Reseller Middle East

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

ISSUE 179 // NOVEMBER 2011 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM

Havier Haddad, Channel and Alliances Manager, Team Region, EMC

Andrew Pepperell, Account Manager, Middle East and Africa, Belkin

Florian Malecki, EMEA Enterprise Product Marketing Manager, Sonicwall

Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Sales Manager, Cisco Systems

Taj El Khayat, Area director, Partners, Alliances, Commercial Segment, MEA, Juniper Networks

ADDING VALUE

VALUE SPIN OFF

BUILD YOUR TV

Aptec Distribution is completing its transformation to a value added distributor and is expected to be the largest player in this space. P33

Almasa has chosen to spin off its value division leveraging on industry stalwart Roger El Tawil to deliver on the move. P38

Panasonic is offering corporate and government ultra high format displays with inbuilt HD and 3D. P42

SPEAK OUT

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CONTENTS

ISSUE 179 // NOVEMBER 2011

IN FOCUS

COVER FEATURE

Networking channels How are leading vendors doing in this space today? The challenges appear as many as the vendors themselves. An overview of their ecosystem!

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33

Adding value Aptec Distribution is completing its transformation to a value added distributor and is expected to be the largest player in this space.

38

Value spin off Almasa has chosen to spin off its value division leveraging on ex-Avaya stalwart Roger El Tawil to deliver on the gamble.

42

Build your TV Panasonic is offering corporate and government ultra high format displays with inbuilt HD and 3D.

SPEAK OUT 52

“The last thing we want to do is create uncertainty for our customers” Charl Snyman, Vice-President and General Manager, HP Personal Systems Group, Europe, Middle East and Africa

53

“We are trying to have one VAD structure for both hardware and software” Alfonso DI Ianni, Senior Vice President, Eastern Europe, CIS, Middle East, Africa, Oracle Corporation.

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“As a services business group our focus is to listen closely to our customers needs” Xia Chaojie, Vice President Middle East, Huawei.

“It is better to work with one distributor having a channel network within a country” Mathis Lai, Business Manager, MMD Singapore.

PROFILE 52

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58

Scholar and consultant Angelika Plate

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05 07 18 23 26 57

Editorial Tie-ups Announcements Awards Gitex 2011 Movements

NOVEMBER 2011

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EDITORIAL Publisher Dominic De Sousa COO Nadeem Hood Managing Director Richard Judd richard@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9126

What lurks beneath?

Editorial

It has been a busy October month. I had the pleasure of seeing the demonstration of Motorola’s new RAZR smart phone and I had the pleasure of receiving a Windows Phone with the latest Mango operating system and inbuilt applications. Motorola’s RAZR phone was launched with usual fanfare of fastest, slimmest, most colourful and so on, but what was interesting was its enterprise capability. The phone was running inbuilt Office applications and accessing data files through the public cloud somewhere on the Motorola corporate network. Couple that with storage vendors like Iomega and Western Digital offering personal cloud solutions that allow you to access your files at home from anywhere as long as you have access to the internet, and you begin to see an end to end pattern of remote connectivity.

Senior Editor Arun Shankar arun@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9142 Advertising Commercial Director Rajashree R Kumar raj@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9131 Advertising Executive Merle Carrasco merle@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9134 Circulation Database and Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9147 Production and Design Production Manager James P Tharian james@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9146 Art Director Kamil Roxas kamil@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 91112 Designer Analou Balbero analou@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9104 Photographer Cris Mejorada cris@cpidubai.com +971 4 4409108 Digital www.rwme.net DIGITAL SERVICES Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy P Maagma Web Developers Jerus King Bation Erik Briones Jefferson de Joya Louie Alma online@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9100 Published by

Windows Phone on the other hand, seems to be an enormous exercise in the opposite direction and is still work in progress. The user interface flattens out all that is loaded into a smart phone and you can easily move from multiple social media channels to email to Office applications to voice and messaging. The huge amount of diligence that is being put into development of the user interface, supporting applications and the application store itself is impressive. Microsoft is going to extensive lengths to build its software mobile platform first before allowing it to appear on smart phone devices.

The list of handset vendors ready to accept Windows Phone on their devices is a list of who is who, and surprise, surprise includes Dell and Acer. Do we have a smart phone winner in the making? Watch these pages to enter the realm of Motorola and Windows Phone.

And then there was the reversal announcement from HP’s CEO Meg Whitman on the future of the personal systems group. Was there ever a chance that the division would be spun off? As per HP insiders the spin off was never on the cards. It was supposed to be an assessment on the feasibility of the spin off and not a decision. Just as a matter of introspection, the effort to get out of Carly Fiorina’s 2001 shadow, when she merged Compaq and HP together has failed again. So compelling has been her decision to merge the two giants and so compelling has been the volume based sales model after the 2001 consolidation that HP’s empire survives yet again. Turn to page 52 for more on this.

And then there was the Gitex 2011 sprawl. Post event announcements by participants indicate 2550% gains over last year. What was refreshing all across was the high quality of product and solution showcasing at the event. And what was refreshing for the participants was the high percentage of serious inquiries and serious shop talk. Dubai’s e-government pavilions with iris scanners, land deed management, phone based utility payments were at par excellence on standards and transparency. And then there was the Taiwan contingent, whose every member spoke faultless English. And Panasonic’s enormous 3D TVs! What a change, what an event! Turn to page 26 for more on this What a month!

1013 Centre Road, New Castle County, Wilmington, Delaware, USA Branch Office PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409

Arun Shankar Senior Editor arun@cpidubai.com

Printed by Printwell Printing Press LLC © Copyright 2011 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

NOVEMBER 2011

Reseller Middle East

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IN THE BEGINNING Tie-ups

Huawei signs up Informatica for phones Informatica Qatar announced it has signed an agreement with global vendor provider Huawei to be the exclusive distributor and after-sales service provider in Qatar of Huawei mobile phones, including the Huawei IDEOS and the Huawei IDEOS X5. The partnership leverages Informatica’s extensive network in the regional ICT industry, providing a platform to optimise the market potential of Huawei products in Qatar.

Wisam Costandi, General Manager, Informatica Qatar, said: “Informatica Qatar has a dedicated team of industry professionals with wide experience in the telecom sector from both the product and service domains, giving us a strong head start in our efforts to enhance the market presence of the Huawei brand in Qatar. Moreover, the alliances we have established with world-leading ICT companies are in line with iQ’s firm commitment to deliver quality solutions with best-of-breed technologies. We are therefore very excited to bring Huawei’s industry-leading technology

(Left to right) Wisam Costandi, General Manager, Informatica Qatar and Xiao Ning Country manager Qatar, and Ye Xi Terminal sales director, Qatar. solutions to Qatar as it will ultimately benefit our customers in the country.”

Informatica brings to the partnership its

experience as a distributor and service provider in the ICT sector, serving a range of telecom consumer markets in the region.

Lieberman appoints Nanjgel Solutions as VAD Lieberman Software announced it has appointed Nanjgel Solutions to be its value added distributor for the Middle East including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE. In its new role in the Lieberman Software Partner Programme, Nanjgel will not only continue to market, sell and support Lieberman Software's identity management solutions and other products directly to its clients, but will now provide localised support to authorised resellers and service providers in the region.

"Nanjgel's proven ability to market and support Lieberman Software solutions to new customers in the Middle East earned them this elevated position as distributor

Jess Richter, Director of Sales, Lieberman Software for the region," said Jess Richter, Director of Sales, Lieberman Software. "For more than

a year Nanjgel has invested in experienced technical staff and other resources needed to be a single source provider of Lieberman Software, with 24x7 support and on-site training. We are confident that Nanjgel will build and manage a network of resellers to continue our rapid expansion throughout the region."

In addition to Lieberman's PIM solutions, including flagship Enterprise Random Password Manager, which is the first product that can automatically discover, track and secure privileged accounts dispersed throughout the data centre, Nanjgel also offers Lieberman's award-winning line of Windows security management tools.

JULY 2011

Reseller Middle East

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IN THE BEGINNING Tie-ups

Accuver appoints Waseela as distributor Waseela, a systems integrator specialising in broadband wireless technologies for telecom operators, service providers and large enterprises announced it has been appointed exclusive regional partner of Accuver, supplier of RAN optimisation tools and test equipment.

Under the agreement, Waseela will manage Accuver’s full range of measurement solutions that allow wireless device manufacturers, network vendors and operators to measure, troubleshoot and optimise their products and networks. It also includes introduction and implementation of Accuver’s market leading WiMAX and LTE drive test tool XCAL and post-processing tool XCAP to the region.

Accuver’s LTE optimisation and benchmarking solutions are the leading 4G optimisation and benchmarking solutions worldwide and are currently adopted by leading LTE suppliers like Nokia-Siemens, Samsung and Alcatel-Lucent. These advanced optimisation and benchmarking tools are set to be used in the current and recent LTE deployments in the Middle East region.

(Left to right) Dr Samer Taha, CEO of Waseela and MyungSup Kim, CEO of Accuver Group at Gitex 2011 Speaking about the partnership, Dr Samer Taha, CEO of Waseela said: “We are privileged to have been chosen by Accuver, one of the global leaders in the field, to represent them in the Middle East. We believe

Accuver’s products and services perfectly complement those in our existing portfolio and their inclusion will enable us to deliver more comprehensive and cost-effective wireless solutions to the region.”

Focus Softnet acquires stake in Insta Health Solutions Following its partnership agreement with Insta Health Solutions last year, Focus Softnet is further expanding the scope of its healthcare IT solutions business in the region by acquiring a stake in the Banglorebased healthcare IT Company. The new investment is expected to strengthen Focus Softnet’s product portfolio, thereby allowing Insta Healthcare Management System to become a part of the portfolio.

“At Focus Softnet, we have been continually looking to expand our vertical specific solutions portfolio. We began with the educational sector, wherein we developed our own education vertical solution called Focus ARMS. Next, we added warehouse management solutions

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to our product portfolio,” explained Ali Hyder, CEO of Focus Softnet. “We felt that a comprehensive mid-segment health care solution was missing in the market. We found Insta Health Solutions fit for this vertical and hence we singed a partnership agreement with them last year. After successfully promoting Insta HMS for a year and from the feedback we received from the market, we felt it should become an integral part of our portfolio and hence we decided to invest in the company.”

Insta Health Solutions is a healthcare focused IT company, whose flagship product Insta HMS has helped many hospitals across India automate their processes and become more efficient at almost half the price of

Ali Hyder, CEO of Focus Softnet other available solutions in the market.

The company is also one of the very few companies to offer hospital management software as a browser based solution.

IN THE BEGINNING Tie-ups

SAAED, Avaya sign MoU for UAE operations SAAED, the UAE-based traffic accident service provider, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Avaya as the exclusive solutions partner for all SAAED contact centres in the Middle East. The MoU includes an Avaya-based solution for Emirate Vehicle Gate Project, which is the UAE’s largest contact centre for all trafficrelated issues, including minor accidents, breakdowns, insurance claims and auto repair logistics.

“The swift and efficient resolution of traffic issues is key, and SAAED has chosen Avaya as its communications partner in part due to the proven reliability and customerrelated benefits of the Avaya solutions installed at other critical civil service departments in the UAE,” said HE General Hussein Al Harethi, Chairman and Board Director SAAED as well as General of Traffic Department, Abu Dhabi. Included in the MoU between SAAED and Avaya are turnkey solutions for SAEED’s traffic management

contact centres, including the initial consultancy through to the comprehensive deployment and maintenance of the contact centre, including the hiring, training and assisting in agent management.

“Avaya has a track record across the

Middle East in successfully delivering innovative contact centres to some of the region’s largest public sector departments, banks, telecoms companies,” commented Nidal Abou-Ltaif, VP, Emerging Markets, Avaya.

FDC to distribute ESET solutions ESET Middle East, an industry leader in IT Security, announced its distribution agreement with FDC International. FDC will promote the ESET NOD32 Antivirus and ESET Smart Security software products in both the consumer and commercial channels in the GCC. Speaking on this initiative, Rohit Mathur, BU Manager Value Business, FDC International said: “We are excited to partner with a one of the leading security software companies. Our partnership with ESET reinforces our objective to offer our partners knowledge, products and support that they need to become trusted business advisors with their customers in the security space. ESET is in line with our vision of offering best of the breed

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(Left to right) Aji Joseph, ESET with Rohit Mathur, FDC products and with this strategic alliance we plan to increase our VAD profile and

footprint in the region.”

Aji Joseph, General Manager, ESET Middle East, further added: “Our main focus is to increase the reach through a wider channel thus ensuring better support to customers. We look forward to a strong relationship between FDC and ESET that enables us to take things to the next level.

FDC has a good channel network and we hope to leverage the same for ESET.” Founded in 1992, ESET is a global provider of security solutions for businesses and consumers. ESET NOD32 Antivirus holds the world record for a number of Virus Bulletin "VB100” Awards and has never missed a single “In-theWild” worm or virus since the inception of testing in 1998.

IN THE BEGINNING Tie-ups

Brightpoint to distribute Windows Phone online Microsoft Middle East and Africa announced its partnership with global wireless distributor Brightpoint Middle East to bring Windows Phone devices to the Middle East and Africa region.

Microsoft and its Smartphone partners have worked closely together to create a different kind of phone with new experiences that bring together what people care about most.

