Computernews Middle East Top 20 System Integrators 2012

System Integrators 2012

published as a supplement to:

THE REGION'S SYSTEM INTEGRATOR

GIANTS

Ali Bin Ali Technology SoluTionS 4AlmoAyyed compuTerS 4AlphA dATA 4Al roSTAmAni communicATionS 10emiTAc enTerpriSe SoluTionS 8emW 13gloBAl Technology ServiceS (gTS) 4gulf BuSineSS mAchineS (gBm) 6help Ag 20injAzAT 18inTerTec 26iTQAn 18jerAiSy cccS 18Key informATion Technology (KiT) 18mAhindrA SATyAm 16mdS compuTerS 28nAnjgel 24pArAmounT compuTer SySTemS 30SAudi BuSineSS mAchineS (SBm) 28Seven SeAS compuTerS 28

PublisherDominic De Sousa

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CONTENTS

Interruption or opportunity?We have seen a dramatic shift in the role of systems integrators in the last couple of years. Its no longer about piecing disparate systems together and getting it to work. In other words, the role of SIs has gradually shifted from being technology-driven entities that ensured complex systems work together towards understanding the complexity of todays business demands. According to IDC, an increasing number of strategic business partnerships are being forged between vendors, systems integrators, consulting companies and distribution channels to bring complete solutions to the market. Vendors are looking to form stronger relationship with SIs to meet customer needs, and services companies, in turn, are looking to work closely with vendors, given the increasing complexity of new-gen technologies.

With the advent of cloud, mobility and social media, the industry is truly at a crossroads. There are concerns that cloud and virtualisation might put them out of a job. No doubt, cloud will have serious implications on the ecosystem of systems integrators who are accustomed to a series of integration projects at enterprises, especially the large ones. Now, CIOs have the option to just acquire the services they need from a cloud provider instead of hiring system integrators to add capabilities into existing IT environments. Despite all the dire predictions, cloud represents more of an opportunity than an interruption for SIs, as it still require a lot of integration chores, maintenance and support. The trick is figuring out how to hop on to the cloud bandwagon and cash in on the opportunity right now, the best bet seems to be taking the managed services route.

System Integrators 2011

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ABATS is one of the leading IT services companies in Qatar. An integrator of competitive, innovative turnkey business solutions and services based on ICT, ABATS has within its ranks the best services and solutions the industry can offer. The company boasts an unrivalled expertise across a range of vertical industry sectors. The ABATS service offering includes: ERP/CRM solutions, content management, virtualisation, Microsoft solutions, hardware solutions, Unified Communications, Fleet management, risk management, to name a few. ABATS believes in

Alpha Data is the largest multi-disciplined systems integrator in the UAE. Founded in 1981, Alpha Data has grown from two employees to a 720-strong workforce building ICT infrastructure solutions for thousands of organisations across the country. Alpha Data is an end-to-end solution provider, which helps its clients plan, build, support and manage their IT infrastructures through a wide-range of solutions that include networks, voice, video, data centers, storage, and security, to name a few. Alpha Data holds strategic partnerships with industry leaders for software, hardware, communications and services solutions enabling us to have preferred access to

Almoayyed Computers predominantly operates in Bahrain, which is a small economy from the perspective of IT spending. It is an achievement for such a company to scale up and have a successful business model to cover a number of verticals and a host of technology areas. The company has the experience of deploying multiple technologies from multiple principles in a variety of market verticals, and represents some of the leading names in ICT. Almoayyed

Global Technology Services (GTS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), a Government of Dubai Company. It offers value added services to a variety of customers spanning a spectrum of industries and regions.

With over 10 years in business, GTS has set its vision to be the best implementation house for innovative business solutions and support services in the region. Its global operating model is designed to ensure that its customers receive consistent, efficient and cost effective services with client intimacy, sound industry

giving the right technology for the right purpose at the right time for the right price. In an ongoing quest to deliver innovative solutions and services that add real business value to clients, ABATS combines its own expertise, tools, resources and vertical sector knowledge with that of its partners. Through the versatile portfolio of partners and brands ABATS represents, it brings a wealth of knowledge, expertise and superior services and support to an ever growing customer based spread across multiple industries in Qatar.

the latest technologies for our clients. We work with our clients from consulting to design, implementation to integration and services for their entire technology infrastructure.

Alpha Data provides post-sales support and maintenance, NOC Managed Services and project management for SMEs through to large scale government organisations. The companys post-sales installation and support teams consist of 400 professionals who are regularly certified to provide support for key brands including HP, Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, VMWare, Symantec, Bosch and Polycom, to name a few.

maintains expertise in integrating various sub-systems in different sectors with core ICT products to deliver and enhance business functionalities.

The company is perhaps the most certified IT organisation in the island Kingdom, based on the vendor certifications and offers services across a vast technology mix to a host of verticals including public sector, finance, education, retails, etc.

knowledge and unwavering focus on result oriented consulting and cutting edge adaptation of technology that are the hallmark of the GTS culture.

GTS provides the following horizontal lines of services across vertical industries: consultancy, software development, implementation, data migration and conversion, training, upgrade services, on-site and off-site support models, and outsourcing. GTS has developed cutting edge skills spanning several domains such as ERP, CRM, performance management, among others.

Ali BiN Ali TEChNOlOgy SOluTiONS (ABATS)

www.alibinali.com

www.alpha.ae

www.gtsuae.com

www.almoayyedcomputers.com

AlphA DATA

AlmOAyyED COmpuTErS

glOBAl TEChNOlOgy SErviCES (gTS)

TOP 2O | SYSTEM INTEGRATORS 2012

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Venkat Raghavan, General Manager, Al-Futtaim Technologies


Founded in 1990, Gulf Business Machines (GBM) is the leading IT solutions provider in the region fulfilling the IT requirements of local, regional and international organisations in the GCC.

GBM is the sole distributor for IBM excluding selected IBM products and services throughout the GCC, except for Saudi Arabia. GBMs momentum was further enhanced in 1999, when the team secured the Cisco portfolio. Today GBM holds the highest level of recognition in the region from Cisco, Gold Partner status, in addition to the Cisco Borderless Network Architecture Specialized Learning Partner status.

GBM offers an extensive range of IT infrastructure, IT solutions and services ranging from consulting, resource deployment and integration to after-sales support, through 1000 professional and over 20 solid strategic partnerships forged with internationally-recognised IT solution providers.

The company, which is ISO-9001 certified since 1999, has offices in the UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah), Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain. GBM has also established a presence in Pakistan, where the company now operates three offices, one each in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore as an IBM Premier Business Partner. The Pakistani operation also holds a Silver Partner Status from Cisco.

GBM also boasts of a Network Operations Centre (NOC), which provides remote services to manage, operate and monitor customers IT infrastructures and applications in order to ensure business continuity to customers across the Middle East. The NOC interface is a 24/7 ITIL-compliant service desk which offers the customers a single point of contact for queries, service requests and enhanced operations.

ThE COmpANy

Gulf BuSIneSS MachIneS (GBM)

Cesare Cardone, CEO, GBM

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GBM secured a partnership in May with Virtual Bridges to deliver its VERDE virtual desktop management and provisioning capabilities to organisations in the GCC and Pakistan.

Featuring online, offline and branch virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), VERDE is proven to help organisations reduce the cost and complexity of managing desktops, while minimising security concerns and business risk.

