Hot 50 Awards 2020 by Reseller Middle East

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WINNER 2019

THE NIGHT OF THE IT STARS Tahawultech.com fetes leading ICT enterprise vendors and channel players for excellence in business at its annual HOT 50 Awards. TahawulTech.com hosted its eighth annual Hot 50 Awards at The Terrace, The Loft, Dubai Opera. The most-coveted Awards gathered key players across vendors, distributors, resellers and system integrators together on one platform. The 150 plus guests had an opportunity to network and applaud the achievements of the year. The exclusive event paid tribute to both ICT enterprise vendors and channel players alike. Organisations who have demonstrated commitment to developing the regional technology landscape by creating value for clients, partners and themselves were considered for the prestigious Hot 50 brand. Selected by TahawulTech.com’s

editorial team, the elite winners were companies that shaped the regional business through innovative initiatives and grew their operations despite challenging market circumstances. The event also announced a few personality winners who have continued to work diligently to ensure their company has a strong reach in the market. Kinda Baydoun from HPE won the ‘Best Businesswoman Leader’ while Juned Attar from Redington Value bagged the ‘Marketing Trendsetter of the year’ award. The ‘Women Executive of the year’ award was presented to Maya Zakhour, NetApp and Ekta Puthran from Barco was recognised as ‘Outstanding Channel Executive of the year.’

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BEST HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (HPC) VENDOR

2CRSI 2CRSI provides high performance solution to address very demanding customer needs (life science, academic, defense etc.). The company provides custom solutions, precisely tailored to target the need of the customer. The vendor streamlines and re-thinks the whole concept to make a final solution in an energy efficient and affordable way. They believe in Green IT and energy efficient solutions and recommend enterprises to contribute to their country. Over the last year, the vendor has introduced a model, which enables partners to know and promote new technologies with excellent margin while ensuring that end user is benefitting from very

economical solution. System Integrators such as Al Rostamani Communications, Site Technologies, Techrobotix, First Initiative, Astral Technologies have been able to offer their customers robust and economical solutions from 2CRSI. The company has recently acquired BOSTON, a 25-year-old global ICT player to increase its global reach, which will be beneficial to end users to reduce cost and to have robust solutions. The firm’s Green computing subsidiary offers bare metal aaS (High end CPU, GPU, cluster as a service) and cloud HPC. These components are useful for short term requirements as well as startups who want minimal investments.

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BEST CYBERSECURITY VENDOR

A10 NETWORKS A10 Networks provides a portfolio of secure application services that are essential to digital businesses today. Key to its product portfolio is their drive to increase security efficacy, automate complex processes and provide intelligence all at hyperscale, ensuring businesses can be agile and operate efficiently. Over the course of the last 12 months, the cybersecurity vendor has been deeply involved in leading 5G implementation with service providers across the Middle East and helping companies as they migrate their business to the cloud. On the security side, the vendor’s Thunder TPS product line showcases artificial intelligence via its machine learning capabilities that thwart known 8 HOT 50 AWARDS

and unknown attack vectors automatically. On the microservices side, the Secure Service Mesh solution is showcasing the move to agile, software-based solutions. In addition to these cutting-edge solutions, thousands of customers are utilising their other core products. A10 Networks believes that the future of cybersecurity for 5G and multi-cloud rests on intelligent automation with solutions that levereage machine learning to ensure that business-critical applications are protected, reliable, and always available. The company’s AI-driven application and network security solutions offer customers 5G security, DDoS protection and multi-cloud application visibility, analytics and automation.

BEST COLLABORATION SOLUTIONS VENDOR

AVAYA With technology in its DNA, Avaya has maintained its position as the communications and collaboration market leader and forged a rich history of serving the world’s largest and most diverse companies. Over time, the vendor has continued to invest to ensure technology leadership, while making its solutions available to customers via the consumption model of their preference – on-premise, cloud or hybrid. The vendor takes customer-centric innovation to the next level. This is evident in solutions such as Avaya IX Spaces and IX Onespace, which unify, optimise and intelligently automate employee experiences and interactions. Additionally, the three latest advancements to its IX Contact Center platform - CX Dashboard, Avaya Agent Scripting, and Avaya IX

Teamspace - which extend Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation across every touch point in the customer service journey to facilitate intelligent, seamless and consistently excellent experiences for customers and employees. In the coming year, the firm will focus on augmenting the intelligence of machines by giving them knowledge from all channels. By enabling AI to create the right outcomes based on the right information, Avaya is enabling organisations to drive intelligent self-service and significantly reduce errors during customer interactions. The company is also empowering humans to choose the right CX and EX journeys by giving customers the power to choose the channel of their choice with the guarantee of consistently exceptional service. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST CHANNEL GROWTH INITIATIVES BY A VENDOR

BARCO Barco has brought to market game-changing solutions in the video wall display solutions, contributing to the region’s evolution as an entertainment and tourism hub. The enterprising nature of this market makes it highly fitting one for Barco, complementing its passion to relentlessly innovate to meet the evolving demands of savvy consumers. Over the years, Barco’s meeting room experience has become the most innovative and disruptive in terms of both the boldness of the concept and the remarkable quality of its execution. The firm’s collaborative solutions have also spelled out huge advantages for advancement in the healthcare industry. All of Barco’s medical solutions have been designed to help improve clinical accuracy, boost productivity, simplify 10 HOT 50 AWARDS

workflow, and enhance ergonomics, allowing for medical professionals to better serve their patients. The vendor’s aim is to increase the security perimeter and infrastructure of companies, while also educating its employees about the importance of regulatory requirements as they work with personal devices. Furthermore, recognising that enterprise customers do not always deploy the collaborative and security functionality of technology systems such as ClickShare to its fullest potential, the Barco ClickShare Certified Training Center was launched primarily to benefit distributors by empowering them with the tools to educate and advise customers on how best to apply the solutions of Barco technology.

BEST CLOUD SECURITY VENDOR

BARRACUDA NETWORKS Barracuda Networks’ key differentiator includes providing a full security stack to customers and organisations encompassing email, network, application and data security helping them stay protected across all environments by achieving a holistic approach to security. Over the course of the last 12 months, the security vendor has onboarded many brands across different verticals. For one of its customers from the education sector, its total email security solution was deployed in order to guard their most important communication channel by reducing the amount of unsolicited emails hitting their employees’ inboxes. Another customer from the government sector deployed Barracuda’s web application firewall solution protecting the customers critical business data and mitigating their risk of cyber-attacks.

Finally, one of Barracuda’s most significant deployment is for a globally recognised airline. Barracuda helped the customer manage their network costs by its best of breed solution cloudgen firewall. Barracuda Networks provides sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning-based solutions. The introduction of advanced bot protection integrated into its web application firewall defends customers against automated threats and provides a complete application security solution that is easy to deploy and manage. The vendor is looking forward to developing innovative solutions and integrations that will help customers keep up with evolving threats and attain tight security under its wing. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST NETWORK SECURITY VENDOR

BITDEFENDER Bitdefender is led by a vision to be the most trusted cybersecurity technology provider in the world by constantly anticipating, innovating and going the extra mile to ensure customers are protected against cyber-attacks. The company’s product portfolio currently includes Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP), End Point Detection & Response (EDR), Advanced Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI), Network Traffic Analytics (NTA), Sand Boxing, as well as Training and Knowledge Transfer Services. Bitdefender has been a pioneer in implementing machine learning (ML) & AI in its products and solutions for over 11 years. AI is at the core of one of its flagship products ― Bitdefender Network Traffic Analytics (NTSA). 12 HOT 50 AWARDS

NTSA applies reasoning (AI/ML and behaviour analysis) to network traffic flows and uses insights from Bitdefender cloud threat intelligence, of half billion nodes globally, to automatically detect threats for all entities, managed or unmanaged, for encrypted or un-encrypted network traffic. Besides ML and behavioral analytics, NTSA also relies on Bitdefender Advanced Threat Intelligence, a stream of information that is based on data gathered from 500 million endpoints deployed globally, which is continuously enriched with actionable data by Bitdefender Cyber-Threat Intelligence Labs. This is a global R&D leader in independent tests and one of the largest cybersecurity labs in the world with over 800 security experts, data scientists, and threat intelligence researchers.