“Smartphone growth is fuelling the worldwide mobile phone market and Windows Phone is poised to lead this trend. In fact, IDC recently projected that Windows Phone will have the second largest share of the Smartphone market by 2015,” said Gustavo Fuchs, Microsoft Mobility Director, Middle East and Africa.

“We are seeing huge Smartphone growth in the region and this is expected to continue with a prediction of 38 percent year on year growth for 2012. The launch of the Windows Phone Online Shop will help fuel the appetite of consumers in the region.”

"We are happy to strengthen further our long term relationship with Microsoft in support of their Windows Phone offering," said Anurag Gupta, President of Brightpoint Europe, Middle East and Africa.

"Our expertise in offering e-commerce and supply chain solutions will enable consumers across Middle East and Africa to purchase Windows Phone devices online to be delivered to their doorstep.

We will continue to invest and expand our portfolio of services and footprint in the Middle East and Africa region."

Planning to launch later this year the Windows Phone Online Shop will be an e-commerce website that allows consumers from all over the region to purchase Windows Phone devices for the first time. The Windows Phone Online Shop will offer a centralised destination for consumers across the region to purchase a variety of the latest sleek form

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(Left to right) Hannu Rouppa, Senior VP, Middle East and Africa, Brightpoint Middle East and Gustavo Fuchs, Microsoft Mobility Director, Middle East and Africa factors from various manufacturers of Windows Phone devices, to be delivered to their doorstep.

The Windows Phone Online Shop will be available in English, French, Arabic and Turkish and will include many features to optimise the browsing and shopping experience. In addition to buying Windows Phone units online, visitors will be able to compare different models, read reviews,

and watch demo videos to get a good understanding of the product range. The site’s integrated social media platform will bring people together by letting them make recommendations and share their activities with friends, family and colleagues. Individual country access to the Windows Phone Online Shop will be rolled out with the first launch set to take place later this year.

IN THE BEGINNING Tie-ups

Waseela and Dialogic to expand mobile backhaul solution market Waseela has announced expansion of its global partner network as the new regional system integrator for Dialogic, a global provider of communications technologies that power advanced networks. The agreement comes as a result of the strong demand for Dialogic’s mobile backhaul solutions, particularly in the emerging markets. As its dedicated partner in the Middle East, Waseela will serve as systems integrator of Dialogic’s Session Bandwidth Optimiser for Core and Mobile Backhaul, a standalone system that can optimise bandwidth and increase capacity significantly in the backhaul and core segments of both 2G and 3G mobile networks. The company will be responsible for the complete lifecycle of Dialogic’s telecom infrastructure projects, from planning to operations.

Dr Samer Taha, CEO at Waseela said: “The mobile backhaul has become a critical component, if not a weak link in today’s 3G networks as operators in many of the Middle East markets scramble to meet the exploding demand for mobile data capacity. This partnership with Dialogic will allow Waseela to expand its solutions portfolio to offer mobile

(Left to right) Tim Wheeler, Director of Business Development Enterprise, Dialogic and Dr Samer Taha, CEO, Waseela network operators bandwidth optimisation solutions and it opens up new opportunities for both companies.”

Speaking on the partnership, James Besley, Vice President of Sales, EMEA at Dialogic added: “We are pleased to work with a well-known and well-respected system integrator like Waseela. With this expansion of our network, we are able to provide our Middle East customers with easy and reliable access to our mobile backhaul optimisation solutions,

necessary to meet their communications needs in this rapidly growing sector, supported

by Waseela’s highly talented resources with outstanding track record”.

Waseela for Technology Consultations, an integrated telecommunication solutions and services provider, was established in Amman, Jordan in 2006. Dar Alhai for General Trading and Investment is the major share holder in Waseela and had a turnover of more than $384 Million in 2010.

GN Netcom signs on Optimus for Jabra Optimus Technology and Telecommunications announced it has inked a partnership agreement with GN Netcom to distribute its flagship brand, Jabra in the Middle East. According to the partnership deal, Optimus will promote and distribute Jabra’s extensive range of headset solutions and Bluetooth technologies for business customers through its strong channel network across the region.

“We are happy to partner with GN

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Netcom to distribute their strong portfolio of business products under their Jabra brand in this region. This partnership is important for us as Jabra is a leader in headsets solutions and a perfect choice to complement our customer unified communications and call centre requirements. Through our marketing and channel development activities, we plan to strengthen Jabra’s channel network, sales and market share in this region,” explains Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecommunications.

"The Middle East is an important market for Jabra. We were looking to sign on an established distributor to help increase our footprint in this region. We partnered with Optimus because they not only have the market knowledge and expertise required to promote our brand but also a channel network in the region. We are confident that our partnership with Optimus will help provide a momentum to our growth,” said Hanny Hanna, Jabra’s Business Manager, Middle East and Africa.

IN THE BEGINNING Tie-ups

HP, Ministry of Education work on recycling awareness HP Middle East announced it is collaborating with the Ministry of Education, UAE to launch the HP Planet Partners programme in 25 local schools in Dubai. This environmental initiative, which has seen more than 389 million HP print cartridges recycled worldwide since its inception in 1991, offers free and convenient return and recycling services for original HP printing supplies. The programme, introduced in the UAE in 2009, ensures that no print cartridges returned through HP Planet Partners ends up in landfill.

For the duration of the school campaign, families will be able to return used original HP toner cartridges to their child’s institute and deposit them in the designated HP Planet Partners recycling containers. Parents will also be encouraged to sign their workplace up to the HP Planet Partners programme, to which participation is free of charge.

“HP is a leader in the industry when it comes to environmental sustainability and we work very hard to ensure we are developing products and solutions that are not only innovative but also help our customers print responsibly,” said Amin Mortazavi, General Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middle East. “Through the collaboration,

(Left to right) Amin Mortazavi, General Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middle East and Noura Al-Mutawa, Director of Activities and Special Needs, Ministry of Education scheduled to begin in 2012, HP and public and private schools in Dubai will be working with both parents and students to create awareness around recycling, conservation and re-use in the hopes of ensuring greater environmental consciousness and a more sustainable future for generations to come.

“The HP Planet Partners programme is the perfect platform to start an open dialogue

around the importance of recycling and environmental sustainability with the UAE’s next generation of leaders,” said Noura Al-Mutawa, Director of Activities and Special Needs, Ministry of Education. “We are pleased to join HP in this campaign and are looking forward to not only participating in discussions with students but also to help educate local businesses on how to responsibly recycle used HP toner cartridges.”

Mahindra Satyam partners with iPipeline Mahindra Satyam announced it has partnered with iPipeline, a vendor for innovative marketing, selling and processing solutions for the banking, financial services and insurance and markets.

“Mahindra Satyam has a strong focus in the banking and financial services sector, and we plan to actively position iPipeline CRM for financial services to our customers and prospects in Middle East and Asia, especially those focusing on wealth management,” said

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Rohit Gandhi, Senior Vice President APAC, India, MEA, Mahindra Satyam. “iPipeline is strategically committed to capturing business opportunities in the Asian insurance and financial services markets.

This partnership with Mahindra Satyam gives us an excellent opportunity to extend the deployment of our CRM for financial services solution to a broad range of banks and financial services companies,” said Andrea Evans, EVP, AMS and CRM, iPipeline.

“Client loyalty is a primary driver for building

Rohit Gandhi, Senior Vice President APAC, India, MEA, Mahindra Satyam assets under management and securing new customers. Our solution extends Microsoft Dynamics CRM to provide a complete suite of financial services-specific features."

IN THE BEGINNING Announcements

Trend Micro revamps partner programme Trend Micro has announced an aggressive new partner programme focused on rewarding proactive partners, driving new business, customer retention, while delivering greater rewards and reviewing partners who are underperforming.

Despite tough economic times, industry analysts including Gartner, IDC and Forrester recognise that the Internet Security sector has posted year-on-year growth, and that the growth is forecast to continue. Further in-depth research by Trend Micro, conducted with its extensive partner network and across the wider channel, has clearly shown that this sector represents a significant revenue opportunity for partners selling both traditional and cloud computing security solutions.

The re-launch of its partner programme comes at a time when Trend Micro is achieving its highest growth against competition in the Internet security sector and has been rated number one leader in the virtualisation security market, according to Technavio’s Global Virtualisation Security Management Solutions Citation.

“Our channel eco-system play a crucial role in making our products and solutions

widely available and our new channel initiatives are designed to empower and make them profitable,” commented Sushma Kajaria, Channel Development Manager, Trend Micro, MMEA. “If our partners work with us to develop profitable, sustainable business, we will reward it with training, certification, specialisation, business planning, and marketing tools, as well as very competitive margins.

The partner tier structure includes bronze, silver, gold and platinum, an improved flexibility and reduced administration, plus a clearer line of accountability to each and every partner.

Primary aspects of the partner programme include: • Partners will be rewarded financially for working closely with Trend Micro on developing business through deal registration • Partners will be eligible for further training and certification to enable them to develop lucrative market specialisations, addressing multiple areas including Cloud and Data Centre Security, End Point and Mobility, Data Protection and SMB • Performers will be rewarded through upfront discounts and rebate schemes

Sushma Kajaria, Channel Development Manager, Trend Micro, MMEA • A virtual marketing environment will require partners to quickly set up, execute and measure new marketing campaigns • Updated partner portal with enhanced support for sales, marketing and training Yet research has also shown that the rapid pace of change in this industry is exposing weakness across some parts of the channel.

Many partners are relying too heavily on easy repeat business, rather than working proactively to hunt and farm opportunities within existing and new customers.

Symantec new update for private cloud Symantec announced version 6.0 of the company’s storage management and high availability products. With this release, Symantec enables IT organisations to build private clouds by transforming their existing infrastructure.

This release spans multiple products in Symantec’s portfolio including its flagship VeritasStorage Foundation 6.0, Veritas Cluster Server 6.0, and Veritas Operations Manager 4.1.

“IT architects appreciate the promise of the private cloud, but beneath the hype they are grappling with very real questions,” said Anthony Harrison, Solution Architect for Symantec MENA. “How do I transform my infrastructure to make it more agile? How do I give it the characteristics of a public cloud

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without compromising on availability and security?”

“Much has changed in the industry in the five years since Symantec’s industry-leading storage management and high availability software Storage Foundation HA 5.0 was first released.”

New products Announced: • Veritas Storage Foundation 6.0 • Veritas Cluster Server 6.0 • Veritas Operations Manager 4.1 • Symantec ApplicationHA 6.0 • Veritas Dynamic Multi-Pathing 6.0 • Veritas Cluster File System 6.0 • Veritas Replicator 6.0 • Symantec VirtualStore 6.0 • Veritas Storage Foundation for Windows 6.0

Anthony Harrison, Solution Architect for Symantec MENA • Veritas Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC 6.0 • Veritas Storage Foundation for Sybase ACE 6.0

IN THE BEGINNING Announcements

Oki research reveals energy saving in UAE New research from Oki has revealed that UAE businesses are spending millions of Dhirams per year on avoidable energy costs. Oki holds that these costs could be saved if local firms and organisations were to utilise energy-efficient technology when considering office equipment.

“What firms are failing to realise is that while printing is an essential function of any business, they have the option of utilising energy-compliant office products,” stated John Ross, General Manger, Middle East, India and Africa for Oki. “In doing so, they would be significantly reducing their energy consumption and as a result, would cut significant costs without having to change a single workplace practice.”

IDC predicts approximately a quarter of a million units in sales of printers in FY 2011.

If just 10% of the predicted sales of such products were LED technology printers, the UAE alone would save AED 1.3 million in energy costs per year.

A study conducted by CEBR, an independent economic research consultancy, found that the UAE spends approximately AED 1,136 million per year on outsourced printing and AED 5,102 million on printing materials, with the most spending coming from the public administration and defence sector, the educational sector and the telecommunications sector.

Citrix introduces Elite partner programme Citrix Systems, launched a renewed channel strategy and partner recruitment drive to underpin its business growth in the Middle East and North African region.

The new channel strategy reflects Citrix’s long term commitment to equipping partner organisations across the MENA region with in-depth knowledge and tools to enhance the Citrix customer experience.

Technical workshops and sales courses are geared towards education on end-toend virtualisation strategies, offered free of charge to certified partners and designed to ensure partners are fully representative of Citrix and its products. To incentivise partners in the channel, Citrix offers cash back rewards on revenues from solution sales for companies to re-invest in their own business growth.

Noman Qadir, Regional Channel Manager at Citrix Systems, MENA and Turkey, said, “Companies throughout the Middle East are turning to the benefits of virtualisation and cloud computing, and we recognise the need to invest in informed, educated channel partners to support our business growth. By treating our channel community as an extension of our own team, not only do we help Citrix customers but we also demonstrate why it is good for business to partner with us."

Noman Qadir, Regional Channel Manager at Citrix Systems, MENA and Turkey, As part of the new channel strategy, Citrix is launching the Elite partner programme’, which extends Citrix’s channel strategy to reward the loyalty of long term partners.

Training for Elite partners matches the depth of technical and sales training provided to Citrix’s internal employees, so that these partners are fully equipped with knowledge of Citrix solutions, to more broadly educate the market on the benefits of cloud and virtualisation strategies. Over the last 12 months, Citrix has approximately doubled its regional channel network, with plans to further expand further into Turkey, Kuwait and Egypt.

