Smart SMB January 2019 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

New beginnings

s the lights fade out on 2018 and a new year promises a new beginning, Businesses must be looking to consolidating on the gains they made in the year past. On a philosophical note, we define the future by what we do in the present instance. In that context, the various technologies that are enabling our industry, are constantly unravelling changes in the world around us, at work and at home. Essentially digital transformation is still0 only in the early stages across most industries as they redefine their Business models. They are doing so with newer technologies such as AI, blockchain, RPA to name a few of the very obvious, that are enabling the fabric around which they enhance their products and services. A constant challenge would be to retrain people in their redefined roles and letting go off some resources as increased automation sweeps in. Workforce transformation is very much a reality of the present and hopefully Businesses will strike the balance to create more jobs. 2019 will be a busier year for more early to maturer stage deployments that are enabling a smarter, always connected ecosystem of products and services across private and public sectors. There would be more of the same such as increased traction in cloud services being adopted across industries, with vertical industries focused cloud service providers expected to see increased demand for their services. In Bahrain, the deployment of VAT at 5% from the beginning of the year makes the country the latest to introduce the tax in GCC. The Smart SMB Summit Bahrain edition, being held on 23rd January will bring into focus the expected impact of VAT implementation and the roadmap for companies towards embracing digital transformation. If you are a senior decision maker of a mid-market Business based out of Bahrain, make sure you register for the event to listen to insights from industry experts.

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

CEO

sn.tiwari@smartsmb.net

Saumyadeep Halder Saumyadeep@bmimea.com

Publisher Raman Narayan

Managing Director Ankit Shukla

narayan@bmimea.com

ankit@bmimea.com

Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to validate the accuracy of all information included in the magazine, the publishers wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be liable for any errors therein Copyright@2018 Business Media International LLC. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS Cover Feature

CASE STUDY A journey towards transformation

A DIGITAL makeover

Vertical Watch A good beginning

IN DEPTH

SPOTLIGHT

22 OPINION

Leading CIOs attend Enterprise Transformation Summit 19 & Awards

Talkpoint An enabler of digital transformation

Legality of the Smart Contracts in UAE

News

Techwatch

Market Mirror 12 15 Delivering unfettered connectivity 26 Thriving on data management

Multichannel promotions key in retail for customer loyalty

NEWS

DED seeks to boost retail and construction Virtuzone clients to get Sage software at exclusive rates C

ompany formation specialist Virtuzone has announced a partnership with Sage, the global market leader for technology that helps businesses of all sizes manage everything from money to people. Through the partnership, Virtuzone clients will get access to the Sage Business Cloud Accounting package at exclusive rates – 15% off when paying by instalments and 20% off when purchasing upfront for one year. One licence will give two users access to Sage Business Cloud Accounting and the Sage Accounting Document Store. Virtuzone CEO George Hojeige says this is another move to show the company’s commitment to supporting businesses long after formation: “While we may be company formation specialists, our services run far beyond that. With this partnership we are showing our clients that we won’t just help you get started, we’ll ensure you’ve always got access to worldclass business support services every step of the way.” Sage Business Cloud Accounting is an easy to use online accounting platform designed to support entrepreneurs and small businesses. The software provides startups with everything they need to manage their SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

accounts without any unnecessary complexity. Commenting on the partnership, Ibrahim Parwaz, Sage Accounting Lead at Sage Middle East, said: “Entrepreneurs, Start-ups and SMEs look to Virtuzone as the most trusted company formation specialist in the UAE. They are aligned with Sage’s vision, to empower business builders to focus on what matters most to them - their customers and growing their businesses. We are very happy to partner with Virtuzone to provide their customers with Sage Accounting, a cloud-based VAT approved accounting solution, enabling them to manage their accounting anywhere at any time using software that is available anywhere.” Hojeige went on to say: “Offering discounted access to an accountancy package aimed squarely at entrepreneurs is just another step in creating the perfect ecosystem for startups in the UAE. This partnership with a trusted, global brand, along with many others like it that offer access to telecoms support, email hosting and office space, highlights the true value of being a Virtuzone client.”

hani al hamli Manager of the Dubai Competitiveness Office of DED

he Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai has launched two Challenges to strengthen retail sector competitiveness and increase productivity in the construction sector as part of the fifth Cohort of the Dubai Future Accelerators (DFA) programme. Launched under the ‘Dubai Economy Accelerators’ umbrella, the two Challenges are part of DED’s ongoing efforts to harness technologies of the future to enhance ease of doing business, improve government services and enhance competitiveness across industry sectors. The Cohort 5 Challenges will see DED along with four private sector companies exploring solutions that will enable two crucial industry sectors in Dubai to remain innovation-driven and sustainable

NEWS

while also attracting investment and accelerating economic growth in the emirate. The first Challenge seeks to enable retailers and wholesalers to predict future scenarios through data, research and insights, and accordingly capitalise on their physical and digital presence to attract consumers. The objective is to deploy Dubai’s retail advantage to ensure sustainability of business while also promoting a smart transformation in the sector. Mohammed Shael Al Saadi, CEO of Corporate Strategic Affairs sector in DED said, “As part of the DFA challenge, we are collaborating and co-creating solutions to reinforce Dubai’s position in the retail market and as a global shopping destination. We are working to capture the shopping habits of the new consumer, develop data driven strategies to predict future trends, and identify opportunities in support to local SMEs and large retailers to create a balanced digital and physical retail ecosystem.” The second Challenge identified in Cohort 5 is to leverage technology to promote sustainable business practices in the construction sector, thereby improving productivity. The Challenge aims to shift focus of future growth in the construction sector to productivity-driven competitiveness, from the production factors Dubai has already accumulated. Hani Al Hamli, Manager of the Dubai Competitiveness Office of DED, said, “The Dubai Competitiveness Office is participating in the DFA programme as part of its drive to improve efficiencies and productivity, which is a prerequisite for enhancing Dubai’s global competitiveness. While construction and real estate in Dubai is growing and competing on a global level, labour productivity in the sector needs to be improved. We have selected two companies from the dozens that came forward to work with us within the DFA framework.”

Sheraa awards $10,000 Grant to Startups U

nder the patronage of Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Sheraa (Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center) hosted its inaugural Seed program Showcase Day, at the Sharjah Entrepreneurial Festival. During the event, the newest cohort was introduced and the winner of the $10,000 grant was announced, in the presence of leading investors, key opinion leaders and heads of government entities. The Sheraa Seed program, is a six week intensive training and mentoring series, focused on marketing channels, customer experience and fundraising, for businesses that have been in the market for the past 3-6 months, generating consistent revenue, but struggling with customer engagement. Candidates are eligible to be applicants for the $10,000 grant and are assessed based on various factors such as performance, experiments execution, impact of grant, sustainable growth and future plans of the startup. Mama’s Box, a monthly subscription service that delivers a box filled with useful products for mother and child, emerged as the winner of this cohort.

Startups graduating from the Seed Program : Digiteam - Digiteam is a sales digitization and gamification mobile solution that helps guide, engage and track sales teams in real-time. Malena App LLC - Malena App is a mobile e-commerce booking application dedicated to the aesthetic, cosmetic and dental clinics and services. Mama’s Box - Mama’s box delivers monthly boxes of 4-6 handpicked products, such as creams, maternity essentials, toys, books and more, all tailored to the customers pregnancy stage and/or her baby’s development stage. QiDZ - QiDZ is the first mobile application in the Middle East that connects parents with kid activity providers and entertainment services. It allows parents to find, plan, book and purchase kid-friendly activities happening in the UAE. Smart Crowd - Smart Crowd is a digital real estate investment platform that lowers the barriers to entry for individuals to build financial assets and generate investment income.

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

NEWS

Etisalat to provide Cloud Managed Wireless for ZOOM outlets

Zoho deepens Analytics and AI in its CRM Plus

oho has unveiled the next generation of Zoho CRM Plus, its all-in-one customer experience platform that empowers Sales, Marketing, Customer Support, and Operations to work as one. Now, Zoho customers have complete visibility of their customers across departments rather than partial views. Fueled by Zia, Zoho’s AI-powered assistant, and the enhanced Zoho Analytics, Zoho’s business intelligence and reporting platform, Zoho CRM Plus helps businesses deliver superior customer experiences, by allowing users to deeply understand customer sentiments, delight customers across channels, and adeptly prescribe actions to keep customers content throughout their journey—all from one place.

tisalat recently signed an agreement with ENOC to provide its retail outlets with Cloud Managed Wi-Fi solution. The project will start with WiFi coverage across ZOOM convenient stores and expand to other retail outlets within the ENOC retail network. The MoU was signed by Abdullah Al Mana, General Manger, Dubai Region, Etisalat and Zaid Alqufaidi, Managing Director of Retail, ENOC . The service is based on Cisco Meraki’s cloud solution hosted locally by Etisalat and combined with Etisalat Data Analytic Services. The new platform will greatly enhance the retail customer experience at ZOOM stores, as it provides simple network management tools, accessible via the cloud, with 24/7 support and monitoring as an Etisalat fully managed service. Abdullah Al Mana, General Manager, Dubai Region, Etisalat, said: “We are proud to offer a cutting-edge SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

technology solution that provides ENOC retail outlets better customer behavior analytics, enabling improved business decisions, including stepchanges to the customer journey for customers.” “At Etisalat, we understand that ubiquitous connectivity and peace of mind in management of the wireless LAN for staff and guests is vital to any retail business. The agreement offers ENOC retail outlets the ability to leverage Etisalat’s advanced cloud-based managed connectivity solutions and supporting the Group’s ambition to offer a rewarding journey to customers through smarter ICT solutions.” H.E. Saif Humaid Al Falasi, Group CEO, ENOC said: “We are deeply committed to digitizing the retail experience for our customers; a movement we believe is gradually transforming their experience at our retail outlets. By embracing new technologies, we are well on our way towards supporting Dubai’s 2021 plan to become a smart city.”

