Reseller Middle East September 2014

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ISSUE 213 | september 2014

retail therapy the growth of emax electronics and what is in store

gitex 2014 preview measures to counter counterfeit PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

desktop virtualisation prospects

CONTENTS ISSUE 213 // september 2014

cover feature Review

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44

hot products

80

retail therapy

Belkin introduces NetCam HD+ WiFi Camera

The retail landscape has transformed dramatically in the region as malls become a way of life. Reseller ME finds out from Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO, Emax Electronics on what is next for the eight-year-old retailer as it reaches its 100th store milestone by 2017.

Highlights

Feature

6

News

48

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

Opinion

Winning the counterfeit battle

Reseller Middle East explores measures to counter piracy and counterfeit issues in the channel.

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Driving future growth

Reseller ME investigates the regional channel prospects in desktop virtualisation technology.

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Seeing through the haze

Petra Heinrich from Red Hat explains how regional channel partners can lead the discussions around cloud.

Partner watch

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Path to success

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Spectrami’s Anand Choudha discusses what is involved to build an effective channel strategy.

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70

Mahan Bolourchi from Euler Hermes, explains the importance of channel players insuring against credit risk.

SanDisk introduces Ultra Fit USB 3.0

Nazeer C. P, MD, Buraida Computers, highlights the issue of low margins in the channel.

Vendor focus

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The matter of margins

Interview Risk and reward

Liva Mini PC

Flying high

Juniper Networks CEO Shaygan Kheradpir discusses his vision for the company and strategy for the new era of IT.

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Lumia 530 now available in UAE

Reseller Middle East september 2014

3

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*IBM Sole Distributor in the GCC excluding selected products and services, excluding Saudi Arabia. Š2014 Gulf Business Machines. All rights reserved. GBM, the GBM logo, START LOADING THE FUTURE are trademarks of Gulf Business Machines. IBM and the IBM logo are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in the United States and other countries and used under license. IBM responsibility is limited to IBM products and services and is governed solely by the agreements under which such products and services are provided.

Editorial GROUP Chairman and founder

Dominic De Sousa Group CEO

Nadeem Hood Group COO

Georgina O’Hara

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

Full steam ahead

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

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

After the summer lull when things had quietened down a bit, it is business as usual in the Middle East. This is going to be the most crucial quarter for the channel, which seems to have benefited from the positive sentiments in the market. Though political instability and other factors have made a dent in business in some countries in the region, the overall outlook is still positive for channel partners.

Not surprisingly, profitability has become something of a buzzword in the channel today, and vendors are enhancing their channel programmes to increase partner profitability and enablement support. Most of them, while trimming down the number of partners they work with, are improving sales and marketing support as well, leading to a decrease in partners’ investment requirements. From a partner perspective, some of the key factors that drive vendor selection are around margins and product quality, with brand reputation taking a backseat.

As vendors are seeking ways to improve and gain better visibility into channel performance, and drive towards better collaboration, partners on their part will have to come up with solutions tailored to suit the needs of their customers. No matter how good your technology solution is, if you can’t develop a wellcrafted business case that can be customised to each customer it adds no value to them. It is important to consider your customers’ interests as your own and deliver value to those customers that can help you to be more profitable. And remember the dictum that all customers are not created equal.

On a different note, the region’s biggest tech show Gitex Technology Week is around the corner, and some of the biggest channel players in the region such as Redington Gulf has already announced their participation. For partners, this is an ideal opportunity to get a hands-on experience with some of the latest technologies in the market, and meet prospective customers scouting for solutions. In this issue, we have a sneak preview of what some of the biggies are planning to showcase at the show and stay tuned for more.

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Reseller Middle East september 2014

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highlights

TP-LINK launches KSA partner programme

Mark Zhao, Country Manager, KSA, TP-LINK Middle East TP-LINK has launched the TP-LINK partner programme to channel partners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

According to TP-LINK – whose products include Wireless, ADSL, Switches, IP Cameras, Powerline Adapters, Print Servers, Media Converters and Network Adapters – the programme is designed to let more partners to benefit from its business in the Kingdom.

The programme has three tiers – Platinum, Gold and Silver. Each partner level has a range of incentives and responsibilities.

Mark Zhao, Country Manager, KSA, TPLINK Middle East, said, “The purpose of the partner meeting was to share the market success stories with our valued KSA-based distributor and reseller partners, and to highlight the reasons behind the company’s business success in the Kingdom.”

The company also announced summer promotions for all channel partners in the Kingdom.

Zhao said the company is upbeat about the KSA business and wants to continue the success with all channel partners. “We are delighted with the progress the networking range of products is having in the SOHO and SMB segment in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“With the summer promotions that we have unveiled, we want to see more partners participate actively and have commitment with us through our programmes. We hope to interact with them and establish a good business relationship.”

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Infor appoints new channel executive for healthcare Infor has appointed Giuseppe Catania as the Channel Executive for Healthcare for the Middle East. Catania will be responsible for the growth of the vendor’s sales in the healthcare industry across UAE and Saudi Arabia.

His appointment is the latest stage of Infor’s execution on a plan to invest significantly to grow its sales in the region, including its continued investment to expand and support the Infor Partner Network (IPN).

Based in Infor’s Dubai office in Media City, Catania will be responsible for developing sales (both direct and through partners) throughout the region in the growing healthcare industry. He has over 20 years’ experience in enterprise software from sales leadership roles at SAP, DEC, Siemens, Sun and Cisco across a variety of different market sectors.

“Giuseppe is an experienced sales director with more than 20 years in sales, who has shown the ability to lead business growth and sales teams to new levels of success, strategic planning and services development.

He has solid experience and skills in team building, customer relationship and customer intimacy. He will be a vital leader of our rapidly growing healthcare business unit here in the

stats

$3.2

billion The total server revenues in EMEA in Q2 of 2014. (source: Gartner)

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Giuseppe Catania, Channel Executive, Healthcare, Middle East, Infor Middle East,” said Lee Miles, Regional Director, Infor Middle East. “We are significantly investing in the Middle East and will soon be announcing the opening of a subsidiary in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from where Giuseppe will also be jointly based to expand our healthcare business in KSA.” In January 2013 Infor opened a new customer support centre within its rapidly expanding office in Dubai Internet City servicing customers throughout the Middle East, which include major hospitals such as King Hamad University Hospital and Farouk Medical City.

highlights

Epicor signs up Zenith as VAR Epicor Software has announced that Kuwaiti firm Zenith Business Solutions is the latest value-added reseller to join its Inspired Partner Network in the Middle East.

Zenith will represent Epicor in the Kuwaiti market to sell and implement its ERP solution as well as provide after-sales support to its customers.

Zenith specialises in designing and deploying ICT solutions to help improve its customers’ businesses.

Epicor and Zenith will target the manufacturing industries as well as the oil and gas sector and certain retail verticals.

“With increased IT spending driven by strong economic performance, Kuwait is an important market for Epicor,” said Jawad Squalli, Regional Vice President, Middle East, Epicor. “By partnering with Zenith, we will be able to better explore

opportunities in Kuwait. The company has tremendous technical and marketing experience, a rich customer portfolio and an excellent after-sales service record that will prove highly beneficial for Epicor. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Zenith Business Solutions, supporting their business growth by providing them with inspiring solutions that bring competitive advantages to customers.”

Zenith has established VAR partnerships with other leading ICT companies including Dell, IBM, Cisco, APC, Microsoft, Kaspersky, and Symantec.

“We partnered with Epicor as we believe that they have a new approach to ERP systems and business solutions which can help our customers to think about newer and better ways of doing business,”

Jawad Squalli, Regional Vice President, Middle East, Epicor said Syed Abbas Ali, Director, Zenith Business Solutions. “Joining the Epicor Inspired Partner Network allows us to become a game changer in the ICT arena by offering an end-to-end solution that adds value to the customers’ business. We look forward to a healthy and mutually beneficial relationship to help us grow and add further value to our revenue stream.”

Software AG appoints new ME & Turkey SVP

Mike Saxton, Senior Vice President, Middle-East and Turkey, Software AG Software AG has announced the appointment of Mike Saxton as their new Senior Vice President for the Middle-East and Turkey.

Saxton joined the Asia-Pacific regional leadership team in 2012 to help drive customer engagement and successful project outcomes.

“Asia-Pacific and Middle-East/Turkey have some surprising similarities”, said Saxton. “The exponentially expanding China bears some resemblance to the emerging markets in our region, Singapore, Australia, and the stabilising

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economies of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. “ “In the future, value creation will be less defined by classical manufacturing expertise and more so by full-fledged intelligent business operations, processes & solutions. At Software AG we refer to this as a digital transformation, whichhas already started creating market momentum in economies where value based investment has been identified as one of the major factors contributing towards business success. Software AG Gulf will position itself as a pioneer influencer to the regional market.” said Saxton.

Saxton added, “Software AG brings to the region a winning combination of a stable, and well- engineered German Software, which provides the financial stability of a E1BN organisation and a network of local and international Partners. Our goal and our business mantra is to deliver successful project outcomes for our customers based on a meaningful return on investment.

This creates trust and long term

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relationships that are crucial to doing business in this region.”

Saxton joined Software AG in 2012 following a 25-year plus technology career, the last 15 of which have been in Enterprise Software.

Our goal and our business mantra is to deliver successful project outcomes for our customers based on a meaningful return on investment.

This creates trust and long term relationships.”

highlights

Canon signs managed print services Volkswagen deal Canon has announced that it has signed a global service agreement with Volkswagen AG for the provision of multifunction office systems and solutions.

Over the next few years, Canon will serve as a global partner to Volkswagen, providing managed print services through Canon multifunction office systems and solutions to Volkswagen operating bases worldwide.

Geoff Slaughter, Group Director, Global Services, Canon Europe, said, “We are proud to announce our partnership with the prestigious and innovative Volkswagen group. With a comprehensive agreement in place, focused strongly on services and print management, we look forward to further developing this relationship as we commit to delivering the global capability, consistency and control required for a successful international partnership.”

With a comprehensive agreement in place, focused strongly on services and print management, we look forward to developing this relationship as we commit to delivering the global capability, consistency and control required for a successful international partnership.”

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Oxygen and Aruba target SMB expansion Secure Mobility VAD Oxygen and Aruba Networks have announced that the company has expanded its existing offering of tier-one wireless networking solutions to the channel for both the small-to-medium enterprise (SME) and the small-to-medium business (SMB) markets in the Middle East Region.

Oxygen has evolved its strategy to engage with small and midsize businesses, and will focus on training SMB-focused VARs and helping them provide “enterprise-grade security, resiliency and unlimited scalability to the customers they serve.”

Oxygen will offer sales and technical support and PR & marketing support through its Partner Incentive Programme.

It will also provide sales and technical training to its value-added resellers on the Aruba SMB product line across the Middle East region starting from August.

Aruba Networks SMB product line includes ‘Aruba Instant’ and new WLAN access points and software, expanding the Instant product line of Wi-Fi networks.

These dual-radio APs deliver wireless data to 5-GHz devices with 802.11ac technology, while also simultaneously supporting 2.4-GHz 802.11n clients.

Khalid Laban, Board Advisor, Oxygen said, “Oxygen will push hard behind the Aruba SMB products which are aimed at improving Wi-Fi capacity, security, and management for the SMB market.

We will enable SMB-focused partners, as well as large Oxygen partners with SMB practices, to build Aruba’s presence among smaller businesses. Our training program will help the channel to develop, so that they are well equipped with the product lines, and our unique programs will help them in their service as well as support to the organisation.”

stats

10.5 %

Increase YoY in PC shipments in EMEA in Q2 of 2014 (source: IDC)

4.2%

Is the expected GDP growth of Middle East in 2015 (source: Euler Hermes Economic Outlook Report)

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Visit us at Gitex, Hall 1, Stand D1 – 34 12 - 16 October 2014

highlights

Allied Telesis teams up with SCD for partner roadshows

Netwrix signs up Bulwark as ME VAD Netwrix Corporation, a global provider of change and configuration auditing software, has expanded its presence in the Middle East by partnering with Bulwark Technologies, a regional value-added distributor for IT security. Headquartered in Dubai, Bulwark Technologies will now deliver complete visibility into all IT infrastructures by presenting Netwrix Auditor to the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

“There is a high demand for solutions that help to strengthen security and assure compliance in the region,” said Jose Thomas, Managing Director, Bulwark Technologies. “We are pleased to partner with Netwrix Corporation in order to deliver their vision of change and configuration auditing to the Middle East. The solutions provided by Netwrix are efficient, easy-to-use, and have an attractive price point—all of which are beneficial to our end customers.”

“We are very excited to meet new partners and see our distribution network expands geographically,” said Alex Vovk, President, Netwrix. “This partnership will provide our Middle East customers with better service and will help them maintain security and ensure compliance across all IT infrastructures.”

Netwrix Auditor provides a wide range of audited systems and applications which includes Active Directory, Exchange, File Servers, SharePoint, SQL Server, VMware, Windows Server and others.

There is a high demand for solutions that help to strengthen security and assure compliance in the region.”

-Jose Thomas, MD, Bulwark Technologies

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Allied Telesis has teamed up with its authorised distributor, Specialist Computer Distribution (SCD) to conduct a series of roadshows for its channel partners, starting August 19th, 2014. The countries that are covered for the roadshow are Qatar, Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Pakistan.

“Over the years we have witnessed remarkable growth and today demand from large enterprises, big organisations, and government is growing at a great pace.

This has led us to be the leaders in certain segment such as IP video surveillance across the region. To manage this growth effectively, we have been rapidly expanding our reach and these roadshows intend to further enhance our channel base,” said Sabbahuddin Khan, Regional Manager, Allied Telesis Middle East.

The agenda for the roadshow includes presenting a global and regional overview of the company. “We will also be highlighting our end-to-end Ethernet solutions for the enterprise,” Khan said.

“During the event, we will be introducing our channel engagement programme and unveil our unique initiative ‘Not for Resale’.

We are confident that this initiative will open up several new opportunities for our channel partners. These roadshows

stats

59% CAGR Of the worldwide 3D printer market growth from 2012 to 2017. (source: IDC)

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will be followed by technical training and certification workshops for partners in their respective countries.”

With brands such as IBM, Allied Telesis, IGEL Thin Clients, and Scale Computing in its portfolio, the distribution company is part of the multi-billion dollar Rigby Group with interests in several business disciplines.

Imtiaz Ghani, General Manager, Specialist Computer Distribution, said, “We are excited about these roadshows and with our initial interaction with our partners we are expecting large attendance at all the 9 locations in 7 countries. Channels partners are keen to lap up this opportunity that will enable them to move forward in right direction while dealing with end users. With Allied Telesis we share the same philosophy to enable and empower a channel that enhances the confidence and capabilities of our partners.”

“These roadshows are also part of the overall strategy to empower our channel partners with market information, technology trends, product knowledge, skills-sets, and customer requirements that would enable them to be ready to fulfill the growing demand for Allied Telesis in the market. We believe in hand holding our partners in the initial stage and the main aim of these roadshows is to lay a path for the success of our channel,” said Khan.

beyond beyond expectation expectation

highlights

TDME incorporated under Aptec

Comstor ME wins Cisco accolade

Renton D’Souza, Divisional Director, Comstor Middle East.

Comstor Middle East has been awarded with the Cisco Partner Summit award for the ‘Distribution Partner of the Year’ in the Middle East. Cisco unveiled the winners during its annual partner conference which took place in Las Vegas this year.

The Cisco Partner Summit award recognises exemplary partners for best-in-class business practices. Areas of consideration include innovative practices, application successes, unique programmes, problem solving and sales approaches.

“Cisco is privileged to work alongside the most talented channel partners in the industry, and we remain committed to our partners’ success in the Middle East,” said Claire Jones, Regional Partner Manager, Middle East, Cisco. “We are honoured to name Comstor as Middle East Distribution Partner of the Year, to acknowledge their outstanding achievements.”

“The award further recognises the role we have continuously played in enabling the Cisco channel in the region,” said Renton D’Souza, Divisional Director, Comstor Middle East. “ We look forward to further strengthening our relationship in the Cisco channel by continuing to align with Cisco and by further investing in enablement programmes and growth initiatives.”

Cisco Partner Summit awards reflect the top-performing partners within specific technology markets across all geographical regions. All award recipients are selected by a group of Cisco Worldwide Partner Organisation and regional executives.

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Aptec – an Ingram Micro Company has announced that its sister company, Track Distribution Middle East (TDME), will now operate under the Aptec brand name.

The move combines TDME’s existing distribution portfolio of Cisco, Oracle and Belkin products and strong presence in the Gulf region with Aptec’s as part of the region’s go-to-market strategy for technology solutions. According to the statement released, the combined capabilities and reach of both companies position Aptec as a single highlyintegrated value-added distributor in the Gulf region and Pakistan.