Avaloq Group visionary in Gartner Quadrant Avaloq Group announced it has been positioned in the Visionaries quadrant by Gartner in the recently released Magic Quadrant for International Retail Core Banking 2011 report.

From Avaloq’s perspective this recognises the company’s successful diversification from a pure-play wealth management solution to a leading provider of retail banking solutions.

For Avaloq being positioned in the Magic Quadrant is a confirmation of its success in the retail segment and its evolved strategy. “We are convinced that our international expansion

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and growth strategy, our vast community of banking and IT professionals, and our serviceoriented architecture are the cornerstones of our success”, says Francisco Fernandez, CEO of Avaloq. Pascal Foehn, Head of Strategic Marketing at Avaloq, adds “we feel our position in the IRCB 2011 report reflects the ability of the Avaloq Banking System to not only meet the needs of private banks but also to prevail in the retail and universal banking sectors.”

In the report, Gartner positioned vendors

based on two parameters: ability to execute and completeness of vision. To be included in the IRCB 2011 report vendors had to demonstrate market traction and momentum.

Inclusion criteria consisted of market share, revenue, number of clients and types of products or services for retail banks. The evaluation began with 48 product candidates and resulted in a qualified group of 20 vendors and corresponding products representing the major movers in the retail core banking system market. Avaloq group came out as a visionary.

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IN THE BEGINNING Announcements

Infor introduces ION Infor, a vendor of business application software unveiled Infor10, which features a consumer type user experience, industry specific software applications and Infor10 ION Suite, a lightweight, middleware technology that changes the way enterprise software is managed.

“Our customers already enjoy applications with deep out of the box functionality across a variety of specialized industries and micro-verticals. Infor10 sets a new standard for how work gets done.

People at work have come to expect the same user experience they encounter in their everyday lives as users of Twitter, Facebook and Google. Infor10 and the Infor10 ION Suite bring that to the workplace,” said Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor.

The Infor10 ION Suite is at the heart of Infor10. ION connects and integrates Infor and non-Infor applications, storing

information in a common format and repository. ION allows information that flows among applications, analytics and social media streams to be accessed by users from their desktops, laptops and mobile devices.

Unlike conventional middleware, the lightweight ION technology is not layered on top of existing applications, but infused into them. As a result, ION makes integrations quicker, simpler and more reliable. “ION creates the mobile, social and flexible enterprise,” said Soma Somasundaram, senior vice president, Global Product Development, Infor.

“Because it’s lightweight and built using open standards, ION installs much faster than heavy middleware and allows customers to get up and running quickly and efficiently so they can focus on their core business.”

Epson partner meet Epson Middle East announced it recently held an event in Dubai for its channel partners in the Middle East and Africa to apprise them about Epson’s new line-up of products including projectors, system device printers and larger format printers.

These products are set to be launched in the region as part of the company’s new ‘Engineered for Business’ strategy.

The event was attended by more than 70 Epson channel partners and included orientation sessions for Epson staff ahead of new product launches.

Khalil El-Dalu, General Manager, Epson Middle East, said, “The efforts of our channel partners have contributed significantly towards the sustained success of Epson in the Middle East and Africa. The recent event in Dubai was an opportunity for us to express our appreciation to them in person and also give them an overview of all the

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products that we plan to launch in the region very soon.”

Epson is a global imaging and innovation vendor with a product lineup ranging from printers and 3LCD projectors for business and the home, to electronic and crystal devices.

ION enables new and existing Infor and non-Infor applications to work as a holistic solution, helping to create streamlined workflows and end-to-end business processes, while improving system performance speed and upgrades. Infor10 ION Workspace unifies and presents all relevant information for each user on one screen, including role-based workflows, task and alerts, in-context business intelligence, event management, social media collaboration, consumer-like search capabilities, and business activity streams.

Infor10 suites are targeted for aerospace and defence, automotive, chemicals, distribution, equipment services, maintenance and rental, fashion, food and beverage, general manufacturing, healthcare, high tech, hospitality, industrial equipment and machinery and public sector.

IN THE BEGINNING Awards

New categories for 2012 EMEA Channel Academy awards The EMEA Channel Academy 2012 Awards will provide an independent and vendor-neutral platform for senior channel executives to select and recognise the outstanding vendors and distributors operating in Europe, Middle East and Africa. New awards for 2012 include three vendor categories for imaging, audio and monitors-TVs, plus a new France and Benelux Distributor of the Year regional award.

The fourth annual awards ceremony will take place in conjunction with DISTREE EMEA, the leading annual event for vendors, distributors, retailers and e-tailers operating in the region’s ICT and consumer electronics volume channel.

“We’re delighted to host the EMEA Channel Academy: 2012 Awards as part of the DISTREE EMEA conference programme,” commented Farouk Hemraj, CEO at DISTREE Events. “These awards offer unique insight into how vendors and distributors are perceived in the regional channel through an open and neutral nomination process followed by a live electronic vote.”

Next year’s awards will cover 25 categories, identifying the outstanding Vendor of the Year in 12 separate product categories, crowning the Distributor of the Year in 10 sub-regions within EMEA and handing out one accolade for the EMEA Distributor Initiative of the Year. In addition, the awards will include two Hall of Fame awards, recognising individuals for outstanding achievement within the EMEA channel.

Approximately 1,000 delegates are set to attend the ‘EMEA Channel Academy: 2012

Alcatel-Lucent announces awards Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise hosted its first partner awards for the region in Dubai to recognise the contributions by key business partners across the Middle East. The awards brought together more than 30 partners from 15 countries. Nicolas de Kouchkovsky, Chief Marketing Officer, personally acknowledged each partner’s achievement in the various areas. Awards included top distributors, resellers, system integrators and selected areas of excellent performance.

Award categories • EMEA Monitors/TVs Vendor of the Year • EMEA Components Vendor of the Year • EMEA Software Vendor of the Year • EMEA Printing Vendor of the Year • EMEA Home Networking Vendor of the Year • EMEA Accessories Vendor of the Year • EMEA Gaming Vendor of the Year • EMEA Storage Vendor of the Year Farouk Hemraj, CEO at DISTREE Events

• EMEA Audio Vendor of the Year

Awards’ Gala Dinner, where the winners will be decided by live electronic voting. In the months preceding the awards, hundreds of distributor and vendor executives are polled to determine the list of five nominees in each award category that go forward to the live vote.

“The methodology behind the awards is highly effective,” continued Hemraj. “Hundreds of distributors across EMEA nominate their preferred vendors by category, while vendor executives with EMEA responsibility, nominate their preferred distributors by sub-region.”

“The top five in each category receive an official nomination. During the Gala Dinner, the excitement really builds as distributors select the winning vendors through the live electronic vote, and the vendor executives present perform the same task to determine the winning distributors,” he concluded.

• EMEA Imaging Vendor of the Year • EMEA Mobile Device Vendor of the Year • EMEA Notebook, Netbook, Desktop Vendor of the Year • UK and Ireland Distributor of the Year • DACH Distributor of the Year • France and Benelux Distributor of the Year • Northern Europe Distributor of the Year • Southern Europe Distributor of the Year • South East Europe Distributor of the Year • Middle East and North Africa Distributor of the Year • Africa Distributor of the Year • Central and Eastern Europe Distributor of the Year • Russia & CIS Distributor of the Year • EMEA Distributor Initiative of the Year

Awardees Best Innovation Project Winner, Egypt and Levant: ENS Best Reseller, Egypt, Sudan and Levant region: TECO Best Sales Executive, Egypt, Sudan and Levant region: Samy Abd El Gawad from Intraconsult Best Innovation Project Winner, GCC: Al Futtaim Technologies Best Performance, GCC: FVC Best Reseller, GCC: Region Telephony Best Data Partner, GCC: Zerone Best Sales Executive, GCC: region Mahesh Gowda from Intercol Qatar Best Growth Winner, Genesys Solutions: NCR Best Innovation Project Winner, Genesys Solutions: IBM Best Innovation Project Winner, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain: Hoshan Integrated Systems Best Sales Executive, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain region: Ali Abdallah from Hoshan Integrated Systems

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IN THE BEGINNING Awards

Masafi wins Oracle eco-enterprise innovation Award Masafi, one of the region's FMCG brand, has been named as a winner at this year's edition of the Oracle Excellence Awards, an initiative aimed at recognising customers and partners who have excelled at driving business value and innovations through the use of Oracle solutions.

The Eco-Enterprise Innovation award was presented to Masafi in recognition of the company’s use of Oracle products and solutions as part of its move to take an environmental lead, reduce its costs and improve business efficiencies by using green businesses practices.

The award was presented by Jeff Henley, Chairman of Oracle Corporation to Tapas Roy, CEO, Raqmiyat during Oracle OpenWorld 2011 held at San Francisco, USA. Raqmiyat is an UAE based systems integrator and is Masafi’s IT partner. It has helped Masafi address the company’s IT business requirements with the provision of a strategic IT vision and roadmap.

The partnership between Raqmiyat and Masafi has helped create a paperless environment saving over two million pages of

paper per year and reducing the company’s carbon foot print. Raqmiyat, which has maintained a strong partnership with Oracle over the last few years and is officially designated to implement and provide solutions on Oracle’s e-Business suite and Oracle Technology suite, nominated Masafi for its implementation of initiatives directed towards protecting the environment and saving energy and resource costs.

Criteria for the awards included the reduction of overhead costs associated with the value chain; creation of value by instilling a greater dependency on systems and self

service; design of a fully integrated solution comprising Oracle E-Business Suite, CRM, supply chain, Oracle Discoverer and the use of IT to provide automated environmentally friendly solutions.

According to Masafi officials, the implementation of Oracle solutions helped in streamlining the manufacturing, distribution, time and labor attendance systems and reimbursement processes using electronic purchase orders approvals, invoicing, and tracking reports to achieve a paperless environment, saving over two million pages of paper per year and reducing the company’s carbon footprint. The online workflow approval for requisitions, purchase orders and internal memos has saved the unnecessary flow of papers within the company.

With this implementation Masafi has saved 500 man-hours and 15,000 sheets of printing paper per annum. During the initial stages of the implementation, Raqmiyat had assured Masafi that the utilisation of Oracle’s integrated suite of solutions would play a major role in helping the company achieve its sustainability objectives.

Performers recognised at NEC EMEA partner summit At the NEC EMEA Partner Conference 2011 held in Valencia from September 28th till September 30th, NEC awarded its top performing business partners for their excellent business performance in various categories over the past year. Al Yousuf Computers received the NEC Top Topaz Distributor 20102011 award while Golden Orbit Electronics was recognised with the NEC Fastest Growing Reseller in the year 2010-2011 award.

At the conference, which brought together NEC’s major distributors and key business partners from over 40 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa, Lex de Gier, Vice President Marketing and Sales at NEC Unified Solutions, expressed his appreciation for the strong commitment the business partners have shown and congratulated them with their significant achievements in growing market

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share across many territories.

“Over the past year Al Yousuf has demonstrated excellent performance in the sales of NEC’s Topaz system for SMB volume markets.

Al Yousuf keeps their feet on the ground, while selling our systems in great volumes. That is the reason why we have awarded them with the NEC Top Topaz Distributor 2010-2011 award,” Lex de Gier commented.

Golden Orbit Telecommunications has also demonstrated excellent performance as reseller in Jordan over the past year. “Our partnership with Golden Orbit saw a great deal of success in 2010-2011 with the sales of our complete SV range, particularly in Government and Enterprise sector,” de Gier added.

Awards presented included those for top distributors, resellers, system integrators and selected areas of excellent performance.

Al Yousuf Computers received the NEC Top Topaz Distributor 2010-2011 award “With the innovative power of a global leader and the energetic support of local organisations and highly professional channel partners, NEC is in an excellent position to respond to the most demanding needs of customers”, said de Gier.

IN THE BEGINNING Gitex 2011

Gitex vital for regional IT industry During Gitex 2011, exhibitors and participants spoke of an unprecedented number of new products and an increase in quality buyers that has led to major deals being struck.

"The Middle East is one of the most exciting and lucrative ICT markets and Gitex is the lynchpin for bringing global and regional technology companies together to form new partnerships and conduct new business,” said Helal Saeed Almarri, CEO of Dubai World Trade Centre, organiser of the event.

“This year’s Gitex exemplifies how the region has grown in terms of attracting many of the world’s biggest players in the technology sector. Business leaders recognise the benefits of face-to-face interaction with clients, and this is one of the many reasons Gitex continues to offer participants unsurpassed value,” he added.

Featuring more than 3,500 companies from 57 countries, Gitex 2011 drew many of the ICT industry leaders to Dubai to unveil an unsurpassed number of launches to

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a targeted audience of Middle East and international decision–makers.

Launches included Microsoft Gulf, who chose Gitex to announce Office 365 will be available for trials across the region, Etisalat’s Mobile Workforce Management Solution, du’s Emirati Plan — a new mobile service designed exclusively for UAE nationals and Panasonic’s Home Energy Management System along with many others.

Microsoft’s Office 365 is aimed at targeting Middle East businesses, particularly many SMEs, which do not have the time or resources to use cloud computing to its full potential.

“For us, Gitex is the natural choice to launch 365 – it is the most strategic event for us in the region and the launches are a testament of its importance across the industry as a whole," said Samer Abu-Ltaif, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf.