BEST POST-SALES SUPPORT BY A DISTRIBUTOR

BULWARK TECHNOLOGIES Since its inception in the region in 1999, the distributor has been focused on valueadded distribution of Information Security and Cyber Security solution. It has been a very steady growth for Bulwark consistently adding more resources and products based on the customer needs and expanding its reach through channel partners in the Middle East region. Bulwark Technologies adapts to the everchanging security landscape with the latest and niche technology solutions. It also acquires the right expertise to continuously support its channel ecosystem and customers in the demanding and evolving cybersecurity landscape in the region. Over the last year, the company has been regularly scanning the technology space for the latest products to address the new

threats. Its current solutions portfolio has multiple solutions aimed at addressing the current cybersecurity requirements. The cybersecurity VAD ensures the availability of products as per the market requirements and trends. It ensures to provide all round support to customers to embrace the digital transformation process in a smooth and systematic manner. Recently, the firm has signed up with vendors - Utimaco, Nexus and Cyberbit. It also offers Automate, a robotic process automation solution from Help Systems. The distributor aims to reinforce its team to address the company’s increased demand for cybersecurity solutions and to have on ground resources in some countries in the Middle East region. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST CLOUD SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

CLOUDHOST CloudHost Technology, part of the RVS Group of Companies, is a private cloud service provider in the GCC region. As pioneers of managed hosting and cloud infrastructure solutions, the company has been recognised for its innovative solutions and awarded the title of ‘Best Cloud Solutions Provider’ in the industry. CloudHost specialises in providing solutions and value-added services to digitally transform companies and public entities. Its experience, talent and sector knowledge are focused on developing integrated added-value cloud solutions using technology. The company helps SMBs and enterprise level businesses to embrace cloud technology; to modernise their business IT infrastructure, create in-built security and 14 HOT 50 AWARDS

focus on how it might serve customers digitally in new ways. As a maturing organisation it is important to look for options that are refined and able to handle advanced requirements of enterprise workloads. CloudHost believes an organisation’s cloud solution and support should grow right along with the business. Setting up and managing a traditional data centre can be a complicated and a costly affair for an SME. CloudHost’s solution CloudScales can help set up a private virtual data center within minutes and break free from these limitations. While, AppLite, which is the company’s application delivery platform, delivers a seamless experience by bringing applications to the user in this dynamic era of mobility and cloud.

BEST ENTERPRISE SECURITY SOLUTIONS VENDOR

CROWDSTRIKE CrowdStrike’s leading combined technology with world class threat hunting and incident response teams guarantee its clients that they are relentlessly going after the threat actors and intrusions to remove them from the environment. Over the last 12 months, CrowdStrike has been involved in eradicating intrusions such as the Ryuk, Trickbot and Emotet in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. There is no denying that the breadth and depth of cyber-attacks today is hindering organisations’ decisions to adopt modern solutions that are paving the way for digital transformation, such as cloud, IoT, and AI capabilities. Crowdstrike assures customers that they can safely

modernise their IT infrastructure without sacrificing privacy or security. The vendor makes it easy for CISOs and technology leaders to align their business goals and bypass any hurdle in deploying new technologies across the enterprise. The vendor foresees a growing concern for security professionals to guarantee the sound integrity and protection of enterprise data and transactions. It is also expecting an even larger adoption of its security platform by constantly investing in adding protection and visibility modules for endpoints and workloads. Current and prospective customers can expect CrowdStrike to lead their space in terms of innovation and bottom line capabilities.

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BEST PASSIVE NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE VENDOR

DME PROLINK DME Prolink works closely with service providers to design and develop products to support their ambitious infrastructure development in the region. The vendor plays a major role in the EXPO 2020 projects by providing the passive infrastructure for the Opportunity District and the Mobily district along with high-end PDUs. Its solution range was developed in conjunction with EXPO 2020 norms to work alongside high-end active components and provide reliable network infrastructure for the project. Over the years, DME Prolink has supported high-end residential projects from WASL providing seamless integration complying to Taawun, Etisalat and DU regulations, offering them end to

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end solutions including the FTTx and the GPON solutions. The vendor planned multiple fast-track processes for an enhanced customer experience. Its product development comprises of a 3D product tool that gives customers with a look and feel of the newly developed product to check if it complies to their requirement. An E-Commerce website is also under progress and will be launched by the end of Q2. The company will also be adding secure payment gateway facility for secured payment transfers for local and international customers. The company has established its Middle East direct presence through trained channel partners and direct support staffs in multiple locations across the region.

BEST IT SERVICES PROVIDER

EMIRCOM Emircom has been in the market since 1984 and comes with 34 years of experience. Not only does the firm work with an impressive eco-system of leading companies, but it often goes as far as to try-out new solutions on its internal organisation. The IT solution provider is passionate about the climate crisis and have felt the need to develop its home-grown energy efficiency solution – SEnergy. SEnergy watches and listens to your biggest energy consuming devices and helps you know how much you are deviating from your ideal spend. It also analyses, suggests findings and takes decisions through an AI-driven service module. Over the past year, the company has built some of the most advanced data

centres in the UAE, with a cooling capacity that is double the highest existing capacity in the country. In close collaboration with one of its strategic vendors, the firm has enabled a top resort in the region to ensure delivery of continuous innovation with future-proof performance. The company has also expanded its offering in the data centre space; and by partnering with leading providers such as Schneider and Huawei, today, it can deliver an end-to-end solution and have built large data centers, both private and public. Through innovation over the next decade, Emircom is convinced that the society will be more immersed in smart living, intelligent work and a frictionless economy. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST CHANNEL SUPPORT INITIATIVES BY A DISTRIBUTOR

EMT DISTRIBUTION emt Distribution is focused on bringing more value to its partners through its preand-post-sales activities. The company’s initiatives like ‘emt care’ has brought benefits to its partners and customers such as free cybersecurity trainings & certifications, free health checks and so on. Over the last year, the distributor has facilitated the transformation of one of the biggest airports in the region by digitising their asset tracking infrastructure and enabling them to envision their asset lifecycle from a single pane of glass. It has addressed the data protection challenges of one of the biggest and key ministries by providing them with solutions that enabled

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them to close all the gaps that could result to a potential data breach. Additionally, five of the biggest middle east airlines, four of the largest Oil & Gas, two of the largest banks and five of the biggest enterprise customers have trusted emt’s technologies and its expertise. The distributor’s solutions address the needs of a modern-day digital organisation, while helping them not only have a swift digital journey but also be compliant with regulations. As we move towards the decade of AI and IoT, the core focus of the company is to address the needs of larger organisations in a holistic way, while helping them to have complacent visibility of their entire network.