Ali Baghdadi, President, Technology Solutions, META region, Aptec – an Ingram Micro company, said, “We are re-branding Track Distribution with the only objective to bring more value to our reseller partners because as one brand – Aptec, an Ingram Micro company – we will be able to serve our resellers better. As one of the biggest value-added distributors in this region, Aptec is known in the market for its unique go-to-market strategy and value-added services which we provide to the channel such as advanced logistics services, technical support and consulting, financial support to partners in form of credit, full range of marketing services.

Our resellers of Track Distribution can now benefit from this fully.”

Bahaa Salah, Managing Director, Aptec, an Ingram Micro company, Gulf and Near East region, added, “Track Distribution was always part of Aptec but sometimes it was confusing to the channel because we were positioning

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these two brands separately. We want to bring clarity to the market and I emphasise that integration into Aptec will be only beneficial for our resellers.”

The company further added that the new branding provides significant benefits for legacy Aptec and TDME customers.

For resellers it includes access to the wider product portfolio of larger number of vendors, streamlined onboarding processes when the sign up will happen with one company instead of two, which means less documentation, shorter approval time, less number of people to contact inside company, inventory available in several warehouses across the META region, ready to ship, and faster day to day services. For vendor partners, the benefits include opportunity to have access to Aptec and TDME combined product portfolio benefiting from wider range of advanced solutions.

We are rebranding Track Distribution with the only objective to bring more value to our reseller partners.”

- Ali Baghdadi, President, Technology Solutions, META region, Aptec – an Ingram Micro company.

highlights

emt Distribution partners with Ipswitch

Invincea partners with StarLink for META distribution StarLink has announced its new distribution partnership with Invincea. The distributor will spearhead sales, professional services and support for Invincea products and solutions through its channel partners across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

“Invincea is honoured to partner with StarLink to expand coverage into an important geographic region to guard against the ever-increasing complexity of malware threats.

Global commerce, intellectual property value, and business continuity is severely impacted by threat actors seeking to profit by exploiting the single largest attack vector in organizations of all sizes – the user. By partnering with StarLink as our trusted Value Added Distributor in the regions they cover, we are excited about the joint opportunities we provide for protection against advanced cyberattacks,” said Paul J. Bihunak, Vice President, Business Development and Global Alliances, Invincea.

“As a continuation of our commitment to assist in securing enterprises against next-generation malware, StarLink takes great pride in becoming the distributor for Invincea in the META region.

Invincea is at the forefront of combating cyber threats, and as the newest part of StarLink’s Advanced Threat Protection solution, will ensure precise implementation of integrated and multi-vector protection.” said Avinash Advani, VP – Business Strategy at StarLink.

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emt Distribution has been appointed as the authorised distributor for WhatsUp Gold suite of network, application and server monitoring software from Ipswitch in the Middle East region. The distributor will be responsible for working with resellers across Middle East to train and help them build their Ipswitch business.

Mohammad Mobasseri, CEO, emt Distribution said, “We will be working closely with Ipswitch to build channel programmes that would enable resellers to take advantage of the benefits of promoting WhatsUp Gold in the region.”

“The capability of our technical and sales resources, training, customer education and strong channel base combined with the quality and value of Ipswitch will prove to be a winning combination. We are excited about the opportunity this award winning network, application and server monitoring solutions offer to the channel in the region,” he added.

Alessandro Porro, Vice President of International Sales, Ipswitch said, “We are aggressively looking at expanding our presence in Middle East, and emt with their deep understanding of the market, wide channel base, technical capabilities

Alessandro Porro, Vice President of International Sales, Ipswitch will go a long way to promote our award winning solutions in the region.”

Channel partners from UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan can avail the Ipswitch award winning solutions from emt Distribution.

stats

13.1 %

Increase in shipments of hardcopy peripherals market in the Middle East and Turkey in Q1 of 2014 (source: IDC)

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highlights

Logicom expands portfolio with HP Supplies

Sajith Raj, General Manager, Logicom Dubai Logicom has announced that it will add HP Supplies to its portfolio of products. Through this partnership, which is effective immediately, the distributor will complement its HP Printing Portfolio with the addition of inks and toners, thus strengthening its partner offering and value added proposition.

Logicom currently offers HP inks and toners in Jordan and Lebanon. With this new partnership, the exhibit now covers the regions of UAE, Iraq, Oman, Bahrain and Yemen. Initially set to focus on the recruitment and enablement of the reseller channel, the company also has future plans to broaden the market reach of HP Supplies to include the retail channel.

“With the addition of HP Supplies; we will now be able to offer all the HP PPS product categories. This will add value to our customer proposition as a one stop shop for HP computing and printing technology. With Logicom’s reach and market leadership in HP distribution we are confident to make HP Supplies a successful addition for our valuable partners. This will also provide us with the opportunity to re-establish our retail distribution in the Gulf,” said Sajith Raj, General Manager, Logicom Dubai.

“Logicom is one of the fastest growing and most qualified supplies distributors that HP has the privilege to have a partnership with in the region. Their demonstrated success in addressing the market is a guarantee to our customers that they will always have the products they require when they require them,” said Mathew Thomas, General Manager, HP Printing and Personal Systems Middle East.

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TP-LINK to expand North Africa channel footprint The global player in SOHO and SMB networking products, TP-LINK, has announced new channel strategies aimed at developing the company’s channel business in North Africa.

According to the company, the move to strengthen its channel business development efforts in the region come in the wake of increased infrastructure spending which has spurred the IT networking solutions segment with TP-LINK witnessing rapid growth of its business.

Housing a wide range of products in the Middle East including wireless, ADSL, switches, IP cameras, powerline adapters, print servers, media converters and network adapters, the company saidthe North Africa region is rapidly developing as most governments lead with infrastructure and e-government initiatives.

Will Liu, General Manager, Africa, TP-LINK Middle East, said, “North Africa is one of the fastest growing networking markets in the MENA region. With the Internet development happening in this region, the networking segment has witnessed tremendous growth and will continue to grow. We have confidence that this will become one of the most important opportunities in the foreseeable future.”

Liu added that because of the positive market sentiments, the vendor has decided to strengthen its channel alliances in country by engaging existing and potential partners. “The market is open and any brand has a chance to do business in North Africa. What has made TP-LINK to experience rapid acceptance of the brand is our commitment to developing quality products that are backed by own manufacturing and R&D teams,” he said.

Liu said the company believes now is the right time to cement its footprint on the ground by engaging distributors, resellers and retailers in the various countries in that region. “We are aiming to gain rapid acceptance and success of our product offerings in partnership

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Will Liu, General Manager, Africa, TP-LINK Middle East with the entire channel ecosystem that works with us,” he said. He pointed out that as part of the initiatives that TP-LINK will roll out for North Africa, the company plans to introduce new products and help channel partners to expand and tap into new markets through roadshows, training, incentives and other loyalty schemes that the company will develop with its distribution partners.

Mark Zhao, Country Manager, KSA, TP-LINK Middle East said that although North Africa has been through a tough period with some countries experiencing internal upheaval in the past three years, there has been positive developments that have led to the IT networking to benefit.

Zhao said, “For example, Casablanca in Morocco is upgrading the city networking infrastructure while in neighbouring Algeria 3G network are being rolled out. What these positive developments are having on the channel is creating new business opportunities for channel partners.”

Liu said the company attributes the business growth it is currently seeing in North Africa to the efforts that all channel partners have put in to raise brand awareness around TP-LINK offerings. “We provide excellent products, competitive pricing and attractive margins to our partners. We are upbeat that once the enhance partner engagement initiatives are implemented, we will further grow the business together,” Liu said.

highlights

Citrix appoints Config as VAD in French-speaking Africa

Citrix has appointed Config as its second Value Added Distributor (VAD) in Francophone Africa. As demand for virtualisation, mobility management, networking and cloud services in the region continues to grow rapidly, Config will distribute all Citrix solutions, including network optimisation technologies, to resellers across the region to ensure

organisations have the correct infrastructure in place to support the surge in demand for virtual and mobile workspaces.

“We have experienced tremendous growth in the past twelve months, particularly in the areas of network optimisation and desktop virtualisation.

Config’s appointment as a second distributor is an important step to help

resellers capitalise on this demand.

Further, its expertise in network infrastructure and optimisation will prove to be of benefit to the reseller community across Francophone Africa,” said Noman Qadir, Director, Channels, Middle East and Africa, Citrix.

“We have been consistently focusing on creating programs and support mechanisms that accelerate the business of our partners, supporting resellers with senior level, experienced management teams located across the region. Config is uniquely qualified to deliver and integrate complex technologies,” says Zouhir El Kamel, General Manager, Config. “This appointment is testament to Config’s solid skills and experience in the region and we welcome the addition of the Citrix solutionset to our brand portfolio.”

As a VAD, Config will distribute the full range of Citrix products and solutions across Francophone Africa, including Citrix XenDesktop, XenApp, XenMobile, NetScaler and CloudBridge. The latter are integral to ensuring optimal load balancing and network optimisation as organisations look to deploy enterprise mobility solutions.

Cyberoam appoints new Enterprise Account Manager

Mukil Madanan, Enterprise Account Manager, ME, Cyberoam Cyberoam has appointed Mukil Madanan as its Enterprise Account Manager for Middle East. Madanan will be playing an instrumental role in expanding the company’s client base in the region apart from managing the existing client relations.

In his previous role, Madhanan managed ICT infrastructure business and handled overall 200 plus customers in 6 years tenure in the company. Cyberoam looks forward to benefit from his experience in the Middle Eastern market.

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Ravinder Janotra, Regional Manager, Middle East Cyberoam said, “We welcome Madanan on board. His vast experience in handling critical projects and customers for enterprises, strong grasp on emerging technology trends and thorough understanding of the network security market will be beneficial for Cyberoam.

Madanan’s appointment will ensure that the expectations and demands of our esteemed clientele in Middle East are met in a timely and streamlined manner. We see tremendous opportunity for growth in Middle East and Madanan will play a pivotal role in securing a competitive leverage for us.”

Janotra added “Cyberoam’s award winning and innovative solutions can provide a big boost to network security

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in the region. Leading enterprises in the region have already implemented Cyberoam solutions at their premises and a significant number are in the process of doing so. We will continue to seek newer opportunities and strengthen our relations with existing customers.”

Madanan said, “Cyberoam already has carved a niche in the network security market by providing unparalleled customer support and speedy resolution of technical issues; as an Enterprise Account Manager, this means a lot to me. By working directly with the staff at client locations, I will be able to gain valuable insights on technical challenges and common issues faced by IT-admins.

This will be help us to provide them better solutions and support.

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highlights

Red Hat launches ARM Partner Early Access Programme Red Hat has announced the launch of the Red Hat ARM Partner Early Access Programme to “facilitate partner-initiated system designs” based on the 64-bit capable ARMv8-A architecture that include Red Hat software.

The programme will be aimed at silicon vendors, independent hardware vendors (IHVs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and original design manufacturers (ODMs), and launches with participation and support from several ARM ecosystem leaders, including AMD, American Megatrends, AppliedMicro, ARM, Broadcom, Cavium, Dell, HP and Linaro.

More recently, Red Hat participated in the creation of the Server Base System Architecture (SBSA) specification released

by ARM to “help accelerate software development and enable support across multiple 64-bit ARM platforms.”

Red Hat hopes to collaborate with partners to create a singular 64-bit ARM server software platform that relies on common standards, and to provide a common development platform to enable deployment ready future 64-bit ARM software.

It is also says it will gather requirements around partner needs within the ARM ecosystem and to create a unified common software platform capable of supporting multiple hardware designs.

Red Hat says it expects the participants in its ARM Partner Early Access Programme to contribute to more streamlined and applicable implementations of 64-bit ARM standards and practices.

Jim Totton, Vice President and General Manager, Platform Business Unit, Red Hat, said, “The Red Hat ARM Partner Early Access Programme continues Red Hat’s

Jim Totton, Vice President and General Manager, Platform Business Unit, Red Hat efforts to drive open standards and best practices within the 64-bit ARM ecosystem, enabling tighter collaboration with leading innovators in the ARM ecosystem. By providing our participating partners with the tools, resources and support needed to build a common development platform, we can help facilitate partner-driven 64-bit ARM solutions that are based upon Red Hat technologies.”

ATTO signs up StorIT as VAD for ME & India

Suren Vedantham, Group Managing Director, StorIT Distribution StorIT has announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with ATTO Technology, a global player in storage, network connectivity and infrastructure solutions for data-intensive computing environments. According to the agreement, StorIT will promote and distribute ATTO’s complete range of end-to-end solutions across the Middle East and India markets.

“We are pleased to announce our new partnership with ATTO Technology, an established leader in high-performance storage connectivity solutions. Leveraging

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september 2014 Reseller Middle East

new storage architectures, their products deliver blazing fast performance and enables users to effectively maximise their data throughput with their unique, high-performance appliances in a Big Data environment. Their best-in-class products complement our existing portfolio and add value to our data management offerings. By leveraging our strong channel network in the Middle East and India, we plan to increase ATTO’s business and market share within these markets,” said Suren Vedantham, Group Managing Director, StorIT Distribution.

As ATTO’s value-added distributor, StorIT will help the vendor identify and onboard systems integrators and resellers, provide value-added services and conduct focused channel development and enablement activities such as training, certifications, systems design and architecture, implementation support and services to name some. The distributor will also work closely with the vendor’s global sales and support teams to ensure its channel network receives strong pre-sales, marketing, implementation and post-sales services to effectively sell the company’s

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diverse portfolio of product solutions.

“We are excited to be working with a respected distribution partner like StorIT, as they now bring ATTO products to their diverse portfolio of solution providers,” said Jeff Marks, Director of Worldwide Channel Sales, ATTO Technology. “The IT market is changing radically and users are faced with new challenges that require a much higher level of performance from their infrastructures. ATTO’s expertise in developing ground breaking technology for over 25 years, coupled with StorIT’s strong integrator relationships, delivers to customers in the region unique solutions for today, and tomorrow’s performance driven IT environments.”

StorIT will help ATTO to expand its reach and reinforce its presence in the region through its established channel network combined with its strategic initiatives. Through its training arm – Taalim, StorIT will hold regular road shows, seminars and training and certification programmes to enable their partners to enhance their capabilities and address customers’ requirements optimally.

GITEX PREVIEW

it’s showtime!

It is that time of the year again where technology giants showcase their latest products and offerings on a single platform. Known as the ICT business gateway to the Middle East, North Africa and South Asian regions, GITEX Technology week 2014 promises to be every bit exciting and more. Reseller ME takes a closer look at what we can expect from the who’s who of the technology world this year.

Redington Value to throw the spotlight on Advanced Enterprise Solutions at GITEX 2014

Redington Value, the value-added distribution division of Redington Gulf, an IT distributor in the Middle East and Africa, has announced its participation at this year’s edition of GITEX Technology Week, the ICT business gateway to the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region, which will be held from 12th October to 16th October, 2014 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. After a four year gap from participating in the annual event, the company will be turning the spotlight on its diverse portfolio of advanced enterprise solutions, particularly in IT domains such as cloud computing, virtualisation, software and security, convergence and infrastructure.

The Redington Value stand will be located at Hall 2, Number A2-5, at the DWTC. According to the Redington Value’s senior executives, the

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company’s return to GITEX will be highlighted by its Solution Centre, where daily presentations will be conducted by some of the Middle East region’s top technology domain experts. Aside from the presentations, partners, visitors and participants will also be given the opportunity to interact with the speakers and have their queries answered on the spot.

All presentations will be held at the Redington Value Solution Centre stand from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM during GITEX Technology Week’s five-day run except for the first day which will start from 2:00 PM onwards.

“We are very excited to be returning to GITEX after being away for four years. Our presence at this year’s edition will allow us the opportunity to throw the spotlight on our key range of Advanced Enterprise Solutions and the many advantages and benefits to be gained from utilizing it across today’s business operations,” said Ramkumar, President, Redington Value. “As the global economy tries to regain its footing from the recent economic gridlock, businesses today, particularly in the Middle East region, are now looking towards improving their operations by making use of the latest technology solutions available in today’s IT market. The emergence of the cloud, virtualisation, software and security, convergence and infrastructure have clearly played a strategic role in modern day

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companies and organisations— driving in increased productivity and enhanced efficiencies.”

Key presentations will include lectures and demonstrations on timely topics like Big Data security analytics, next-gen perimeter security, application security, secure infrastructure, Big Data storage, flash storage, open source, IaaS, BYOD, mobility, disaster recovery and back-up, unified communications, data centre solutions, business continuity, SDN and software defined servers.

Silver Peak highlights Shadow IT this GITEX

In a recent study conducted for

by Stratecast (a unit of Frost & Sullivan) 81 percent of line-ofbusiness workers and 83 percent of IT staff admit to using non-approved SaaS apps. This practice, often referred to as ‘shadow IT’, opens a major gap in visibility, security and performance across the network and is a headache for CIOs. In an

effort to shine a light on shadow IT, Silver Peak has unveiled ‘Unity’, a wide area network fabric (WAN) that unifies the enterprise network with the public cloud.