In July, GBM announced another winning partnership this time with Sanovi Technologies, a leader in disaster recovery management (DRM) software. The partnership allows GBM to resell Sanovi DR Management Suite a comprehensive family of DRM solutions again to organisations in the GCC and Pakistan.

Both of these major partnership agreements established a long-term strategic relationship between the companies, which allows GBM to remarket, distribute, resell and support the said products.

As the leading VDI Gen2 solution, VERDE will help our customers reduce desktop TCO while increasing organisational

agility, productivity and responsiveness, said Cesare Cardone, CEO at GBM.

In todays volatile business environment, DRM solutions are imperative for the smooth functioning of business. We are excited to partner with Virtual Bridges and Sanovi to bring this value to organisations in our region, he added.

Back in April, GBM announced it had achieved mobile internet technology Authorized Technology Provider (APT) status from Cisco.

The designation recognised GBM as having fulfilled the training requirements and programme prerequisites to design, resell, install and maintain the Cisco ASR 5000 Series multimedia core platform, which delivers a mobile packet core solution that transforms the way service providers deliver mobile internet services to their customers.

To qualify for the programme, GBM had to meet a number of requirements, including having staff who fulfil specific job responsibilities, taking comprehensive courses and passing rigorous exams to validate technology proficiency.

Gulf Business Machines is very pleased with this great achievement. This authorisation from Cisco will allow us to further enhance the cutting-edge innovations and solutions we provide our customers with, said Hani Nofal, integrated networking and site services director at GBM.

Following this designation, GBM also earned the prestigious Cisco Borderless Network Architecture Specialized Learning Partner Status in the GCC region.

The partnership allows Cisco Borderless Network Architecture Learning Specialization to assess the ability of a Learner Partner to deliver quality classes around selling, designing, installing and supporting products, technologies and solutions that are under Ciscos Borderless Network Architecture. With this partnership, GBM is entitled to design and create Cisco Derivate Works.

Pawandeep Singh Arora, learning services sales manager in the Gulf region at GBM, said: We are very pleased to have earned the Cisco Advanced Borderless Network Architecture Specialization for the GCC region. This recognition does not only validate our longstanding relationship with Cisco, but also our commitment to educate and invest in local and regional talent.

GBM has been a Cisco Learning Partner (CLP) since 2008 with strong presence in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Pakistan. In addition, in June 2011 GBM and Cisco jointly launched Omans first and only Cisco training centre as part of GBMs Learning Services Platform.

This year saw a 35% year-on-year growth in GBMs virtualisation business, as well as the completion of its 160th virtualisation project in the Gulf region in March.

GBM counts all the major server consolidation and virtualisation vendors as technology partners in the region, including IBM, VMware, Citrix and Red Hat.

Gulf Business MachinesPO Box 203Abu DhabiUnited Arab EmiratesP: +971 2 627 5165F: +971 2 627 2498www.gbm4ibm.com

Hani Nofal, Director - INSS, GBM, receiving Network World's system integrator of the year award 2012

lEvArAgiNg NEw vAluEGulf Business Machines success is very much defined by the partnerships and training it accumulates, and this year has been no different.

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8TOP 2O | SYSTEM INTEGRATORS 2012

Emitac Enterprise Solutions (EES), a leading system integrator in the region, has been providing end-to-end IT solutions to clientele in multiple industries for over three decades. EESs passion for progress is reflected in our disciplined planning and management process that enables the company to anticipate changing economic and industry conditions, thereby putting the company in position to create value for customer and shareholders. Since its inception, EES senior management has pursued long-term strategic imperatives to meet customer needs, drive higher profitability levels, and provide superior value creation for shareholders.

EES has made a special commitment to invest in long-term strategic initiatives that are the engines for its growth: establishing and growing presence in emerging market countries, expanding solution and service offerings to enhance customer value, and meeting the needs of its key regional customers to help them grow.

EESs system integration services has a comprehensive portfolio of implementation, support and consulting services solutions with exceptional people supporting business technology in action qualified professionals who bring technical insight, process excellence and resource flexibility to help customers optimize their technology operations and drive business outcomes, from desktop to datacenter.

EESs long history of standing technology partnerships has provided the company with a competitive advantage and market differentiation for our customers. It has established support center to work seamlessly 24/7 to bring new level of service experience to the customers.

eMItac enterprISe SolutIonS (eeS)

Miguel Angel Villalonga, CEO of EES

ThE COmpANy


pATh TO SuCCESS

1. Define Emitacs growth over the last 12 months.Emitac Group continued enjoying tremendous growth in 2011, with contribution from its four companies (EDL, EMS, EHS and EES). We have also witnessed growth across our infrastructure, application integration and enterprise management division. Within the infrastructure unit we have seen a significant growth in areas like core software technologies, thanks to our focused engagement with Microsoft, which has also extended to virtualisation, storage and data management solutions thanks to expanding our traditional relationship with HP to other leading brands like EMC. In our applications integration unit we have grown with significant projects in process automation and outsourcing similarly. Our enterprise management division has also seen positive results with new strategic engagements.

2. What are the trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years, and how is Emitac working to provision these technologies to end-users?We are seeing how the global trends in IT are affecting the local markets. Cloud, big data, mobility/consumerisation and social media are there to stay, but it is challenging to see how it will affect the buying behaviour of our local customers. In addition, and due to the local situation, security is a very relevant element in the evolution of the IT budgets, extended to compliance in some sectors. The change is very fast and we feel that customers will require a higher level of advice and more options to outsource the non-strategic pieces of their IT environments. This is why we are adapting our portfolio and developing our services arm to give customers a better experience.

3. What is the relevance of a good SI to a successful IT project in an enterprise?The role is very crucial. Customers require best of breed technology deployed in a well-structured and professional way. The technology vendors normally are driven by their own sales objectives, and that is not always in line with the customer needs. The SI is the link that enables customers to select and architect the right solution, and can take care of the overall implementation, from a governance point of view through its PM capabilities, as well as from a technical point of view, and later in the operation and support of the installation if the customer so desires.

4. How can the client modify his requirements in order to ensure that they can be delivered upon?Customer maturity level is very heterogeneous in this region, so it is difficult to generalise. However we see a growing trend to exaggerate the pressure on pricing. Customers have to understand the limits of their negotiation abilities. Nowadays, the market is extremely competitive and customers will find an option that will claim to deliver at any price tag they set. However, that is not always the option that will ensure the best solution or the proper delivery. An initial phase of professional project scoping, selection and definition of outcome will align expectation and mitigate the risk of execution deviation.

5. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a projects capacity to deliver on its goals?The extreme price negotiation can jeopardise the resources available for optimal delivery. In addition, the lack of unified expectations across different

customers sometimes plays a role. In the multicultural environment we live in, the IT departments are not always 100% aligned with the business decision makers and that also affects the expectation mismatch.

6. How does Emitac work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require?We acknowledge that it is in the initial phases of projects where the expectation is set, so we have put a significant investment in improving our presales consulting capabilities. Our presales teams are formed by the most experienced implementation consultants, we promote that role as a natural evolution of technical engineers. That enables our teams to establish the trusted relationship with our customers that make us deliver on the projects we commit, and our customers to fulfil their business interests.

7. Define Emitacs strategy for the next 12 months.We will continue our journey to become the best SI in the region. The strategy is based on the following pillars:

Concentrate on our core competencies, where we can add differential value Expand the solutions and services offerings around our core competencies:

Across our solutions landscape, we are filling the gaps and developing the areas where we still have room for growth. With this, we will be prepared to deliver on the new strategic trends.