BEST SPECIALISED ERP VENDOR

EPICOR With a key focus on the SMB sector, global enterprise business software provider Epicor delivers industry-specific solutions for a wide range of verticals including manufacturing, hospitality and services. The company has over 40 years of experience with its customers’ unique business processes and operational requirements built into every solution―in the cloud, hosted, or on-premises. Among its key customers is the Ras Al Khaimah-based Quarry Mining, which is relying on Epicor ERP to optimise production processes and promote data transparency across its business functions. More importantly, through the Epicor solution, the company will be able to get production costs and estimations for upcoming projects as well as ensure design integration with CADLink. It will also have a direct impact on company’s

strategy and ability to plan for future business expansion. Another key deployment for Epicor is General International Group’s adoption of Epicor cloud ERP. Through the solution, the company has been able to automate several processes and improve the speed, accuracy, and flexibility of reporting. The cloud-based ERP solution from Epicor will open the door to newfound efficiencies in business continuity, cybersecurity and risk management, as well as carry the benefit of 24/7 support and disaster recovery. Lastly, selecting Epicor ERP has enabled Marwa Marble, one of the UAE’s most wellrespected marble and granite suppliers, automate inventory management for over 90,000 square metres stock of stone. This will enable the company to significantly reduce hours spent on physically inspecting and counting inventory and avoid human error. HOT 50 AWARDS

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BEST DATA CENTRE SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

EQUINIX Equinix offers interconnection solution called Platform Equinix, which enables customers to implement Interconnection Oriented Architecture (IOA) strategies. The company’s expansive footprint of 200 data centres across more than 50 global markets, and its position as a leading meeting and interconnection point for ecosystems of networks, clouds, enterprises and nearly 10,000 customers, give it a unique and holistic lens to view critical digital infrastructure trends and solve for customer requirements. The company anticipates edge computing to be a key driver in accelerating hybrid multi-cloud adoption across every business segment worldwide, which in turn will also enable the rapid progression of other emerging technologies, such as 5G mobile communications. Recently, Equinix acquired Packet, the leading bare metal automation platform. By acquiring Packet, the company seeks to

make it easier for enterprises to seamlessly deploy multicloud solutions at Equinix. The firm has also helped flydubai deploy a high-performance, resilient infrastructure within the Equinix Dubai (DX1) International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre. By building a digital edge alongside the largest industry ecosystems on Platform Equinix, flydubai placed strategic control points next to its customers, clouds and networks to reach everywhere, interconnect everyone and integrate everything. Meeting today’s digital demands requires organisations to re-think and rearchitect IT to extend their digital edge closer to end-users, locations, clouds and data which define and impact their businesses. With interconnection, Equinix is enabling enterprises to do this, bringing the scale, agility, capacity, security and quality of service that organisations need to successfully conduct digital business around the globe. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

FINESSE Finesse is amongst the most trusted system integrators in the region over the years. The company’s strategies harmonise with the vision and passion of customers and provides them with the best possible solutions. The firm ensures that its customer’s requirements and innovative ideas are integrated into its customised technology solutions. Over the last year, the company has successfully supported lead generation, student enrolment, student management, and marketing campaigns on a CRM platform, that was meticulously customised for GEMS Education. The firm has deployed a CRM solution platform for Gourmet Gulf to digitally transform its Customer Dining Experience in UAE. The hospitality company has been equipped with diverse and robust 22 HOT 50 AWARDS

functioning, which allows it to expand its guest base, brand portfolio and cuisines while enhancing its customer loyalty. The firm also built a one-stop RPA automation process bot, which will cater information from different folios available on Aster portal. The bot will gather only the necessary and distinct information at one platform to conduct a thorough Insurance Eligibility Process. With experienced solution architects and business analysts, Finesse understands the requirements of customers in the region. The company has also successfully implemented solutions for renowned organisations like ArcelorMittal, Gourmet Gulf, Gulf Air, and Department of Finance. AI-based Chatbots, Blockchain, CRM/ CEM and Robotic Process Automation, in line with the vision for the region, are the companies’ key focus for 2020.

BEST MID-MARKET ERP VENDOR

FOCUS SOFTNET Since its inception, Focus Softnet has ensured that its products do not only use state-of-the-art technology, but are also feature-rich and based on extensive research. This has earned the company partnerships and business associates from all around the world from major business organisations. As an IT solutions provider with over 25 years of experience and multi-domain expertise, Focus Softnet’s consulting services and skillsets are backed by a vast knowledge-base and a keen understanding of what it takes to run and grow a business. Focus has come to be known for reengineering business processes, optimising resources, developing and deploying userfriendly, flexible and cost-efficient industry specific solutions. This characteristic has led to the creation of its latest launch

AIFA (Artificially Intelligent Futuristic Application), expanding its horizons from ERP, CRM and HCM Solutions to Platform Agnostic AI Solutions. AIFA is an advanced, automated platform meant to enhance business, increase productivity, and reduce investment in human training. Focus Softnet has developed AIFA to enable organisations to automate all types of functions. These could be from the front office, top executive, managerial, and back office. With CIOs and IT managers under pressure to do more with less funds, AIFA as a workforce assistant can be used across multiple departments and across multiple roles. As organisations prepare to take on the new decade in 2020, Focus is all set to provide its customers with the latest offering in technology.

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BEST IT DISTRIBUTOR

FVC Regional value-added distributor FVC has established leadership in AV and UCC solutions and has a comprehensive portfolio of complementing vendors in the infrastructure and information security space. The distributor has strategically expanded its portfolio to meet the needs of customers based on the changing innovations, trends, technology and business landscape. Its Innovation Centre offers partners and customers access to the latest solutions from its vendors to give them an environment to experience the best-of-breed solutions, facilitate knowledge exchange, and conduct workshops and trainings. The uptake of enterprise collaboration solutions has significantly increased as digital transformation initiatives gain momentum. Businesses of all sizes and verticals are investing in ‘Smart Meeting 24 HOT 50 AWARDS

Rooms’ and ‘Huddle Spaces’ as the first step in their DX journey. FVC is empowering organisations to fast-track their DX journey with the latest innovations in video conferencing, AV, and UC solutions to power their collaboration environment. The company has recently partnered with Virsec that allows it to provide Runtime Memory Application Protection to partners and customers in the region for the first time. This is a technology deemed ‘mandatory’ by Gartner. The FVC Innovation Centre plays a central role in helping customers understand the technology they are investing in through workshops, trainings and POCs. Through its services, the firm helps customers get the most of their investments by providing expert consultancy and after sales services to help them overcome their digital challenges.

BEST ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS VAD

GULF SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION Gulf Software Distribution seeks to enable partner growth by offering professional marketing support for customers to do more and acquire new clients. Over the last year, the firm has focused on expanding its vendor offering in the region with three incredible new technologies. The first technology is Reveille’s out-of-the-box, agentless, ECM application monitoring solution, which helps organisations immediately gain deep insight into performance, security, adoption, and compliance of their ECM applications. Secondly, there’s Cloudflare, which speeds up and protects millions of websites, APIs, SaaS services, and other properties connected to the Internet. It was also awarded best Anti-DDos Vendor this year. Lastly, ZephyrTel the telecommunications industry worldwide

with an extensive portfolio of cloud solutions for mobile, infrastructure, retail and customer experience. The VAD is also working extensively with IBM and enabling business partners with a unique platform offering an integrated software solution with one point of contact for their customers. The VAD also announced a unique meeting place called the ‘Majlis’ for business partners to prosper. Majlis is an Arabic word meaning a place of seating, where people would gather to discuss serious matters and future challenges. In 2020, the company hopes to see its business partners utilise the ‘Majlis’ as a way to gather and explore business opportunities and business growth using its trusted partner eco-system.

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BEST PRODUCT INNOVATION

HACHI Hachi (Puppy Robot) is a provider of consumer robotics technology to help consumers build an AI-enhanced smart home ecosystem. The company launched its operations in 2016 with a strong team of technology experts. Its flagship innovation is called Puppy Cube, which is a portable ultra-short throw projector that turns any flat surface into an interactive touchscreen expertly designed for users of all ages and skill-sets. In China, many users utilise early childhood education apps for their children. In the course of the last 12 months, the touch projection technology of Puppy Cube has been very suitable for users and children to interact, especially for educational apps.