Unlike traditional WAN optimisation solutions, Unity closely tracks the location of cloud services and internet ‘weather’ to intelligently route traffic by a secure, optimal path. By keeping Cloud SaaS and IaaS traffic on the Unity fabric, IT achieves something it’s never had: the ability to monitor and control connectivity to the cloud while giving users consistent performance for cloud applications. Silver Peak (Hall 1, stand 108) will launch Unity at the upcoming GITEX Technology Week in October 2014.

“The visibility solution is intended to transform the way Middle Eastern enterprises and service providers monitor their networks. Most enterprises use dozens of cloud-based services, whether IT knows about them or not,” said Bhaskar Peruri, Regional Sales Manager, Middle East, Silver Peak. “The problem is IT staff have no insight into that traffic once it leaves the WAN. They can’t troubleshoot problems or optimise applications the way they would on their own network.

“We are excited about the opportunities that the Middle East and this year’s GITEX Technology Week hold for us.

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GITEX PREVIEW

of data on an increasingly unsecured network, manage information safely, especially on the cloud,” added Peruri.

By deploying Silver Peak’s software in data centres, branch offices and cloud interconnection hubs, customers generate the Unity fabric, a network overlay that controls and accelerates connectivity to any combination of enterprise services, IaaS resources, and SaaS applications.

TP-LINK to participate at GITEX 2014.

According to TP-LINK, a manufacturer for a range of products in the Middle East including wireless, ADSL, switches, IP cameras, powerline adapters, print servers, media converters and network adapters, the regional marketing is rapidly developing as most governments lead with infrastructure and e-government services.

TP-LINK said having been in the market since 2011, the company has started to develop its business in Middle East and Africa and wants to grow deeper and strengthen its market position.

Denny Liang, General Manager, TP-LINK Middle East, said it is important for the company to showcase and promote the brand during GITEX because the event is a perfect platform where industry peers from all over the world gather to

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highlight their latest technologies.

“We would like to be a part of this big event this year this year just like we did last year. This year, we want to meet our customers and have a better understanding about business and challenges through the many interactions we will have during the five-day event,” he said.

Liang added that this year’s participation at GITEX is aimed at meeting prospective clients and educate them on the company’s broad SOHO and SMB products array.

“GITEX has been the most popular IT trade show in the region for years. We believe in the trade fair and this year we are hoping to reach out to new clients and potential channel partners from the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia,” he said.

Liang pointed out that GITEX is the only platform in the Middle East that accords the company an opportunity to meet and hear from people from many different countries all in one place.

The vendor will be showcasing its Archer C9, CPES 10, RE 200 and M7350, wireless range of products. “High speed Internet connectivity is one of the focus for today’s WiFi solutions.

We will be explaining and demonstrating these products to our channel partners and their clients at our stand throughout the week-long technology fair,” Liang said.

Liang said the company will also be educating its channel partners and visitors that come to the stand on the various networking, WiFi solutions, 3G and wireless router offerings that the company has for the SOHO and SMB segment. “We want our partners to share their business experience with us and GITEX offers the perfect avenue for us to receive feedback. We also want to use the show this year, to educate people on how

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to use our networking range of products,” he said.

TP-LINK will be exhibiting in Zabeel Hall, stand Z-D30.

Crayon to exhibit at GITEX 2014

Crayon MEA, a global software expert, has announced that it will be attending the GITEX Technology Week 2014. In its 33rd Edition, the event is expected to attract over 1,142,000 ICT professionals from 150 countries, including more than 25k C-Level executives. The event will feature over 700 ICT companies from 61 countries with over 80 percent of the top global ICT brands being present.

Crayon MEA, part of Crayon Group, are experts at optimising client ROI from complex technology. Global leaders in software asset management (SAM), cloud, volume licensing and associated consulting services they are trusted advisors to many of the globe’s leading organisations. The business has deep strategic relationships with many of the world’s leading technology publishers including; Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, Veeam, CommVault, ExtendASP, Ensim and Kelverion. The organisation won Microsoft LSP Global CA Partner of the year 2014 along with being crowned Microsoft Global SAM Partner of the year for 2013.

Crayon MEA will have its sales team and consulting

delegates present at its Stand A7 - 46 in Hall 7, where visitors will be able to see and discuss the full range of services including; customised solutions in licensing, SAM and IT consultancy. It will also showcase the support services available to organisations seeking optimisation through the outsourcing of non-core business utilities in order to focus on fundamental priorities and improve service quality and enhance customer experience.

Rune Syversen, Group CEO, Crayon, said, “We are delighted to be participating in GITEX 2014 and look forward to talking to many of our customers and potential customers at this fantastic event. This is a major increase in exposure for our business in the region and demonstrates the depth of commitment we have to growing our business significantly throughout the Middle East and Africa.”

“Crayon have an enviable track record of success stories and achievements, whether with vendors or clients and we are eager to share our best practice and expertise with partners, customers and potential clients at this year’s GITEX show,” added Henrik Mattila-Kuusniemi, CEO, MEA, Crayon.

Avenir Telecom to make GITEX debut

European smartphone and mobile phone accessory firm Avenir Telecom group will attend GITEX Technology Week for the first time this year.

Avenir Telecom will showcase its range of products including connected and home automation devices, charging stations, hightech headsets and a new line of smartphones.

Energizer – a line of products to recharge and connect mobile

GITEX PREVIEW

devices – will be on show, including chargers for mobiles and tablets, and USB and audio connectivity devices.

The wireless, connected devices line BeeWi will also be part of the stand, including home automation devices, as well as headphones and speakers.

Every product is bundled with a mobile app for iOS, Android and Windows 8.

The BBH300 headphones come with a patented dock station that streams sound directly to a Hi-Fi stereo system.

Used as an audio gateway, the headphone allows users to listen their smartphone or tablet music playlists on their home stereo system, wirelessly and while charging the device.

Also on display will be mobile accessory firm OXO, who will introduce its range ‘Designed in France.’

“We can’t wait to tell all our customers about our extended product lines,” said Jean-Daniel Beurnier, CEO, Avenir Telecom.

“We bring a comprehensive range of smartphones and connected devices that meet and often exceed consumer expectations, with Yezz and our line of OXO accessories, Energizer and BeeWi. All of our hightech products come bundled with a mobile app and are designed in France. That is why we are proud to claim for the first year the right for the efficient and innovative ‘Designed in France’ label, at GITEX.”

demonstrations at its two stands – one in GULFCOMMS, Zabeel Hall, and one in the GITEX Smart Cities pavilion.

Visitors to the booths have the opportunity to sample Ericsson’s vision of living in the Networked Society, in which aspects of everyday life are stitched seamlessly together.

During the event, Ericsson will demonstrate its solutions, which enable the development of the Networked Society’s smart cities.

These advanced technologies will showcase how life experiences in a smart city are enhanced through more connectivity, with a particular focus on working life, city life and home life, allowing citizens to live and work in more sustainable societies.

Rafiah Ibrahim, President and Head of Middle East and North East Africa, Ericsson, said.

“As a provider of information and communications technologies and solutions, we consider ourselves enablers of the Networked Society. Living in a smart city environment will have dramatic lifestyle benefits for all residents, with a hyper-connected environment that is responsive to our everyday needs. The region is transforming towards the Networked Society through mobility. We are glad to be part of this transformation and showcase our capabilities at GITEX.”

Vision Solutions to exhibit at GITEX 2014

Ericsson to demonstrate ‘Networked Society’ at GITEX

Returning to GITEX after a 5 year absence, Ericsson will demonstrate ‘Life in the Networked Society’ at this year’s conference at Dubai World Trade Centre.

Ericsson will offer interactive

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Vision Solutions, a provider of

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replication, high availability, disaster recovery and workload migration software and services, will be showcasing its range of renowned solutions at GITEX Technology week this year.

There has been an increase in demand and investment in the replication and recovery technology in the Middle East across a broad range of industries including manufacturing, banking, transportations and logistics.

According to the company, GITEX provides the perfect opportunity to showcase its Double-Take, iTERA and MIMIX brands to not only large but small to medium sized businesses in the region.

“The Middle East Market is a specific area of focus for us and our goal is to bring regional awareness to our innovative, field-tested and easy to use solutions,” said Ahmad M. Khattab, Vice President of Sales, Growth Markets, Vision Solutions. “Knowing that GITEX attendees are often very technically astute individuals, we will have solution architects and subject matter experts present so that we can immediately discuss and address current projects, requirements and sketch out real-world solutions.”

Vision Solutions’ DoubleTake, iTERA and MIMIX make it easy for organisations to adopt cloud-based disaster recovery strategies, perform near-zero downtime migrations, share data in real-time across multiple platforms and move, protect and restore data, applications and operating systems of any kind on any combination of physical, virtual or cloud servers.

The company will be having daily presentations, individual consultations and live demonstrations at stand 702 in Hall 7 at Gitex 2014.

Cisco to showcase Smart and Connected City Vision of the future

Cisco has announced that it will showcase its Smart and Connected Communities (S+CC) technology solutions, aligning with the Dubai Smart City goals, at GITEX Technology Week 2014.

Under the umbrella theme of the Internet of Everything (IoE), Cisco will showcase Smart Cities technology solutions across the themes of smart plus connected communities, smart government and smart tourism, and hospitality. Critical within this will be how to protect the opportunity the IoE presents from cyber-attack, to enable it to fulfil its maximum potential.

The vendor’s stand will also feature a designated area for its strategic partners.

“Our return to GITEX Technology Week, coupled with our focus around smart and connected communities, not only demonstrates Cisco’s commitment to the Smart Dubai vision, but also to the UAE and the Middle East region as a whole,” said Rabih Dabboussi, General Manager, Cisco UAE. Globally, Smart Cities are being fueled by the IoE, which can lower costs, improve productivity, increase revenue, and improve citizen benefits for the UAE’s public and private sectors. Cisco predicts the IoE will create USD 19 trillion

GITEX PREVIEW

in value at stake globally, and of that amount, USD 4.6 trillion is in the public sector.

Cities alone can achieve USD 1.9 trillion in value through initiatives such as smart buildings, smart gas and water monitoring, smart parking, and smart waste management.

“The IoE will have a profound impact on the UAE, particularly as it seeks to deliver on initiatives like the Dubai’s Smart City initiative and World Expo 2020. By leveraging our experience and expertise with many of the world’s leading Smart Cities, the UAE and other Middle East countries will be able to transform daily lives of citizens and businesses, and set the benchmark in the global marketplace,” added Dabboussi.

During GITEX, Cisco will also unveil new research on security behaviours and trends in the workplace in the UAE, and the latest solutions from the Cisco Security teams.

Cisco stand will be located at Z-B40, Za’abeel Gulfcomms Hall.

SAP drives business transformations with cloud solutions

SAP has announced that it will use the cloud to drive the region’s IT simplification and

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business transformation at GITEX Technology Week 2014.

As investment pours into the GCC, and especially Dubai in the roll-out of Dubai Smart City and the build-up to World Expo 2020, SAP, the cloud company powered by HANA, is seeing strong demand for cloud-based IT solutions that boost ROI. “Thanks to the strong economic outlook for the GCC and Dubai, businesses will be left behind if they do not innovate now. As the region’s largest ICT event, GITEX Technology Week provides us with an unparalleled opportunity to demonstrate how the cloud can simplify IT and drive transformation,” said Sam Alkharrrat, President, SAP MENA. In line with SAP’s ‘Run Simply’ cloud strategy, the company will focus on four key areas of innovation- cloud, SAP HANA, mobility, and analytics.

SAP HANA integrates all SAP solutions into one realtime cloud-based platform.

Driving ROI, all underlying licenses of SAP software now includes the innovative SAP FIORI user experience.

With cloud as its core business, SAP’s annual cloud revenue is approaching $1.6 billion, and it is the fastestgrowing enterprise cloud company at scale, according to its Q2 2014 financial results.

“At GITEX’s centre stage will be Smart Cities, and we look forward to demonstrating how visionary cities like Dubai can leverage cloud-based solutions to innovate government service delivery, and drive the global Networked Economy,” added Alkharrat.

SAP will also meet with key customers, host closed breakout sessions, and

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demonstrate leading solutions.

The SAP stand will be located in Hall 6 at MAC 6-15.

CommScope to showcase latest enterprise and wireless solutions

CommScope, a global player in infrastructure solutions for communications networks, will showcase solutions for the challenges faced by business enterprise and wireless carrier network operators at the 2014 Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX 2014) from 12th to 16th October in Dubai.

CommScope experts will demonstrate and discuss solutions for enterprise and wireless networks in the Business Solutions sections of the exhibition.

“We believe GITEX 2014 will be a great platform for branding and relationship marketing with existing customers and partners, as well as potential ones,” said Jim Curran, Vice President, Enterprise Sales, Middle East and Africa region, CommScope.

“We plan to use this opportunity to reinforce the CommScope brand message and showcase CommScope’s full capabilities for business enterprise and wireless customers, with live product demonstrations of new solutions.”

During the week-long event,

the vendor has developed a programme to engage with their key customers and partners throughout the region and use the event as a platform to host face-to-face meetings and build networking opportunities. The company plans to engage with their customers through targeted activities, such as a technology forum and customer meetings and briefings on the stand.

“GITEX Technology Week is the leading IT and technology exhibition in the Middle East and we are looking forward to showcase our technologies and solutions,” added Curran.

CommScope will demonstrate its diverse portfolio of solutions for data centres, such as iTRACS– the data centre infrastructure management solution that empowers knowledge-based decision-making by replacing guesswork, variance, and risk with insight, foresight, and measurable ROI. Furthermore, CommScope will showcase its SYSTIMAX solutions, including imVision, which provides IT managers with unprecedented control over their infrastructure with state-of-theart intelligent management of the physical layer.

Also to be showcased will be CommScope’s new ‘data centre on-demand’ solution, which provides a flexible, highly efficient, purpose-built alternative to the traditional brick and mortar data centre.

With numerous available options, ‘data centre ondemand’ offers customers a tailored approach to addressing the needs of today while providing the flexibility to adapt with the business needs of tomorrow.

opinion

red hat

Seeing through the haze Petra Heinrich, VP Partners & Alliances, Red Hat, EMEA, explains how regional channel partners can lead the discussions around cloud.

From hype to disillusionment and back to deployment reality – cloud computing has been through all of this over the course of the last five years. As we move away from the grey economic downturn, enterprises looking to grow quickly are looking to cloud computing which eliminates the need to upfront investment in IT and enables businesses to scale IT architecture as they grow.

While many companies are aware of the benefits of cloud computing, they need help when it comes to deployment, and so turn to their partners and systems integrators for guidance. Channel partners should consider expanding their portfolio to include cloudrelated services, and to then offer integration services. These days you can’t make it by just selling hardware and here we’ll explore how channel partners can become cloud specialists while navigating some traditional concerns around cloud deployment.

Channel concerns with cloudy forecast It was not so long ago that the role of the channel was a lot more clearly defined. Whether you were an independent software vendor (ISV), a reseller,

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opinion

red hat

a distributor or a systems integrator, you knew your role. However, a shift is taking place, largely driven by the introduction of the cloud.

Some channel partners see their business opportunities being disrupted as cloud computing removes some of the expertise associated with installation and the setting up a new solution. Cloud computing also simplifies customisation and spreads costs out over many billing periods.

One of the other reasons partners have concerns expanding their portfolio to include cloud is grounded in the argument that cloud computing is insecure – supposedly because data that is stored outside of a company’s own systems is more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Finally, another common reservation for cloud deployment lies in the implications behind large dependence on one particular provider. For obvious reasons, enterprises would rather avoid vendor lock-in.

Opportunity in the cloud Open hybrid cloud computing offers partners new opportunities to increase sales through complementing technologies. In order to sell cloud solutions, partners need to understand how cloud computing infrastructure and services can be deployed in a way that is open and appropriate for both onpremise and off-premise data.

This is important because a hybrid cloud model enables the IT professional and enterprise to assess and differentiate

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between data that is highrisk and therefore should be housed on-premise, and data that is low-risk and can therefore be stored more cost effectively off-site.

The flexible open hybrid cloud approach allows users to look into the IT stack and if a more cost-effective, feature-rich or more appropriate service becomes available they can quickly and easily modify the stack. The opportunity for the partner is through enterprises using an open source model where open hybrid clouds enable enterprises to use other technologies from the most appropriate vendors, rather than being locked-in to one vendor technology stack, partners can cross-sell other technology which will be compatible.

Channel partners also need to be able to allay the traditional cloud computing deployment fears for their customers. Industry examples and deployments have now shown that using a hybrid cloud approach is secure and, in fact, offers enterprises a greater level of security and assurance around where their data is located. Similarly, channel partners can address concerns around using a single provider. A Linux-based OpenStack solution as the basis for a cloud infrastructure, allows enterprises to create a foundation based exclusively on open standards. This establishes fundamental

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of steps partners can go through to ensure that they are cloud ready: • Assess which server operating systems and virtualisation platforms are in use.