From a territory point of view, we will capitalise on our regional reach and start doing business in other countries beyond UAE, mainly Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as our group has already an established presence there.

Emitac Enterprise Solutions (EES) PO Box 8391DubaiUnited Arab EmiratesP: +971 4 605 8100F: +971 4 282 7836www.emitac-ees.ae

Emitac Enterprise Solutions (EES) continues to be one of the leading systems integrators in the UAE, and often sets the benchmark for successful partnerships. Miguel Angel Villalonga, CEO of EES explains how the company drives itself to provide more for its customers.

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Al Rostamani Communications (ARC) is a member of Al Rostamani Group, one of the largest and most respected business conglomerates in the UAE.

ARC was formed in 2002 as a merger of two Al Rostamani Group entities, telecom division of Central Trading Company and Al Rostamani Information Services. After almost a decade of steady growth, ARC is now a leading IT & Telecommunication Solutions Provider and Systems Integrator, offering Innovative, Integrated Technology Solutions and Professional Services to customers in UAE and other GCC countries.

ARC takes a consultative and system Integration approach towards its customers needs and requirements. The company first understands the specific requirement, then develop the customized technology solution by carefully selecting the right mix of products from its end to end solutions portfolio, which includes IT Infrastructure, enterprise communications, networking systems, data centre solutions , IT security, applications and telecommunication infrastructure.

ARCs core competency lies in its competent vendor certified engineering resources that seamlessly conceptualise, build, integrate, support and manage the solutions across the lifecycle, through their professional services which often not only matches but exceeds the customer experience and expectations.

ARC represents world leaders in technology which includes, Schneider-Electric, Alcatel-Lucent, NEC, Cisco, HP, D-Link, Digi International, Fujitsu, McAfee, Symantec, NetApp, VMWare, SonicWALL, Nagravision, Telcordia Technologies, Aztech, Sagemcom, Mediatrix, Samsung, Spirent Communications, etc.

al roStaManI coMMunIcatIonS

Mohammed Zameer, GM, Al Rostamani Communications

ThE COmpANy

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COmplETE prOviDEr

1. Define Al Rostamani Communications growth over the last 10 Years.Since inception, the mission of Al Rostamani Communications is to provide complete end to end solution in the IT and Communication Technology arena. For the past 10 years ARC has been growing at the rate of almost 60% per year and at around 25% in the last 3 years. We have consolidated relationships with the worlds best manufacturers in the areas of Infrastructure, ICT and Telecoms, namely Schneider, Pelco, McAfee, Symantec, Fujitsu, NetApp, HP, Motorola, Cisco, Telcordia, and Sagecom, to name a few.

2. What are the trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years, and how is Al Rostamani Communication working to provision these technologies to end-users?The trend in the next five years is going to be towards clouds, SaaS, datacentres, virtualisation, and managed services. The system integrators with professional engineering skills to provide managed services and customer centric consultancy on reducing CAPEX on the infrastructure and converting it into OPEX will be the winner. We at ARC are more customer centric than product centric. This approach has helped us move to a stage where it is easier to transit to newer challenges of providing managed services and customer centric solutions. We have a vast team of engineers with certifications from various vendors like Cisco, NetApp, Vmware, Fujitsu, Dataminer, HP, Symantec and McAfee.

Additionally, due to our vast experience in the telecommunication industry, the solutions provided to our clients includes not only enterprise solutions, but also a consumer centric portfolio through the regional operators.

3. What is the relevance of a good SI to a successful IT project in an enterprise?As already indicated a good SI should be more customer focused than product focused. The SI approach should be more consultative. Together with the involvement of customers the SI should design a solution focussed on customer needs. With the present trends, the SI should also advise customers on cost effective and futuristic solutions scalable at least for the next three to five years.

4. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project?Most important factors a customer should be looking for in a SI can be summarised as follows: Past experience of implementing similar projects Technical skill set of the SI Credibility of the organisation to support the customer for not only the present requirement but consistently advise the customer for future trends and requirements. This can be assured by organisations like ARC, a member of the reputed Al Rostamani Group, whose key focus is customer satisfaction and employee enrichment.

5. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a projects capacity to deliver on its goals?The most common mistake end user makes is to opt for low cost solutions from inexperienced SIs who have short term goals. Though the cost is very important, an end-user must also ensure that the organisation they are dealing with is committed and technically proficient. 6. How does Al Rostamani Communications work with clients in

order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require?Al Rostamani Communications has a consultative approach. Firstly the consultants conduct a due diligence to understand the customers existing infrastructure. Thereafter the future requirements are studied and a gap analysis is performed to arrive at the most practical and cost effective solution. Our consultants not only have the technical skills but also understand business compulsions and the final design provided will address both the technical and business requirements.

7. What is Al Rostamani Communications growth strategy for the next three years.In the next three years we will move towards providing managed services, and solutions associated with the cloud and datacentres. Our goal is to derive at least 50% of our revenues from services and rest from the product and system integration. ARC is one of the very few system integrators in UAE which has equal strengths both on the enterprise and telecom segments.

Al Rostamani Communications (ARC) PO Box 30420DubaiUnited Arab EmiratesP: +971 4 428 7557F: +971 4 425 0507www.arcuae.com

Mohammed Zameer, GM, Al Rostamani Communications talks about the main trends that will influence regional enterprise IT and how the company will be placed to deliver on these in the near future.

"As already indicated a good SI should be more customer focus than product focus. The SI approach should be more consultative. Together with the involvement of customer the SI should design a solution focussed on the customer needs. With the present trends SI also should advise customer on more cost effective and futuristic solutions scalable at least for the next 3 to 5 years"


eMW Me

E MW ME, a privately held company, was established in the region in 2003. EMW is recognised in the region as the smart convergence and applications expert, and partner of global vendors with the objective of providing premier customer-oriented information and communications technology products and services for local, regional and global clients.

EMWs mission is to simplify technology complexities and help organisations translate their networking and communications strategies to meet their business objectives and operate more efficiently at less cost and risk. The company provides excellence in IT and services to commercial and governmental entities worldwide using a customer first attitude. EMW has the agility and the ability to build and customise specific requirements that meet or exceed their clients expectations in line with industry standards. EMW has been awarded top honours four consecutive years in a row.

EMW specialises in end-to-end infrastructure and business enablers, which include various vendor specialisations and partnerships that are best of breed across the globe. It prides itself in delivering solutions and expertise with 7x24, 365 days a year support. EMW ME has always provided its customers with superior support, which translates to: professional services, improved uptime, increased productivity and investment protection. It also keep its customers updated on the latest technology trends along with recommendations of their benefits to improve both bottom and top lines.

Serjios El-Hage, CEO of EMW

ThE COmpANy

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iNTEgrATED ExCEllENCE

Define EMWs growth over the last 12 months. EMW has been able to maintain a steady growth and our success stories continued throughout the year. During the last twelve months EMW has added significant customer in the region. All our wins comprised of very complex and highly integrated solutions.

EMW has always kept abreast with the latest technologies and solutions. We have enhanced our partnerships with various vendors- we have achieved Juniper Networks Wireless LAN Elite Certification, Juniper Network Operate Specialist, the first in the region to achieve both these certifications. We have also achieved Cisco System Collaboration Specialisation which enables us to push niche value add proposition to enterprise customers that customer service focused. These new certifications recognise and honour our technical expertise, agility and ability to deliver solutions that meet and exceed our customers expectations in terms of performance, reliability and cost of ownership.

