Value Stories | Issue 4 by Reseller Middle East

DI FF ER EN CE A MA DE TH AT ST OR IE S

ISSUE 04

POWERING INNOVATION ACROSS INDUSTRIES. ACROSS MARKETS

Meet Data Residency

Secure your Data

Comply with Regulation

Discover a new way to work with Microsoft 365

Rethink Productivity

Streamline business processes

Protect your business

PROLOGUE Published by

CONTENTS 04

ENABLING TRANSFORMATION THROUGH INNOVATION

It is gives me great pride and satisfaction to pen the prologue for the fourth edition of Value Stories as the leader of Redington Value. This issue once again only serves to illustrate the incredible transformation that our partner organizations are providing for their clients. In this supplement of Value Stories, we’re looking at how our partners have leveraged their expertise, knowledge and nous to help address some real pain points and challenges for their customers. In this installment of success stories, our partners have helped a leading bank to introduce an AI solution to enhance the way it communicates with its end-users, an airline to manage its escalating network costs, and empowered a UAEbased healthcare provider to make calculated and strategic business decisions by giving them greater visibility and understanding of the data at their disposal. That’s just a few success stories but all 10 really highlight the impact our partners are making in terms of delivering transformation all over the Middle East.

In addition to this, we’ve already started our practice around data science analytics which has eventually led us to engage with customers in terms of delivering better business outcomes for them. So ITSM and CRM is one area, and you will hear a lot of announcements in the coming weeks and months ahead. On the security side we’re going into application level security. We have made some significant announcements with CrowdStrike who have really made a significant impact and have become a real market disruptor. Besides that, our cloud practices are maturing both in terms of services delivery and in terms of maturity of the cloud management portal which we call the Cloud Quarks. In addition to this, we’re adding a lot of our existing products and services making them available on the cloud market space. As always, we proactively encourage our partners to collaborate with us so that together we can maximize market opportunities.

SAYANTAN DEV Senior Vice President, Redington Value

THE GAME PLAN Dataplus BACK TO THE FUTURE FutureX REAL SECURITY MDS DUBAI

LEARNING FROM ‘THE BLACKBOARD’ OCS Infotech

BACKED UP Seven Seas Computers

In terms of what we’ve been embarking upon on Redington in the last number of months let me give you a brief overview. We have doubled down our investments because we’re projecting significant growth as all indicators seem to point to an upward trajectory which is giving us a lot of room for optimism. From the portfolio expansion perspective, we’re getting increasingly involved in application and business outcome delivery, which is quite a shift from our traditional business which is based around infrastructure.

THE POWER OF DATA Cynosure

SMART BANKING ThingLogix

FLYING HIGH Qatar Project Group International

SECURE UNION IE Network Solutions 22

GETMAX OF IT Getmax DMCC

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

THE ‘POWER’ OF DATA

AMANDEEP S. MEHTA, DIRECTOR AT CYNOSURE SOLUTIONS, HIGHLIGHTS HOW MICROSOFT’S POWER BI SOLUTION IS EMPOWERING MEDCARE HOSPITALS & MEDICAL CENTRES, A LEADING UAE HEALTHCARE PROVIDER TO HAVE BETTER VISIBILITY AND UNDERSTANDING OF ITS DATA AS PART OF ITS EFFORTS TO MAKE BETTER INFORMED BUSINESS DECISIONS.

ynosure Solutions, a leading UAE-based IT services company has disclosed the details of a successful project it delivered for Medcare Hospitals & Medical Centres. Medcare Hospitals & Medical Centres, a premium healthcare network that operates out of the United Arab Emirates, is a venture of Aster DM Healthcare, a global healthcare group with 317 medical establishments across 9 countries, including the GCC, India and Africa. Committed to providing high quality, personalized medical care to every patient, Medcare lives by its simple promise: We’ll Treat You Well. Medcare’s premium healthcare network includes four multispecialty hospitals (3 in Dubai and 1 in Sharjah), 4 specialty centres (in Dubai), 10 medical centres (9 in Dubai and 1 in Sharjah), and 350+ healthcare providers. Cynosure has established a reputation for enabling business performance through its full suite of Enterprise IT services. However, within that Cynosure has its focus and specialization on areas like Microsoft business applications and Azure cloud infrastructure. Cynosure was tasked with the responsibility of

empowering the management of Medcare Hospitals and Medical Centres with the ability to access data being generated in real-time across all Medcare facilities. Amandeep S. Mehta, Director at Cynosure, explains the customer requirement and the solution offered in more detail. He said, “The solution is known as Power BI. It is a tool from Microsoft that helps its users have more visibility of their data in the form of reports and dashboards. We engaged in a project with the Medcare Hospitals & Medical Centres here in the UAE as they are generating huge volumes of data so they wanted a tool that could empower them to analyze the performance of each facility and operational KPIs.” The Microsoft Power BI solution enables the management of Medcare to access information ranging from how many walk-in patients they have, which doctor attended to them, what they were prescribed and what the billing and revenue was for the clinic as of yesterday. The unique component in this solution is that the management of Medcare have instantaneous access to all the information they needed without having to ask anyone for it, freeing their employees from additional administrative tasks. Amandeep added, “When we started the project,

CUSTOMER: MEDCARE HOSPITALS & MEDICAL CENTRES, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Customer Objective

Why Microsoft power BI?