• Investigate what percentage of the system landscape is already virtualized.

• Evaluate what standard applications and self-developed applications are deployed and which applications are suitable for migration.

• Assess the dependencies between the applications.

• Consider statutory provisions to the storage and archiving of data • Gauge what service level agreements in place need to be considered

“Partners need to understand how cloud computing infrastructure and services can be deployed in a way that is open and appropriate for both on-premise and offpremise data.”

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infrastructure flexibility for both the channel partner and its customers.

Investigating the landscape The underlying difference for channel partners when selling cloud-based solutions is how they position their expertise on top of that of the cloud vendors. In the same way that newspapers have reinvented themselves online, channel partners need to reinvent themselves to meet their markets’ needs.

A channel partner’s conversation with their customer now needs to start with what the corporate IT department is trying to achieve versus what they might ultimately buy. In doing so, that changes the partner’s role from selling a few product lines to being a true service provider skilled in combining many products to deliver the best solution.

As a consultant to their customer, there are a number

Cloudy but bright success The future of the channel partner in the cloud world is taking on a new model.

The channel partner is someone who is capable of quickly understanding new products that are relevant to their business and serves as an expert for support and industry best practices.

Since the channel partner is actually doing more in this scenario, this is where they will benefit and ultimately earn more revenue.

An open hybrid cloud model enables the delivery of a more scalable and flexible, multi-tenant computing platform. As a result, business retains its freedom of choice – which is what open source is all about.

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opinion

spectrami

Path to success Anand Choudha, MD, Spectrami, discusses what is involved to implement and build an effective channel strategy.

It is a well-known fact that building an effective channel strategy in today’s world is critical to the success of a product in the market, however we see that many people go about it in the wrong way. So what does it take to create, build, operate and run a successful strategy? Is it about people or process and technology? Or is it about all of them or is it just sheer luck?

The answer lies in 3 Es envision, execute and evolve.

These three key aspects can make or break a channel

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with them to create a business plan, investment of resources, GTM strategy, defining KPI parameters, arming with marketing dollars, direct and indirect promotions and every conceivable effective lead generation activity that can increase footfall for your product and increase channel confidence. Also what is important to include in the plan is a defined training and incentive plan for the partners.

Hang the incentive high enough to make the partner jump to new levels and deliver for you.

The key to planning is data, lots and lots of data which needs to be worked on jointly with the partner. Large amounts “Once of data enable you parameters to make a better informed decision are defined, go around execution. in the field, sit with The the channel and create second aspect, ‘execution’ an elite force of sales, is critical to marketing and technical every business team who will take environment.

Ask any successful the product to the person and he will tell market.” you that right planning has to be followed up by precise and smart execution. strategy. As Benjamin Franklin A successful channel strategy once said, if you fail to plan, requires impeccable execution you are planning to fail. This of the plan. is especially true for building Once parameters are the strategy. defined, go in the field, sit with The critical component of the channel and create an elite a successful channel policy is force of sales, marketing and to be able to ‘envision’. This technical team who will take the includes a number of things product to the market. Provide from defining and identifying support by accompanying them the right partners, engaging

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for the first few meetings to show how it is done, and more importantly show them the money. Use the KPI dashboards to measure performance, carry out brand awareness exercises such as workshops to educate customer on products, create an incentive plan for the channel and award them to drive higher motivation.

The final aspect to an effective market strategy is to ‘evolve’. What we execute, we must evolve. That is the key to bringing it closer to perfection. Some of the best channel strategies adopted by organisations are also the ones which improvise with time. Evolution will include redefining the right partners and bringing new ones on board, discontinuing the nonperformers, and relooking at the investment that needs to be made to take the product to the next level. The focus should be to create and recreate competencies, understand people requirement, create certifications, incentives and rebates. Keep an eye into statistical data and make changes to plan and execution as and when required. This is a cycle which needs to be done on a regular basis and is a work in progress.

It is important to remember that one might not get the right channel strategy best defined the first time, however with the right envisioning, execution and evolution process, it is only a matter of time before it does.

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opinion

accessData

Securing businesses Craig Carpenter, Chief Marketing Officer, AccessData, urges the regional channel to take heed of cyber security incidents and prepare beyond anti-virus and single point security solutions.

It’s often helpful to poke our heads above the tree line and see what’s happening in the world around us in the form of major cybersecurity trends affecting all of us. With cybersecurity incidents and developments in the headlines daily, there’s no better time to try to make sense of it all – and plot a line across trends to show us where the market is headed.

Here are just the top stories in the news from the past few months. As you’ll see, they all point in the same direction, namely the dire need for near real-time detection, remediation, response and resolution of cyber incidents: • The OpenSSL story is just getting started. The ‘Heartbleed’ Open SSL flaw was a big deal when uncovered a month ago, as Open SSL is used

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to secure roughly 2/3 of the world’s websites. And a month later a second major flaw in Open SSL that leaves unpatched web servers vulnerable to a man-inthe-middle attack was reported.

• State-sponsored espionage rhetoric increases.

The US and China kicked their simmering cyberhacking feud to an entirely new level in May when the US indicted 5 members of the People’s Liberation Army for ‘computer hacking, economic espionage, trade secret theft, aggravated identity theft, and other offenses.’ To no one’s surprise, China’s response was swift and equally strongly worded.

• The breach drumbeat goes on. Just when we thought we’d moved past hearing the term ‘Target breach’ ad nauseam, eBay became the latest victim of a major cyberbreach, announcing in late May that an encrypted database housing user data had been hacked. eBay asked its 145 million users to reset their passwords as a “precautionary measure.” The online auction giant was criticised widely for its allegedly slow response to the breach, which is rumored to have gone weeks without being detected. Authorities in at least four states and the US’s Federal Trade Commission immediately launched an investigation into the breach and eBay’s response to it.

• Global governments increase pressure on breach

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notification and cybercrime penalties. Whether due to a genuine interest in protecting consumers or in an effort to gain politically from being seen to be ‘doing something’ (or both), governments across the world rushed to aid consumers when their data has been compromised and to bring cybercriminals to justice. The EU already has arguably the world’s most stringent notification requirement (within 24 hours of ‘detection’), currently applicable only to ISPs but potentially extending to all enterprises in the near future. The US’s Federal Trade Commission has already had a healthcare data breach notification requirement for four years, and has made no secret of its strong desire to stringently regulate breach notification at the national level as part of its privacy protection mandate.

That’s a staggering amount of news for the cybersecurity industry to absorb in a year, let alone in a four week span. But while the stories themselves are all different, they all point in the same direction for the cybersecurity market. Here’s what they’re telling us about where the cybersecurity world is and where it’s headed: Everyone is compromised, so you’d better be ready to act. State-sponsored hackers have virtually limitless resources and time. There is undoubtedly some vulnerability already on your network you

aren’t even aware of (think Open SSL). By far your safest approach is to assume you’ll be compromised.

Detection, confirmation and quick remediation are the keys. If you are going to be compromised, you need to know where and when bad things are happening so that they can be shut down. Speed here matters a great deal, both in detection and dwell time, as it can take mere minutes for critical data to be exfiltrated from a network.

Quick remediation is critical, but so is insight.

With so many government entities pushing to codify stringent breach notification requirements – and a 24-hour breach reporting requirement threatening to go EU-wide – knowing what happened with any material breach has also become mandatory. Waiting days or weeks to let customers know what may have happened with their data simply won’t cut it going forward.

While these cybersecurity requirements may seem daunting, they shouldn’t be. An era of continuous compromise calls for a response that is equally continuous, fast and comprehensive. As an industry, we need to look beyond antivirus and single point solutions and focus on the integration and sharing of threat detection and response to address these sophisticated attacks.

opinion

Aruba networks

The ‘Flexecutive’ Club Chris Kozup, Senior Director, Aruba Networks in collaboration with The Future Laboratory determines some key trends that will shape the workplace of tomorrow.

Our working lives are at a point of inexorable change.

Technologies are disrupting our traditional work patterns to such a degree that soon the term ‘office’ will become obsolete. In its place will be a new model for work – a flexible and collaborative environment where the mobile device is the tool around which everything else will flow.

Much of this change has been triggered by the new breed of worker, #GenMobile, who are putting mobility at the centre of their working and personal lives. They see themselves as innovators, and expect their employers to be too, eschewing the nine-to-five and instead working wherever and whenever they can connect to the cloud.

But if #GenMobile doesn’t need an office, what do they need? Working with insight consultancy The Future Laboratory, we’ve pinpointed some key trends that we think will shape the workplace of tomorrow globally and undoubtedly in the Middle East as well:

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The blending of business and leisure Thanks to the ubiquity of mobile devices, high-speed Wi-Fi and cloud computing, the merging of business and leisure has sparked a total rethink of how we structure our working day.

Companies are embracing subtle social engineering to create ‘serendipity corners’ and ‘chance-encounter corridors’, because people no longer have to be attached to a plug or a wire. Businesses are also finding that the more they can make work feel like a leisure activity, the more productive staff will be.

The frictionless office space If #GenMobile workers are becoming the norm, mixing business and leisure pursuits into one space, then it’s no surprise that the nature of workforces will also change.

From ‘frictionless foyer’ brands such as CitizenM, to Impact Hub Westminster with its open tables, talks and events, work is now about villages and communities, rather than departments and headquarters.

What we’re seeing now is an employee-centric model of working, where employers are using new practices that favour collaboration over competition, productivity over presenteeism, and invention over inhibition.

Without oppressive hierarchies, we can now become ‘Flexecutives’. We can work in temporary jobs, yet full-time roles, brought together as equals

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to design a product, launch a brand, or engineer a start-up, then move onto the next task when it’s complete. It’s fastpaced, the rewards come quickly, and the work never gets stale.

Dawn of the ‘Age of Everywhere’ The office used to be the place where things happened, but you, the employee, had to do all the work. The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing all that. To use author Adam Greenfield’s term, the ‘Age of Everywhere’ is upon us, where everything electronic is connected to the web.

Predictive devices are already communicating with one another to make our working lives increasingly seamless, and taking away much of the drudgery that gives work a bad name.

Some complain there’s no time for creative thinking, because we’re continually distracted by essential but menial tasks. Yet imagine a device that automatically locks your front door behind you, starts your car, pre-orders your latte when it realises you’re headed to the café, then automatically informs your colleagues you’re going to be late for a meeting when you hit traffic.

IoT will anticipate our objectives, learn our behaviour, then create the perfect environment where we can concentrate on what’s most important - ideas.

The personal information economy At the centre of everything we’ve

talked about here is data. It is becoming the business world’s most valuable commodity, and everyone wants to get their hands on it. Already we are seeing businesses using it to pre-empt consumer behaviour, and companies are harvesting it from co-workers, clients, and even competitors, to enhance productivity.

But rather than privacy too becoming a thing of the past, new businesses are emerging focused on data stewardship, storing your personal information and keeping it out of the reach of businesses.

The data will be back in your hands, yet we will understand just how much it can improve our lives, and we’ll share it because we choose to.

So where are you going to work?

The future workspace will look less like an office and more like a multi-purpose apartment or leisure park, where brands work collaboratively, feeding off each other’s innovation and productivity. By sharing space, we’ll share ideas, and this will create even better ones.

Our research indicates that only 14 percent of businesses globally have moved to this collaborative style of working. But as this transition accelerates, IT must be prepared to deliver the ‘all wireless workplace’ to meet the needs of the frictionless office.

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interview

Mahan Bolourchi

Risk and reward Delayed payments and defaulting on credit are serious issues plaguing the channel. Mahan Bolourchi, Director of Risk Management, Information and Claims, Euler Hermes, explains why it is critical that the channel players insure themselves against credit risk.

Could you describe the current insurance market related to the IT channel?

Globally, there is a 2.1 percent increase in IT spending from 2013 according to a Gartner report.

Within GCC and regionally, there’s been an increase of 8 percent in the IT industry from 2013.

What are the market trends affecting the IT channel business?

The numbers speak for itself where a result of 100 percent showed the total of UAE’s mobile network coverage rate and 183.7 million secure internet servers in the region.

UAE is ranked 24th on the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) and its government readiness is ranked third. Let us also consider the upcoming Expo 2020 ahead of us which foresees Dubai to be the most sustainable city. Further, there is the transformation of the Smart Government model as envisioned and directed by HH Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

How can distributors overcome the challenge of delayed payments?

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The main reason for such acts is because of tight liquidity, cash flow problems, negative working capital or fraud.

Therefore we as Euler Hermes GCC provide our clients and the whole industry with our insurance coverage the required knowledge in order to monitor payment records and mitigate such risk against non-payment which immensely benefits both small and large businesses, being protected against its customer’s inadequacy to pay trade debts.

How do you go about assessing the credit worthiness of a channel player?

In the past, often credit was provided without assessing the creditworthiness of the buyer and companies then wasted time and resources chasing payment.

This would subsequently result in the companies having to take legal action against customers who were not able to meet their obligations on time.

Credit risk management is about protecting the assets of the business. In the GCC, a large part of a company’s assets are trade receivables and businesses are increasingly protecting these assets through credit insurance.

As credit management is now been taken more seriously,

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the sales team should not decide alone which buyer can be given credit. The finance team should also be involved in the decision as there is a risk of payment default involved.

What are your criteria before you partner with a distributor?

A company needs to undergo the following steps to obtain credit insurance coverage: • Seller mitigates credit risk by signing a credit insurance policy • The client intends to supply goods or services to his buyer on credit terms.

• The client sends an application for cover to the insurer The insurer assesses the buyers, collects information, analyses the creditworthiness of the buyers and finally sets a credit limit for each buyer in the client’s portfolio. A credit limit is the maximum amount outstanding that will be insured.

The client will receive cover.

The client can then trade with the buyer without having to report anything as long as he is paid within the timeframe.

In addition, insurers will offer credit risk protection to the client: buyer insolvency or protracted default.

The insurer continues to monitor the buyer’s creditworthiness and will advise

the client if further credit can be safely provided or if the buyer’s financial situation is deteriorating and credit should be reduced.

How can trade credit insurance benefit SMEs? On a local level, many companies in the GCC are not as creditworthy as they used to be. Add regional problems triggered by the Arab Spring into the mix and it is evident that credit risk management is increasingly coming to the forefront of a company’s priorities.

We consider it our duty to protect our clients’ asset base by informing our clients early when we see a buyer’s financial situation deteriorate. We have noticed that credit management is being taken more seriously as companies increasingly focus on collecting cash and getting paid upfront for their sales.

Generally, large multinationals in the region followed the credit risk management strategies of their parent company, whereas the GCC has traditionally been a market where late payment was accepted. However, post-credit crunch, even local companies have become far more stringent about when they will get paid and are less likely to accept long delays in the payment process.

Today, we are seeing long-established businesses in the region credit insure their trade debts and outsource their credit checking. Credit risk insurers will not only underwrite this trade debt but will minimise risk through offering advice on who to offer credit to. The insurer will also assist with collection in the event of non-payment.

“post-credit crunch, even local companies have become far more stringent about when they will get paid and are less likely to accept long delays in the payment process.�

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emax

retail therapy The retail landscape has transformed dramatically in the region as malls become a way of life. Reseller ME finds out from Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO, Emax Electronics on what is next for the eight-year-old retailer as it reaches its 100th store milestone by 2017.

Emax Electronics’ first official store was sprawled across 100,000 square feet in Sharjah in the UAE and even after eight years, it remains the largest electronic store in the Middle East today.

It takes immense foresight and confidence and not to mention courage to begin with a “big bang” as its CEO, Neelesh Bhatnagar puts it. But staying firm to his belief and not heeding the naysayers, Bhatnagar went ahead and took the risk of opening a large-sized store to debut in the electronics segment in the region and from then, there was no looking back – building the Emax empire across the

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GCC which represents more than 800 brands over 20 plus categories.

With over 56 stores across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain today, the retailer expects to open its 100th store by mid-2017.

However, Bhatnagar is not too concerned about growth as he believes with the kind of investments and efforts being put in, growth is a natural progression. “Growth is a natural result of our efforts.

Our ultimate aim is to present electronics to the common man in a simplified manner.

With every new store, our intention is to increase and enhance the customer experience. Our objective of ‘Electronics Simplified’

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differentiates us in the market and has worked out well for us,” he says.

When Bhatnagar envisioned Emax, eight years ago, he had intended it to be a large-format destination retail chain, but the current market scenario demanded otherwise. He explains, “Today rather than being large format destination stores, our strategy is to be present in the malls in slightly smaller formats. Our aim is to be the mall player of the GCC.” What has also undergone a transformation in the market is the importance given to presales and postsales services over the recent years. Today a customer do not purchase a product simply

30% YoY growth for the last three years

by itself but also considers the presales and post-sales services available with it.

The expertise in this offering was lacking from retailers in this part of the region

With every new store, our intention is to increase and enhance the customer experience. Our objective of ‘Electronics Simplified’ differentiates us in the market and has worked out well for us.”

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emax

as compared to its European counterparts. Bhatnagar says, “Here selling electronics was more about moving the brown boxes containing the gadgets.