What are the trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years, and how is EMW working to provision these technologies to end-users? Trends can be summarised in three categories: cloud computing, mobile device management (MDM) and vendor consolidation. Cloud computing is not quite here yet mainly due to price and legal implications. Service providers have not adjusted their pricing structure to make it attractive for enterprises to fully host and virtualise applications across boarders offsetting cost savings, but more importantly the regional telecom regulatory bodies do not have the legal framework to deal with the cloud, whether it is public, private or hybrid due to geopolitical shift in the region. MDM on the other hand is becoming more and

more prevalent with enterprise customers, especially after the advent of bring your own device (BYOD) trend. EMW is geared to tackle each of these trends, having aligned the right partnerships that offer customers cutting-edge solutions.

What is the relevance of a good SI to a successful IT project in an enterprise? As a matter of principle, which has not changed since our inception in this region nine years ago, technologies must pass our stringent in house testing before making them available to customers. Our past performance is a testament to who we are today. Financial stability is also very important especially with these market conditions, many great SIs fell down the way side, took too many risks, stretched too thin thinking they were invincible where in fact they were not. To maintain success in our cut throat business, an SI must have the means and the agility to adapt and align with right customers and partners that see eye to eye. At EMW we did just that, our shift in strategy back in 2011 had paid off mainly because of two factors: We stayed focused on value customers and invested in our staff. The results were phenomenal with 30% revenue growth.

What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project? Financial stability, reputation in the market place, relevant past performances, customer references and retention, project management, vendor certifications, technical expertise and experience, proper corporate processes and procedures, competitive price and most of all employee retention.

What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a projects capacity to deliver on its goals? End-users by definition vary depending on the type of business. For example,

in hospitality, end-users are the project owners, their consultants, their main contractors and their operators. Most common cause of delay we see is almost always related to budget and final IT requirements. Allocating the wrong budget is the number one cause for non-deliverance on project goals. We see it over and over again especially on large ticket projects whereby the IT package constitutes a mere 3%-5% of the total cost and being the least understood from the powers that be at the same time the most relevant whenever the project is completed.

How does EMW work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require?

We start the process very early on with full transparency, and our customers always remain our priority. Most of our existing and new clients came to us through personal referrals. People buy from people and do not believe otherwise. EMW strives to make each and every project a success, not only technically but also business wise, which is a win-win for everybody.

Define EMW's strategy for the next 12 months. Our strategy mainly revolves around two main pillars: customers and employees. We will continue to provide our customers with the best possible solutions that meet and exceed their business needs at the same time invest in training and educating our current and new resources. We will concentrate on providing the best of breed products and services in the collaboration contact centers, state of the art infrastructure technologies especially the wireless LAN and continue with financially solid partners. Again as mentioned before people buy from people and therefore integrity and trust remain our top priorities.

EMW MEPO Box 454518Dubai, United Arab EmiratesP: +971 4 368 6700F: +971 4 390 8680www.emw-me.com

Serjios El-Hage, CEO of EMW, says his company thrives on exceptional customer service and an enviable track record of project execution.

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M ahindra Satyam is a leading global business and information technology services company that leverages deep industry and functional expertise, leading technology practices, and an advanced, global delivery model to help clients transform their highest-value business processes and improve their business performance. The company's professionals excel in enterprise solutions, supply chain

MahIndra SatyaM

ThE COmpANymanagement, client relationship management, business intelligence, business process quality, engineering and product lifecycle management, and infrastructure services, among other key capabilities.

Mahindra Satyam is part of the $15.4 billion Mahindra Group, a global federation of companies and one of the top 10 business houses based in India. The group focuses on enabling people to rise. Mahindra operates in the key industries that drive economic growth, enjoying a leadership position in tractors, utility vehicles, information technology, vacation ownership, rural

and semi-urban financial services, etc. Mahindra has a significant and growing presence amongst others, in the automotive industry, agribusiness, aerospace, automotive components, consulting services, defence, energy, industrial equipment, logistics, real estate, retail, steel and two wheelers.

Mahindra Satyam development and delivery centres in the US, Canada, Brazil, the UK, Hungary, Egypt, UAE, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia serve numerous clients, including many Fortune 500 organisations.

Bobby Gupta, VP and MENA & Turkey head of Mahindra Satyam

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Bobby Gupta, VP and MENA & Turkey head of Hahindra Satyam (left) with Nadeem Hood, group COO at CPI. Mahindra Satyam was adjudged System Integrator of the Year at CNMEs ICT Achievement Awards last year for demonstrating it can support customer expectations consistently, while growing as a company in the region.

iN pErfECT hArmONy

Define Mahindra Satyams growth over the last 12 months.We have been able to sustain our growth momentum, and we have managed to key in some strategic wins over the last 12 months. We have already announced our first quarter financial results that ended on June 30, 2012, by posting over $342 million. Our regional operations have seen a 180% year on year growth in new contract signings, and we have managed to increase revenues across key GCC countries such as the UAE, which grew to 150% and Qatar, which grew by 200%.

Our continued growth can be attributed to strategic factors like skilled resources, shared services and innovative pricing models. To maintain this strong growth trajectory, we will hire and train more sales team while also beefing up our local delivery capabilities focusing particularly in countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. We are aiming to hit $50 million for the current fiscal year for the MENA region and our headcount is already 400, which shows a 100% increase compared to last year.

We are currently working with more than 20 engagements in the region, spanning various sizes. We have also managed to sign strategic outsourcing deals that amount to over $10 millionadding nine new

clients from the government, education, manufacturing, retail and energy sectors. From a global perspective, Mahindra Satyams active client count stands at 372 on a consolidated basis. Some of the company's recently signed clients include KAUST Saudi, Dubai Holdings, Dubai eGov, a large Abu Dhabi based government entity and a large commodity based business in the UAE.

What are the trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years?With business in the region looking at Opex reduction, managed services and a faster return on investment, we are seeing a big traction for business intelligence, mobility, infrastructure managed services and ERP.

Can you tell us about some of your key implementations in the region over the last 12 months?We have successfully installed and implemented a strategic data warehouse and BI program for VIVA Kuwait. This helps the telecommunication firm to address growing operational demands, which is revealed to be more than 60 million Call Detail Records (CDRs) daily and one million users and historical data backlog since 2008. Since

its installation, VIVA Kuwait has reported positive results meeting its SLAs and delivering up to date information to business users, ultimately increasing efficiency, saving time, effort and money.

We have also signed a multi-million, multi-year contract with Aspire Zone Foundation in Qatar. This is a leading sports institute with state-of-the-art academic, sports science and sports facilities to provide onsite and offshore support on various application development and infrastructure service projects. Aspire Zone utilised Mahindra Satyams expertise in event and venue management technologies as part of its ambitious sports event and venue management solution roadmap.

What are your delivery capabilities?We adhere to meeting set delivery schedules. This dedication towards meeting deadlines is reflected in the data warehouse development - an implementation of 100 plus OBIEE operational and MIS reports covering 17 subject areas and departments leveraging industry specific iDecisions framework and analytics solution within 14 calendar months for VIVA telecom.

In terms of post-implementation support, we maintain a strong level of customer service via its technical support team, which is always on hand to render to key services to our customers.

Also, one of the major advantages offered by Mahindra Satyam across its clients is quick RoI and benefits achieved. For example, the BIDW implementation for VIVA telecom has enabled the telco to nurture a single source of telecom system data that facilitated a generation of various operations and MIS reports, which has enabled faster decision making.