•

Harnessing and understanding the data at their disposal

•

Delivered actionable insights and analysis

•

Formulated presentation of data through reports and

•

Reliable and secure solution

dashboards

•

Accessible across multiple devices

•

Giving visibility and insight to make informed business decisions

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

CYNOSURE

“MEDCARE IS GENERATING HUGE VOLUMES OF DATA SO THEY WANTED A TOOL THAT COULD EMPOWER THEM TO ANALYZE THE PERFORMANCE OF EACH MEDICAL FACILITY AND ITS STAFF MEMBERS.” AMANDEEP S. MEHTA, CYNOSURE

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Medcare Hospitals & Medical Centres, United Arab Emirates OBJECTIVE: The objective of this project was to equip the Medcare Hospitals & Medical Centres management with access to all the data being generated across all the hospitals and clinics.

Andre Daoud, CEO of Medcare stressed to us that the fundamental reason he was proceeding with this project with Cynosure is that he wanted the management of Medcare to have access and clarity to the performance of their business without having to call anyone within their facility. He wanted that information to be available to them on their mobiles, laptops and tablets. It’s the same interface across all devices so Power BI has the capability to deliver this requirement.” “Agility is key to any industry and healthcare is no different, and to be agile you need the power of data. Without data you are just another person with an opinion. Numbers and data have a story to tell, and with analytics and great visualization key stakeholders are empowered to make informed decision, said Naushad Mohammed – General Manager of IT with Medcare Hospitals & Medical Centres. Amandeep added, “The Microsoft Power BI platform is able to capture the billing system in real-

How Cynosure did it? •

Provided expertise and in-depth support

•

to ensure a seamless integration of the solution

•

Acutely understood the fundamental objectives of the client

•

Educated employees on the importance of harnessing data

time. Medcare will have access to comparative data and they’ve also got parameters that are coloured which indicate the status of their current business. This will enable them to make business decisions and actionable steps to respond to any insight flagged by the system. ” One other important component in the Microsoft Power BI solution is the fact that it is 100% transparent and trustworthy. He concluded by saying, “The important thing about the platform is that it is data that you can trust. Nobody can manipulate the reports that are being generated daily. There is no manual intervention allowed on the Microsoft Power BI solution. One of the biggest problems for large enterprises is that they may not be able to trust the data that is being relayed back to them? The past manual intervention on platforms has always created doubt about the data. However, with Power BI the data is 100% watertight and accurate.” n

CORE REQUIREMENTS: Easy visibility and access to the oceans of data that is being proliferated across all their facilities in a bid to assess the performance of individual hospital/medical centre and operational KPI. SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Microsoft Power BI PARTNER: Cynosure Solutions

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

THE GAME PLAN

WALID EL HADIDY, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT DATAPLUS, OUTLINES HOW THE BUSINESS-INTELLIGENCEFOCUSED FIRM DELIVERED A LARGE-SCALE DATA ANALYTICS PROJECT WITH TABLEAU SOFTWARE.

gypt is one of the most populated countries in the Africa and Middle East region. Its current population is 100,752,498, according to the latest United Nations estimates. Tracking the number of births and deaths is crucial to planning government services in the country. Based on the number of births, the government can plan schools, hospitals and other services. By gaining insights into the cause of deaths, the government can take precautions against infectious diseases and determine other factors. Also, rarely will a large percentage of death be found to be due to one particular reason; if this happens, then the government will know to investigate and ensure the details are being recorded accurately. However, to be able to efficiently record and use this data across a large country like Egypt, the government will have to depend on sophisticated technology. Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development approached Dataplus, an IT solutions provider focused on business intelligence and data analysis, to help create a national dashboard for the country’s birth and death database. Carefully analysing the requirement, Dataplus was

certain that Tableau Software was the ideal solution to address this challenge. Known as ‘Mechanization of Birth and Death Registration’ project, Dataplus together with the Ministry, began the work on proof of concepts (PoCs). Walid El Hadidy, Managing Director at Dataplus, says, “We worked with the Ministry of Planning and Administrative development to create dashboards using Tableau Software for the birth and deaths system implemented all over the health regional offices in Egypt.” The Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development is responsible for the automation and development of e-government services across all government entities. “They have protocols with different government ministries to automate their services and business. One of the protocols was the Ministry of Health. While we were approached by Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development, the work was being done for the Ministry of Health.” Hadidy highlights that working on a national project is very different from an enterprise one. “This is because the value of the project delivered is seen across the whole nation,” he says.

CUSTOMER: MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF EGYPT

Customer objective

Why Tableau Software?

•

To automate birth and death registrations

•

Offered reliable and proven solution

•

To create a dashboard that simplifies data monitoring

•

Met all aspects of customer’s demands

•

To gain insights to help streamline government services planning

•

Easily integrable components

•

To track exact causes of death and help take necessary precautions

•

Delivered insights accurately

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

DATAPLUS

“WE HAVE HELPED THE MINISTRY TO AUTOMATE THE PROCESS, PART OF WHICH INCLUDES DELIVERING DATA INTO A DASHBOARD. THIS DATA WILL FURTHER ENABLE DECISION-MAKERS TO TAKE ACTIONS AND PLAN EFFECTIVELY.” WALID EL HADIDY, DATAPLUS

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development of Egypt OBJECTIVE: To develop a national automated dashboard to register birth and deaths in Egypt CORE REQUIREMENTS: Easy visibility to number of births and deaths at any given time, have insights

Considering the size of the country, it was a challenging project. “We had to interact with health offices, which are scattered all over Egypt. The country has 27 governorates and each of them houses a number of cities and each city has a number of villages. The health offices are located near the 4500 plus village municipalities,” he explains. Through Tableau Software and expertise from Dataplus engineers, the Ministry now had visibility to a detailed health board, housing all the required parameters over Egypt. “The project was completed over a period of three to four months. We have worked on the map of Egypt, right up to the village level. We have helped the Ministry to automate the process, part of which includes delivering data into a dashboard. This data will further enable decision-makers to take actions and plan effectively.” One of the main challenges that Dataplus faced was obtaining information on the map of the country.

