Smart SMB Magazine June by Business Media International

PUBLISHED BY Business Media International REGISTERED OFFICE: Office 10, Sharjah Media City www.bmi-digital.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Raman Narayan narayan@smartsmb.net Mob: 971-55-7802403 SALES DIRECTOR Ankit Shukla ankit@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706, Mob: 971-552572807 MARKETING & EVENTS MANAGER Smitha Jithesh smitha@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706 CIRCULATION MANAGER Bhawana Bhatia bhawana@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706 TELE MARKETING MANAGER Jennefer Mendoza jennefer@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706 FINANCE Vishal Tiwari vishal@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706 DESIGN Sunil Kumar design@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706

Firmly into the digital future

he SMB and mid-market Businesses must not shy away from adopting and learning new technologies faster. If there is an inertia to change, that could be a cardinal mistake as enforced change will not deliver desirable outcomes. If you are overwhelmed by the sheer pace and complexity of digital technology advancements, seek help from companies that have proven expertise in consulting for digital transformation. Have a strategy for digital transformation over a period of time and be committed to it and you could need the help of a good solution provider or IT consultant in doing this. Look for vendors who have strong focus in your verticals and identify those who have a higher value proposition to offer in terms of solutions that are cloud enabled. The earlier companies are able to co-opt new technologies into their business models, the sooner they will get to realize benefits and possibly take the lead. Businesses must also take the responsibility to nudge their employees towards up-skilling and bringing in more value to their roles in the organizations as they proceed with digital transformation. That will enrich the organization’s potential to take on larger challenges in newer markets. The truth is that the march towards the digitalized economy is inescapable. Sooner than later, your competitors will have adopted many of the technologies and you definitely don’t want to join the ranks of the laggards in technology adoption. It is again this backdrop that the Smart SMB Summit, scheduled to be held on the 26th of September 2018 at the JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai, will be a good opportunity for the top executives of midmarket companies to attend and enhance their awareness of digital transformation trends. Keynotes from experts in their respective domains, an elaborate showcase of new technologies and a great opportunity to network with peers, provide the best steps ahead to know what it takes to embrace the new world.

R. Narayan Editor in Chief Smart SMB Management Chairman S. N. Tiwari

sn.tiwari@smartsmb.net

Managing Director Ankit Shukla

ankit@smartsmb.ne

Publisher Raman Narayan

narayan@smartsmb.net

Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to validate the accuracy of all information included in the magazine, the publishers wouldn’t be liable for any errors therein Copyright@2018 Business Media International LLC. All rights reserved.

CONTENT

CONTENTS COVER FEATURE SCRIPTING MID-MARKET SUCCESS

Column

IN-DEPTH SMART SMB SUMMIT AND AWARDS TO BE HELD ON SEPTEMBER 26TH 2018

5 STEPS ON THE JOURNEY TO GDPR COMPLIANCE

ROLE OF CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS IN CLOUD MIGRATION

HOW MIDDLE EAST BUSINESSES CAN PREVENT A CAREEM TYPE BREACH

Vertical Watch DELIVERING EXCELLENCE

16 34

Talkpoint THE FINE PRINT

STEERING INTO THE CLOUD

BUILDING A DIGITAL FUTURE

22 EYEING NEW FRONTIERS

A UNIFIED PROPOSITION

FITTING RIGHT SOLUTIONS

News

Techwatch

Market Mirror

GLOBAL AI BUSINESS TO REACH $1.2 TRILLION IN 2018

NEWS

EUROMONEY SAUDI ARABIA CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS SME OPPORTUNITIES

RETAIL AND HOSPITALITY ARE UAE’S FASTEST GROWING INDUSTRIES L

inkedin, the world’s leading professional network with more than 560 million members, released data about the UAE’s fastest growing industries over the past 15 years, with retail and hospitality industries taking the top spots. The data comes as the company celebrates its 15-year anniversary since its inception. The networking giant released data about the UAE’s top industries, reflecting on the changes and journey the country has taken over the past 15 years. Since 2003, the UAE has undergone a dramatic transformation and industries has taken great leaps and bounds to reach today’s successes where the UAE is now a global hub of business and commerce. The anniversary also coincides with LinkedIn reaching the 25-millionmember milestone in MENA. UAE Top 10 fastest-growing industries over past 15 years: 1. Retail 2. Hospitality 3. Hospital & health care 4. Food & beverages 5. Marketing and advertising 6. Civil engineering 7. Construction 8. Education management 9. Airlines/aviation 10. Information technology & services

SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

Global Top 10 fastest-growing industries over past 15 years: 1. Internet 2. Computer games 3. Outsourcing/offshoring 4. Online media 5. Staffing & recruiting 6. Renewables and environment 7. E-learning 8. Program development 9. Health, wellness & fitness 10. Event services “The UAE has witnessed dramatic growth in industry over the past 15 years. It’s no surprise to see retail, hospitality, hospital and healthcare, F&B and marketing and advertising at the forefront of the list. The UAE is spearheading these industries through innovation and has established itself as a global industry hub. With the best international and local talent working in the UAE the reason behind this success is clear. Looking at the global fastest-growing industries, these are focused around IT, internet businesses, sustainability and wellness. If we look towards the next 15 years we predict digital jobs will become one of the fastest growing sectors in the UAE,” said Ali Matar, Head of LinkedIn Middle East and North Africa.

ncouraging external investment, boosting transparency and growing the small business sector are three key steps in ensuring the success of the Vision 2030 strategy, according to experts speaking at the Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference. In a keynote interview, His Excellency Eng. Saleh AlRasheed, Governor of Monsha’at, said promoting a culture of entrepreneurship would be a priority for the Kingdom as it diversifies its economy. “We need to create the right culture that enables venture capitalists and investors to support SMEs and start-ups,” said His Excellency Eng. Saleh Al-Rasheed. “We have initiated several key initiatives to encourage the development of a start-up culture in Saudi Arabia.” Encouraging the growth of

NEWS

SMEs is a top-level priority, and steps are being taken to provide small businesses with more opportunities to access national procurement and government bids. According to panellists at the event, small- and medium-sized enterprises contribute just a fifth of GDP in the Kingdom, compared with as much as 70 per cent

Yegertek targets retail CRM space L in some advanced economies, reflecting the scale of the opportunity.

evtech Consulting, a Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle member and Gold Partner, has launched Yegertek, a new entity focused on CRM, loyalty, ecommerce, mobility, analytics and customer engagement solutions for the retail sector.

During a lively panel debate, some of the country’s most promising young business leaders shared their views on how the SME sector could be supported. The panellists debated the types of SMEs that were most in need of financing and considered how start-ups and small firms holding limited assets could go about attracting funding. They also discussed ways in which banks, finance companies and private equity funds could become more involved in the SME sector, and about developing a culture of

“In late 2016, we had initiated our commitment to build a product division focused offering targeted industry solutions on Dynamics 365. Pressures from e-commerce, changing shopper behavior, fickle consumer loyalties, and a growing consumer demand for personalization of products and services has necessitated that the retail industry to reinvent itself and create immersive and engaging experiences for customers. Yegertek is our vehicle to help the retail landscape traverse this transformative period and we look forward to handholding customers along this journey”, said Anilesh Kumar, CEO, Levtech Consulting.

More than 1,700 delegates registered this year to attend the Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference, which was organised in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance in Riyadh.

Having built their dedicated industry focused portfolio of Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps – Payroll 365, Property 365, Engage 365 and Projects 365 – Levtech Consulting has already established its reputation in the

Middle East CRM space since 2009. Yegertek will look to further build and expand upon this expertise with specific focus on the retail sector and innovate using the Microsoft ecosystem and latest technology offerings around Azure Machine Learning, AI, Chatbots, Beacons in addition to the standard CRM modules. “Yegertek envisions itself to become a leading customer engagement technology provider with the aim of transforming the customer engagement space globally. Our core objective is helping organizations transform their digital footprint and accelerate their growth trajectory by unlocking the true potential of customer loyalty. Through capturing, consolidating, segmenting and visualizing actionable insights from customer data, we are well equipped to be a technology partner to retailers across the spectrum, from multistore, multi-country fashion or food retailers to single outlet restaurants. We also aim to assist retailers in their journey from running brick and mortar operations to having omni-channel capabilities”, said Sajid Azmi, CEO, Yegertek. SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

NEWS

Dubai Municipality selects Dell EMC to power Smart Services

TREND MICRO OFFERS FREE TOOLS FOR BUSINESSES TO PROTECT AGAINST RANSOMWARE T

ubai Municipality announced a strategic collaboration with Dell EMC to create an integrated and agile technology foundation. This landmark project aims at driving the city’s advancing innovation agenda and contributing to the overarching goal of transforming Dubai into the world’s smartest sustainable city by 2020, by offering digitally enabled services. In its role, Dubai Municipality oversees smart transformation processes and initiatives across the city to help establish efficiency and effectiveness of all public services. To realize its sustainability ambitions, in line with Vision 2020, digital readiness of the city is critical. Believing ICT to be a core building block to help achieve this vision, the entity aimed to revamp its existing IT infrastructure with revolutionary software-defined solutions and provide streamlined ways to meet the challenges of mobility, public services, and safety — while promoting sustainability through world-class smart city services. With a mandate to transform the IT SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

foundation, Dubai Municipality worked with Dell EMC to implement their strategy and enable virtualization capabilities using software defined scale-out infrastructure In addition to helping the entity in reducing the complexity of managing the IT infrastructure, the growing number of smart services and the resulting data, this solution also allows the IT staff to focus more on innovative projects, rather than maintain the infrastructure. Ahmad Kajoor, Chief Information Officer at Dubai Municipality said, “Dell EMC’s software-defined solutions deliver a transformed IT infrastructure to automate our processes and increase operational efficiencies to provide our citizens with the best breed of smart services. We believe that a strong IT backbone is key to accelerate digital transformation and will help us come closer to our goal of achieving the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of putting Dubai on the frontline of global innovation and sustainability.”

he Middle East and North Africa in Q1 of 2018, have accounted for 4.75% and 1.75% respectively of global ransomware threats. Recognizing the growth and impact of ransomware, Trend Micro has taken a holistic approach to helping customers defend against ransomware, and is deliveringRansomware Readiness Assessmentthat helps businesses of all sizes understand vulnerabilities in their security posture, and provides concrete actions they can take as well as Ransomware Removal Tools that help both consumers and businesses that have been impacted by ransomware recover their data. There are also Product Enhancements to bolster ransomware protection across four key layers of security, and

NEWS

provide enterprise-wide visibility of ransomware “Ransomware threats are constantly evolving, and no business is immune. As security experts, we encourage everyone to download our free tools, and inform users on the preventive measures, and ways to tackle the situation when affected. We recommend organizations to raise awareness and train their employees regularly on these preventive measures, like backing up data, and what has to be done when they encounter ransomware in emails or compromised sites. This helps to avoid being the victim of ransomware, as paying the ransom money does not guarantee that you can recover your data. There have been numerous reports of attackers asking for another ransom following the initial payment”, commented, Cherif Djerboua, Regional Tech Leader, Trend Micro.

