’ customer service becomes the standard that others will follow. “Our on-line portal can help monitor partner teams training progress through the year helping partners evaluate their increased success with the training they have completed.” Enterprise Systems Academy can also offer one-on-one training for clients with specific needs, with capability of advanced staging and project simulation. Enterprise Systems Academy use high quality instructors with high partner and vendor satisfaction score. The firm’s tutors have over 15 years of experience working with networks and partners. They bring hands-on experience to students. Enterprise Systems Academy course schedules are available by visiting training@ esystems.com for more information.

PARTNER WATCH // GULF SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION

Collaborative success

Gulf Software Distribution’s recently appointed GM Gareth Hansford encourages partners to adopt collaborative strategies to prosper with innovative technologies.

egional value-added distributor Gulf Software Distribution’s (GSD) focus continues to be on developing its niche around IBM Software in the GCC in its third year of operations. The firm’s recently-appointed general manager Gareth Hansford’s primary priorities include strengthening this focus while also looking at ways to take the company to its next level. He says, “Preparing GSD to reach its next stage of growth takes precedence before any other task at hand. This is why we are investing in resources, people and marketing.” Hansford believes the challenges that exist are not different from any other market. Today everyone’s emphasis is on delivering value. “We offer this through differentiation, expertise and having a niche area of focus,” he says. “This is what helps us to deliver healthy margins for our channel partners.” Also, partners can enhance their margins by exploiting vendors’ channel programmes, he says. “These programmes are quite generous if

“The next step for us is to continue growing our partner base and look at improving collaborations within our channel ecosystem for new technologies.” partners focus on the right areas.” Over the last few years, the industry has gradually moved to a more solutionsfocused approach and this has been the strategy for GSD since its inception. “That will continue to be one of our biggest focuses. Our partners understand the solutions story as they are in sync with customers’ issues and always try to find answers to address them. “However,” Hansford says, “usually vendors’ approach is centred

around products.” He explains that by adding adjacent and collaborative technologies to partners’ existing offerings, the company aims to translate vendors’ product messages for partners. “We go to partners and offer new technologies to strengthen their solutions’ value proposition and help with their revenues.” During the first half of the year, the distributor will be focused on partners and drive co-marketing in a big way. Partners can also look forward to the firm’s quarterly partner networking event on 6th March, 2018. This will be an opportunity to not only learn more about GSD but also a platform to network with peers. Hansford says, “The next step for us is to continue growing our partner base and look at improving collaborations within our channel ecosystem for new technologies. Partners must look at working with peers to jointly go and win in the market. Our partner networking event will offer them an opportunity to build some of those collaborations.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

VENDOR FOCUS // MIMECAST

Empowering partners

Jason Roos, channel and alliances director, Mimecast, explains how the firm assists partners to take their customer conversations from the “server room into the boardroom”.

perating through a 100 percent channel-driven model in the Middle East and Africa markets, Mimecast has had a successful 2017. The firm has seen significant growths from the investments it has made in the region and now looks to accelerate the opportunities through robust channel partnerships. Jason Roos, channel and alliances director, Mimecast, says, “We are attentive to the market opportunities present in this region and this is reflected in our investments.” Factors such as regional adoption of cloud increasing at a rapid pace and GCC being one of the most targeted geographies for cyber-attacks, have contributed to the firm’s growth. The company works through a twotier model with distributor partners Nuvias, Bulwark and Redington Value for the region. Roos says, “Our go-to-market strategy is 100 percent channel driven in the region. As a US-based business, if we assumed we could do this on our own in this region, we would be highly mistaken. We rely on our distributor partners such as Nuvias and Bulwark who have invested time and efforts in our offerings and Redington Value who has a phenomenal name in the market, to deliver our solutions through their wide and quality reseller networks.” According to the channel director, the firm’s priority is centred on understanding aspects like – which acquisition targets are partners going after, what kind of upsell prospects can Mimecast bring on the table in terms of products, how can it become a lot more

Jason Roos, Mimecast

“Our big focus for partners is around enablement. We look for ways to bring our South African and US resources into the region to ensure partners are as proficient as can be.” proficient in understanding the new and upsell opportunities that exist in the partner space? “Our big focus for partners is around enablement. We look for ways to bring our South African and US resources into the region to ensure partners are as proficient as can be. Additionally, we also try to see how we can lock in on renewals and ensure consistent business for our partners.”