The technology stack implemented offered their IT team in addressing new enhancement requests in-house, tremendously reducing dependence of third party vendors.

Mahindra SatyamPO Box 30810DubaiUnited Arab EmiratesP: +971 4 391 1700F: +971 4 391 1713www.mahindrasatyam.com

Bobby Gupta, VP and MENA & Turkey head of Mahindra Satyam, says the company is riding the crest of a growth wave in the region, fuelled by strong fundamentals, focus and investments.

17


Injazat Data Systems is a leading Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing & Managed Services provider in the region. Injazat offers a broad range of services from IT strategy, IT consultancy, systems integration to comprehensive outsourcing of IT and business functions, delivered from the regions most sophisticated and advanced Tier IV design certified data centre facility.

Injazat has the capabilities to manage, enhance and support the IT and business

Over the past 18 years, JCCS has established its reputation within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia IT industry as a reliable and professional technical service provider. Its major areas of services spans across networking, security, application services, and boasts of technical skills and capabilities that address both enterprise IT and telecom markets.

ITQAN is the UAEs leading SI known for providing enterprise clients with world-class solutions addressing their local business needs. ITQAN offers a suite of key services to combine the right hardware and software solutions that deliver real business benefit to enterprise customers, specialising in the public and government sector, healthcare, oil and gas, and education

With an impressive customer base of more than 300 clients, ITQAN boasts of a multi-national team of more than 100 IT

Key Information Technology ( KIT ) has been in the forefront of Information Technology Solutions provider in the UAE and the Middle East since 1980. With offices in Dubai , Abu Dhabi , Bahrain and representation in the Middle East , KIT is very well positioned to fulfill the IT needs of business in the Middle East.

Key Information Technology (KIT ) is an IT solutions provider in enterprise computing, servers, storage, networking, power protection,

processes of large and small organizations. To complement this, Injazat also has the expertise to develop overall IT strategies and help clients stay on the edge of business and technology innovation.

To strengthen its offerings and develop local knowledge equity, Injazat uniquely leverages on HP and Mubadala as shareholders, which participate as active stakeholders in Injazats on-going development and outreach.

JCSS has partnerships with technology leaders which enabled it to leverage advanced technologies and create effective solutions tailor-made to meet the customers special needs. The company is a gold certified partner of Microsoft, Cisco and HP, and has formed alliances with Avaya, Juniper, VMware and Oracle.

professionals and offices in major UAE cities. ITQAN is an ISO 9000-2008 certified organisation and was the first system integrator in the region to gain the ISO 20000 certification (in 2007) and has recently added a third ISO certification, the ISO 27001 standard. ITQAN is still the only system integrator to receive the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Quality Appreciation Certificate & the Dubai Quality appreciation award (the Emirates equivalent of EFQM).

security, wireless, mobile solutions, software, consulting and outsourcing.

KIT caters to the IT products and service needs of governments, corporates, multinational companies, hotels & restaurants, banks, educational institutions, healthcare, small and home offices in partnership with brands like Dell, APC, Micros-Fidelio, Microsoft, Acer, Cisco, Avaya, Oracle, and Verbatim.

iNjAzAT DATA SySTEmS

www.injazat.com

www.jccs.com.sa

www.kit.ae

www.itqan.ae

jErAiSy COmpuTEr & COmmuNiCATiONS SErviCES COmpANy (jCCS)

iTQAN

KEy iNfOrmATiON TEChNOlOgiES (KiT)

18


help AG is an enterprise security reseller and security system integrator that offers end-to-end solutions and services addressing all aspects of enterprise IT security. As a multi-award winning systems integrator, the company differentiates itself from its competitors by complimenting its impressive vendor portfolio with world-class consultancy services, technical capabilities and excellent customer support. The company's continued investment in staff and technology means that it can proactively deliver services, operational support as well as turn-key management of security solutions for customers who wish to get superior management of their security solutions.

In light of the increasing cyber-attacks in the region, the information security market is now one of the top five investment areas of enterprise customers. help AG are uniquely positioned to address this market as it specialises solely in information security. The focus on this niche segment coupled with the fact that over 80% of its staff serve in technical roles makes help AG the company to beat in the enterprise IT security market.

Technical proficiencyThe key to help AG's approach in the Middle East market has always been excelling on the technical level, delivering constant high quality consulting and implementation of security solutions. Even if there is a lack of features in the vendor's solution, help AG has the resources to develop applications to overcome the limitations faced a truly unmatched level of technical skill and innovation within the reseller community. This is why even when products or solutions stop delivering, help AG continues by customising and adding functionalities through in-house development of solutions.

help aG

Stephan Berner, MD, help AG

Vendor independenceAnother unique aspect of help AG is that it does not allow vendors to dictate terms. Vendors are identified and key partnerships are formed based on the vendor's ability to solve unique problems and the company never allows vendor pressure to determine which solution is chosen for the implementation. help AG constantly tracks market trends and identifies solutions which best address them. An example of this is its recent partnership with Excitor. Recognising the growing popularity of the 'consumerisation' of IT, the technical team at help AG conducted a thorough analysis of the solutions being offered and found that the vast majority of these did not offer 'true' security as they did not clearly distinguish between personal and corporate data on the user device. Excitor's DME platform on the other hand adopts a unique containerised approach and help AG decided to go with this as it is confident that this is the best solution for its customers.

For help AG, the focus has always been on delivering the right technical solutions to the customer for their specific problem. And while this may not be popular with vendors,

it has gone a long way in building lasting trust-based partnerships between help AG and its customers.

Certifications and accreditationsIn order to ensure that its engineers have an in-depth knowledge of the products offered, help AG focuses on achieving the highest possible partner level with a number of its partners, such as F5 Gold Unity Partner, Palo Alto Platinum Partner, Symantec Encryption Solution Specialist, Symantec Data Loss Prevention Specialist, Symantec IT Compliance Solution Specialist and Blue Coat Gold Partner. Most recently, help AG achieved the status of Elite partner in both Network Infrastructure and Security within Juniper Network's J-Partner program and is now on the fast-track to becoming a Juniper Operate Partner.

The security specialist has also signed support partner agreements within multiple partner programs. This has not only allowed the company to excel in technical solution delivery to customers but has also strengthened its vendor relationships. In

ThE COmpANy

20

Dont underestimate your attacker. They only need to be lucky once.

Secure your business with help AG. help AG is an information security service and solutions provider. Known for its unmatched technical expertise and support services, help AG understands the correlation between technical and strategic information security and brings you the best solutions available on this planet.

Strategic Consulting Technical Services Support Services

www.helpag.com


2011, help AG won the following prestigious vendor awards- Symantec Security MENA Partner of the Year; Palo Alto Partner of the Year; and F5 Unity Partner of the Year.

Superior customer supportAnother key market differentiator is help AG's professional customer support ticketing system that streamlines the processing of customer support requests, enhancing overall support delivery of help AG services. help AG currently handles more than 500 customer support incidents a year- all within the stipulated SLAs (Service Level Agreements).

The customer support system currently allows customers to engage with help AG in a number of different ways: toll free 24/7 telephone number, email integrated ticketing system, and access to help AG support services over a web application. All active support customers are provided with a unique system account allowing immediate SLA reporting and case tracking.

