The Insider Issue 04 by Logicom

THE

INSIDER ISSUE 04

Logicom embraces social media to grow business and partner relationships Published by

Contact your Logicom Account Manager to find out more about HP’s Fastest Printer Logicom Dubai Plot S60608 South Zone, Jebel Ali, PO BOX 54328 Dubai Tel: +971 4 8055399 Fax: +971 4 3961144 info@logicom.ae

www.logicomdistribution.net

from the general manager:

contents 04 Product focus

Dear Partners,

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elcome to the fourth edition of The Logicom Insider. We are very happy to have reached the middle of an exceptionally successful year, and I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to our partners for their support and commitment to our company.

This has been an exciting and busy year for all of us, and we couldn’t have done it without the hard work, cooperation, and passion of our partners, our vendors, and of course, the Logicom team. Logicom is built on strong, close partnerships, and it is our mission to continue to develop and extend the value we deliver to our loyal network of partners so that we can celebrate in their success.

06 Optimising

opportunities

10 Social

media

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15 Meet the team

In June, Logicom grew its vendor portfolio with the addition of HP Printing Supplies. This will complement our existing HP Printing Portfolio through the addition of inks and toners, thus strengthening our partner offering. Through this new partnership, Logicom now offers HP inks and toners in the regions of the UAE, Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan, with future plans to broaden the market reach of HP Supplies to include the retail channel.

We are proud to have had our leadership and innovation recognized with two regional awards at this year’s APC by Schneider Electric’s EMEA Distributor Conference in Greece. Logicom was awarded the ‘HBN Distributor of the Year 2013’ for exceeding our targets for HBN, the single phase UPS product range for APC. I also extend my congratulations to Logicom’s APC Product Manager, who was awarded ‘Product Manager of the Year 2013’ by APC, maintaining a good product mix, increasing APC’s market reach, and overachieving the targets for 2013.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who voted for Logicom to win the Reader’s Choice Distributor of the Year award at the Reseller Middle East fifth annual Partner Excellence Awards. These awards pay tribute to those players who have stood out and made a difference in the business in the last year, and we’re grateful to our partners for recognizing our hard work and voting for us.

Our partner relationships are the key to our success, and we are constantly looking for ways to improve our products and services. As such, I would like to thank all our partners for taking the time to respond to our Customer Satisfaction Survey. As our valued partners, how you rate our service to you is the most important information we receive. We are currently in the process of analyzing the results so as to find out how we can serve you better.

Finally, I’d like to remind all our partners that Logicom is now actively social. You can ‘Like’ us on Facebook (facebook.com/LogicomDistribution) or follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/LogicomDisti) to receive daily updates of the latest news, company and partner events, product offerings, promotions and general information about the company, as well as engage in an active online conversation.

We look forward to continuing to expand and strengthen our relationships with our partners, always reaching new heights and providing the best possible service. Once again, we thank you for your support and look forward to another successful quarter together.

Sajith Raj GM, Logicom Dubai 3

Product Focus

HP Designjet T520 36-in ePrinter Professional, web-connected, A0/E-size printer Take advantage of a large-format printer loaded with features to help you do more in your growing studio.

Accurate and rich color quality, exceptional print speeds, and reduced downtime give you the tools you need to succeed.

Experience how easy it is to use the HP Designjet T520 ePrinter. With an intuitive color touchscreen, true print preview, A3/B+ tray, front-load media roll, and Wi-Fi, it has never been simpler to print a wide range of large-format applications.

Print to your HP Designjet T520, using HP Designjet ePrint & Share. This free Web service makes it easy to access and print large-format documents using your tablet, smartphone, laptop or printer touchscreen.

TS-269 Pro High-performance 2-bay NAS server for SMBs The TS-269 Pro is a cost-effective networked storage center incorporating high reliability and scalability. Featuring crossplatform file sharing, comprehensive backup solutions, iSCSI and virtualization applications, and many other practical business applications, the TS-269 Pro is the ideal choice for SMBs to store and secure the growing business data as a reliable private cloud.

• Manage and share files in one centralized storage.

• Back up business data with encrypted remote replication, Real-time Remote Replication (RTRR), and cloud-based storage backup.

• Utilize NAS, iSCSI/ IP-SAN storage combo solution for server virtualization • Facilitate iSCSI and virtualization deployment.

• Increase efficiency with the support of Windows AD/LDAP, Windows ACL, and more.

• Synchronize files between computers, tablets, and mobile devices.

My Cloud EX4 Personal Cloud Storage HP EliteBook Folio 1040 G1 High Performance NAS. Ultimate Reliability.

Ultimate reliability from the trusted name in storage -- Built from the ground up with the quality and reliability you’ve come to expect from WD and backed by a two-year warranty, My Cloud EX4 is a high-performance, four-bay NAS for your home or small office. It offers a robust all-metal enclosure, multiple RAID volumes, easy drive installation and a full suite of apps for the power and flexibility to expand your NAS features.