Mimecast’s enablement initiatives include making its sales methodologies accessible for partners and teaching them to develop the conversation with customers. Partners learn to evolve their customer approach from a product-based one to a more solutionsfocused style and finally to a value-led conversation. Roos adds, “Partners will have many products to sell across vendors. What is important here is to teach them what business problems our solutions can solve for CIOs and CISOs. This will help them go to the next level.” Mimecast’s partner programme was launched in June 2017 and the firm aims to assess its success after a year. The programme revolves around metrics such as openness around the business plan, certifications and resources, minimum number of orders and annual recurring revenue values. Partners can expect some developments on this front in the second half of the year. Over the course of 2018, we will see the cloud-based email management firm doubling down its growth and strengthening its channel partnerships. “We are excited about the opportunities present here. The threat landscape is dynamic and partners need to be on their toes to optimise the prospects,” Roos says. “We aim to enable partners to evolve from having server room conversations to boardroom ones as that’s where the discussions take place around security. Together with our partners, we need to ensure we are relevant for our customers in this rapidly changing technology environment.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

VENDOR FOCUS // INFOBLOX

Partner to profit Alexander Foroozandé, channel director, META, Infoblox, explains how the firm is underlining on partner profitability in order to grow its overall business.

nfoblox aims to emphasise on partner profitability and enablement during the course of 2018. Towards this goal, the company had launched a new partner programme almost a year ago. The company’s channel director for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa region Alexander Foroozandé, says, “The programme is designed to help partners become more profitable. We realise that if we don’t enable our partners on a continuous basis, we won’t be able to give them the tools that they need to grow.” Building on the new programme, the firm’s channel strategy for 2018 continues to be “to do more with less”. Foroozandé is clear on not wanting to expand the business by acquiring new partners. Instead, he says, “We are going to grow by feeding back business into our existing partners.” Previously, the company would entertain anyone who came knocking with an opportunity. “Today we are much more diligent in terms of trying to give back to partners who are already on ground versus getting new partners on board.” Foroozandé says that the firm’s programme stands out in the market as it is massively focused on profitability. “We encourage partners to not hesitate in letting us know when they are not making over a certain amount of margin on each opportunity. They have the right to bring it to our attention and we would then have to justify it to them. We always begin the conversation with profitability.” Working with distributors, Exclusive Networks and StarLink in the Middle East region, the firm aims to continue to do more business with less channel partners.

Alexander Foroozandé, Infoblox

“It’s important for partners to first develop their own value proposition. Understand what they are trying to achieve and how they want to be perceived. They need to have a security offering that is complimenting and not contradictory.” “We do not want to dilute the business of our existing partners, which is why we are adamant on this approach. We will also be backing our focused partners, those who have contributed to our business prominently, with dedicated support, marketing funds and new customer opportunities. This way they can accelerate to the next level.” Additionally, the company is also investing in existing partners who have

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

contributed substantially during the year as well as developing partners termed “rising stars” who have huge potential to grow. Foroozandé says, “One of the fundamental areas where vendors go wrong is that they maintain their superiority and believe they can dictate terms to partners. However, this is wrong. It is extremely important to be humble. Vendors need to go to partners’ premises, see their physical operations and understand their day-today challenges. As Infoblox, we ensure we do this.” According to the channel director, the biggest challenge for partners today is navigating the IT landscape to select the right vendor partners. He believes one of the criteria partners should look at is how mature the partner programme is on ground and how much enablement material is available to them. “Most of all, they need to see how much investment the vendor is willing to make in the partner as well as in the region. They need to pick a vendor who is investing directly into the region and is not operating from overseas.” The security environment is constantly evolving with the possibility of new threats and partners are increasingly looking at honing their skills in this space to leverage market opportunities. As security is a multi-layered approach, he cautions partners not to engage and disengage with vendors sporadically as they will then lose in the long run. He adds, “It’s important for partners to first develop their own value proposition. Understand what they are trying to achieve and how they want to be perceived. They need to have a security offering that is complimenting and not contradictory.”