International standardshelp AG works in close collaboration with leading manufacturers of IT security its qualifications, certifications and well tested business processes are the guarantee for quality in implementation and operation of IT security. In addition, help AG supports organisations in implementing and achieving certification of international best practice standards, such as ISO/IEC 27001 (for information security), ISO 22310 (for business continuity), ISO/IEC 20000-1 (IT service management), the ADSIC Security Standards and PCI-DSS for the security of payment card data security. In Dr. Angelica Plate, help AG has the only expert in the region actively participating in international standardization as editor of ISO/IEC 27001.

Initiatives and undertakingshelp AG remains dedicated to generating awareness about the latest IT security trends affecting the region. In order to do so the company has implemented a number of initiatives which have helped its customers make informed decisions regarding their security roadmaps.

Learning labIn 2011 help AG introduced the 'Learning

Lab' sessions which is course material developed and delivered by help AG. An example of this is the help AG web application security training module, which is a 4 day training course covering all aspects of advanced web application hacking, giving customers' engineers a better understanding of how to protect against such attacks. These training courses are delivered by help AG security professionals and have been extremely well received by the customers who have been looking for vendor neutral and unbiased description of technical problems without the focus on pushing technology solutions or boxes. This initiative was only started in the 4th quarter of 2011 and help AG has already trained three organisations (Energy, government and law enforcement sectors) through individual sessions.

Security Spotlight Forum (SSF)This is the third consecutive year that help AG is hosting its flagship Security Spotlight Forum. This quarterly event, which is conducted in collaboration with four of its vendor partners, is aimed at CIOs and IT decision makers and features presentations on the the latest security related trends and technologies. It also gives attendees the unique opportunity to familiarise themselves with actual demo equipment from participating vendors.

CIO Circle of Trusthelp AG also routinely hosts its 'CIO Circle of Trust'- an event which brings together CIOs from help AG's customer companies in an environment which permits them to exchange experiences about the IT implementations in their organizations. This event is completely vendor unbiased which is why it has received an excellent response from enterprises in the region.

help AG LABSOver the last five years help AG Middle East has been delivering penetration testing and vulnerability assessment as part of its focused security portfolio, allowing it to manage the entire lifecycle of IT information security including planning, implementation, testing and operations. Thanks to an overwhelming response and

staggering market demand, this has now gone from being a small part of help AG's service offerings to a focused business unit for the delivery of unparalleled services within the field of vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, secure application consultancy.

Furthermore, help AG LABS will conduct applied security research on identified issues in software implementations and operating systems and then communicate with vendors and the security community in order to ensure proper security incident response.

help AG demo evaluation facilityhelp AG has also addressed the issue of not having demo equipment by partners and vendors by introducing the concept of the help AG evaluation demo facility, which carries test equipment of every focused technology supported and deployed by help AG Middle East. This allows both help AG engineers and customers to test functionalities and solutions. These demo boxes are available either at help AG facilities or are used in the proof of concept and test deployment and verifications at customer sites.

Growthhelp AG continued investing in its technical team through 2011 and added almost 40% additional staff in different technical positions. The security specialist now employs one of the largest teams of IT security professionals in any consultancy company in the Middle East and intend to further this with the addition of 15 more staff members by the end of the year.

This year, help AG opened an office in Doha, Qatar to better serve the numerous requests from customers in Qatar which is a market that offers a huge potential for growth. The company also managed to grow its business by 67% year-on-year and saw both positive cash flow and increase in profit levels.

help AGPO Box 500741Dubai, United Arab EmiratesP: +971 4 440 5666F: +971 4 363 6742www.helpag.com

About Mahindra Satyam

Mahindra Satyam is a global business consulting and information technology services company leveraging deep industry and functional expertise, leading technology practices and a global delivery model to help businesses transform their processes and improve performance. The company's professionals excel in enterprise solutions, supply chain management, client relationship management, business intelligence, business processes, engineering and product lifecycle management, infrastructure services, among other services. The company has development and delivery centres in the United States of America, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Hungary, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia and serves numerous clients, including many Fortune 500 organizations. Mahindra Satyam is part of the USD 15.4 billion Mahindra Group. The Mahindra Group employs more than 144,000 people in over 100 countries and operates in key industries that drive economic growth, enjoying a leadership position in tractors, utility vehicles, information technology and vacation ownership. In 2011, Mahindra featured on the Forbes Global 2000 list, a listing of the biggest and most powerful listed companies in the world. Dun & Bradstreet also ranked Mahindra at No. 1 in the automobile sector in its list of Indias Top 500 Companies. In 2010, Mahindra featured in the Credit Suisse Great Brands of Tomorrow. In 2011, Mahindra acquired a majority stake in Koreas SsangYong Motor Company.

22

About Mahindra Satyam

Mahindra Satyam is a global business consulting and information technology services company leveraging deep industry and functional expertise, leading technology practices and a global delivery model to help businesses transform their processes and improve performance. The company's professionals excel in enterprise solutions, supply chain management, client relationship management, business intelligence, business processes, engineering and product lifecycle management, infrastructure services, among other services. The company has development and delivery centres in the United States of America, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Hungary, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia and serves numerous clients, including many Fortune 500 organizations. Mahindra Satyam is part of the USD 15.4 billion Mahindra Group. The Mahindra Group employs more than 144,000 people in over 100 countries and operates in key industries that drive economic growth, enjoying a leadership position in tractors, utility vehicles, information technology and vacation ownership. In 2011, Mahindra featured on the Forbes Global 2000 list, a listing of the biggest and most powerful listed companies in the world. Dun & Bradstreet also ranked Mahindra at No. 1 in the automobile sector in its list of Indias Top 500 Companies. In 2010, Mahindra featured in the Credit Suisse Great Brands of Tomorrow. In 2011, Mahindra acquired a majority stake in Koreas SsangYong Motor Company.


ThE COmpANy

Jude Pereira, MD at Nanjgel

Nanjgel Solutions is a one-stop-shop service provider for a variety of business needs. It provides business and IT solutions, services and trainings in the region through its robust delivery processes, people and technologies.

Nanjgel says its mission is to focus on the success of its customers and engender long term partnering relationships, as it continues to deliver business and IT based solutions and products that provide impact on its strategic business goals.

Whether an end-user is looking to develop a new network solution, planning a technology upgrade, developing a Wireless solution or troubleshooting an existing IT requirement, Nanjgel says its certified staff and partners has the right solution.

The company also partners with several hardware and software vendors, internet service providers and sub-contractors to provide one-stop-shop IT integration services. It says these relationships enable it to offer its customers high-volume pricing, direct delivery and better warranty programs.

Nanjgel offers 24X7 support from its HQ in Dubai within contractual SLA terms, which includes penalties and rebates too. Pre-sales and post-sales support is provided through phone, online chat, client visits, WebEx and the company has an internal dedicated certified support team. Nanjgel offers standard (8x5) and premium (24X7) support on post implementation to ensure immediate onsite support within two hours from the opening of a support ticket .

nanJGel SolutIonS

24

25


ThE righT SOluTiON

1. Define Nanjgels growth over the last 12 months.We have enjoyed 100% growth over the last year. Most of this has come from just acting on business demands a lot of enterprises are looking at certification and compliance, and handling security threats at large. Our success has rested on the capability that we possess to prove to the management that the organisation is secure in real terms. I mean, not just by saying that these are great products, but by being able to prove that we can provide near foolproof security by ensuring that the right set of products are deployed in your organisation. We map technology and business demands to the product set that we have, which typically does not happen very often in the region.

2. What are the trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years, and how is Nanjgel working to provision these technologies to end-users?We try to be one step ahead of market and demands. We have a constant eye on the latest technologies and the latest reports coming out from analysts like Gartner and IDC. We know market trends in Europe and US. We try to adapt to that. We are very dynamic in providing solutions to the customers. The product set that we provided customers four years ago does not exist with us. We are very dynamic and proactive in provisioning the right set of technologies to customers.

In terms of technology, definitely the trends would include data loss prevention (DLP), data warehousing, business analytics, all from security point of view and encryption. In terms of business demands the trends are geared towards more real-time reporting and more detailed granular reports, rather than just assumptions. The classic examples would include retail organisations, insurance or shipping

agencies. If customers usually ask for some information, traditionally there would be just one mail going back. However, businesses have to be able to give more than a single reply, they should be capable of giving options.

Technology has to address business demands, and it is not just about addressing needs, it is about providing reports as well now. It is all about instantaneous business performance assessment.

3. What is the relevance of a good SI to a successful IT project in an enterprise?The systems integrator that works with an organisation should be the one that understands the business needs of the customer and meets it with the right technology. Typically, the vendor does not understand what the customer needs here in the region. They are very different from customer needs in Europe or the Americas. The SI therefore, has to understand the product, understand the customer and customise it for local requirements. This is where the biggest gap exists.

4. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project?That is a million dollar question. An SI should have all the right ingredients in place and should be able to identify business opportunities, map them to partnering with the right vendors and products, and have a good infrastructure in place to support both business demands and deployment demands. It is about have the right resources and the right tool sets.

The most important consideration for end-users is understanding the experience that is possessed by an SIs engineers. It is not just about certification experience is most important. They should also check and cross reference implementations done by the SI. The end-user should also confirm that all

the people who were involved in delivering successful projects for the SI are still within the firm and have not left the same.

5. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a projects capacity to deliver on its goals?A lot of time they assume that they will get a lot of benefits without making sure on whether the product can deliver on those requirements and whether an SI can customise the product to deliver on expectations using that tool. They fail to gauge the situation properly and validate it.

6. How does Nanjgel work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require?In our region its only 10% of the clients that really have the time to maximise what they have deployed. A large portion of them dont have the time or resources to maximise on their investment. Either they get a bad name or they keep quite. We are providing them with onsite resources to make sure that they can maximise tools for them.

7. Define Nanjgel strategy for the next 12 months.We are just sticking to the basics. I was reading a recent report where the CEO of GE has said that they were able to gain 16% profitability in the last quarter, just by sticking to the basics. We are not going to be talking more philosophy or technology we are going back to basics on what we are good at and stick to that. We are also very clear that we work only with certain segments in the market. We dont feel a loss by not being a part of the hotels industry or the real-estate industry. We focus on government, finance, oil and gas, and the airports sector overall. We stick to what we are best at and focus only on those areas.

NanjgelPO Box 500804DubaiUnited Arab EmiratesP: +971 4 433 0560F: +971 453 7281www.nanjgel.com

Jude Pereira, MD at Nanjgel states that providing effective integration of business demands with the right software is the reason behind the companys consistent success.


Intertec

DElivEriNg prODuCTiviTy

1. Define Intertec's growth over the last 12 months.We have had a sustained growth of 25% over the last 12 month period.

2. What are the trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years, and how is Intertec working to provision these technologies to end-users?Regional companies are looking for cost effective solutions which will help them deliver better, faster response to their customers securely. This involves many areas of businessincluding customer care, complaint management, compliance, mobile services, CRM and BI.

Intertec has partnered with quite a few solution providers as well as developed its own IPR to deliver in most of the solution areas. Cloud hosting, mobile applications and BI will be important areas over the next two years other than security and

IntertecPO Box 27130DubaiUnited Arab EmiratesP: +971 4 222 1338F: +971 4 227 4537www.intertecsys.com

Intertecs MD Naresh Kothari describes the IT trends that will affect regional enterprises and explains how organisations can choose the right systems integrator.

Naresh Kothari, MD at Intertec

we have invested in all these areas and delivered some of them while others are in development.

3. What is the relevance of a good SI to a successful IT project in an enterprise?A good SI has a very important role to deliver a successful project over a non-SI. An SI has internal technical capabilities on multiple technologies and products, so it can integrate them and provide a seamless solution to a customer to meet its business objectives. An SI will also use project management methodology to deliver successful projects.

4. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project?End-users must check that the project track record delivery is on time and within the budgeted cost. They must also check that

project managers are PMI certified and technology is provided by certified persons.

5. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a projects capacity to deliver on its goals?End-users do not get a detailed SOW from the supplier and agree the deliverables in writing has been a major cause of failure of projects. Further, the end-users change the scope in the middle of the project which impacts delivery, and end-users often do not delegate a full time staff member from their side to accept the project on each stage basis.

6. How does Intertec work with clients in order to ensure that its projects give it the business benefit it requires?At Intertec all sales and business team use the mission statement of the company to help in their customer business needs and what are the critical success factors. Based on this an initial understanding document is prepared followed by an SOW with business benefits.

7. Define Intertec's strategy for the next 12 months.The next 12 months are very critical due to market dynamics. We will develop market segmentation deeper and create more selling opportunity. We will also develop two to three IPRs in niche areas, which will help customers manage and analyse their business better, increase revenue or decrease cost.

26

Cisco: Nominated Best Global Commercial Partner (2012)


MDS Computers is an IT Systems Integrator providing different products & services ranging from hardware, software, and consultancy, with offices in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

MDS offers following range of services: System Integration Data Center / Critical Infrastructure Consultancy, Integration & Operation. Software Solutions & Professional Services

SBM was established in 1981 as a general marketing and service representative of IBM in the Kingdom, and since then it has emerged as the leading IT company providing end-to-end enterprise IT solutions across all industries. Its pool of strategic alliances has grown to encompass Cisco and SAP, among others. SBMs capability as a total solutions provider is further enhanced with its portfolio of services in networking, systems integration,

Seven Seas is a leading system integrator and an ICT solution provider in the UAE. Seven Seas Computers is an ISO 9001:2008 certified company since 1983 and a Tiered partner to all major technology vendors and are the pioneers in delivering technology solutions and services in enterprise Computing, networking, security, voice, DR, access control, video conferencing in addition to outsourcing and managed services.

www.mds.ae

www.sbm.com.sa

www.sscomp.ae

mDS COmpuTErS

SBm

SEvEN SEAS COmpuTErS

Computer Systems & Networking Stand by power Systems & Telecom Shelters

Being nominated as the Microsoft Gold Partner in the UAE, the Preferred Partner of Hewlett Packard (HP) & awarded "HP Software Platinum Partner", MDS Computers provides full IT Solutions for Enterprise customers & Small / Medium sized Businesses including Hardware, Networking, Security and Infrastructure.

consultancy and implementation in addition to operations apart.

SBM has a full company organisation designed to make it flexible and adaptive to the changing and developing requirements of its customers and has access to IBMs worldwide practices, resources and knowledge bases to implement major ICT solutions in Saudi Arabia.

With over 300+ ICT trained and certified professionals, Seven Seas Computers delivers cost effective and efficient design, project implementations, maintenance contracts to further provide the customer with highest level of service in all industry verticals such as Large and Medium Enterprises, Airlines, Government, Oil & Gas, Banking & Finance, Hospitality, Healthcare and Education sector.