• High performance 2.0GHz processor • 512MB of DDR3 RAM – lots of room for apps.

• 256MB of Flash – allows the system to boot without Hard drives – important for Diskless versions. Not required to download the firmware to the system before booting • Robust metal design with Easy Slide Drives (change drives within 5 seconds)

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This elegantly designed HP EliteBook is our thinnest business Ultrabook™ yet.1 The HP Elitebook Folio 1040 is packed with enterprise-class features like docking capability and premier security to help keep you productive and your data safe.

• HP EliteBook Folio 1040 G1 Ultrabook i5-4200U with Intel HD Graphics 4400 (1.6 GHz, 3 MB cache, 2 cores), • 4GB DDR3L SDRAM, 180GB SSD, • LED Backlit 14” HD+, • No optical drive, Webcam, Intel Centrino Advanced N 7260AN 802.11a/b/g/n (2x2) WiFi and Bluetooth® 4.0 Combo, • 6-cell Battery (45W Adapter), 1 • Display port, 1 SD Slot, • Win 8 downgrade, • 3 years warranty

Reduce Hardware Spend with CommVault NetScaler Application Delivery Controller The world’s most advanced application delivery controller for mobile and web Citrix NetScaler is deployed in thousands of networks around the globe to optimize, secure and control the delivery of all enterprise and cloud services, and to maximize the end user experience for all users including mobile clients.

Citrix NetScaler is available in both highperformance hardware appliances as well as flexible software-based virtual appliances that support popular hypervisors and run on off-the-shelf servers.

NetScaler MPX -Full portfolio of hardware-based app delivery appliances delivering 500 Mbps to 120 Gbps of performance NetScaler VPX -based virtual appliances that run on widely deployed hypervisors and support 10 Mbps to 3 Gbps performance levels NetScaler SDX -Hardware-based appliances with advanced virtualization to consolidate up to 80 independently-managed NetScaler instances with up to 120 Gbps of overall performance.

NetScaler on AWS –The full suite of NetScaler capabilities is now available on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment

Extreme performance & scale with the NetApp FAS8080 EX

Simpana software’s fully integrated backup, archive and deduplication capabilities help you optimize expensive storage resources and extend the life of existing assets. With integration across the industry’s broadest coverage of applications, file systems and NAS platforms, customers can reduce TCO by migrating stale data to lower-cost storage to effectively retain more data with the same resources. Simpana software’s agnostic approach to hardware lets you choose what infrastructure to use for protection and archive solutions across your environment. Builtin global, source-side deduplication helps delay costly network upgrades and invest in more strategic projects in the organization.

• Cuts storage-related costs by up to 50 percent and reduces administrative overhead by up to 80 percent with a “zero footprint” archive, while managing the retention and storage of content based on its value to the business • Reduces backup times by 50 percent1 on average by moving older, infrequently accessed data from production sources into a centralized archive • Delivers superior TCO by reclaiming primary storage, optimizing your storage assets, eliminating hardware lock-in and opening up new options including seamless integration with private and public clouds • Enables global source or target deduplication spanning applications, geographies and storage tiers • Makes better use of stored information, and keeps data for only as long as it is needed • Takes the guesswork out of planning for the future using tools to track and trend capacity usage • Integrates archive, backup and reporting operations using the Simpana OnePass™ feature to simplify management and reduces costs. Content-based retention helps optimize storage and disk capacity by saving only relevant data

Recreate LOGO

NetApp

NetApp’s patented scale-out array, FAS8080 EX is purpose-built for the most-demanding business-critical applications. The FAS8080 EX scales to ~4 million IOPS of performance and offers advanced quality-of-service capabilities for predictable performance that meets or exceeds challenging service-level objectives. For highspeed, low-latency applications, the FAS8080 EX can be configured either as an all-flash array with >4.6PB (petabytes) of flash storage or as a hybrid array with an industry-leading flash cache of nearly half a petabyte. Additionally, the FAS8080 EX dynamically responds to growing data requirements with seamless scaling to nearly 70PB of capacity and more than 600 I/O connections.

APT Blocker APT Blocker– If you don’t have it you’re not protected Advanced threats, including APTs (advanced persistent threats) and zero day malware, once plagued governments and large enterprises exclusively. Now the target has shifted, with mid-size and small businesses under increasing attack from polymorphic threats. Be the hero and stop these malicious activities dead in their tracks with WatchGuard’s APT Blocker.

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Feature | HP Supplies

Optimising opportunities Logicom widens its product portfolio with the addition of HP Supplies.

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ecent surveys in the Middle East region indicate that it has been a positive ground for various emerging technologies, one of them being multifunction printers and digital copiers. As per one of IDC’s recent reports, the region has served as a sustainable marketplace with an increasing number of vendors capitalising on the opportunities present in

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managed print services and document solutions.

Identifying these growth areas, Logicom has recently added HP Supplies to its portfolio, in an endeavour to expand its market reach.