MIMECAST APPOINTS NEW GM FOR MIDDLE EAST

While Trend Micro has a separate offering for enterprises, it has a cloud solutions targeting smaller sized Businesses. According to Trend Micro, no size of business is immune to ransomware and that’s why Trend Micro’s small business solution, Worry-Free Services Advanced, delivers capabilities that protect against it. Trend Micro detects and blocks malicious emails, attachments and URLs with malware scanning, web reputation and sandbox malware analysis. In the endpoint, Trend Microprovides endpoint protection that includes capabilities specific to ransomware such asbehavior monitoring to stop suspicious activity associated with ransomware such as the rapid encryption of multiple files

Worry-Free Services Advanced is designed specifically for small businesses as a cloud-based solution, with simple but powerful protection that minimizes day to day management.a

“Mimecast has successfully been operating in Dubai for just over a year and Jeff’s appointment is the next step to support an aggressive growth strategy in the Middle East,” said Brandon Bekker, managing director at

imecast Limited ] a leading email and data security company, has appointed Jeff Ogden as general manager for the Middle East. In his new role, Jeff will oversee the company’s UAE operations and growth in the region, and will be responsible for educating organisations about evolving cyberattacks and how to build a cyber resilience strategy for email. Jeff has been working in technology for over 35 years, 17 of which have been in IT security. Under Jeff’s leadership, Mimecast will continue to build a strong and loyal channel programme, ensuring all resellers share a deep knowledge of the company’s technology and services, alongside a commitment to customer experience.

Mimecast MEA. “This appointment will bolster our existing strong customer relations and help us establish new alliances and partnerships.” Prior to joining Mimecast, previous senior executive roles Jeff has held include leading Symantec’s managed security services and consulting division in the Middle East. Jeff also set up Netcure Middle East, a security consultancy and integrator, part of the UAE’s largest IT provider – Mideast Data Systems (MDS). “Organisations throughout the region are increasingly adopting cloudbased services like Office 365, but concerns remain around the security and availability of email services,” said Jeff Ogden, general manager, Mimecast Middle East.“The Middle East represents a significant opportunity for Mimecast as we help organisations with comprehensive security controls before, continuity during, and automated recovery after an attack.” SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

NEWS

AWS SUMMIT HELD IN DUBAI T

he first Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit in Dubai took place on May 1st, bringing together technologists from all industries and skill levels to discover how AWS can help them innovate quickly and deliver flexible, reliable cloud solutions at scale. The keynote was delivered by Mike Clayville, Vice President Worldwide Commercial Sales and Business Development, AWS, who gave an overview on the latest AWS services, and the many ways that customers around the world and in the Middle East are leveraging cloud technologies to help their organizations innovate and scale. The

keynote also included AWS customer stories from the region, including Al Tayer Group, Union Insurance, and MBC, who spoke about how they are using the AWS cloud for agility, innovation, and digital transformation. AWS Summits take place in major cities around the world to help participants develop the skills to design, deploy, and operate cloud infrastructure and applications.

AWS has been active in the Middle East for many years and has been accelerating investments in the region over the past year. In January 2017, AWS opened offices in the region to serve its rapidly growing customer base and now has a presence in Dubai, UAE, and Manama, Bahrain. The company also announced plans to open data centers in the Middle East, to be available in 2019.

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC TO CREATE CONNECTIVITY ECOSYSTEM FOR SMART BUILDINGS

chneider Electric, Danfoss and Somfy have announced that they are partnering to create a Connectivity Ecosystem that aims to accelerate the adoption of connectivity in residential, mid-size building and hotel markets.

own field of expertise in lighting, heating and shutter control that are supported by the expertise and proximity of professional network of installers.

The partnership brings connectivity for smart homes and smart buildings to maturity by delivering efficient solutions that are easy to integrate and that work simply together. The connectivity solutions are supported by qualified installers, making them simple and easy for customers to deploy. Schneider Electric, Danfoss, and Somfy believe it is time for major industrial players to come together to SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

accelerate on connectivity and deliver efficient solutions that work simply together. Through the partnership, the three global leaders bring their

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We believe now is the time for us, as major industrial players, to partner together to accelerate on connectivity. Our goal is to promote connectivity and to create value for our customers. diverse. We have built the technology know-how that incorporates all the major communication protocols and is compatible with all emerging user interfaces and voice controllers. And we are fully committed to longterm compatibility with our legacy platforms,â&#x20AC;? said Philippe Delorme, Schneider Electric Executive Vice President for Buildings &amp; IT Business.

IN-DEPTH

SMART SMB Summit and Awards to be held on September 26th 2018

witnessing an exciting build-up with confirmations coming in swiftly from potential exhibitors and attendees.

he inaugural SMART SMB Summit with its theme of ‘Redefining Digital and Business Transformation’, is scheduled to take place on 26th September 2018, at the JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai. The event, expected to be the largest gathering of ‘C’level executives from the SMB/SME segment of the region, will bring into sharp focus the various intertwined facets of Business and Digital transformation, that Businesses in the mid-market need to understand. Insightful keynotes from some of the leading industry experts in the domains of digital technologies is expected to be one of of the major highlights of the event. There will be multiple panel discussions with industry experts as participants that will look to enhancethe awareness among attendees, who are keen to accelerate digital and business transformation within their organizations. Apart from a unique opportunity for the region’s ‘C’ level executives from the SMB/SME segment to meet and interact on one platform, an elaborate

Regionally and even globally, the UAE, is leading the way in the use of newer technologiesincluding Cloud, IoT, Blockchain, AI etc, to improve processes and services. The event therefore offers an opportune moment to bring the mid-market segment to be in sync with the bold vision around Digital Technologies that is accelerating the economy.

and exclusive exhibition zone will showcase exciting and pioneering technologies from exhibitors. The exhibition zone will offer attendees the opportunity to enhance their understanding of several technologies, they will likely need to adopt in their acceleration towards embracing the digital economy. The Smart SMB Summit, being co-organised by Business Media International, the publishers of Sm@rt SMB Magazine, The Bridge Events and QNA Marcom, has been

In addition, the event will also see the inaugural Sm@rt SMB Awards being handed out to recognize the outstanding trailblazing work being done by companies in driving and adopting digital transformation in the region. The Awards would be presented in 20 plus categories and each category winner would be decided by an independent jury panel consisting of eminent industry experts. The Awards nominations phase would run onlline on www.smartsmb.net from July until August end. SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

COVER FEATURE

Scripting mid-market success D-Link continues to consolidate with successful partner strategies in making inroads into a diverse SMB segment

ddressing the varied needs of a diverse mid-market segment is a challenge that needs a significant focus and closer to exactness in execution of go to market strategies. That’s a mammoth task for any company by itself and which is where partners come in as the extended arm to reach out deeper into the market. A vendor who complements an elaborate suite of product offerings with a well integrated go to market strategy and stays consistent in its commitments to the market is definitely well poised to have an impregnable foothold. It would be quite safe to say that D-Link in the Middle East region ticks all the boxes for what it takes to be successful, as it continues SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

The networking manufacturer boasts of an extensive product array which includes solutions for IP Surveillance, Wireless, Switching, Storage, Security, Cloud, VoIP, Print Servers, Structured Cabling, Digital Home, 3G/4G Routers, Power over Ethernet Kits, Powerline, KVM, Structured Cabling and Digital SMB offerings. The breadth of its offerings gives the company the leverage with SMB focused partners as a one-stop shop.

of the strongest segments in this region and there are a lot small and medium sized companies spread throughout the region. The SMB is by far the strongest performing sector for D-Link and for this reason, we are encouraging partners that serve this market segment to help their customers upgrade to new IT infrastructure. D-Link has one of the broadest product range to cater to the SMB and mid-market sector. We have it all to support and provide our partners with the breadth of products that help them succeed in this vital market. “

Sakkeer Hussain,Director - Sales & Marketing at D-Link Middle East & Africa says, “The SMB market is one

The company has a team based in Dubai, which serves the entire Middle East and in addition its in-country

to consolidate and make inroads in addressing networking infrastructural needs of SMB customers.

COVER FEATURE

teams in various countries across MEA provide support to the channel. Sakkeer comments that despite the tough prevailing market conditions in the Middle East IT industry, the SMB networking segment remains one of the fast growing sectors. D-link has a strong partner program for the SMB segment, identifying and recruiting partners that want to strengthen their mid-market focus. “We have not approached the SMB market by going after established VARs or systems integrators, but rather going after resellers we believe we can develop and share the same desire with us to succeed in this important market. This approach in the SMB has helped D-Link to work with a lot of partners that want to grow their share of the SMB business.”