The power of Zia and Zoho Analytics across this new Customer Experience Platform, coupled with significant updates to Zoho Desk, Zoho Social, and SalesIQ, businesses can now simply unify all customer-facing teams on a

NEWS

single interface and leverage real-time, contextual intelligence pulled from the front- and back-office, across all customer touch points, in just a single action. The platform sets a new standard for seamless omni-channel customer engagement, sentiment collection and analysis, and prescriptive actions across departments to increase the bottom line. Putting Zia at the center of customer experience, customer sentiments are automatically available to service agents as they receive incoming tickets. Based on prior knowledge, Zia also suggests responses to customers on behalf of support representatives. Sales teams are equipped with real-time insight such as the best time to call a prospect or likelihood to close a deal when they follow a stream of actions. Zia analyzes marketing and sales activities and predicts chances of deal closures. Zia also monitors that trend against actual business health and predicts anomalies, so teams can stay ahead of potential problems. Using Ask Zia, teams can access insight from the past, present, and future with a simple voice command or text message. Zia Voice is now available as an SDK, allowing companies to provide Zia functionality to their customers. “Zia has advanced significantly since her initial launch early last year. With the combined powers of Zia and Analytics behind Zoho’s Customer Experience Platform, we are opening up a seamless and contextual flow of information across channels and departments, making it simple for teams to work as one to smartly transform their customer relationships,” said Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist, Zoho.

Clemenceau Medical Center deploys Infor CloudSuite C

lemenceau Medical Center in Dubai Healthcare City (CMC-DHCC) has selected Infor CloudSuite Healthcare - a complete platform including Financials, Human Capital Management and Supply Chain - as part of the firm’s digital transformation journey. When completed, this new cloud-based platform will help CMC-DHCC scale its operations for future growth. CMCDHCC selected Infor over competition due to Infor Healthcare CloudSuite’s industry specific functionalities and the proven track record of Infor’s partner E3 in healthcare and in regional specific requirements in supply chain, human capital management. The E3 team has international, regional and local healthcare industry-focused experience that enables them to successfully deploy the systems with accuracy and speed without compromising on the quality of the implementation process. Infor’s industry-specific cloud-based solutions are based on applications

that have helped hundreds of healthcare customers globally to gain and maintain industry leadership. CMC-DHCC, 100-bed state-of-the-art medical center, will constitute one of Clemenceau Medicine Network’s main hubs, with the objective of implementing the Clemenceau Medicine’s healthcare delivery system to patients in Dubai. Clemenceau Medicine Network is an assimilated network of centers of excellence composed of the core hub CMC Beirut, as well as CMC-DHCC and CMC Riyadh. The green field hospital CMC-DHCC intends to operate on an optimized efficiency basis and most importantly full utilization of human capital capabilities, while ensuring local compliance in their operations globally. Hence CMC-DHCC has chosen Infor CloudSuite Healthcare which is designed for the healthcare industry and provides advanced business functionalities that align with the hospital’s vision.

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

NEWS

Healthigo partners with Medicnlogy Healthigo announced the launch of their channel partner program that aligns with the changing HealthTech landscape and how partners are evolving to solve technology needs of Healthcare Providers. The Healthigo partner program drives the company’s strategy of deeper engagements with the healthcare provider and care seeker community. Healthigo works with partners aligned with its vision of building a smarter and healthier society. As a first step towards this goal, Healthigo signed up with Medicnlogy, a Dubai based MedTech company with over 20 years of market presence and

a dedicated team of knowledgeable medical professionals and technology experts.

from healthcare providers and that is influencing the transformation in the delivery of healthcare.

“The past six months have been very exciting as we solidified our business model and evolved our channel strategy,” said Joseph Debs, Co-founder at Healthigo. “Today’s patients have higher expectations

Our partnership with Medicnlogy brings the Healthigo platform to a wider audience and will be instrumental in helping healthcare providers optimise their operations resulting in delivering an enhanced patient experience.”

Avaya expands Desktop Experience for UCaaS additional Avaya Vantage devices, conferencing devices, and the complete J100 Series IP Phone portfolio as well as new devices for hospitality, wireless handsets and headsets.

Avaya has announced new Avaya Desktop Experience open SIP offerings to enable UCaaS providers to deliver a richer experience to the business desktop, using their UC platform of choice for simplicity and cost effectiveness.

a Service) providers need to evolve from offering only phones with voice calling features to smart devices that allow users to personalize their communications and provide one-touch access to cloud-based applications.

To keep up with the pace of change, UCaaS (Unified Communications as

The Avaya Desktop Experience expanded portfolio now includes

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

“Service providers of all types can now leverage the powerful, globally known and trusted Avaya brand in delivering unique experiences to their customers,” said Greg Pelton, Vice President, Collaboration and Devices, Avaya. “The expansion of our Avaya Desktop Experience portfolio in both breadth and third party UC platform support provides an inflection point for UCaaS providers to move beyond generic voice -- to positively transform customer experience while increasing employee satisfaction and productivity, accelerating the ability of organizations of all sizes to achieve key business goals, and improve the overall quality of service that is needed for their users.”

IN DEPTH

Fintech Startups in the GCC to attract US$ 2 billion in Private Funding Investments in Gulf-based fintech startups are expected to reach US$ 2 billion in the next decade, compared to a mere US$ 150 million invested in the last 10 years, according to a new study by MENA Research Partners (MRP), a leading research company in the region. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are expected to play a key role in unlocking the GCC growth potential and shaping the MENA fintech sector. MRP suggests that both countries will be at the heart of the evolving fintech transformation, powered by many factors: adopting a top-down approach for creating advanced infrastructures for the smart cities of the future, having the highest online connectivity per capita in the region, and representing 45% of the MENA economies. The private sector in both markets is also stepping up its investments in fintech. “The call on private capital in the fintech space remains largely untapped, although we have seen some deals completed over the past few years. Today, we have a US$ 2 billion funding gap of private capital investments in fintech startups, when compared to other emerging markets. The private capital investment gap compared with the global average is much wider, at US$ 10 billion. In the last ten years, private capital investments in GCC-based fintechs was a mere 0.007% of the GDP, 10x below the emerging markets average of 0.07% for that period and 43x below the global average of 0.3%,” says Anthony Hobeika, Chief Executive Officer of MRP. The MRP research indicates that 35% of the total investments in fintech startups in MENA over the past 10 years were made in 2017; or US$ 52.5 million out of the US$ 150

million invested between 2008 and 2018, were completed last year. This momentum is expected to prevail over the next few years, albeit at a much higher pace. This will be driven by many factors, not the least being the GCC governments’ initiatives. Regulators and government policies are increasingly supporting the fintech ecosystem and creating boosters for it to grow locally: Dubai’s Fintech Hive, ADGM’s Reglab, Bahrain Fintech Bay, and KSA-UAE’s joint project for a blockchain-based system are just a few examples. The study says that the shift of economic power from West to East will benefit these GCC fintech hubs. Other factors include conventional banks embracing the fintech wave and complementing their traditional offerings with digital solutions. This is coupled with the rise in standalone fintech companies which are emerging to fill the US$ 1.7 trillion gap in market funding for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). At the moment, many cash-rich SMEs do not have access to bank funding in the

region. Only 20% of these companies have access to a line of credit from financial institutions, compared to an average of 42% in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Central and Eastern Asia and the Pacific. This large funding gap left by banks and capital markets can be filled by fintech companies operating in the lending and capital raising subsector. In addition to that, new fintech startups are entering the market to solve the problem of financial inclusion for the unbanked. Last, but not least, the shift in consumer preferences towards digitalisation and e-commerce means that more fintech solutions will be needed to cater for customers’ requirements. MRP estimates that the number of fintech companies in the MENA region will more than double in the next three years, to reach around 260 fintech startups from the current 130. However, Hobeika says that there will be consolidation in the market, which will drive larger transactions. SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

TALK POINT

AN ENABLER OF

DIGITAL

TRANSFORMATION H imanshu Palsule, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Epicor, a global provider of industryspecific enterprise software discusses Epicorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus in enabling digital transformation

Is digital transformation mandatory for Businesses today? What are the driving factors?

Digital transformation is no longer a future trend; it is here today. It is the confluence of many factors that enables it, such as the availability of the cloud, the mobility of data, the ability to visualize data through better intelligence and the ability of very affordable devices that can be inter-connected. When all of these come together, you get digital transformation at a scale like it is happening today. Large enterprises have had access to decision making information from their ERP deployments in the past but the scale at which SMBs can now take their data and understand their biggest pain points, whether it is labour, pricing, costs, production or supplies etc and to bring in corrective actions very quickly using very affordable set of technologies is what makes the change more pervasive. Digital transformation is here and it is a risk missing out on it because it is the essence of staying competitive for the future.