We have raised the bar with respect to presales and postsales. This is where customers need guidance and people now understand the meaning of service.”

Also with very little product differentiation present in the market today, services will play a large role in helping customers decide on a purchase. Identifying this opportunity, Emax has developed its after-sales service called, Smart Care and delivers presales in terms of customer experience, display, touch and feel and also provides buying guides to help the customer ask the right questions to the salesmen, enhancing his purchase decision. “I’m glad some of the competitors are also following suit but one has to remain ahead of the game,” he adds.

Presently an electronic anchor store in most prominent malls, Emax has been growing consistently at 30 percent year-on-year for the last three years.

The retailer also has an online store through the Landmark Group and although the response has

Sales will fall in line, showrooms will keep opening, market shares will keep increasing - all this will happen naturally. Once the basics are right, customer loyalty and sales will follow.” been encouraging, Bhatnagar says it will be some time before e-commerce takes off full-fledged in the region.

“Shopping is a lifestyle and a passion for customers here and with a mega mall situated every one and half kilometres, they are spoilt for options. The amount of retail space being added in the UAE is also to a large extent.

Therefore, I believe the impact of e-commerce growth may not be as significant here as it is in the western countries.

However it is definitely a trend that is here to stay and we are gearing up for it.”

With accolades for being the largest electronics retailer in the region, the secret for a successful business, says Bhatnagar, is offering value to the customer without compromising on the pricing, promotion and marketing.

“People are price conscious here, therefore the benefit you get by being better than your competition is not about the price but you achieve a larger

volume of business and gain customer loyalty. The winning combination involves offering the best presales and postsales service simultaneously with best offers on the floor,” says Bhatnagar. “Since the customer is not willing to pay a premium for better service, we must be more efficient and cost-effective – this should be the name of the game to be successful in this business. Also, efficiency is the difference between profit and loss.”

With the 100th store milestone just over the horizon, what is next in store for the retail conglomerate?

According to the CEO, the retail chain aspires to be a place where customers can come and learn about electronics while on the floor.

“We need to take the leadership in terms of bringing a technology to the common man’s grasp, allow him to understand what it is all about. I tell my staff that whenever a customer walks in and out of Emax, he should

I tell my staff that whenever a customer walks in and out of Emax, he should have learned something about technology by walking on the floor, irrespective of whether he made a purchase or not.”

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100,000 square feet – area of first store in Sharjah

have learned something about technology by walking on the floor, irrespective of whether he made a purchase or not.

Personally I want Emax to be a place where customers come and learn,” he says. “Sales will fall in line, showrooms will keep opening, market shares will keep increasing; all this will happen naturally. Once the basics are right, customer loyalty and sales will follow.”

Electronics is a fast growing category and as the market matures further and customer demands transform, it will increasingly become difficult to rise above the competition.

However, as Bhatnagar says, with the basics established concretely, the growth possibilities are immense and it is up to each player to grow the market efficiently.

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piracy

Winning the counterfeit battle Piracy and counterfeiting have been age-old issues in the regional channel environment and over the years have discredited the IT resellers in the eyes of the end-users. Reseller ME finds out measures to counter this problem.

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Piracy and counterfeit - two words every established vendor or manufacturer has to fight against since time immemorial.

Although it has reduced a great deal with more awareness and education over the years, global enterprises are expected to spend about $114 billion to combat the repercussions from this problem. It continues to be no laughing matter especially in developing markets and is an issue the regional channel needs to gravely counter.

According to a 2010 BSA-IDC global software piracy research paper, the MEA region as a

whole had a piracy rate of 59 percent in 2008. And in another study the research firm said that the rate of counterfeit software in the UAE was 37 percent in 2011, which was pegged as the lowest in the region and was better than global average of 42 percent. Interestingly, as per the 2011 BSA Global Software Piracy study, UAE has hovered around this rate for the previous four years as well, right from 2007.

While the total MEA rates has decreased marginally from 2007 by 1 percent.

And like piracy, counterfeit products too have plagued the industry for a long time. The components and peripherals

market have borne the brunt of this problem over the years.

Although the problem has been reduced, the questions is what can be done more? From a channel perspective, customers have lost faith in the reseller community and vendors too have been at the receiving end of customer’s vexation.

Shailendra Rughwani, CEO, Dubai Computer Group (DCG), says piracy is the biggest problem facing the IT industry. “The steps taken by large companies and organisations have controlled piracy to some extent but it still remains a major issue. As DCG we have always supported anti-

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37%

The rate of counterfeit software in the UAE in 2011

piracy initiatives taken by different organisations and have also supported the EIPA (Emirates Intellectual Property Association) and BSA (Business Software Alliance). We have spread awareness among

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Measures to curb piracy and counterfeit

78%

of counterfeit software contains malware

our members to do clean business. The associations have also created awareness among end users about buying original products.”

Often customers opt for the pirated or counterfeited products as usually they are easily available free of cost or at a minimal price when compared to the original.

Nandini Sapru, Director Sales, EMT Distribution, says, “Sometimes companies purchase a large number of licenses expecting growth in their employees. But when these licenses go unused, they sell the extra licenses in the market at a low cost.

This has resulted in many customers having incompatible software and in return the

Conduct ethical business: Resellers should ensure that their business dealings follow the ethical standards required. Buying products from only vendor-authorised distributors is one way of ensuring this. They need to be responsible for all the goods that they sell.

They should function as a community and keep an eye out for counterfeit products in the market and report such incidents. What needs to be understood is that the ripple of the business losses can affect all the channel stakeholders in one way or other, which makes it imperative for partners to work together with vendors.

Enforce stricter laws: There are various laws on piracy and counterfeit existing in the country such as Trademarks Law and UAE Anti

software vendor getting a bad reputation for bad service.”

Customers and partners should be made aware of the consequences of pirated software and counterfeit hardware. Microsoft’s study, The Hidden Dangers of Pirated Software attributes 45 percent

-Commercial Fraud Law. However, there needs to be a stricter implementation of these laws.

Education and awareness: Vendors and distributors should conduct awareness programmes and educate their channel partners on the consequences of dealing with pirated and counterfeited products. The nature of the existing laws should be communicated to channel partners and other stakeholders in these kind of programmes.

Branding: Vendors must undertake stricter standards and maintain the branding for their products, right from the packaging material to colours used. Hologram stickers can also help in identifying if the product is genuine, as it is tougher to imitate.

of counterfeit software comes from the Internet while 78 percent of them contains malware. Out of which, at least 36 percent contains Trojans and Adware. For the consumers, the ultimate risks involve loss of time, money and personal data.

We can see that both private and government sectors are enforcing the law and policies to fight piracy, and we saw many court cases that have severely punished the parties involved in such activities.”

Pradeesh VS, General Manager at ESET Middle East

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Canon follows a two pronged approach to anticounterfeiting. Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Director, Canon Middle East, says, “Our approach is to educate and enforce. Education involves providing knowledge to our partners, the second tier channel and consumers on how to identify fakes and the negative effects of using counterfeits.

This is done through trainings, in-store communications, press and media. Enforcement refers to conducting investigations on suspicious dealers, taking legal action in terms of raids and seizures.”

The vendor has initiated various campaigns to educate end customers and has also worked with enforcement agencies in many countries

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piracy

to take legal action against defaulting dealers. “Recently we did an ATL campaign in Morocco which was well received by the channel and customers. We communicated with a visual that sent the message about how counterfeit toners can damage printers.

This awareness helped us to convince customers to always verify if the product they are buying is genuine or fake,” adds Verbrugghe.

According to Pradeesh VS, General Manager, ESET Middle East, having a clear policy and a user agreement that educates and warns the users about the dangers of software piracy should also help. He says, “We are always in search for websites that promote and distribute illegal copies of our products with stolen credentials, and we take necessary measure against these websites. We always try to flag these site and channels.

Since the product will not get the latest signature updates unless it is connected to our update servers, this help fighting piracy. We also have systems in place that enable us to keep track of the license

It creates price difference and trust deficit in the channel. Due to price difference, sales get affected and the end customer suffers. Vendors invest very cautiously and hence creates barrier for new players to add to the channel.”

Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Director, Canon Middle East

usage and report users in case of violations.

“We conduct regular internal audits which help us determine the license usage. We have also found it particularly effective to avoid the one-time activation method. Having our software solutions connect to the internet also helps us monitor their licensing.”

Rughwani from DCG adds, “Vendors should sell all their hardware products with original operating system preinstalled. Most of the software vendors effected by piracy are taking strong steps apart from legal actions, they are making sure that the users of pirated products do not get any support for the product.”

Resellers can help in controlling piracy by adhering to the principles of doing clean and ethical business.”

Shailendra Rughwani, CEO, DCG

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60,000 counterfeited smartphones worth AED 48 million seized by Dubai CID last month

Distributors too should play an active role in ensuring that partners are educated and made aware of the drastic consequences of dealing with pirated software and counterfeit products.

Nandini Sapru, Director Sales, EMT Distribution, says, “We always ask for customers to purchase software from authorised resellers in the region. At time of software renewal we always authenticate the keys that are being renewed. This ensures that piracy is curbed. We train our partners to urge end customers to use original software so that support is always available.”

Another effective way to curb this problem will

be certifying partners with authorised training when they purchase original software, adds Sapru.

Rughwani believes that the problem has extensively reduced compared to a few years ago with the Government laws helping to lessen the problem to a large extent. He further adds, “Resellers can control the piracy by adhering to the principles of doing clean and ethical business. It is a very serious offence and is considered as a criminal act in UAE. If all the resellers follow this golden rule, piracy can be eradicated to a large extent.”

Piracy and counterfeit is a global, multi-billion dollar problem and according to Pradeesh one that has serious economic and health ramifications for governments, businesses and consumers. “Those companies who are strong to fight it are still facing financial loss, this affect both the business and the IT channel.”

The industry as a whole need to come together to fight against this delinquency. And partners need to lead this as they are the ones directly in the market and can report it.

We’re all geared up!

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desktop virtualisation

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Driving future growth

The evolving market trends demand that businesses move towards virtualisation, and desktop virtualisation comes with its own set of nuances. Reseller ME explores the channel prospects in this technology.

As organisations are experiencing the benefits of cloud, a number of legacy technologies have progressively moved towards the virtual space, right from servers to storage. And with the workforce becoming increasingly mobile, businesses are now experimenting with desktop virtualisation. Although not quite mainstream yet, it is

definitely being dabbled with and is only a matter of time before it takes the enterprise world by storm.

And this is precisely why channel partners should sit up and take notice of this technology and strike when the iron is hot.

However according to channel experts, partners are reluctant to dive into this technology.

Mario Veljovic, ‎Vice President Solutions MENA,

www.resellerme.com

Global Distribution says, “The legacy virtual desktop management is performed by a combination of SAN, networking, and core infrastructure administrators, which is unnecessarily complicated and expensive, which make partners hesitate to proactively suggest this solution.”

Agreeing, Anand Choudha, MD, Spectrami says, “Only limited numbers of partners

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are focusing on desktop virtualisation solutions, rest do not see the big opportunity in the region yet.” However Choudha adds that the market is growing at an accelerating rate and the demand is on the rise when compared to last year, even though it is gradual.

“Since last year, we have seen a great percentage of growth in the sales for this specific segment,” he adds.

The reason for partners’ reservations towards desktop virtualisation comes from inadequate knowledge about its applications and benefits.

According to Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East, partners are not well-acquainted with the technology. He says there is a difference in being well-versed with its benefits and being in a position to answer any customer queries and play the role of an advisor. “Partners are able to have discussions with customers around the subject but often reach out to vendors when opportunities evolve from discussions to engagements or initiatives. Often what helps to seal a deal are tailor-made solutions to a specific problem the customer might be facing,” explains Hasan.

Channel partners should take the time out to not only understand the advantages of desktop virtualisation but also develop unique and effective strategies in order to be a differentiator in the market.

Comstor’s Senior Technical Consultant, Ahmed Rushdy, says one of the ways partners can successfully sell this technology is by enabling themselves on the VDI

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validated solution design and on how to demonstrate security in DaaS and VDI solution, especially if it is a cloud based one.

He says, “Partners should have more enablement campaigns from Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution vendors as most of the time VDI are integrated solutions offered by multiple vendors that requires the right technical and business knowledge.”

Vendors and distributors have a large role to play in enabling partners to increase their expertise in this field.

Veljovic believes vendors and distributors should build technology alliances and further investment in partner enablement. However, he says, “it should be looked at beyond a particular vendor and addressing VDI more holistically.”

Noman Qadir, Director of Channels, Middle East and Africa, Citrix, believes training and support is critical for partner enablement. He says, “Through the intensive training programmes that Citrix offers, most of our channel partners are self-sufficient when it comes to their business. Once the partners are well-versed in the technologies and products, we focus on providing technical support to them to help them grow their business. For instance, we work closely with them to draft and respond to RFPs where necessary.”

He further adds that vendors and distributors can help by ensuring that customers’ needs are considered while proposing the infrastructure rather than taking a one-size-fits-

september 2014 Reseller Middle East

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Industry speak Partners’ guide to optimise desktop virtualisation “Dedicated engineers and sales teams can change the conversation from boxes to solutions – from servers, storage, and networking to end-to-end solutions for the business. A strong dedicated team can be further bolstered with resources for proof of concepts to optimise opportunities present in virtual desktop.”

- Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Dell Middle East.

“Partners should have the right technoCommercial solution offering that provides the answer to the customer challenges.

Partners need to be more enabled on how to calculate Return of Investment to Customers and demonstrate the performance of the solution.”

- Ahmed Rushdy, Senior Technical Consultant, Comstor “Partners should consider working with other alliance and ecosystem partners, such as HP, IBM and Cisco. These alliance and ecosystem partners will have existing storage and server infrastructure already deployed at end customers. Continuing to maintain relationships with a range of complimentary vendors partners to fulfill requirements around desktop virtualisation is integral to success. This provides a much faster and smoother way towards potential customers and ensuring deployment cycles are shortened.”

- Noman Qadir, Director of Channels, MEA, Citrix

all approach. This helps in planning capacity accurately.

Through intensive training programmes the aim is to offer partners an opportunity to see desktop virtualisation as a norm rather an emerging technology. Citrix has run

desktop virtualisation training programmes regularly for its Middle East channel partners for over five years. “Through this, almost all regional partners are now very well aware of the various benefits and advantages that desktop

virtualisation offers to an organisation. In addition, we train partners on ROI analysis and work with them on customising Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) studies for their customers,” adds Qadir Hasan further adds, “The right collaboration model for partners should involve a vendor who can provide the flexibility to explore a breadth of solutions and make resources available to enable partners to deep-dive and get hands-on with customers.”

But with all the training programmes, it is pertinent for partners to first understand the demand themselves.

“After which they need to be educated enough to get the most possible benefits out of this technology, accordingly they need to educate their customers and we help them doing that. We do this in various ways, one of them being roadshows through which we have been able to increase the awareness in the region,” says Choudha.

Lack of knowledge and low customer acceptance are two challenges the regional channel is currently facing. Qadir says, “A primary challenge that

Only limited numbers of partners are focusing on desktop virtualisation solutions, rest do not see the big opportunity in the region yet.”

Anand Choudha, MD, Spectrami

partners face is resistance from customers. Some customers have the wrong perception that desktop virtualisation requires a very high upfront cost.”

Although this was the case a couple of years ago, it is increasingly changing as vendors and distributors are taking an active role in assuaging this concern. As the technology is being now being widely adapted and cost of storage and other hardware has reduced over the years, the overall upfront costs have reduced significantly.

It is also crucial to note that partners will also need experts in the pre-sales and post-sales team who have enough knowledge on desktop virtualisation and application delivery and this is easier said

than done. Partners need to invest on time in finding the right kind of people and work towards training and educating them.

Hasan adds, “The large timelines involved with VDI initiatives and the rapidly evolving developments in VDI solutions, compounded by the diversity of offerings, providing proof of concepts at customer sites, and the multiple hierarchies of conversations and engagements that are often involved at the customer further pose as challenges to the channel partners.”

While Rushdy goes on to explain that the complexity and the initial capex required for the technology are some other challenges for VDI Solutions. He says, “Accurate sizing of all the components

Desktop virtualisation should be looked at beyond a particular vendor and addressing VDI more holistically.”

Mario Veljovic, Vice President Solutions MENA, Global Distribution

www.resellerme.com

involved in the solution such as servers, storages, virtual layer and on how to utilise a converged infrastructure to provide up-to-date cost saving solution offering is important.

“In DaaS environment one of the major challenges would be demonstrating and incurring SLA of performance,” he adds.

The technology around desktop virtualisation is constantly evolving and therefore it is crucial for channel partners to evolve with it. Qadir further adds, “It is important for channel partners to continue focusing on services to implement mobile device management, mobile application delivery and management and desktop virtualisation in a secure manner to varied devices as customer requirements.”