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The robotics firm Hachi is dedicated to making the lives of its customers smarter, easier and more convenient. Coupled with high-precision sensors and deep learning technology, Puppy Cube and the next generation product, Hachi Infinite, enable more intuitive interactions with users to create an enjoyable and immersive experience for kids and adults alike in learning, cooking, fitness and other settings. Launching for the first time at the international tech show, Hachi Infinite, the first-ever smart visual assistant and portable projector is exhibited alongside the brands’ complete line of robotics and smart home solutions, and available for a hands-on demo at CES 2020 in Las Vegas.

BEST CYBERSECURITY SERVICES PROVIDER

HELP AG Help AG is a pure play cybersecurity advisor that goes far beyond the capabilities of the traditional systems integrators, with industry leading practices in analysis, consulting, integration, managed security services and support. The cybersecurity services provider believes in always taking a market leadership approach rather than being a follower. This is evident in its investment in MSS and smart SOC, and its approach to secure cloud enablement, AI and ML, IoT, ICS/SCADA and other domains. A key characteristic of any solution within the Help AG portfolio – whether it is a wellestablished or next-generation technology - is that it has been carefully selected based on a long-term strategy approach.

The firm has built an unmatched competency across all domains in cybersecurity. Through its five divisions – Cybersecurity Analysis, Cybersecurity Consulting, Cybersecurity Integration, Cybersecurity Support and Managed Security Services – the company is capable of engaging with customers at any point in their digital transformation journey and delivering robust security solutions and services. As the result of an extremely well thought out and executed strategic roadmap for its business through 2019, Help AG is now positioned stronger than ever before. This will be reflected in the scale, scope and quality of its services, solutions and reach in 2020.

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BEST AI SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

HIKVISION Hikvision’s leading smart cameras and infrastructure solutions engineered with AI technology integrate a range of tools to support smarter decision making. The firm is dedicated to providing comprehensive solutions for the different industry demands such as implementing its Intelligent Traffic System Solutions to the region to improve the traffic safety in the cities. Besides, with the other advanced technologies, like Hikvision DarkFighterX technology equipped products can detect the objects clearly in a dim night which helps to capture the necessary information for a criminal scene.

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In the era of intelligence, it is data that connects the IoT world and the information world and connects all industrial channels. By giving full play to the IoT data, business data and Internet data on the basis of artificial intelligence, the company can further expand application capabilities and service scope, and fully empower all industries. In 2020, the firm will continuously help users achieve digital transformation and intelligent upgrade in the different areas. The company also strives to provide customers with professional solutions and advanced products, while looking forward to new partnerships in the coming year.

BEST ENTERPRISE VENDOR

HUAWEI Huawei is a leading global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains – telecom networks, IT, smart devices and cloud services – Huawei is committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world. Over the last year, Huawei has continued to assist enterprises and governments throughout the Middle East with everything from strategic IT development and implementation to operational support— ultimately helping customers achieve their digital transformation goals. The past year saw Huawei introduce a range of solutions and programs across artificial intelligence, cloud, campus networks, data centres, the Internet of Things and intelligent computing. The vendor has continued to provide the industry’s only full-stack, full-scenario AI

solution portfolio. Through investing in an open ecosystem and talent cultivation with academia and industry partners, Huawei has made great strides in weaving AI into existing IT products and services. As a leader in both AI and 5G technologies, Huawei maintains a unique end-to-end portfolio for ushering in a digital age. In 2019, that resulted in 228 of the Fortune Global 500 choosing Huawei as a technology partner. Huawei has now worked on smart city projects in more than 40 countries and regions, in over 200 cities, affecting 400 million people. Looking ahead in 2020, Huawei is fine-tuning its focus on specific industries, customers, and geographies based on changes in the macroenvironment, while continuing to drive growth in data communications, storage, and cloud services. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE VENDOR

IFS IFS places the customer at the centre of its operation, giving first approach to the consumer, offering speed, elasticity and choice. The company offers its customers the option whether it be on prem or in the cloud. The firm’s leading enterprise software is designed and developed to make them more agile in collaboration with its customers. IFS possesses extensive knowledge, experience and expertise in the areas of aerospace and defence, manufacturing, engineering, construction and infrastructure, energy, utilities and resources and service. The software vendor understands the needs, requirements, pain points, business processes and environments for each of these specified industries, which further allows them to be advisor, supporter and provider for the best in software for each 30 HOT 50 AWARDS

respective industry. The vendor is constantly working to evolve its architecture, with the current pressures on companies to digitally transform. Today, IFS has developed its industry-focused architecture to allow customers to integrate the core of IFS’ architecture with new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Machine Learning and Augmented Reality. The company has selected the Middle East as one of the key investment regions and expanded its operations in the region by opening its new office in Dubai in 2019 with the Oman office expected to open in early 2020. The company is also in the midst of onboarding some of the Middle East’s most experienced, reputable partners, along with continuing to expand its specialised IFS workforce on the ground.

BEST SERVICE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION

IVANTI With an amalgamation of various technology acquisitions, Ivanti brings the unified IT concept to customers and organisations. It provides solutions for IT security, service management, asset management and unified endpoint management that helps customers solve their evolving IT needs. Cybersecurity has become a very important factor now more than ever and Ivanti’s security product portfolio is protecting businesses increasingly in the Middle East. Specifically, the firm’s patch management solution that mitigates risks by protecting all the devices in an organisation from vulnerable exploit attacks. The firm offers client management tools, which provide flexible automation for today’s hybrid environments.

These tools enable a customer’s digital transformation as they automate systems administration and support functions which would otherwise be done manually. Ivanti’s primary goal is to aid businesses by eliminating their day-to-day IT challenges and streamlining their business processes. The company not only supports IT and businesses end-to-end but its products can also be seamlessly integrated with other vendors to deliver positive customer experience. Over the years, the firm has witnessed an increase in customer acquisition by providing exceptional support to its clients. Apart from this, the firm looks forward to addressing upcoming IT lifecycles and continue to provide the Power of Unified IT experience to businesses. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS DISTRIBUTOR

LOGICOM With a strong presence in the Middle East and robust engagement and alliances with top vendors, regional partners have entrusted Logicom as the top client-service and networking infrastructure distributor and advisor for many years. Over the last year, Logicom’s cloud capabilities have also been a major pillar emphasising its commitment in helping partners with their digital transformation. The company’s strategy of emphasising sales and technical readiness for its partners, along with the marketing and promotion of its common solutions has allowed them to provide and deliver integrated solutions that satisfy end customers’ specialised and unique needs. The firm’s Cloud Market place, after almost completing four years of its cloud operations and offerings, is now covering 13 countries in MEA and CEA, substantially increasing 32 HOT 50 AWARDS

its market share with Microsoft and other cloud vendors. The cloud marketplace also provides customers with the capability of supporting various infrastructure software and hardware consumption models across the region. The distributor is also assisting channel partners with a managed services approach that also cater for one’s own IP for various SaaS offerings. In addition, for its Premium Partners, the company is in a unique position to offer them with the capability of creating their own branded marketplace that allows them to populate their own cloud offerings and solutions where their customers can order and self-provision services in seconds. We can expect the company to announce a number of new cooperation agreements with new vendors in the first half of 2020, further enhancing its product portfolio and solutions’ offerings to the market.

BEST EPM SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

MDSAP MDSap delivers turn-key solutions for the most demanding customers at exceptionally high standards. The company provides advisory and superior consultancy services to clients to build their transformation roadmap and also helps them achieve it using best of breed technology. The current competitive business dynamics is pressuring organisations to continuously reduce costs while simultaneously improving their ability to deliver on the corporate strategy. MDSap empowers its clients to be self-sufficient and to harness the power of their data and analytics to overcome their challenges by delivering the benefits of their solutions and services including improved variability management, increased information accuracy, agile analytics, increased

profitability and shareholder value while lowering overall cost. Customers can expect more innovation and a diverse portfolio of solutions from the company during 2020 and beyond. The company’s strategy is focused on helping clients to address the market issues they face as the economic situation in the Middle East becomes more challenging and have a clear view of the business benefits of having its advanced analytics tools and services. These are the core objectives of MDSap’s offering to the Middle East, Turkey and East Europe market coupled with the best backbone technology platform from SAP, which is why the company partners with its customers on implementing excellence with its solution and services portfolio.