VENDOR FOCUS // SUNTEC

On a growth trajectory

Twenty-eight-year-old customer experience solutions provider SunTec is seeking local partners to expand its channel-led business.

provider of customer experience orchestration and revenue management solutions SunTec has been operating in the region since 2005. The firm’s objective for this year is to increase its channel-led business and to that effect is on the lookout for complementing partners. Amit Dua, president and global head of Client Facing Group, SunTec, says, “Unlike many Indian IT firms that are largely focused on services, we are a pure-play product company.” Focused on financial and digital communication services sectors, the company is keen on partnering with banks as its products feature “outof-box functionality with minimum customisation options”. This is because the goal is to standardise the product globally, Dua explains. One of the key growth drivers for the firm has been the introduction of VAT in the Middle East at the beginning of this year. Over the last year, SunTec has won several new contracts across its markets, including customers in the GCC region, such as Al Hilal Bank, Sharjah Islamic Bank, United National Bank, Finance House, post the launch of the VAT regulation. “Ideally, we should only be partnering with banks and selling the product while the whole implementation process should be carried out by our partners of different varieties.” Working towards this objective, the company has signed up with firms such as Accenture, IBM, Capgemini and Infosys over the years. However, Dua says the company also understands

Amit Dua, Suntec

“We are scouting for good partners who can complement our product capabilities and help us gain the mindshare of relationships which they own.”

the importance of having local partners “who come in with their own advantages of cultural nuances.” “There are merits of signing up with local partners, especially in nonEnglish speaking countries which have linguistic and cultural differences. In these countries, we sign up with channel partners,” he says. “Here we look for partners who can provide the

interface with banks, similar to a project management role. As this is where we will need assistance to understand the cultural nuances while we can offer the subject matter expertise on the product.” SunTec works together with these partners in all the pre-sale situations such as training, product demos and knowledge. Rohit Kapoor, head of sales, Middle East, SunTec, says, “One of the key areas where partners can add immense value is to extend our reach, especially in those regions where we don’t have a direct presence. When local partners collaborate with us, they also have access to our trainings and are therefore able to support end-customers effectively in their countries. “This is another of our priorities where we leverage and enable partners to support their clients after they have begun using our software.” Kapoor adds that the firm is seeking new partners who have synergies with the company’s strategies. “We are looking out for new partners who have interests and focus in the banking or the financial services vertical as a whole, and who are operating largely in the applications space in terms of engaging with business audience on the customer side.” Dua adds, “While we have always had a dominant direct model, we created a strategy a few years ago that emphasised on partner business. This is why we are scouting for good partners who can complement our product capabilities and help us gain the mindshare of relationships which they own.”

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

VENDOR FOCUS // WHIRLPOOL

Give it a whirl Whirlpool looks to double down on the connectivity space through robust channel partnerships.

he advent of Internet of Things technology has opened up limitless possibilities to connect any device or object to the Internet, making our daily mundane chores easier and faster to achieve. When we look at the consumer appliance segment, smart televisions, refrigerators and air conditioners are not novel anymore from a manufacturer’s point of view. While some might own a smart TV or a basic smart refrigerator, it is still a long-way off before we see a complete smart home, or for that matter, even complete connected kitchens. According to a 2016 Deloitte report, 48 percent of people agree connected products are too expensive while 26 percent believe the technology still needs to evolve further. The report said that the living room was the first part of the home to become connected, and sales of smart TVs and wireless speakers continue to increase in 2016. The next stage of growth is in the area of home monitoring and security, while a connected kitchen will come further down the line. Making connected products affordable and mainstream while also educating customers on the complete potential of a smart appliance are the two steps that industry giants need to think of. In line with the two steps, senior executives from Whirlpool visited UAE to strengthen regional business and reinforce its customer relationships. Amid reports of Whirlpool Corporation conducting layoffs to reduce global costs by $150 million, the company is doubling down its focus on the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Without revealing how the reduction of jobs and plans to cut cost globally would impact the region, Esther