Mithun Jagadeep, Regional Product Manager, HP Supplies, Logicom, says, “The addition of supplies will definitely increase the market share Logicom has in the region. We already have HP

Printers in our portfolio, therefore the addition of supplies will bring more value to our partners. We aim to be a one-stop distributor for all our partners’ printing and supplies needs and requirements.”

Logicom currently offers HP’s inks and toners in Jordan and Lebanon. With this new partnership, the exhibit now covers the regions of UAE, Iraq, Oman, Bahrain,

Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen.

Initially set to focus on the recruitment and enablement of the reseller channel, Logicom also has future plans to broaden the market reach of HP Supplies to include the retail channel, allowing it to re-establish its retail distribution in the Gulf region.

According to the company, the reseller partners are looking forward to increasing their HP Supplies

business with the distributor.

“We have an established team who ensures good visibility and maintains existing relationships with partners,” adds Jagadeep.

Partners can expect value bundles from the company. For example, Logicom will look at offering ink, toner and printer bundles.

He explains, “Our plan is to recruit, enable and grow our partners. We will be offering

lots of value to them through bundles, trainings, exciting offers and many more marketing activities.”

The regional distributor has a focused plan laid out for the upcoming few months, it is targeting to achieve 30 percent market share by October 2014. “Currently we are distributing only ink and toner from HP but by Q4 of this year, we hope to be adding the plotter inks and

“Our plan is to recruit, enable and grow our partners. We will be offering lots of value to them through bundles, trainings, exciting offers and many more marketing activities.”

by Q1 next year, we are planning to expand further by adding storage media as well,” says Jagadeep On a concluding note, Mathew Thomas, General

Manager, HP Printing and Personal Systems Middle East , says, “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.”

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Feature | social media

Logicom goes Social!

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ogicom’s recent rebranding project has allowed the company to upgrade and renew its way of communicating with the public. Beyond its new logo and websites, Logicom has also created a robust social media presence on the popular social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter.

Visitors who ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ our pages will receive daily updates of the latest news, company and partner events, product offerings, promotions and general information about the company, as well as engage in an active online conversation.

Facebook Our Facebook page is buzzing with activity! Our daily updates include albums of Logicomhosted events for our partners

the Week segment, and a fun Throwback Thursday feature.

‘Like’ our page to stay abreast of all the latest news, not just within Logicom but across the

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to tag themselves and share, important offers and discounts that are available in each of our regions, updates from our website, a regular Product of

technology industry, and to keep an eye out for some fun competitions coming up!

Visit us at www.facebook. com/LogicomDistribution

Twitter Follow us on Twitter and never miss a single update! Logicom’s daily tweets feature all our events, news, offers and product updates, with helpful hashtags that make it easy to find the information you’re looking for. Look out for #LogicomEvents and #ProductoftheWeek, as well as our fun #ThrowbackThursday hashtags for all the latest

updates. Logicom also follows a wide range of technology experts, vendors, tech media and influential leaders, so we always make sure to keep the retweets interesting and informative. You can also tweet us @LogicomDisti with all your queries, and we’ll make sure to get back to you with the information that you need.

Follow us at https://twitter. com/LogicomDisti

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meet the team

Meet the team

Shah with his finance and accounts team at Logicom office in Jebel Ali.

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n organisation’s finance team has a lot on its plate and is responsible for the continuity of the business. The finance team is responsible for ensuring the company’s cash-flow is managed well and constantly needs to check the credit control.

In this edition of The Insider, we bring Logicom’s finance team into the limelight and take a closer look at the mammoth tasks it carries out, enabling the smooth operation of the company.

Kamal Shah, Finance Manager, Logicom, says, “Accounting and finance are a means of providing information about an organisation’s financial performance. The information is helpful in communicating the company’s current status as well as its future plans to

the management. We are taking a proactive role in both the strategic and dayto-day decisions that affects our company.”

Some of these decisions include ensuring the company’s treasury is managed efficiently, inventory and receivables are well controlled and managed, credit control and cash flow management, timely implementation of systems and controls for smooth functioning of the organisation and overall supervision of the department, timely submissions of management information reports – monthly, quarterly as well as annually as per stipulated time frames and contributing value additions towards the growth of the organisation.

Shah adds, “The team environment fosters interaction and open

communication, which creates a desirable setting to generating new ideas. We, as a team respect each other and this helps us to achieve effectiveness and strengthens ties between us. Periodic meetings and reviews between all team members contribute to a common understanding of the successes and challenges experienced by the team.

We have one of the best teams, and all of us have a part in making it a great place to work.”

Shah says the Logicom management has presented him with many opportunities, which have helped him climb the ladder.

He adds, “One of the vital areas of our department is credit control. This is a strategy to promote good credit among the creditworthy and deny it to customers who do

Kamal Shah, Finance Manager, Logicom not follow our credit policy which helps us to increase sales, decrease bad debts, thus improving the company’s cash flow. Logicom is growing year-on-year and it is very important for us to grow our loyal partners with our support as well as enroll new partners in the success journey.”

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