As the market for desktop virtualisation promises to be a high growth avenue and with only few partners currently in this space, there exists a tremendous opportunity for the channel. Partners should take the initiative to educate themselves on the technology and develop effective marketing strategies in order to successfully sell this technology.

Reseller Middle East september 2014

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ADVERTORIAL

Secunia Research Team Discovers Critical Vulnerabilities IT Security in the Middle East: Concerns and Opportunities Earlier this year, IDC proclaimed IT security was too big of a concern to be disregarded by companies based in the Middle East.

Recent attacks have urged both CIOs in the region to consider investing more in IT security awareness and governments to devise and implement national information security strategies. Examples include the National eSecurity Center in Saudi Arabia, NESA and aeCERT in the UAE and QCERT and ictQatar in Qatar.

The Middle East Cybersecurity market is estimated to grow from $5.17 billion in 2014 to $9.56 billion in 2019, which represents an estimated compound annual growth rate of 13.07%, according to a study by MarketsandMarkets. Also, we estimate that financial losses in the UAE and Saudi Arabia – the biggest IT markets in the region – reached about $3 million on average per company in year 2013. Sectors including oil & gas, banking and financial services and telecoms are most attractive to cybercriminals.

The proliferation of mobile and business applications and the explosion of smartphone penetration have not only provided companies with insights into consumer behaviour but also allowed hackers to increase their attacks. Therefore, IT and cybersecurity companies are required to invest further in security intelligence, deploy more resources to adapt to the market needs and proactively uncover any vulnerabilities.

Secunia, the leading provider of IT security solutions is extending its reach in the market to meet those demands. The company will also be present at Gitex Technology Week 2014 to highlight its commitment to this region and celebrate the accomplishments of its unmatched Research Team.

Middle East Cybersecurity market growth From $5.17 billion in 2014 to $9.56 billion in 2019

Oil & Gas, Banking and Financial services and Telecoms sectors are most attractive to cybercriminals

Financial losses in the UAE and Saudi Arabia reached about $3 million on average per company in year 2013

Secunia Research Team: the Most Reliable Source of Information Since the inauguration of Secunia, it has been the company’s goal to be the most accurate and reliable source of Vulnerability Intelligence. The Secunia Research team comprises a number of Secunia security specialists who conduct their own vulnerability research in various products in addition to testing, verifying and validating public vulnerability reports, and meticulously coordinate vulnerability disclosure with researchers and vendors.

“With the upsurge in cyber-attacks, individuals and enterprises alike want to ensure that their sensitive data is safe and secure. This is why our customers greatly appreciate our accuracy in verfying all disclosed vulnerabilities and the reliability of the information we provide. Being the world’s most trustworthy Vulnerability Intelligence source requires skilled and dedicated staff with a passion for exposing vulnerabilities”, said Kasper Lindgaard, Director of Research and Security at Secunia.

The Secunia Research Team members spend a considerable amount of time researching various high-profile closed source

and open source software using a variety of approaches, but focus mainly on thorough code audits and Binary Analysis.

This allows them to verify and detect vulnerabilities that are not normally nor easily found via e.g. fuzzing techniques. Members of the Secunia Research Team have discovered critical vulnerabilities in many popular products from various vendors including: Microsoft, Symantec, IBM, Adobe, RealNetworks, Trend Micro, HP, Blue Coat, Samba, CA, Mozilla and Apple.

There are different platforms available to access information released by the Secunia Research Team including, 1) Secunia advisories which are available for non-commercial, private use; 2) Secunia Vulnerability Intelligence Manager (VIM) which is a powerful threat intelligence solution covering more than 50,000 systems and applications and accessible to users by license for commercial/ corporate use; and 3) the Secunia Corporate Software Inspector (CSI) which receives information about the security patches made available for the vulnerabilities present in the corporation’s infrastructure.

ADVERTORIAL

through Advanced Technologies Code of Conduct: the Secunia Disclosure Policy Based on years of experience with vendors of various sizes having different approaches and attitudes towards fixing vulnerabilities, Secunia has witnessed that software vendors too often deliberately fail to respond to vulnerability reports, do not respect the valuable work made by the researcher, or simply take too long to develop fixes thus leaving their customers exposed for a long period of time.

Hence, the Secunia Research Team has decided upon a standard disclosure policy, which represents a reasonable “match” between a fair amount of engineering and quality assurance efforts and the need of providing a timely fix to vulnerabilities. The team first works on sourcing the right security contacts and following up with the vendor to remedy the issue. However, should the vendor not respond to the repeated requests, the vulnerability information is published without further coordination attempts.

By default, vulnerabilities are coordinated for no more than 6 months. About one month prior to the half year mark, the vendor is informed about a fixed disclosure date set by Secunia Research at the half year mark. At that time, a Secunia advisory is published regardless of patch availability. A vulnerability may in certain cases be coordinated for up to one full year if the vendor is communicating a clear intention to address the vulnerability and can commit to a date within that period and the vulnerability is considered to be complex to address.

Secunia’s participation at GITEX 2014 “Secunia will be present at Gitex this year to increase visibility and awareness about our Research Team and highlight our commitment to the Middle East. This is evident in our team’s investments in researching and publishing the quarterly KSA country reports releasing critical information on the state of security on private Saudi PCs. Being one of the biggest tradeshows worldwide, this event will also serve as a great platform to network with customers, partners and other vendors.

Secunia has seen significant growth in the past year throughout its operations in the region and is determined to continue acquiring bigger shares in the Middle Eastern cybersecurity market,” commented John Spoor, Director Emerging Markets & APAC at Secunia.

partner watch

Buraida Computers

The matter of margins Nazeer C. P, Managing Director, Buraida Computers, highlights the issue of low margins in the channel and how partners can survive it.

In the highly competitive regional channel environment, low margins continue to be the crux of resellers’ vexation.

Nazeer C.P, Managing Director, Buraida Computers, reaffirms this conundrum and says, “The biggest challenge for a reseller today is how to increase the margins?”

Buraida Computers has been in operations since 2005 and has witnessed the growth as well as the difficult period of the economic downturn. Terming themselves as a dedicated specialist in consumables such as toners and cartridges, it is an authorised reseller of HP and a business partner of other brands such as Canon, Xerox, Brother, Lexmark and Samsung. With around 60 percent of business coming from HP alone, Nazeer says the competition is steep.

“As the margins are low in the

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consumables business, we are thinking of diversifying our product range and focus,” he adds.

Nazeer plans to introduce networking and storage products to his portfolio and is thinking of focusing on a different customer segment to ease the pressure of low margins. In another attempt to maintain the margins, he has also opened a second store last year, ‘Office Me Office Supplies’ which directly deals with corporate customers for office supply products. He says, “Right now we get only around 4 to 7 percent margins with rebates considered. The office supply store is a small beginning but we are looking at growing and utilising market opportunities. Right now in the dealer channel market, there is heavy competition in the regional computer business.”

Being a member of Dubai Computer Group (DCG) for the last three years, Nazeer explains

september 2014 Reseller Middle East

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that this is the key concern for the association and it is focusing on finding a way out. “DCG is trying to solve this issue, perhaps if all the shops followed a fixed price system, then at least everyone could maintain the same margins.”

Another concerning issue in the channel today is counterfeit products. Nazeer urges customers and partners to deal with only authorised and audited partners to avoid this problem.

He says, “Non-partners usually indulge in such activities.

When people mix the products within a batch of products, it is difficult to identify the fake ones.

Vendors can help in putting a stop to this and I know vendors such as HP are closely monitoring the market. HP has audited our premises for anti-counterfeit and we are the genuine HP supplier.”

Buraida Computers has been growing at an annual rate of 20 percent year-on-year, even with

the current market scenario. But there is no time to rest on your laurels, says Nazeer. And also admitting that 2014 has not been a particularly good year, he adds, “We are looking at maintaining our customer base in the UAE and also looking at expansion to other countries, provided we have the right partners and the right team in place.”

Having already surveyed the Qatar market, Nazeer is keen on taking the business to greater heights. He says, “In 2015, the main focus for us will be to increase our margins, look at adding other product lines and expansion. I have always been confident of facing any kind of challenging market environment which has helped us to grow.”

A reseller partner of various distributors such as Redington, Metra and Despec, the company will be soon working with Logicom as well for its recently acquired HP Supplies business.

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partner watch

Tech Mahindra

Riding the growth wave GB Kumar, Vice President and Geo Head, Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey, Tech Mahindra, says with the region set for increased IT spending, there is a huge growth opportunity for channel players.

What are the highlights from Tech Mahindra in the last few quarters?

The company has been able to register excellent performance over the last few months.

These results have been very encouraging and show our efforts in aiming to close large deals in the region. We currently have 30 clients in the region, out of which 40 percent are coming from the UAE. We do see significant and transformational growth ahead of us in Middle East region.

How do you expect to enhance your presence in the region?

Our expertise across various technology-based verticals is expected to consolidate the shift, helping streamline services in healthcare, education, security, energy, logistics, financial services, hospitality and real estate.

Our partnerships with key organisations and companies from both the public and private segment play an essential role in our move to mark a stronger presence in the region. For example, our

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MoU with the Dubai Economic Council (DEC), strongly demonstrates Tech Mahindra’s eagerness to play a key role in the vision set forth by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to transform the Emirate into one of the world’s premier Smart Cities. We have expressed our support in the move to meet Dubai’s vision of being a ‘Connected World, Connected Solutions, Connected City’ and more importantly a secure city.

What are your expansion plans?

We are looking towards expanding our presence in the region — consolidating our reputation as a leading IT player by providing world class IT and ITeS solutions, not only for revenue and profit purposes but to also extend career opportunities for talented and highly skilled men and women in the region. From our perspective, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is the region’s biggest market, yet our share in that area remains very small. To

september 2014 Reseller Middle East

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expand our presence, we have entered into a joint venture with Midad Holding, a subsidiary of Al Fozan. The JV is expected to help us gain traction in the Kingdom and help us win more projects in the oil and gas, utility and banking segments.

Midad Holding will help us expand our presence in the KSA. Our differentiating strengths in networking, mobility, analytics, cloud and security will be of key importance in bringing value to Saudi customers. We are also upbeat about the agreement that we have signed with the DEC, which aims to provide IT solutions to help achieve the ‘Smart City’ status and for Expo 2020 initiatives.

Could you elaborate on your cloud portfolio?

Our years of expertise in telecom and business solutions have made us a strong, reliable player within cloud solution providers.

We have a focused set of Digital Enterprise Solutions that set forth to help our customers transform into digital enterprises.

We enable enterprises, telecom companies and ISVs

around the world to adopt cloud based IT capabilities, help optimise costs, enhance time to market, and bring in the much desired flexibility in IT operations.

Our cloud services portfolio also includes services such as cloud advisory, cloud implementation, cloud migration and SaaS services.

How do you see the technology landscape evolving in this part of the world?

A recent study made by IDC for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey area shows that IT spending for the Middle East region is expected to exceed $32 billion by the end of this year, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 7.3 percent. In line with this growth, consumers along with the public sector and communications and financial services segment, have been pegged as the biggest IT spenders in the region— representing 74 percent of the actual IT spend. In addition, the region is seeing momentum picking up in key industries like airways, airports, oil and gas and public sectors.

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partner watch

Al-Futtaim Technologies

Differentiate by services Venkat Raghavan, General Manager, Al-Futtaim Technologies, enlightens on the evolving role of systems integration in the regional IT environment and the way forward.

Could you elaborate on your role as a systems integrator?

We term ourselves as a ‘converged systems integrator’.

It goes beyond the classical definition of a systems integrator or an IT company – those engaged with software services and software implementation.

Although we do that, as a converged systems integrator, our occupation predominantly is with deploying turnkey solutions.

And usually a turnkey solution always begins with deploying the whole infrastructure right from passive layer, cabling and also networking. We specialise in turnkey solutions for the construction sector. This business is directly linked to the growth of new infrastructure

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built in the country which includes verticals such as hospitality, healthcare and education. As more projects are being announced, it will fuel the need for converged systems integration deployment. When it comes to deploying CRM or ERP, we address the small and midmarket segment.

What are the opportunities for an SI in managed services?

You need to be comprehensive and versatile when offering managed services. The ultimate managed service is Software-asa-Service or Infrastructure-as-aService and within that there is a lot you could offer.

It terms of Software-as-aService, what does the local systems integrator offer either

september 2014 Reseller Middle East

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country wide or regionally?

First and foremost, you have to identify which are the services that will imply a local knowledge, understanding and heavy customisation. Some customers opt for managed services because they prefer the pay-as-you-go model. Here, you don’t need capex and there is no outright purchase. It goes easy on your cash flow and gives you the ability to scale up and down when required. It also allows for a simpler exit.

The second attractive aspect of managed services is that one can outsource a considerable part of your IT and by outsourcing you can minimise the human resources.

And the third aspect is that you will focus on your own core.

What is driving the trend of SIs getting into a managed services model?

I believe what will drive SIs into this business is the technology evolution itself. Today IT systems have been pushed to the edge. Previously we were dependent on laptops, desktops and the entire process power was in the mainframe, today it is different. Increasingly, the flexibilities of the system means that there is not much scope for product differentiation. Same goes for price differentiation.

For quite some time now, it has been about the services differentiation. When we speak to the client today, we say the products are similar; however,

it is about how much you can get out of this deployment and that depends on who you do this with. It is not just about the knowledge of the product but also about the environment. If you are already differentiating by services then the next step is to ensure they are not tied down to a particular product.

We have also been thinking about how we can offer Voice as a managed service to our clients in the future.

Can you elaborate on your plans for the next 12 months?

There is still quite a bit of infrastructure being built in the region which means there is a huge requirement for systems.

We are going to be busy doing businesses in UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia – there is a lot of infrastructure growth in Saudi.

We are looking at a hectic 12 months ahead of us, where we will be deploying these infrastructure across hospitality, healthcare, education and financial institutions.

Also from an ICT systems integration point of view, we are going to be busy training our customer experience solution. We have done extremely well last year with contact centres. Customers in the service businesses such as banking and travel are looking at enhancing their customer services. Equally we are also going to be talking to people on offering the services on a managed services model.

partner watch

Finesse

Set for new heights Reseller ME catches up with Sunil Paul, Co-founder and COO, Finesse, to learn more about the systems integrator’s growth strategy.

A fairly recent entrant in the regional systems integration space, Finesse commenced operations with a three-dimensional approach, says its Co-founder and COO, Sunil Paul. Crystal clear focuses from a domain, technology and delivery perspective have helped the four-year-old company grow at an exponential rate.

Approaching $10 million in revenues, Paul along with Raju Ramesh, Co-founder and CEO, Finesse are determined to reach the $100 million mark in the next six years.

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Being a pure application software systems integrator, Paul admits it is a big number.

But he also has reasons to be confident. Finesse’s forte lies largely in three main verticals – banking and finance, education and healthcare. Paul says, “We are primarily an IT systems integration firm with a strong portfolio in banking. Our three main technology focus areas are BI and analytics, enterprise content management and GRC. And from a delivery stream point of view, we are concentrating on cloud, mobile and social media.

With more than 185 people

september 2014 Reseller Middle East

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employed across the region in countries such as Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, it also has a yearold support centre in India and a small-scale operation in Canada.

Paul explains although they have partnerships with all the bigwigs in technology such as SAP and Oracle, the company’s strategic positioning is to bring in niche solutions to the region.

The systems integrator has seen success with vendors such as Tagetik, Qlikview, OpenText and Metrix Stream.

“Playing niche really works for us. We don’t come under the countless ERP companies or the software development ones. It is not that we cannot do it but we want to differentiate ourselves and this is reflecting in the numbers too. Since inception, we have had a growth rate of 50-60 percent year-on-year.”

Paul says there is a huge gap between the top layer and the lowest one, and that’s where it is trying to position itself. What has further helped Finesse in its growth is the fact that because it emerged during the economic downturn, the company learned to control expenses as the avenues were less at that time. “We actually learned to control our cost. We came out with a structured and cost-effective model,” adds Paul.

Consulting used to be an important component of systems integration, but Paul agrees that the traditional consulting business has now reduced primarily because the

customers have become better versed with technologies.

“However, we do see demand for specialised consulting, it is not about a product or a solution, it is about functional consulting element,” he says.

In an era with everything moving to the cloud, how relevant are systems integrators?

Paul says, there is a definite role as not every legacy technology will move to the cloud platform.

Finesse is focusing on enterprise cloud which comes with multiple models like private and hybrid cloud and a certain level of services is required too. “We also do some cloud enablement like cloud brokering. We have tools and services which enable and change legacy applications to cloud.”

Calling itself a boutique company, Paul says Finesse also resells with more than 50 partnerships, all of which are in the applications space. “Only few companies can afford to carry many partnerships like we do. Why we can afford to carry is because we are a true integration company. And as we take up enterprise projects, we need to have many systems in place.”

With plans to expand geographically, Paul concludes, “We are growing fast and looking at developing our reach. We will be associated with many events across the globe in the next few months and will work towards our $100 million mark.”