Esther Galindo, Whirlpool

“We are working on enabling the journey of a ‘white box’ to a smart and intelligent appliance by building capabilities within it that will allow to communicate with consumers. This is going to change the world. We are viewing an appliance as a world of possibilities.” Berrozpe Galindo, president, Whirlpool EMEA and EVP, Whirlpool Corporation, shared that going forward, the firm’s most strategic initiative is to redefine the firm’s products in the consumer appliance segment. The firm’s renewed focus is on incorporating innovation and latest technology within its products and educating consumers to look at an appliance as more than just a ‘white box’. She said, “We are working on enabling the journey of a ‘white box’ to a smart and intelligent appliance by building capabilities within it that will allow to communicate with consumers. This is going to change the world. We are viewing an appliance as a world of possibilities.”

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

The company has recently announced that some of its smart appliances now support Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, allowing users to use voice commands from any part of the house to get their chores done. It had also announced that customers can remotely communicate with connected appliances through the Apple Watch. Competing with global leaders, the likes of LG and Samsung, Whirlpool is stepping out of its home turf to ensure it doesn’t miss out on the buzz around Internet of Things and other smart technologies. While it has boasted smart product line-ups under several of its brands for a few years, the firm is now hoping to truly optimise the opportunities in the connected era. Norbert Schmidt, senior vice president, Market Operations and Product and Brand Marketing, EMEA, Whirlpool Corporation, said, “Our strengths have been making home appliances for more than 100 years. While we might be the best in the industry in terms of making the hardware, the area where we are learning and continuing to build our capabilities is in the connectivity space.” The company’s partners also play a huge role in helping them leverage new regional opportunities. Except for Turkey where the firm has branded retail outlets, Whirlpool follows a 100-percent channel-led model in the Middle East and Africa region. It works with partners such as GECO and Al Ghandi Electronics in the UAE and Xcite and Alghanim Electronics in Kuwait. Galindo added, “The reason we are here and will keep returning often is to work with our partners to develop our business and to maximise the opportunities that we have with different brands on different products.”

8TH MAY, 2018 JUMEIRAH EMIRATES TOWER, DUBAI

THEME: BOLLYWOOD GLAM Reseller Middle East’s Partner Excellence Awards has been the industry’s most prominent event over the last decade. In its ninth year, the Awards applauds the successes of the regional channel business, saluting the excellence and resilience of individual executives and firms. Raising the bar every year, the Partner Excellence Awards strives to create a memorable, actionpacked and entertaining evening to honour the crème de la crème of the channel business.

NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN https://www.tahawultech.com/resellermeawards/2018/nominate-now.php

FOR SPONSORSHIP ENQUIRIES Natasha Pendleton Publishing Director natasha.pendleton@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9139 +971 56 787 4778

Kausar Syed Group Sales Director kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9130 +971 50 758 6672

Youssef Hariz Business Development Manager youssef.hariz@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9111 +971 56 665 8683

FOR AGENDA-RELATED ENQUIRIES Janees Reghelini Editor janees.reghelini@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9167 +971 50 459 5293

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VENDOR FOCUS // RIVERBED

Rise to the challenge

Riverbed Technologies aims to assist channel partners navigate the evolving digital era and ensures profitability through the revamped partner programme.