Anthony Peter, Director, Direct Communication and Customer Care Group, Panasonic Middle East said that Gitex 2011

had been an extraordinary success: “I would say that business conducted has been up by around 50% this year and by the end of the second day, we recorded an increase in footfall of around 130% on last year. It is vital for the industry and an excellent platform for Panasonic to launch and showcase our latest world class products to a discerning and influential audience.”

Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, Vice President, Oracle Middle East and Africa, agreed: "Gitex is a good cross-industry, regional platform for Oracle and the event's conference programming - Global Leaders Summit and Cloud Confex - has attracted high calibre, C-level attendees. Additionally, our stand traffic has been consistently high enabling us to showcase our latest innovations and demonstrate how our complete hardware and software stack can help transform business across the region."

The volume of new business between international and regional partners has also been one of the driving forces of Gitex.

Among several first time partnerships,

a new agreement between the UAE Telecom Regulatory Authority and Silicon Valleybased ICANN (International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Rod Beckstrom, CEO and President of ICANN and a speaker at the Gitex Global Leaders Summit said: “For a Middle East market this is a great step forward in terms of being able to use Arabic and increase internet use and penetration in what is already a rapidly evolving Internet region.” netcetera, one of Switzerland’s leading IT providers, says Gitex is vital for their continued expansion in the Middle East. “This is only the second time we have exhibited at Gitex,” said Dr Andrej Vckovski, CEO of netcetera. “We have already won a contract from the Health Authority in Abu Dhabi and plan to expand to Qatar.”

Several first-time exhibitors have also found that meeting potential clients at Gitex can be as valuable as deals that have been struck. Alex Filocca is Middle East Director of Marketing for Citrix, who are making their Gitex debut. “We had extremely high expectations when we started the week and they have all been surpassed,” he said. “The quality of visitors has been superb, and to

meet this level of decision-makers in terms of sheer numbers would take a lot of years and a lot of flights.”

Adding to the draw of local, regional and global participants at Gitex is the addition of brand new initiatives in Cyber Security, Digital Marketing and Card Technology, along with a dedicated telecom symposium and full conference schedule including world class ICT industry leaders.

Abdullah Al Samahi, IT General Manager, General Organisation for Military Industries, Ministry of Defence and Aviation, Saudi Arabia, was a delegate at several of the conferences – he has been to every single

Gitex since it was founded in 1981. He said: “The conferences give everyone an opportunity to meet with industry leaders from all around the world and keep abreast of the latest technology developments. I have never missed a year and more and more I see how vital Gitex is to the ICT industry.”

As one of the three largest ICT exhibitions in the world, the show connects more than 130,000 industry professionals from five continents with over 3,500 suppliers, and is seen as one of the most influential and high-profile events in the global ICT sector. //

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IN THE BEGINNING Gitex 2011

Jacky's sales up 16% at GITEX Shopper Jacky's Electronics, surpassed its initial sales projections during the eight-day exhibition of Gitex Shopper 2011. The company experienced an increase of 16% in sales from last year's event. Better product bundles and lower price points on fastmoving products such as notebooks, digital cameras and smartphones fuelled the total sales of the company.

“During the middle of Gitex Shopper, price points came down where we saw entry level digital SLR cameras in AED 2,000 price range, while prices for several brands in the notebook category dropped to as low as AED 1,699. Along with great freebies bundled to these products, boosted our sales this year,” said Ashish Panjabi, Chief Operating Officer, Jacky's Electronics.

The company also recorded DSLR, tablets and LED TVs sales more than doubled from last year. BlackBerry continues to dominate the smartphone category while Samsung and Sony brands dominated the TV segments. Canon and Nikon were especially aggressive in the DSLR category this year.

“Among the brands that performed well were HP with its ON campaign and their collaboration with Beats Audio. Lenovo had

Ashish Panjabi, Chief Operating Officer, Jacky's Electronics. a good increase too thanks to an improved overall awareness on its range of Intel core i5 laptops, while Dell also had a good share on the total notebook sales. Apple iPad 2 remained as the tablet of choice for most of the shoppers, while Asus and Viewsonic also had good sales this year,” he added.

The exclusive launch of the ultrabook category during the second day of the show also generated interest from shoppers, which

led to stocks being sold out within a few days.

“Our participation this year has well exceeded our expectations and we are very optimistic that our sales will also translate even after Gitex until the big Eid and the festive seasons. We will continue to provide our customers with innovative promotions and great bundle offers on the latest products and gadgets in the market,” Panjabi said.

Jumbo records growth at Gitex Shopper Jumbo Electronics, UAE based consumer electronics retailer, announced record foot falls and sales at Gitex Shopper with the company on track for 10 and 15 per cent growth over last year. Nadeem Khanzadah, Deputy General Manager Retail at Jumbo Electronics, said, “We have seen a phenomenal response to our laptop promotions and tablets, which makes IT products account for majority of our sales so far, around 60 per cent in terms of volume. Our smartphones and 3DTV’s have also performed really well.”

Jumbo teamed up with its key

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Fujitsu’s Sumo promotion at Jumbo stalls

Ducati motorbike promotion through a mobile phone raffle at Jumbo

partners to give fun activities for visitors at Gitex Shopper. Fujitsu offered a free laptop to anyone who lasted one round

with a giant Sumo wrestler. Acer offered a Ducati motorbike through a mobile phone raffle.

Leads up 50% for Sharp at GITEX Sharp Middle East recorded increased interest in its LCD solutions compared to last year, at the Infocomm exhibition included within Gitex 2011 this year. Sharp saw a marked increase in the percentage of business leads compared to last year, more than 50% increase over last year. The focus on end-toend solutions, saving costs for customers and improving return on investment, targeted at the professional audio visual industry during Infocomm, helped boost improved numbers.

“The addition of Infocomm to Gitex Technology Week has paid dividends, with an increased interest in our new products and solutions from audio visual industry professionals,” said Gautam Chakrabarty, Deputy General Manager Marketing, Business Solutions Division, Sharp Middle East.

The public debut of one of Sharp’s latest innovations attracted a lot of attention, with the 20 touch screen LCD venue maps located around the Dubai World Trade Centre proving a hit with visitors. The screens saw more than 10,000 people use their smartphones to access more detailed information of exhibitors,

including the exact location of the stand.

More than 15 industry applications making use of Sharp’s versatile LCD solutions were demonstrated. The solutions highlighted included the semi-outdoor applications of the new high brightness enabled LCD panels, with ideal uses including hospitality and events. These were showcased alongside touch screen applications, which were also developed for the retail and banking industry.

Adaptive digital advertising, education, entertainment and communications using digital signage are additional sectors served by the latest Sharp solutions.

The power saving benefits of the newest

developments were also displayed, with real time energy consumption showed between panels with local LED dimming technology, and those without.

Sharp’s alliance with software company Quividi developed the interactive digital advertising solution, which was also one of the highlights of the stand. The LCD screen was integrated with software developed by Quividi which profiles the person standing in front of the screen, automatically adapting the advertisement on the screen to match the person.

The education focused solutions also proved popular, with a small touch screen LCD used as a digital lectern while the display is linked to a video wall. The brand new 70 inch touch screen was also showcased as a digital whiteboard.

“These innovative solutions can be applied to almost any industry, adding value and reducing costs thanks to the complete end-toend nature of the installations. This has proved attractive to Infocomm and Gitex visitors this year, and we’re sure that many of these new applications will be utilised in exciting ways,” added Chakrabarty.

Nokia encourages young app developers at GITEX Alongside the latest N9 handset featuring Near Field Communications technologies, Nokia has shown its dedication to the developer community in both the UAE and the region. Following on from the success of its Ramadan application campaign that saw over one million downloads from around the region during the holy month, Nokia is amplifying its developer strategy to encourage app developers to partner with Nokia, give them expert counsel and the financial support they require to bring fantastic app ideas to fruition. As part of this initiative, Nokia conducted free of charge developer training workshops on its apps development frame work with a focus on its newly launched Nokia N9 smartphone and the latest Near Field Communications

offering. At the heart of the Gitex apps activity was the Nokia Lounge event with the Pitch Your App competition.

Praveen Prabhakaran, Marketing Solutions Manager, Nokia Lower Gulf, said: “With the application and developer ecosystem expanding at such a rate, Nokia is keen to ensure young and burgeoning talent is given the best chance to succeed in this

dynamic environment. We are very excited about the Pitch Your App competition and look forward to seeing the apps of the near future in their concept stage and with our support, witness them become a reality.”

Over 50,000 applications are now available for easy download at the online Nokia Store, while direct billing with Etisalat enables quick and easy payment.

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IN THE BEGINNING Gitex 2011

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Gitex Technology Week 2011 1

Strong showing by Dubai’s e-government entities inspected by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai

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Taiwan based Epicgear had some innovative gaming accessories on display including an enhanced power supply unit, a hybrid twin senor mouse and Corsa and Cyclone heat dissipation devices Epson displayed its range of banking solutions including high speed stackable cheque printer and MICR cheque reader with its interface software

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Japan based Eizo Corporation displayed a range of specialised monitors for medical imaging, gaming and colour calibrated graphic applications

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A fine range of headsets from China based Somic Industrial for the full spectrum of audio reproduction including IP telephony, wireless, gaming and surround sound

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Dubai Police displayed the Iris scanner solution used at UAE points of entry

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A range of gaming laptops on display at MSI

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Microsoft displayed its Kinect gaming device and applications with two demo stations and an all lady team

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Motorola’s rugged ET1 enterprise tablet specifically designed for industrial use and enterprise applications

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Gaming for gamers by gamers, strong product showing by global vendor Razor Zone

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Panasonic’s walk around comic character

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IN FOCUS Aptec Distribution

Value powerhouse Aptec Distribution is completing its transformation from a broadline to value added distributor and is expected to be the largest player in this space Vendors and tier one system integrators and value added resellers traditionally operate within key customer accounts as a single team. A tier one partner usually has full access to vendor technology and consulting and in the market their roles are interchangeable. A partner doubles up for the vendor during end customer deliverables and a vendor engages in presales activities along with the partner. But vendors in the region are now looking at replicating this success model across the medium and small business customers also.

Distributors are expected to replace the vendors in this strategic role and enable partners to deliver a much broader range of services and support activity. “Why do vendors need distributors? They do not have the bandwidth to manage everyone and anyone,” says Santosh Kumar, Business Unit Manager, Aptec Distribution. “And we provide the best feeds for the mid market space.” During go to market activities, Aptec does not carry its own tag. It carries the tag of its partners. “We say we represent the partner and that is why the partners are loyal to us and we do not compete with them.”

The task of enabling reseller partners also means that Aptec has to initially build those capabilities internally for each vendor partnership that it has on board. Amongst the vendor partnerships that have a higher degree of reseller enablement responsibility include the recent Microsoft Office 365 tie up, Microsoft’s Hyper V, Microsoft Link and other solutions, Vmware, Veeam, Symantec, SAP Business Objects, Netapp, Oracle, Mcafee, Cisco and others. During partner and end customer engagements in the market, Aptec supports them with presales consulting, solution sizing, BoQ, proof of

Evolving into a value added distributor, Bahaa Salah, Managing Director, Aptec Distribution concepts, implementation and post sales support. “Depending on the requirement and capability of partners we fill the gap, whether small or big and we tell them to make use of us,” says Kumar.

Along with the transition of the industry from selling commodity hardware products to selling customer specific business solutions, Aptec Distribution has also adapted its business model for reseller and vendor partners. “We are evolving from a broadline distributor to a value added distributor, from products into solutions. This is very much in line with what is happening in the market today,” says Bahaa Salah, Managing Director, Aptec Distribution. From a portfolio that used to dominantly include printers, PCs, notebooks in the past, Aptec’s ramp up is across security, storage, networking and cloud solutions.

“These are all value add products rather

than broadline products,” remarks Salah. In Aptec’s new value added role, it is expected to train partners to help identify optimal solutions with best performance for the end customers.

“Aptec has stopped dealing in consumer products and components. On the other hand, vendors with solution based products have come to rely increasingly on Aptec’s model,” says Dr Ali Baghdadi, CEO and President of Aptec Group.

During its broadline go to market days, Aptec Distribution had a flat sales structure covering the whole range of products. It was upto the product manager to get the mindshare of the partner, train them and get them to sell his line of products. Now the sales structure has evolved into business units and product groups that deliver and support the sales cycle end to end. While some of the previous sales staff was repositioned in the

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IN FOCUS Aptec Distribution

Aptec’s services factory

Providing the professional services, Mario Veljovic, Operations Director at Aptec Holdings Five years ago Advanced Technology Services or ATS was set up with the objective of servicing vendors with professional support services. However in the last one-two years vendors have increasingly moved out of this space and want reseller partners to start building the demand base for professional services.

“In 2006, there was not that much demand from resellers but there was demand from vendors. Today there is a paradigm shift. Vendors are pulling out of professional services business and they are saying I want to empower the reseller channel,” says Veljovic.

This aligns with certification based global vendor partner programmes, wherein resellers are being encouraged to certify their skills base and scale them based on market opportunities.

A key facilitator in this model is the availability of a value added distributor, a role adopted by

Aptec Distribution.

Today ATS exists within Aptec Holding as an independent business entity with a separate profit and loss statement. ATS has the advantage of off-setting its skilled manpower cost against the total opportunity base of 4,500 resellers that Aptec Distribution services through its new VAD delivery model. ATS operates as a vendor neutral, high end consulting supplier with the distinction of not trading in products and focussing solely on services.