Upbeat prospects Sakkeer opines that as infrastructure projects that were shelved over the few years are resuming, there are a lot of opportunities opening up for channel partners to provide tailored offerings to their SMB customers. According to him, partners that combine products and services have a better chance of earning higher recurring margins in the SMB space. He adds, “Networking solutions play a critical role in helping SMBs to stay connected and focus on growing their businesses.Understanding each SMB’s requirements and developing some domain expertise will lead to partners offering the right solutions that help these small businesses to thrive and increase productivity. We do encourage SMBs to develop vertical domain expertise as doing so will establish them to be the trusted business advisors.” As the SMB segment continue to offer more opportunities for solution providers to provide products and services to their clients, D-Link has been investing in training, certification, incentive, loyalty and other post-sales initiatives targeted at

SAKKEER HUSSAIN Director - Sales & Marketing, D-Link Middle East & Africa

partners that serve the SMB space. The vendor has a partner program dedicated to the SMB segment and along with that, it also runs a lot of incentive programs and training schemes for partners that focus in the SMB space. While D-link remains partner focused in its GTM strategies, it also engages end users on a regular basis, in terms of driving awareness, generating leads offering training etc. “Although we are 100% a channeldriven company, we work with endusers in terms of demand generation activities and helping them with their training needs if these are required. Every lead that is generated from the end user is passed on to partners to fulfill. Although majority of our training is offered at our training facility in Jabel Ali in Dubai, we also go to our partner or their end-user premises to conduct sales oriented training, which focuses on updating them about new technology, products and how they can implement the D-Link solutions in their environments,” says Sakkeer.

company provide its customers expedient support on select business products. Dubbed “Next Business Day (NBD) replacement” program, the new initiative is part of D-Link’s enhanced warranty support program on selected business products that started in the UAE from April 10, 2017 with the scheme expected to be extended to other regions across the Middle East later. The free D-Link NBD program is valid for a first three-years period from the product purchase/registration and extendable at a nominal cost after completion of the three-years warranty period. The products covered include the entire range of D-Link’s Smart and Managed switches.

Brining in more value propositions

The company has unveiled the NBD program as part of its extended support to channel partners and their end-user customers. The service is part of the value-added services D-Link is offering channel partners to help them grow and strengthen their customer relationships by providing them with the ability to differentiate themselves among other competitor brands.

D-Link has announced a new warranty support program that will see the

“We have deliberately kicked off this programme in the UAE with SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

COVER FEATURE

a view to expand the roll-out to other countries across the Middle East and Africa region,” he said. “We believe that the Next Business Day Hardware replacement with no cost to the end-user will benefit businesses and corporates to reduce the cost-of-ownership of networks that are critical to their day-to-day operations. D-Link aims to strengthen its fundamental pillars of product reliability and end-customer service as a key for growth in the MEA region.” He adds that end-user customers can now maintain their critical networks with minimum down-time without the added costs of purchasing extra NBD replacement support and can directly register themselves for the D-Link NBD programme for free. To be eligible for the services offered under NBD, the end-user customers must register the applicable product with D-Link within 90 days after purchasing and can check the product warranty to apply for NBD anytime through the newly launched dedicated D-Link NDB portal.D-Link MEA plans to expand the NDB support to other regions and include more business products to the list later this year.

Bringing in the cloud focus In catering to a market segment that is also historically constrained by budgetary considerations, the vendor sees itself favorably placed to offer solutions that have great ROI propositions. D-Link sees itself ideally positioned to offer robust network solutions that can enable SMB companies embarking on digital transformation initiatives. Sakkeer says, “There is no doubt that the biggest challenge that SMBs face right now is limited IT budgets and the need to do more with less as they take their on this digital transformation journey. As the cloud SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

has taken off with varying degrees of understanding of the what cloud really offers, most SMB customers are looking for infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS), managed security services, unified communications as a service (UCaaS) as the upgrade and enable their networks in the digital era. To be able to use any of these services, SMB customers need to have a robust network that enables their business to access these services.” The Business Cloud – Nuclias Cloud Solutions that D-link has in its portfolio could be one of the elements that could enable the network management capabilities of SMB organizations. D-Link Nuclias Cloud Solution is a complete cloudmanaged networking solution. Wi-Fi coverage and capacity are provided by high-performance APs deployed on site with Centralized Cloud-based Control and Management enabled by D-Link Nuclias Cloud Service Platform. This solution allows any organization with any level of IT resources to quickly and easily Setup, Configure, Monitor, Troubleshoot and Manage a site or multi-site WLAN of any size remotely through web-based and iPad app based user interface. As the vendor enhances its portfolio through new announcements, it will hope to bring more reasons for customers to prefer it over other contenders in the mid-market segment and further consolidate. The vendor has always deftly managed market challenges in the past few years and likewise last year, despite a tough and challenging market, D-Link claims to have hit its growth target. This was even though the overall market optimism seemed to have declined towards the end of the year. This year, the vendor hopes to do better and have a healthier rate of growth for itself and its partners. Its strong market fundamentals give it an ideal platform to achieve those goals.

Nuclias Cloud Solutions Nuclias is a subscriptionbased, cloud-based network management solution enabling managed service providers and business owners to remotely configure and monitor their network infrastructures anywhere, at any time. The all-new app and online portal offer a range of flexible features accessible at the touch of a button. It provides users with complete autonomy to manage wireless access points, capture and analyse insights into every connected device, and comes with enhanced design and functionality. Nuclias provides a cloud-based management tool without the need for a local controller, reducing cost and complexity while streamlining network infrastructure. It also offers zero-touch provisioning for ease of deployment and scalable architecture to support an unlimited number of devices. Its multi-tenant structure allows deployment across multiple sites and companies, and its advanced traffic report and data analysis tool provide business owners and IT professionals with real-time insights. Additional features include a secure role-based administration system and auditable change logs, authentication via captive portal, 802.1x, RADIUS server and also supports Facebook and Google login for guest Wi-Fi access, and automated network monitoring.

TALK POINT

THE FINE PRINT Andrew Hurt, Regional Sales Manager – Business, Epson Middle East discusses changes in print management and how printing as a function still has a major role in an office Elaborate how the requirements of printer fleets is diverse across the SMB segment?

trouble shooting. Discuss how your various printer technologies have brought in advancements to provide efficient workflow management, secured printing, print from anywhere etc.?

The requirements for each SMB differs depending on the application they are looking for. At Epson, we have a ‘discovery’ session with the client where we try to understand their requirements and suggest printing solutions that meet their need. The printer selected depends on their workload, deadlines, seasonal nature of printing, if their customers have high demands and the kind of quality they expect. Its not a one-size-fits-all approach Discuss the shifts that you see happening in light of digitization, paperless initiatives etc. What is the long-term outlook for printing as a function on the Business segment? I have been in this business for nearly 30 years and I have been hearing about paperless offices for long but it still has not materialized because people still have a need for printing, for example, presentations, brochures, manuals etc. The changes that I have seen are more in the ‘print management’ function. Today, there is a lot more ability to control access to printing in organizations. Through print management functions, companies can control factors like ensuring printing for day-to-day documents are in black

Our advanced print management functions help to control the process of printing, make the process more cost effective. It also enables secure printing so that confidentiality of documentation is upheld. Our ink tank system printers are more environment friendly as ink reduces wastage as opposed to using cartridge. Elaborate on the ecofriendly focus of your technologies?

and white, and not in colour; who has access to printing; what type of documents are printed out etc. I see this acquiring more importance. How are the right fit solutions recommended in your go to market model to customers- is the deployment and consulting done via partners? Our team spends time with our clients to understand their needs and provide them consultancy on the right type of printer they need to choose and manage the printing process. Our partners are also trained to provide consultancy and

Being environment friendly is at the core of our business, it is what prompted us to come up with ITS printers, that by using ink rather than cartridge, prevents wastage and promotes sustainability. It also uses less energy thus helping to save electricity. Not to mention, its cost effectiveness. In an Epson ink tank, cost will not be a determinant, because the printhead is built into the printer and only ink needs to be replaced, and the cost is minimal, and it can print up to 14000 pages in Black and White and 11,000 pages in colour. It is our aim to educate consumers in this market to make the switch from laser to inkjet. This is one of our key focus areas. SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

VERTICAL WATCH

Delivering excellence The pursuit to excel in delivering customer happiness in the hospitality segment has a direct correlation these days to the IT infrastructure that enables the hotelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s services and processes. It is no wonder then that MĂśvenpick, a globally leading group of hotels, has strived to be at the forefront in adoption of the latest technologies including cloud based services

SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

VERTICAL WATCH

internet connection.

infrastructure is quite crucial in the hospitality segment, both for an hotel’s front end operations as well as the backend. A robust infrastructure and good wireless connectivity enables the hotel to offer superior levels of guest experience. The sheer scale of rising competition in the dynamic hospitality space demands that hotels looking to command a good market share, need to step up in terms of their facilities and services. IT definitely forms a significant part of how the hotel is able to position itself with a range of services from smart apps to high speed wireless connectivity in the front end to other housekeeping solutions in the backend. Tariq Valani, Vice President - IT Infrastructure & Operations, Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts Management says, “As with every business vertical today, the reliance on Cloud services, industry applications and apps is increasing every day. These services in turn demand more from the infrastructure on premise, as well as in the data centre. With the above-mentioned services comes the expectation of mobility from both guests and colleagues, speed and ease of doing business. As such, as with any other business segment, IT infrastructure has always been, and continues to be, a crucial part of the hospitality business.” A great example of how things have changed and how the reliance on IT infrastructure has increased is the Property Management System (PMS). “From a paper-based system to the use of computers, we are now in an era where not only is the PMS in the Cloud, but also the check-in process has moved to mobile devices such as iPads, allowing the process to be carried out not only at the front desk, but also anywhere in the hotel, and in turn reducing waiting time for our guests.” With the PMS located in the Cloud, it is imperative to operations that the application always be available, and this requires the IT infrastructure layer to have the correct redundancies built in and to have a stable and reliable

From a guest’s perspective, wireless has become one of the most important factors when it comes to guest satisfaction. It can literally be the difference between retaining a customer and losing one. “Secure, fast and reliable wireless connectivity with an acceptable amount of bandwidth has become a commodity as important as electricity and water. With this in mind, a significant amount of investment and attention is given to the wireless infrastructure in a hotel.”

Towards a centralized model The Mövenpick hotels have moved over the past couple of years towards a centralized model of IT environment.

TARIQ VALANI Vice President - IT Infrastructure & Operations, Mövenpick Hotels

“

SECURE, FAST AND RELIABLE WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY WITH AN ACCEPTABLE AMOUNT OF BANDWIDTH HAS BECOME A COMMODITY AS IMPORTANT AS ELECTRICITY AND WATER. WITH THIS IN MIND, A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF INVESTMENT AND ATTENTION IS GIVEN TO THE WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE IN A HOTEL.”

“With the complexity of hospitality technology increasing, as well as the improvement of connectivity worldwide and its move to Cloud solutions, over the last couple of years we made the transition from a decentralised environment to a centralised once. The increase of complexity in a decentralised environment meant that we had to have a lot more expertise in order to keep up with the technology, which has become an expectation from today’s guests.” With this centralisation comes the standardisation of companywide applications and solutions. In addition, to support these solutions, the hotel set up a centralised 24/7 helpdesk and formed a second line support to its IT managers at the hotels. Some of the corporate-wide applications that were centralised included email, PMS, procurement and revenue management solutions etc.

Pioneering moves to the cloud The hotel group also made an early move to the cloud and it has been SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

VERTICAL WATCH

further prioritizing consolidation by moving more workloads to cloud infrastructure. “Over the last couple of years, there has been a huge shift to the Cloud. Some companies have taken to it, while others have not. Our mandate was clear – eliminate company data centres and move to the Cloud. Keeping in line with that strategy, we started our journey by adopting Microsoft Office 365 and migrating our email environment. From there, we were the first hotel company in the world to move to Oracle’s Opera version 9, which is a Cloud-only PMS solution. With this came the selection of Oracle’s CX CRM, which would lead us to another first and that is a fully Cloud-based interface between a CRM and PMS platform. Our current Cloud initiative is to move as much of our server workloads from on-property to Microsoft Azure, starting with our company website.” The group’s Cloud strategy didn’t stop with the management side of the hotel. They have also made a shift in the guest-facing technology, starting with a High-Speed Internet Access (HSIA) solution. “Partnering with Airangel gave us a Cloud platform that allowed us to make wireless roaming between our hotels an easy task. Today, our guests only need to sign up once using their email or social login and from there, they would be automatically recognised in any Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts property across the globe and have access to the internet.” Until recently, the global network strategy for Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts’ corporate network was to have a centralised approach. This centralised design had three internet breakouts globally in Zurich, Dubai and Singapore, which all hotels would connect to and be able to access the internet. “This strategy worked for several years, but with the shift to Cloud solutions, the latency overhead of hotel to the data centre to the internet was too high, and as such SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

we decided to change.We moved forward by deploying Next Generation Firewalls and other network perimeter solutions to enable local breakouts at each hotel. With this change, we had a massive improvement in internet performance on the corporate network and as such, the opposition to Cloud solutions that existed before were no longer there.” Even though the group went with a decentralised approach for internet access, they however retained centralised management and monitoring of all devices.

Wi-Fi everywhere Wi-Fi connectivity is a high priority focus and one of the Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts Brand Signatures is “Wi-Fi Everywhere”, which underline the importance the group places on Wi-Fi, given that a technology-driven signature is used to define the brand experience. “With the Wi-Fi Everywhere brand signature came a set of requirements that had to be followed by all hotels in order to offer a seamless experience globally. The first of these

“

IN THE PAST, WHEN MOST OF THE TECHNOLOGY WAS ON PREMISE, THE ROLE OF IT WAS TO MAINTAIN, MANAGE AND WHEN REQUIRED, FIX SYSTEMS AND SOLUTIONS. WITH THE MOVE TO THE CLOUD, THE ROLE OF IT HAS CHANGED FROM BEING THE “FIXER” TO MORE OF A SERVICE PROVIDER MANAGER.

requirements was that our cloud HSIA solution, provided by Airangel, had to be implemented at every hotel globally. Second, we set forth a requirement that stated that all hotels had to have 100% wireless coverage in guest areas, offering a signal strength of -65dB, which is sufficient for voice calls. Lastly, we revised our IT brand standards and selected vendors such as Ruckus and Aruba to be our wireless infrastructure partners of choice, in order to ensure that the latest technology was being used.” While the move to the cloud has been a pioneering one in the hotel segment, it has not been without accompanying challenges. The major challenge is that the in-house team has had to give away some of the control it had to the cloud services provider vis-a-vis the era when applications and all systems were on premise. Tariq elaborates, “As much as we love the move to the Cloud, some of the greatest challenges today are a by-product of that move. In the past, when most of the technology was on premise, the role of IT was to maintain, manage and when required, fix systems and solutions. With the move to the Cloud, the role of IT has changed from being the “fixer” to more of a service provider manager. To elaborate, in the past, systems and applications were in the control of the IT team, whereas today the IT team needs to run tests, provide information and follow up with Cloud providers to ensure that the solutions and fixes are delivered in a timely manner.” Tariq opines that even against the changing scenario of more cloud services being used, IT teams in hotels today need to be technical and on the contrary, the standards have been raised. He elaborates, “Hotel IT now has to be technical to understand the solutions and systems we use, as well as manage the remaining on-premise solutions, but at the same time need to have improved communication and management skills to ensure that service providers deliver as per SLA and contractual agreements.”

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STEVE MURPHY

Steering into the cloud

CEO, Epicor

Steve Murphy, CEO, Epicor discusses the momentum on the cloud business front and the trends in the marketplace on the sidelines of the Epicor Insights 2018 Annual User Conference, where the company made several announcements including an expanded partnership with Microsoft Azure.

Elaborate the traction you see on the cloud business front? The cloud business from the point of view of booking is growing for us at the rate of 50%. Just to illustrate if the cloud business were for instance about 8% this year, it could be 12% next year and about 18 to 20% in a couple of years. We are going to grow the cloud business aggressively. However, we are not going to make someone, who is uncomfortable with the cloud option at the moment and move them to the cloud from the on premises solution that they may have and are quite comfortable with. With the new business leads and bookings, maybe just over half of them maybe open to the idea of the cloud. One of things they look at is costs. Cloud is cheaper usually but they may already have some servers and infrastructure on premise and SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

so it could still be cost effective to have the solutions on premise. With the announcement of our partnership with Microsoft Azure, I think that the cloud sales should go up significantly. Are all of your products cloud enabled? For sure, the top five products that make up the bulk of our business are cloud enabled. There have been significant investments to enhance features and make them easy to execute through a browser including a completely modern architecture that is very scalable. Among the rest of our 73 products, some others are cloud enabled and some arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t at the moment. How does your product development incorporate and leverage new technologies like AI? We are looking at improving aspects

like extracting the information from an IoT device and get better at it by bringing the intelligence in with some amount of scalability. This will help make better decisions. We are getting better at that. The usability of software is an aspect where we have have made big advances. We need to continue making it easier and more intuitive. How do you see automation impacting the workforce, especially in manufacturing, a key focus segment of your software? There will be a lot of pressure to find very skilled people. When manufacturing plants are a lot automated, the minimum skill level required for employees go up. No matter where that plant is. There is going to be lot of pressure on employers to educate and retrain

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their employees so that they can remain as part of the workforce. You are going to see plants that have a big level of automation emerge as winners in this economy and in places where employee skill levels are low, although the labour maybe cheaper, they would have a difficult job competing. How do you see consolidation or fragmentation play out in the ERP marketplace? In the longer term, about five to ten years, we will see more consolidation.

I see a lot of little companies around that could serve their cause better if they got detailed expertise in certain areas such as discrete manufacturing or retail, or hardware etc. As long as they maintain that skill level, they could be around. Why do implementations sometimes fail? Users may have a long list of functionalities they are looking for but the seller should have a good grip of what their customers really need. That could lead to a good implementation.

Usually, the failures could be because the scope was too broad and the most important things weren’t clearly identified. It is almost never because of the application and almost always because the scope was too broad, which can be avoided usually. Occasionally, the requirements aren’t a good fit for the software company and as the software expert, you need to be the first to point that out. Customers appreciate a good conversation about what it takes to make the implementation successful, although occasionally, you could lose business because you are being too honest.

Highlights from Epicor Insights 2018 Annual User Conference Epicor cloud enables ERP suites on Azure From the main stage of its Annual User Conference Insights 2018, Epicor announced an expanded strategic partnership with Microsoft to deliver Epicor enterpriseclass solutions globally on the Microsoft Azure platform. Epicor will initially standardize cloud deployment of its Epicor ERP and Epicor Prophet 21 enterprise resource planning (ERP) suites on Microsoft Azure, empowering customers to drive faster growth and innovation as they move to digitally transform their businesses. Epicor will leverage a range of Azure technologies including Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to deliver readyto-use, right-sized solutions for midmarket manufacturers and distributors. Epicor also plans to explore Microsoft’s technologies for advanced search, speech-to-text, and other use cases to deliver modern human/machine interfaces that improve productivity for its customers. Epicor unveils product vision and Kinetic Design Epicor has also, unveiled its product vision for the next-generation of user interface (UI) technology and design and industry cloud platforms that will drive Epicor solutions enabling customers and partners to embrace cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), mobility, predictive analytics, and other emerging technologies. The pillars of the Epicor product vision start with the aim to deliver leading global industry-focused ERP in the cloud through supporting customer-centric best-

in-class cloud solutions fit for industry; expanding the global ERP footprint; providing global customers with easy-to-deploy solutions for evolving compliance and legislative needs; leveraging an ecosystem of solutions for vertical extensibility; and, enabling use of a delightful and consistent user interface model— all deployed across a global Microsoft Azure public cloud infrastructure. Unveiled to more than 3,000 customers attending the Epicor global user conference Insights 2018, Epicor Kinetic Design is a three-pronged common crossplatform user experience (UX) framework comprised of Epicor Kinetic Design, Epicor Kinetic Framework, and Epicor Kinetic applications. Epicor Kinetic Design is a set of new user experience guidelines and patterns for building applications for Epicor solutions. Delivering unified colors, typography and icons, user interface (UI) elements, and page layouts, Epicor Kinetic Design empowers partners to deliver value-added solutions consistent with Epicor usability best practices and interaction guidelines to enhance customer experience. Epicor Kinetic Framework embodies Epicor Kinetic Design principles and lives as a website accessible by approved Epicor partners and customers. They have access to sample code and tutorials, a UI component code library, API documentation, and actual code, all with web native and responsive design—working seamlessly on desktop, tablet, or mobile. Epicor Kinetic application is any application that is coded to Kinetic Design standards.

SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

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Building a digital future Please elaborate on the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investment advisory services focus? Centurion & Co is a unique group of companies incorporating multiple disciplines. Weprovide a packages of services and solutions mainly for Fintech, Blockchain, Telecom and Digital. We provide Investment Advisory and structuring of debts, Seed Capital, Early Stage and Series A fundraising. We offer Blockchain use case consulting, design and implementation. We build Retail Payment Solutions for Kiosks, POS, Wallets and eCommerce. We also provide Digital Marketing and Influencer Marketing services. What makes you stand out in your areas of focus? We have developed a proactive and complimentary range of business services and entities which benefit SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

our stakeholders, investor companies, strategic partners and the GCC industry as a whole. This has evolved us from a consulting company into an investment incubator, growing our investments through active participation, marketing and adding value wherever the opportunities arise. We promote active involvement and skills transference between all companies within our portfolio, driving entrepreneurial development and thinking and looking for new opportunities throughout our sector. The Centurion team and support bring an outstanding operational expertise to any startup and access to a large network of business and private investors to ensure successful starts. Each of our process-driven, timetested strategies are managed by our

Ali Kassab, CEO, Centurion and Co, an investment advisory firm based in Dubai discusses the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus on investments in opportunities including Fintech and Blockchain. The company had at the beginning of the year announced its focus on Blockchain startup companies with the launch of 5 ICOs and plans to bring other innovative Bllockchain startups to the UAE. Investment Committee, comprised of a dedicated team of portfolio managers as well as fundamental and technical analysts and strategists. This experienced team seeks to employ a repeatable, research-driven process. From the perspective of an investment advisory firm, what is your outlook of the SMB segment potential in the region and which are the verticals that most interest you? Centurion has realized more than 10 investments in startups since 2016 with 4 exits across 5 countries. We invest mainly in Blockchain, Fintech and Digital Startups. We look mainly into high disruptive applications and operations aiming to bring a real solution to the day to day functioning. Apart from advisory services, do you also do direct investments. In which case, what do you look for in

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companies that you would want to invest? We invest or co-invest with Private Equities in the region. We are specialized In raising seed capital for fintech, blockchain and digital startups. In certain cases we can be also involved in the seed round to enable the first steps of the company. Elaborate on the Fintech services portfolio with your focus on Blockchain based development as well as e-payments. Have there been multiple deployments completed and in progress? Centurion has developed a suite of payment and e-commerce solutions that can be utilized by any company aiming to embrace the digital transformation and offer an enhanced digital and online experience to their customers. These include Retail payment and point of sales management solutions, Digital branches platform (kiosks, digital counters) and Middleware for API and Services integrations including reconciliation and settlement automation. The suite is empowered by a strong automation workflow and collaboration tools to fuel online and digital marketing (social media, chat tools, unified reports, etc) Centurion has also invested in the Digital Marketing operations using Artificial Intelligence platform (WHYRAL.NETWORK) to target audiences of influencers by rewarding directly influencers on all social media channels. How do you see the scope for blockchain deployments in SMB segment? what are the challenges? Blockchain brings unlimited new horizons and solutions to corporate, government and banking institution : trust, acceleration of digitalization based on the smart contract. For SMB the benefits can be immediately done to reduce financial and accounting operations costs based on smart contract and payment processing. SMB companies can also empower their customer experience using smart contract of Blockchain and payment.

ALI KASSAB CEO, Centurion and Co.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

CENTURION HAS REALIZED MORE THAN 10 INVESTMENTS IN STARTUPS SINCE 2016 WITH 4 EXITS ACROSS 5 COUNTRIES. WE INVEST MAINLY IN BLOCKCHAIN, FINTECH AND DIGITAL STARTUPS. WE LOOK MAINLY INTO HIGH DISRUPTIVE APPLICATIONS AND OPERATIONS AIMING TO BRING A REAL SOLUTION TO THE DAY TO DAY FUNCTIONING.â&#x20AC;?

Would you call yourself as an SMB/midmarket company yourself? We are boutique private equity capitalizing on partners and team members strong entrepreneurial experience. We are able to modelise, monetize and improve business plans, take the business of any digital/fintech startup to the next level very quickly thanks to our network of customers and institutions Discuss how ICT solutions are key to your Business processes. Have there been any recent deployments, either cloud based on or premise to enhance your operations? Our business operations are fully digitalized and all our softwares are integrated in the cloud on AWS, Microsoft including video conferencing, project management, lead generation, social chat, etc SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

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EYEING NEW FRONTIERS

VEER ARJUN PASSI CEO of Kalaam Telecom

Veer Arjun Passi, CEO of Kalaam Telecom discusses some aspects of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growing focus on managed services and other emerging technologies

How is the outlook for telecom and ICT providers such as Kalaam Telecom? The future is of managed services. The internet connectivity has become more a commodity and there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t much ARPU ( Average Revenue Per User) or margins left in it. The enterprises are expecting high bandwidth connectivity at very cheap rates. So as the ARPU in the traditional ISP business is sliding and the only way to enhance the value proposition to enterprise clients is via offering managed services for cloud, IoT, Security, ELV and other ICT solutions etc. We are offering solutions from these domains and which allows us to enhance the ARPU. We are bringing in new technologies such as SD-WAN for instance, which allows enterprises to connect to branches in a software defined manner with zero touch provisioning. We are partners with Amazon and Microsoft and have done investments in connecting with them in Europe, in Ireland and Amsterdam respectively. We have created a sandboxing platform for IoT within which developers can SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

create solutions across verticals such as Education, Oil & Gas etc, which enables us to offer efficient IoT platforms to customers across these segment. Discuss what value does the Tawasul Telecom acquisition offer Kalaam? Like Kalaam, they are a niche operator. They have been been a carrier of carriers, exclusively formed to cater to requirements of international telecom operators who do not have infrastructure in the Middle East and cater to requirements of their customers. They have built extensive infrastructure all the way from Middle East to Europe, South East Asia and the US. It is with this infrastructure that they are able to help the customers of larger operators and those are the assets we are getting access to. Elaborate how you work with other telecom operators? We work with all tier-one ISP operators. We need their infrastructure to reach customers. We work on the basis

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of having NNI (network to network integration) tie-ups to provide connectivity to our customers in different countries where we don’t have a license and vice-versa, if a telecom operator wants to get a customer connectivity in Bahrain, we can provide that. Elaborate on your datacenter facilities to host Managed services?

Kalaam telecom acquires Tawasul Telecom

We have recently developed our second data centre in Bahrain. We are part of a wider datacenter ecosystem, including our association with Equinix and can offer redundancies to our customers in other markets. Are customers in general concerned about the need to keep the data locally hosted in the country? There are two kinds of customers- those who are heavily regulated like BFSI, Insurance, Oil & Gas, Ministries etc. They are concerned about their customer data being hosted locally in the costly because the regulators don’t allow otherwise. There are the others who are not regulated and they are looking at lowers costs and greater efficiencies. As long as the latency is good, it doesn’t matter to them, whether data is hosted locally or not. To address the concerns of the former set of customers, you see the likes of Amazon and Microsoft setting up datacentres inside the country to meet their requirements. How do you see the competition from the larger cloud players and the value you bring in?

Kalaam Telecom, one of the largest telecom service providers for the enterprise market in Bahrain, announced its acquisition of Tawasul Telecom, a Kuwait-based Information and Communication Technology solutions provider. Tawasul has a strong network presence in the Middle East, UK and Singapore and offices in 5 countries.

There are always two ways of looking at it. Competition keeps on your toes and we need to be ahead of the curve. The likes of Amazon are coming in and educating people about cloud. It opens up the market and we benefit as well because many customers come to us for the datacentre space.

Kalaam’s officials announced that they acquired 100% stake in Tawasul Telecom. The acquisition of Tawasul will further strengthen Kalaam’s position in the GCC and international market; thereby expanding its customers base geographically in the GCC and globally. This is the 3rd acquisition for Kalaam over the past 4 years.

We are cloud agnostic and work with all the big cloud service providers to bring value to our customers. We don’t want to compete with the global giants and reinvent the wheel. We will focus on opportunities like providing connectivity, migration, consulting etc to our customers.

Kalaam Telecom is the first alternative telecom service provider that emerged following the liberalization of the telecom sector in Bahrain to successfully compete outside of its home market.

Customers could have multiple cloud for different workloads on Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba etc and they will also have their own private cloud. We have developed a single sign in from where customers can manage all their clouds on a single portal effiencetly. That is the kind of focus we are bringing in.

In a bid to meet increasing demand for ICT solutions and services, Kalaam Telecom devised ecosystem that provides businesses a comprehensive range of telecom and managed ICT solutions for its clients’ needs. Kalaam’s expertise and reach has allowed businesses to significantly reduce costs, increase productivity and improve overall efficiency.

Discuss your focus on investments in team resources? We have created a good ecosystem on innovation inside the country. We have a decent sized product development and research team. We are focused on a few technologies and have hired experts in those domains or have our existing staff trained on some of these like IoT, cloud certifications etc.

Nezar Al Saie, Chairman of Kalaam Telecom, said, “This is a major milestone, a transformational step for Kalaam Telecom. Acquiring Tawasul is in line with our company’s vision of expanding regionally and internationally to further support the fast-growing telecom and ICT sector.”

SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

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A UNIFIED PROPOSITION

Feras Zeidan, VP MEA at Unify, an Atos company discusses how the UC vendor, now as part of Atos has a superior digital transformation proposition to offer in the SMB segment

How has Unify kept pace with the shifts in the market away from traditional computing to the era of cloud based infrastructure and digital channels? As a company, we have spent more than 25 years building active and passive components of ICT, going back to the days of the Siemens legacy. These are essentially 30 sub-systems that range all the way from cabling infrastructure into the data centre and hyper converged infrastructure. These are classical products and largely commodity business today with price wars. Voice and Video solutions play a major role as the glue between active and passive components. They can be in the contact centre that looks after surveillance for instance such as in BMS (Business Management Systems). Similarly, they play a role in active components as there is a need for secure voice and video communications in all interactions, whether in B2B or B2C transactions etc. Beyond this, then there is the application layer, for enabling and enhancing customer experience. Finally, there is the digital transformation layer where we are SMART SMB | MAY 2018

WE ARE BRINGING THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SERVICES FROM ATOS AND ARE WRAPPING IT AROUND WITH THE INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS WE KNOW VERY WELL INCLUDING PASSIVE AND ACTIVE LAYERS AS WELL AS THE APPLICATION LAYER. ATOS HAS A SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGE AS THE ONLY VIDEO AND VOICE SOLUTIONS MANUFACTURER WHO HAS A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FACTORY WITH THE PROCESSES AND CONSULTANCY.”

handholding the customer in the OPEX model built around a hybrid cloud. There are only a handful of companies who compete and are focused in this business and with capabilities to wrap all of this with managed services. Atos is one of the leading vendors among this select group of companies. Discuss your approach to helps the SMBs adopt digital transformation? Five years ago, there were three layers namely the Passive layer, Active layer and the Application layer. Now there are five layers. In between the digital experience at the top and the Application layer, there is also the IoT layer now. While there are are two more additional layers, the budget remains the same which the Businesses need to split between five instead of three layers. We now bundle all of these layers in one box for the SMB customer. The customer doesn’t need to bother about the infrastructure part which we take care of. He doesn’t need to be concerned about the myriad issues like software, maintenance, upgrades, application integration, middleware etc. We create a virtual environment for

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the customer, offer infrastructure as a service with hosting out of datacentres like e-Hosting Datafort, Gulf Data Hub, Etisalat etc in a secure way. We provide the customer with all the computing power, storage, security etc, all with the redundancy required to run his business. The customer will have access to Voice and Video layers on an OPEX model, so he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to invest on that infrastructure. We will provide UC application, do the billing, routing, security, storage, application management etc all in the OPEX model, hosted in a secure way with SLAs and KPIs. The biggest challenge for the SMB segment is in dealing with how they can stay relevant in the digital era without the hassles of having to make overwhelming capital investments in infrastructure. The OPEX model offers the best option. Discuss your proposition for enabling digital transformation and how is it unique? Digital transformation allows to break the silos between the core applications of the different lines of business and interconnects them to create a seamless customer experience. We are bringing the digital transformation services from Atos and are wrapping it around with the infrastructure solutions we know very well including passive and active layers as well as the application layer. Atos has a significant advantage as the only Video and Voice solutions manufacturer who has a digital transformation factory with the processes and consultancy. How do you see the challenges in the shift towards adopting the digital model? On one hand, the Millennial generation is already building businesses around

mobile and applications and online models, and they are not considering classical infrastructure. On the other side, there are the businesses that have both an online presence and the traditional physical stores. What needs to be achieved in this case is to move them to the digital channels from the classical model. We are handholding the customers through their adoption of the digital channel via an OPEX model. Discuss how your focus as a company has extended with the suite of solutions from Atos and across verticals? We build solutions for different verticals including hospitality, security, healthcare etc. With the current geo political issues, there is a lot of security investments all around. So you need command control centers, either micro, medium, or large. These could be at the mall level, building level, city level etc. Atos has a application that allows us to build emergency services like 999, all the way to enabling an integrated deployment of a command centre for their CCTV installations of their multiple sites with a video wall. We connect BMS and other systems for alerting and conferencing and have done deployments for several customers.

to smart healthcare, and wrap all of these with our digital transformation services from Atos. How do you see the split between the enterprise and SMB focus? Siemens Enterprise Communication from which Unify emerged, was traditionally strong and focused in the enterprise and did not really target the SMB segment. Unify has however built a SMB focus and as of present, we have 30% of our business coming from the SMB and by end of the year we could be looking at 40% of our business coming from the SMB segment. With the hybrid cloud OPEX model, we will have a better proposition for the SMB customers as we give the hardware for free. The customer can budget how much would the communication and connectivity cost him for the full year, which in turn will give him peace of mind.

For hospitality, we now cover solutions from telephony to guest experience. From the minute the customer checks in until he checks out, he gets a 360 degree guest experience with our integrated infrastructure. We have solutions from telephony to safer city infrastrcture, 360 degree guest experience

FERAS ZEIDAN Vice President MEA, Unify

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FITTING RIGHT SOLUTIONS Fortinet is a leading provider of integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, and has solutions spanning from across SMB to the largest enterprises. Zacky Vaz, Channel Manager at Fortinet Middle East elaborates on the company’s SMB focus

How do you identify a customer as an SMB? We define SMB based on the number of concurrent users and the throughput they need for their firewalls. Since we provide network security, we base the requirement on the size of users and bandwidth. It depends on how many physical machines are in place as there are instances of multiple users per machine in several organizations. Discuss your product focus for SMB? We have a set of products for the `SMB defined on the basis of size of organizations. The SMB users SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

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REVENUE ON HARDWARE HAS DROPPED AND VIRTUAL APPLIANCE SALES HAS GONE UP. THAT IS POSSIBLY PROOF OF HOW CLOUD ADOPTION RATES ARE PICKING UP. WHETHER THE SMBS ARE READY FOR IT AT THE MOMENT REMAINS TO BE SEEN..”

ZACKY VAZ Channel Manager, Fortinet ME

need immediate delivery options, so availability of stock is an important criteria for the SMB segment. They sometimes depend on the partners to be their trusted advisors. Our SMB business is purely managed by our distributors and we have introduced a concept of distribution led business, where distributors need to hold a certain level of inventory of SMB Products to fulfill the SMB requirements on an immediate basis. We have a sound definition for the SMB segment and based on that we have specific solutions. For instance, we have a connected UTM offering. If a company wants to set up an office,

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they can use the connected UTM. This includes all functionalities like IP phones, email gateway, fax server, firewalll, switch, WiFi and secure communication. It includes different technologies together in an appliance which is required to set up a business. Why is it necessary for customers to choose the right models? If an SMB has 10 users, we have for instance the provision of an appliance that caters to network security, firewall, VPN for as many users. If they want an email server catering to the same number of users, we will have an appliance for that. However, if they have 1000 users, we will recommend a higher model depending on the throughput required. The FortiGate 30 series is the smallest NGFW ( next generation firewall) in our portfolio which caters to 10-15 users upto 30. We have an email security appliance catering to similar number of users. The SMB segment is price sensitive and in most cases, they may not have dedicated tech support resources and therefore ease of management is a key priority. For the SMB segment, it is important to have a product that addresses these requirements rather than having a product that may have capacity for meeting requirements of 1000 users or so and whose cost would be much higher. You need to recommend the right products based on specific customer size and we have products to meet these different user requirements. For next generation firewalls, in the entry level range, we have a 30 series, 50 series, 60 series, 80 and 90 series and then higher for mid-range models and enterprises. The entry level appliances are the different models meant for the SMB and they are differentiated on basis of throughput and number of users addressed. The more the number of users, there would be more internet traffic and you would need a bigger firewall appliance. We have a guide for identifying the right fit in terms of product models. These products are available with our distributors at any

point of time and can be delivered on same day or next day. How would you categorize a customer in a vertical, like a mid-sized hotel property for instance? For a mid-range hotel, we may look at it as a mid-market customer. The customer from an Anti-Virus vendorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective for instance may fall into a lower classification category. For us, we may need to position a higher throughput appliance because they may have high internet activity, would have gas network, admin networks etc. We may not target it as an enterprise customer because the more you up-sell to such customers, there is the possibility of losing the sale as the competition could come in and sell a lower specification model. Discuss how you see digital transformation picking up? After the buzz around cloud computing, we are hearing a lot about digital transformation. Revenue on hardware has dropped and virtual appliance sales has gone up. That is possibly proof of how cloud adoption rates are picking up. Whether the SMBs are ready for it at the moment remains to be seen. However, everyone seems to be moving away towards newer ways of doing their business and cloud and SaaS is one way of adapting to the future. They are also looking to save costs and digital transformation will help achieve those objectives as well. Partners are also looking more at providing managed services. However, I am not seeing much traction in the private sector at the moment and the momentum seems to be driven by government entities. What is the Security Fabric all about? Fortinet came up with the idea of the Fortinet Security Fabric as a framework. It resonates with SMBs, enterprises and even telcos. Prior to this, we were positioning separate products to customers while other vendors came in and sold other

products. Now with Security Fabric, our proposition is that we protect all the way from the root to the branches, automated and integrated with other products through API (Application Programming Interfaces). Fabric security delivers broad protection and visibility to every network segment, device, and appliance, whether virtual, in the cloud, or on-premises. It automatically synchronize your security resources to enforce policies, coordinate automated responses to threats detected anywhere in your network, and easily manage all of your different security solutions and products through a single pane of glass. The concept is well accepted. The success is also because of a lot of vendors as well who have partnered with us. Fortinetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fabric-Ready Partner Program is a premium category of Fortinetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technology alliance partnerships. Fabric-Ready partners are a key part of the Fortinet Security Fabric, which enables Fortinet and partner products to collaboratively integrate and provide end-to-end security. There are instances where customers buy one of the appliance from us and other appliances from other vendors. This could be because of compliance requirements or their multi-vendor policies etc. This is where the Security Fabric comes in. We have grown the security framework by 40% globally. More and more of our customers are adopting the fabric. This is because of the management features and the coordinated, automated approach that the fabric enables. Discuss growth in the SMB segment? We have seen a huge growth from the low end SMB segment. There is a 40% growth rate we are seeing. Levant has shown good growth and KSA has a high potential. We will need to train more partners and get them committed to make the SMB business grow further. SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

OPINION

5 STEPS ON THE JOURNEY TO GDPR COMPLIANCE Claude Schuck, Regional Manager for Middle East and Central Africa at Veeam Software writes about why today’s organisations should be welcoming it as an opportunity to update their whole relationship with data protection and make it fit for the future

Knowing your data

Managing your data

f you’re a business that has or holds data on EU citizens, formally known as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), then the GDPR applies to you. That means you’re liable to penalty fines if you’re found to be noncompliant after the deadline of 25 May 2018 which has now passed. The best starting point, then, is simply knowing whether you hold this kind of data or not, and if you do, where it’s kept. Creating a visual map of all the data you hold will help you to build a comprehensive picture and get better oversight of this.