How Dataplus did it? •

Understood the challenges of the customer’s requirements

•

Worked on the PoC to create an automated dashboard

•

Enhanced implementation through in-depth support and technical expertise

“We needed to have X and Y coordinates for every village across Egypt. This was easier said than done. However, we managed to do it with the support of the Ministry.” According to Hadidy, the map visualization capability of Tableau Software was innovative. “Another challenge we faced was matching the names of villages in the maps against the dashboard. This is because some of the villages had really old names and some were repeated. A lot of data consolidation was needed, and this was possible thanks to the map visualization capabilities of Tableau Software.” The implementation was awarded first place and golden shield in the Management Innovation Competition hosted by the African Organization for Public Administration. The event was held in Gaborone, capital of Botswana, from 5th to 9th November 2018 under the theme ‘Innovation in Public Administration’. n

into causes of deaths to take precautions against diseases and determine other factors, plan government services better for general public SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Tableau Software PARTNER: Dataplus

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

BACK TO THE FUTURE SAIF ALWAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT IT COMPANY FUTUREX, DISCUSSES HOW TRANSITIONING FROM MICROSOFT’S ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT (EA) TO ITS CLOUD SOLUTION PROVIDER (CSP) AGREEMENT HAS OPTIMIZED LICENSING COSTS AND EMPOWERED FUTURE GROUP TO HAVE GREATER FLEXIBILITY IN TERMS OF LICENSING.

utureX was a company that was created 1 year ago following a consensus that the IT department at Future Pipe Industries had reached a level of peak maturity. Alwan said, “Future Pipe Industries is a privately-owned global manufacturing company which is part of a larger group called Future Group. Over the past decade, we built the skills and expertise of the IT department through the deployment and management of several complex IT solutions. We had reached an advanced level of IT maturity so we took the decision to spin the IT department into a separate business called FutureX so that we could offer our skills and expertise to third party customers.” Alwan spearheaded a major project which was to take Future Group from a Microsoft EA to a CSP agreement. He explained the complexities involved in the transition. “It took several months of planning as you’re effectively changing your entire Microsoft licensing

model. In addition to this, you obviously need to get up to speed on of the various Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license types and establish and identify what the differences between them are so you can select the right package mix for your users. We have different types of users so it’s important you pick the right packages. This took several months of planning and we did that with Redington, using them as our distributor and FutureX was the reseller. We’re now the reseller into the group and to our third-party customers.” Alwan stated that there was no cultural resistance from within the group on the transition from the EA to the cloud as they were already familiar with Microsoft. He added, “There was no resistance because they didn’t feel any change. We were already using Office 365 and there was a familiarity with Microsoft that already existed. There was no service disruption at all and our users didn’t realize that we had completely changed the licensing model.” The Managing Director at FutureX disclosed that Microsoft was heavily involved with them on their journey to the cloud as they needed to get up to speed

CUSTOMER: FUTURE GROUP

Customer Objective

Why Microsoft 365?

•

Transition seamlessly from EA to CSP agreement

•

Flexibility in licensing

•

Enhanced offering for end-users

•

Robust security and reliability

•

Removal of long-term commitments and optimization of license costs

•

Easy for internal teams and users to collaborate

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

FUTUREX

“IT TOOK SEVERAL MONTHS OF PLANNING AS YOU’RE EFFECTIVELY CHANGING YOUR ENTIRE MICROSOFT LICENSING MODEL.” SAIF ALWAN, FUTUREX

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Future Group OBJECTIVE: The objective was to transition the group away from its existing EA towards a CSP agreement. CORE REQUIREMENTS: Greater flexibility in terms of licensing agreements, cost optimization and removed

on what the different components of Microsoft 365 were, particularly around Microsoft’s new security services. “We needed to understand all of the services that each licensing type made available to us. What comes with an E3 license and a E5 license and what other licensing packages are available to you? We really wanted to optimize all of this to ensure we were buying exactly what we needed and weren’t overspending.” According to Alwan the transition to the cloud has been a huge success and the flexibility the group now has in terms of its licensing has been empowering. He said, “The project has been executed successfully and we now have a lot of flexibility in terms of licensing as a result of transitioning to CSP from the EA and moving to Microsoft 365. Our commitments are monthly, and we can remove licenses at will and we

no longer have to go through the cumbersome process of truing up or truing down like you did when you were under an EA. We were already using Office 365 before switching to CSP which we had bought through the EA, so we were already using software as a service from Microsoft, but what we have now in terms of flexibility is hugely empowering.” Alwan also highlighted the key role played by Redington on the delivery of the project. He concluded by saying, “Redington added huge value because they were suggesting lots of different potential licensing models and different licensing types because of their experience. They have a strong Microsoft team and being a Microsoft licensing distributor they have the knowhow and expertise on all the ins and outs of licensing and that really helped us cut through all the noise.” n

the issue of entering into long-term commitments.