“We offer resellers a chance to shadow us as a partnership and the partner gets trained from scratch.”

The final objective is to grow the overall business and this is accelerated if partners are enabled by lowering the barriers of entry. “We start challenging ourselves as an independent company to deliver profits as per our budget,” says Veljovic.

new structure, presales and consulting teams had to be brought in. “This is the price you have to pay for developing yourself into a value added player. The one good thing about all this is the margin that justifies the investment you are adding,” says Salah.

“Today we have a team that can take care of best quotes, build the right relationship with the customer and is tied up with Advanced Technology Services for post sales if needed.

Now we are able to provide an end to end sales cycle if needed, with a specific line of products, that is working good in a value add setup.”

Resellers do not mind talking to multiple product managers for the best solution and the best price to get the best deal from the distributor. "As long as there is a guy who knows the best and is able to drive the pricing factor to the bottom they prefer to deal with this person”, says Salah.

So what is Aptec’s mantra in its evolving role as value added distributor? It is following a four step process of first recruiting partners to play the role of value added resellers. The second is to enable them through training and skills development. The third is to engage with them in business development and provide them with presales consulting, proof of concept and BoQ services support. And the fourth is to help them deploy the final solution at the end customer by guaranteeing time bound implementation and meeting post sales service level agreements.

“For presales services we believe it is our responsibility and we have to go along with the reseller to help close the deal and put forward the best solution,” says Salah.

The cost of Aptec’s presales support team is therefore carried forward and justified by the increased opportunity conversion through a wider base of value added resellers, which it is now supporting.

“We are not just helping the partner to get enabled and then leave them alone. We help them to do deployment, configuration, installation, and enhancement, even when they do not have the technical capability,” says Mario Veljovic, Operations Director at Aptec Holdings.

Veljovic is also responsible for managing continued on page 36

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On the vision for Aptec group Aptec has focussed 100% on value added distribution and associated services across the group. This includes selling solution based products to small and medium focussed resellers and increasing local presence and services in the region.

On significant changes in market, industry dynamics Within our targeted segment, solution selling and service provision is a must for profitability and survival. Technical and commercial know how needs to be deeper within the reseller community. This has led to Aptec’s establishment of a training division for technical and commercial enablement across the region.

On significant shift in vendor relationships Aptec has stopped dealing in consumer products and components. On the other hand, vendors with solution based products have come to rely increasingly on Aptec’s model. Be it cloud services, virtualisation, storage solutions, data centre solutions or networking. We are focussed on major vendors and at this stage are receiving applications from vendors who wish to be represented.

On market challenges for the group The economies of Europe and the USA are facing major challenges. Our Middle East and Africa markets and in particular the small and medium business segments have proven to be resilient to the economic recession of 2008 and 2009. We are optimistic the market will continue growing in the coming years even if the West suffers from an economic downturn. Our region has petro dollars and economies will grow following the Arab springs in North Africa and Egypt.

On internal challenges for the group Growing and increasing the knowledge of our talent pool, enabling our partners and ensuring their profitability so that our partner network which is an extension of our teams remains healthy and profitable.

"We are in the lead as the major value added distributor in Middle East and Africa"

On forward looking vision for the group We are in the lead as the major value added distributor in the Middle East and Africa. We are recognised as an innovation centre and will therefore continue leading and replicating the model in emerging regions as they expand.

An interview with Dr Ali Baghdadi, CEO and President of Aptec Group NOVEMBER 2011

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IN FOCUS Aptec Distribution

Rolling out the cloud Aptec has signed up with Microsoft to be its Office 365 value added distributor.

Office 365 is a public cloud application suite that includes Exchange Online, Office Live Meeting, Office Sharepoint and Office Communication Online. The channel model for Cloud solution subscription involves a direct payment transaction between the end customer and Microsoft, with commission margins being transferred to the distributor and reseller separately.

“We now have a big challenge in terms of how to educate the market and the channels.

Resellers feel they might lose their business,” says Kumar. “The main role for us is to recruit partners and for partners to be able to convince end users to consider the solution and it stops at this. The target is first time users,” adds Salah.

Microsoft on the other hand has considered the pros and cons of the channel mindset. “Of all the companies in the world, who should be worried about the cloud, Microsoft should be on top of the list - we make our living selling licenses. The economics of the cloud are so compelling there is no way this change will not happen. We as a company are

Staying relevant with cloud partners, Mohammed Arif, Partner Strategy and Programmes Manager, Microsoft Gulf committed to make it happen. The question is do we sit and hold back or do we want to be on the forefront of the change? We want to be on the forefront not because we feel like it but because we have to stay relevant,” explains Mohammed Arif, Partner Strategy and Programmes Manager, Microsoft Gulf.

Aptec will enable partners targeting small and medium businesses through training workshops, round tables and sales

presentations. The adoption of Office 365 in the region by this segment of end users is expected to lead to a hybrid cloud model.

Since most of the partners may not have the capability to manage activation and integration of a hybrid cloud, Aptec looks at this as a considerable opportunity for managed services.

“We are looking at a complex integration of on-premises and public cloud applications,” says Kumar.

continued from page 34 Advanced Technology Services, which is responsible for the delivery of professional services to channel partners through Aptec Distribution and directly to vendors outside the distribution portfolio. Aptec Distribution markets and sells professional services from ATS like any other vendor solution in its portfolio.

“We manufacture services within the group”, comments Veljovic on a lighter note.

Reseller partners focussed on small and medium end businesses are usually hesitant to invest in development of technical staff since the returns are sometimes later in the future. “If the partner cannot see the return on investment, we need to step in ourselves and to cover up for whichever shortfall they have,” is the role that Salah has now taken up. In the initial stages Aptec will provide the technical skills support for reseller partners. Once the partner has been

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enabled and has received a return on sales it will be upto them to reinvest and grow their skills accordingly.

Salah’s immediate action plan is to penetrate and enable this segment of resellers through Aptec’s pool of available professional skills resource with a two-fold objective. Firstly, Aptec will support resellers who have the basic technical skills but insufficient resources to scale for a project or a particular go to market activity.

Secondly, Aptec will support resellers who have a go to market strategy around a certain vendor portfolio but have not invested in technical resources of their own.

“We help the reseller to bridge the gap when they are faced with the question, does it make sense to train up a person without knowing what you can really get out of the business?” adds Veljovic. Interestingly by

operating alongside, Aptec can actively reduce the entry barrier for a reseller to cross over into becoming a value added reseller.

With Aptec talking responsibility for the end to end delivery of a solution a partner is assured of meeting end customer timelines and therefore timely payments. This also ensures a positive cash flow situation making it easier for a partner to assess the benefits of investing in technical skills and resources and following a value added reseller business model. This is a win-win situation for both reseller and distributor.

Aptec’s vision is to keep replicating this success story in regional markets. In the words of Baghdadi, “We are recognised as an innovation centre and will therefore continue leading and replicating the model in emerging regions as they expand.” //

Technology is short term, but partnership is long term

Global sourcing - local support In a world of technologies, focusing on the ones that deliver benefit is good for your business.

That’s why FVC partners with global IT leaders to bring the most effective, most transformative products and technologies to you, our channel. From telepresence to network traffic management, security to WAN optimisation, we are the leading VAD in MENA, supporting products with logistics, implementation and training. Let us be your partner of choice for tomorrow.

IN FOCUS Almasa Value Distribution

Value spin off Almasa has chosen to spin off its value division leveraging on industry stalwart Roger El Tawil to deliver on the move Over the last two years Almasa IT Distribution has been restructuring itself towards putting more emphasis on its value added business and segmenting its internal operations into volume, value and retail focussed activities.

The value division has existed within Almasa IT Distribution for the last seven years as a business unit and has been growing at a double digit growth, albeit on a small revenue base. In order to create a more direct focus on this side of the business, Almasa IT Distribution has been restructured and the value added operations, vendor and partner relationships have been consolidated under Almasa Value Distribution as a separate business. Industry veteran Roger El Tawil is now heading this company as its Executive Director.

“The unpredictable nature of the market had a significant impact on everyone's business, so Almasa took this opportunity to evaluate and refocus for growth going forward,” says Mehdi Amjad, Executive Chairman of Almasa Holdings.

El Tawil was initially brought on board as a consultant and after jointly evaluating the pros and cons of Almasa IT Distribution’s value business with Amjad, has now taken on the responsibility of managing the business as a standalone business entity. “When you are a division in a bigger machine of distribution driven by components and volume, you are not getting the right level of focus, leadership, investments,” was El Tawil's logic for recommending Almasa Value Distribution's spin off.

“The result in this evolution was to give the value business its own identity, leadership and management approach while the IT distribution arm focuses on its core business of volume distribution,” adds Amjad.

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Announced in October 2011 along with his formal appointment, El Tawil has been quick off the mark. His first year game plan across 2012 is built on a few strong basic principles of vendor and reseller partnerships and geographic reach.

The first basic principle is to focus on strategic vendor partnerships around products and solutions from HP Procurve, Avaya and Gateprotect. Amongst the three vendors, the relationship with Gateprotect is the newest and its portfolio is meant to be complementary to HP Procurve and

A lot of vendors are under pressure. We want to be there to support this pressure and really deliver to the market.

Avaya directed at the small and medium business. For Avaya it is the full unified communication convergence portfolio including telephony, video, data, wireless as well as contact centre solutions also directed at the small and medium business.

Is the unified communication business being under leveraged by channel partners? El Tawil believes so. The key is to focus along with vendors and in the direction of vendors. “You need to align with any vendor that you are going to work with. You need to align to their strategy. You have to sit down and plan and measure.

At the end of the day, vendors want incremental business.”

On the contact centre opportunity – every government entity, every service provider, almost every large enterprise in the region has a contact centre. Almasa Value Distribution is looking at offering social media along with contact centre

solutions.

“It is definitely an area of growth.

Social media players like Facebook, Skype, iPhones and email on the move, are changing the way we communicate today.

Everyone in the small and mid market wants to leverage their business and personal tools and get the most out of unified communication space.”

With value added distributors like FVC, Westcon, Secureway Network, Computerlinks, Optimus Telecommunications well into the game, is there a risk that Almasa Value Distribution may be too late into the market? “It is never late. When I joined Avaya eight years ago, we said no one knows Avaya and no one knows the brand. Was it too late? No! There is always room for another player,” he remarks.

The value added business model is more or less similar amongst the various players in the regional market space. But El Tawil believes the differentiation from others will come from Almasa’s people and partners, decision making speed and consistent results. “A lot of vendors are under pressure. We want to be there to support this pressure and really deliver to the market. Yes we lost a bit of share but we are ready to take it back.”

“Every vendor also goes through the process of revisiting and consolidating their continued on page 40

VENDOR PARTNER PROFILE Software and security: GateProtect Peripherals and storage: Seagate Networking: Avaya, HP Procurve Components: Asus, Intel, AMD, LG, Acer

“The unpredictable nature of the market had a significant impact on everyone’s business” An interview with Mehdi Amjad, Executive Chairman Almasa Holdings

On revenue growth of Almasa IT Distribution The unpredictable nature of the market had a significant impact on everyone’s business, so Almasa took this opportunity to evaluate and refocus for growth going forward. This year, Amasa IT Distribution moved away from volume, addressing Saudi Arabia from a value perspective.

On reasons for restructuring of Almasa IT Distribution The Almasa Value division has been a business unit of Almasa IT Distribution for the last seven years and has been experiencing double digit growth since then. In response to changing global and regional market conditions, Almasa evolved the value business to increase its focus and ensure that the needs of both vendors and resellers are being met.

On mandate for Roger El Tawil as a consultant As a consultant he provided strategic direction to Almasa Value Distribution. As executive director, he continues to refine the strategy and execution

of Almasa Value Distribution’s objectives.

On Tawil’s recommendation towards Almasa IT Distribution While leveraging the infrastructure, experience and support of Almasa IT Distribution and Almasa Holdings, Almasa Value Distribution has the opportunity to operate independently, giving us the agility to move faster and respond to both channel and vendor needs.

On progress of restructuring of Almasa IT Distribution Our evaluation took place in 2010, and we have proven ourselves to be very agile when we see opportunity in the market. We recognized that through a combination of market focus, correct solutions and strong relationships with vendors and resellers, there is a significant opportunity to be addressed.

On vision for Almasa IT Distribution Almasa IT Distribution delivers a strategic mix of leading technology products to resellers and

retailers in focused markets in the Middle East through a proven channel network.

On shift of Almasa IT Distribution portfolio Almasa IT Distribution represents an array of world leading vendors such as Asus, Asrock Intel, Seagate and LG providing in-country services to the region in order to guarantee reliable logistics support, responsive supply chain service and localised in-country services to customers in the region.

On market expectations from Almasa IT Distribution We are expected to evolve and provide a mix of leading technology products to resellers and retailers in a timely, efficient and focused manner through robust processes.

On vendor expectations from Almasa IT Distribution Vendors rely on our ability to offer secure credit lines, sound supply chain and on-the-ground market expertise.

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IN FOCUS Almasa Value Distribution

continued from page 38 distribution strategy. This is very normal these days”, and El Tawil should know this since he previously served as Avaya’s Channel and Marketing Director for Middle East and North Africa.