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

TALK POINT

two people, and they want Epicor to partner with them to be able to automate that. There are smaller customers who have come up and told us that they have devices that break down sometimes and they would therefore need sensors that are smart enough to collect that data and alert them. These are the kind of need we want to focus upon. So we are obviously going to rely a lot on companies like Johnson Controls, Siemens etc as they do best in what they focus on and then we will also rely on Microsoft Azure as the stack to do a lot of the data aggregation. And, then we are just going to be keep providing the value back to the customer by focusing on what we do best, which is helping extract insights and make decisions from data. All the data from the IoT endpoints, come into the ERP system which helps make decisions. We don’t have to worry about the stack elements, the encryption of data etc. And we don’t have to worry about the nature of datawhether it is filtered or whether it is raw. We can rely on technologies from other vedors that can help streamline all of that and then we can help make the decisions. 15-20 years ago, when you didn’t have the cloud or the availability, the infrastructural costs of IoT were high because you had to worry about the various layers - the service fabric, the IoT servers, the standards of encryption and all of that which could slow down customers from implementing. Today, that has changed and a lot of that gets abstracted - we just deal with incoming data, aggregate it , make it decisions and visualise it so that customers can understand their pain points and make decisions. Does Epicor work with other vendors for the data aggregation from IoT devices? How would you look at the role of Epicor in the customer’s transformation journey? The role of Epicor is that of a key enabler in digital transformation. ERP has always been the backbone of any operations- it is the one set of records that you trust and the one set of data data source that CFOs and CIOs rely on when making decisions. When we picked our area to focus on, we didn’t want to be having to deal with device standards, authorizing devices etc. We want to be device agnostic. At the same instance, we don’t want to be so far away that all we are doing is taking data in and putting data out. The area we have picked for ourselves in the value chain is where we can create maximum return of value for the customer. Frankly, that changes by industry, changes by size of customer and also by the size of adoption of technology at customer sites. We have had customers coming up to us and telling they plan to automate their entire supply chain and they want to reduce their labor from probably twenty-five to

We have kept the option open today as standards are evolving. Look at the changes that EDI and XML had to go through before finally becoming standards. I think IoT data will go through the same kind of evolution before clear standards are created. Until then we want to stay agnostic and our closest partner in all of this is Microsoft Azure. So there is the reliance on the Azure stack with the work they are doing on from their services fabric to their IOT and working through that to make meaningful use of IoT data. In addition, we also have our own products- Epicor Data Analytics, Epicor Data Discovery and these products interact with the data to make decisions, to visualize, to predict with some amount of AI that is enabled. We cannot predict or control what the customers have on site in terms of implementations and the data sources - it could be a large standard implementation to a one based on some cheaper devices, connected to the enterprise systems and streaming out data. So we have to treat any of that as a data stream and work with that. SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

TALK POINT

How does it impact security issues, especially if there are cheaper IoT sensor in the network whose security could be suspect?

on that level of shift towards cloud adoption. This is also partly because it is more affordable to move into the cloud.

The biggest challenge probably that is holding back the mid-market from IoT implementations is that the weakest security link in their infrastructure could be a device. They could have excellent server security, encrypted networks etc but then you could have someone bring their device and literally tap into the network feed. The reason we want to be device agnostic is that we are looking at incoming data and once it comes into the ERP system, it is secured. The data stream could be anything, from XML feed, from EDI feeds, entered manually, from a device or any other means etc but our job is to accept data from authorized sources and once it is in, to be able to secure that. In addition, there is also the need to look at the structure of the data and see if there are any field that could risk exposing corporate data and therefore not allow any data streams that are unauthorized. It is left to the service providers of the data to make sure they are authorized. Unauthorized data streams are blocked. Having said that, security is a growing concern with so many IoT devices being manufactured and I think more standards need to be evolved that these devices would need to pass through. There are some standards but they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stringent as they should be.

Elaborate on enhancements with your latest product release?

How fundamental is cloud to transformation? If you are looking for scale, elasticity in data usage, accessibility etc, Cloud is critical. The advantage with Epicor is we still have options of both, on premise and on cloud. We have many customers using these systems on premise and we tell them as long as they are willing in invest in hardware, load balancing etc manually, on premise will work just fine. However, the very nature of cloud supports elasticity. Over the next few years, cloud will become more critical; it is pretty important today but it is still not mandatory today.

We have come out with Epicor ERP10.2.300 end of October. A lot of industry functionalities have been added. This includes a dealer portal, an update on the MES solution, a field service solution etc. We have also worked on the look & feel of the product such as a new dashboard, large screen etc. It is more dynamic and has the ability to do data discovery. This is going to be the start of a new journey. We announced Project Kinetic earlier this year and this new edition of ERP is the first rollout of the new UI. It is not just about the look and feel but about the entire end to end experience from automation of data entry to ease of reporting. We do a release twice a year and customers will see more of the same with improvements. There are different aspects addressed with every new release. The first is we have to bring in first class cloud products -everything from provisioning, identity, telemetry, we have to be the best. The second aspect is the industry focus, where we need to bring in top functionalities. The third is the look and feel which has been addressed with the new UI. And the fourth is compliance- that is changing and all of that needs to be addressed and included in different markets like VAT here, GDPR etc.

Do you follow a cloud first strategy with new customers? Yes. With every new Business customer, we start with cloud - we tell them the value of the cloud and the growth. And if they want on premises solutions, we are glad to do that. But definitely it is cloud first strategy and the market and demand shift is clearly towards the cloud. Is the Cloud seeing traction in manufacturing sector? Surprisingly it does apply to manufacturing sector as well. The services was the first to move to the cloud. We would thought manufacturing would be a laggard but as a recently Morgan Stanley report suggests while 85% of workloads in the past were on premises, in the next one year, another 15% of workloads could move to cloud. The Manufacturing sector is probably SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

Himanshu Palsule Chief Product and Technology Officer, Epicor

TALK POINT

THRIVING ON DATA MANAGEMENT Veeam Software, a leader in Intelligent Data Management for the Hyper-Available Enterprise recently held its VeeamON Forum in Middle East in Dubai. Gregg Petersen, Regional Sales Vice President, MEA at Veeam discusses the momentum the company is making in the region as it focuses on companies to make the transition to Intelligent Data Management. What has been the year like for Veeam in the region? We’ve had a huge year making good on the promises we made in 2017. We’ve expanded our resales relationships with Cisco, NetApp and HPE. We’ve unleashed a second iteration of our killer data management product for Office 365, so we are now supporting Outlook, Sharepoint and OneDrive, ensuring data is protected beyond what Microsoft does. Twelve months ago, we expanded our operations in the Middle East, moving to an office that was over double the size of our previous home here in Dubai. This year we’ve focused on growing the team, building out those relationships with alliance partners and developing the relationships with enterprise-size businesses that we want to work with. We’ve had some great successes, particularly in the banking and finance sector too, but because we’re more than just backup, and are now considered by those businesses as a data protection or data management partner, many of those clients now see us as a bit of a secret weapon. We’ve got a very exciting update coming in early Q1 FY19 for our Veeam Backup and Replication. What is the growth outlook for 2019? Veeam has a tremendous opportunity ahead. We are already the leader in Intelligent Data Management, and as we focus on closing out another record year, we are looking ahead to achieve our long-term bookings objective, which is to reach more than $2 billion by 2022. How do you see the adoption of new technologies for digital transformation favor a data management company like Veeam? As technologies like IoT, AI, machine learning and blockchain mature, and as customers grapple with mining massive amounts of data for better business insights, they need solutions that can do far more than ensure data Availability. We believe Intelligent Data Management is the new requirement in today’s enterprise. The Veeam HyperAvailability Platform, used by many of the world’s largest enterprises including Royal Caribbean, Mercedes-Benz, Telefonica and L’Oréal, is the most complete solution to help customers on their journey to Intelligent Data Management so that they deliver innovative digital services to market faster.

GREGG PETERSEN Regional Sales Vice President, MEA, Veeam

Veeam is now ranked number two in the Middle East backup market and we are on our way to becoming number 1 so that is our primary goal. What new products and solutions is Veeam planning to launch in the first half of 2019? This year, we switched to a more agile system of product development, mirroring those of the best of breed storage vendors we now closely integrate with. Instead of the annual big bang, we will deliver smaller updates more often to better respond to the changing asks from our customers, based on their ever-evolving IT requirements. I think it’s no secret that Veeam Backup and Replication 9.5 is going to have an update in the first half of the year, but for the rest, you’ll just have to wait and see. Our product development and R&D teams have been working hard. SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

COVER FEATURE

A DIGITAL

MAKEOVER

ith digital transformation seen as one of the major advancements that enable government organizations to provide better, faster and cost-effective services to citizen and residents, government sector entities like SEWA ( Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority) in the UAE are taking a definite lead in such transformation initiatives. As a member of Sharjah Government, SEWA is mandated by the Directions of H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al-Qassimi to provide the best possible services to the Citizens and residents of Sharjah. Thus H.E. Dr. Rashid Alleem, the Chairman of SEWA, is leading SEWA on multiple fronts to abide by this mandate making sure to benefit from transformation wherever and whenever possible. An early initiative was about going paperless with the Green Bill, sending out monthly bills to consumers as SMS and email messages. SEWA upgraded its mobile App and the SEWA App v3 includes upgraded features such as processing online request for cooking Gas, moving in or out requests etc. SEWA has outlined its digital transformation commitments to accomplish by 2020 in the form of its roadmap ‘SMART SEWA’.