CLAUDE SCHUCK Regional Manager for Middle East and Central Africa at Veeam Software SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

A lack of knowledge around the kind of data they hold may be another reason why so many businesses don’t seem to be taking much notice of the GDPR – or just don’t think it applies to them. It could be that they don’t believe they hold any relevant data (hint: if you employ EU citizens, you do), or don’t realise the breadth and scope of the data they do hold (hint: personal data is more than just names and addresses). Which is precisely why just knowing your data is the first step on your journey to compliance.

nce you’ve built up a picture of all the relevant data you collect and hold, it’s time to look at who has access to it and how it’s being used. Different teams and departments in your business will be accessing the same data in different ways and will be using it for varying purposes. Whether it’s a marketing team inputting data on prospective customers and sharing it with the sales team, or a HR team handling data on its own employees, it’s essential that you implement standardised procedures and workflows around the handling of personal data, and that employees only have access when it’s necessary to their business function. Managing your data is about having visibility of the way data lives and breathes in your organisation – even if that’s not in-house. Your GDPR compliance also depends on the compliance of any third-party vendors or providers you work with, so the onus is on you to make sure they’re abiding by the rules. No turning a blind eye to data management once it’s out of your own business’ hands.

OPINION

here are still a vast number of organizations that have not taken the necessary steps to ensure GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance? The problem surrounding GDPR compliance is that it’s thought of as being just an ‘IT issue’. Lots of businesses seem to either have an inflated sense of confidence around how they already handle data, or they’re shrugging it off as someone else’s problem – which is to miss the point entirely. Compliance with the GDPR, in terms of both preparation and maintenance, should be a companywide effort. Not least because companies who are found to be non-compliant could face hefty fines that would affect everyone. And if the stipulations of the GDPR seem significant, it’s because they are. We’ve not had any updates to data protection laws since 1995 and things have

Protecting your data

aving gained better oversight of your data and implemented standardised processes to manage it, it’s time to make sure the right security controls are in place to protect the data – but that doesn’t just mean encryption. To be compliant you can’t simply turn security ‘on’ and put your feet up; the GDPR requires constant monitoring and diligence, and also much quicker action in the event of a data breach. It’s true that technology will play an important part in that journey, but technology alone will not bring about compliance. Rolling out a new company-wide approach to data protection requires a combination of security techniques, standardised workflows, internal education, access control, backup solutions, and much more besides. Keeping on top of who has access, where and when, with constant auditing and monitoring will enable much swifter responses to the data breaches that, despite everyone’s best efforts, are probably still inevitable.

changed a lot since then. The way businesses collected and stored personal data back then is no doubt very different to the way they do it in 2018. When you put it like that, the GDPR seems pretty overdue. Today’s organisations should be welcoming it as an opportunity to update their whole relationship with data protection and make it fit for the future. To implement a methodology that’s built into the fabric of the organisation – not an afterthought or just something for IT to deal with. The way we see it, there’s a very simple way to frame your approach to GDPR compliance. The five steps detailed below is the process we at Veeam went through to prepare. Now, we’re sharing it with you, in the hope that you’ll be able to complete your journey to compliance.

Documenting and complying

ne of the GDPR’s hottest topics is the introduction of data requests, which means an individual will have the right to request the correction or deletion of the data held about them. Businesses will be expected to comply with these requests and show that they’ve done so, which is why visibility over what data you hold – and where – is so crucial. Ongoing compliance with the GDPR also requires the documenting and auditing of what data you’re collecting, what it’s being used for and how long you’ll be storing it for. When we went through this step, we asked ourselves questions like: Is the data we collected months ago still relevant today? Do we still have visibility of data when it’s moved from one place to another? Are our thirdparty providers still compliant?

Continually improving

ne of the benefits of constantly monitoring and auditing your data protection processes is the opportunity to constantly review and improve them. It’s true that the GDPR is something of a line in the sand, but as the digital world we live in constantly evolves and expands, it’s safe to assume that responsibilities around data privacy and protection will also continue to increase – so businesses will need to continually improve to keep compliant. The GDPR should be seen by businesses as an opportunity to rethink their entire approach to data protection, now and moving forward. It’s a chance to make their organisations fit for the future – and they should grab it with both hands. We learnt a lot about our business and our data in becoming GDPR compliant. We hope our story now helps you.

SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

OPINION

ROLE OF CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS IN

CLOUD MIGRATION

Sachin Bhardwaj, Director Marketing & Business Development, eHosting DataFort discusses how a cloud service provider can play an important role in helping end user organizations migrate their workloads from on-premises to the cloud through jointly engaging in a proof of concept.

SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

OPINION

igration of data to the cloud is the process of moving business processes, business elements, data and applications, from an onsite, premises to a cloud environment. Similar to any migration process, transitioning an IT environment from onsite environment to the cloud has its share of project management and change management challenges. However, migrating to the cloud has a unique challenge of its own. Once successfully migrated to the cloud, the end userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s IT environment and its data are no longer under the direct control of the end user. The cloud environment remains under the control of the cloud service provider and hence needs to be managed remotely by the end user. Amongst the other operational considerations that need to be overcome are concerns around privacy, interoperability, data and application portability, data integrity, business continuity, and security. Migrating to the cloud has its share of benefits and hitches and end user organizations should work with their cloud service provider to identify what is in their best interests. The cloud is meant to provide environments that are scalable, reliable, and highly available, amongst others. Migrating workloads to the cloud brings with it various benefits. The cloud platform can scale with the demands of user access and the connectivity is much better than an on-premises installation. This means end users do not need to depend on investing in internal resources to manage performance as the demands scales up. And as the demands scales down, the investment does not become idle and suffer a loss in return on investment opportunity. Migrating database, applications, and data to the cloud is therefore highly effective in managing the costs of organizational IT operations, while anticipating the demands of seasonal periodicity, and geographic and business expansion.

Increasing demands in terms of compute and storage resources linked to business expansion and increasing application workloads is another strong driver for end user organizations to bring in a cloud service provider. End users and business decision makers are increasingly impatient for the IT organization to produce these resources on demand and drive adoption of the cloud. Application development cycles being managed by internal teams also need to be shortened to match business expectations in terms of time to market. Adoption of cloud helps to reduce application complexity and reduces time to market. On the other hand, migrating to the cloud does raise its fair share of questions, primarily whether the move is justified or not. If the application manages sensitive, confidential, and country specific data, that is controlled by highly governed procedures of risk and compliance, it may not be possible to move such data and applications to the cloud. An end user organization that has outsourced a significant portion of its hardware and software operations to a third-party will find it increasingly challenging to move those parts to the cloud in the early phases of migration. Similarly, those applications that are proprietary or have undergone significant customization on-premises will be challenged in the initial phases of cloud migration. If the applications being used on-premises are not cloud-ready, there will be similar obstacles in the initial phases of the migration. The older an application has been in use in an end user organization, the more likely it will have multiple, complex points of integration, with other applications and thirdparty solutions. Also, the older the application, the less likely that a complete set of documentation or the skilled resources behind its deployment, will be readily available on-site.

SACHIN BHARDWAJ

Director Marketing & Business Development, eHosting DataFort

A cloud service provider can play the role of a trusted partner by assisting in the process of migration to the cloud. This can be done by setting up a proof of concept in partnership with the end user organization. While not a perfect substitute, this will give the end user organization an idea of the following: comparison of application performance between on-premises and in-cloud; possible points of complexity and failure during migration; network bandwidth required for end-to-end data transfer; and hands-on evaluation of the capability of the cloud service provider, amongst others. A healthy partnership between the end user organization and a cloud service provider can therefore go a long way in ensuring success of the cloud migration journey. SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

COLUMN

How Middle East Businesses can prevent a Careem Type Breach Rajesh Gopinath, VP – Sales Engineering, MEA. at Paladion discusses how Businesses need to learn from the breach that exposed customer records

usinesses in the Middle East need to substantially reduce attacker dwell time to prevent a successful breach. It takes a company an average of 106 days to identify a breach. The only way to effectively reduce attacker dwell time is by using a combination of AI-Driven and Manual Threat Hunting to identify and evict attackers before there is a catastrophic breach like this. You are a Business in the Middle East. You feel confident your security systems are thoughtfully set up and provide you with comprehensive protection. So, instead of thinking about incoming threats, you go about your day-to-day operations, focusing primarily on your business’ key value driving functions. Everything seems to be progressing smoothly… until you get the news. Another company in the Middle East SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

has been breached. Millions of files have been compromised. The public outcry deafens. Suddenly, you can’t focus on your business’ operations. Suddenly, a whole set of other questions enter your head… “How did they get breached?” “What can we learn?” “Are our defenses strong enough?” “Are we next?” Unfortunately, this is not a hypothetical situation in the Middle East. Recently, Dubai-based ridesharing platform Careem announced a breach. Cybercriminals infiltrated their systems and walked away with over 14 million records for the company’s customers in the Middle East. For many companies in the Middle East, they have to ask whether their own defenses are strong enough,

and whether or not they will be the next victim in the Middle East to make headlines. How Did Careem Get Breached? As Gulf News reported earlier that Careem announced (via a blog post) that they had been breached, and their 14+ million records had been stolen on January 14th. Careem is a major enterprise in the Middle East, based in Dubai, but operating in 80 cities spread throughout 13 countries. The cybercriminals who committed this successful attack stole records on both Careem’s drivers, and their customers (their riders). The information they stole includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, and trip data. It is unclear how much geodata related to drivers’ and customers’ trips was stolen.