Should Almasa Value Distribution have been spun off earlier? “Yes, the sooner the better”, he admits. But with regional markets expected to revive in 2012, the timing of Almasa Value Distribution’s entry into the market is still on track and on time.

The second basic principle being adopted by El Tawil to bring Alamasa Value Distribution upto speed is to reinforce relationships with key VAR partners which may not have been a leading priority during the focus on top line growth of previous years. In this respect, El Tawil received overwhelming support from old and new prospective partners during Gitex 2011.

One of the cornerstones for Almasa Value Distribution’s go to market confidence is its ability to leverage on credit facilities, geographical reach and financial reserves of both Almasa IT Distribution and Almasa Holdings. “It is upto me what services I need from the organisations. It is not based on what is available. What I need, I will take and if they do not have it, I will build and I will invest in it.”

Everyone is shopping, hunting and deal making.

But you really need to work to build your business and have the right partners around you. Long term success is not going to come from shopping around.

“While leveraging the infrastructure, experience and support of Almasa IT Distribution and Almasa Holdings, Almasa Value Distribution has the opportunity to operate independently,” adds Amjad.

An observation that El Tawil has

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Challenges ahead for Roger El Tawil, Executive Director, Almasa Value Distribution made while switching from the vendor side of the fence to the channel side is the deterioration in loyalty standards.

“Everyone is shopping, hunting and deal making. But you really need to work to build your business and have the right partners around you. Long term success is not going to come from shopping around.”

The third basic principle El Tawil is working on is geographical reach. Saudi Arabia is an important target market for him in 2012. The other geography he is focussing on is Africa for Avaya’s contact centre solutions. With more than forty odd telecom service players the opportunity

for upgradation and migration of customer service platforms is considerable. In terms of logistics and operations, Almasa Value Distribution will leverage the existing reach of its volume counterpart.

Moving forward, the financials for Almasa Value Distribution will remain consolidated within Almasa IT Distribution for the next 12 to 18 months, after which they will be separated. If 2010 and 2011 have been the years of consolidation for Amjad’s Almasa Holdings, then 2012 will be the testing year for El Tawil’s Almasa Value Distribution. On the face it appears all the ingredients of success are ready to deliver for El Tawil. //

IN FOCUS Panasonic

Build your TV Panasonic is offering corporate and government ultra high format displays with inbuilt HD and 3D Panasonic has launched its custom display solutions in the region. While the company has surpassed industry standards by reaching the 152 inch LCD TV size, it believes that size is not the primary aspect of its solutions. “How to utilise the solution is the key issue,” says Masao Motoki, Director System Sales and Marketing Group, Panasonic Marketing.

A display solution built around the 152 inch LCD TV, with 3D rendering, can cost upwards of $0.7 million. This high investment precludes certain consumer focussed demand areas like the home theatre and personal viewing. However the product is robustly built for outdoor use and is both waterproof and dustproof. According to Motoki, “the primary application area is expected to be display advertising” in locations like up market malls, retail outlets, outdoors, special events and other advertising opportunities.

Other application areas are public sector including government departments, defence, environment, land development; simulation for transportation like airlines, urban transport; product walk through for new products under development and high end CAD/CAM graphic design.

A typical outdoor LED signage usually costs around $3,500 to $6,000 per sqm after installation at the final site depending on the quality of display resolution in the signage structure. By comparison Panasonic custom solutions cost $65,000 per sqm and above.

Such a high capital investment implies that either the project needs to have a very high rate of return or the benefits of using the solution are strategic and the nature of its usage justifies the investment.

While Motoki admits that demand for these high end solutions is limited, especially around the 152 inch TV, he expects go to market activities to be driven both by partners and Panasonic themselves. Since the solutions are custom developed both partners and Panasonic need to have a high degree of readiness to

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study and implement the solution. Low demand base, low volume of production, high degree of consultation and presales engagement, high standard of implementation skills, logistics and transportation costs all combine to raise the final cost of the solution.

Another innovation is the horizontal, touch screen control panel display. According to Yasuo Yamasaki, General Manager, System Solution Department, Panasonic Marketing, “This is like a computer panel. You can open five applications to control the connected TVs.” During a meeting, participants can deliberate, touch, use and manipulate the information on the horizontal panel before viewing the final results on a vertical 3D TV panels.

Will the price of the solution come down if

Focussing on meeting customer expectations, Masao Motoki, Director System Sales and Marketing Group, Panasonic Marketing Panasonic starts production using standardised sizes and specifications? Motoki admits the price can come down with this approach, “but with big investments, customer expectations are much more,” and it is unlikely they will be satisfied with a standardised product. //

Centralised display panel at NYC Hall The New York City Hall is the hub and control room for municipal activities in the city.

Multi-department alerts and updates need to be flashed regularly for the team members to collectively take real time decisions.

However the City Hall has tall ceilings, wide wall spaces and are alteration protected.

Specifically the City Hall has a 26 feet high ceiling and wall display area of 70 feet by 40 feet. Such a large wall space makes TV display panels like a 65 inch screen too small to be visually suitable. A projection system or a multiple display video wall was ruled out for aesthetic reasons. Getting the right centralised display solution was a challenge.

The solution finally selected was a single Panasonic 103-inch High Definition Plasma Display. The display was outfitted with DVI, HDMI, component video and PC input plugin modules, enabling multiple feeds to be multiplexed on a single 103-inch screen. The

solution was built to allow team members to monitor news and event updates simultaneously with live video feed from traffic cameras, while having the ability to play back recording in high definition via the Panasonic Blu-ray Disc Player. Since team members view the information at the same time and at the same location, the standard of decision making has improved.

Product highlights • 100,000 hour product life cycle • Flat screen form factor lends to aesthetic installation • Consistent image quality even after extended use, non bulb illumination • Sharp images even for fast moving frames with 1080p resolution • Resistance to ghost images • Wide angle viewing • Three year warranty

Enhancing custom solutions, Yasuo Yamasaki, General Manager, System Solution Department, Panasonic Marketing

Panasonic has a full range of professional LCD TVs, specially reinforced for outdoor conditions ranging from 65 inches and upwards.

The 152 inch TV is currently the largest in the world from any vendor

TH 152 UX1 Specifications Colour: Black Screen Size diagonal: 152.0 inch Aspect Ratio: 17.9 Display Type: Full high definition plasma display Effective Display Area (WxH): 134.4" x 70.9" Resolution (HxV): 4,096 x 2,160 pixels Pixel Pitch (HxV): 0.0328" x 0.0328" Contrast Ratio: 5,000,000:1 Gradation: 8,192 steps Audio Input: RCA pin jack x 2 Scan Rate: 48Hz/60Hz Inputs: Component/RGB HDMI, DVI, Serial Input/Output 3D Shutter Out: M3 Jack x 1, for Optional 3D IR Transmitter Power Requirements: 200-240 V AC Power Consumption: 3700W Power off condition: 0.3 W Stand-by condition: 0.5W Weight (approx.): approx. 1,272.1 lbs.

Operating Temperature: 32 째F - 104 째F Operating Humidity: 20% - 80% (Non condensation) Operating Altitude: 0 to 4,920 feet

The touch screen horizontal format control panel is meant to manage to manage displays of large format TVs and is part of the custom solution offering

Shutter driven glasses, which alternatively switch visual transmission from left to right in phase with the TV, create the 3D immersion effect

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Optical Media

Flash Drive & Cards

PC Accessories

Hard Drives

Grand Entertainer

STORE • PROTECT • CONNECT Imation Corporation is a leading global technology company dedicated to helping people and organizations “Store, Protect, and Connect” their digital world.

www.imation.com/en-ae

IN FOCUS CPI Awards

ICT Achievement Awards 2011 Hosted and organised by Computer News the event was attended by over 400 CIO and IT industry delegates CNME’s ICT Achievement Awards 2011, the region’s premier ICT awards event, honouring the best in people, projects and products from the Middle East, took place on 9 October 2011 at a gala evening function.

The evening, which brought together more than 400 delegates forming the who’s-who of the ICT sector in the region, took place at The Monarch Hotel in Dubai.

The ICT Achievement Awards recognised the achievers and trend-setters of the IT industry of the region, who have used budgets effectively and providers who have made good every enterprise investment.

These accomplishments covered everything from projects focused on speed to market, maintenance backlog challenges faced and overcome, business-facing prioritisation of increased budgets, smart analysis of new technological opportunities, adoption of global best practices and standards, investment in skills and end-user support, as well as other

FVC received the industry achievement award intelligent use of resources by end-users, solution providers and service providers in the changing financial landscape of the last 12 months.

CNME’s ICT Achievement Awards 2011 was judged by a panel comprising industry experts

from across the region. This year’s judges included: Trevor Moore, IT director, Abu Dhabi University; Sa’di Awienat, Director, IT, Qatar Foundation; Dr Aisha Butti Bin Bishr, Assistant Undersecretary of Institutional Services and Support Sector, Ministry of Labour, UAE. //

The awards were handed out for 21 categories. The awardees and categories are listed below.

CIO OF THE YEAR Abdulla Al Bastaki, RTA FUTURE CIO OF THE YEAR Khalid AbdulRahman Al Awadhi, head of the infrastructure section within IT at Dubai Municipality IT TEAM OF THE YEAR American Express Middle East, Bahrain EDITOR’S CHOICE OF THE YEAR Mobily

GOVERNMENT DEPLOYMENT OF THE YEAR General Organisation for Youth and Sports, Bahrain HEALTHCARE DEPLOYMENT OF THE YEAR King Fahd Military Medical Complex ENERGY DEPLOYMENT OF THE YEAR Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) EDUCATION DEPLOYMENT OF THE YEAR Supreme Education Council, Qatar

INDUSTRY ACHIEVEMENT VAD of the Year, FVC

CONSTRUCTION AND REAL ESTATE DEPLOYMENT OF THE YEAR Sorouh Real Estate

BFSI DEPLOYMENT OF THE YEAR Qatar First Investment Bank

RETAIL DEPLOYMENT OF THE YEAR DHL Express UAE

TELECOMMUNICATIONS DEPLOYMENT OF THE YEAR Saudi Telecom Company

HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM DEPLOYMENT OF THE YEAR Jumeirah Group

CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR Deloitte Consulting SECURITY SOLUTIONS PROVIDER OF THE YEAR Blue Coat Systems STORAGE SOLUTIONS PROVIDER OF THE YEAR Dell MANAGED SERVICES PROVIDER OF THE YEAR Injazat Data Systems SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR OF THE YEAR Mahindra Satyam VENDOR OF THE YEAR – HARDWARE Cisco Systems VENDOR OF THE YEAR – SOFTWARE VMWare

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COVER FEATURE

Networking Channels How are leading vendors doing in this space today? The challenges appear as many as the vendors themselves. An overview of their ecosystem!

Key vendors operating in this space face a diverse mix of channel enablement challenges. Vendors Cisco, Juniper Networks, EMC, Sonicwall and Belkin all face different challenges in their channel workspace. For infrastructure vendor Cisco, it is looking down the road at its upcoming Quad enterprise social software. Its partners have done a commendable job of mastering the infrastructure and solutions of wired and wireless networking. It has introduced unified communication solutions into the market place and its partners have started ramping up.

But unified communications has now merged into social media and partners will soon need to establish familiarity with collaboration solutions, interfacing and integration with end user infrastructure. “Today social media is not enabled for unified communication. We are putting unified communication on top of these applications,” says Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Sales Manager, Cisco Systems.

For end to end networking vendor Juniper Networks, the key focus is to consistently maintain partner engagements with enterprise customer accounts with a high level of consulting standard, thereby ensuring that both partner and customer get a high degree of return. The vendor closely manages the performance standards of its Elite and Select partners and the number of active partners in this space. The challenge for it is to grow the number of its partners in sync with market growth without compromising on engagement standards likely to affect perceived returns and profit margins. “A focussed eco system leads to streamlined investment into partners and better quality assurance,” explains Taj El Khayat, Area director for partners, alliances and commercial segment, MEA, Juniper Networks.

For storage vendor EMC, its high growth model implies an equivalent growth in value added resellers being driven by a value added distributor partner. However identification of value

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added distributors with whom EMC can work with is the first challenge. The next challenge is to work closely with value added distributor partners to grow the number and capability of the value added resellers. “We need to get someone to play the same role we are supposed to play. That is why we focus a lot on soft skills development of partners. You need to be very close to the distributors to change their mind set,” says Havier Haddad, Channel and Alliances Manager, TEAM Region, EMC. For firewall vendor Sonicwall, managing regional growth opportunities from outside its traditional channel market segments is the current focus. Since Sonicwall operates at a more competitive price point than its competitors, system integrators working in health care, education and the public sector are approaching it for solution partnerships, technology know how and enablement. Building loyalty with these partners for long term and repeat business is Sonicwall’s immediate priority. “For years these accounts have long standing relationships with larger vendors. But when they start losing deals and start getting requests from end customers they come and partner with us. We will train them,” says Florian Malecki, EMEA Enterprise Product Marketing Manager, Sonicwall.