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BEST VALUE-ADDED DISTRIBUTOR

MINDWARE Mindware is solely dedicated to the Middle East and Africa (MEA) market. Mindware acts as a ‘true’ Value Added Distributor with a very active and highly qualified base of solutions and IT architects The VAD assists channel partners by adding value to them through its vast and diversified solutions team. Mindware has multi-vendor services which are aligned with the solutions that its channel partners sell. Partners benefit by utilising Mindware expert resources that reduce their time spent on projects as well as the cost. Mindware Solutions Business Unit understands the expectations of channel partners and the necessity to be flexible, approachable and available. The company has a dedicated team of full time engineers and project managers who handle the full portfolio of Mindware Solutions comprising 34 HOT 50 AWARDS

of infrastructure services, security services and cloud. The distributor’s approach has always been putting customer’s and partner’s first. This can be seen in how the company has structured its sales and solutions teams or the various back office operation tools they use which benefit their customer’s and partner’s. When it comes to digital transformation, the firm works on the same principle and has invested in a new marketplace to enable its partners to transact seamlessly and avail of the various offerings through it. Consulting services, virtualisation, collaboration services, mobility and security solutions are some of the distributor’s offerings, which its partners can avail of in order to expedite their customer’s cloud and digital transformation journey.

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BEST IT CONSULTING SERVICES PROVIDER

NCC NCC claims that all facets are intertwined when it comes to supporting its customer’s digital transformation goals, technological innovation, resource quality, flexible economic models and adaptability of service delivery. The firm has unique capabilities to introduce and deliver such models and this is what they bring to the region. For NCC, 2019 was a year of establishment, relationships, learning and changes. The company opened an office in Dubai and assembled a multinational team of professionals and experts, building the base for market conquest. One of the main success factors of the company is its ability to create abstraction layers, or digital twins, in addition to existing infrastructures, augmented

and enhanced with NCC technologies. The company’s IOT platform has been strategically positioned in government and public institutions, and it has demonstrated how NCC can deliver immediate value and ROI to the market through agile and effective XaaS delivery models. The company offers a variety of innovative products, ranging from liquid-immersed computing systems to advanced IOT sensor technologies as well as digital twin solutions that tackle vertical-specific use cases and that leverage on the latest innovations in hardware and software development. The company looks forward to building a stronger ecosystem of strategic clients and partners that can collectively develop NCC’s expertise and capabilities in the region.

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BEST SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS VENDOR

NORDEN COMMUNICATIONS As a reputed brand in the structured cabling market, Norden Communication, Middle East has dedicated its expertise in developing products that meet the end-to-end requirements of organisations in the telecommunications, industrial and utilities sectors. The company offers an array of products from copper and fibre connectivity solutions, industrial cables, telecommunication distribution and closets and NVS – public alarm systems. Over the last few years, the company has made significant investments in R&D to develop new product innovations that will enable seamless integration of physical security systems. In 2016, Norden has introduced its surveillance system product line – EyeNor, which includes Classic Series – IP System; Classic Series – Analogue System; Value 38 HOT 50 AWARDS

Line Series – IP System; and Starlight and High-End series – IP based system. The company focuses mostly on customer requirements as technology advances. The company’s Face Detection technology for identification and identity verification, launched at Intersec last year, allows you to build smart facial biometrics-based solutions. Using the human face as a key to security; due to its potential, biometric face recognition technology has received considerable attention. The future of surveillance industry relies on storage space of system. In order to reduce the size of each video stored, the vendor has introduced the latest compression technology, H.265+ to its products and has also managed to increase the size of HDD they put in each NVR and the bay supported.

BEST HYPERCONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE VENDOR

NUTANIX Nutanix is an established global leader in the Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) space. The company has reached $1billion in annual revenue faster than any other software company founded in the past 20 years. The core of Nutanix’s business is infrastructure, which is called the Nutanix Core, comprised of the company’s software-defined storage stack – AOS; an infrastructure control plane Prism and its hypervisor-AHV. Over the past year and even today, the vendor has significantly added to the breadth of its platform, broadening its capabilities to address the challenges customers tackle as they modernise their IT infrastructure and expand into multicloud operations. Cloud computing and hyperconvergence is becoming the fundamental technology engine for digital transformation initiatives, including customer engagement, internal

operations and updated business models. A testament to Nutanix’s strong capabilities is its recognition as a leader (for the third consecutive year) in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS software makes infrastructure invisible, elevating IT to focus on the applications and services that power businesses. The Nutanix Enterprise Cloud platform blends webscale engineering and consumer-grade design to natively converge server, storage, virtualisation and networking into a resilient, software-defined solution with rich machine intelligence. The vendor has set for itself an ambitious but attainable goal of hitting $3billion in billings from software and support in FY’2021. In line with the global vision, on a regional level, the company will continue to position itself as the next generation operating system for the enterprise cloud. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST NEXT-GEN TECHNOLOGY INNOVATOR

NXN NXN is a fully-fledged digital service provider that blends digital platforms with strategic planning, technology, and data management communication methodologies to simplify and accelerate the digital transformation journeys of its customers – from planning through to execution. Within a consumer context, the firm has been advocating the idea of ‘Digital Platforms’ for several years, injecting new functional capabilities into the mix, tapping into the cloud when and where applicable, and serving as a launch pad for their digital use cases. Over the course of the last 12 months the company has been delivering this vision to many governments, cities, and districts in the region.

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Through its DNX platform, the company addresses the technology component (whether it’s AI, Blockchain, analytics, security, etc.) and brings in its consulting team to work with customers as part of an effort to better understand the needs of customers and then plan out their transformation journey with them. The firm also has its data science team on board that helps them organise, orchestrate and make sense of their data to make better informed business decisions eventually. The firm continues to focus on bringing practical digital transformation to cities and districts, governments and select verticals.

BEST PERIPHERALS AND ACCESSORIES VENDOR

OKI EUROPE LTD For over three decades, OKI has pioneered the use of digital LED printing technology, which offers sharper and more vibrant high definition colour printing. Through the development of printers and multifunction printers with more precise and compact LED heads, the vendor has held exclusive titles of “the world’s smallest”, “the world’s fastest” and more. Over the last year, OKI’s Retail Signage Solutions have been helping the retail sector with capturing the customers’ attention and increasing basket value by delivering high quality signage, on-demand and at staffs’ fingertips. The firms cost-effective DICOMembedded A4/A3 LED printers are the first in healthcare sector allowing users to print directly from medical equipment and machines without external software or hardware.