COLUMN

While no credit card data was stolen, and while Careem’s representative stated they have seen no evidence of “fraud or misuse related to this incident,” it is naive to believe the individual’s whose information was stolen are safe. The criminals behind the attack can still cause plenty of havoc utilizing the data stole. The stolen records give criminals enough personal information to perform additional phishing, or even social engineering, attacks against the affected parties. What Can We Learn from Careem’s Breach? At first glance, Careem’s breach appears to be a repeat of Uber’s breach (which they announced last November). The similarities go beyond the fact that both are ride sharing companies.

RAJESH GOPINATH VP - Sales Engineering, MEA Paladion

Both companies lost massive amounts of records. (Uber lost ~56 million records.) Both companies took a substantial amount of time to announce the breach. (Uber took nearly a year to announce their breach.) Both companies lost driver and customer data, but not corporate data. This last point deserves further elaboration. Uber explicitly stated they only lost customer and driver data, and that their corporate network was not breached. Careem implied this fact, by only mentioning that customer and driver records were stolen, and without mentioning any loss of corporate data. This fact is not as heartening as it might initially seem. Instead of speaking to the strength of corporate defenses within both companies, it leads to the uncomfortable realization that many enterprises appear to be simply less careful with, and to apply fewer defenses to, their customer, vendor, and 3rd party data, than they offer their own in-house data.

“It is distressing to see many prominent enterprises in the Middle East accept even one “weak link” in their security. After all, today, it can only take one breach, in one corner of a company, to create system-wide failure, substantial internal damage, and lost reputation.” Given the increased interdependence between customers, companies, and vendors, it is distressing to see many prominent enterprises in the Middle East accept even one “weak link” in their security. After all, today, it can only take one breach, in one corner of a company, to create system-wide failure, substantial internal damage, and lost reputation. Are Your Defenses Strong Enough, or Are You Next? It takes a company an average of 106 days to identify a breach. So, while it is wise to ask if your current defenses are already breached, or whether you will be the next enterprise in

the Middle East to suffer a breach, another question may be even more important to ask— “Is our security program proactively hunting for attackers or are they waiting for an alert or breach to respond?” At Paladion, several of our customers have reduced their dwell time from an average of 90 days to under 2 days. This is possible only using proactive threat hunting, and since manual threat hunting is slow, and speed is the primary success driver in cyber defense, we use a combination of AIDriven and Manual Threat hunting to achieve these results. This is the right approach to cyber security today.

SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

TECH WATCH

Epson EB-1795F projector

he EB-1795F projector from Epson is great for business purposes. This projector will deliver you exceptional quality in addition to the great performance. It’s both reliable and efficient which allows you to use it and maintain it for a long time. Thanks to its light weight and low wattage lamp that has the minimal impact on the environment.

makes it easy to show high-quality video and audio content from mobile devices, while charging them at the same time.

Perfect for people who are constantly on the move and frequently make presentations at customer sites, this ultra-mobile projector offers a winning combination of ultra-slim lightweight design, exceptional image quality and advanced functionality. With traditional wired and built-in wireless connectivity, time-saving set-up plus a range of advanced features, it’s the ideal tool for polished presentations.A carry case is included and the projector fits easily into a standard laptop bag.

Highlights:

The EB-1795F has wireless connectivity as standard to give you enhanced freedom and flexibility. NFC makes it easy to connect the projector to an Android smart phone or tablet device and project wirelessly via the iProjection app. MHL support

SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

Enjoy superb image quality, impressive natural colours with an equally high white and colour light output of 3,200 lumens thanks to Epson’s 3LCD technology.

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Exceptional image quality: Equally high white and colour light output of 3,200 lumens

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Gesture Presenter: Advance through a presentation directly with your hands

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Horizontal and Vertical Keystone correction: Slides and images can be aligned and distortion corrected

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Wireless connectivity: NFC makes it easy to connect tp the projector wirelessly

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Lightweight & ultra-slim form factor: Fits in the same bag as a laptop computer

Toshiba S300 Surveillance Hard Drive Toshiba’s 3.5-inch S300 Surveillance Hard Drive is designed and tested for 24/7 reliable surveillance, built for speed, capacity, and longer content retention. Available in up to 10TB capacities, the new surveillance hard drive can handle high workloads up to 180TB/year and supports surveillance network video recorders (sNVR), surveillance digital video recorders (sDVR), hybrid sDVR(analog and IP) and RAID storage arrays for surveillance. Capture and analyse every frame from up to 64 video cameras in high resolution with the S300. Space is important to continually capture a history of video evidence over a period of time. With up to 10 TB you get the capacity to record and play back the events in real-time in high resolution and with object identification and face recognition.

TECH WATCH

The high-endurance, highperformance components of the S300 withstand harsh environments for superior reliability. Hightemperature environments trigger optimized seek speed to support lower power consumption while automatically reducing noise and vibration emissions. Up to one million hour MTTF (Mean time to failure) and 180 TB per year workload rating provide peace of mind when operating security camera systems. Highlights: • The S300 surveillance Hard Drive series is available in capacities up to 10TB and offers support for up to 64 high definition camera streams. • The S300 Surveillance Hard Drive series offer 24/7 reliability and high performance with large cache size up to 256MB. • The S300 performs at up to 7200rpm with a maximum data transfer speedof 248 MB/s. • Additionally, the S300 comes with built-in RV sensors to help suppress vibrations in multi hard drive platforms.

HP Jet Fusion 300/500 series 3D printers

P recently expanded d its 3D printing portfolio with ts the introduction of its new Jet Fusion 300 / 500 series of 3D printers, the industry’s y’s first 3D printing technology gy to enable manufacturers to produce onal engineering-grade, functional parts in full color, black or white – with voxel control – in a fraction action ons. of the time of other solutions. on Depending on configuration and color preference, the Jet Fusion 300 / 500 seriess is available starting in the $50,000s, enabling smallto medium-sized product development teams and design businesses, entrepreneurs, and universities and research institutions to access HP’s industry leading Multi Jet Fusion printing technology. The new Jet Fusion 300 / 500 series complements HP’s existing industrialgrade Jet Fusion 3200/4200/4210 3D solutions which deliver the lowest cost per part2 and are designed for manufacturing environments. With this portfolio expansion, HP is providing users of its Multi Jet Fusion solutions the ability to prototype and produce new designs and applications on the same platform and stay ahead with a future-ready technology for voxel control beyond color. HP’s unique ability to control part properties at the individual voxel level enables the design and production of previously unconceivable parts and is now available, for the first time, in full color. Whether in healthcare, automotive, consumer goods, or other

industries; or for entrepreneurs, designers, or university researchers with the next great idea; the potential of new 3D printing applications is enormous. Highlights: • The cost-effective HP 3D printers are tailored for small/mediumsized product development teams, design firms, and universities. • You can prototype and produce with the same technology. • These printer can produce engineering-grade thermoplastic parts with optimal mechanical properties and achieve fine detail and high dimensional accuracy for small features. • Produce multiple prototype iterations in the same time it takes to print a single part

SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

MARKET MIRROR

Vertical Tech right there and then.

HEALTHCARE LIKELY TO BECOME DIGITISED BY 2030 Within ten years your medical checkup could involve more interaction with sensors, cameras and robotic scanning devices than human doctors and nurses, as healthcare organisations re-build services around IoT, according to a new report by Aruba, a HPE company. The study makes five key predictions for how the industry will transform by 2030, including: 1) Patient self-diagnosis: Using appbased and wearable tools to monitor

3) Health professionals double their free time: Doctors and nurses, who are currently spending up to 70% of their time on administrative work, will be able to quickly analyse scans or patient records via their mobile device, freeing up huge amounts of their day to focus on patient care.

your health and even carry out your own scans, patients will finally have the ability to self-diagnose a wide number of conditions at home, without needing to visit a surgery or hospital. 2) The automated hospital: Hospital check-in will feature imaging technology that can assess your heart rate, temperature and respiratory rate from the moment you walk in, followed by sensors that can perform a blood pressure and ECG test within 10 seconds, and lead to an automatic triage or even diagnosis

GLOBAL AI BUSINESS TO REACH $1.2 TRILLION IN 2018 Global business value derived from artificial intelligence (AI) is projected to total $1.2 trillion in 2018, an increase of 70 percent from 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. AI-derived business value is forecast to reach $3.9 trillion in 2022. The Gartner AI-derived business value forecast assesses the total business value of AI across all the enterprise vertical sectors covered by Gartner. There are three different sources of AI business value: customer experience, new revenue, and cost reduction. SMART SMB | JUNE 2018

4) Digital data repositories: Devices will automatically integrate with your digital patient records, automatically updating on your condition and treatment, giving caregivers a richer, real-time, readily-accessible data to make more better decisions. 5) Acceptance of AI: As artificial intelligence (AI) starts to play an increasing role in diagnosis and treatments, public support will grow to the extent that you will be willing to be diagnosed by machine – provided that services are designed and implemented around patients, the benefits are explained, and permission is sought.

• Customer experience: The positive or negative effects on indirect cost. Customer experience is a necessary precondition for widespread adoption of AI technology to both unlock its full potential and enable value. • New revenue: Increasing sales of existing products and services, and/or creating new product or service opportunity beyond the existing situation. • Cost reduction: Reduced costs incurred in producing and delivering those new or existing products and services. “AI promises to be the most disruptive class of technologies during the next 10 years due to advances in computational power, volume, velocity and variety of data, as well as advances in deep neural networks (DNNs),” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “One of the biggest aggregate sources for AI-enhanced products and services acquired by enterprises between 2017 and 2022 will be niche solutions that address one need very well. Business executives will drive investment in these products, sourced from thousands of narrowly focused, specialist suppliers with specific AI-enhanced applications.”