Event report

prologix

Prologix breaks connectivity barriers in East Africa Prologix Distribution, a value-added distributor in the Middle East, along with its vendor partners, conducted a series of roadshows in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, which were first of their kinds in the region in the field of wireless and networking, RF and microwave, telecom, test and measurement and video surveillance.

Aditya Sahaya, Director, Prologix Distribution

The week-long series of boot camp seminars gave the communities of telecom operators, ISPs, WISPs, regulators, systems integrators, resellers and key end users from large enterprises a platform to know the latest in technologies related to connectivity. The high-powered show included presentations by Prologix and their top vendors, namely Cambium Networks, Trango Systems, Sangoma Technologies, IDEAL Industries, LevelOne and Secura.

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The regional heads and technical experts from the vendors presented to the audience an overview of how their products and solutions can revolutionise the African landscape when it comes to connecting the unconnected.

Held in Dar-es-Salaam, Kampala and Nairobi, at least 70 local customers ranging from managing directors, CTOs, IT managers and telecommunications professionals attended the event in each city.

Aditya Sahaya, Director, Prologix Distribution, kick-started

september 2014 Reseller Middle East

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the events by providing a brief on the company’s legacy, and how it has been striving to cater to the region’s demands through its evolving VAD offerings. Sahaya said, “Africa is one of the most important territories for us due to its massive growth rate in internet penetration rate each year as against the global statistics. We have an edge over others while working towards extenuating the connectivity barriers through our strategic partnership with key vendors who are masters in providing the solutions to bridge the digital divide.”

This was followed by an introduction to Cambium Networks, an IP wireless broadband solutions provider,

by Martin de la Serna, VP, Sales, EMEA. Ionut Croitoru, Regional Sales Manager, Cambium Networks, educated the audience on Cambium’s breakthrough technologies such as the robust Point-to-Point (PTP) and Point-toMultipoint (PMP) products, and the cost-effective ePMP solutions.

Next up John Seaman, VP, Sales, Trango Systems, a global manufacturer of wireless IP backhaul solutions, explained about fixed wireless and point-

to-point microwave backhaul applications and solutions.

After which, Aveek Roy, the Regional Director for APAC & MENA, Sangoma Technologies, a provider of communications hardware and software, elaborated on the company’s product portfolio, which includes voice telephony boards, software applications, gateways, Microsoft Lync and PBX appliance.

Amit Das, the Head of Sales for Test & Measurement Division, Prologix spoke about the benefits of using IDEAL Industries’ tools for testing, verification, qualification and certification of copper, fibre optic and wireless backhaul. Ketan Doshi, AVP, Showroom, Prologix, presented to the audience an overview of LevelOne, the German manufacturer of networking and IP surveillance products. Syed Quadri, Product Manager, Africa and Ali Jawad, East Africa Business Unit Manager from Prologix interacted with customers at the show. Chaithali Punchathar, Marketing Manager, Prologix handled customer registrations and managed the shows.

Sahaya rounded up the show by giving a presentation on Secura, the IP and analog cameras’ manufacturer among other products for video surveillance The takeaway from the show was Sahaya’s message, “Only a company like Prologix Distribution, through its strategic partnerships with top technology providers of the world can provide a converged solution with all components tested and tried for compatibility, and which can provide the ISPs, Mobile Networks Operators (MNOs), TRA, Government entities, SIs and VARs all the mechanisms to setup and operate a successful broadband network or mobile connectivity.”

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Vendor focus

juniper

Flying high In his first visit to an emerging market after taking over the reins at Juniper Networks, company CEO Shaygan Kheradpir sat down with us to talk about his vision for the company and strategy for the new era of IT. You have met some of your biggest customers here.

What are they telling you? Any common themes?

Growth. There is a big growth happening in this region centred around networks. It’s the same trend across the planet but it is more accelerated in the Middle East. I see big ambitions everywhere. The world is pivoting towards everything-as a service, delivered through big networks or what they call cloud.

What is an integrated operating plan that you have announced recently? Do you have any plans to re-evaluate your portfolio and streamline R&D? IoP’s focus is on the ‘big areas’ that matter to customers, who are building the technology for the new-age cloud network. We focus on high-IQ networks that deliver a lot of intelligence to the applications. IoP is about focusing on rapidly changing world and make sure that we catch those winds. We focus our R&D around those areas, and also the way we work. We are sort of taking the company back to its roots, which is entrepreneurial, agile, and very much with our customers.

What is ‘One Juniper’ all about?

We are refocusing the company on innovation that matters most to our customers. We are refocusing on high-IQ networks

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and cloud building, and taking the company back to roots.

You have your roots in the service provider business. Will that be the primary focus of business?

Service providers are our heritage and we are very focused on them, partnering with them on the journey to the next wave of growth. We are also focusing on other vertical segments, where network is mission critical.

Do you feel the line blurring between service providers and enterprise markets?

The line is blurring in the sense that there is a set of enterprises that have all the attributes of an service provider. For example, is Google or Amazon a service provider or an enterprise? We have dealt with a couple of airport operators with mission critical networks that are serving the

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airlines and immigration services.

On one hand, these are massive service providers from a mission critical perspective. And on the other hand, you have an amazing retail experience being built into these airports. So there are two elements. One is an enterprise network that caters to consumers and other that provides services to small and medium businesses.

Before, in the enterprise everything was centred around data centre design. Now forward looking enterprises look at cloud services that emanate from these data centres. Earlier, it used to be all about servers, storage and networking. Now, it’s the reverse with networking being number one. Networking has become the first mover in creating these ‘cloud ecosystems’ and there is a reason for it. What people want to do is deliver everything as a service, be it through public cloud or private cloud. You need to have big scale, reliability, Fort Knox security, massive automation and multitenancy. Those characteristics define the enterprises today, and these are our customers today.

Customers come to us to help and in some cases co-create with them innovative networking solutions that can roll out services so they can stay competitive.

Are you going to review your product portfolio?

We are very happy with our cloud builder, high IQ network strategy.

Things which fit that include routing, security, switching with lot of intelligence on top - putting it all together. This is our core business. We are not selling storage, radio access networks and servers. That is good because at this moment in time network is the first mover; it’s a world with everything is available as a service today. And we are present at the core of it- layer 3 all the way to

layer 7, which commands and controls these networks and we are sitting in a good spot.

You have been able to grow your switching business by 45 percent, and yet your overall market share is just 3 percent.

How do you plan on competing with Cisco, which still have the lion’s share?

The market for switching is growing by 3 percent. So how come Juniper’s business has grown over 3 percent? This is because enterprises are building for the future and they want all the characteristics I have mentioned before; you want the new tech because the old word doesn’t work anymore. Smart customers who are pushing the boundaries with innovation is cutting the Juniper’s way and we are very thrilled about it. Customers choose Juniper because they want pure-play, high-performance and most importantly an open solution that can be easily scaled-up and scaled-down.

What is your vision for Juniper in the next 12 months?

We want to make sure we are able to cater the needs of new world – the power of network is so dynamic that the challenges are also multi-fold as businesses have bigger responsibilities due to changing customer demands.

When I was growing up, it was a luxury to be able to take your work together home – now you have millions of people who are in control of their lives in every way. The rise of the creative planet has turned everything upside them – that is why we sit with our customers and innovate with therm. We understand new tech extremely well. We understand our customers really well – we co create with them their future business.

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Vendor focus

Xerox

Service on the go Andrew Horne, General Manager, Xerox Emirates, explains why partners should invest in Managed Print Services.

The Managed Print Services (MPS) offering has been a trend in the market for some time now. But partners are reluctant to invest in it because of its long sales cycle, says Andrew Horne, General Manager, Xerox Emirates. “MPS is quite a complex sell, it’s not just a case of selling but you also need to explain what the value proposition is.”

However, identifying it as the way forward, Xerox has been investing in training their partners in MPS. Over time, MPS is becoming a primary requirement for customers not only in the enterprise segment but also in the SMB category. With more awareness and education,

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customers have become increasingly demanding irrespective of whichever industry it is. Horne says, “Customers don’t really want to have a conversation about how many more machines to buy but instead they want to look at their work processes and their overall spend and see how they can spend less and become more efficient?”

Efficiency comes with a bit of cost saving. Horne adds, “It also comes with being able to do things such as mobile print.”

The way people work has changed dramatically and that is a big driver for managed print services as then security becomes a concern.

A company, as it grows, will be conscious of where its money is going, therefore providing print accounting is gaining

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importance. “There is a sort of migration happening,” says Horne, “Managed print services have been around for seven or eight years, as a genuine value proposition. It has gone from managing your printing to a stage now where there is less printing. Many applications that are coming into the market are enabling less printing.”

Documents could be physical, digital or virtual and Xerox aims to make that transition from one format to another as seamless as possible.

The channel partners need to be trained, as far as MPS is concerned, adds Horne.

Because MPS is a concept and the offering is enormous, “you need to understand what the customer’s appetite is for change management.”

He explains that fundamentally it is a change management. “You have to understand what needs to be created internally in order to successfully sell MPS.” It is a more sophisticated process than selling boxes, whether it is laptops, tablets, mobiles or lowend multifunctional devices. MPS requires investments because it needs resources at every stage Partners have their work cut out for them, their job in the process is to sell and manage with the customer, but the delivery and service level management has to be done by Xerox. “We have a greater accountability to not ruin partners’ relationships with their customers and make sure we honour the service levels that have been agreed to.”

According to the GM, the vendor is not looking at having four or five partners who will end up pitching for all opportunities present, instead he says, “One or two is good enough for us.

Because we are a premium brand, we do not want to compete with ourselves, we want to be competing with competitors, so making sure we don’t over cover the market is also important.”

As part of its channel expansion strategy, the company has recently tied up with RAK Tech in Ras Al Khaimah as its authorised business partner. It is building a channel programme based on a reseller’s key objectives. It includes various tiers such as gold, silver, bronze and transactional, partners move up the tiers based on qualitative and quantitative measures.

“At the end of the day, a channel partner needs to make the profit, and needs all the technical support such as training and know that there is a development path for him, a chance to grow with the brand,” explains Horne.

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Vendor focus

Linksys & Belkin

The SMB play Amanullah Khan, Regional Director, Emerging Markets, Linksys & Belkin, elaborates on the company’s strategic plans to refocus on its SMB origins.

Automation, which is a smart home technology. It is a going to be massive opportunity with reports indicating the segment to reach $28 million by 2017 and $40 million by 2020. At the moment, there is a barrier to entry and issues such as proprietary hardware, several standards and complex installation. Unless people experience WeMo, customers will not be willing to make that investment, we are going to create those experiences to make people come in.

You have been working towards going back to your SMB roots, how has that developed over the last year?

On Linksys we are focusing on going back to our roots. Linksys is known for its networking products in the SMB category.

Even when the brand was with Cisco, they continued to focus on SMB but the only difference was that they combined it with the Cisco SMB so as to avoid internal competition.

Linksys has a legacy and a rich heritage of the SMB business. We are a networking brand that is aiming to return to our roots. We had launched our SMB approach last Gitex and now we are building the portfolio and making progress.

Today we have gone out and claimed as many channel as possible in various ways such as

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putting demo kits in the market place, which was a mass activity wherein we wanted the channels to know that we are back. We communicated what kind of portfolio we have, the roadmap ahead and what kind of support we can provide. Currently, we are going ahead and recruiting the core channel. While we will do education across the channel, it will be a broad base education.

We will then choose few partners in each markets and will start working with them which is phase one for us. Phase two is then expanding the reach by recruiting new partners. Partners have a lot to look forward to as we are offering rebate programmes and preferential pricing for the channel.

On the Belkin front, what is the main focus area?

On the Belkin front, we are excited about WeMo Home

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Could you list out your distributor partners for the region?

On Belkin front, we have appointed Redington for the GCC region and Gadgetech for UAE which is a specialist company. The channels are wider in the accessories business compared to networking as it can be sold in different types of stores such as sports or fashion. In addition to core retail partners such as Emax and Jacky’s Electronics, a telecom channel also exists.

To cover the entire channel, we believed that we needed a distributor that is more specialised. In the Saudi market, we have Jarir Bookstore as they have a huge presence in retail.

We also have a distributor each in Jordan and South Africa.

For Linksys, Eros is our retail focused distributor in the UAE. In Qatar we have Modern Home while in Kuwait, Jumbo is our partner. We have two distributors for the channel business in

the UAE market – Ingram and Logicom. Al Jammaz is our distributor in the Saudi market.

Is there any reason why there are two separate channels for Linksys and Belkin?

The main reason is history.

There is no reason to start adding a new dimension to it when we already have an existing channel and business that is doing extremely well.

On the other hand, we believe the Belkin side of business was over distributed. Today we are in the process of identifying who are the best channel partners of Belkin who we can work with. And we are looking at moving from the smaller partners and instead help and provide them support to start buying from the larger distributors. We want to show the retailers the value of dealing through a larger distributor and give them a plan which will benefit and help them grow the business, reduce the cost, increase their profitability, which can then reflow back into the business. We want to increase our investment because we are reducing the cost and see the advantages there.

Retailers prefer working directly with vendors but if the business volume doesn’t justify then it will add unnecessary cost, both to the retailer and to us. Retailers are receptive today provided you show them the value of doing the business indirectly.

What is your roadmap for the future?

We have a healthy roadmap planned. We are on track, within the next 12 months, we will have an impressive portfolio in the market. We started with connectivity, currently looking at cloud-based management, and then we will talk about the mission after.

Vendor focus

Fortinet

Strengthening partnerships Maya Zakhour, Channel Director, Middle East, Fortinet, on her key responsibilities in widening the security vendor’s regional channel through strategic partners and reach out to a larger market base.

Fortinet’s recently appointed Middle East Channel Director, Maya Zakhour is backed with 14 years of experience in the regional channel space.

Having worked from both a vendor and a partner perspective in her previous roles at Microsoft and Dimension Data, Zakhour understands the complexity of the channel environment.

She says, “What differentiates me today is this experience from being on both the sides, which helps me to

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deliver a better approach. From a partner’s perspective we must consider profitability in their business and have people they can trust, which is important.”

Zakhour’s primary responsibility includes developing strategic partners for the security vendor and hiring more channel managers to recruit new partners to go to market in a larger way.

“We are growing in this region in double digits and this means we need more number of strong partners to go with us to the market,” she explains.

A Fortinet partner has the opportunity to be classified as a

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Bronze, Bronze Plus, Silver, Gold or a Partner of Excellence. The benefits and level of discounts vary from one level to another.

Through a quarterly business review, partners are measured based on the requirements they meet such as certifications and specialisations. Additionally, channel managers from the company visit the partners on a monthly basis to follow up on the agreed plan and make sure they are on track to meet their targets. Emphasising that certifications are important, Zakhour says channel partners are opportunistic and hesitant to have commitments. “My message to partners is that commitment is a way of organising and securing a specific revenue with a particular vendor, especially when it comes to security.”

Once partners are granted access to the partner programme, they are given a username and password through which they are able to navigate all areas such as training, registration, product information, latest updates and even an extensive online training programme from the vendor. According to Zakhour, security being a dynamic field, it is important for channel partners to constantly update and educate themselves with the latest technologies.

“Today Fortinet is known to be a leader in UTM, however my aim is to communicate to the channel partners of our other business strengths. We want to work with our partners closely to make sure they understand our value-add and take it to the market effectively,” she adds.

Zakhour is looking at establishing a clear set of plans for each channel and ensuring the right enablement and marketing plans are put in place.

While Fortinet’s distributors work closely with their partners, the vendor directly interacts with their Gold partners.

Fortinet has a presence in most countries in the Middle East such as UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan and Oman, Zakhour plans to strengthen this further.

Partners look for adequate support and a profitable business from a specific vendor.

But low margins and cutthroat competition are challenges the channel is toiling with. She says, “Today with the prices we offer, our partners can enjoy a good business with us. However, other vendors should realise that tight margins and intense competition in terms of partners bidding on the same opportunities results in partners redirecting their focus in order to make better margins. This is why partners are opportunistic rather than being strategic and developing the market together.”

“We hope to change this thought-process once partners see that we have the right tools to enable them and once they see what exactly we can do together in the market. My aim is to make sure we are the number one security vendor in the region and this cannot be done without our partners in the region.”

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ECS

Liva Mini PC Economical and yet efficient, Liva Mini PC functions almost as well as a full-fledged PC. The evolution process has taken Personal Computers from the traditional desktops to laptops to tablets and smartphones. Although these devices have essentially got smaller in size, it also means the kind of workload you can do on a desktop cannot be replicated, say by a smartphone. Small does come with its limitations. However imagine a device that’s small, portable and convenient and yet gives you the functionality of a full blown desktop? A mini-PC, hardly a new term, in fact originated in the 1960s, is the answer to organisations’ question of affordable and portable computing devices.

ECS’ Liva Mini PC is an affordable build-it-yourself device that doesn’t consume much power and can be connected even to a 50-inch smart TV, if required. Claiming to be the world’s smallest Windows-based computing device, the company has derived its name from a combination of the words – ‘living’ and ‘life’.