OKI’s devices are monitored to spot errors and faults, and whenever a customer faces an issue the maintenance is carried out remotely and/or on-site if required. The vendor advises customers on the right mix of devices and their allocation to increase productivity by identifying where significant cost savings can be done and helping employees change their behaviours to reduce unnecessary printing. The vendor also solves security issues by programming a multi-function printer with secure access via ID card or PIN to prevent losing sensitive information and providing confidential printing on shared devices. OKI developed and launched various printer models in 2019 and will continue with its unique printing solutions to push their creativity boundaries and meet their needs with exceptional quality and minimal cost in 2020. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST PAYMENT SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

OMA EMIRATES OMA Emirates provides strategic solutions to entities on their existing and potential projects simultaneously providing a reduced overall cost of projection. Over the last year, the company has developed innovative solutions to match the dynamic and futuristic market demands, a few of its technologies and services include - Biometric Customer Authentication, E-KYC Solutions and Digital Banking Initiatives. The Biometric Customer Authentication is a robust authentication solution that has helped to fast track customer verification process and mitigate the potential of theft and fraud. The firms E-KYC solution has helped to fast track the complete customer onboarding process and has reduced the turnaround time (TAT) and increased the document processing accuracy with minimal-manual-intervention. 42 HOT 50 AWARDS

With the company’s Digital Banking Initiatives, they have transformed the existing transaction-based banking into experience-based banking, making it accessible to customers at any point, of time or place. As part of the digitalisation, OMA Emirates is in process of converting all banking transaction from manual to virtual. With the increased adoption of emerging technologies, such as AI blockchain and augmented and virtual reality, most businesses are trying to keep up with these changing times. The company uses AI to provide business intelligence based on financial transactions data and geo-location offering customised campaigns per customer. In 2020, the company will implement its multi-functional integrated Middleware solution with AI, RPA, E-KYC and Biometric, thus serving multiple industries across the region

BEST FLASH STORAGE SOLUTIONS VENDOR

PURE STORAGE In less than 10 years, Pure Storage has disrupted the storage industry by creating solutions that are intelligent, automated and modern. Unlike legacy infrastructure vendors, Pure enables customers to utilise more of their data, while reducing the complexity and expense of managing the infrastructure behind it. The vendor provides a modern data experience that creates a common operating environment across multiple data centres and clouds, easing operations via APIs and intelligent AI-driven automation. The vendor also offers its customers integrated hybrid cloud and on-prem solutions, consumable as a flexible subscription.

Pure’s portfolio of technology solutions are focused on meeting the priorities that are important to CIOs and strategic decision makers today ― building a hybrid cloud, transitioning to fast, consolidated data architectures, and deriving business value from AI and analytics. Over the past decade, the vendor has consistently challenged the status quo and brought to market several industry-first solutions and services. By offering unified, automated and multi-cloud solutions that focus on data utility, the firm is enabling companies to modernise their existing applications and simultaneously accelerate their adoption of hybrid cloud, containers, DevOps, AI, and real-time analytics at scale.

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BEST SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR

RAQMIYAT Raqmiyat’s approach to IT Services and Systems Integration has evolved throughout the past few years. Its partnership with customers allows them to drive their business with higher confidence and agility, benefits best-ofclass solutions that are tailored to fit their business aspirations. Over the course of the last 12 months, the firm was successful in extending valuable services to one of the most prestigious government entities in Dubai, which has the demanding and strict SLAs, to allow them focus on their core business. In the banking sector, the firm managed to upgrade the payment systems for tens of its customers, pertaining to their

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check clearing process, while giving their customers the flexibility to operate remotely, to maximise their efficiencies and minimise the turnaround time. The IT systems integrator also received a high recognition from a renowned federal government entity after the completion of a sophisticated integration project. Integrating their back office systems with 15-plus different entities, across UAE and within the project charter timeline. The company continues to explore new technologies, forging partnership with leading technology and services providers, to offer customers toprated solutions that suit their future business aspirations.

BEST SMART HOME SECURITY VENDOR

RING Ring’s mission is to make neighbourhoods safer. The company’s product line enables RING to provide affordable, complete, proactive home and neighbourhood security to customers. The past few years have seen the security vendor expand upon its original product the Ring Video Doorbell and grow its product line with a solution for almost any home including multiple doorbell options, and indoor and outdoor cameras. The company’s mission to make neighbourhoods safer drives every decision they make, and they hope to provide convenience and peace of mind to homeowners throughout the region by helping to keep an eye on their most important possession, their home, even when they cannot be there physically.

The vendor is constantly innovating on behalf of its customers to develop products that best meet their home and security needs. The Ring app allows users to watch over their homes from anywhere, at any time. Users can see, hear and speak to anyone at their front door – or in and around their home - directly though the app. The vendor is seeing a strong traction of the Ring brand from the region. Its 2020 strategy is to continue making the brand more accessible in the Middle East and Africa by engaging the right value-added partners across the region, investing more in markets such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries where it already has a strong presence.

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BEST IT SECURITY TRAINING SERVICES PROVIDER

SECURITY MATTERZ Security Matterz is well-positioned in the Saudi market as the only provider that offers holistic information and cybersecurity consulting, training, and solutions services. The company’s state-of-the-art managed security services (MSS) offer’s customers security monitoring, incident handling, incident response on-demand, and support in implementing and administering their security solutions. The Saudi Arabian cybersecurity leader has supported its customers in assessing and planning their security strategies in compliance with international and regional standards such as ISO27001, NCA, and SAMA frameworks. Its extensive list of strategic solutions partners, coupled with its consulting and MSS offerings, allow the company to provide customers with one-stop-shop for all their information and cybersecurity needs. 46 HOT 50 AWARDS

Over the last year, the company has helped several customers to build and operate their Security Operation Centers (SOC) helping them develop security processes and augment their staff with its experienced security engineers. The company has also selected and implemented the needed security solutions to meet the increasing demand for incident handling and response. The company also helped customers develop and implement data centric security protection program that supports and comply to SAMA, NCA, and other international best practices and standards. In 2020, the company’s focus will be on providing consultancy, training and managed security services through its new state-of-art local SOC and Academy, which will provide customers with their total information and cybersecurity needs.

BEST ENDPOINT SECURITY VENDOR

SOPHOS Sophos has continued to prioritise investment in innovation, which has produced important advances for the company in this year. Among the firm’s key offerings is the Sophos Intercept X Advanced with EDR, which automates much of the process of active threat investigation via some of the world’s most advanced deep learning, neural network-based artificial intelligence (AI). Another notable innovation offered by the vendor is the latest Sophos XG Firewall, which enables customers to manage their Sophos security solutions fully within the Sophos Central cloud platform. As a global cybersecurity leader, Sophos is constantly driving change to reshape and innovate the market. One way the vendor is doing this is by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, through deep learning neural networks.

Secondly, at the heart of Sophos’ strategy, lies the concept of synchronised security, where all of the company’s security products actively work together to provide faster, more accurate detection, and greater levels of automation to isolate and stop threats from spreading. Today, regional organisations are realising that traditional security solutions are no longer enough to keep them ahead of the latest complex threats. The security vendor helps them to move towards having a cybersecurity system that can cover all connected points whether they are endpoints, servers or networks. In 2020, the company will have more of its products which are deep learning enabled and will share information under its syncrhonised security technology. It will also continue to expand regionally in terms of channel, investments and people. HOT 50 AWARDS

BEST SECURITY SOLUTIONS DISTRIBUTOR

SCREENCHECK ScreenCheck believes that value addition is the only thing that gives sustainable growth in the current market scenario. In the current economic scenario, organisations are looking at various options for cost optimisation and improving employee efficiency. For example, ScreenCheck’s new solution, Visitor Management, completely takes care of the front office reception in terms of visitor management allowing the receptionist to focus on other areas. The firm plays a niche role in digital transformation, mainly by delivering RFID and Biometrics technologies powered by AI. Biometrics like face recognition and RFID play a significant role in automatic identification, tracking and smart city among others.

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In the digital era, where customers are reluctant in capital investment and want subscription-based solutions to their problems, the company also have migrated many of its solutions to the cloud. Whether it is attendance management, asset visibility, or even student safety and monitoring solution, they are available on the subscription model. The company has a few solutions and products to be launched in 2020, where AI plays a vital role at the back-end in terms of predictive analysis. Every institution capable of exploiting these technologies will have a chance to radically streamline and enhance existing processes, create entirely new business models, and develop innovative products and services for a new generation of consumers.

BEST RETAIL SOLUTIONS VENDOR

ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES Zebra empowers the front line of business in retail/ecommerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare and other industries to achieve a competitve edge. With more than 10,000 partners across 100 countries, the company delivers industry-tailored, end-to-end solutions that intelligently connect people, assets and data to help our customers make businesscritical decisions. Zebra’s solutions incorporate mobile computing, barcode scanning, RFID, thermal printing, plus location, temperature and motion sensing technologies to elevate the shopping experience, track and manage inventory as well as improve supply chain efficiency and patient care. The vendor is focused on combating threats and is developing smart, configurable devices, solutions and services that allow businesses to balance operational and security objectives in real-time.

The vendor’s corporate security programme follows best practices such as ISO and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Its products and solutions are used in applications that help organisations comply with HIPAA, PCIDSS and GDPR, and it also has FIPS-140 validation on selected products. The digital transformation journey is driven by IoT technologies as well as the platforms on which the technologies and applications are integrated. Zebra has its own proprietary data intelligence platform - Savanna - on which its customers can build apps and services that facilitate the flow of information to the platform from edge devices. As a trusted advisor, Zebra continues to guide and support its customers by automating workflows and building smarter operations that helps them stay competitive. HOT 50 AWARDS

TOP PERSONALITIES

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BEST FEMALE BUSINESS LEADER Kinda Baydoun from HPE

Brief overview of your role: I am currently leading the Pointnext Services at HewlettPackard Enterprise in the UAE as well as responsible for growing a profitable services organisation. I manage a large team of senior professionals who act as trusted advisors and are fully capable of helping customers in the UAE accelerate their digital transformation journeys; from designing their vision and strategy to implementing and supporting very complex and sophisticated projects covering all services aspects.

Biggest achievement to date: My biggest achievement to date is having being able to maintain a healthy work-life balance, despite all the challenges I faced throughout my career. Mantra for success: When you work hard and pour your heart into what you do, only great things will come your way. Goals for 2020: My aim is to continue building a highly-skilled team, developing a profitable business and to be a key contributor and enabler for some of the UAE nationwide projects.

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MOST CREATIVE MARKETEER OF THE YEAR Charline Fahed from Infoblox

Brief overview of your role: I am the marketing manager for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey operations of Infoblox. I work on both of the company’s digital and field marketing activities as well as channel marketing. Biggest achievement to date: Achieving great results in terms of attendance and opportunities upon our EMEA & APJ road show we do yearly across 22 cities. Mantra for success: Keep up the positive

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vibes and innovation in the types of activities I do for my region knowing that there is a high competition and challenge in terms of ideas and activities we can deliver in the IT market. I also ensure that I stay up to date around other events happening around and replicating the successful events happening in other cities. Goals for 2020: Getting as many new logos as possible through various activities. My goal is to make the Infoblox brand stronger and more accessible everywhere.

CONTENT SPECIALIST OF THE YEAR Gaurav Bhatnagar from Oracle

Brief overview of your role: As the Director and Corporate Communications Manager for Oracle MEA, I am responsible for driving Oracle’s fully integrated communications agenda to build, promote and protect Oracle’s brand and reputation across Middle East and Africa. I am focused on creating and executing programmes to support the business and provide strategic counsel to ensure consistent communication.

Biggest achievement to date: Never stop learning. And if you want to continue learning, then don’t let yourself slip into a comfort zone. Mantra for success: I have been able to implement this mantra in my life. Goals for 2020: Explore the unexplored. Keep trying new things at work and in personal life.

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MARKETING TRENDSETTER OF THE YEAR Juned Attar from Redington Value

a large portfolio is being able to market different technologies all of which are continuously evolving and require special focus. One of the biggest achievements that I am proud of is that I took two emerging technologies – cloud computing and data analytics and took these technologies to the channel, enabling the company to sell and market these technologies leading to a massive partner recruitment drive and pipeline generation for the sales engine.

Brief overview of your role: Technology Marketing is a part of Redington Value’s marketing, which requires skills from both marketing as well as the technology specific skills required for marketing a specific set of technologies. Working as an Assistant Marketing Manager for Redington Value, I work with technology vendors and partners and run a wide range of marketing campaigns through extensive planning, strategy building and field execution as well as digital initiative focused on technologies such as cloud computing and data analytics. Biggest achievement to date: One of the challenges Redington faces as a VAD with

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Mantra for success: “No risk, no gain. No skills, no change.” Having the constant drive and hunger to learn new technologies, gaining the expertise, adapting my skill sets and aligning creative marketing tactics have been my mantra for Success. Data and digital technologies are shaping our lives more than ever before, hence, it is necessary for us to stay hungry and keep the learning cycle on to always understand what we market and sell. Goals for 2020: In the upcoming term, I would like to develop myself further, learning from my mentors about intricately weaving marketing strategies to the overall business and ensuring the best possible return on investment on the marketing dollars. In the medium to longer-term, I would like to become a subject matter expert on marketing cloud as well as develop the partner marketing motion within Redington Value.

MOST INNOVATIVE MARKETEER OF THE YEAR Wael Al Andari from SBM

seamlessly to maximise the ROI. I also take the lead for brand management and internal and external communications. Biggest achievement to date: I cannot specify a single achievement as our work is always challenging and rewarding on all aspects. I would say that I’m proud of what we have achieved so far especially when I took the lead to develop the marketing department to become one of the main pillars in the company. My team and I have closely worked with our vendors and partners to strengthen our relationships in addition to working directly with some of our major clients to develop their brands and help them attain their digital goals.

Brief overview of your role: As the Marketing and Communications Manager at SBM, I am tasked with increasing the firm’s external market share. I am responsible to defining the company’s broad marketing strategy, which involves planning and budgeting aligned with the corporate strategic direction, I also work closely with sales and all lines of business to plan and execute lead generation campaigns 56 HOT 50 AWARDS

Mantra for success: I always seek to beat the odds, believe in continuous teamwork and learning, staying up to date with the trends, being positive and consistent about work and other business aspects. Most importantly, I am passionate to work in an organised way, and setting my priorities straight. Goals for 2020: I’m keen about consistent and improved development of SBM aligned to its industry goals. I aim to increase the market share by closely collaborating with our sales teams, establish new partnerships and leads and invest more in digital marketing in 2020.

MOST INFLUENTIAL MARKETEER OF THE YEAR Areej Shakir from Veritas

Brief overview of your role: As the Marketing Manager at Veritas, I am tasked with managing Veritas’ marketing for the Middle East region, building brand reputation, creating brand awareness and demand generation and being graciously disruptive. Biggest achievement to date: I have achieved a lot for Veritas over the last couple of years. Building the brand recognition and reputation from what it was known for and what they are known now for, there has been tremendous change of perception for the brand. In particular, last year’s Gitex was one

of the achievements that will always be close to my heart, from conceptualisation of our stand to the execution of all aspects of our exhibition at the 5-day event, working on every single detail. It was a one of a kind experience! I’m very grateful to Veritas for giving me the opportunity and believing in me. Mantra for success: Attention to details! Goals for 2020: There is a creative 2020 plan which involves taking the brand to the next level 10.0 HOT 50 AWARDS

BRAND BUILDER OF THE YEAR Abhimanyu Gopalka from Injazat - a Mubadala company

Brief overview of your role: As the Marketing and Communications Manager, a large part of my role is to drive engagement for the Injazat brand across all the verticals we communicate with. We have worked very hard to create the Injazat story and the telling of that story continues to evolve and become more dynamic. I also work closely with our internal communications team to create inspiring and informative stories for our internal teams, support employee engagement events and initiatives among others. Biggest achievement to date: This year I had the honour of winning numerous awards including the TawahulTech.com

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Hot 50 Awards and I also received the High Achievers award at Injazat. I was deeply honoured to win both awards and grateful to the management team who continually inspire me to work harder and learn more. Mantra for success: My mantra for success is and has always been “life is great, let’s make it better,” which drives me in my personal and professional lives. Goals for 2020: This year we will be highly visible at both the tactical and brand levels. My aim is to inspire our audiences by telling them about how Injazat is transforming human achievement by touching hearts and minds with incredible stories.

MARKETING TECH EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR Kamlesh Lal from Dell Technologies

Overview of your role: As the Distribution Marketing Manager, UAE, Gulf and SELL for Dell Technologies, I ensure the success of the company by taking a positive approach to our Middle East audience and customers through innovative initiatives. Together with my team, I am responsible for expanding Dell’s brand in the region through our network of distributors and partners. Biggest achievement till date: New and unique challenges keep me on my toes. Obstacles are a part and parcel of life.

My greatest accomplishment is how I approach and overcome these challenges that makes all the difference. Mantra for success: If you love what you do and possess an unrelenting attitude, then nothing can stop you from achieving your goals. Goals for 2020: Customers have certain perceptions and expectations from Dell, and I look forward to going above and beyond to fulfill this.

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MARKETING TRAILBLAZER OF THE YEAR Rachel Meuleman from Gulf Software Distribution

Brief overview of your role: I am the Channel Marketing Manager for Gulf Software Distribution. We are the largest VAD for IBM Software in the GCC region. I am responsible for the continuous marketing support we provide to our business partners to assist them in their business growth. My goal is to provide the missing piece of marketing that they need to retain and build their customer database long-term. Biggest achievement to date: I’ve been working in the Middle East for the past 12 years and my biggest achievement to date has been receiving the Trailblazer Marketer Award in 2019 and being considered one of the TahawulTech.com’s Hot 50 awardees this year within my industry. Mantra for success: I’ve always believed that 60 HOT 50 AWARDS

‘Failing to plan is planning to fail.’ This mantra holds true time and time again when building marketing campaign and achieving any set goals imaginable. Goals for 2020: In the coming year, I am planning to be the marketing stimulus for our business partners operating business, allowing them more time to focus on the core business while supporting with lead generation and new customer acquisition. 2020 promises to be a very exciting time for the whole country as new developments are explored and ideas are introduced. I look forward to helping the IT Industry in the Gulf sustain the highest level of respect while initiating innovative and creative marketing activations that are recognised from abroad as the world hones in on the Dubai developments.

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INSPIRATIONAL MARKETEER OF THE YEAR Mallika Sharma from Exclusive Networks

Brief overview of your role: I am heading the marketing department for Middle East at Exclusive Networks. My role is all about crafting marketing strategies for all of Exclusive’s vendors, including digital, advertising, communications and creative. My emphasis is always never to imitate but to make sure whatever we do is something new and clearly shows our value as marketers. Preparing and managing the budgets of all initiatives is an integral part of the role. Liaising with the Exclusive team and making things happen together is also important. My team is highly creative and our spirit is the backbone to the success of all campaigns. Biggest achievement to date: I am blessed to have achieved many special milestones.

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The biggest achievement in my current role, I would say, has been hearing from almost all our vendors that Exclusive’s marketing delivers real value, while ensuring that we are very different from competition and surely leaders and not followers. In my ten year journey, overall, I have won many awards and company recognitions, which drives me to achieve much more. Mantra for success: Persistence and diehard passion for what you do will make anything work wonders if not immediately then eventually. Goals for 2020: Definitely setting a new benchmark that’s valued by not just our team but also vendors, channel and customers.

WOMAN EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR Maya Zakhour from NetApp

Brief overview of your role: In my current role as MEA Partners and Pathways Lead, I manage NetApp’s regional distribution landscape and ensure growing channel coverage across MEA. I not only work on building the velocity business in the region, but also lead the NetApp MEA team’s efforts in applying partners and pathways best practices. I also focus on developing the company’s services business.

recognised as the Women Executive of the Year by TahawulTech.com is testament to my capabilities and dedication towards excelling in my field.

Biggest achievement to date: One of my proudest achievements is working at NetApp. It has given me a lot more exposure to diversity, processes and different cultures. It’s an enriching experience personally as well as professionally, where I am exposed to a new market, which is Africa. In addition, being

Goals for 2020: My continuous efforts are always centred on working to achieve my goals, and the coming year is no different. Our focus is to strengthen our channel community, boost channel enablement, ensure our partners meet their targets and progress the tier levels.

Mantra for success: Staying focused and knowing when to capitalise on opportunities is key for me. At the same time, I believe it’s important to know your strengths to help meet your goals.

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IT EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR Sakkeer Hussain from D-Link

Brief overview of your role: As the Sales and Marketing Director at D-Link MEA, my role involves working with different stakeholders to create a positive perception of the brand and simultaneously meet and grow the company’s revenue objectives. Being selfdriven and proactive, I have also launched successful partner-rewarding programmes and channel promotions, which have helped the company to further cement its growth. Biggest achievement to date: I am proud to have played a role in helping D-Link expand its partner base by 40 percent through dedicated partner programmes and in-depth sales and marketing support. I am also delighted that D-Link is considered to be a leading player in the regional IT 64 HOT 50 AWARDS

networking space and take pride in its consistent growth over the years. Mantra for success: Nothing beats diligence and hard work. You put in your time and efforts, and without fail you will see tangible results. Goals for 2020: 2020 will be a pivotal year for D-Link as it continues its commitment of delivering quality products and services for its regional customers and partners. We will be announcing new and exciting programmes, offers and best-in-class products and services over the course of next year, while also constantly building on D-Link’s brand image as the networking leader of choice within the region.

BEST CHANNEL LEADER Nirmal Menon from 2CRSI

Brief overview of your role: As 2CRSI’s Middle East channel manager, my job is to facilitate how our channel community delivers our offerings to the market. I just completed my interesting, challenging and satisfying first year with 2CRSI. I am tasked with identifying and enabling system integrators based on their capacity and interest in our product portfolio. This will, in turn, help our sales team to move further in their strategies. Biggest achievement to date: The word ‘achievement’ in my perspective is to enable channel partners and help them generate more revenue. I received some accomplishments such as awards etc. while doing this.

Mantra for success: I strongly believe, that any new business will face many challenges. Therefore, hard work and smart work is essential to being successful. Goals for 2020: We want to set up a very strong channel that is proactive throughout the Middle East and that will focus on the GCC in 2020. 2CRSI is introducing green computing – cloud HPC and bare metal as-a-service in France and is expecting to offer the same in the near future for the Middle East. 2CRSI is trying to provide our Saudi Arabia channel partners with dedicated support within a short period of time.

HOT 50 AWARDS

OUTSTANDING CHANNEL EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR Ekta Puthran from Barco

Brief overview of your role: Barco is a diversified technology solution vendor which caters to different technology need from meeting room experience to control rooms, digital wall and visualisation. My role is predominantly designed to work with the distribution and partner channel of Barco meeting experience solution in MEA region and develop the market reach by being a Barco ambassador. Biggest achievement to date: I believe my biggest achievement is the trust that I have been able to establish with my company and my channel ecosystem. I started working at a very early age and still being the youngest member in the team where my company believed in my skills, gave me the scope to prove myself and opened the path of growth is an achievement in itself.

66 HOT 50 AWARDS

Mantra for success: We are in the era of dynamic digital ecosystem so I always keep educating myself with new technology and the new approaches that can help my channel to address new market. I am a persuasive sales professional. Keeping an eye on my numbers with an analytical approach to fill in the gap has always been my mantra. However, in this journey of numbers I have always prioritised adding value to my customers and acting as a true consultant to their benefit. Goals for 2020: The market will see some new addition from Barco’s meeting experience solution portfolio, which will truly change the meeting experience for our customers. So I am very excited to drive that with our present portfolio and keep adding value for both our channel and customers.

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SOLUTIONS SMJ Solutions LLC, P.O. Box: 116223, Al Zarooni Building, G Floor, Khalid Bin Al Waleed Street, Bur Dubai, UAE, Tel: 04-3880848