28

[email protected] www.paramountassure.com

Paramount Computer Systems FZ LLC

Duba iT: +9714 391 8600F: +9714 391 8608

Abu DhabiT: +9712 672 4288F: +9712 674 5520

QatarT: +974 455 1641F: +974 455 1827

Ku waitT: +965 2247 1409F: +965 545 6303

B ahrainT: +973 17727 177F: +973 17727 228

InformationSecurity...InformationSecurity...

InformationSecurity

IT ServiceManagement

IT Governance

SCADASecurity

NetworkInfrastructure

StorageSolutions

Information Security...

[email protected]


DubaiT: +9714 391 8600F: +9714 391 8608

Abu DhabiT: +9712 672 4288F: +9712 674 5520

QatarT: +974 455 1641F: +974 455 1827

KuwaitT: +965 2247 1409F: +965 545 6303

BahrainT: +973 17727 177F: +973 17728 444

www.paramountassure.com

paramount@ssuring Va lue

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Ku waitT: +965 2247 1409F: +965 545 6303

B ahrainT: +973 17727 177F: +973 17727 228


InformationSecurity


IT Governance

SCADASecurity


StorageSolutions


[email protected]


DubaiT: +9714 391 8600F: +9714 391 8608

Abu DhabiT: +9712 672 4288F: +9712 674 5520

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Ku waitT: +965 2247 1409F: +965 545 6303

B ahrainT: +973 17727 177F: +973 17727 228


InformationSecurity


IT Governance

SCADASecurity


StorageSolutions


[email protected]


DubaiT: +9714 391 8600F: +9714 391 8608

Abu DhabiT: +9712 672 4288F: +9712 674 5520

QatarT: +974 455 1641F: +974 455 1827

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Duba iT: +9714 391 8600F: +9714 391 8608

Abu DhabiT: +9712 672 4288F: +9712 674 5520

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Ku waitT: +965 2247 1409F: +965 545 6303

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InformationSecurity


IT Governance

SCADASecurity


StorageSolutions


[email protected]


DubaiT: +9714 391 8600F: +9714 391 8608

Abu DhabiT: +9712 672 4288F: +9712 674 5520

QatarT: +974 455 1641F: +974 455 1827

KuwaitT: +965 2247 1409F: +965 545 6303

BahrainT: +973 17727 177F: +973 17728 444



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Duba iT: +9714 391 8600F: +9714 391 8608

Abu DhabiT: +9712 672 4288F: +9712 674 5520

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Ku waitT: +965 2247 1409F: +965 545 6303

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[email protected]


DubaiT: +9714 391 8600F: +9714 391 8608

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BahrainT: +973 17727 177F: +973 17728 444



What if?


30

paramount@ssuring Value

F ounded in 1992, transformed in 1999 and re-invented in 2007, Paramount as a company is 'work in progress'. Paramount is a leading regional provider of technology and services for securing the information assets of enterprises. From the development of a security policy and security awareness training, through to the delivery of complete end-to-end solutions (that encompass perimeter security, secure content management, identity and access management and vulnerability, risk, policy and compliance management) Paramount has enabled various enterprises in the Gulf region to understand, monitor and mitigate the risks in their information infrastructure.

Paramount has established a reputation for providing practical solutions that are both business driven and cost-effective. This has enabled the company to secure the IT infrastructure of leading government undertakings, banks and financial institutions, airlines and transportation companies, telecommunication authorities, universities and large corporates in the region.

Paramount follows the 'people, process and technology' approach when it comes to delivering information security to its customers. Therefore the company always seeks to partner with international vendors that share the similar viewpoints.

paraMount coMputer SySteMS

ThE COmpANy

Premchand Kurup, CEO, Paramount Computer Systems


31

paramount@ssuring Value

SECuriTy SpECiAliST

1. Define Paramounts growth over the last 12 months.We have grown in double digits on all the lines revenue, gross profit and net profit. We achieved that primarily because we dont have a vendor concentration risk in our business, no customer concentration risk and no geographic location concentration risk. We have seven offices across different cities in the region. From the vendor perspective we have McAfee, Websense, Fortinet, RSA we have multiple vendors in our basket. We have focused on our own value-add within the company, and have always operated with a customer-backwards approach and not vendor-forward approach. These are the reasons we have enjoyed this growth.

2. What are the trends that you see influencing regional enterprise IT in the next five years, and how is Paramounts working to provision these technologies to end-users?You have to look at this from the context that we are focused on information security we are a pure-play information security services and technology provider. The three areas that we see affecting IT in a big way in the next five years, which will also impact the way customers architect security, are BYOD at one end, big data at the other end and cloud in the middle.

Mobility and BYOD will become a reality soon in the region. At the other end of the spectrum there is big data. This involves the data that is being created by all those devices out there there are more than two billion users and three trillion devices on the internet, and all of them are creating data.

We think that these three are going to be the technologies that are going to have a significant impact on IT, and

therefore have a significant impact on IT security as well. We have commenced our experiment in all these three areas. We are playing in big data space with security incidence and event management. SIEM is going to change significantly in the next few years because of big data. We have a few proof-of-concepts running among some key customers.

3. What is the relevance of a good SI to a successful IT project in an enterprise?The SI makes all the difference. Technology is just one small part of any project. The team that is delivering on that technology implementation is, if you ask me, the most crucial thing. First, they need to have the right knowledge, skill and experience.

The company that is delivering on the project should also have a methodology on top of the knowledge and experience. There should be clearly defined implementation and project management methodology. This makes all the difference.

4. What are the points end-users should keep in mind when choosing an SI to work on a project?The customer needs to ask at the pre-sales stage what is the knowledge, skill and competency of the team, the implementation and project management methodology that is being used and the methodology of ongoing support. Unfortunately customers tend to relegate this to the background, and focus on the vendors technology. There is very little difference in the technology between most major tier one vendors, the difference is achieved in the way a technology is implemented and configured. A mis-configured firewall is worse than having no firewall. There is a whole host of firewalls out there with

all ports open, and customers dont even know this. There is a lack of competency and experience, and among the vendor community, there is also a lack of integrity to the customer.

5. What are the most common mistakes that end-users make which endanger a projects capacity to deliver on its goals?The biggest mistake is not clearly defining expectations. It has to be defined and both sides have to understand them, the timelines for delivery and what has to be measured for success. If all these are clearly understood every project will be a success. This is invariably what is not done failed SAP and Oracle ERP packages run into hundreds.

6. How does Paramount work with clients in order to ensure that their projects give them the business benefit they require?Before the start of any project we determine the knowledge and skill sets that is required to deliver the project. Then we assemble a team to ensure that there is internal clarity on the skill.

We make sure that the deployment methodology as per in-house IT is followed. We have an independent project manager and a post- implementation audit. All this is possible only if the customer is actually paying for the services. If he expects all of this to come for free, then a big challenge arises.

7. Define Paramounts strategy for the next 12 months.The strategy is to grow our information security business and simultaneously incubate this new company in the cloud space. We have identified several shortcomings, and we are working on fixing this. This will enable us to scale the information security business.

Paramount Computer SystemsPO Box 25703Dubai, United Arab EmiratesP: +971 4 391 8600F : +971 4 391 8608www.paramountassure.com

Paramount Computer Systems believes in process and procedure to provide its end-user the best in systems integration. CEO of the firm Premchand Kurup talks about the elements that set it apart in a competitive environment.

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