iverbed Technologies has introduced a new channel partner programme called Riverbed Rise that is in sync with customers’ evolving expectations in the digital era. The company expects to aid partners to be relevant and profitable in this journey. The SD-WAN firm has moved away from a traditional, competency-based programme to one that raises the bar¬. Giovanni Di Filippo, vice president, Channel Sales for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), says, “Our channel objective for 2018, and by extension, the goal of Riverbed Rise is to support partner growth and profitability by aligning rewards with strategic business priorities and sales performance.” The former Riverbed Performance Partner Programme made sense in the past when enterprise businesses required delivery, configuration, and installation onpremise, explains Di Filippo. “However, today that programme is no longer in line with our new sales and go-to-market strategy due to the time and investment partners are required to meet and keep certifications current. It also made adapting to new technologies challenging.” A key factor for scrapping the previous programme was because it didn’t recognise that partners now operate multiple business models simultaneously, with several revenue streams coming from traditional resale, recurring and ‘as-a-Service’ delivery, and increasing expansion of professional services. Di Filippo adds, “Its incentives and rewards did not reflect performance in

Giovanni Di Filippo, Riverbed

“Riverbed Rise emphasises flexibility and is designed to allow partners to better plan their investments to drive growth.” each of the areas of sales focus, nor did they give partners the flexibility and nimbleness to adjust their business model to meet rapid changes. Given these constraints, we felt a competencybased programme was no longer relevant.” In the new programme, the firm will reward partners that acquire new customers, expand the company’s penetration into existing accounts and deliver its solutions as-a-service. “Riverbed Rise emphasises flexibility and is designed to allow partners to better plan their investments to drive growth,” he says.

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

Riverbed Rise is designed around three key principles – simplicity, flexibility and profitability. The firm aims to ensure partners clearly understand what it takes to achieve and maintain their status. The new programme is designed to be flexible to support partners’ business whether they are delivering solutions in a resale model or as-aservice, according to the company. “Our priority was that the programme focuses on the profitability necessary to drive investment and growth with incentives and rewards based on value and success metrics,” he says. While many vendors claim their channel programmes are created to help partners be profitable, unfortunately seldom does it live up to its expectations. However, Di Filippo is certain that the new programme will certainly make a difference here as partner levels are not reliant on their business model or the solution consumption preferences of the end customers. “Instead,” he says, “partners will be measured and rewarded by their success in acquiring new customers, expanding our product footprint with our existing customer base, delivering solutions as-a-service; and their investment in Riverbed trained and certified resources.” He adds that the conversations partners have with their customers will now be elevated and centred on solving customers’ digital transformation business challenges. “This can be extended to include LoBs and function leaders outside of the IT department,” he says.

HOT PRODUCTS

ALCATEL DEBUTS LATEST SMARTPHONE PORTFOLIO

Samsung unveils latest flagship smartphone Samsung unveiled its new flagship smartphone with a focus on augmented reality and with what the tech giant claimed as a “reimagined the smartphone camera.” The S9 features essentially the same design as last year´s previous flagship, with the full screen and curved glass edge of the S8. The Galaxy S9 comes in two sizes, a regular model with a 5.8inch screen, and a larger and more expensive “S9+” configuration with a 6.3-inch screen. The new devices run Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor (in North America, other markets can expect to see Samsung’s latest Exynos processor). It has either 4GB (S9) or 6GB (S9+) of RAM and comes with 64GB of storage and support for microSD cards. Samsung also introduced a software that turns selfies into animated emojis, similar to that of iPhone X’s. Samsung also included a dual lense camera on the Galaxy S line for the first time, which will improve low-light capture and enhance slow motion video, which is popular on social media. The 12MP rear camera will have a variable aperture (f/1.5-f/2.4) with optical image stabilisation. The front camera is 8MP with f/1.6 aperture and supports super slow motion. S9 devices will hit the shelves across various markets on 16th March, including in the UAE.