For networking and accessory vendor Belkin, the challenge is to find distributor partners ready to carry its full range of products. While networking products is its largest segment by revenue, the key differentiator in the market is when a distributor carries its complete portfolio making it attractive for a reseller to complete a single point deal. The challenge is more acute as Belkin gears up to expand across Africa, where not all of its product segments are likely to have an immediate uptake in the price sensitive market. “Belkin's strength is in its range and breadth of product portfolio. Instead of a reseller or retailer sitting with multiple distributors for multiple vendors they can approach Belkin for the full range,” says Andrew Pepperell, Account Manager, Middle East and Africa, Belkin. //

Top of the pack

Andrew Pepperell, Account Manager, Middle East and Africa, Belkin

Networking products have the highest contribution to Belkin’s revenue in the region. The networking product portfolio includes routers, powerline solutions, wireless home cinema solutions, wired switches and adapters and patch cables. The router range of products is further segmented into wireless, modem and USB adapter based.

The wireless range of routers has speeds ranging from 150-450 Mbps and the USB based router can manage applications like gaming and home theatre video streaming. The powerline product allows you to convert the power cable into a high speed network cable connection. It can support connectivity from 200-1,000 Mbps. The home cinema TV adapter connects to a laptop with Intel wireless display and provides HD 1080p resolution along with Dolby sound. It has both RCA and HDMI output. The wired switches support 1,000 Mbps Gigabit networking with 5 and 8 ports and Gigabit USB 2.0 adapter.

Since Belkin insists that distributor partners carry the full range of its products, resellers and VARs usually need to access only a single distributor for a range of supporting networking products and accessories. In the UAE, Belkin has appointed Logicom, Ashley and Jumbo Electronics. Logicom also distributes in Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, Bahrain and Oman. Jumbo also distributes in Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. For Saudi Arabia, Belkin has appointed Shastech for Saudi Arabia. Since imports are shipped from United Kingdom, distributors are expected to keep an inventory of 75 days.

For South Africa, there are three distributors and they carry the full range of Belkin products. However for the rest of Africa including East and West Africa the focus will initially be on carrying networking and cable products. “A master distributor for rest of Africa will carry the full range of products”, says Pepperell.

“The advantage of carrying all product categories is a distributor can offer an entire accessory solution thereby differentiating itself from competition,” he adds.

Belkin expects appointed distributors to be aggressive in their go to market activities. In terms of priority, the vendor would spend marketing funds on retail incentives, rebates and promotions instead of brand building. It is also monitoring competitor price points in the market to tackle reseller perception on its higher selling price points.

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COVER FEATURE Networking channels

Next generation platform When unified communication solutions appeared in the market two to three years ago, partners needed to fall back to Cisco implementation teams for support.

Not so much because the technology was complex, but more so the difference from conventional LAN technology products. “They have done a good job on the switches and routers, but they are gearing up their skills to really start understanding the soft capability beyond the boxes that we used to sell,” explains Abdulal about the ongoing evolution of partner skills.

Cisco has introduced a separate category of partner programmes for unified communication with three levels of specialisation: Express, Advanced and Master. There are also four areas of technology specialisation including rich media, IP contact centre, Unity support and Unity design.

The highest level of specialisation is the Master level for partners who have in-depth technology skills, at least five demonstrated customer success stories in implementing value added unified communication solutions and project management certification amongst others.

Looking down Cisco’s road map, Abdulal is excited by what lies ahead. “We are passing through the next level of communication. We used to say telephony, then unified communication and now it is collaboration. This covers social media and it is more complex than before.”

Cisco is developing its enterprise collaboration platform called Quad, which flattens out social media channels into a unified communication interface allowing much more powerful interactivity. This is being driven by changes in the workplace including expectations of instant communication, multiple formats and sources of information and flexible team structures.

Quad’s features include new postings, video as content, personalised dashboard, user profile, contacts directory, sharing, collaboration and searching within a community, access to recent activities, real time notifications, mobility, security and policy management, integration and interoperability, scalability, fault tolerance, centralised application maintenance or private cloud and systems management.

With Cisco putting so much emphasis on its next generation collaboration platform, partners will also need to keep their skills in phase with end user and vendor expectations.

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Wael Abdulal, Collaboration Sales Manager, Cisco Systems

Enablement is key For storage solution vendor EMC the most important component of its channel programme is the value added distributor partner. With emphasis on soft skills development of reseller partners by the distributor, EMC believes this is only possible when the distributor has been built from the ground up on the same business model. “The target for a distributor is to have extended sales, presales and post sales force. We treat the distributor as our extended sales force,” says Haddad.

While he does not expect the distributor to reach the levels of a vendor in terms of partner enablement and acceleration through its Velocity channel programme, “We want them to do the job to a certain extent at least.”

EMC has set ambitious targets of penetration into the SMB segment across the region and for this it needs a strong reseller base. “We need to get someone to play the same role that we are supposed to play. That is why we focus a lot on soft skills development of partners.” For EMC, tier one partners including large system integrators and enterprise resellers contribute 55% of its revenue.

Value added distributors are expected to contribute the balance 45%. Value added distributors for EMC include Computerlinks, CIS Lebanon and Al Jammaz in Saudi Arabia.

EMC follows a five tier partner structure called the Velocity partner programme. This was introduced in 2010, when EMC changed its focus from a direct sales model to an indirect one, from a channel non-friendly to a channel friendly vendor and from an enterprise storage vendor to full market segment storage vendor. A partner can enter at the Affiliate level, without any preconditions and also without any programme benefits. The next higher level is the Affiliate Elite where they are eligible for quarterly rebates. The next level is Premier, where in addition to quarterly rebates they are eligible for performance based rebates. The next two levels are Signature and Signature Solution Centre and the last three involve technology specialisations.

For the Premier level a partner is expected to specialise in minimum of one technology and for the Signature levels, they are expected to specialise in a minimum of two technologies. The Signature Solution Centre partner is the highest partner level, where a partner not only invests in the solution centre product line up but is also responsible for demand generation around the particular technology. MATCO in Saudi Arabia is one such partner. The areas of technology specialisation include Data Domain and the Consolidate, Advanced Consolidate, Backup and Recovery, Archive and Governance Specialties, RSA integration and Security Specialty.

Havier Haddad, Channel and Alliances Manager, TEAM Region, EMC NOVEMBER 2011

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COVER FEATURE Networking channels

Margin focus

Taj El Khayat, Area director, Partners, Alliances and Commercial Segment, MEA, Juniper Networks 50

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During the dotcom boom of the late nineties, Juniper Networks was focussed on routing infrastructure for service providers including ASPs, ISPs, MSPs and TSPs. The first course change happened in 2004 when it acquired Netscreen and entered the security space while adding Netscreen’s enterprise customers to its portfolio. Further acquisitions between 2004 and 2008 finally established it as a serious solution player in the enterprise space. “A key reason for our survival has been our Junos operating system, which is modular and leading service providers are leveraging their infrastructure on this today. It has made Juniper Networks evolve from a routing telecom infrastructure provider to an end to end networking and security infrastructure provider,” says El Khayat.

Another key factor for Juniper Networks consistent performance across large enterprise accounts and the top end of mid market accounts is its channel engagement strategy. “We do not do en masse recruitment of partners or en masse specialisations,” says El Khayat. The approach is not to dilute the quality of the engagement between an enterprise customer who is expecting the highest level of technology consulting and a partner. Only Elite and Strategic alliance partners engage with named customer accounts through a high touch support model. For these partners the market opportunity is divided into enterprise solution and service provider infrastructure. Elite and the next lower level Select partners are expected to specialise along various technology options including super core infrastructure, converged solutions, data centre solutions, enterprise campus and branch solutions and security.

Since Juniper Networks manages the number of competing partners, higher margins are achievable during customer negotiations. Rule of the thumb is Juniper Networks adds 10% to what its closest competitors give their partners. Another area of positive channel engagement is the partner business plan. “The business plan between Juniper Networks and its partners is very sacred. We agree on revenue, we agree on objectives and we create a platform for communication and review,” explains El Khayat.

In the regional markets, Juniper Networks has distributor agreements with Computerlinks, Mindware and Westcon. Distributors play a fulfilment role for named accounts and a value added role for reseller enablement in the remaining commercial customer space.

Zero latency firewalls Twenty years ago, Sonicwall’s firewall products were focussed on the small and medium business segment. Over the years through acquisitions and internal research its products have been repositioned to also cover the enterprise segment. It now carries a full portfolio from high end enterprise to small business and from centralised management software to end point security solutions.

Another factor that has been driving product change has been the volatile nature of the internet.

“Old generation firewalls were designed for the way we used to use the internet previously. It was good at that time but they are not adequate anymore. We have moved to NSA, multi core architecture and we inspect traffic on the fly as it comes, without creating any latency," says Malecki.

The current product portfolio includes Supermassive E10,000 and E-class NSA series firewalls meant for enterprise end users. The NSA series of firewalls is meant for medium and TZ series for small businesses.

While Sonicwall may have repositioned itself in the enterprise space, the SMB segment is also sustaining its growth. A key initiative is to grow the number of VARs and resellers focussing on the SMB market segment through Redington and Westcon distributors.

“From a price point of view, Sonicwall has always been a vendor that offers what the customer needs. Why pay 30% more for 10% additional features that you do not use?” explains Malecki.

Another initiative by Sonicwall, again in conjunction with its distributors, is to get VARs to move towards value based engagement with customers. This involves offering services like presales consultancy, implementation and knowledge transfer amongst others. Partner enablement is by continuous training through distributors and tier-one partners are directly managed by Sonicwall account managers.

Sonicwall has a partner channel structure called Medallion which consists of Approved, Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers. Gold and Silver partners can further specialise in managed services or enterprise integration.

The key vertical segments driving growth include e-learning because of intranets, retail because of distributed nature of networks, public sector and education. Independent security certified system integrators from these segments are also approaching Sonicwall based on received customer interest.

Florian Malecki, EMEA Enterprise Product Marketing Manager, Sonicwall.

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SPEAK OUT Charl Snyman

“The last thing we want to do is create uncertainty for our customers” Charl Snyman, Vice-President and General Manager, HP Personal Systems Group, Europe, Middle East and Africa is responsible for product management, pricing and forecasting for desktops, notebooks, workstations, thin clients and retail solutions. Prior to his current role he has held various senior positions in sales and business development for the same regions. He joined HP in 1994. A discussion on the dynamics of the European versus Middle East markets. market, but we compete and we win every day. In fact, we believe that PSG held its leadership market share in calendar Q3 in the midst of this evaluation period. We are truly grateful to our millions of loyal customers who made us the leading PC company in the world, and we will continue to focus on delivering great products to them.

In your opinion what have been the primary internal reasons for HP reversing its decision to spin off PSG? Snyman: To be clear, we never reversed our decision. In August we announced that we are exploring strategic alternatives for HP’s Personal Systems Group. The decision was based on strategic, financial, and operational criteria and is in the best interest of HP’s shareholders and customers to retain the Personal Systems Group as part of HP How much effort and what type of effort will need to be made by your team to rebuild customer confidence in the division, and rebuild commercial sales and inquiries?

Snyman: Believe me, the last thing we want to do is create uncertainty for our customers.

We’ve been in close contact with customers through this process. This is a competitive

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What is the primary difference in channel structure between the Middle East and Europe?

Snyman: In the mature markets like Western Europe, there is a much bigger and distinct go-to-market channel between corporate mid market and big retailers. In the emerging markets this is a little bit more greyish. In all the emerging markets like India and Vietnam it is the same trend and Italy, France, Greece were like this ten years ago.

What about the primary distributor arrangements across Europe?

Snyman: We have large in-country or national distributors like Ingram Micro and Techdata and they are structured exactly the same way we are. They have an European entity and a country entity.

Are you saying the reseller opportunity is around small and medium companies?

Snyman: There are so many small and medium companies being created every day. If somebody does not address them, who is going to address them? If we do not have a channel to address them, we have

to do it directly like Dell has done or we are going to be eaten by our competition like Apples of the world in retail. Then you are marginalised by retail and we do not want to be marginalised.

The resellers in the region are looking for volume deals. Why would they want to target the small office and small businesses?

Snyman: For me the most important customer buying at the end is if there is value coming from the small reseller, giving the product as well as all the services around it to run a business. If the reseller can provide an end to end solution, then a non IT managed small office or small business looks at the reseller as his trusted advisor and there is a value and a discussion.

How does the opportunity look from a reseller perspective?

Snyman: I have the best end to end, middle product and services. I need a go to market reseller base that sells that value add to my customers with his contribution of course. If there is a gap in the go to market opportunity somebody has to address it.

With regard to enterprise and corporate business what is the structure followed in Europe?

Snyman: In Western Europe, my corporate business is 70% direct. It is not going through the channel anymore. The customer requests they deal directly with us.

If 70% of the corporate sale is direct, what is the role that tier one system integrators and VARs play?

Snyman: Whether a tier one partner is involved or not, for me that is independent.

For me what is important is the relationship between me and the customer is direct. I hear directly from the customer on what is working and what is not working.

There are a lot of factory and customer integration services which we frankly cannot do. In 80% of the cases the customer invoice comes to us. If a distributor or tier one partner is adding value in terms of cash, credit or stock they may also be activated in the transaction. //

SPEAK OUT Alfonso Di Ianni

“We are trying to have one VAD structure for both hardware and software” Alfonso Di Ianni, Senior Vice President, Eastern Europe, CIS, Middle East, Africa, Oracle Corporation, manages growth and profitability across 86 countries. He is responsible for technology, application and consulting licenses across these countries. Joining Oracle in 1997, he has previously held the post of global leadership of Oracle Field Marketing and Alliance Channels. He holds a Masters Degree in Electronic Engineering and a Masters Degree in Business Administration. and rules of engagement for all partners no matter what products they want to use.