How FutureX did it? •

Managed the transition from EA to CSP

•

Familiarity with Microsoft software and products

•

Selected the right packages that optimized spend

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Microsoft M365 PARTNER: FutureX

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

‘REAL’ SECURITY ANSHUL PAREEK, LEADER PRE-SALES-PRACTICES, CYBER DEFENSE AT MDS DUBAI, HAS ARTICULATED HOW THEY HELPED TO TRANSFORM THE SECURITY OPERATIONS FOR A LEADING UAE-BASED REAL ESTATE ENTERPRISE BY IMPLEMENTING SPLUNK INTO ITS SECURITY FRAMEWORKS AND ARCHITECTURE.

DS DUBAI is a holding company that has established itself as one of the leading IT enterprises in the United Arab Emirates with over 35 years of experience in the industry. The IT leader manages some of the biggest businesses in the country, which include the incumbent aviation airlines domestically. Anshul Pareek outlined how the company transformed the security operations of one the UAE’s leading

real estate firms. Pareek said, “The client we worked with on this particular project is involved in real-estate and wanted to set-up a monitoring center for security and analytics. It was our responsibility to educate them on the

benefits of installing Splunk into its existing security portfolio. The client had been using technologies that had become antiquated, and in many cases obsolete, in fact in many respects the client was completely oblivious and unaware regarding the types of attacks that his business could be exposed to and the damage that could be done.” MDS DUBAI was tasked with the responsibility of overhauling their security operations and embarked upon an ambitious project which was firmly centered on innovation. He added, “They had never created or established threat models around their critical assets. They had invested quite significantly in standalone technology for their security needs, but they weren’t getting any real benefit from this in terms of its ROI. We planned an innovative project with the client and told them that we

CUSTOMER: REAL ESTATE COMPANY BASED IN UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Customer Objective

Why Splunk?

•

Establish threat models around critical assets

•

Could act as brain for detection centre

•

Consolidation of security architecture

•

Increased visibility on security threats

•

ROI

and compliance •

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

Versatile technology

MDS DUBAI “WE’VE HARDENED THEIR SYSTEMS TO MAKE SURE WE CAN GO BACK AND REMEDIATE THINGS IN A MUCH QUICKER FASHION IF THEY HAVE BEEN ATTACKED.” ANSHUL PAREEK, CYBER DEFENSE AT MDS DUBAI

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Real Estate company based in United Arab Emirates OBJECTIVE: Develop a robust security infrastructure that helps the company be able to detect bad actors and cyberattacks on its critical assets.

needed to revamp and review their security – and we subsequently performed a maturity assessment on all their security products to determine what needed to be done.” Pareek also disclosed how Splunk would serve as a brain for its detection centre and adopted a hands-on approach with the client in order to ensure they developed the right use-cases for them. “We created an automated detection centre and innovative threat intelligence integration back into Splunk which would actually work as a brain for their detection centre. We engaged in a consultation with them that primarily focused on the threat actors that are targeting real estate enterprises and we needed to make sure we had the right detection usecases developed on Splunk to be

How MDS DUBAI did it? •

Proven track record of delivering large security projects

•

Assisted in developing the right detection use-cases

•

Expertise in security maturity assessment

able to combat these sophisticated and complex threats.” The cyber defense expert at MDS DUBAI concluded by highlighting how satisfied the client now was with its security architecture and then bringing everything back into Splunk. He said, “We installed Splunk for the client and we’ve really proved its value by consolidating their security architecture and we’ve gone back and created the right uses cases with automate workflows using Splunk. We’ve hardened their systems to make sure we can go back and remediate things in a much quicker fashion if they have been attacked. We have also introduced a robust and efficient incident response framework for their entire operations.” n

CORE REQUIREMENTS: Create automated detection centre and efficient incident response framework for their entire security operations. SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Splunk PARTNER: MDS DUBAI

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

LEARNING FROM ‘THE BLACKBOARD’ QAIS AL BAHRANI, SENIOR TECHNICAL CONSULTANT AT OCS INFOTECH EXPLAINS HOW TECHNOLOGY PROVIDED BY TCG DIGITAL WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN TERMS OF EMPOWERING THEIR CLIENT WITH A GREATER VISIBILITY TO THEIR DATA IN A BID TO REDUCE THE COST OF MANAGING ALL THEIR FACILITIES ACROSS THE SULTANATE OF OMAN.

CS Infotech in conjunction with TCG Digital embarked on an ambitious project which aimed to automate and integrate innovative solutions for a Facilities Management Company that had over 2,000 locations all over Oman. The main pain point being experienced by the client was escalating electricity costs. However, with the help and expertise of OCS and TCG Digital they were able to implement Big Data and Analytics into their existing operations to make better

decisions. Al Bahrani said, “We’ve embarked upon a project with TCG Digital, who are an American company that have established themselves as a leader in analytics. The customer we had required a blackboard that could enable them to do both IoT and analytics. TCG Digital’s expertise and knowledge in the analytical space is the primary reason we selected them to be the vendor on this project.”

According to the Senior Technical Consultant at OCS Infotech it was imperative for its client to have better visibility over its data as part of a concerted effort to make better informed business decisions that would ultimately reduce its costs and overheads. He added, “Our client has over 2,000 facilities that are located all over Oman, and is primary objective is to reduce his electricity bill. In addition to this, he wants to build a blackboard where he can install all the sensors which will ultimately enable him to make better informed decisions. These solutions will also allow him to do authentication and authorization at a future juncture, but in order to do that he needs to examine the data to see who is coming to the facilities and he needs better visibility on the data he has in a bid to extract value from it. Al Bahrani also highlighted how TCG Digital provided an infinite amount of storage on its database and outlined the role being played by the installation of sensors. He said, “TCG Digital has a blackboard which allows

CUSTOMER: FACILITIES MANAGEMENT COMPANY BASED IN OMAN

Customer Objective

Why TCG Digital?

•

Reduction in electricity costs

•

Better visibility on data

•

Automated control and management of its facilities

Industry leading provider of analytical solutions

•

Trusted and reliable partner in analytical space

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

OCS INFOTECH

“TCG DIGITAL’S EXPERTISE AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE ANALYTICAL SPACE IS THE PRIMARY REASON WE SELECTED THEM TO BE THE VENDOR ON THIS PROJECT.” QAIS AL BAHRANI, OCS INFOTECH

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Facilities Management company based in Oman OBJECTIVE: The objective was to empower the client to understand his data to make better business decisions which would in turn help him manage his electricity costs. CORE REQUIREMENTS: Reduction in costs,

you to expand the capacity of the database, and there’s absolutely no limit to the capacity in terms of storage. We have installed sensors around the facility to measure the amount of people in the facility, the humidity and the current temperature. We use the information from the sensors to understand if we need to increase or decrease the AC hand speed or and we’ve built a rule engine to ensure we make the right decisions. Each facility is very different so it’s critical to have these technologies implemented to ensure you make the correct decisions.” The blackboard was deployed over three months and the client is

already seeing positive results and is projected to save thousands on his electricity bill. Al Bahrani concluded by saying, “We deployed all these solutions around three months ago and it has been a huge success thus far. This is the first step in the process to control and fully automate all these facilities. We have also manufactured our own IoT circuit to control some of the elements inside the facility. It perfectly complements the solution with TCG Digital. In addition to this, we’ve engaged with our telecommunications partner Ooredoo to facilitate all the connectivity that is required to run all the solutions.” n

and better access to management and monitoring through analytics and Big Data.

How OCS Infotech did it? •

Leveraged its own expertise on IoT to assist TCG Digital

•

Helped client understand the value of data in terms of making better decisions

•

Oversaw the successful execution of the project

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: TCG Digital PARTNER: OCS Infotech

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

BACKED UP SAM DANIEL, ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS CONSULTANT AT SEVEN SEAS COMPUTERS, OUTLINES HOW IT SUCCESSFULLY DEPLOYED VEEAM’S AHV BACKUP SOLUTION TO ENABLE SERCO TO HAVE GREATER VISIBILITY AND CONTROL OVER ITS DATA.

am Daniel, an Enterprise Solutions Consultant at Seven Seas Computers, which is a leading systems integrator and ICT solutions provider based in the UAE, has detailed the role it has played in solving a major issue for one of its clients. Public services company, Serco was experiencing issues in terms of meeting SLA backup requirements and was also encountering issues in relation to managing its data as it was stored across different servers at multiple locations across the United Arab Emirates. However, Seven Seas instructed Serco to deploy Veeam’s AHV backup solution in order to counter the problems it was facing. Daniel said the primary objective for Serco was to have one centralized backup location for all its sites. He said, “The major pain point for the customer in this project was that it had multiple locations across the UAE - but they wanted to have one centralized backup infrastructure so they could maintain their

backup and be in a position to monitor all of their sites from a centralized location.” They had been previously managing everything centrally but were running various backup servers at a whole host of different locations which was creating huge headaches for them both in terms of meeting its backup SLA requirements and data management. Daniel added, “The issue with the previous type of setup they were employing was that the data is scattered across different locations. They wanted a solution that could centrally back-up everything onto one centralized platform and they wanted to see what and how the infrastructure was running in their environment.” In his capacity as a leading enterprise solution consultant at Seven Seas, Daniel wasted no time in advising the client to deploy Veeam’s backup and replication software to alleviate the challenges it was facing. He added, “We installed the Veeam backup and replication software in their centralized location which was also doubled-up as its head office. From

CUSTOMER: SERCO

Customer Objective

Why Veeam AHV backup solution?

•

Implementation of centralized backup infrastructure

•

Greater speed and flexibility

•

Management and monitoring of all data

•

Instant recovery of lost data

•

Meet backup SLA requirements

•

Simplified and reliable backup solution

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

SEVEN SEAS COMPUTERS

“AS SEVEN SEAS SYSTEM INTEGRATOR, IT WAS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO HELP SERCO IN OPTIMISING THEIR BACKUP SOLUTION ON VEEAM AHV BACKUP SOLUTION.” SAM DANIEL, SEVEN SEAS COMPUTERS

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: SERCO OBJECTIVE: The objective was to implement a backup infrastructure so that all the client can monitor all its sites at a centralized location. CORE REQUIREMENTS: Increased visibility and control over data by becoming centralized and ability to instantly recover data in the case of a disaster.

that head office they’re managing all their remote sites. They had also been facing real challenges in terms of the speed of their backup but Veeam’s technology has resolved that issue.” Veeam’s cutting-edge technology also provided greater visibility and flexibility to manage their data in a structured way. The advantage of deploying Veeam technology was that it provided them with the ability to instantly recover their data in seconds. Daniel concluded by highlighting that the legacy infrastructure they were using meant that it was simply unable to meet backup SLA needs, plus it was also taking them too much time which in turn was resulting in the proliferation of costs. Daniel said, “As a Seven Seas system integrator, it was a great opportunity for us to

help SERCO in optimising their backup solution on Veeam AHV Backup solution. They were running different backup products in order to meet their SLA. Due to their legacy backup solution on Veritas backup and old hardware infrastructure and they were not able to meet their required backup SLA. Their backups were also taking longer and were subsequently failing. We had decommissioned their current backup solutions and reconfigured the entire solution on Veeam AHV Backup. We then made sure that their backups were taken to an offsite datacentre location and this in turn helped them have their temp DR with the capability of Veeam instant recovery. The VBR Server and its repository where located in another datacentre which is connected via fiber.” n

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Veeam AHV Backup solution

How seven seas did it? •

Decommissioning of their existing current backup solutions

•

Reconfiguration of the entire solution

•

Ensured successful deployment of solution by adopting a ‘hands-on’ approach

PARTNER: Seven Seas Computers

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

SMART BANKING

FAISAL ALJUNDI, GENERAL MANAGER OF MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA AT THINGLOGIX, OUTLINES THE ROLE THE COMPANY HAS PLAYED IN HELPING A LEADING BANKING PROVIDER IN THE UAE TO IMPLEMENT AMAZON ALEXA TO TRANSFORM HOW IT COMMUNICATES WITH ITS CUSTOMERS.

hingLogix was established in 2014 and is headquartered in the United States. The company specializes in Internet of Things and AI but has also adopted a special focus on a new technology called serverless. Their objective with serverless is to minimize the usage of the infrastructure. In more simplistic terms they want to deliver more coding by using less infrastructure. However, ThingLogix is also an advanced technology partner for Amazon Web Services and a lot of their projects are done in conjunction with Amazon Web Services. One such project is ThingLogix’s partnership with one of the UAE’s leading banks. Ajundi explains the initiative in more detail. “We’re now engaged with one of the UAE’s leading banks and we’ve been tasked with the responsibility of building smart capabilities that will enhance the way

the bank communicates with its customers. We’ve introduced Alexa the AI chatbot as part of our efforts to improve the communication between the bank and its end-users.” According to the dynamic General Manager of ThingLogix, the main pain point for the bank was the fact that its standard IVR model had become almost redundant. Customers were expressing their dissatisfaction with the customer service it was providing so the bank realized it needed to act fast. Ajundi added, “From a business perspective if you need anything from a bank or a telecommunications operator and you follow the standard IVR model you have to use a phone number and then you’ve got to go through a process when you hear all the options and then select a function by hitting a specific number. It takes you anywhere from 1-2 minutes just to complete your initial task.

CUSTOMER: A LEADING BANKING INSTITUTION BASED IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Customer Objective

Why Amazon Alexa? [AWS]

•

Improve how the bank communicates with its customers

•

A global leader in AI chatbot technology

•

Deliver better customer experiences

•

Compatible with devices and easy to integrate into existing

•

Transforming its call centre

systems •

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

Reliable, secure and affordable

THINGLOGIX

“WE’RE INTRODUCING ALEXA THE AI CHATBOT AS PART OF OUR EFFORTS TO IMPROVE THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE BANK AND ITS END-USERS.” FAISAL ALJUNDI, THINGLOGIX

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: A leading banking institution based in the United Arab Emirates OBJECTIVE: To improve the communication between the bank and its customers to enhance the overall services it provides.

However, the power of Amazon’s Alexa is the fact that you can now get all the financial information you require in less than 1 minute. He added, “By leveraging the AI capabilities of Alexa the banking provider can enable their customers to ask Alexa what my credit card balance is? She will answer immediately so the process is now instantaneous and takes less than 5 seconds. It removes all the issues customers were experiencing and encountering with their existing IVR model.” Aljundi also firmly believes that introducing AI to enhance the customer experience will result in

How ThingLogix did it? •

Leveraged their position as a trusted technology partner of AWS

•

Expert on AI technologies

improved customer loyalty which is something banking providers are striving for in what is fast becoming an ultra-competitive market in the United Arab Emirates. “By introducing AI into its customer service you’re not only enhancing and transforming how the bank communicates with its customers but yo ur also creating loyalty. That is extremely important for banks.” Ajundi disclosed that a number of beta testing has already taken place and the project is now in the production phase of the business cycle. n

CORE REQUIREMENTS: Introduce disruptive technologies like AI to improve the overall customer experience for end-users. SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Amazon Alexa [AWS] PARTNER: ThingLogix

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

FLYING HIGH

NEERAJ BAJAJ, GENERAL MANAGER OF QATAR PROJECT GROUP INTERNATIONAL LLC OUTLINES HOW THEY HELPED A MAJOR QATARI-BASED AVIATION COMPANY MANAGE THEIR NETWORK COSTS.

atar Project Group International LLC has established itself as an enabler for change since it began its operations in 2004. The company has successfully executed countless projects for major enterprises in industries such as Oil & Gas, Government, Airport, Seaport, Shipping, Banking, Hospitality, Telecommunication and the aviation sector. The vision leadership and innovation on display at Qatar Project Group International LLC was one of the primary factors it was tasked with the responsibility of taking on a major project with one of Qatar’s most successful and globally recognized airlines. The pain point for QPGI’s client was network costs. However, how could they reduce their overall costs whilst at the same time maintain their ability to be secure? QPGI, had the solution to their problem.

Bajaj explains, “QPGI is primarily focused on two domains. One of them is infrastructure whilst the other is security. In terms of security we’re focused on network security and we’re a technology partner with Barracuda.” The General Manager of the successful Qatar enterprise said the success it had enjoyed with Barracuda Networks on previous projects gave it the confidence to know it was the perfect vendor particularly for this challenge. Bajaj added, “We’ve deployed multiple solutions for Barracuda Networks in the enterprise segment in Qatar for a long period of time, so we know what their capabilities and we have a strong and healthy partnership with them. In this business use-case we’re highlighting here our client was encountering huge challenges in terms of managing its Network costs. It’s a major enterprise that works in the aviation sector and we developed a solution in conjunction

CUSTOMER: AIRLINE CARRIER BASED IN QATAR

Customer Objective

Why Barracuda Networks?

•

Reduction in Network costs

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Cutting-edge technology

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Maintaining strong security performance

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Best of breed fiber solution

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No disruption in service

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Leading IT security company

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Required centralized management solution

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QPGI

“WE INSTRUCTED THEM TO ADOPT BARRACUDA’S FIBER SOLUTION AS WE FELT IT WAS THE BEST SOLUTION TO DELIVER THE RESULTS THEY WANTED.” NEERAJ BAJAJ, QATAR PROJECT GROUP INTERNATIONAL LLC

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Airline carrier based in Qatar. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to deploy a solution that would enable this global airline to manage its costs in an efficient and secure way. CORE REQUIREMENTS: A reduction in its network costs whilst maintaining a robust and security architecture around it.

with Barracuda Networks which was designed to help them manage these costs.” Bajaj also highlighted that it took a consultative approach with its client and felt that Barracuda Networks fiber solution was the best fit for what they needed as it both addressed the issues’ they were experiencing in terms of cost but were also delivering the security they desired. Bajaj said, “We instructed them to adopt Barracuda’s fiber solution as we felt it was the best solution to deliver the results they wanted. We connected this solution for them in 34 locations and the combination of QPGI and Barracuda technology also ensured that the network was secure and robust, which was obviously of very high importance

to the customer.” Bajaj said the project has been so far been a success since its deployment over a 1 month and that the client has already expressed its desire to roll it out across 250 locations. He concluded by saying, “We did a PoC (Proof of Concept) for the client and it ran for almost six months without any issues at all. This obviously instilled them with huge confidence and they officially rolled out the solution and deployed it over 1 month and the client is already seeing results. The client is that satisfied with the deployment that they want to expand it out to over 250 locations nationwide. It wasn’t only secure and cost-effective it was centrally managed too which was another added-bonus for the client.” n

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Barracuda Networks fiber solution.

How QPGI did it? •

Leveraged its experience in delivering large-scale projects

•

Had experience with working with Barracuda Networks on previous initiatives

•

Dynamic and innovative technology thought leader

PARTNER: Qatar Project Group International LLC

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

SECURE UNION MERIED BEKELE, CEO AND OWNER OF IE NETWORK SOLUTIONS DETAILS HOW THEY HELPED THE AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION ENHANCE THEIR OPTIMAL NETWORK PERFORMANCE IN A BID TO DELIVER GREATER SECURITY FOR THE ORGANIZATION AFTER A SERIES OF MALICIOUS ATTACKS WERE UNCOVERED IN 2018.

UC, the commission for the African union’s secretariat was looking for state of the art network enhancement and security network solutions that would accommodate the organisation’s IT needs and address the ever-growing threat landscape. Accordingly, the commission has announced the need for the solution back in 2018 after some malicious network activities were found in the network. Meried Bekele, CEO of IE Network Solutions said, “The commission’s infrastructure was found to be insecure and vulnerable to different attacks as it’s discovered that the entire content of

its servers was transferred to different country. It was then that IE-network solutions, a legally registered company in Ethiopia having more than 10 years of experience in providing an all-round IT solution collaborating with well-known global partners got the opportunity to offer the specified service for the commission.” IE Network Solutions had the opportunity to provide the services and delivered with impressive efficiency. As a part of the project, IE equipped the African union with state-of-the-art Cisco based network infrastructure and information security solution that has enabled the African union to use advanced technology to combat threats against its valuable assets, some technologies are

CUSTOMER: AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION (AUC)

Customer Objective

Why Cisco?

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Optimization of network performance

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Core network optimization

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Enhanced security framework

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NGFWs with advanced information security capabilities

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Detection of threats

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Network access control for centralized access management.

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

IE NETWORK SOLUTIONS

“THE COMMISSION’S INFRASTRUCTURE WAS FOUND TO BE INSECURE AND VULNERABLE TO DIFFERENT ATTACKS AS IT’S DISCOVERED THAT THE ENTIRE CONTENT OF ITS SERVERS WAS TRANSFERRED TO DIFFERENT COUNTRY.” MERIED BEKELE, IE NETWORK SOLUTIONS

• • •

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: African Union Commission (AUC) OBJECTIVE: To equip the African Union Commission with state of the art that will enable them to ensure optimal network performance and advanced network security.

• •

•

Advanced Malware Protection and Sandboxing Centralized Network Access Control System Intrusion Prevention System with advanced visibility URL Categorizing and Filtering System Centralized Security Intelligence and Management System High Speed backbone network

After the contract was signed and items are delivered, IE Network finalized the whole project under less than a week. Taking the item delivery time from Redington for complete preparation and documentation. Bekele added, “All Cisco devices deployed at AUC were

purchased through Redington, from Cisco and the implementation was done by IE’s very own in-house system experts. The security upgrade devices implemented are expected to provide utmost protection to AUC’s critical information and data.” Impressively, IE was able to complete the project implementation within the specified time and original budget and got a project closure approval of successfully meet the deliverables of the commission. He concluded by saying, “African Union’s critical assets now sit better protected. IE Network Solutions serves best Africa’s Technology needs with expert solutions.” n

CORE REQUIREMENTS: Optimize the network and plug security gaps the African union had.

How IE Network Solutions did it? •

State-of-the-art infrastructure

•

Speed of project delivery

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Expertise in IT security solutions

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Cisco PARTNER: IE Network Solutions

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

GETMAX OF IT PANKAJ JAIN, CEO GETMAX DMCC, OUTLINES A MAJOR SUCCESS IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF A MAJOR OIL & GAS ENGINEERING COMPANY WITH GLOBAL FOOT-PRINT AND OFFICES IN MANY COUNTRIES ACROSS CONTINENTS VIA MIGRATING THEIR ENTIRE SETUP ON SINGLE MICROSOFT AZURE CLOUD SOLUTION ALONGSIDE DEPLOYMENT OF MICROSOFT M365 E5 & E3 LICENSES.

he customer is one of the manufacturing industry’s most trusted partners in oil & gas, marine, and industrial engineering. There was multiple reasons for the customer wanting to transition to the cloud: In recent years, the customer expanded rapidly, but its computing systems weren’t able to keep up with the accelerated growth. This has caused inefficiencies, workflow bottlenecks, and difficulties in system management. They needed a solution to unify their geographically separate operations and to streamline communication and collaboration. Seeing the cloud as both the solution to its challenges and the way to the future, the customer embarked on the ambitious task of making all operations virtual. The result? Seamless collaboration globally, vastly simplified management, and a productivity and efficiency

leap that’s enabled easier expansion. With Microsoft Azure, the company achieved seamless cloud connectivity across the entire organization for their employees to store and share information over cloud from anywhere as well as take and manage data backups for recovery or restore. Also, to keep maximum productivity of operations, speed up project planning and centralized connectivity for their global offices, the company adopted Microsoft 365 for its management and IT staff in UAE. The company already relied on Microsoft Office, and there are hundreds of devoted employees at the company, so Office 365 inside a Microsoft M365 package was a natural next step. “In this virtual age, customer knew that the benefits were there to move to cloud since any Inhouse solution got challenges for global access due to poor bandwidth and latency in some countries, and Servers hosting options were found

CUSTOMER: OIL & GAS ENGINEERING COMPANY

Customer objective

Why microsoft Azure Solution?

•

Simplify global branches connectivity and IT infrastructure

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Was found matching to requirements to other cloud providers

management.

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Easily integrable and scalable components with long term

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Deploy a solution for more computing power for their IT systems.

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Improve employee productivity in a rapid scaling environment.

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Supported easy implementation and fast computing

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HPC (High performance Computing) for Engineering Centre.

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Met all aspects of customer’s demands

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

benefits

GETMAX DMCC

“THE GREATEST BENEFIT IS THE INTEGRATION OF THE COMPANY’S GLOBAL OPERATIONS, WITH ALL USERS ABLE TO CONNECT TO THE VIRTUAL DESKTOP FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.” PANKAJ JAIN, GETMAX DMCC

AT A GLANCE CUSTOMER: Oil & Gas Engineering Company. OBJECTIVE: To achieve cost optimization in current HPC (high-performance computing) Of Microsoft Azure Cloud setup with customer’s global offices with nearly entire computing and data on a single cloud solution. CORE REQUIREMENTS: Migration of their entire setup on single Microsoft Azure cloud solution alongside deployment of Microsoft M365 E5 & E3 Licenses.

to be coming with “too much extra baggage.,” The Customer maintains and scales up on Azure Cloud. Maintaining a global organization to the cloud is very prestigious for Partner GetMax DMCC and continues to support and scale up the Microsoft side of the services. Most recently in 2019 cost optimization were achieved by migrating a chunk of highperformance computing (HPC) services of Azure RI (Reserved Instances) was achieved. Thus, adding another breakthroughs’ in customer’s long list of successes on cloud. The HPC automatically expands to accommodate the number of users and their needs, so now multiple users can be connected to a high-performance application, like CAD, video, or 3D rendering. This had previously caused a workflow bottleneck,

How GetMax did it? •

Understood the customer challenges by detailed discussions

•

Prepared a techno-commerical plan for achieving objectives

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Delivered Infrastructure Solution resulting in cost efficiencies

with only one user able to work on a drawing at a time. The greatest benefit is the integration of the company’s global operations, with all users able to connect to the virtual desktop from anywhere in the world, making communication and collaboration seamless while freeing employees to work from anywhere. For a company that works 24/7 across time zones, the productivity and efficiency increases are significant, with time and cost savings to match. “Now our client can open a new office anywhere in the world in days, not months, and the entire infrastructure can be managed with very small no of IT Operations staff. “Everybody will come to understand in the future what significance this event has had in the world of technology and in the world of business and in the world of productivity.” n

SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED: Reserved Instances on Microsoft Azure for HPC (High Performance Computing) alongside M365 E5 & E3 licenses for Users. PARTNER: GetMax

VALUE STORIES|ISSUE 4

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