With clear objectives to enhance its customer services and overall operations, SEWA has undertaken the digital transformation journey and is posting successful milestones

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

The SEWA Portal itself has been enhanced with numerous user friendly features. eNOC (electronic no objection certificates application ) is another feature offered by SEWA. SEWA is using digital resources for its staff recruitment purposes such as LinkedIn. Introduction of SMART Meters and SEWA BI (business intelligence) are among other initiatives to leverage new technologies and improve their operations and efficiencies, thereby enhancing customer service. “Transformation is a key component for this to succeed as it enables the fast analysis of data from different sources and in multiple formats to support proper decision making and planning. Examples include building permits, no objection certificates and provision of emergency power and

COVER FEATURE

water supply,” says H.E. Dr. Rashid Alleem, the Chairman of SEWA.

The role of Big Data analytics SEWA BI in fact has a huge role to play in meeting key objectives and enhancing overall operations. One of the key aspects is providing timely service that is being improved significantly using BI analysis. By analyzing data from SEWA and other Government and private sector organizations using BI, SEWA is able to anticipate the needs of Sharjah’s citizens and residents and provide the right service or supply to the right party, right on time. SEWA is also achieving greater success in reducing outages and very high percentages of service continuity by relying on data analytics. This enables SEWA to analyze huge volumes of historic, current and predictive data from multiple sources to reduce the frequency of outages of its services which include electricity, water and gas. By applying data analytics on different types of data in databases, document as well as geographic information, SEWA is able to dispatch the right service crews that are properly equipped to address any outage in a fast and effective manner. Further, SEWA is cooperating with other Departments that are providing services to citizens and residents in Sharjah to ensure proper coordination and to provide them with the needed utilities based information on Sharjah’s plans and targets. H.E. Dr. Rashid Alleem says “Big data or data analytics represent a component of the SEWA future strategy. Data analytics provides a unique opportunity to harness data from multiple organizations, analyze it to predict future needs and ensure that they are satisfied. Digitalization and data analytics enables SEWA to analyze data from multiple parties

H. E. Dr. Rashid Alleem Chairman, SEWA

such as utilities consumption trends and growth over the years, expected population growth, current and future construction, and people moving trends etc.” “With such detailed analysis and forecast, SEWA is able to properly plan to ensure timely availability of its services and supplies as and when needed. Also the fast response enabled by data analytics, delivers a people benefit and the shorter outage time means more revenue and consequently better efficiency,” H.E. adds. The approach towards achieving true digital transformation that benefits all has been holistic and SEWA has launched its main services on multiple platforms to ensure that the customers’ needs are met with high efficiency and competency. These services are offered on its Smart App“SEWA Smart App” as well as through the official SEWA e-Services Portal. The services offered include Customer

Account Management, Bill Payment, Consumption Graphs, Complaint Management and Profile update. SEWA Smart App also offers a customer engagement element which is the Carbon Footprint Calculator where a customer can see his consumption CO2 print. In addition to this, there are different aspects on the website that serves different types of customers including Educational Scholarship Seekers and Statement Customers havingmajor accounts with SEWA. Also for VIP accounts from industrial and free zones, SEWA provides them special online statement to check and pay their bills. In additional SEWA is providing them SMART meters to help them manage their consumption.etc

Smart App facilitates seamless services Version 3.0 of the Smart App from SEWA was recently launched with enhanced functionalities to cater SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

COVER FEATURE

to quicker access to services. This caters to Individuals, companies and industries. It eases the access to SEWA services on mobile platforms. Via this Smart App, customers can access SEWA bill details any time and any where, make direct payments of monthly bills to Single or Multiple Accounts and they can also see their own consumption graphs. It provides other features like providing customers with CO2 calculation for their electricity consumption. Besides, it uses the latest GPS technology to locate and find the nearest payment options or Customer Service Center. The Smart app has helped reduced the need for customers to make direct visits to SEWA branches.

Thriving on feedback Besides facilitating better services, SEWA has also ensured quicker feedback channels so that it is able to monitor, control and correct. The SEWA Portal enables customers, suppliers, employees, partners etc., to communicate directly with the SEWA Chairman. A Centralized customers feedback system (NPS- monitored and controlled from Head Office) helps measure customer satisfaction, collecting feedbacks and taking corrective action. H.E. Dr. Rashid Alleem says, “The portal gives the customers and partners access to directly communicate with me, and I have a dedicated team for monitoring and controlling. We are committed to resolving issues within 72 hours.”

Leading the turnaround The digital transformation initiatives over the past couple of years has been a key turn around strategy for the government entity to be a much smarter customer oriented organization. Following a customer centric model, SEWA keeps customers as an intrinsic focus of their mission and ensure all activities and resources of the organization are coordinated and integrated around the customer’s current and future needs, wants and expectations. SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

H.E. Dr. Rashid Alleem, Chairman, SEWA receives honorary Doctorate from Amity University Championing this transformation has been the leadership of H.E. Dr. Rashid Alleem, the Chairman of SEWA and the transformation has been achieved over a series of initiatives from infrastructural makeover across all three major services SEWA provides ( Electricity, Water and Gas) to prioritizing customer focus, across consumer and business segments. H.E. says, “Before I joined SEWA, the blackouts were very common issue and it was industries . After I joined, I focused on these issue and eliminated blackouts. Our system changed to Circular network to avoid blackouts, emergencies and unexpected issues and we connected all the substations in the circular network. We are providing quality water with the quality measured by water plant itself on a 24/7 basis. The Saif ( Sharjah Airport Free Zone) free zone and other industrial areas are connected with our LNG lines to ensure quality gas with minimal price. These industrial zones are the main sources of revenue for the Emirate and we are giving priority services to them” SEWA CX Unit has been one of the major highlights of the customer centricity that SEWA is working around. This an initiative by His Excellency Dr. Rashid Alleem, Chairman of SEWA and spearheaded by Ms. Syeda Kanizul Fatma- Chief Knowledge Officer of SEWA. The one and only motive of this unit is Customer- Centricity. The responsibility for the same has been assigned to the following unit members Customer Engagement Officer, Customer Touchpoint Officer and

Voice of Customer Officer. They can be accessed via these unique mail IDs customer.engagement@sewa.gov.ae, customer.touchpoint@sewa.gov.ae, customervoice@sewa.gov.ae ), using which - customers can communicate and share their issues. The expected time to resolve issues is within 24 business hours. In addition, SEWA has also embarked on Customer Journey Mapping. The CX Week 2018 celebration also topped SEWA’s focus to keep the customer in focus. Among other initiatives, SEWA Academy or Syeda stands out. Under this, new employees at SEWA undergo a 50 days long detailed orientation program to help the explore and get to know about all the customer happiness centers and departments under SEWA by SEWA Academy. This helps each employee to be aware about the SEWA culture and overviewing the processes in all area (power generation, distribution, customer service, maintenance etc.,). In addition, there are workshops and training schedules for employees to improve their personal and professional experience. So the key for SEWA in recent past and going forward is to sustain it focus around the 15 Principles which SEWA believes in as the way to a winning future. Working around such strong transformation agendas, SEWA hopes that the core values they cater to will strengthen its vibrant company culture, ‘where people can smile, ideas can blossom, and success can flourish’.

SPOTLIGHT

Leading CIOs attend Enterprise Transformation Summit & Awards Inaugural edition throws light on transformation trends in enterprise and recognizes outstanding achievers in government and private enterprises The inaugural Enterprise Transformation Summit & Awards held on the 12th of December at hotelConrad in Dubai, saw a large turnout of many of the UAEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading CIOs and Senior IT leaders from both government and private sector enterprises. DELL EMC and Aptec were the Platinum sponsors of the summit while D-Link, Redington and SEWA were the silver sponsors. Finesse and Epicor were Exhibition partners. The dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s program divided into two halves saw a summit high on content, in the first half of the day. The Awards gala followed in the latter part of the evening and saw many high achieving CIOs and senior IT leaders recognized for their outstanding efforts in driving IT initiatives across their organizations. The summit put the spotlight on several pertinent themes that are part of the ICT driven transformation in the enterprise segment through keynotes by eminent industry speakers and panel discussions that saw participation from several industry IT stalwarts representing different enterprise verticals. The keynote presentation by Mohammed Shael, CEO of Corporate Strategic Affairs Sector, DED on Blockchain for the Enterprise gave a snapshot view of how Dubai in particular and the UAE are paving the road to the future by authenticating, speeding up and utlizing the city resources. He emphasized how blockchain will be a key

driver in increasing the competitiveness of the city. Charbel Zreiby, Sr. Manager, Channel Specialty Sales, Middle East, Turkey & Africa, Dell EMC in his presentation detailed how the roadmap to digital transformation is enabled by IT transformation, workforce transformation and security transformation. Khalid Almansouri, CISO, Department of Energy - Abu Dhabi through his address spoke of various aspects of digital transformation. He highlighted that digital transformation is not just about changing the IT infrastructure but about bringing in a change of the Business model. The ability to do more with less, enhanced customer centricity through more touch points and customer analytics were some of the other insights shared as fundamental to the digital transformation journey. Dr. Mohammad Khaled Cyber Security Expert and Futurist outlined the need for data security to be interconnected across various private to public facilities. In an era of smart city infrastructure, he outlined the need for cyber resilience by integrating and synchronizing data into actionable information for continuity on a common platform to keep out disruptive threats. Ajay Rathi, Senior Director Information Technology, Meraas gave a unique perspective through his presentation on enterprise 3.5, and brought into focus how various aspects inclusive of empowering employees, engaging customers, SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

SPOTLIGHT

optimizing operations and finally transforming the product and services are key drivers of transformation. Akshay Lamba, CIO, Deloitte gave the final presentation of the day and shared some interesting facets of industry 4.0.