One thing is important we have a strong incentive for our partners to specialise.

Given we have a very wide portfolio of products we want our partners to add value to each of the stacks and focus on their knowledge and investment in using the applications versus middleware and database.

Please describe the Oracle channel programme for resellers, developers and education partners?

Di Ianni: Our structure in terms of channel programme is the same around the world - it is called the Oracle Partner Network.

We also have the same partner tier that is platinum, gold, silver and we have the same terms of conditions for handling VADs around the world. But the selection of who can be a key partner depends on the local business.

Does the Partner Network include only Oracle applications or is the Sun server platforms included as well?

Di Ianni: The Oracle Partner Network has been extended to hardware as well.

Since Sun had its own programme, after the acquisition we merged this into a single programme with all the benefits

How are the various partner businesses managed under the same programme?

Di Ianni: In the Oracle Partner Network we have system integrators and reseller partners within the same programme. We have these streams and there are different terms and conditions, different benefits for system integrator or VAD or resellers.

Partners fall into the same programme but have to subscribe and qualify for different kinds of streams. For system integrators you need to show a number of people trained on applications. If you are reseller you do not need to do that.

How are distributor partner managed under the Partner Network programme?

Di Ianni: We have completed the VAD selection for both Oracle hardware and software products in this part of the world.

We went through an assessment and compliance exercise, which was done at the corporate level. We are trying to have one VAD structure for both hardware and software. That has just been concluded

fairly recently and it should already be in place in this part of the world.

RME: What are the benefits of having a single VAD structure for both hardware and software?

Di Ianni: What you will see is VADs expanding their business because now they have either hardware to sell or software to sell depending on where they are coming from. It is a great opportunity for our VAD and channel partners. We have so many products we will never be able to sell them directly or all of them to all our customers.

So partners play very strongly in our economy here. //

Regional Update • Al Mazoon Group and TCS are implementing Oracle E-business Suite for Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia. The solution includes Financials, Human Resources, Payroll, Purchasing, Property Manager, Project Management, Oracle WebCenter.

• Qatar based Manai Trading software division is migrating Hamad Medical Corporation’s Oracle E Business Suite to an Oracle Exalogic and Exadata platform. The solution consists of partial racks of Exadata High Performance Engineered System, partial rack Exadata Engineered System, media servers, tape library, Database Enterprise Edition, Real Application Cluster, Secure Backup, Exadata Storage Software.

• Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, is deploying Exadata Database Machine X2-2 for its database applications including OLTP, OLAP, data warehousing and other mixed workloads. The solution includes Exadata Storage Software, Database 11g, Partitioning Tuning and Diagnostic, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management.

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SPEAK OUT Xia Chaojie

“As a services business group our focus is to listen closely to our customers needs” A discussion with Xia Chaojie, Vice President Middle East, Huawei, on the dynamics and business model of Huawei’s professional services group, which has been operating in the region since 2006.

Reduction and continuous Enhancement) where we pay full attention to our customers needs and pro-actively engage with them early enough to promote their business and support them to sustain their growth and maintain their networks services quality and excellence. Through our CARE offerings we make it happen believing that our advisory and consultancy market experience is made available to create the maximum value to the customer.

Can you describe the skills and customer facing structure of this division?

What is the end to end mandate for this division of Huawei?

Chaojie: Huawei’s aim is to enrich life through communication. Thus as a services business group our focus is to listen closely to our customers needs and to ensure their business success through professional services solutions. Our professional services solutions are innovative and customised, based on business collaboration and partnership, taking into consideration market trends, securing customer assets, satisfying end-customer requirements, maintaining OPEX spending and generating new revenue streams. Our ultimate goal is to provide best in class elite services and solutions to our customers in order to maintain their market leading position and to benefit from our global experience and innovations.

What is the business model of this consulting services division?

Chaojie: Our business model is based on our CARE strategy (Collaboration, Agility,

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Huawei’s Professional Services is strategically structured to face the customers through dedicated customer centric teams, consisting of the key account team, the services solutions team and delivery management team Chaojie: Huawei’s Professional Services is strategically structured to face the customers through dedicated customer centric teams, consisting of the key account team, the services solutions team and delivery management team. They are supported by three service business units working towards providing innovative solutions to fulfil the customer requirements. Huawei is keen to attract leading talent and expertise

and is not saving efforts to continuously look after the improvement of its staff knowledge and competence through its internal learning programmes.

How does this division engage with the actual sales model from the products side?

Chaojie: Huawei has understood the ICT market trends and over years has successfully grown into a giant systems integrator where we solely believe that offering a comprehensive end-to-end solution is what our customers look for rather than offering products separately.

Going through solution integration phase starting with demand creation, solution architecture and design and ending with putting the final touches of integration, our product sales team works together with our solution development teams to deliver the customised solution.

What is the engagement life cycle of this division with end customers?

Chaojie: Huawei’s Professional Services engages at early stages with our customers where services solutions planning, designing, implementation, operation, and optimisation services life cycle is enforced.

Quality assurance is applied continuously all across those stages. //

Huawei Professional Services The division started in the Middle East in 2006 focusing on creating value for the region’s telecom service providers in a very competitive environment by reducing OPEX, improving the quality of their networks, accelerating TTM and providing new technology training.

Amongst its achievements over the last five years: 42 accumulated managed services contracts, staff of 1,700 with 107 project management consultants and 377 certified engineers, 96 certified service partners and 786 qualified engineers from partners certified by Huawei Technologies.

SPEAK OUT Mathis Lai

“It is better to work with one distributor having a channel network within a country” EMPA distributes the Philips brand of monitors in UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. However Hong Kong based TPV Technologies manufactures the monitors and its subsidiary MMD further markets the products globally.

A discussion with Mathis Lai, Business Manager, MMD Singapore on the fast changing product portfolio and other go to market activities.

Lai: In the B2B category of monitors we have standard, business and professional line of products. The standard line is entry level with plug and play functionality. The business monitor is a stepped up product with speakers and height adjustment. The professional segment has swivel and pivot, colour and contrast adjustments and power sensors. The power sensor is two infrared sensors in front of the monitor that detects your presence and dims and shuts itself down accordingly.

EMPA is the distributor of Philips monitors across the region. What is the connection with MMD? Lai: Philips and TPV went into a licensing agreement in 2009 and TPV now owns the rights for Philips branded monitors. TPV is actually the manufacturer of Philips monitors.

MMD is a wholly owned subsidiary of TPV and is in charge of sales and marketing of Philips branded monitors globally.

How is the product portfolio of Philips monitors segmented?

Lai: The entire range of monitors is LCD and LED backlit is getting more and more popular.

In comparison to CCFL lighting, LEDs have 40% less power consumption and monitor designs can be slim and ultra slim. The range of products is categorised as B2B, B2C through retail, TV monitors and gaming with 18" to 27" sizes.

What are the features for the corporate and business users?

What are the features for the consumer and retail segment?

Lai: In the B2C category of monitors we have E,C and X product segments. In B2C all monitors are of contemporary design. They have an added feature patented by Philips called Smart Image. Power sensor has also been introduced in the consumer line. All our monitors are about sustainability and are using lead and mercury free materials. In the X line of products we are using a Philips patented technology called light frame. The bezel surrounding the monitor has a blue emitting light. A university group has shown that a blue light frame reduces eye fatigue after prolonged use.

What are the features for gamers?

Lai: We have a realised a lot of our users are technology savvy. A lot of them like to play online games which are 3D. Our 3D monitor appeals to a lot of gamers since it is a stepped up model with high resolution, high contrast, flicker free and supports 3D rendering. It comes with an HDMI port and can be used as a TV through a digital setup box with HDMI output.

Today there is trend towards large format monitors and integration of monitors. Are there any such specific products in Philips portfolio?

Lai: Under MMD we not only take care of LCD monitors but we also have the other side of business called signage. The signage monitors are actually large format monitors in the size range upto 50 inches. These monitors are meant for professional use like airport displays.

They are meant to work continuously once they are switched on and an after sales service contract comes with the product.

Since MMD is operating from Singapore, how do you manage equitable pricing across all the countries?

Lai: In Philips we are quite strict. We do not allow price cutting on the same model between partners. For this reason we appoint distributors within the country and they are not allowed to parallel import into another country.

There will always be differences in the transfer price to a partner by country. It depends on the marketing needs, where the country sits and a whole range of other factors. Different countries have different import duties, local tax, VAT and so on and the final selling price will be different.

What are your plans to expand into the various regions of Africa?

Lai: We have a distributor in South Africa. For the rest of Africa it is through reexports. EMPA has customers coming from as far as North Africa to meet them. We would be happy to expand into Africa and we would be happy to work with EMPA if such an opportunity arises. //

TPV Technologies • Global revenues of around $10 billion • Largest volume manufacturer of monitors globally, 30 million units in H1 2011 • Manufactures and sells AOC, Philips and Envision brands • 55% revenue from PC monitors, balance from TVs and other products • China 37% and rest of the world 26%, largest volume markets for TPV • Production at ten locations across China, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Russia

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PEOPLE Movements

MSI announced the appointment of Steven Chen as Regional Sales Director for the notebook division at MSI headquarters in Taipei. Chen’s region, the Greater APAC, includes Asia Pacific, Southeast Asia, India and Middle East Africa regions. In his new role, Chen will ensure each country team has the same scope, values and direction for the MSI brand. Chen was previously successful in partnering with new distributors in China and significantly expanding the notebook market in Southeast Asia and India.

HP Middle East announced it has appointed Salah Al Isawi as Country Managing Director of the Levant and Iraq. In his role, Al Isawi manages HP’s overall direction and strategy for the Levant, including planning and execution across all market segments in addition to strengthening HP presence in Iraq. A Jordanian national with more than ten years experience in IT, Al Isawi has many years experience in the Gulf as well as Jordan and Iraq. Prior to joining HP, Al Isawi worked with EMC, with his most recent position as Country Sales Manager for Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine.

Ali Faramawy has been promoted to Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Corporation and President Microsoft, Middle East and Africa. As Corporate Vice President, Ali

Faramawy will continue to be responsible for Microsoft's operations in the Middle East and Africa area. MEA is one of thirteen areas that comprise Microsoft's worldwide operations. He was previously Vice President Microsoft International and President Microsoft, Middle East and Africa.

Ali Alamadi has joined help AG Middle East as Principle Consultant to support its strategic consulting division. Prior to that Ali worked at the UAE computer emergency response team, aeCERT, as an information security incident handler.

He has developed different awareness campaigns targeting different segments of the community. He has also conducted more than 200 security awareness workshops and trainings across the UAE. Wavestore has appointed Manoj Singh Chouhan as its Regional Business Development Manager for the Middle East.

Reporting to Chris Williams, Director of Wavestore, Manoj will be responsible for developing new business opportunities throughout the Middle East by working closely with Wavestore’s fast growing network of consultants, installers and system integrators. Manoj has worked within the electronic security industry for over twelve years. Previously he worked as Divisional Manager for Bahrain based Mantech Computer Services where he was

responsible for the company’s security and surveillance products.

Cyberoam has appointed Pradeesh VS as Regional Sales Manager, Middle East. A veteran in channel management, business operations and revenue expansion, Pradeesh’s role will extend into laying the foundation for the growth strategy of NetGenie in the region. This is a new product range of wireless routers with in-built security for both home and SOHO markets. Prior to this, he was with ADOAX Middle East where he handled ESET NOD32 for the Middle East and North Africa Region.

IT security and data protection firm Sophos announced the appointment of Gerhard Eschelbeck to the post of Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President. He will lead the company’s technology strategy, driving product direction and innovation.

Eschelbeck holds a number of patents within information security and is one of the inventors of the Common Vulnerability Scoring System. He brings nearly twenty years of leadership experience to Sophos.

He served as CTO and Senior Vice President at Webroot Software, CTO and Vice President of Engineering at Qualys, and senior product and technology roles at companies including Network Associates and McAfee. //

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PEOPLE Angelika Plate

help AG’s number wizard

Scholar and consultant Angelika Plate’s toughest job in her life was completing her PhD at the Hannover University in Germany – the specific thesis topic had never been solved before. Completing her studies both in mathematics and computer science in 1993, Plate went on to become an independent consultant in the various global ISO and IEC security standards. Joining Dubai based security solution reseller help AG in 2010, Plate now functions as its Director of strategic security consulting. As part of her current job role she enjoys identifying the best possible solution that addresses the risks faced by her clients and is most suitable for their business.

Her stint with the international standards group, also the most stimulating period in her life, helps her to bring this innovation into her job role. On the other hand, convincing clients to adopt a more rigorous consulting approach to risk assessment, ranks as her biggest job role challenge.

Off work, Plate unwinds by horse riding or listening to music or meeting friends and lets her mood decide the rest. She passionately daydreams of winning a horse riding event with cross country, show jumping and dressage performances. She is happily addicted to the iPhone, iPad and iPod devices and uses social networks for her work life. But she draws the line on social networking in her personal life and describes herself as open and friendly. Learning informally as she does all the time is something she cannot imagine ever stopping. //

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Contact us: P.O.Box : 500327, Dubai Media City, U.A.E Tel : +971 4 3688118; Fax : +971 4 3688170 Email : fan.wu@huawei.com Al Thuraya Tower 1, 24th floor, Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAE