Reseller Middle East

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

WWW.RESELLERME.COM ISSUE 177 // SEPTEMBER 2011 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM

AMIN MORTAZAVI, GENERAL MANAGER, IMAGING AND PRINTING GROUP, HP MIDDLE EAST

RESELLER EXCLUSIVE

Can HP do it?

Bridging the paper and digital divide

Inside Xerox

Partner revamp

99.999% availability

NEW products

Bringing in solution specialisations is a better way for Symantec to align with end-customer demand P24

Fault tolerant servers from Stratus have redundant components and can ensure annual downtime is less than six minutes P30

Samsung Galaxy SII A hands-on feel on what takes this Smartphone ahead of the pack P50

focus

P e ri p h e r a l p r e ss u r e : p ri n t e rs, mo n i to rs, sto r ag e

ePrint

the go

Why wait when you can ePrint?

Now you can stay connected and productive while on the go – print directly to an HP ePrint-enabled printer, using a smartphone, notebook, or any other mobile device.

CONTENTS

ISSUE 177 // september 2011

COVER FOCUS 36 Peripheral pressure

Printer, display and storage vendors are facing a host of game changing pressures from multiple and varied areas.

Reseller Exclusive

“Only HP can bridge paper and digital processes” Exclusive interview with Amin Mortazavi, General Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middle East

32 Ali Nemati

40 Product transformations

Some of the current innovations across yesterday’s commodity peripheral products

IN FOCUS 22 Perfect storm

Google’s Motorola mobile takeover and HP’s PSG spin off are game changers and signs of the gathering storm

24 Partner revamp 44 Xerox Emirates:

Changing Colours Set up more than two decades ago as a copier reseller, the company’s latest transformation includes consulting based managed print services and business process outsourcing supported by a channel network

Bringing in solution specialisations is a better way for Symantec to align with end-customer demand

REGULARS

28 Transforming banking

30 99.999% availability

Fault tolerant servers from Stratus have redundant components and can ensure annual downtime is less than 6 minutes

REVIEW

05 Editorial

50 Samsung Galaxy SII

07 Speak out: Guy Whitcroft

09 Speak out: Ali Ahmar 11 Tie-ups 16 Announcements 54 Product news 57 Movements Andrew Hurt

Positioned in Gartner’s leader quadrant, Infosys’ product division, Finacle has reengineered its products to enable customer centric changes

58 Profile

Launched in June of this year, global unit volumes have already crossed the 5 million mark. A hands-on feel on what takes this Smartphone product ahead of the pack

52 Quickheal antivirus portfolio

In the market since 2002 the product has kept up with trends through its latest mobile cleanup, Android SMS block and parental control features september 2011

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P.O. Box: 32610, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971-4-3936247, Fax: +971-4-3936251, E-mail: info@trigon-gulf.ae www.trigononline.com Available At:

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

Game changer

Dave Reeder dave@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9106

Last month can be described as a game changer. Google took a decisive step to take charge of the smartphone and mobility space, albeit throwing a spanner into the works of its Android platform partners. Educated comments on the proposed acquisition of Motorola mobiles range from dubious to outright catastrophic. Time will tell — after all Google is a game changer, but only over time.

Senior Editor Arun Shankar arun@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9142 Advertising Sales Director Rajashree R Kumar raj@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9131

HP took an indecisive step to shake off the legacy of Carly Fiorina’s ten year old acquisition of Compaq which now sits partly bundled in its personal systems group. The announcement to spin off PSG wiped out two years of stock value, estimated at $15 billion and left an entire community of investors, customers and partners questioning the purpose of the announcement and pondering the way forward.

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

Arun Shankar Senior Editor arun@cpidubai.com

Designer Analou Balbero analou@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9104 Photographer Cris Mejorada cris@cpidubai.com +971 4 4409108

And then there was announcement of Steve Jobs' withdrawal from active service — we wish him well. Retirement of CEOs to the position of Chairman have usually exactly the same impact – retirement of active ideas and contribution to rest of the business, no matter what the board or they themselves say to the contrary. Unless like in the case of the Steve Balmer – Bill Gates squabbles, the Chairman still wants to be the CEO, which does not appear to be the case for Steve Jobs. His ideas in the pipeline will carry Apple forward a year, maybe two. And then you may have a void!

At Reseller Middle East we have kicked off our annual industry survey covering distributors, resellers, system integrators, training companies and super retailers. The top ten companies in each category get profiled in the October 2011 issue coinciding with Gitex. In case you have not received the entry form, please let us know and we will forward it to you.

Digital www.rwme.net DIGITAL SERVICES Digital Services Manager Tristan Troy P Maagma

As the last quarter of the year kicks in and business picks up after the Ramadan slowdown and Eid break, we plan to bring you more special issues and various handbook add-ons till the year-end.

Web Developers Jerus King Bation Erik Briones Jefferson de Joya Louie Alma

Do keep reading the magazine, online and in print and keep us updated on your comments and feedback.

online@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9100 Published by

1013 Centre Road, New Castle County, Wilmington, Delaware, USA PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

Branch Office PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE

WWW.RESELLERME.COM ISSUE 175 // SEPTEMBER 2011 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM

AMIN MORTAZAVI, GENERAL MANAGER, IMAGING AND PRINTING GROUP, HP MIDDLE EAST

Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 reseLLer eXCLUsIVe

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.

Can HP do it?

Bridging the paper and digital divide

InsIde XeroX

partNEr rEvamp Bringing in solution specialisations is a better way for Symantec to align with end-customer demand P24

focus

99.999% availability

NEW products

Fault tolerant servers from Stratus have redundant components and can ensure annual downtime is less than six minutes P30

Samsung Galaxy SII A hands-on feel on what takes this Smartphone ahead of the pack P50

If you’d like to receive your own copy of RME every month, log on and request a subscription: www.resellerme.com

P e ri P h e r a l P r e ss u r e : P ri n t e rs, mo n i to rs, sto r ag e

september 2011

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speak out Guy Whitcroft

Lightweight computing How a light-weight iPad can replace a notebook, making commuting and general meetings more productive

Sometime back during a discussion on LinkedIn, I posed a question whether an Apple iPad would give me meaningful productivity while I was on the road. I subsequently purchased one and am now an avid user of it finding it extremely useful. Subsequently, I am happy to share my experiences with others.

First some background information to put this in context. I moved from Dubai to England late last summer and am now living near Reading in the main infotech

area of the country. However, I travel to London two to three times most weeks, and have many meetings within a two hour driving radius.

Although I have an excellent notebook, three to four hours of battery life is not sufficient for a day’s work, which means taking along power supply, cables, all in a bag. All of this gets cumbersome and heavy.

The iPad sounded like an ideal device as the screen is big enough to work with and offers around ten hours of battery life

in a normal work environment. However, I was not clear how effectively it would coexist with my Windows, Office and Outlook environment on my PC as I wanted to be able to work along with my documents, email, while on the move – but without the weight and size of a notebook bag, or the hassle of finding recharging points.

If this sounds like you, read on...

Taking advice from several people, I decided to go for the WiFi version of the iPad rather than the 3G one for reasons specific to the UK. One of the mobile telecos offers a package which includes a 3G MiFi device that sits in a pocket. You can connect up to five devices to this through WiFi with 15GB of data a month for just $30-95.

It seemed silly to pay an extra £100 for 3G on the iPad that I would not need nor probably use. However, memory is important – you can never have too much of it in my view – so I opted for the full 64GB version.

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Speak out Guy Whitcroft

After a few Watching other experiments, the people with iPads, The iPad sounded like an applications I use I decided on a ideal device as the screen most: Dropbox, few must-have is big enough to work Documents To Go accessories – a with and offers around Premium, zipThat screen protector, a and - to access my capacitive stylus and ten hours of battery home office PC a leather case with life in a normal work Wyse PocketCloud built-in Bluetooth environment. However, Pro. keyboard. The ones I have also I chose after some I was not clear how found a great research were the effectively it would cobusiness modelling LuvMac iPad Leather exist with my Windows, solution – case with integrated Office and Outlook called Business Bluetooth keyboard, Model. I am still and the BoxWave environment on my PC experimenting capacitive iPad Stylus. with a few other The LuvMac case applications like Mindmapping and around with keyboard is great. It not only protects general notes and drawing, but haven’t yet the iPad but gives me a built-in keyboard settled on anything. I also have a Kindle for very little weight. It gives about 100 reader and use iBooks, too, for e-books. hours of use out of a charge, so I normally Of course, there are links to news services, only charge it once a week. Although the Twitter and other feeds.

Bluetooth link seems to drop every now Setting everything up for my homeand then - perhaps it goes into sleep mode office environment was extremely easy and a little too quickly - or maybe I just think the remote desktop links to my home office too slowly – it comes back again with a PC from within the house are very fast. few key presses. So it’s certainly not a Getting past my router at home and my anti problem and much more convenient and virus system was a little more challenging faster than the on-screen keyboard. but that’s also working well now and I can The stylus is completely trouble-free. It access my PC when on the road. would be nice if one had a smaller radius I do this infrequently due to the speed point for selection, but I think that’s an over a 3G link, coupled with the rather slow iPad design issue since it’s made for a upload speed on my home Internet service. finger rather than a pen.

To get around this I try to keep my files But the area that concerned me most synced through Dropbox and access them was the software environment. Fortunately that way, and I point the Docs2Go app at the iPad applications are fairly inexpensive, so Dropbox folder. Word and Excel files work if you make a mistake and get the wrong well with Docs2Go, although Powerpoint solution it’s not a huge problem.

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is less successful – unless your slides are simple and have no background pictures.

Email on the iPad is not great but it’s workable. I would prefer a more powerful mail client than the default Apple one, but haven’t yet found one. Any ideas are welcome! Similarly, the contacts part of the Apple email system is very basic, so I only use it for email and not as I would on my PC. Finally, the iPad has definitely paid for itself in just a couple of months. I use it on all my trips to London - the two hours on the train are now truly productive. I also find myself using it for meetings and events, and take notes with the keyboard instead of on paper, which means I immediately have them searchable and preserved so I can find them easily. I would be happy to hear from anyone about their own experiences.

ABOUT Guy Whitcroft leads a group of non executive directors helping SMEs take their business to the next level, and working with owners on their business strategy and risk. He has been working for the last thirty years in the infotech industry across all channels and has handled many markets from the MENAT region. A frequent guest speaker and mentor for workshops, Guy now resides in UK and can be contacted on gwhitcroft@gmail.com.

Speak out Ali Ahmar

Two sides of the cloud Dialogue between supplier and buyer of cloud services is the need of the day better efficiencies across the data centre A common problem for the channel is how environment. What the survey actually do you successfully communicate with reveals is that customers really want cloudcustomers about cloud. This was one of the enabled infrastructure that gives them a key challenges highlighted recently in the high degree of flexibility to expand and Cloud Industry Forum’s (CIF) research on adopt new applications as required. 53% Cloud Adoption. of organisations The forum’s questioned in the research revealed survey stated that majority of customers Understanding what flexibility was key are embracing cloud cloud means to a reason they wanted to services. A good customer and helping invest in the cloud. number are not While customers widely adopting the them make their are looking at email technology yet, but way through the services, backup, some are selecting minefield is key to web hosting and cloud-based solutions improving relationships. collaboration as key for non-critical, day operations they want to day operations.

Working through such to move to the cloud, So there is clearly a challenges together can it seems the channel is demand for cloud. only help strengthen the pushing back-up and However, recovery, storage and CIF’s research also bond between suppliers business intelligence. revealed that 38% of and customer So VARs and SIs organisations that have think they are talking or are planning cloud cloud, but often the customer is not even services don’t have an active dialogue on having the same conversation. cloud with their third party IT provider. 60% Cloud can deliver significant benefits of those organisations say it’s because their and flexibility. But without understanding supplier has not raised the subject of cloud customer needs the channel should be wary with them. Channel players questioned as of falling into the cloud trap, where everyone part of the survey were united in saying they is spouting hot air and the real opportunity are offering cloud services or supporting gets lost in the process. customers in building cloud solutions or On the plus side, a third of the CIF survey both. So what’s going on? Why is there respondents stated they always take third disconnect? party advice on new IT and upgrades.

Some VAR and systems integrators Working out the right platform is the best are targeting customers with cloud place to start. VARs need to confirm what opportunities and believe that demand is cloud model is best for their customers driven by a desire to cut costs and deliver

which means looking into business processes, legislative requirements, regulatory and security frameworks.

For some customers private cloud infrastructure or cloud computing may be best. For others cloud services or third party managed public cloud solutions such as software as a service or platform as a service may be more suitable. But it also depends what the customer wants in the cloud versus what they want to keep behind the firewall.

While the survey demonstrates that the opportunity around cloud services is significant, sidestepping confusion and getting to the heart of the matter will help the channel make cloud a significant proposition.

Understanding what cloud means to a customer and helping them make their way through the minefield is key to improving relationships. Working through such challenges together can only help strengthen the bond between suppliers and customers.

ABOUT Ali Ahmar is Brocade’s Regional Sales Manager across Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. Ahmar is based at Dubai and has overall sales and operations responsibility for the region. Prior to Brocade, he worked at MDS in Dubai, Al Jeraisy Group in Saudi Arabia and ACT in Lebanon. He has a degree in computer and communications engineering.

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ADVERTORIAL Despec

Inkling. The designer’s tool on the go.

Do you start your artwork with pen and paper? But at the same time regret that your work is stuck on paper until you have scanned the image? Then Inkling is an indispensable tool for you. This digital sketch pen allows you to sketch with a real ballpoint pen on any paper. While you are drawing, all strokes are recorded electronically which can then be imported as raster or vector artwork in to your preferred graphics applicationfor further editing. With just one button click you can record layers, for instance, to separate preparatory and final drawings. These layers are then retained after import.

Due to its compact size and being battery powered, Inkling is the perfect companion for every graphic artist who loves to sketch and draw beyond their regular workplace. Sometimes, the best ideas come to mind if you are not at your desk. Imagine sketching in a sketchbook or on paper while being at your client, on napkins in a restaurant because this is the only piece of paper around. You don’t need to have your computer with you: Inkling records all sketches in the memory of the receiver. Back at your computer, you can connect Inkling via USB and transfer all sketches as bitmap or vector files to your Inkling Sketch Manager software.

Look out for this product at Gitex 2011

Work analogously and digitally at the same time While you are drawing with Inkling on paper, the receiver records all strokes, essentially creating a digital copy of your sketch for later editing. Apart from enjoying the traditional way of sketching, you will save time since there is no need to scan or redraw the sketch later on.

Move it to a new layer You can create layers while you are sketching with the Inkling pen: Simply press the layer button on the Inkling receiver and all subsequent strokes will be recorded on a new layer. This way you can manage your sketches right from the onset, for instance, separate your preparatory drawing from the final one. This effectively saves paper since there is no need to trace your first draft.

Feel the force Inkling doesn’t only record the strokes itself, but also the pressure that has been applied. Experience a realistic looking digital copy of your original sketch with variable line weights as the natural pressure of your strokes is retained.

Draw and sketch straight on any paper You don’t need to learn something new, just switch on your Inkling, attach the receiver to the paper and start sketching – in a sketchbook, on napkins, loose sheets of paper, you name it. Inkling doesn’t require dedicated paper with special coating or pattern. You only need to attach the Inkling receiver to one edge and it will track the Inkling pen on any sheet up to A4 (21 x 29.7 cm, 8 x 11”) size.

Get it into your computer The Inkling Sketch Manager is the software used to transfer your digital sketches to your computer. The Sketch Manager lets you manage all your drawings, including merging or separating layers. It creates native bitmap or vector versions of your sketches for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator or Autodesk Sketchbook. With a simple click you can directly transfer your sketches into your preferred software. These imported versions retain the layers and line weights of your original sketches. Additionally, you can save all sketches in the native Inkling format or as single layer files in other popular image formats such as JPEG, PNG, PDF or SVG.

Capture your ideas wherever you are Both the Inkling pen and Inkling receiver are equipped with long-lasting, rechargeable batteries that can be recharged via USB while sitting in the storage case. This allows you to work with Inkling independently of any computer and makes it a really mobile companion. Draw and sketch at clients, in parks, cafés or while on public transport and enjoy complete creative freedom wherever you are.

Authorised Exclusive Distributor for Middle East & Africa • email: info@despec.ae

In a nutshell, Inkling enables you to start off your artwork the traditional way, while making the first step of your digital workflow simultaneously – wherever you are.

IN THE BEGINNING Tie-ups

Tripp Lite, Redington Gulf sign service contracts Tripp Lite, manufacturer of power protection equipment, has reinforced its strategic partnership with Redington Gulf. It has signed a comprehensive authorised reseller service centre and critical application partner service contracts that will cover 20 countries in both the Middle Eastern and African regions.

The move comes after the recent signing of a value-added distribution agreement between the two companies and is part of Tripp Lite’s continuing efforts to position itself across the rapidly developing IT markets of the Middle East and African regions.

Under the terms of the service centre contract, Redington Gulf will establish service centres where customers can bring in Tripp Lite products that are within or

out of warranty, for repairs and services.

Meanwhile, the critical application contract will allow Redington Gulf to offer services like installations, on-site warranty service calls and preventive maintenance services.

“The signing of these new service contracts brings a fitting start to our strategic partnership with Redington Gulf,” said Vipin Sharma, Vice President, Middle East, Africa and CIS Sales, Tripp Lite. “The opening of service centres in strategic locations across the Middle East and Africa as well as having the ability to call and ask for help in the event of a failure or emergency situation reassures our customers and instils a sense of confidence in the Tripp Lite brand.”

“Our partnership with Tripp Lite has taken a major step with the signing of these new

Levtech and IBT offer joint solutions

Levtech Consulting’s Director of Business Development, Anilesh Kumar and IBT’s Managing Director, Jai Mulani Microsoft Dynamics consulting partner Levtech Consulting and IT infrastructure provider IBT have signed a strategic agreement to jointly offer integrated technology solutions to corporations in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

With Levtech Consulting’s track record as a consultative partner of Microsoft Dynamics solutions and IBT’s expertise in

systems integration, the partnership will provide organisations with a single, reliable source to deploy business solutions.

Typically, organisations looking to deploy mission-critical business solutions such as ERP, CRM or BI solutions need to procure new infrastructure components or revamp their existing networks for efficient performance of their newly

Vipin Sharma, Vice President, Middle East, Africa and CIS Sales, Tripp Lite service contracts,” said Sethuraman S, Vice President Services, Redington Gulf.

Earlier this year, Tripp Lite signed a distribution partnership agreement with Redington Gulf to distribute Tripp Lite’s wide range of products including UPS systems, UPS batteries, PDUs, KVMs, cables, power inverters, racks and surge suppressors.

implemented solutions.

While companies have had to deal with independent teams or disparate companies to meet their solution needs, the joint initiative between Levtech Consulting and IBT aims to focus on the current and future solution needs of a customer from a business perspective.

Speaking on the initiative, Anilesh Kumar, Director Business Development, Levtech Consulting said: “Today, companies in the Middle East and elsewhere want to focus on their core business and are looking for reliable partners to undertake support functions efficiently. By tying up with IBT, we are bringing technology expertise from software and infrastructure backgrounds together.”

Jai Mulani, Managing Director, IBT added “IT Infrastructure plays a critical role in the growth and management of organisations, and we understand the criticality of performance when it comes to business solutions. While software solutions may offer rich features and functionality, it is critical to have the right infrastructure to ensure ease-of-use, reliability and user adoption.”

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IN THE BEGINNING Tie-ups

ADAM IT Solutions partners with Sage Software

(Left to right) Naveed Ul Haq, General Manager, ADAM IT Solutions with Reggie Fernandes, Director Gulf Operations, Sage Software Middle East Sage Software, application vendor for ERP, CRM and HRM solutions for medium and large organisations, has named ADAM IT Solutions as its newest partner for the UAE. Under the partnership agreement, ADAM IT Solutions will be handling solutions like Sage CRM and Accpac ERP and will particularly target SMEs and enterprises across industry segments. The new alliance also includes a role in software development.

ADAM IT Solutions is looking to leverage Sage’s portfolio of ERP and CRM solutions across key markets in the UAE. Both parties are expected to gain advantageously over the newly signed partnership, with ADAM IT Solutions becoming more technically competent with its alignment to a global IT brand while Sage is expected to increase its

client base and improve ROI. “Our partnership with Sage reflects our continued confidence and trust towards its line of strategic CRM and Accpac ERP solutions,” said M Naveed Ul Haq, General Manager, ADAM IT Solutions.

“Our alliance with ADAM IT Solutions complements the importance we have placed on our partners and the role they play in meeting customer demands and requirements,” concluded Reggie Fernandes, Director Gulf Operations, Sage Software Middle East.

Sage’s integrated suite of ERP and CRM solutions have been developed to help SME’s in the Middle East. Sage has a customer base of 6.3 million users from around the world and has identified the Middle East as one of its key markets.

AOC signs up CCT for Lebanon Art of Colors (AOC), a monitor vendor, has expanded its geographical spread in Middle East region by appointing distribution company CCT as its authorised distributor for Lebanon.

Joseph Mhanna, CEO, CCT SARL, said, “We are excited about our partnership with AOC and the opportunity to deliver to our customers displays from the world’s largest manufacturer. Signing in AOC is yet another way we are providing our customers with a distinct competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

Suchit Kumar, DGM, Sales MEA & CIS Central Asia, AOC said, “CCT has a solid history of amazing customer service and a proven sales team. Their ability and experience to meet any challenges in the fast tracked IT market, makes CCT the perfect choice as our Lebanon distributor. With CCT, AOC will bring a new level of support, commitment, and growth in Lebanon.”

Apart from AOC, CCT distributes brands Intel, Toshiba, HP, Seagate, WD, Samsung, Mercury, MSI, AGFA, Iomega, Kingston, to its 500 active channel partners in Lebanon.

CCT has been part of the technology distribution landscape since it was established in the year 1996 and has grown into a 65 employee strong organisation. In a recent report, BMI forecasted the size of the Lebanese IT market in 2011 to be US$ 321 million, up from nearly US$ 287 million in 2010.

HP Serviceone, new partner model around services

Ryan D’Souza, Technology Services Director, HP Middle East

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HP Serviceone is a new specialisation within HP’s Preferred Partner programme that enables partners to significantly expand their technology services portfolio or offer cobranded services with HP. In addition, partners can take advantage of HP’s redesigned rewards scheme as well as life-cycle support metrics to further increase revenue opportunities.

“Partners want to boost their bottom line by delivering innovative services that address every customer need, whether it’s data centre design or everyday support,” said Ryan D’Souza,

Technology Services Director, HP Middle East.

The HP Serviceone programme enables partners to: • Sell through of HP Care Pack Services • Get higher-margins on HP-branded services • Work closely on joint sales • Attach support services to infrastructure solutions HP has streamlined the services programme to simplify contracts and reward metrics for partners. There are two categories: Serviceone Specialist and Serviceone Expert.

www.eset.com/me www.eset.com/me Dubai:+9714 Dubai:+9714 3754052 3754052

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IN THE BEGINNING Tie-ups

Iomega signs up Jumbo Electronics as distributor

Deepak Khetrapal, CEO Jumbo Electronics Iomega, an EMC company and vendor of digital storage, has signed up with Jumbo Electronics, IT Distribution division for distribution in UAE, Oman and Bahrain.

“We are focusing on the SMB channel.

This comes as part of a wider plan along with Iomega investment in the ME region to be in ground to support the SMB market. Jumbo IT Distribution has been chosen because of its strength and reach to different channel segments, whether it is system integrators, resellers or corporate resellers,” explained Cizar Abughazaleh, Regional Director for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey at Iomega.

Deepak Khetrapal, CEO Jumbo Electronics, said that Jumbo’s initiatives towards being a broad based distributor and drive to grow value business in GCC markets has been instrumental in the tie-up with Iomega.

“Our partnership with IomegaB2B is another step to fuel our strategic approach of having world class brands in our portfolio

Cizar Abughazaleh, Regional Director Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Iomega and offer the best class products to our growing partner community,” added Arshad Chishty, Business Head IT Distribution, Jumbo Electronics Jumbo IT distribution division represents a number of high-profile brands such as HP, LG and Acer across the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar region.

Alhosn University signs agreement with Tamkeen

Abu Dhabi-based Alhosn University announced that its training and continuing education centre has signed a consultancy and training agreement with Tamkeen Consulting and Training.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two parties will collaborate and

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exchange expertise in managerial and occupational areas.

The agreement covers the sharing and enhancing of training courseware, training experience and provision of training and consultancy services. Dr Hassan Al Samarrai, Alhosn University Director of Training and

Continuing Education Centre, and Ms Sanaa Saad, Operations Manager of Tamkeen, signed the agreement in the presence of HE Ahmed Al Falahi, Secretary General of Tamkeen, HE Mohammed Al Anzi, Managing Director of Tamkeen and staff members from both institutions.

Alhosn University seeks to extend its reach across new sectors some of which are currently being served by Tamkeen. Tamkeen will have access to Alhosn’s exclusive resources such as its team of PhD holders.

“The partnership with Tamkeen Consulting and Training provides new opportunities to further enhance our ability to cater to a much wider range of training and academic needs of learners,” said Dr Al Samarrai.

HE Mohamed Al Anzi, Managing Director, Tamkeen Consulting and Training, said: “We are delighted to sign an agreement with Alhosn University, which is emerging as one of the most prestigious universities in Abu Dhabi.”

Alhosn University is owned and supported by the Abu Dhabi Holding Company and is fully accredited by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

IN THE BEGINNING Announcements

Huawei professional services summit in Turkey Huawei, global ICT solutions provider, held its third annual professional services summit in Istanbul, Turkey, for three regions of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Caucasia.

The summit gathered more than 105 executives representing 36 telco service providers who exchanged views on the latest technological developments and services solutions in areas covering quality of experience of end-user subscribers and service quality management.

In a word of welcome, Dong Gang, Huawei Global Technical Service Vice President, said: “It is an honour and a privilege to have our partners and customers gathered from so many countries and to listen to them. We strive to always understand their requirements and deliver the most innovative services solutions so they can meet their subscribers’ expectations in terms of quality of service and overall communication experience.”

In addition to the summit’s five topics, an eight-member panel of telco executives and Huawei experts conversed and shared experiences on the event’s topics of QoE and SQM, which reflect the summit’s theme of “Inspiring QoE Transformation”. There was a consensus among the executives that market and technology evolution are driving that transformation.

End-user subscribers are demanding better networks, a higher level of user experience — whenever and wherever they are — to support the exploding trend of broadband driven services. The challenge to service providers concern two aspects: new revenue sources besides traditional service, and the demand for revenue assurance while taking into consideration the solutions and methodologies for customer experience management.

As an annual event, the professional services summit comes in line with Huawei’s continuous efforts to engage and collaborate with partners to enable their transformation with the latest innovative solutions worldwide.

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Sage releases Peachtree suite Sage Software has announced the launch of Sage Peachtree 2012, an integrated suite of industry specific products that brings affordable business intelligence to SMEs. The new suite of solutions offers quick access to essential data, allowing users to monitor profitability and make better informed decisions.

Sage Peachtree 2012 has industry specific versions that cater to manufacturers, distributors, non-profit organisations, accountants, and construction businesses.

The new Sage offering goes beyond accounting and provides an array of business management tools, which gives access to key information and makes processes easier.

The new Peachtree version gives organisations the ability to copy transactions, increase efficiency, and get more work done faster. Also new is the Sage Peachtree Business Intelligence, a reporting and analysis add-on solution.

"Our latest offering is excellent for managing cash flow and provides a solid insight into a company’s overall health,” said Mushahid Saify, Channel Manager Small Business, Sage Software. “Many businesses in the UAE are trying to adopt a do-more with less-concept in how they

Mushahid Saify, Channel Manager Small Business, Sage Software run their operations. In fact, companies are now working with fewer employees but are ably assisted with strategic and reliable business software to improve productivity and efficiency.”

“We are on track to meeting our target growth this year and the release of Sage Peachtree 2012 could not have come at a more strategic time.”

Sage Group PLC is a global company with 13,500 employees which targets small and medium sized businesses.

30% of companies feel cyber-targeted Another finding has emerged from the Global IT Security Risks survey conducted

by Kaspersky Lab in partnership with global research agency B2B International.

9% of companies admit to at least one IT security issue involving a targeted attack.

But perhaps the most alarming result of the survey is the fact that almost a third of businesses feel that they are being targeted by cyber-criminals.

“9% of companies falling victim to targeted attacks may seem to be a low proportion, but actually – relatively – it’s alarmingly high,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder, Kaspersky Lab. “It takes time to organise targeted attacks. Cyber-

criminals have to tailor them specifically for particular targets. The only reason the percentage is not higher is that most of these attacks are designed to stay discrete - so companies never even notice them.”

Other than the above, the most common threat for businesses is malware infection, which has been experienced by 61% of the businesses surveyed during a period of recent 12 months. The top-five types of cyber-attacks aimed at corporations also include spam, phishing, network intrusion and denial of service.

More than 1,300 IT professionals in 11 countries participated in the global survey.

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IN THE BEGINNING Announcements

ComGuard partner AirTight gets strong positive ComGuard, a value added distributor for IT security solutions in the Middle East region announced that Gartner has rated AirTight as strong positive in its 2011 Marketscope Report for Wireless LAN Intrusion Prevention Systems. A strong positive is the highest possible rating in a Gartner Marketscope.

Jayadevan K, Senior Vice President, Value Business at ComGuard, said, “We, at ComGuard, are committed to bringing the best of breed technologies to the region and AirTight Wireless Intrusion Prevention Systems is one such solution which is of immense value to enterprises.”

The MarketScope report notes that, payment card industry requirements as well as a rush of consumer devices into the workplace put a premium on new detection capabilities and increased levels of integration with network infrastructure. Wi-Fi support is a standard extension of corporate networks, and enterprises must ensure that

vulnerability management and intrusion prevention processes need to be extended to cover wireless and wired networks.

“AirTight’s continued explosive growth, even during the recent two years of economic downturn, underscores the marketplace recognition of the need for robust wireless threat protection and its trust in AirTight’s solutions,” said David King, Chairman and CEO of AirTight.

The Gartner report also concludes that, just like wired networks, wireless networks need to be monitored to both proactively detect vulnerabilities to accelerate mitigation and to quickly detect security incidents to support rapid incident response. Also, while the basic WiFi technology is mature, what Gartner calls the consumerisation of IT is driving demand for increased use of employee owned devices with wireless access, such as iPhones and iPads.

ComGuard FZ, was established in 2002 at Dubai Internet City in the United Arab

BenQ hosts UAE projector partner meeting for the Middle East and Africa, said , “We want to recognise our local partners whose efforts in promoting the brand have enabled us to rank as number two projector brand in the MEA region and number three projector brand in the UAE in Q1 2011. Our aim is to be the number one projector brand in the region through building on our past success and with the continued development of innovative and cost-effective projector technology.”

Manish Bakshi, General Manager BenQ, Middle East and Africa BenQ, a digital lifestyle vendor, hosted a meeting for its UAE projector partners in Dubai in collaboration with its authorised distributor Abcom Solutions. Over 170 partners from the UAE attended the event and awards were given to selected partners for achieving exceptional sales growth.

Manish Bakshi, General Manager of BenQ

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september 2011

The awards included: • Award of excellence, Al Ain region: Jobeil IT Solutions • Award of excellence, Fujairah region: Al Mutammid Office Equipments • Award of excellence, Ras Al Khaimah region: Al Mansoor Computers • Award of excellence, Sharjah region: Al Rayan Office Equipments • Award of excellence, Abu Dhabi region:

Jayadevan K, Senior Vice President, Value Business, ComGuard Emirates. The company was taken over by Spectrum FZ in 2007 and is distributor in Middle East and Levant Region. AirTight Networks is a global vendor in wireless security and compliance solutions.

AirTight’s patented technology protects enterprises from the growing problem of Wi-Fi security threats, while allowing organisations to better manage their WLAN environment.

Costless Electronics • Award of excellence, Dubai region: Right Time Trading • Most promising information technology reseller: Essen Trading • Most promising consumer electronics reseller: Jacky’s Electronics • Most promising corporate reseller: Digitise Technology Middle East • Most promising integrators: Hicom Computers • Most promising partner: E-max • Power retailer of the year: Sharaf DG. According to data from market research agency Future Source, sales of BenQ projectors in MEA region jumped by nearly 60% YOY in the first quarter of 2011. The report also cites BenQ as the number one projector brand in Saudi Arabia with a 21% market share and number three in UAE almost doubling its market share from 9% in Q1 2010 to 16% in Q1 2011.

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IN THE BEGINNING Announcements

Harman surges 45% in Bahrain consumer market

Amit Malani, President, Harman Middle East Harman Middle East, home, professional and car infotainment vendor in the Middle East, has announced plans to consolidate its market presence in Bahrain, which recorded rapid growth in its audio and video segment. The company earned $229 million in revenues for fiscal year 2010-2011, reflecting a 45 per cent increase in revenues from the previous fiscal year. Bahrain’s consumer electronics segment including computing devices, mobile handsets and AV devices, has been forecasted to reach $452 million in 2011 and will increase to $565 million by 2015.

Bahrain’s consumer electronics market is driven by an increased demand for feature-rich digital lifestyle products like flat screen TV sets, home theatre sound systems, iPod and iPad docking stations and other key products.

“Amidst the impact left behind by the recent economic downturn, Bahrain has managed to transform itself as one of the most strategic markets for AV devices. The growth is due to a new consumer shift towards purchasing products that add more value to their money,” said Amit Malani, President, Harman Middle East.

“Strong factors that are driving this growth are product innovations, lowered prices and greater vendor and channel sales flexibility.

Bahraini consumers are looking for products that offer high-end features and performance at more affordable prices.”

The company has named its retail, distribution and projects divisions as the three key business lines that will help meet the revenue target. Harman brands are included in premium cars like BMW, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Mercedes Benz, Lexus and Mini Cooper.

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Reseller Middle East

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MEA double digit growth for Sandisk SanDisk, a global vendor in flash memory cards, has reported double-and tripledigit market growth in the Middle East and Africa so far this year, driven by the region’s high mobile phone penetration rates and requirement for flash-based storage devices “Based on global market research, our most popular product segments are flash memories for smart-phones, tablets and solid-state drives for PCs,” said Tareq Husseini, SanDisk’s Regional Sales Director, Middle East and Africa.

In South Africa and East Africa, firstquarter sales for 2011 have exceeded the entire year’s sales for 2010, with South

Africa, Kenya and Nigeria leading the region.

The UAE, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other countries in the GCC have shown double and triple-digit year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2011.

SanDisk has entered into strategic partnerships with major distributors in the region like Ahmed AbdulWahed Trading and Jarir Bookstore in Saudi Arabia, National Stores and Redington Gulf in the UAE, Salam Studios in Qatar and International Agencies in Bahrain. In South Africa and East Africa, SanDisk’s retail presence is bolstered by alliances with distributors MiDCOM and Tudortech.

Optimus holds Avaya UC training workshop Optimus Academy held its first Avaya Aura Unified Communications training for its channel partners in Dubai. This training programme, an initiative of Optimus Academy and Global Knowledge, is in line with the Avaya Certified Implementation Specialist certification and will enable partners to deploy and configure IP telephony solutions.

Speaking on the programme, Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecommunications said, “We launched Optimus Academy earlier this year to support regular product training, certification workshops, seminars and sales workshops for our channel partners. We decided to take things a notch higher by signing up the best IT skills training company, Global Knowledge to do our first Avaya Aura UC implementation training for our channel.”

Over the last year, Optimus has enabled channel development programmes and initiatives, which resulted in stronger sales and market share for its vendor partners. Earlier this year, the distributor rolled out its channel capacity building initiative, Optimus Academy, to continue these initiatives and to align with the vendor channel training and

Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecommunications education requirements. The Avaya Aura Unified Communications implementation training programme is another initiative from Optimus Academy to enable channel partners and ensure vendor’s channel programme compliance.

Participants who completed this training are eligible to participate in the next level of the programme in September 2011, and can appear for the Avaya Certified Implementation Specialist certification exams.

IN FOCUS Google, HP

The perfect storm Google’s Motorola mobile takeover and HP’s PSG spin off are game changers and signs of the gathering storm Nowadays a Microsoft employee carries a Window 7 phone. A second glance at the device itself and you may see the Samsung brand on the body. The device is neither a Galaxy SI nor a Galaxy SII. Cross check with Samsung and they will tell you, yes there were plans for launching a Windows phone, and yes a special device was fabricated for Microsoft, and no the launch plans are now abandoned. The current word is Windows 7 will be launched on a Nokia smartphone.

So if Samsung, one of Google’s staunchest mobile phone platform vendors, can ride the wind with Microsoft on the other side, Google’s takeover of Motorola Mobility in the month of August 2011 should in reality not be an eyebrow raiser.

Says a global leading technology vendor focussed on core banking and mobile banking applications and supporting over 7,500 mobile devices: “Things are changing so dynamically in the mobile space it is a little scary to tie yourself down to one thing.”

In fact from whichever point of view you approach the mobile application space, whether enterprise or consumer, the combination of demand, benefits, technology life cycle and aspiration have coalesced to form what IDC now calls the “perfect storm”.

Says Tim Dillon, IDC’s Associate vice president for Asia Pacific mobility research:

“Organizations that continue to take enterprise mobility for granted will be swept aside in the new environment. Today, we’re seeing what we could call a perfect storm created by the evolution of different areas of technology combining to fundamentally and drastically change how organisations can use enterprise mobility to support business goals and strategies. New access networks, new devices, new mobile operating systems, applications, platforms and delivery models have come together to create true and all-embracing enterprise mobility.”

According to IDC, mobility issues are the number one IT issue that preoccupy IT professionals in the Asia Pacific, also the centre for the explosive growth of smartphones. Both Apple and Samsung with Android OS now dominate global mobile phone sales with their triple digit growth figures centred around smartphones.

On the second game changer, HP’s spinoff of its personal systems group including desktops, notebooks, workstations and handhelds may not have a direct connection with IDC’s perfect storm, but it does represent the onrushing shakeout across commodity product segments and vendors with a diffuse focus.

However with the PSG announcement, “WebOS, one of the PSG handheld components has been eliminated from any opportunities” according to Fouad Rafiq

Today, we are seeing what we could call a perfect storm created by the evolution of different areas of technology combining to fundamentally and drastically change how organisations can use enterprise mobility to support business goals and strategies

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Serious damage to HP PSG’s future profitability if it does not spin off says IDC MEA’s Fouad Rafiq Charakla.

Charakla, Senior Research Analyst at IDC MEA. In all probability this was because of the high entry barriers raised by Google and Apple in the mobility space.

The announcement has also created uncertainty among HP’s PSG customers.

Enterprise customers who demand stability, guarantees and a clear roadmap of the vendor they choose will now be more cautious in choosing HP, according to IDC. PSG’s $40.7 billion annual revenue with 7% net earnings is a respectable business for potential buyers like Lenovo and Samsung.

However in the event that HP does not sell off this division, “they might have seriously damaged its future profitability by this announcement,” states IDC’s Charakla.

While the Compaq takeover at the turn of the century was orchestrated by Carly Fiorina and her draconian initiatives were probably the most disliked at the company ever, her vision of HP being the biggest in its business still commands the channels unswerving loyalty.

Volume resellers may cut selling margins but swear positively on the volume rebates they earn when they sell through stocks pushed relentlessly into them by distributors. But all that maybe changing it seems triggered by the PSG announcement.

Insider talk at HP indicates that volume resellers of the printing business are next in line for a shakeup. IPG managers want them to move towards more print pack services and after sales customer engagement service – something which competitor Xerox has been doing for years now. Is HP slipping to a follower position from a leader vantage it has been used to dominating? Can it withstand the perfect storm?

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IN FOCUS Symantec

Partner revamp

Deepening relationships with end customers and partners, Paul Lyden, Director EMEA partner programmes

Bringing in solution specialisations is a better way to align with end customer demand kick off from November 2010 and partners would have another twelve months to make the transition to the new programme. From the customer point of view the change was overdue.

Similar to most vendor channel programmes, partner

user’s open invitation to walk in unless the benefits of working with them are also equally transparent.

Symantec’s announcement of eight technology solution choices and one market specialisation for its channel partners to qualify from is a step in the direction of improving end customer relationship. By end 2011 partners would have aligned themselves with any or multiple of the nine solution and market specialisations helping end customers map themselves to the most suitable partner. Since customers are looking for solutions rather than technology, a partner specialised in a particular solution will be better mapped to a prospective end customer.

Being sensitive to the change management issue involved in the process, Symantec has not made the transition for its partners an uphill one. Specialisation adoption is meant to be an evolutionary process rather than one based on a defined cut-off point.

Previous partner accreditations will be valid into the new programme and training costs have been further reduced or waived altogether for the partner depending on the chosen mode of vendor training. To improve the playing field for its partners in the market Symantec will withdraw its team of consultants and wants the partners to fill the gap into 2012.

“We announced way back in April 2010, we were transitioning the vast majority of our consulting away from being Symantec delivered to being partner delivered,” explains Paul Lyden, Director EMEA partner programmes. “We are working very closely with them to make sure they understand where they are.”

Symantec’s structure of specialisations

Master specialisation is a deeper level of skill and knowledge for a specialist partner to have In April 2010, Symantec announced to its partner community that technology and solution specialisations were going to become the backbone of its future partner programme. The new programme would

levels are not necessarily mapped for the benefit of the end customer. A Symantec partner armed with a staff of technology accreditations and with a title of platinum, gold or silver doesn’t necessarily have an end

Symantec partner distributors

Partner

Programme

Country

Aptec Egypt

Distributor partner

Egypt

Al Falak Electronic Equipment and Supplies

Distributor partner

Saudi Arabia

Aptec Saudi Arabia

Distributor partner

Saudi Arabia

Mindware

Distributor partner

UAE

Tech Access

Distributor partner

UAE

Computerlinks

Distributor partner

UAE

Aptec Distribution

Distributor partner

UAE

ITE Distribution

Distributor partner

UAE

Sahara Newca

Distributor partner

UAE

Source: Company website

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Reseller Middle East

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Symantec partner criteria and benefits Requirements for channel partners Completion of partner programme application and acceptance • Minimum solution specialisation requirements: Two specialisations for Platinum, One for Gold and Silver • Participation in joint marketing activities to promote Symantec relationship • Achievement of opportunity closure revenue targets: $0.2-0.3million for Platinum and $0.1 million for Gold and Silver • Annual rolling business plan in conjunction with Symantec partner account manager • Monthly sales pipeline and forecasting report Requirements for Master Specialisation partners • Member of Symantec partner programme • Compliance with solution specialisation • Demonstrated proof of practice in the specialisation area • Effective consulting services practice across engagement lifecycle: sales, scope, statement of work, delivery • Team members certified as Authorised Symantec Consultants • Members certified in the specialised area • Submit business plan and capabilities assessment • Receive endorsement from Symantec channel manager and agree to terms and conditions

allows partners to showcase their expertise in a customer facing manner. Partners qualify as competent in a specialisation when they have a track record of solution delivery, have minimum number of certified consultants and certified technology staff on board and build a business plan that is aligned with Symantec’s own go-to-market strategy.

Says Lyden: “Master specialisation is a deeper level of skill and knowledge for a specialist partner to have. It’s about giving our customer confidence that there is a partner who is as skilled as Symantec in delivering Symantec technology.” Symantec expects its

Channel programme with specialisations GLOBAL PARTNER PROGRAMME ECOSYSTEM

Technology and OEM partners

Global strategic and alliance partners

PARTNER LEVELS Registered, Silver, Gold Platinum Category specialisations (Security): lEnterprise security lEndpoint management, lData loss prevention lIT compliance Category specialisations (Storage): lData protection, lArchiving, e-discovery lStorage management, lHigh availability Category specialisations (Market): lSmall and medium business

SOURCE: PARTNER PROGRAMME GUIDE, NOV 2010

Benefits of Master Specialisation • Differentiated listing for Symantec presales support or post sales consulting • Priority listing of Master Specialist on partner locator • Design and implementation assistance from Symantec Consultants • Access to partner assist advisory guides

current breed of partners to transition away from a licensing based business model to one built around solution specialisation.

Symantec’s new engagement with its partners is therefore two-fold. By encouraging them to move towards solution specialisation it believes partners can become more aligned with end customer expectations and therefore move up the value chain. If partners are better aligned with the end customer, it also means Symantec’s solutions will sell more easily and therefore become firmly embedded within a partner’s portfolio usually consisting of alternative vendor solutions.

• Access to Symantec consulting services tools • Advanced technical support beyond partner level entitlement • Participation in opportunity registration program • Contribution to advancement through partner programme levels • Logo to communicate expertise and other marketing support

“It is about helping our partners articulating their value rather than us necessarily doing it for them,” clarifies Lyden.

A partner’s success in the market is dependent on their ability to sell their value and create their brand. The challenge for Symantec is to grow their business within the business model of the partner rather than change the partner’s business model.

“How can we build more of Symantec into more of their conversations with more of their customers,” is how Lyden deliberates the matter.

The number of partners that Symantec

september 2011

Reseller Middle East

25

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IN FOCUS Symantec

Regional Symantec partners and accreditations

Partner

Programme

Accreditations

Country

Intercom Enterprises

Platinum partner

66

Egypt

Condo Protego

Platinum partner

45

UAE

Future Technology Systems Company

Platinum partner

40

Kuwait

Pro Technology

Platinum partner

31

UAE

Emitac

Gold partner

29

UAE

STME

Platinum, Gold partner

25

UAE, Egypt

ISIT AE

Gold partner

24

UAE

RayaIT

Gold partner

24

Egypt

Arabesque Group

Platinum partner

23

Kuwait

Online Modern Solutions

Platinum partner

18

Egypt

Burhantec

Silver partner

18

Kuwait

Diyar United Company

Gold partner

17

Kuwait

International Turnkey Systems

Platinum partner

14

Kuwait

Egypt Soft Commerce

Silver partner

12

Egypt

Cyquent

Gold partner

11

UAE

MDS Dubai

Platinum partner

10

UAE

help AG

Gold partner

10

UAE

Alpha Data

Gold partner

8

UAE

Emirates Computers

Gold partner

8

UAE

Mideast Data Systems

Gold partner

8

UAE

Source: Company website

develops along the specialisation route is also important. If they are too many, competition will drive down the prices and erode the margins. If there are too few, Symantec may lose out on market opportunity. The vendor is currently placing bigger bets on fewer partners with better return on investment expected all around.

What are the benefits for partners that go down the master specialisation route? These include priority listing on partner locators, opportunity registration, priority access to Symantec consultants, lead generation, competitive information, licensing renewal alerts, subsidised training, volume rebates and others.

Late 2011 and into 2012, Symantec will initiate its value added distributor programme.

Since the vendor is committed to a two-tier channel structure, distributors will need to support the volume based reseller

If partners are better aligned with the end customer, it also means Symantec’s solutions will sell more easily and therefore become firmly embedded within a partner’s portfolio usually consisting of alternative vendor solutions partners while VARs transition into solution specialisation and master specialisation as their go-to-market value differentiation. The software licensing model is a reselling one which generates partner margins at the point

of sale and this will be supported by the VADs. Symantec has also created a small and medium limited business offering and with a lower price point. Customers in this market segment have a choice of a richer but more expensive solution version or one which is more economical but with limited versatility.

In 2012, Symantec also plans to roll out its dot-cloud platform and solution for its specialist partners. Licenses and delivery platforms will be provided to them at no initial cost and partners pay after end customer activation and deployment. For partners wanting to generate a higher return on investment from their relationship with Symantec, the new solution specialisation programme is an initiative taking both partners in the same direction. Reflects Lyden on this aspiration: “We want to get deeper into the value proposition that our partners take to the customer.”

september 2011

Reseller Middle East

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IN FOCUS Finacle

Transforming banking Finacle’s Sanat Rao has built product components into the portfolio allowing customers to pick and choose rather than necessarily starting with a core banking transformation process.

Ten years ago, global software and outsourcing company Infosys, created its banking software products division called Finacle. With 36% of its current annual revenue of six billion dollars coming out of financial services, the company has considerable penetration into key global financial accounts and has leveraged from these relationships. The fine line between products and services in this market segment implies there is a convergence of relationships and either side can facilitate the entry of the other.

However while open space for financial services is much wider, Finacle is more focussed around retail core banking and its associated components. Over a period of

Regional partner network • Maskati Commercial Services, Bahrain • Wareef United, Saudi Arabia • Bawan Cybertek, Oman • Egabi Solutions, Egypt

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Positioned in Gartner’s leader quadrant, Infosys’ product division has reengineered its products to enable customer centric changes

As per Gartner, lack of certified partner networks may prompt banks in the future, to increase their due diligence of vendors at the time of final assessment ten years, Finacle’s products have become increasingly dominant on the global scene and today Finacle appears in Gartner’s leader quadrant of international retail core banking vendors. Other players in the same quadrant include TCS, Oracle, SAP, Misys, Polaris Software and others.

“At the start of the century our effort was to knock on the doors and get a request for proposal. Today I believe we have crossed that stage,” reflects Sanat Rao, Finacle’s Global head of business development and alliances based out of London. “The Finacle brand is so well known that when a bank puts out a request for proposal it comes to us automatically. This was not the case five to seven years ago.”

Finacle previously used a network of regional sales partners to get the first step into the doors of potential customers. Today the sales partners have become elevated to more of an implementation and support role rather than sales. The primary customer support centre is based out of Sharjah, UAE and the regional installed customer base covers Oman, Turkey, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Across the last ten years the complete dynamics of retail banking has changed.

Banks can no longer wait for customers to arrive at their door step and complete their transactions in the traditional manner.

Internet and mobile banking are a key delivery component for high value customer transactions and this enablement is usually built around the core banking application that sits at the centre of any bank’s business model.

Migrating towards a more modern and versatile core banking application offered by vendors from Gartner’s leader quadrant is a high cost and high risk operation. But today, Gartner adds the benefit of high reward to this migration process, since it kick-starts a bank’s ability to move away from traditional retail banking channels to more dynamic ones.

Change of the back end is seen as the

starting point for a variety of other changes.

“Bringing in other solutions to support new banking channels leading to convergence at the front end becomes a lot easier,” says Rao. And also helps satisfy a business owner’s continuous quest: “How can I leverage all the information that I have access to?”

While today’s core banking applications may be more versatile, another part of the success resides in the ownership of such business transformation projects.

According to Rao, there is much deeper top management involvement in today’s transformation projects than five years before.

“Other than IT, CEOs themselves sit on the steering project committees.” While the CIO may be responsible for the execution, the owner of such projects is usually the owner of the bank’s internal business.

On a broad canvas, the difference between two business transformation projects in the area of retail banking would be the degree of business involvement driving the change in either. “In some banks you see much stronger involvement of business, while in other banks the involvement may not be as strong.”

For Finacle which started off in the core banking area ten years ago, its primary revenue still remains its core banking product. However to align itself with the needs of the market it also offers Internet and mobile banking as standalone components for banks that do not want to go down the core banking transformation route. “Core banking is a mission critical application. It is a big decision for the bank.”

And not all banks may want to migrate away from their core banking applications

as a precondition to kick-off a business transformation initiative.

So while five years ago, almost every Finacle project involved the core banking application, which would lead to product roll outs in other areas, today there are an increasing number of component only projects. “If you got core banking you got the other solutions,” was the older game plan according to Rao. Today Finacle has customers in the Middle East, South Africa, UK and the US who have implemented mobile banking as standalone on top of their core banking applications.

“We are putting a lot of emphasis on selling mobile banking independently. Of course we will try to cross sell it along with core banking, but we are not constrained by it,” says Rao. Componentisation of the core banking application or back office is also one of the qualifying conditions for a vendor to be present in Gartner’s leader quadrant. All vendors in this quadrant have such a strategy and a road map to make them available.

New generation technology providers like us, pretty much address the entire footprint. Every bank may not take all of it but the technology is available today, which was not the case in the past,” summarises Rao. The closer involvement of IT and business in banks has lead to better appreciation of change on systems, interoperability of multiple systems and the need for coexistence. This contrasts with the older approach of developing and implementing applications in isolation leading to a number of independent solutions and a complex operating environment.

Complementary solution partners • Comviva: Alerts • Surya: Asset liability management • Newgen: Document management • Suntec: Dynamic and relationship pricing

• RSA: Fraud detection • FRS Global: Regulatory reporting and compliance • Jasper Soft: Reporting infrastructure • Accel Frontline: Reporting infrastructure

Customer portfolio • Al Hilal Bank, UAE • Emirates NBD, UAE • National Bank of Ummal-Qaiwain, UAE • Rakbank, UAE • Arab National Bank, Saudi Arabia • National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia • Bank Dhofar, Oman • Bank Sohar, Oman • Turkland Bank, Turkey • Bank of Alexandria, Egypt (Partial list)

While Finacle maintains an end to end product portfolio for its retail banking customers, it also leverages on supporting solutions from other vendors. “There will be areas where we will not have a solution and where we may consciously not have a solution. But we would have picked partners from the market who have a product offering which complements what we have to offer.” These are the complementary solution partners.

Are there any challenges for the product vendor in the days ahead? Its mobile banking product is device agnostic and supports 7,500 devices today. The sheer pace of technology changes in this area may keep the vendor a step behind.

The other area is lack of partner network development, which may curtail the ability of the vendor to scale and deploy its solutions at multiple customer sites at the same time.

Unlike other mission critical global product vendors like SAP and Oracle, Finacle is yet to incorporate the need for such partners in its business model. As per Gartner, lack of certified partner networks may prompt banks in the future, to increase their due diligence of vendors at the time of final assessment.

september 2011

Reseller Middle East

29

IN FOCUS Stratus Technologies

Stratus fault tolerant servers support end customers who need their applications to be continuously available, according to Maged Shaker, Partner Manager, Middle East

99.999% availability Fault tolerant servers from Stratus have redundant components and can ensure annual downtime is less than six minutes Stratus Technologies opened its regional office in Dubai, UAE in the month of July 2011. Exclusively focussed on the high end mission critical enterprise infrastructure for the last thirty years, the vendor is known for its fault tolerant server systems. Over the last few years the vendor has seen its regional sales surging ahead and in order to support its partners better it decided to set up an office in Dubai.

For Stratus the partner is the first point of contact for any customer in the region. The selection of a partner is based on whether they are able to deliver the same level of support assurance to the end-customer that Stratus gives to its partners. Says Maged Shaker,

30

Reseller Middle East

september 2011

Partner Manager, Stratus Technologies, “We select our partners based on how they will be able to support their customers achieving the same level of responsibility we put on ourselves for our customers.”

Stratus’ products are all about supporting continuous availability of applications for its customers. For mission critical operations that cannot afford to be non-responsive or unavailable for any period of time, where business loss is estimated in millions of Dollars for even a short period of minutes, the Stratus 2600, 4500, 6310 server portfolio is usually the appropriate solution.

In more technical language, the Stratus server portfolio fits in where a customer

Stratus partners • TEA Computers SA, Egypt • Bader Al Mulla and Bros, Kuwait • SOL Group, Kuwait • Mideast Data Systems, Lebanon • International Technology Services Limited, Libya • Total Technical Triangle, Saudi Arabia • CertSoft, UAE • Emirates Business Machines, UAE • International Technology Services Limited, UAE

requires a continuously available platform with uptime of at least 99.999%. Across an annual calendar this implies that the server platform cannot have an aggregated downtime of more than 5.3 minutes across the year and should be available for rest of the time without any deterioration of performance.

For Stratus, a partner is a business entity that has sold its products because of an application or solution they are supporting. “If a customer wants five nines they will approach us. If they do the sale through us they become a partner,” says Shaker. The regional office is meant to provide service and training to such new partner entrants.

“The whole idea of opening up an office is to provide more direct support for the partner and working with them to ensure a solution is up and running properly.”

Stratus has a three-fold approach for achieving continuously available uptime in its fault tolerant range of servers.

First, every component inside the system is replicated; second, both pairs of components are working simultaneously at the same time and are synchronised; and third, more than 500 internal operations are monitored at the same time through systems software.

“We realise that hardware fails and the only way to tolerate failure is to replicate everything.

We also don’t react to a problem. We proactively fix the problem before it happens”.

Unlike high availability server clusters which are designed to recover from failure, continuously available systems are engineered to prevent server failures from happening in the first place. A continuously available server platform from Stratus is also called a fault tolerant one. The primary hardware components are built around Intel based technology and is of standard design. Options for the operating system are also industry standard platforms including Microsoft, Red Hat and Linux.

Within the structure of a single fault tolerant server is the functional equivalent of two conventional servers, which simultaneously

Mission critical applications

ATM, POS debit/credit, Internet banking, Branch banking, Call centre, Electronic funds transfer, SWIFT, Electronic trading, Cash management, Fraud management

Banking and capital

EDI, Product life cycle management, SCADA, ERP, Batch record systems, Warehouse and inventory, Supply chain, Radio frequency identification

Application practice areas

Electronic health records, Hospital information systems, Picture archiving, Laboratory automation, Telemedicene

Healthcare solutions

Record management, Geographic information systems and mapping, Courts and jail management, Automatic fingerprint identification, Public safety

Public sector

International gateway, Customised billing, Prepaid/post paid billing, Service access, Middleware

Telecom

process the same data in the same way. The two halves of a fault tolerant server are so closely coupled that the operating system and application detect only a single processing unit. So even though the specifications of a fault tolerant server appear to be duplicated and hence redundant, for the application and processing bus, it is just one of everything.

The key enabling technology in fault tolerant systems is the processor synchronisation lockstep design, also known as processor determinism.

Intel is the only processor vendor to make

During fully loaded operations, application software and middleware remain unaffected if a duplicate component is removed from the server

markets

this available in its chipsets. Stratus provides fault detection and isolation hardware logic to compare the results from the two processor channels. During fully loaded operations, application software and middleware remain unaffected if a duplicate component is removed from the server.

During normal operations hardware and software errors are flagged to the partner and Stratus managed support network. This allows possible points of failure to be detected early in the cycle. If there is component failure, the backup component within the server kicks in. The system performance remains secured and replacements and repair can be completed without affecting end user business performance.

With Stratus’ new office located at the hub of the region, Shaker expects support levels for partners to be enhanced to a new level.

Stratus Fault Tolerant Server Specifications • Intel Xeon Processor, 4 core and 6 core per processor • Intel Quick path architecture • Stratus chipsets for core error detection, fault isolation, synchronisation logic and lockstep architecture • Memory 4/16 GB, 4/48GB, 8/96GB DDR3 • Internal SAS drive 146/300 GB + 1 TB • Upto 72 RAID expansion slots • Operating system Microsoft Windows

Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V virtualization • Operating system Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 • Operating system VMWare vSphere 4 • Model type 2600, entry level for remote locations • Model type 4500, scaleable for multitasking • Model type 6300, enterprise server for mission critical computing

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Amin Mortazavi, General Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middle East

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FEATURE PARTNER

“Only HP can bridge paper and digital processes” Faced with a myriad of challenges ranging from regional market upheavals, maturing of channel partners, customer expectations around business and printing workflow processes, Dubai GITEX round the corner and restructuring around PSG’s spinoff, Amin Mortazavi, General Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middle East gives his take on the road ahead With the announcement of HP’s intention to spin off its PSG division, the market has been given the indication that HP does not want to be in the commodity low margin business. HP’s IPG business has a similar business model. What are the medium to longterm implications of this thinking on the IPG business?

Mortazavi: HP announced that its board of directors had authorised the evaluation of strategic alternatives for PSG, including the exploration of the separation of its PC business into a separate company through a spin-off or other transaction. A final decision will be made by calendar year end, if not sooner.

We continue to define the solutions for customers facing challenges managing digital information workflows” Our channel partners and our customers make us number one and we intend to retain their trust and earn their continued, uninterrupted business. Likewise, our plans for compelling products remain unchanged. HP has a history of innovation

and technological leadership. Our roadmaps for future products have not changed. We have more than 180,000 channel partners worldwide and are targeting significant longterm growth opportunities, especially in emerging markets where technology penetration is small.

Again there are indications that IPG would like its partners to build their business model on value added services, with emphasis on faster growth from VARs and SIs. Does HP IPG have the product portfolio to support these excitement levels?

Mortazavi: Most certainly. HP always provides customers with a compelling product experience, ensuring they have the maximum opportunity to enjoy true interactive digital features. These are comprehensive features which are transforming the nature of the printing experience from the enterprise customer to home users.

What started with the printer being hooked up only to your computer, is now a printer that can be accessed around the world from your handheld mobile device, a seamless but visible progression through the years, and what I like to call the journey of printer independence. HP’s new portfolio of web-connected printers for customers makes it easy to access HP print apps, share information and ePrint wherever business happens.

ePrint-enabled printing devices continue to surprise us with growing customer demand” There are some indications about IPG being uncomfortable on the short and medium term sustainability of Dubai’s re-export business? What is the transition process for the local volume resellers and IPGs volume business?

Mortazavi: We continue to focus on increasing the number of value-added reseller within our channel landscape and our primary focus continues to be on maximising our scope of work within the SMB, enterprise and corporate sectors.

In the value added space and managed print services, competitor Xerox has a definite lead in terms of first-to-market and go-tomarket especially on regional basis. Does IPG run the risk of being seen as a follower rather than a leader in this area?

Mortazavi: I would disagree with your assessment regarding the managed print services space. HP has pioneered the leadership of the managed print services,

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cover focus Peripherals

East, helping partners develop their expertise in value sales and solutions.

What does HP bring to the GITEX event this year?

Mortazavi: We look forward to the exhibitions with focus on new technologies like cloud computing and on-going messages like eco-friendliness.

We are definitely seeing a strong recovery in the Middle East since the global economic downturn.

The printing market continues to observe strong growth and that is good reason for optimism for the future of Middle East markets.

During GITEX we will be operating an HP booth in conjunction with Dubai Internet City, where we will be promoting our anti counterfeit awareness campaign. Separately we will be operating a huge stand at the GITEX Shopper, as this venue is always popular with customers. During GITEX we are also looking forward to making a significant announcement in regards to our planet partners recycling programme here in the UAE. and we continue to define the solutions for customers facing challenges managing digital information workflows. HP’s depth and breadth of knowledge across IT and imaging and printing becomes a compelling proposition as we can provide a solution as a single partner, one single point of integration across workflow management and fleet optimisation. Few organisations can excel in both domains and only HP can bridge paper and digital processes.

Enterprises are increasingly recognising printing costs in a more holistic way. We must remember for every 1 dirham spent on printing another 9 dirhams is required to manage, and customers are acknowledging that a broader focus is needed beyond the initial device and supplies acquisition costs.

How does IPG management view the current performance and positioning of its key distributor partners including Redington, Emitac, Jumbo and Despec?

Mortazavi: We have a longstanding relationship with the four distributors mentioned, we have enjoyed a lot of success and as our strategies are aligned, I believe

What started with the printer being hooked up to your computer, is now a printer that can be accessed around the world from your handheld mobile device� we are well positioned to continue our market leadership.

Has there been any revamp in the channel structure?

Mortazavi: HP has executed a revamp of the channel partners programmes merging hardware and supplies programmes allowing partners to better leverage their total business with HP IPG. Judging by the number of channel partners, it has become evident that these partners recognise the quality of the HP brand and technology. HP has also decided to have a resident channel technology consultant position in the Middle

Discuss steps HP has initiated to tackle counterfeit trafficking in supplies?

Mortazavi: In 2010 alone, HP seized $100 million worth of counterfeits within the Middle East. Further to HPs continuous commitment to combat the ever-evolving counterfeit trade, HP in 2010 also joined the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy Global Leadership Group.

Going forward what is your outlook on the IPG product portfolio over the next six to nine months? Which parts of the portfolio are likely to see high demand, which parts are likely to see sustained demand and which parts sluggish demand?

Mortazavi: We have witnessed solid growth across our entire product portfolio over the recent period, and I would say the ePrint enabled printing devices continue to surprise us with growing customer demand. We see demand continuing to rise as the technology is implemented across our product range.

HP once again demonstrates its industry leadership, transforming the flow of content for all customers into when-you-want-it, whenyou-need-it availability, through HP ePrint.

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Peripheral pressure Printer, display and storage vendors are facing a host of game changing pressures from multiple and varied areas Across the regional printer industry vendors are under pressure to move channel partners into the value space as they grow in revenue and need additional areas to sustain their growth. Pure play volume reselling and trading are being looked at as increasingly redundant as vendors themselves setup in-country channel structures. Printing vendors themselves are under pressure to develop products and solutions that can make paper printing into a more organised aspect of both corporate and personal workflow.

Printing devices One of the most significant changes for the peripheral channel industry is the maturing of the regional country markets.

With almost all global vendors focussing on in-country distribution and in-country partner development the need for a re-export hub like Dubai has begin to dry up. For a vendor like HP with its printing and imaging division primarily based on volume movements, there is a need to keep its partners ahead of the changing demand curve. Says Ali Nemati, Channel Sales Manager for the Middle East: “I already see a big wave of consolidation in the channel. The partners who do not refocus and retool are the ones going to be left behind.”

Nemati’s thinking is straight forward.

There was a traditional way of doing business out of the UAE over the last 15 years based on re-export volumes, lean selling margins and continuous flow of demand. Resellers sustained themselves primarily on periodic volume rebates from the vendor. With demand levels drying up due to alternative in-country vendor channels, the UAE reseller is now probably a relic of the past.

This is also part of the business which HP IPG would like its partners to move

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away from because of the increasing risk levels. “Yes there are still plenty of dealers whose main focus is to sell a small number of printers primarily on price. This is where we are seeing a gap between the strategy of vendors as opposed to some of the partners who will be left behind,” says Nemati.

Other than the volume resellers, HP IPG’s channel partner structure includes the value added resellers and office printing specialists.

While resellers in UAE focussed on the walk-in, re-export business may represent a possibly threatened species, value added resellers and office printing specialists are on the opposite green side of the opportunity index.

An office printing specialist or OPS partner typically sells a printing solution to a medium to large end customer. This may cover an optimum solution of networked multifunction printers in the form of an outsourced managed printing setup along with supplies and service support. The scale of the engagement may range from fully outsourced and managed printing environment, where the customer is focussed only on a periodic operational

expense over a sustained period of time, to one of just selling the after sales support services. The OPS partners focus only on such contractual business.

With regard to the value added resellers or VARs, they typically have historical relationships with end customers in selected vertical market segments. HP IPG does not classify them into market segments but manages them as one subset. HP IPG would like to focus and develop partners who are themselves investing into selling more and more towards the end-customer. The approach is to educate VARs and keep them upto date about where the print business is going, the certification programmes, online tools, cofund sales engineers and so on.

The approach is not to interfere where and how VARs do their business. But it is to ensure vertical market segments HP IPG considers strategic are covered by the right number of partners. Partners are educated on the available market opportunities and if any of them refocuses or reinvests they are supported to rise within the ranks. Investing in

Encouraging partners to move into the value space of printing solutions, Ali Nemati, Channel Sales Manager Middle East, HP IPG

FEATURE PARTNER

educating partners and gaining market share have a close correlation for the vendor.

Across its channel community, HP IPG would like more and more of its reseller partners to convert into VARs and a chunk of its VARs to become into OPS partners, as a natural progression of the market dynamics.

Since the sales cycles for OPS, VARs and resellers are different, HP IPG also follows a correspondingly different reward structure.

More importantly, partner focus on end users helps to move the relationship between an HP IPG account manager and the partner away from a rebate led approach to one of deeper meaning.

Says Nemati: “The future of printing is going to be focussed on the value side of business.” He expects to announce the managed print services programme for partners in fiscal 2012.

However the key feature and demand from consumers continues to be around 3D content and the adaptability of the monitor to switch from 2D to 3D display Display devices For monitor and projector vendor BenQ, sales pressure is being generated by a continuous need to match product attributes to market demand. “With the rapid growth of laptops across the last ten years, it was believed at one time the stand alone PC monitor was at the end of its life cycle”, says Manish Bakshi, General Manager Middle East and Africa.

But vendors like BenQ have repositioned and redesigned their products to match specifications and end customer applications and requirements. BenQ’s monitor portfolio is now split into consumer and corporate focussed products.

For the consumer segment of monitors a significant innovation from BenQ is to bring in the capability of the full range of video inputs including HDMI and composite as well as provide the capability to be used with digital

Managing a portfolio of TVs, monitors, projectors and cameras across the Gulf and Africa, Manish Bakshi, General Manager, Middle East and Africa, BenQ. devices like PCs and set top boxes. The requirement of consumers to switch between various devices and media sources in their homes while viewing the best of breed display terminals is the current sales driver.

According to global consumer electronics vendor Samsung, consumers are now expecting multi functional monitors in their homes with truer than life, high definition picture quality. “We have noticed popularity amongst consumers for technologically advanced high definition, LED monitors that have an aesthetic design and can support 3D content,” says Anupam Birla, Business head Visual Display Unit, Samsung Gulf Electronics.

Samsung’s 950 series of monitors is meant to cater to this aspiration demand for 3D LED HDTV monitors. The product is cross designed as a monitor, social media hub and TV, making it an all-in-one entertainment and work at home device.

While convergence of TV and digital monitor devices in the home is a key driver for vendor innovation, another factor is the possibility of increasingly intelligent TVs. Samsung’s Smart TVs are an effort in this direction. These TVs are directly connected to the internet and stream content from Samsung’s social media and news application hubs. To complete the interactivity Samsung’s Smart TVs come with a wireless Qwerty keyboard that provides the superior control required to manage surfing of social hubs instead of a standard TV remote keypad.

However the key feature and demand

from consumers continues to be around 3D content and the adaptability of the monitor to switch from 2D to 3D display. Within the region, Samsung provides free streaming 3D content from its media hub as part of the value add it provides to owners of its Smart TV range. Says Justin Shaw, General Manager, Audio Visual sales division, Samsung Gulf Electronics: “We have seen an amazing rise in consumers using our applications, primarily our 3D video-on-demand service.” Samsung expects to double the amount of free 3D streaming content for its customers by the end of the year.

Says Samsung’s Birla: “We do see an interest in consumers for monitors that can deliver an integrated and immersive viewing experience. Gaming enthusiasts are also particularly excited about monitors that can support 3D gaming or monitors that are capable of converting 2D content to 3D.” Is the TV heading towards a faster life cycle similar to other digital devices?

Not necessarily according to Samsung’s Shaw: “The main TV is still a relatively large investment and is expected to perform for many years. Screen size still has the largest impact on experience and larger the screen size higher is the cost. This means more reluctance to change frequently.”

Another active product category for BenQ is display projectors. Over the last seven years with the burst of innovations in TV technology towards larger and larger screen sizes, this product category was almost written off. Today

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FEATURE PARTNER

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this segment is growing at close to 30% by unit volumes, which is more than laptops” says BenQ’s Bakshi. And the key driver for this is government spending in the education segment.

In general display projectors have multiple demand areas. They are primarily required for auditoriums, corporate meeting rooms, home theatres and video projection applications. However the most significant area from the extent of demand and potential revenue opportunity is classroom teaching in the public education segment.

“All governments are spending significant budgets on education, whether it is in GCC, Africa or India,” continues Bakshi.

To adapt to this strong market driver vendors operating in this space have made significant innovations to their product specifications over the last few years. Most vendors now have a considerable range of models exclusively fitted for the education segment. Projectors meant for classroom training have to cope with cramped spaces including limited distance to the screen and limited ceiling height. Further the instructor managing the classroom should not block the projection and many times classrooms will have external and scattered light interference.

Some projectors for the education segment therefore have a short throw focus typically in the range of one metre, which

Personal cloud solutions and TV set up boxes are the latest from Iomega, Cizar Abughazaleh, Regional director Consumer and SMB, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, EMC network cards so that multiple projectors can be controlled from one PC station. This is particularly useful during examinations where projections in multiple classrooms have to start and stop at the same time. Other accessories include wireless connectivity to keyboards and pointing devices and USB port adaptors. In the case of USB based content and a wireless keyboard, the projector is able to run Microsoft applications without the use of a PC.

Across its channel community, HP IPG would like more and more of its reseller partners to convert into VARs and a chunk of its VARs to become into OPS partners, as a natural progression of the market dynamics allows the instructor to stand behind the projector and avoid shadow interference. This also avoids glare factor for the instructor.

For institutions with classrooms of varying sizes projectors have a flexible focussing range and the same screen size can be achieved even if the projector is relatively displaced by one to two metres. To make effective screen projection for classrooms with light interference some models have contrast ratio of 50,000:1 and a light intensity of upto 4,000 Lumens.

Projectors are also being fitted with LAN

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Storage devices A key life cycle feature of storage devices is the increasing storage capacity at the same price point over a period of six to twelve months. This natural progression of end users to move to the next level of storage is also a driver for the upgrade and replacement market. Another factor working in parallel is the explosion of content exchange across social media sites. Storage devices now not only need to backup files they must also be able to play them back across the web as streaming content or play them on attached

monitors and TVs. The whole storage market has become one of the fastest growing in the IT industry, says Cizar Abughazaleh, Regional director Consumer and SMB, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, EMC. Abughazaleh who manages EMC’s SMB and consumer products selling under the brand name of Iomega, believes the differentiator from other storage vendors is the value for money and ease of setup inbuilt in Iomega’s products. “You do not need to be a technical person to set up a security solution in your house or office.”

Since Iomega’s products are also focussed around the SMB segment and with SMB end users looking at moving to the next level of IT maturity, Abughazaleh believes this is another factor driving Iomega’s growth. “Since the total available market for SMB is huge in the region, business is growing and evolving fast,” he says.

To support its range of new products into the market it has launched a premier partner programme. The super retail space is also an important part of its go-to-market approach.

The plan is to setup a experience centres in every major country associated with a key super retail outlet. Iomega has already set up an experience centre at Sharaf DG in Dubai, UAE. With a range of demand forces operating in regional markets, peripheral vendors and their partners have their challenges set out in front of them.

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.

cover focus Peripherals

Product transformations Some of the current innovations across yesterday’s commodity products

BenQ’s VIP room monitor The EW2420, 2430 monitor series allows you to view online streaming content or captive stored content through connected devices. Both video and online display modes are optimised in this monitor. In essence this monitor allows you to have your own personalised audio visual entertainment centre.

Key design attributes include ultra-high native contrast, true 8-bit panel presentation with million colour levels, deep blacks and minimised light leakage, BenQ’s human eye colour gamut matching Senseye Technology, 3D deinterlacing to reduce cross over interference, 3D noise reduction, 24P Cinema viewing quality, dual signal input and viewing through PIP and PBP Able and switching to either.

Other specifications 2 HDMI ports support Blu-ray disc player, PS3, XBOX, and various gaming devices; 1 component YPbPr regular housing entertainment units such as DVD player; 1 D-Sub/1 DVI-D supports both analog and digital signals, support desktops, notebooks and other inputs; Backlit LED, LCD size 24” W; Aspect ratio 16:9; Resolution max 1920×1080; Display area 53×30cm; Pixel pitch 0.276 mm; Brightness 250 cd/m2; Contrast 3000:1; dynamic contrast ratio 20M:1; Viewing angle 178 degrees; Response time 8ms; Display colours 16.7 million; Speaker 2W×2; USB Hub 4*downstream 1*upstream; Tilt down/up 5 to 20 degrees; PIP/PBP Yes; 24p True Cinema Display; 3D Noise Reduction; 3D De-interlace.

BenQ’s Ultra short throw projector The MX880 UST attempts to squeeze a classroom into cramped dimensions, where any other projector would either have required a longer throw distance or made a smaller than optimal viewing panel. It uses a wireless keyboard and mouse to generate presentations without the need of a laptop.

Specifications: Ultra short throw ratio 0.3, 78”@48cm; 2500 ANSI Lumens; Contrast ratio 3000:1; Microphone in jack; 10W x 2 speakers; PC-Less presentation; USB display plugn-play; LAN display with remote desktop; VGA (640 x 480) to UXGA (1600 x 1200); HDTV 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p; Picture modes cinema, dynamic, presentation, RGB, User 1, User 2; Other features: image size 60” to 300”; Video compatibility NTSC, PAL, SECAM, Full 1.07 billion colour palette.

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Next Gen TVs Samsung’s Smart TV hub is a collection of web based applications and streaming web content. The basic screen has a number of navigation icons connecting to social media sites, HDTV based Samsung Apps, video players, 3D controls and so on. A miniature window on the side allows users to view web streaming content into the TV from a second channel, while actively playing content from its inbuilt media players or through the web.

The USB port allows Smart Hub to

The Smart TV hub main interface

play external content through its inbuilt media players and its software based 3D switch-over generates visual depth even for standard 2D video content. 3D audio technology simulates height and depth of an audio track by distinguishing between foreground and background sounds to create an immersive experience.

The active video image is built very close to the running external 5mm frame also helping to create immersive depth into moving content. The 3D glasses which

3D rendering can be activated by switching on the 3D glasses and flicking a button on the remote console

come with Samsung’s Smart TV are based on Bluetooth technology and not infrared, which makes line of sight alignment unnecessary. Unlike commodity 3D glasses Samsung’s 3D glasses are internally powered, cut off peripheral light and create a more comfortable viewing experience.

Smart TV’s are available in LED, LCD and PDP technologies and are available in sizes from 43 to 64 inches. The TV’s are mounted on a sturdy quad stand that makes wall mounting redundant.

Available streaming 3D content through Samsung’s content hub

Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link DX This device connects to a standard monitor but allows audio and video content to be played from a USB or any external storage device using inbuilt media players and browsers. It has an Ethernet and wireless connection, audio and video inputs, external remote QWERTY keyboard. The device is DLNA certified for easy streaming on a public network.

Specifications: Extensive audio and video compatibility including H.264, WMV, RMVB, MPEG-1/2/4 part 2, ASP, DivX, DivX Plus HD(MKV), Xvid; DivX certified to play DivX and

DivX Plus HD (H.264/MKV) video up to 1080p HD; Audio formats supported MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, AAC, AC3, PCM, M4A, DTS; Playlist supported M3U, PLS, WPL; Access to podcasts from around the world; Dolby digital audio and DTS for superior sound; Playback resolution: 1080p(60fps) high definition; AV connectivity: HDMI, Composite video, optical audio, USB.a Product contains: Remote control, WiFi adapter, Power supply, HDMI and composite video cables, Downloadable Iomega protection suite backup software, Antivirus software, Online backup software.

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Iomega Personal Cloud This solution allows individual ownership over how and where to access and share data. This is a personal network connecting PCs and Macs or other intelligent devices to an Iomega StorCenter device, allowing selected users access to view, edit and share files.

The IomegaStorCenter ix2-200 network storage, cloud edition offers content sharing with advanced security, and is ideal for small and remote offices, workgroups or home networks. This is a web-based computing architecture that connects a backend StorCenter ix2 to other individuals and devices via the Internet. Unlike public and private cloud applications, Iomega’s Personal Cloud technology is self-owned, so content and accessibility is always under owner control. There are also no usage or subscription fees.

With two or more StorCenter devices, the Personal Cloud allows you to automatically replicate data from your primary business to another location. Keeping this off-site copy ensures data availability in the event of an unforeseen disaster. The Personal Cloud also offers users remote access to files from remote locations, allowing members of the

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cloud to easily view, edit, and share files from outside the office. Security safeguards, such as encryption and password protection, ensure data stored in the Personal Cloud cannot be accessed by unauthorised users.

It can be used to monitor video surveillance devices set up in the home or across the business premises.

The personal cloud solution is hosted on an Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 compact desktop network storage device suitable for small businesses or advanced home networks. Available in 2TB, 4TB and 6TB configurations, the device provides easy file sharing, iSCSI block access and RAID 1 for optimised data protection. Business users will appreciate data protection features such as UPS support, device-to-device replication, and user replaceable drives for business continuity and disaster recovery.

Home users benefit from advanced media features such as the DLNA certified UPnP AV Media Server, Torrent media file support, Bluetooth upload, automated social media sharing to Facebook, Flickr and YouTube and digital photography tools like Picture Transfer Protocol. The built-in AV media server turns the StorCenter ix2 into a multimedia hub.

It can support upto six IP based security cameras for cloud based video surveillance and storage.

Also included is the system status dashboard, part of the EMC LifeLine operating system; Cloud backup options; Torrent download management; QuikProtect backup; QuikTransfer for USB data transfer; User quotas management; Energy saving automatic hard drive spin-down and VMware and XenServer certification.

cover focus Xerox Emirates

Changing colours Set up more than two decades ago as a copier reseller, the company's latest transformation includes consulting based managed print services and business process outsourcing supported by a channel network

The Xerox solid ink cartridges are eco-friendly with a small green footprint, Andrew Hurt General Manager, Xerox Emirates

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Xerox Emirates has recently shifted into its sprawling new office in Dubai’s IMPZ free zone area. The word goes that the new building, with its combined office, warehouse, equipment showcase, training, service and network operation centres is the inspiration of Andrew Hurt, Xerox Emirates, General Manager since 2004. And going by the visible excitement he demonstrates when he takes visitors around the premises the assumption seems to be right on the mark. Hurt joined Xerox in the UK in 1987 and has worked through its ranks joining the Middle East operations in 1998. While Xerox Emirates was set up as a joint venture in 1985 between Mohamed Hareb Al Otaiba Group and Xerox Limited, the business model has continually undergone transition since then.

The venture was initially set up with the objective of being a reseller for Xerox’s analog copier products. But changed with the introduction of colour and connected products in the document management space. Says Hurt: “Ten years ago we were essentially selling technology and break-fix services. Now we do all of that, but we also do an awful lot more in terms of value added solutions.”

The vision of Xerox Emirates today is to build value added solutions around its technology products. While its products range from low end copier to high resolution scanning and printing devices, growth drivers today are more from value added endcustomer solutions.

The company which has been averaging 30% growth year on year over the last three years has found two key drivers to accelerate its revenue. The two areas are managed print services (MPS) and business process outsourcing (BPO). Both MPS and BPO are built around Xerox’s document management technology but Xerox Emirates has wrapped its value added services around the core offering. “We have always looked at adding value to the solutions in terms of where we are playing,” says Hurt.

With regard to MPS, Xerox Emirates has achieved as much revenue in the first

The new Xerox Emirates building at IMPZ in Dubai houses administration, warehouse, equipment showcase, training, service and network operation centre

six months of 2011, as it achieved in twelve months of 2010. Hurt indicates there are two key reasons for this. For one, post its success in 2010, Xerox Emirates has been aggressively focussing on this segment in 2011. And second, the demand has picked up across the region and customers are asking for it.

With the acquisition and consolidation of ACS revenue, Xerox overnight has become the largest business process document company in the world Globally across the last three years there has been an accelerated interest in outsourcing of print management. Within the region, end customers are looking at progressively handing over management of document output with the objective of better efficiency and economies of scale.

The MPS offer from Xerox Emirates includes both Xerox and non-Xerox print devices in an organisation and converts them into remotely managed devices from its in-house network operations centre. Toner replenishment, optimal productivity across a network of printers, periodic maintenance,

uptime of devices, security controls amongst others, is covered under its MPS contract.

This is a proactive approach, which is contrary to a reactive break-fix or maintenance support agreement. Comments Hurt, “When we are talking to a strategic account we are not talking about multifunctional devices, we are talking about managed print services.” Almost one third of Xerox Emirates staff is present at customer sites at any moment of time.

To drive this segment of value added business, Xerox Emirates has decided to include channel partners. The first choice of partners would come from two categories.

Either partners who are already supporting end customers in the area of desktop outsourcing or other IT process outsourcing or alternatively those who can help Xerox Emirates get a foot into untapped large customer accounts. Since Xerox Emirates sales team maintains direct contact with strategic customer accounts, partners who can bring in large relationship accounts from outside this space are of immediate interest to it.

For Hurt, the most important part of building the value business in the channel

Clarification: Xerox Emirates as referred to in the text is the UAE based joint venture between Mohamed Hareb Al Otaiba Group and Xerox Limited. Xerox as referred to in the text is the global vendor and its products and solutions.

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cover focus Xerox Emirates

is to ensure partners have a good return not dependent on volume based transactions.

Both MPS and BPO are value added services based on consulting framework, have extended or annual contracts and are linked to the competence of the engaging partner rather than price point. “If we are going to be successful in the channel we need to make sure channel partners can see the potential of working with Xerox. They need to have an aspect of annuity associated with the technology and not just a technology sale.

They need to tap into some element of the service and that is what we are working on now.”

To help partners get started in the MPS area, Xerox Emirates has created its Xerox Partner Print Services on-boarding programme. Partners are first trained and need to certify in the area of sales, technology and operations. Next they simulate an internal pilot engagement, pitch

For Hurt, who has built the local business on the basis of service delivery standards, quality initiatives like Lean Six Sigma are an intrinsic part of the business culture for an actual, full cycle MPS contract and then receive their accreditation into the XPPS programme.

“We are accrediting our partners to sell MPS on behalf of Xerox,” is the way Hurt looks at the programme from the perspective of future end customers.

While Hurt has the XPPS programme rolling and partners are going through the accreditation process, he has another approach to move ahead on the MPS business development front. Xerox Emirates plans to sell through, sell with or sell to, whichever gives early results alongside its strategic partners on a case to case basis.

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The network operation centre remotely monitors print operations at various customer sites

Not all partners are currently equipped to build up and close a prospective sale and Xerox Emirates will use a team working agreement on an account to account basis.

Since channel partners can have a mix of capabilities across system integration, value added reselling and transactional reselling, selecting the right profile of partners is also important for Xerox Emirates. Till now it has identified a dozen odd partners including SI players Seven Seas, HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. “Partners who understand where the market is going are very keen to be involved with us in terms of managed print services. They see that as a big opportunity”.

Another key channel initiative is the appointment of Trigon as the volume distributor for UAE. Hence channel partners that do not fit into the value added XPPS programme can fit in as volume resellers supported by Trigon. These partners will be the tier-two channel partners for Xerox Emirates. Trigon will be managing fulfilment of A3 range of Xerox products as well as selling

of page-packs and break fix support services.

Xerox Emirates does not have a retail focus.

However there is a still a lot of education to be done in the market, both in terms of moving customers towards the usage of colour and moving them away from standalone copiers and printers.

Other than its go-to-market activities, global initiatives by Xerox are positively impacting Xerox Emirates future revenue outlook. One such factor is the recent acquisition of global call centre solution vendor ACS. With the acquisition and consolidation of ACS revenue, Xerox overnight has become the largest business process document company in the world.

While the global acquisition of ACS took place over 18 months ago, for the Middle East region it is still work in progress. Both ACS and Xerox Emirates are working alongside to find suitable opportunities where their solutions can work synergistically for an endcustomer. As an example, if Xerox Emirates has deployed a document management

solution in a bank, it can also try to leverage ACS call centre solutions with the same end customer. “We are looking at being a services led company accelerated with the acquisition of ACS,” is how Hurt looks at the upcoming synergy opportunities.

ACS is positioned by Gartner in the

leader’s quadrant of help desk vendors and shares the quadrant with HCL Technologies, CSC, IBM, Siemens and others.

Another area of synergy between ACS and Xerox Emirates is the usage of service quality management tools like Lean Six Sigma, ISO 20000 and others. According

Partner print services life cycle Four step process towards developing a managed print services environment

MANAGE Using available tools automate print management

IMPLEMENT Deploy the new output strategy including software and hardware, train users and establish best practices needed to ensure improved productivity and cost savings

DESIGN Working with the customer’s IT staff develop short and long-range plans to improve print services management

ASSESS Analyse and review the customer’s current output service infrastructure and identify opportunities to improve performance, streamline operations and reduce costs

SOURCE: COMPANY DOCUMENT

The XPPS programme The objective of Xerox Partner Print Services programme is to make a channel partner competent in selling and delivering managed print services. This includes training for multiple departments, internal pilot and real life sales closure.

The programme involves the following training areas: Sales training: This includes sales and pre-sales support staff who typically engage clients and go through all steps of the MPS process. Certification covers sales skills, assessment knowledge and advanced design skills.

Technology: This includes technical support staff working with customers before after closure of a contract and interfacing with Xerox for software support issues. Certification covers software installation and configuration to enable consistent operational delivery.

Operations: This is meant for the delivery team supporting on board customers. Certification covers advanced help desk, device management, incident management and billing.

Levels of certification: There are two formal levels of certification for XPPS Partners, Platinum and Gold.

to Gartner usage of such tools has become necessary for vendors to remain competitive rather than for differentiation.

This is especially applicable for both ACS and Xerox, which have a solution cross over in the area of content and document management. For Hurt, who has built

Both MPS and BPO are initiated by a consulting level engagement which on a simplistic milestone basis can be described as define, analyse, measure and control the customer environment the local business on the basis of service delivery standards, quality initiatives like Lean Six Sigma are an intrinsic part of the business culture.

As part of its service delivery model for both MPS and BPO, Xerox Emirates engages on a consulting level in the initial stages of discussion with end customers. On a simplistic milestone basis this can be described as define, analyse, measure and control the customer environment. The consulting engagement starts with the presales team making an assessment of the customer’s operating environment, designing a solution and then piloting the solution to working proof of concept for the customer. Once the contract is negotiated, the responsibility moves from account management to project management. For partners able to manage such deep levels of customer engagement and responsibility the returns are high. A typical MPS project may yield a 3:1 ratio in terms of product to services revenue and a BPO project may yield a ratio of 1:3 in terms of products to services revenue.

BPO projects are therefore more prolonged and sophisticated than MPS

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cover focus Xerox Emirates

Process improvement inside Xerox Emirates

An integrated Xerox Color Qube 9203 demo workstation

Xerox Emirates started operations as a transactional reseller, progressed to high end value added reseller and now operates as a value added distributor supporting growth of channel partners projects and are almost always turnkey projects with an after sales contractual support built-in.

Another innovative approach that Xerox Emirates has brought into its BPO solutions

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is to leverage on non-Xerox solutions on top of the Xerox technology platform. To capture the opportunity across government departments, ministries and universities it is currently using EMC Documentum for its Arabic localisation projects. “We have been working in the BPO space for the last eight to nine years and source the best of breed solutions from non Xerox products,� says Hurt. For its BPO product portfolio, Xerox Emirates provides solutions across the full document life cycle including content management, scanning, archiving, imaging and signatures.

Reflecting on the changes that have taken place over the years, Hurt points out as a joint venture the company wears a number of hats in a somewhat unique way. It started operation as transactional reseller, progressed to high end value added reseller and now operates as a value

In 2009, Xerox Emirates started re-engineering its processes to make them efficient and productive and add value to the customer. This is being done through Lean Six Sigma quality initiative methodology across sales and marketing, customer services, finance, infrastructure and strategy. Companywide business processes are mapped and steps involving little or no customer value are eliminated altogether. Till date 120 processes have been mapped and an equivalent number of projects have been created with the purpose of generating the new processes. The joint process development can lead to solutions that no one person can develop alone.

Current statistics at Xerox Emirates include 30 green and black belts in Lean Six Sigma methodology, 35 projects managed and completed and 100 employees inducted in yellow belt awareness training programme.

To make the benefits of Lean Six Sigma more accessible to employees the QwikSolver tool has been made available to them. Version 2.0 of Lean Six Sigma is being introduced to make the tool more flexible and easy to use by all aspiring employees even without certification.

added distributor supporting the growth of its channel partners. Irrespective of which hat is on, Hurt’s vision and relentless drive appears to be a success formula keeping the company on a consistent and unique growth path.

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY Samsung

Samsung Galaxy SII Launched in June of this year, global unit volumes have already crossed the 5 million mark. A hands-on feel on what takes this Smartphone product ahead of the pack.

iPhone 4

Brightness, contrast and colour balance The Galaxy SII has an almost near perfect image quality balancing the extremely difficult attributes of enhanced colour contrast, sharpness, brightness and balance of tones. The Galaxy SII was placed next to an iPhone with the same still and video images loaded, to remove the subjectivity factor, and a picture taken. The side by side pictures do show the difference of image quality and size in both the devices. However if the original picture or video is of low quality, the displayed image on a Galaxy SII may appear no different from that displayed on another wide display phone. While the iPhone does full screen horizontal and vertical image rotation with automatic cropping, the Galaxy SII allows only horizontal rotation. In the vertical format, the full image is displayed in a screen fitted size without any cropping.

Galaxy SII Galaxy SII

iPhone 4

Galaxy SII

iPhone 4

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Browser power

Navigation Google Maps is available on the Galaxy SII with a multi-layer display.

Switching on the terrain and traffic

Other than the more than alive display panel and the coupled slim fit in the hand, the next most powerful feature is the speed at which the browser comes to life. Technically termed as download speed, the rating is three times faster than today’s closest competitor. The dual computing

processor also helps to reduce time take to open a fresh browser screen or to refresh it. Youtube clips run especially well and the SII works at the same speed as an adjacent laptop on high speed Wifi network. Running a high definition Youtube clip at full sound volume in a horizontal end to end video format with nil time lag is an impressive performance. Browser email accounts from Yahoo, Gmail and others and POP3 email accounts can be set up seamlessly.

layer is a plus for anyone moving off main highways onto secondary and tertiary tracks and finally off road.

Other than these two layers you also have the satellite and coordinate overlays.

Value plus The Galaxy SII is loaded with a host of entertainment, ease of use and value feature options. The FM radio has a neat dial tuner and an exceptional frequency detection capability. The audio-video media players give excellent playback quality. The gallery for clips, pix and sounds has a nice graphical stacked-up feel to it. Other than the social media hub, the Galaxy SII has reader, game and music hubs, which require subscription. It has a voice SMS solution, eight mega pixel forward facing camera and HD video recording amongst the many other features.

Synchronisation The primary application for synchronising files between a PC device and Galaxy SII is Samsung Kies application using an USB or Bluetooth connection. The Kies interface has almost the same look and feel as currently available media transfer players including Real Player. File transfer using Kies is faultless and smooth and the Galaxy SII can also operate in the Windows 7 plug and play mode with visible directory structure. However there is an interesting variation. The Galaxy SII has a client version called Kies Air. When the Galaxy SII is online either on Wifi or telco network, Kies Air generates a unique IP address for the phone. If the IP address is pasted in a browser, the Galaxy SII’s directory is accessible by remote access. Digital images or videos out of the SII can be viewed and even streamed remotely.

Specifications Processor: 1.2 Ghz, Arm Cortex dual processor Memory: 16/32 GB micro SD Operating system: Android 2.3 Gingerbread Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB2.0, Wifi 802.11, Wifi Direct Sensor: Accelerometer, gyroscope sensor, digital compass Dimensions: 12.5x6.6x0.9 cm Applications: Adobe Flash, Quick Type, Android Browser, Google Voice Search, Google Maps, Lost Phone Management, QuickType, Samsung TouchWiz

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PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY Review

Quick Heal antivirus portfolio In the market since 2002, the product has kept up with trends through its latest mobile cleanup, Android SMS block and parental control features

The Quick Heal portfolio covers three suites of products: Anti Virus Pro, Internet Security and Total Security. While 15 functionalities are common across the three products, Internet Security has 19 and Total Security has 26 features. The product has been robustly benchmarked on multiple operating platforms.

UK based Virus Bulletin, has tested the product on no less than 37 occasions using its “In-the-wild” testing, which benchmark’s the product’s ability to detect any virus signature on a specific operating platform, without giving a false positive. The award certification is known as VB100% and the list of platforms certified are listed in the article.

Parental control is available in Quick Heal’s Internet Security and Total Security products.

Mobile devices like PDA and smartphones can be cleaned up with Quick Heal’s Total Security product.

Its latest functionality is the ability to clean up a mobile phone device or PDA from a PC, for which it has applied for a US patent.

All phone brands are supported including Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Siemens, Sony Ericsson and HTC. For the Android environment it offers virus protection, call blocking, SMS blocking, anti-theft and data protection features. Call filtering allows users to block unwanted calls by configuring Black and White lists. The SMS blocking feature enables silent blocking of malicious SMS and unwanted spam SMS. Data protection allows user to lock the lost or stolen phone remotely and wipe the personal data remotely by sending a pre-defined SMS. This powerful product also has anti-theft feature to trace or locate a lost or stolen phone and has the capability to render the device unusable once stolen.

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Hard disk management including registry cleaner, registry defragmentation, disk clean up are available in Quick Heal’s Total Security.

Another differentiator in the Quick Heal product portfolio is the parental control features. Browsing or web access can be controlled blocking out sites with violence and pornography or other selected content. Time slots for browsing can also be

activated. The same control features can be utilised in a business environment to disable chat or identify time usage of the browser.

Quick Heal’s Internet Security product has achieved ICSA Labs Anti-Virus Certification on Microsoft Windows XP operating system. ICSA Labs certification is a benchmark that verifies the trustworthiness of security products.

OESISOK certification from OPSWAT has certified that Quick Heal’s portfolio is correctly installed on supported operating systems and has smooth integration and functioning within OESIS Framework.

OESIS Framework is an industry standard for checking and managing security applications on endpoints.

PC Security Labs has rated Quick Heal’s Total Security product with Five-star Certification. This certification is awarded to products that have scored high marks in the “PCSL Total Protection Test” held

by PCSL every two months. This test is the first test to combine static scan test, dynamic test, static false positive test and dynamic false positive test into a single comparative test.

Quickheal also has Microsoft ISV recognition, Windows Genuine Advantage and Gold Certified partner status.

Quick Heal Portfolio Sno

Features

Anti Virus Pro

1

Anti Virus

Y

Y

Y

Anti Spyware

Y

Y

Y

3

Anti Malware

Y

Y

Y

4

Anti Rootkit

Y

Y

Y

5

Silent Firewall

Y

Y

Y

6

IDS / IPS

Y

Y

Y

7

Auto Run Protection

Y

Y

Y

8

Packer Identification

Y

Y

Y Y

9

Self Protection

Y

Y

10

Entertainment Mode

Y

Y

Y

11

Emergency CD

Y

Y

Y

12

Native Boot Scan

Y

Y

Y

13

Packer Identification

Y

Y

Y Y

14

DNA Scan

Y

Y

15

Remote Desktop Support

Y

Y

Y

16

Anti Spam

Y

Y Y

17

Anti Phishing

Y

18

Parental Control

Y

Y

19

Advance Web Protection

Y

Y

20

Data Theft Protection

21

Secure Delete

Y

22

Registry Cleaner

Y

23

Registry Defragmentation

Y

Disk Clean Up

Y

25

Duplicate File Finder

Y

26

PC 2 Mobile Scan

Y

The product has been tested by Virus Bulletin on multiple operating platforms from 2002 onwards

2008 Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition (64-bit) Microsoft Windows XP Professional

2011

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition SP2 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Microsoft Windows XP SP3

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 32-bit edition Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard

Redhat Linux 9 Microsoft Windows NT4 Workstation

2005 Microsoft Windows 2003 Server x64 version (64-bit) Microsoft Windows 2003 Advanced Server Novell Netware 6.5 Red Hat Linux 9 Microsoft Windows NT 4.0

2007 Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Novell Netware 6.5 Microsoft Windows Vista X64 Business Microsoft Windows XP Professional SUSE Linux Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition (32-bit)

2006 2009

Y

24

Edition SP2 X86 Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition SP2 Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2

2010

Total Security

2

Quick VB100% certified platforms

Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Ubuntu Linux Server Edition 10.04.1 LTS i386

Internet Security

Microsoft Windows XP Professional X64 edition Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

2004 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Microsoft Windows XP Professional Red Hat Linux 9 Microsoft Windows NT 4.0

2003 Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Microsoft Windows XP Professional

2002 Microsoft Windows 2000 Advance server

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PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY News

BenQ Debuts E1465 Digital Camera to the Middle East The new 14-megapixel camera’s stand out feature is its easy-to-use panorama mode which allows photo enthusiasts to capture spectacular horizon shots. The panorama mode was designed to capture the entire skyline in one single shot by stitching two to

Kobian universal notebook adapter

three images into one single and seamless large picture. Other features: 5cm super macro mode, 27mm wide-angle lens, 720p movie recording, high speed ISO 6400, special software effects include Lomo, Fisheye and colour accent effects. Price $81.

Kobian business scanner, IXA 80S Features include business card scanning, recognition and management function, global compatibility, multiple languages support,

Specifications: • High speed quality: <600 dpi • USB cable length: 14” • Resolution: 600dpi • Interface: USB 1.1 • Scanning modes: 24-bit colour output, 8-bit grayscale output, 1-bit B/W • Scanning speed, 10ppm at colour A8 size in 400dpi • Scanning area: max 54.6 x 96.5 mm, A8 size

Compatible with Acer, Dell, HP, Panasonic, Toshiba, Fujitsu, IBM, Philips, Twin head, Asus, Gateway, Lenovo, Samsung, Viewsonic, Compaq, Hitachi, NEC, Sony, Win book, others.

Specifications: • Rated input voltage: AC 100-240V • Vibration input voltage range: AC 110-240V • Input rated current: 1.0-1.5 amp • Input power: 110-140 VA • Output power (max): 90W • Output voltage: 12/15/16/18/19/20V @ 3.5 amp • Output current: 24V @ 90W • Overload protection: Yes • Short circuit protection: Yes

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exporting of contacts into Outlook, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, ACT, Palm Desktop.

Sony Launches VAIO E-series The new Vaio E-series is equipped with second generation Intel Core i5 Processor and AMD Dual-Core Processor. The graphic processing is through NVIDIA GeForce 410M GPU, AMD Radeon HD 6310 Graphics or Intel HD Graphics 3000. The surface of the notebooks features a truss pattern where several small triangles construct one large hexagon. The texture covers the exterior as well as the palm rest. Ergonomically designed for ease of use, fingerprints and smudges are less noticeable due to the three-dimensional pattern.

The isolation keyboard and the handy numeric keypad is another user-friendly feature that allows comfortable typing. The 14-inch and 15.5-inch models are available in black, white, and pink. Glossy finished white and pink surfaces give a shiny and airy feel, while matte black offers a more sophisticated and stately tone. Price starts at $679.

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY News

Touch control MFP from Sharp Sharp Middle East has launched multi function printers with a finger-swipe touch control panel. The three models in the range are the full colour MX-2610N, MX3110N, and MX-361ON. All of them have a 10.1” control panel which users can tap, flick or slide a finger to control features.

The entire control experience, based around the colour LCD touch screen, can be fully customised with users able to place the most used tools and applications on the home page of the system as desired.

A new feature is the inclusion of full internet access and cloud application connectivity. Using the finger-swipe control, users will be able to print web content without the need for a PC, as well as enable businesses to reach beyond the firewall to run software applications.

Projector exhaust shutter systems from Epson Epson has developed a projector exhaust shutter system for trouble-free running. The shutter automatically closes when the projector is not in use, preventing dust and sand from entering and causing damage. The projectors’ optical engine is encased in glass to offer further protection against the atmosphere. The EBD6155W and EB-D6250 models are equipped with dust protection shutters.

Envy tablet from Intex • 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM • 8-32GB Internal storage, supports TF card slot • Weight 0.4kg • Size 18.6 x 11.2 x 0.85 cm • 400 MHz processor, 3D acceleration support • Flash 10.1 • 800x400 pixel, 7" resistive single-touch panel, built in mic • Wireless keyboard/mouse support through Bluetooth • Four hours rechargeable battery, 3750mAh

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People Movement

Steve Gomo, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, NetApp has made the decision to retire, effective December 31, 2011. Gomo, 59, joined NetApp in Steve Gomo 2002 and is responsible for the company’s finance, workplace resources, and investor relations functions.

Nicholas R Noviello, Senior Vice President of Finance and Global Controller will succeed Gomo Nicholas R Noviello as CFO on January 1, 2012. The transition in leadership is the result of a planned management succession process.

Noviello, 42, joined NetApp in 2008 as Vice President and Corporate Controller and was subsequently promoted to Senior Vice president of Finance and Global Controller. He has been a key contributor to NetApp’s financial strategy and operational cadence, and has been actively engaged in decisions around NetApp’s business model, international finance, tax, capital allocation, and mergers and acquisitions. Before NetApp, Noviello held positions at Honeywell International and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Nada Haddad has been appointed as Marketing Manager, Middle East and Africa for Smart Technologies.

Haddad will be responsible for the planning and execution of marketing activities across the Middle East and Africa region. She brings ten years of

marketing experience to Smart and prior to joining the company served as Regional Marketing Manager for a leading IT Distributor. Haddad graduated from Notre Dame University in Lebanon with a Bachelor’s degree in Advertising and Marketing and is also a certified member of the International Advertising Association.

Avnet, Inc announced that Rick Hamada has succeeded Roy Vallee as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Vallee will continue to serve as Avnet’s Executive Chairman of the company’s Board of Rick Hamada Directors. These moves are the culmination of a multi-year CEO succession planning process.

Hamada had previously served as Chief Operating Officer since July 2006. He joined Roy Vallee Avnet in 1983 and has a strong track record of performance and team success. He is a graduate of San Diego State University. Hamada will become the 9th CEO in the 90 year history of Avnet.

Vallee has been with Avnet for 34 years and served as Chairman and CEO the past for 13 years. As Executive Chairman, Vallee will continue to provide board leadership, focus on a smooth transition and be involved in selected strategic activities.

Dubizzle, the region’s online classifieds and community portal, has appointed Arto Joensuu to head the company’s marketing efforts across the Middle East and North Africa as Director of

Marketing. Joensuu will oversee advertising, PR and social media activities for Dubizzle while managing new market operations in partnership with local teams.

Joensuu has held several roles in the area of digital media. He previously worked as Head of Digital Marketing, Middle East and Africa at Nokia, as well as pioneering mobile marketing at Terra Mobile in Finland.

Polycom, announced the appointment of Tracey Newell to the position of executive Vice President, Global Sales to lead Polycom’s global sales operations. Newell has more than 20 years experience at leading companies including Juniper Networks and Cisco Systems. Throughout her career, Newell has focused on networking, software, and cloud services, all areas of importance to Polycom. At Juniper, Newell was SVP of Worldwide General Business Sales, responsible for increasing reach and share in the enterprise and mid-market. All Polycom theatre presidents and global sales operations will report to Newell. She holds a BA in business economics from the University of California. In 2007, Newell was recognized in Diversity Journal’s annual “Women Worth Watching” issue.

Juniper Networks announced two key appointments to its operations team. Bask Iyer has been appointed as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer and Martin J Garvin has been appointed Senior Vice President of manufacturing operations. Iyer joins Juniper Networks from Honeywell, where he most recently served as company-wide CIO and a member of the leadership team driving its IT vision, strategy and operating plan. Garvin most recently served as Senior Vice president and Chief Procurement Officer at Dell, where he was responsible for the strategic leadership and operation of Dell’s global supply chain.

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PEOPLE Hassan Palandöken

Gigaset’s cross border executive

View from the top Hasan Palandöken is Vice President Sales at Gigaset Communications and manages a vast geography across Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific. Understanding these geographies and their sales dynamics is really the most challenging and enriching part of his job role at the same time. The turmoil of global markets adds to the challenge. And meeting people with different cultural backgrounds, who have different perceptions of the same issue, adds to the enrichment.

Palandöken has improved sales by 30% since the time he took over in 2007 and cut

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costs by 50%. Prior to his sales job role, he worked on the product management side of mobiles, ISDN and narrow band products.

Since he spends a large part of his time travelling the most demanding aspect of his job role is really the stress of jet lag and adjusting to multiple time zones.

Palandöken describes himself to be people oriented, with a high level of ethics and internally driven motivation, not necessarily influenced from outside. He works hard to make sure he is delivering so his people can also deliver. He believes in listening to partners and learning from them. He

also keeps abreast by reading books on globalisation and politics.

Palandöken is married with three children and his personal drive is to service the people he loves. His favourite unwinding pastime is hiking, but he also enjoys outdoor sports like cycling and jogging. His favourite devices are iPhone and iPad. Social media is not yet an important part of his professional and personal life. He has an indepth educational background with an MS degree in Telecommunications Engineering, MS degree in economics and an MBA in International Strategic Marketing with distinction.

HUAWEI AR G3 Access Router

Multi-core support for superior access performance.

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