TCL Communication has unveiled the latest Alcatel smartphone portfolio, which includes three new product series – the Alcatel 5, 3 and 1 series. As part of the Alcatel 1 series, the company unveiled its first Android Oreo (Go edition) with the Alcatel 1X, which also features the latest Alcatel smartphone design language and technology. According to TCL, this optimised version of the Android operating system is ideal for the Alcatel 1X, bringing a new benchmark for smartphone affordability and connectivity to customers across the globe.

The Alcatel 1X will feature a new suite of popular pre-installed Google apps designed for increased speed, less demand on storage, and efficient data use. This includes the brand new Google Go, Files Go, Google Maps Go, YouTube Go and Gmail Go, as well as performance optimisations to Chrome, Google Play and Gboard. It will also feature the Google Assistant for Android (Go edition), enabling entry smartphone customers to experience the convenience of the Google Assistant, whether they’re asking it questions or telling it things to do. With Android Oreo (Go edition), these applications and features have been optimised to be smaller in size meaning less storage requirements and offering Alcatel 1X customers more storage space out of the box. And best of all, they still have access to millions of the latest Android apps, games, music and more via the Google Play Store.

HUAWEI INTRODUCES MATEBOOK X PRO The Chinese tech giant has launched its first notebook to feature Huawei FullView Display. The 13.9-inch 3K notebook features a 10-point touchscreen with a 3000 x 2000 pixel resolution. It sports a stylish metallic body design crafted with diamond cutting and sandblasting finishing technologies. The device14.6mm thin and weighs 1.33 kg and is available in two colours: Space Gray and Mystic Silver. It is equipped with 8th Generation Intel Core i7/i5 processor and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX150 GPU with 2GB GDDR5. It also comews with a Dolby Atmos Sound System and custom speakers. According to Hauwei, the device has a low power consumption design provide up to 12 hours of 1080P video playback, 14 hours of regular work or 15 hours of webpage browsing. MateBook X Pro, according to Huawei, also features the super-fast power button 2.0, which enables login in just 7.8 seconds from power off, and

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

6.6 seconds from hibernation. It has a recessed camera which discreetly sits on the keyboard – to activate it, all users need to do is press it and it will pop up, ensuring privacy when it’s not being used. A multi-purpose adapter supports USB-C fast charging widely used in smartphones allowing users to use just one charger when travelling for even greater portability. The Wi-Fi transfer speed is up to 20Mbps, 100 times faster than that of Bluetooth.

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NOKIA GOES RETRO AGAIN WITH 8110 LAUNCH HMD Global has launched the revamped version of the Nokia 8110. The 4G feature phone comes complete with its iconic curved slider design. Like the 3310, HMD has jazzed up the 8110 with a bright yellow enclosure that gives it a distinctly toy-like appearance. The phone is ready for 4G GSM networks (though without the kitchy antennae, of course), and at 79 Euros, it’s certainly an impulse buy rather than a commitment phone. According to HMD, the device features intuitive tactile mechanics, with slide to answer and end calls. Nokia 8110 comes with the craftsmanship expected from a Nokia phone, delivering durability and reliability as standard. Nokia is once again billing it as a “vacation phone” giving users the chance to switch off with the knowledge that all your smartphone essentials are there when needed. The device is equipped with a full slate of Google services: Search, Maps, and Assistant, as well as Facebook and

Twitter apps. It also allows sending and receiving emails or importing contact and syncing Outlook and Gmail calendar. The Nokia 8110 features the Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform. It is available in two colours to choose from, Traditional Black and Banana Yellow, the Nokia 8110 will be available from May and will retail for an average retail price of AED249, excluding taxes and subsidies.

HONEYWELL’S SMART BUILDING TECH OFFERS NEW INTERFACES

PANASONIC EXPANDS I-PRO EXTREME SURVEILLANCE TECH PORTFOLIO

Panasonic has launched the new H.265 compatible outdoor PTZ camera, featuring high-quality Full HD WV-X6531NS video resolution with outstanding low light sensitivity of 0.015lx. This new heavy salt damage resistant camera is a new addition to Panasonic’s i-PRO Extreme X-series PTZ (Pan/Tilt/Zoom) cameras. The WV-X6531NS comes complete

with an optional Vehicle Incident Detection analytics, while offering full 360° continuous panning and an ultra-long 40x optical zoom lens with integrated gyro-senor, along with the new PTZ provides Intelligent Zoom Stabilisation (IZS) that produces remarkably stable images even at longer zoom distances. A highly durable mechanical design ensures a superior quality surveillance solution for outdoor applications and the new X-Series. The cameras’ ultra-long 40x highpower zoom lens covers 1.3X the distance of standard models, allowing a single camera to be installed at up to one-mile intervals. Its ClearSight Dome coating prevents rain drops and dust from collecting on the dome surface, keeping surveillance viewing clean and clear and reducing field maintenance costs that are inherent with conventional domes.

Honeywell’s CCS R200 combines intelligent automation, advanced analytics and data visualization with the contemporary user experience of consumer home and mobile electronics, bringing simple, intuitive displays to building operations to enhance facility and security management in an easyto-understand manner for building operators in the region. CCS R200 has two core operational interfaces – the Command Station and Command Console. The Command Station is a single window, single monitor interface, designed for a desktop PC, laptop and Windows tablet. It is and is often ideal for facility technicians, security guards and management as well as for casual use by occupants. Meanwhile, the Command Console, is a premium multi-window, multi-monitor interface designed for engineers, control-room operators, and building mangers and others who need to view insights from multiple systems and areas of a building simultaneously. It seamlessly integrates with Honeywell’s Digital Video Manager console to access and provide a view of video footage and corresponding data for improved operational decisionmaking. In addition to new interfaces, CCS R200 includes enhancements to the original system’s Incident Workflow feature, which guides users through scripted responses to security incidents and other emergencies.

www.tahawultech.com // Reseller Middle East // MARCH 2018

Tech talk Reseller Middle East's Online Editor Adelle Geronimo shares her views on the current tech scene.

Adelle Geronimo, Online Editor, Technology Division

Nokia reloaded

n 1999, The Matrix was released in the theatres worldwide. The film became a blockbuster hit because of its action-packed scenes and its futuristic plot. Perhaps one of the most iconic devices featured in the film was Nokia’s 8110 “banana phone,” which was used by the protagonist Neo played by Keanu Reeves. Back then, Nokia was still the top mobile brand so it was not uncommon to see its products get included in commercial films like The Matrix. The Finnish company had the widest choice, the best designs, and the most respected brand around the world. While Nokia was by no means the first company to release a commercially available mobile phone, it was the first to do it really well. Then in 2007 came Apple’s iPhone,

the brand and product that would displace the Finnish company from its number one status and the rest as they say is history. Fast forward to 10 years later, Nokia phones are making a comeback. At this year’s Mobile World Congress, the now HMD Global-owned brand launched, along with other new devices, a revamped version of the 8110 complete with a new design, Android OS and 4G capabilities. At a time when people are overloaded with smartphones, Nokia is appealing to consumers’ craving for simplicity and of course nostalgia. This strategy is proving to be a success as this is the second “retro” phone HMD released having resurrected the 3310 last year, which sold over 70 million units. Nokia, however, is not deluded into thinking its retro phones are

MARCH 2018 // Reseller Middle East // www.tahawultech.com

going to replace smartphones. But the company is seeing lots of opportunity around lower-stress second phones, or ‘vacation phones’ and it is already gaining a good consumer base for these products. The company still has a long way to go before it reaches its goal of becoming one of the top three smartphone brands globally. While it doesn’t compare to the 77 million iPhones Apple sold in the last quarter, at the end of the day it comes down to the quality of handsets and the brand. Once consumers on the street see the name Nokia, they’ll immediately have a positive association with the name and the latest offerings from HMD reinforces that perception. Nokia can’t ride the retro trend forever but it would be interesting what it will do to take the consumers’ nostalgia to the next level.