The kit comes with everything such as an ECS BAT-Mini motherboard, 2GB DDR3L memory, eMMC storage 32GB, WiFi / Bluetooth combo card, antenna, power adapter, Liva case and a manual and driver DVD. Except the operating system you get pretty much all you need for a basic desktop setup.

Getting the device up and running is quite simple and clearly directed in the manual. With the WiFi connectivity and wireless keyboard and mouse, the Mini-PC functions just like any other desktop would. It handled video streaming with ease and has the capacity to connect to dual monitors. The device handled multitasking decently with a number of applications running simultaneously such as Chrome, YouTube, Word and social media sites. One of the features that makes this device stand out is its low power consumption, pegged at less than 25W. This is possible because the device integrates a low voltage Double Data Rate III Synchronous DRAM. Usually

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installed for a Notebook PC, this helps in 8 percent power saving than the regular DRAM. The Mini PC is also unnaturally stealthy in its operations and one doesn’t hear the usual fan-noise that is associated with PCs. The fan-less thermal design enables better acoustic performance as well. But for even enhanced audio, the user can easily connect wireless Bluetooth speakers to the device without hampering its performance. The 32GB version is available for $180 while the 64GB one can be bought for $220. The size and price of the device makes it a good option for organisations not willing to invest in a large amount and yet attain similar performance that of a regular PC. What ECS could have considered while designing the device might have been more number of USB ports. The LIVA Mini PC is a good choice for basic tasks such as surfing the web and watching videos and drafting letters and emails, it may not suffice if one intends to use heavy editing software or for serious gaming. Of course including the operating system in the package would have been better for the users, but for the price, it is quite a decent buy and certainly worth the money.

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hot products

ASUS unveils ZenFone in the region

ASUS’s latest addition to its portfolio of lowcost gadgets is the Android-based ZenFone series. The screen display gets taller by an inch on every model upgrade in the three-device series and the ZenFone also accommodates two SIMs and a microSD card. Built on Intel Atom Dual-Core Z2520 with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage in addition to 5GB of ASUS Webstorage, this device could be an answer for those who crave style and functionality on a small budget. Running on Android Jellybean 4.3, it is the first ASUS device equipped with

ZenUI as well as two exclusive apps – What’s Next and Do It Later – that enable end-users to prioritise tasks in order of importance.

Sporting a resolution of 1280 x 720 megapixels, the camera increases light sensitivity by up to 400 percent and contrast up to 200 percent, resulting in clear and bright lowlight shots without the need for a flash, said the company. Low-light mode is also available when shooting video. The ZenFone 4 is available for AED399, while ZenFone 5 comes at AED 899 and ZenFone 6 is available for AED 1099.

A10 Networks launches Thunder SPE appliance family A10 Networks’ Thunder SPE appliance family is a new line of high-speed, high-capacity application networking appliances which leverage specialised hardware to perform security and policy enforcement at ultrahigh speeds. According to the company, they deliver up to a 40 percent processing performance boost relative to current systems, creating a powerful and secure application networking solution for large service provider and enterprise customers. It leverages A10’s innovative new Security and Policy Engine (SPE) to implement security and policy enforcement functions at higher speed, harnessing the

power of additional and enhanced hardware components. The appliances are equipped to prevent the rising occurrence of DDoS attacks.

A10’s Thunder SPE takes security and policy enforcement performance to a new level combining the performance of ACOS (Advanced Core Operating System) with a purpose built hardware processing engine. Thunder SPE appliances offer the best performance per rack unit coupled with high density interface 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps port options and the highest level ‘80 PLUS Platinum’ certification for power supplies to ensure a green solution and reduce power consumption costs.

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HTC launches Desire 516 and 616 The HTC Desire 516 and 616 are dual SIM smartphones built to cater specifically to budget-conscious tech-savvy buyers.

With relatively similar features, both the phones are equipped with Li-Po 2000 mAh batteries that keep the Octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A7 processor of HTC 616 and Quad-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor of HTC 516 charged for 3-4 hours easy with the gaming apps running. Shooting a video from either of the phones is completely free of any time-lapse effect due to the accelerometer in place. The HTC 516 includes a 5MP rear-facing and a 2MP front-facing camera both of which record videos at 720p; the HTC 616 features an 8MP back-camera which shoots full HD videos at 1080p and a 2MP front-facing camera which shoots videos at 720p.

Running on Android Jellybean 4.2.2 OS currently, both the phones can be upgraded to Android KitKat by the user.

It supports 4GB storage and 10GB RAM respectively. The higher-priced HTC 616 is thinner at 9.2 mm size, and includes a premium HTC feature, BlinkFeed, which aggregates news stories and social network updates. The HTC Desire 516 and Desire 616 are available in dark grey and pearl white across all retailers in the UAE, for respectively AED 799 and AED 949.

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hot products

Xerox launches Versant 2100 Press

Belkin introduces NetCam HD+ WiFi Camera Belkin introduced the NetCam HD+, a high definition Wi-Fi camera that allows users to see their home day and night in high-quality 720p resolution via their smartphone, tablet, or PC. The NetCam HD+ uses a wide-angle glass lens to provide details that are crisp and ultra-clear. Other premium and unique features include night vision, highly secure Wi-Fi streaming, cloud storage, easy setup and push to talk.

The new camera also works with WeMo, which enables users to access their camera via the WeMo app and set up rules and triggers with other installed WeMo solutions. It is equipped with a built-in microphone allows two-way conversations, so users can check in on what is going on in their home. The NetCam HD+ Wi-Fi Camera is available in the market for AED 499.

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Xerox has launched its latest product – Versant 2100 Press, a 100 page-per-minute device, which is versatile for any production environment, said the company.

Combining speed, exclusive image quality and automation features to create colorful personalised communications, collateral, brochures, photo publishing and specialty products, the product automates color control, creates image-to-media alignment profiles and delivers brand-managed color in less time with less waste with an inline, integrated Full Width Array.

It maintains tight registration throughout the press from page-to-page and run-torun with Production Accurate Registration technology.

According to the company, the press

produces smooth sweeps and gradients, sharp images, graphics and text with the new Ultra HD Resolution. Applications are rendered at 1200 x 1200 dpi at up to 10 bits – that’s 300 percent more pixels and color precision rendered than the 600 x 600 dpi standard.

It also provides vibrant images with low gloss, low melt EA Dry Ink; offers consistent color across multiple printers and sites.

In terms of flexibility, it offers three controller options – the Xerox EX and EX-P 2100 Print Server, Powered by Fiery, and the Xerox FreeFlow Print Server, so users can tailor the press to their production needs. And supports an array of substrates including linen, polyester, vinyl magnet and specialty stocks.

WD releases ‘Red’ 5 & 6TB SATA storage WD has announced the release of its Red line of SATA hard drives for home and small office NAS (network attached storage) systems in the Middle East. WD Red includes 5TB and 6TB capacity for NAS-specific storage, with 3.5-inch hard drives shipping in 1 TB to 6 TB capacities, and new Red Pro 3.5-inch hard drives are available in 2 TB to 4 TB capacities.

The Red line of hard drives is now features WD NASware 3.0, an enhanced version of WD’s the original NASware technology.

The hard drives also feature 3D Active Balance Plus, an enhanced balance control technology. WD offers free premium 24×7 dedicated support exclusive for WD Red customers. The 1–6 TB capacity drives are capable of supporting up to eight bays of NAS systems while the Red Pro line supports

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eight to 16 bays. WD has also released the Green line of eco-friendly hard drives will also see capacity expansion with the 5 TB and 6 TB additions. The Red 5TB is priced at $269, and $329.00 for the 6TB model.

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Targus launches Tablet cases for business Targus creates customised tablet cases for businesses. The tablet cases are protective, functional and durable, perfect for integrating tablets into interactive environments.

Available for a range of hardware, Targus offers two different options: Ready to go (off the shelf stocked items with no minimum order quantity) and Customised (minimum order quantities apply). Depending on the customisation package chosen, customers can select their own logo, colour, material and hardware fit.

Fortinet launches FortiGate 5144C Fortinet has launched the new FortiGate 5144C which exceeds 1 terabit per second (Tbps) throughput performance and offers 10GbE, 40GbE and 100GbE connectivity options. FortiGate 5144C is the ideal security solution for carriers, service providers and large-scale enterprises who have the most demanding performance and scalability requirements for network security, and who want unparalleled versatility and flexibility in delivering high performance data, application and network protection to their customers and users, according to the company.

The new FortiGate 5000 Series is the company’s flagship, chassis

and blade firewall platform. Built for large scale enterprise data centre and carrier-class environments, the FortiGate 5000 series includes fully redundant, hot-swappable power supplies, fans and firewall blades for maximum uptime.

The new series comprises a new chassis – the FortiGate 5144C, new controller networking blades (5903C/5913C) and new security blades (5001D) that utilise the latest NP6 network processor to deliver 40 Gbps firewall throughput per ASIC. Coupled with native IPv4 and IPv6 traffic processing, the NP6 is ideally suited

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SanDisk introduces Ultra Fit USB 3.0 SanDisk has released the high-speed SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive that delivers decent performance in a tiny form factor, while providing expanded storage for PCs and other devices. Media enthusiasts can now transfer a full-length movie in 40 seconds, enjoy transfer speeds up to ten times faster than standard USB 2.0 drives and be confident the streamlined USB will offer reliable storage in minimal space.

The new product builds upon the success of the Cruzer Fit USB flash drive, a strong player in the ‘plug and stay’ category, using a low-profile, compact 2.0 USB solution to expand a device’s storage capacity. With a modern design, the company is positioning the product as an ideal companion for notebooks, tablets, TVs, gaming consoles, car audio systems, and more. The 64GB and 32GB versions offer write speeds up to 10 times faster than standard USB 2.0 drives, while the 16GB version offers up to 5 times faster write speeds than standard USB 2.0 drives. All capacities provide up to 130MB/s read speeds, feature SanDisk SecureAccess software to keep private files safe with password protection and 128-bit encryption, and include a year’s subscription to RescuePRO software to recover lost or corrupted files.

The SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities.

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hot products

Sharp MEA introduces flagship MFP

Sharp Middle East and Africa has launched its new flagship multi-function printer (MFP), Polaris Pro MX-7500N/MX-6500N in the GCC. The colour print-on-demand powerhouse, built for full-scale advanced light production, will enable medium-to-large enterprises to produce high-quality, professional documents in-house. Designed to meet the high-volume demands of large offices, copy-rooms or corporate data centres, the Sharp Polaris

Pro delivers good image quality at speeds of up to 75 pages per minute. The flagship MFP offers exceptional productivity and professional features that combines a versatile, modular design with a wide range of supported media and powerful output capabilities. Using the intermediate toner hopper, the Polaris Pro offers limitless operation that minimises downtime and allows large-volume large print production to

continue during toner/paper replenishments.

An external Fiery Colour Print Server with Command WorkStation software is available for colour-critical environments that require precise management of print jobs. The software can be operated intuitively through the MFP’s user-friendly 15.4-inch colour LCD touchscreen panel. With selected options, total paper capacity of the device can be boosted all the way to 13,500 sheets.

Lumia 530 now available in UAE Microsoft Mobile Devices has launched its entrylevel smartphone Lumia 530 in UAE at all leading retail outlets for AED410.

With the latest Windows Phones operating system, it combines Microsoft Office, Skype, XBOX games and the best of social apps, which allows users to easily switch between work and play mode.

Lumia 530 comes powered with OneDrive cloud services, allowing consumers to securely access, sync, and enjoy their files, photos, music, and games across smartphones, tablets, and PCs, with up to 15 GB storage for free. Consumers will be able to enjoy preinstalled native Lumia apps such as HERE maps that boasts turn-by-turn voice guided navigation, online and offline, both home and abroad, providing the perfect balance of latest generation smartphone features and experiences at an ultra-affordable price, the company said.

The Lumia 530 will be available in a range of colours including bright orange, bright green and stylish neutrals such as dark grey and white, along with a selection of changeable shells in a variety of colours.

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Sony Mobile unveils Xperia M2 Aqua Sony Mobile has introduced Xperia M2 Aqua in the market and features the company’s signature OmniBalance design. With an 8MP camera, Xperia M2 Aqua not only brings waterproof technology to a new tier of smartphones, but also improves on that technology, offering the highest waterproof rating (IP65/68) in a smartphone, according to the company.

It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with quad-core 1.2 GHz CPUs and 4G LTE capabilities for high speed, allowing users to download large files and enjoy good-quality visuals while capturing memories, streaming movies or playing the latest games. The 2300 mAh battery allows the user to use the device for a longer time. The 4.8-inch qHD display delivers rich colours and delivers clear viewing from any angle. Available in black or white, or copper colours, it is available for AED1299.

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MMD unveils Philips 4K UltraClear UHD display

MMD, a technology company and the brand license partner for Philips Monitors has recently lacunched the Philips 4K UltraClear UHD Display. With four times the resolution of full HD, and four times

the clarity, the Philips 288P6LJEB display offers users unrivalled detail, colour, and sharp pictures.

With its resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, the display with Ultra HD (UHD)

technology packs four times as many pixels onto the same area as the already impressive picture quality of Full HD. With a response time of just 1ms, the display is one of the fastest 4K displays on the market; and its calibrated support for over 1 billion colours means it can reproduce the finest colours with total accuracy and is ideal for business productivity applications such as detail-rich CAD and creative design, and of course also for an immersive gaming experience. Combined with SmartResponse, the display provides gamers and movie viewers with clear images free of judder, time-lag and ghost image effects.

The display supports MultiView, enabling users to connect and view two streams simultaneously. The DisplayPort 1.2 digital PC-to-Display link supports data transfer speeds of up to 10.8 Gbps, for faster imaging and refresh in both office apps and movies. The HDMI connection is MHL-enabled, meaning users can connect mobile devices such as smartphones and enjoy mobile content in HD quality on the big screen. And with Super Speed USB 3.0, viewers enjoy scorchingly fast USB transfer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; around 10 times speedier than the USB 2.0 standard.

Zotac launches ZBOX PI320 ZOTAC International has introduced the pocket-sized ZBOX PI320 pico.

It delivers a quad-core Windows 8.1 with Bing computing experience in a compact and versatile form factor.

The pocketable form factor measures in at 115.5mm x 66mm x 19.2mm, which is roughly the same size as a small smartphone. It is powered with Intel Baytrail quad-core processor with Intel HD Graphics technology for a good system responsiveness and high-definition video playback capabilities. The energy-efficient processor is cooled with a fanless heatsink that generates zero noise.

It ships with 2GB of DDR3L memory and 32GB solid-state storage with a micro SDXC slot to increase storage up to 128GB and external expansion is available via three USB 2.0 ports.

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Reseller Middle East september 2014

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

Channel surfing

Column

Implementing a focused approach The only way partners can excel in the highly competitive market is by differentiating, either in their services or offerings. And this is easier said than done. But to be able to do this, it is critical that they are aware of the latest technologies and update themselves with what’s happening in the market. Not only with what’s happening in the regional markets but they should also keep an eye out for global news. Over and above this, partners should also focus on their core competencies. With customer demands constantly evolving, only those partners who have adequate market knowledge can have an edge over competition. Though everyone aspires to be different, only those with focus, commitment and diligence can manage to achieve it. And once you achieve it, the next task is to maintain it. But resellers are increasingly changing their focus or adding on to their core businesses in the hope of gaining better margins. While this might seem like a good option in the short-term, partners have to envisage the effect it might have in the longer run.

The success of a business depends on single-minded dedication.

This month we have interviewed a number of channel partners and the common theme from them all is driving business Janees Reghelini, Assistant Editor, Reseller ME

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september 2014 Reseller Middle East

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through focus. Channel partners should take advantage of opportunities in the market and drive the business for new emerging technologies in the region with a focused approach.

And talking about focus, we find ourselves in that month again, when the phones ring ceaselessly and there is an incessant flow of mails, and everyone is on the edge, scurrying about meeting deadlines and preparing themselves for what is the most hectic time for the regional IT sector – GITEX technology week. It will be crucial for partners to identify what their focus should be and develop their strategy around it for the upcoming ICT event.

Moving on, one of the features this month touches upon a grave issue in the channel – piracy and counterfeit. While it is a longstanding problem, it is also something the regional channel need to battle together as one community.

Associations such as Dubai Computer Group is playing an important role here but there needs to be active participation from both partners and vendors.

Once again, I urge you to write to us about your top reseller partners for an opportunity to voice their thoughts and concerns in the regional channel using the magazine as a platform. We have had a good response for this initiative and look forward to working with you together on this.

With a real busy month ahead of us, wish you all the very best and see you all at GITEX.

Building a Better Connected World GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK 2014 12-16 October 2014 ZAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ABEEL Hall, GULFCOMMS , Stand ZE20 World Trade Center, Dubai, UAE

For more information:

enterpriseME@huawei.com