Security was attended by Fatema Ahmed Almalki, Head of Information security,RAK E-Government; Nehal Al Hemeiri, Head IT Strategy & Quality Assurance Section, ADNOC; Ankit Satsangi, Cyber Security expert as well as Khalid Almansouri, CISO, Department of Energy - Abu Dhabi and Dr. Mohammad Khaled.

The summit also included three panel discussions which saw participation from some of the top CIOs. A discussion on enterprise transformation and on best practices of Enterprise security were followed by one on blockchain in the enterprise. Each of the discussions saw some great insights being shared with the attentive audience. The panel discussions were moderated by R. Narayan, Editor in chief and publisher of BMI, the organizer of the Enterprise Transformation Summit. Ajay Rathi, Senior Director Information Technology (Meraas), Herbert Fuchs, CIO / CDO at ASGC, Eng. Eman Alkhayyal,CIO, SEWA and Nadine Samra, VP Digital Business – Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limite partipcated in the first panel discssuin. The second panel on Best Practices of Enterprise

The panel on Blockchain in the Enterprise included participation from Adam Lalani, Group Head of IT, Tristar Group, Kumar Prasoon, Group CIO at Al Safeer Group, George Akhras, CIO, AMSI, Mohamed Roushdy, Head of Technology,Dubai Asset Management as well as Sunil Paul, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Finesse International.

• LOGISTICS TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Adam Lalani, Group IT Head ,Tristar Group

ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION MAESTROS

Following the summit, later in the evening, an impressive Awards gala saw a galaxy of CIOs and senior IT leaders being presented with Transformation Maestros and Transformation Accelerator Awards in their respective verticals. A segment of Awards for Government CIOs and an exclusive one for women IT leaders in government sector were the highlights of the Awards.

• HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Ali Ghunaim, CIO, Canadian Specialist Hospital

• PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Akshay Lamba, CIO, Deloitte, Middle East

• HOSPITALITY TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Mohammad Shahzad, CIO , RDK Group

ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATORS

• MANUFACTURING TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Ahmed Hasan Ali Mohamed, Director, Information Technology, Emirates Global Aluminium

• HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Girish Varote, IT Head, Alzahra Hospital

• EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO George Akhras, CIO, AMSI • MEDIA TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Nadine Samra, VP Digital Business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited

• HOSPITALITY TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Ahmed Shawky, IT Manager, Millennium Hotels & Resorts • MANUFACTURING TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Jayakumar Mohanachandran, IT Head, Precision Group • EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Firoj Kumar Rauta, IT Head, Skyline University College

• RETAIL TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Madhava M S Rao, CIO, Lulu Group International

• MEDIA TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Pradeep Shukla, Head of Technology, Belong Interactive

• MANAGED SERVICES TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Mansoor ALMarzooqi, CIO, MDC Business Management Services

• RETAIL TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Shailesh Mani, G, Flemingo International

• BFSI TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Ghanem El Shahry, SVP, ADIB • CONSTRUCTION TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Ramy Mahmoud Abdelwahab, Head of IT, National Marine Dredging Company • REAL ESTATE TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Ahmed Al Ahmad, CIO, Nakheel PJSC • TELECOM TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Saleem Al Blooshi, CIO, DU

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

• MANAGED SERVICES TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Jaicil Mohammed, IT Director, Portingx Technology FZE • BFSI TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Jeremy Chellan, VP Technology Transformation, Mashreq • CONSTRUCTION TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR A Raheem, Head Information Technology, AG MELCO • REAL ESTATE TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Tabish Asifi, IT Governance Lead, MAF Holding • E-COMMERCE TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Shyam Kesarwani, Senior IT Manager,RAK Bank

SPOTLIGHT

GOVERNMENT TRANSFORMATION MAESTROS

• URBAN PLANNING TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO H. E. Engineer Issa Al Mansouri, Head of the Land and Real Estate Sector, Department of Urban Planning and Municipalities • E-COMMERCE TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Hamad AbdulRahman AlZaabi, Information Technology Director, Department of Economic Development, Abu Dhabi • UTILITIES TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Raed Al Ahmed, CIO and Deputy CEO, Emicool • CYBERSECURITY TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Munther Bin Amor, CISO, Abu Dhabi Quality and Control Centre • BFSI TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Hussain Al Harthi, CIO, Abu Dhabi Retirement Pensions and Benefits Fund (ADRPBF) • ENERGY TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Khalid Khamis Almansouri, CISO, Department of Energy, Abu Dhabi • INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Dr. Youssuf Al Hammadi, Chief Intelligence Officer, GSEC & ECO, Abu Dhabi Government • HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Mohamed Jumaa Al Junaibi, Chief Support Services Officer, Ministry of Presidential Affairs • EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Dr. Fadi Aloul, Department Head of Computer Science & Engineering – American University of Sharjah • NETWORK SECURITY TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Khalfan Matar Al Hassani, ICT Director, Abu Dhabi Monitoring & Control Center • YOUTH CYBER SECURITY & TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Dr. Mohammad Khaled, Cyber security & Digital Transformation Expert – Government • AVIATION TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Khalid Meshait Al Mazrouei, Head of IT Infrastructure, ADAC • INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Ahmad Abdulsamad Alhamadi, CIO, Department Of Urban Planning And Municipalities • INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Ahmad Mohammad Darwish Al Emadi, CIO, Dubai Municipality

GOVERNMENT TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATORS

• CYBER SECURITY TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Eng. Nouri Othman Agha, Senior Security Assurance Analyst, Emirates Group

• HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Ahmed Alkindi, IT Manager, National Ambulance • UTILITIES TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Ahmed Alktebi, CISO, DEWA • TELECOM TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Maj. Hamad Khalifa Al Nuaimi, Head of Telecommunications, Abu Dhabi Police • IT TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Mohammad Khalifa Ali Khalfan AlQaizi, IT Director, Dubai Economy • ENERGY TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Faisal Mousa Ibrahim Al Bousi, Head of Cyber SOC, Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation • TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Rashed Alshamsi Happiness, Deputy Director for Client Happiness Department, Abu Dhabi Police • AVIATION TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Mohamed Saleh Aljaberi, Cyber Security Engineer, Presidential Flight WOMEN TRANSFORMATION MAESTROS ( GOVERNMENT SEGMENT) • HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Mubaraka M. Ibrahim, Director, Ministry of Health and prevention • OIL & GAS TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Nehal Al Hemeiri, Head, IT Strategy & Quality Assurance Section, ADNOC • CUSTOMER SERVICES TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Suaad Abdulla Al Marzooqi, CIO, Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Centre, Abu Dhabi • UTILITY TRANSFORMATION MAESTRO Eng. Eman Alkhayyal, CIO, SEWA WOMEN TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATORS (GOVERNMENT SEGMENT) • E-GOVERNANCE TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Fatema Al Malki, Head of Information security, E Government Authority RAK • OIL & GAS TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Mariam Al-Braiki, Senior Analyst of Corporate Solutions, ADNOC • CYBER SECURITY TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Zainab Al Shehaimi, CISO, Ministry of Manpower, Oman • ENERGY TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Hanan Khamis, ICT Governance and Projects Manager – Nawah Energy Company • UTILITY TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATOR Zaineb Al Amin, Assistant Manager- Projects & Communications – Dubai Regulatory & Supervisory Bureau SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

VERTICAL WATCH / HOSPITALITY

A GOOD BEGINNING Rehan Zaidi, IT Manager at Grand Excelsior Hotel, Dubai discusses how Operational standards and policies must be defined for the IT department in advance aligned with the business strategy & goals and local laws Discuss what needs to be taken care during Hotel Preopening projects from a technology perspective? While hotel pre-opening projects are expected to be a challenge from an information technology perspective, at the same time, it’s an opportunity to showcase personal and professional strengths, skills and passion that integrates with the company’s vision, business goals, and strategy. It’s a combination of hard and soft skills. The ‘Art’ belongs to the bigger picture where you see different kinds of stakeholders and the lines of communication, human psychology and organizational culture, all in play to find the balance. Information technology plays a vital role in putting up together all lines and sketches on the canvas of the project. Hotel pre-opening projects are no different than other industrial projects but the output and outcome timings are different. The tools, systems, system’s integration, and user training make the project successful. SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

Do you think that Information technology department should have SOPs (standard operating procedures) customized for hotels? Running directly to build the infrastructure for all departments without SOPs and policies do not provide fruitful results which may haunt the project success within a defined timeline. As a matter of fact, the information technology department is a supplier for internal and external customers. Internal customers refer to other operational departments of the hotel and external customers are those esteemed guests for which the complete picture is drawn. Operational standards and policies must be defined for the IT department in advance aligned with the business strategy & goals and local laws. Every business segment has standards and procedures at the core level such as ISO standards but for sure, when we talk about hospitality, it has its own standards.

VERTICAL WATCH / HOSPITALITY

The standards shall include guest requirements and procedures that comply with guest expectations, respective departmental user requirements, nominated vendors, computerized systems, interfaces, and installation pre-requisites. This will help to build the foundation for network infrastructure. The hotel’s management company or owners might incur an extra cost than the project estimated cost if the requirements are not analyzed in-depth prior to the project plan. Foresight shall be given to hotel’s system requirements and any other local legislation that mandate the other statutory system requirements. Quality, risk and communication management policies will help to eliminate deviation from allocated time, budgeted cost and defined quality levels. The recommended method is to adopt industry proven standards and frameworks such as ITIL, ISO27001 & COBIT. What are the recommendations for the selection and implementation of IT systems? Economic conditions of every economy have urged organizations to look for cost-effective solutions. I would not say that organizations should look towards pricetag associated with the products but due to fast-paced technological advancement, there are plenty of solutions which are achieving greater ROI and VOI with comparatively lesser cost. IT systems in hotels can be divided into two categories. One is the network and security infrastructure and their associated systems and other is the hotel customized solutions for hotel operations. Majorly, for hotel operations, the base is the PMS (Property Management System) which provide the tools for Front Desk, Revenue and Reservations department, Housekeeping and Sales & Marketing; POS (Point of Sale) system which is mandatory for any Food & Beverage operations; Revenue management systems including the website, booking engine, yield and channel management solutions; Internet billing solution; Telephone exchange and call accounting system that serves as the legacy communication tool for the guests and hotel’s team; Digital Signage solution for meeting rooms and banquet halls; Security & CCTV solution; Back office financial and HR solutions; RMS and BMS; There are several customized solutions that are offering SaaS solutions and are cost effective. SaaS solutions provide greater benefit to reduce the hosting, installation and maintenance cost as compared to the on-premise solution. As a baseline for system selection, the important factors such as the numb:er of rooms, number of F&B outlets, facilities and services that the hotel is going to offer and each departmental manning should be explored in-depth. What can cause hotel pre-opening project failures from IT perspective? To realize the benefits of IT systems, IT infrastructure is not dependent on the information technology department alone but on teamwork. IT requires input from all other

REHAN ZAIDI IT Manager, Grand Excelsior

departments in building the operational system. I would say that hotel pre-opening projects usually do not fail completely but yes, there can be failures in achieving the time, cost, quality, and benefits. There can be several factors and reasons for a failure in achieving project success. IT serves as a backbone for hotel operations and one of the reasons of failure can be the absence of IT personnel while preparing the business case and in later steps, the project plan. Consultation is very important and the most important factor while selecting the IT consultant is to examine the consultant’s experience in the hospitality industry and in similar projects. Same goes for the internal IT team. The IT team should be comprised of the workforce from Hotel’s IT background to build the IT infrastructure in coordination with vendors, consultants, and MEP engineers. Information technology is a vast field and hence, not every IT expert can be accommodated in hospitality industry projects. Lastly, communication plan and methodology is very important. Irrespective of the .T department, coordination and communication between all the stakeholders is very important. Concerns and issues shall be addressed and communicated timely to respective stakeholders to avoid delays in project completion. SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

Case Study

A JOURNEY TOWARDS TRANSFORMATION

PS Sharjah, a leading school in the UAE, was the winner of the Best Digital Digital Transformation Deployment in Education at the inaugural Smart SMB Summit & Awards held on 26th September in Dubai for its project ISecure Solution. The deployment has helped the school streamline many facets of its day to day operations and enhance security of students

DPS Sharjah has a complete Student Security system deployed in the school called ISecure Solution. This Student Security system is connected to School Bus GPS Tracking, Library system, ePocket - a Cashless system connected to RFID and Biometrics., School Attendance and payroll system. The school’s entry in the inaugural Smart SMB Summit & Awards won it the top honors in category ‘Best Digital Digital Transformation in Education’ “The award confirms that we are

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

Case Study

a complete solution which ensures safe travel, no bullying, constant monitoring and ensures no child is left alone.

DEPLOYMENT The solution was deployed in phases. In phase one, GPS Tracking, School Attendance system, SMS System, RFID were among the features made operational. The second phased enabled RFID Tracking in resource rooms and in the final phase, Biometric Identification in Buses CCTV in Corridors, as well the ePocket, a cashless system was implemented.

FEEDBACK TO E-WALLET DEPLOYMENT

on right track and are in line with the UAE vision 2021- safe and secure environment for all. From our perspective, we are bringing improvement—saving employees’ time, allowing them to be more flexible, improving productivity, and ensuring security at all time, Our Principal Ms. Vandana Marwaha has been acively involved throughout the process” says Anubha Kalra, Senior. Supervisor ICT, Delhi Private School Sharjah. The solution has been an end to end one and has met some critical objectives for the school in terms of interconnecting several processes and enhancing student security, within the school and in the school’s buses.

KEY OBJECTIVES The objective of the solution was to create and enhance a safe and secure environment for students. It was to be built and integrated as

“The response to the ePocket was very encouraging and positive. Parents were then able to keep a track of not only the expenses but also the food habits of their children based on the items they purchased from the canteen,” says Anubha Kalra, Senior. Supervisor ICT, Delhi Private School Sharjah. Post the implementation of this system, there were a few changes that were required to be done in the software, to ensure that the children did not overspend using this facility. Parents also came up with the valid suggestion that there should be a feature within, to set a limit to the expenses permitted per day. The parent involvement has increased, which led to addition of more features to the system. “Based on the requests from the parent community of the school, we are also planning to add a feature for online booking of food from the canteen till 6:00 PM, a day in advance,” adds Anubha. The ICT upgrades at the school are an ongoing process keeping in mind the dynamic requirements of the institution. The school has hosted servers with Etisalat and VSNL ( India), and Microsoft Office 365, managed by

the school ICT department. The school has regular service providers with annual maintenance contracts which includes GPS, RFID & Biometric system in 110 buses with live data transfer at all times, at all the seven Exit Gates, all the resource rooms (all rooms other than classrooms), Server management at the Data center and any updates on MyFence software solution that is used for daily school attendance and reports to track students.

MEETING KEY CHALLENGES The major challenges in a school environment where concurrent users are above 6000 were about ensuring and regulating sufficient bandwidth for right users, securing access to the WiFi, support as well as managing the user access based on different profiles:

Bandwidth - There was the need to delegate appropriate throughput which is managed and is essential for reliable Wifi performance Security - It waas essential to

know what and who is accessing your wireless network. They created and enforced policies to help control the types of applications being used on campus and what these applications are allowed to access.

Support - There was the need to

ensure there is enough staff or some level of managed services to deal with the expanding number of devices . This was critical to delivering proper Wi-Fi performance concurrently to 200 Classrooms.

Management - Segmentation of

student and employee data, Mobile security & Application delivery was done. With all the concerns addressed, the solution has met the key objectives for the school in terms of expectations. On the road ahead, the school will continue its pursuit of leveraging the best of of ICT tools for instruction.

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

Talk Point

How has the Middle East as a market been a focus for Ruckus? The Middle East has been a great market for us under EMEA. It has seen revenues tripled in the past two to three years. We have also tripled the number of people dedicated to this market. How do you see your partners accommodating the shifts in go to market? At the recent event in Dubai, we had over 100 partners that attended and where we talked at length about technology we offer, the roadmap and things that the channel can do to help differentiate themselves. We are very partner centric in our go to market.

an Whiting, who was appointed President of Ruckus Networks earlier this year speaks about the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus on managed cloud WiFi and SMB segment customers. Ian has played a pivotal role in expanding Ruckusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; presence and leadership in key vertical markets, including: education; hospitality; multi-dwelling units (MDU); government; large public venues; retail; and service providers (for both managed services and public Wi-Fi).

How is the channel helping you address requirements from mid-market customers? A significant topic for the channel is the move from traditional products and services to managed services. We have some specific solutions to help them build multitenant managed cloud WiFi solutions. That is helping us address the SMB market requirements where they would rather have managed services instead of owning their own technology infrastructure and having to manage on their own. By the way, there are still a lot of customers who would want to own their infrastructure and so the traditional business is not going away. Having said that, the pace of technology change is too swift for companies in different verticals to contend with- they would rather just consume IT as a service to meet their requirements. The cloud and managed services is the way to go. We see that trend gain ground around the world. In the US for instance, majority of traditional reseller partners are looking to go the managed services route. They are looking to reinvent themselves as service providers and even traditional service providers such as those providing cable infrastructure are looking to be managed service

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

Talk Point

providers as they take a product and include it in a service they offer to the SMB segment. Do you see demand for cloud managed WiFI increasing? There are different cloud managed services and cloud managed WiFi is something relatively new which is certainly accelerating in traction. We imagine in the next couple of years, a majority of our partners will have some part of managed services in their offerings. Wireless networking as a service is a proposition that is attractive for multi dwelling units, both residential or commercial. There are companies that specifically target to offer wireless networking as a services. There is a tremendous growth in this. Several projects have been deployed only this year. There is a lot advantage not just because of the technology edge we offer but because of the cost effectiveness. You get better coverage with less infrastructure from Ruckus and that has been a real advantage we have been offering for years with our technology. Which are the segments you cater to? The mid-market is our major focus while our focus on the larger enterprise market is more opportunistic and we do count subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies among our clients list. The SMB segment is pretty big and when aggregated, the demand for the segment is much bigger than from the enterprise as a whole which is therefore more than enough to keep us busy. At the lower end, coffee shops, retail outlets, gymnasiums etc, who provide guest connectivity services are among our strong customers and there are so many of them. We don’t sell directly and need partners to cater to these customers including franchisee networks. What have been your key strengths in strengthening market presence? Stock availability through partners, pre-sales and post sales are aspects we have addressed quite well in this market which has made us strong players. We try to be price competitive but we don’t lead on price points. Ruckus does not have a reputation to be low on costs because we believe in the innovation and differentiation our technology offers. We know the market here is price sensitive and there are a lot of cheaper brands battling it at real low price points - we don’t do that but we are price competitive. WiFi is critical to running a Business, offering guest services and there is a need for quality products that can deliver that. Outdoor WiFi in particular in the Middle East, where there is a lot of sand and high temperatures, is challenged and can be only addressed by quality solutions to offer good coverage. Our products are in particular designed to address requirements of such conditions which we refer to as hostile environment.

IAN WHITING President, Ruckus Networks

Elaborate about your IoT solution? Ruckus IoT is an IoT hardware and software suite that is designed to integrate IoT sensors from different vendors into the network. Ruckus IoT suite consists of IoT ready access points (APs), Ruckus IoT Modules, WLAN and IOT controllers. Ruckus IoT Modules are Radio or radio-and-sensor devices that connect to a Ruckus IoT-ready AP to enable endpoint connectivity based on standards such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee and LoRa protocols. The Ruckus SmartZone Controller is a WLAN controller that provides a single management interface for both the WLAN and the IoT access network. Taking hospitality as a good example, we can now offer integration of different IoT sensors within a Wifi network as a value proposition so they don’t need to build a separate network for such IoT services sensors such as door looks or panic buttons for hotel workers, CCTV cameras on the Wifi etc. So there is a true converged WiFi network for IoT and the traditional ethernet requirements. Outdoors, IoT is quickly snowballing across use cases such as smart metering, smart parking, garbage collection, meteorological sensors and all of these can be integrated into the WiFi network vesrus having to build a separate networks. That is an area of innovation focus over the next few years. SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

OPINION

he term ‘smart contracts’ was first coined in 1994 by computer scientist and cryptographer, Nick Szabo who defined it as ‘a set of promises, specified in digital form, including protocols within which the parties perform on these promises.’ A smart contract is a set of executable code that runs on top of the blockchain that facilitates, executes and enforces an agreement between untrusted parties, without the need of a trusted third party. Most smart contract enthusiasts assert and debate that a smart contract removes the need for contract law as there is no longer any uncertainty in a smart contract transaction. From a legal perspective, however, smart contracts may not be that simple. Furthermore, jurisprudentially speaking, the legality of a contract (irrespective of how smart it is) can only be ascertained when the same is acceptable in the court of law. Whether or not the courts and the regulators should get involved in this, is a separate debate altogether.

LEGALITY OF CONTRACT

Lets look at the smart contracts from a UAE perspective, the law on contracts as it stands.

Kokila Alagh, Founder and Akshata Namjoshi, Senior Associate at Karm Legal Consultants discuss legality and enforceability of smart contracts in UAE and application of E-Commerce law to the smart contracts.

ESSENTIALS OF A CONTRACT In accordance with Article 125 of the UAE Civil Transactions Law, Federal Law No. 5 of 1985 (“Civil Code”), a contract is deemed to have entered into, when an offer issued by one of the contracting parties acceptaed by the other party in such a manner as to produce their effect on the object of the contract which results in a binding obligation on each party in consideration of the obligation of the other party. Further in order for a contract to be valid, in accordance with Article 126 of Civil Code the following three are the fundamental requirements: (a) the contracting must agree on the main elements of the contracts; (b) The object of the contract must be something possible, specified or specifiable, and negotiable; and (c) the obligations arising out of the contract must have a licit cause. Further, there SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

MOST SMART CONTRACT ENTHUSIASTS ASSERT AND DEBATE THAT A SMART CONTRACT REMOVES THE NEED FOR CONTRACT LAW AS THERE IS NO LONGER ANY UNCERTAINTY IN A SMART CONTRACT TRANSACTION. FROM A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE, HOWEVER, SMART CONTRACTS MAY NOT BE THAT SIMPLE.”

“

OPINION

means or records, where these activities or records are not subject to any follow-up or revision by a natural person, as is the case in the context of the conventional establishment and performance of contracts and transactions.”

EVIDENTIARY VALUE OF CONTRACTS

F THE SMART TS IN UAE must be clear offer and acceptance, with due offer of any special conditions provided for in the law for its observance, as per Article 130 of the Civil Code.

UAE/ EMIRATE OF DUBAI E-COMMERCE LAW

of Emirate of Dubai, Law No. 2 of 2002 Concerning Electronic Transactions and Commerce (“Dubai E-Commerce Law”) holds the same view that a contract shall not be denied validity or enforceability merely because it was concluded by means of electronic communication.

The Federal Law No. (1) of 2006 on Electronic Commerce and Transactions (“Federal E-Commerce Law”) in principle by way of Article 11 permits for an offer or an acceptance to be made in whole of in part by way of electronic communication. Such a contract shall be deemed to be a valid contract. Similarly, as per Article 13

While smart contracts per se have not been defined by either the Federal E-Commerce Law or the Dubai E-Commerce Law, both the legislations under Articles 12 and 14 respectively, have defined “Automated Electronic Transactions” to mean “Transactions that are concluded or performed, wholly or partly, through Electronic

In accordance with Article 8 and Article 11 of the UAE Law of Evidence, being Federal Law No. 10 of 1992 (“Evidence Law”), any document that qualifies as an evidence in the court of law must be must be signed or stamped and copies of documents, whether official or non-official, shall not be recognized unless they are identical to their originals and the originals are available to compare with. Again an original will only be considered original if it is duly signed or stamped. A copy could be challenged by denying the signature or the stamp. If a copy is challenged, it will be examined with the original. As far as the evidentiary value of the electronic contracts is concerned, electronic signatures, enjoy absolute evidentiary value under the Federal and Dubai E-Commerce Law. Both the Federal E-Commerce Law or the Dubai E-Commerce Law state that where a rule of law requires a signature on a document, or provides for certain consequences in the event of the absence of a signature, an Electronic Signature that is reliable within the provisions of the law, satisfies that requirement. The evidentiary validity of such contracts in the court of law can thus be ascertained if an electronic signature can be placed on such contracts. However, while the same can be achieved in cases of conventional electronic contracts, the same may not be necessarily possible in case of smart contracts.

ISSUES While clearly in accordance with the Dubai and Federal and E-Commerce Law, it is permissible to have a smart contract in UAE, the enforceability of the same might be a concern basis the below issues. SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

OPINION

Kokila ALAGH

AKSHATA NAMJOSHI

Founder, Karm Legal Consultants

(a) Legality/ Jurisdictional Issues A contract as per the civil code can only be entered into for a legal purpose. A smart contract on the other hand can be developed for any purposes irrespective of their legality. Furthermore, in cases of trans-national contracting parties what may be legal in one jurisdiction, may not be necessarily legal in other jurisdiction. For eg. Limitations on transportation of medicines or organs; qualification of medicines and drugs in various permissible or banned categories. In cases of conventional contracts such issues are resolved by defining a particular governing law and jurisdiction of choice by the parties for resolving any disputes, however, the same may not be necessarily implemented through smart-contracts. (b) Absence of fundamental legal concepts In case of disputes between the parties, the courts almost always resort to the fundamental concepts of law like “good faith” and “negligence” to ascertain the obligations of the parties. Most conventional contracts lay down the obligations between the

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

Senior Associate, Karm Legal Consultants

parties, however, the same may not be ascertained easily by way of smart contracts. (c) Contingencies In cases of contracts, which are contingent to performance or nonperformance of certain acts or activities by one of the parties, the conventional contracts resort to clear and detailed triggers for occurrence or non-occurrence of such events. In cases of smart contracts, the same shall have to be adequately identified. (d) Specific Performance of Contract Specific performance is a specialized remedy used by courts when no other remedy (such as money) will adequately compensate the other party. If a legal remedy will put the injured party in the position he or she would have enjoyed had the contract been fully performed, then the court will use that option instead. In absence of a specific legislation or provision in UAE, the courts decide whether or not a dispute between the contracting parties can be resolved by specific performance. The likelihood of granting a specific performance is subject to

the contract being unique, when it’s not merely a matter of money or where the true amount of damages is unclear. Most conventional contracts, identify the possibility of specific performance, however, the examples of such in cases of smart contracts are less.

CONCLUSION Honestly, from a legal perspective the smart contracts are yet to catch up with the tons of legal issues that might arise out of a contractual arrangement. From a UAE perspective, to the extent that the legal understanding between the parties can be codified to cover the requirements of the parties, smart contracts can be the best solution. For instance, smart contracts may prove to be beneficial in basic peer-to-peer micropayments, but whether or not the smart contracts can handle transfer of intangible assets, like intellectual property, is yet to be seen. Therefore, as conventional as it may sound, an alternative to the same could be to have both conventional and smart contracts, wherein a certified true copy of a smart contract can be annexed to a conventional contract so executed, till the technology catches up with the typical legal issues.

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TECH WATCH

10 Thunder 7445 Threat Protection System

Xerox VersaLink C8000 and C9000 A3 Color Printers

10 Thunder 7445 Threat Protection System (Thunder TPS) is the

industry’s highest performance 1 rack unit (RU) and highest density of throughput per RU appliance. Now cloud, Internet and gaming providers

orkers can spend more time collaborating and creating colorful marketing materials with two new Xerox workplace assistant printers that personalize work experiences and support mobility with secure, wireless printing. Designed for medium and large workgroups, the customizable Xerox VersaLink C8000 and C9000 A3 Color Printers produce professional color quality, backed by benchmark reliability at an affordable total cost of ownership. In addition, the C9000 is equipped with precision color management tools, greater media flexibility and added productivity – must-haves for in-house graphic designers. The user experience, which sets these products apart, begins with a simple, wizard-based installation and configuration process. Designers, marketers and office staff have access to a powerful, yet accessible feature set, without requiring IT expertise. HIGHLIGHTS: • The exclusive 5-inch, tilt-capable, color user interface responds to

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

taps, swipes and pinches, much like mobile devices, and can be personalized for different work environments or individual users. • Further personalization is provided by Xerox ConnectKey apps, available from the Xerox App Gallery. These apps provide one-touch, easy access to cloud services such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Box; and with @PrintByXerox, any email-enabled device can print a job while on the go. • Both devices provide professional color image quality with advanced EA Toner and high print resolution. For enhanced color management, the C9000 supports the Xerox Precise Color Management System, offering color accuracy and precise tuning of Pantone and custom spot colors. • The C9000 also handles thicker and heavier stocks for greater media flexibility in developing applications such as brochures, proposals, posters, direct-mail pieces and signage. • To automate the final output, optional booklet makers, available on both devices, offer saddlestitch, crease, and booklet making.

can protect their infrastructure with A10 DDoS defense while enjoying the cost benefits of 100 GbE networking in the smallest form factor. A10 Network’s high-performance Thunder TPS is a flexible and robust DDoS protection solution that offers surgical precision in detecting and mitigating against the full spectrum of DDoS attacks. The solution is available in a wide range of hardware and software deployment options. By providing the industry’s highest performance 1 RU appliance, with a breakthrough 220 Gbps throughput and 330 Mpps, the solution provides distinct advantages over competing products that deliver less than half the performance. The solution enables smaller, more efficient deployment at a time when real estate has never been at more of a premium in data centers, colocation facilities and Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)

TECH WATCH

R&M Antimicrobial Cabling Solutions for Healthcare

HIGHLIGHTS: • Better Detection – One-DDoS Protection provides a unique approach to full-spectrum DDoS defense, placing detection capabilities within targeted infrastructure, including Thunder TPS, ADC, CGN and CFW solutions. This provides advanced context, flow and packet level visibility to stop today’s most sophisticated targeted attacks. • Unmatched Scalability – Delivers 22 times the flow-based detection capacity and 15 times as many simultaneous active mitigations as traditional systems. • Automated Wartime Protection Improved attack response times with proactive, intelligent automation featuring five levels of programmatic mitigation escalation and deescalation. Removing the need for frontline personnel to make timeconsuming manual changes. • Reduced Security OPEX - Delivers high performance in a compact factor with lower power usage, rack space and cooling requirements. Also, aGalaxy TPS streamlines operations via centralized management, remediation, and analytics for Thunder TPS deployments.

&M, the globally active developer and provider of cabling systems for high-quality network infrastructures, today announced the expansion of its range of R&MhealthLine cabling solutions with the addition of three new antimicrobial data outlets. R&MhealthLine cabling installations prevent bacteria and microbes from reproducing on the surface of the protected components and the newly unveiled products increase the flexibility of range. In recent years, the healthcare industry has become increasingly digitized, introducing new demands for high-speed connectivity. This trend is especially apparent in the Middle East and in its ‘What Doctor?’ report, PwC Middle East stated that the region’s ‘young, digitally-aware population means the Middle East is better positioned to adopt new technologies, including artificial intelligence and robotics in healthcare, than countries with longer-established health systems’ . Since its launch in 2016, hospitals across the globe have begun to utilize R&MhealthLine components in rooms for patients, in diagnosis and therapy, as well as in operating theatres. The

antimicrobial cabling is also perfect for use in all institutions and areas in which hygiene is a top priority. This includes nursing homes, washrooms, waiting rooms, catering facilities, laboratories and production facilities for food and pharmaceuticals. HIGHLIGHTS: • Silver ions in the surface of the plastic parts of R&MhealthLine products inhibit the growth of bacteria and microbes. This reduces bacterial contamination on the surface of protected components between normal cleaning cycles. • R&MhealthLine helps minimize unintentional contamination with bacteria from the product surface when touching cabling components. • Alongside the outlets and mounting plates with RJ45 sockets, the R&MhealthLine range also comprises shielded and unshielded patch cords as well as protective caps and coding elements. These are compatible with the modular cabling system R&Mfreenet that covers all areas of structured building cabling. SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

MARKET MONITOR

Worldwide spending on industry Cloud by Retailers and Wholesalers is rising Five large industry groups are expected to spend a total of $37.5 billion on industry cloud solutions in 2018, according to the latest release of the Worldwide Semiannual Industry Cloud Tracker from IDC. The five industry groups are healthcare, public sector, finance, retail/wholesale, and manufacturing. Among them, manufacturing grew the strongest while retail/wholesale was next. IDC’s spending forecast for the five industry groups shows a small increase in 2019 growth, relative to 2018. The overall market is expected to reach $45.4 billion in 2019 with three of the five groups growing above the market average of 21.5%. Healthcare provider and public sector spending are both forecast to grow below the market average, although their 2019 growth rates will be higher than those for 2018. “IDC’s latest forecast shows that industry cloud growth rates will continue to accelerate over the next three years, which is very unusual for multibillion-dollar markets. This growth is being driven by

rapidly-digitizing industries like healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing, where industry clouds are becoming the cornerstones for next-generation growth and innovation strategies,” said Frank Gens, senior vice president & chief analyst at IDC. From a geographic perspective, the United States market will make up close to three quarters of the overall market in 2018. Most of the other regions will enjoy stronger than average market growth with Japan and China expected to grow the most year over year at 54% and 47% respectively. These two countries are also forecast to grow at an even higher annual rate in 2019. The other regions, such as U.S., Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, will also outperform their 2018 growth rates. Zachary Rabel, senior research analyst, Cloud, SaaS, and I ndustry Cloud research at IDC, added, “The industry cloud market continues to accelerate as cloud users demand both vertically-specific capabilities in their solutions and industry expertise from their cloud service providers. To capture this growth, cloud vendors have increasingly shifted their horizontal capabilities to form industry cloud solutions, while industry clouds themselves have created consortiums of collaboration to drive industry innovation. Healthcare has led industries towards this trend, but the finance, manufacturing, and retail industries have internalized the successes and failures from horizontal platforms to form their own paths. IDC believes the industry cloud market is among the largest vertical growth opportunities for both technology vendors and professional services firms through 2025.”

Multichannel promotions key in retail for customer loyalty Retailers are at risk of losing their most loyal customers if they don’t take a multichannel approach. Eight in ten (81%) UAE shoppers feel annoyed when retailers they are loyal to offer promotions that are not aligned in-store and online. Commissioned by Collinson, a global leader in customer benefits and loyalty, the study with UAE consumers examined customers’ discount grievances to discover what sales sins could cost a retailer a shopper’s loyalty. The same percentage of shoppers (81%) are irritated when retailers they buy from show favouritism to new customers by offering them exclusive discounts. Shoppers today also expect to be known by the brands they are loyal to, even during sales periods. Over half (57%) would be annoyed if their favourite retailer failed to use their data on preferences and past purchase behaviour to customise the experience, and instead send generic sales messages that aren’t relevant to them.

SMART SMB | JANUARY 2019

Communication is critical if retailers are going to maintain the relationship with their loyal customers, and for over three quarters (78%) of UAE shoppers, missing out on an offer from their favourite brand as a result of them failing to communicate properly makes them unhappy. Added to this, exactly three quarters (75%) of shoppers are irritated if retailers make them search for discounts rather than making them aware of promotions directly.