DWTC- HARNESSING THE REIGNS OF IT /32
MICROSOFT UNVEILS WINDOWS 10 WITH ALL GRANDEUR /06
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INDIAECM012015
THE AGELESS INDUSTRYFrom Barter systems to Beacon systems, Journey of Retail to US$ 284.5 billion milestone/22
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I N F O M E D I A
Welcome Back Now that Ramadan is over and everyone is back on their feet, we find it the right time to announce that Enterprise Channels MEA is all set to organize its second edition of GEC Open and GEC Awards during October to December 2015. This time with a twist though; GEC Open will be organized in 7 countries including UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The purpose of the event is to bring the vendors’ ecosystems and customers across the industries closer to each other through the game of Golf.
Similarly, GEC Awards will be organized on the eve of GITEX. Through GEC Awards we will award the performers of the MEA IT industry. The awards will be decided through a strict nomination process. The vendors and the partners will have to nominate their products and solutions in individual categories and there will be a jury panel to ratify their credentials. Unlike last year, this year it will be organised in an indoor venue. The objective of this event is to encourage the vendors and their partners to work harder and cater to the needs of the customers in the best possible manner.
Under the GEC banner, we are also open to support the vendors and partners in organizing customised small events for the customers.
Besides, we also intend to support the region from charity perspective. Therefore, this time these events are associated with Dubai Autism Centre, UAE Red Crescent and
Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences. It is indeed an extremely proud and joyous moment for Accent Info Media FZ. LLC group that we
have already received a good number of enquiries from the industry for association. I am sure that these events will be very fruitful as we have seen tremendous success in our previous events.
This year’s Gitex Technology Week 2015, being organized from 18 -22 October is going to be very interesting as the organizers have picked up latest trending subjects for discussion. Robotics, Big Data, Smart Cities, etc. are the future of the world. These technologies are bound to be pervasive in near future in order to create a safe, error free and targeted interface and communications, therefore Enterprise Channels MEA is also bringing out a supplement “Infra Insight 2015” to cater to the subjects. Our focus will be to showcase the capabilities of vendors, disties and partners, alongwith successful case studies.
I am extremely confident that we will have good patronage from all of you to make these events successful. ë
MEA
EDITORIAL
04 AUGUST 2015
MEA
2015V O L U M E 0 3
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W W W. E N T E R P R I S E C H A N N E L S M E A . C O M
ADVERTISER INDEX: HELPAG 02, EMITAC 03, HID 07, ESET 09, AOC 11, FINESSE 13, EMT15, BULWARK 17, GEC AWARD19, GITEX 35, OXYGEN 41, GEC OPEN 49, UNIFY 51, DELL 53
INNOVATIONS /48
NETAPP ALL FLASH FAS (AFF) 8000
SERIESNetApp All Flash FAS
(AFF) 8000 series packs world-class
performance and the industry’s best data management in a
single solution.
FEATURE STORYTowards a Profitable Paperless Paradise /36
EDITORIAL :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 04
CHANNEL STREET ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 06
BIG DATA IN RETAIL::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 29
GUEST TALK ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 34
GEC OPEN ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 46
INNOVATIONS :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 48
GUEST TALK /34
BYO APPLE WATCHMANISH BHARDWAJ,
SR MARKETING MANAGER, ARUBA NETWORKS, AN HP
COMPANY
MY VIEWS /32
HARNESSING THE REIGNS OF IT
FARID FAROUQ,HEAD OF IT AT DUBAI
WORLD TRADE CENTRE
MY VIEWS /42
UNDERSTANDING SECURITY, DELIVERING PERFECTIONSTEPHAN BERNER,MD OF HELP AG
From Barter systems to Beacon systems, Journey of Retail to US$ 284.5 billion milestone/22
COVER STORY
THE AGELESS INDUSTRY
CONTENTS
MEA05AUGUST 2015
Microsoft Unveils Windows 10 with all Grandeur
PC INDUSTRY FACES SLOWDOWNWorldwide PC shipments totaled 68.4 mil-lion units in the second quarter of 2015, a 9.5 percent decline from the second quarter of 2014, according to preliminary results by Gartner. This was the steepest PC shipment decline since the third quarter of 2013. PC shipments are projected to decline 4.4 percent in 2015.There were many contributors to the decline of PC shipments in the second quarter of 2015, and Gartner analysts highlighted three of the major reasons for the drop in shipments. Analysts emphasized that these inhibitors are temporary events, and they are not changing the PC market’s structure. Therefore, while the PC industry is going through a decline, the market is expected to go back to slow and steady growth in 2016. PC shipments in EMEA totaled 18.6 million units in the second quarter of 2015, a 15.7 percent decline from the second quarter of 2014.
BUSINESSES BETTER MATCH PACE AS UAE GOES TECH SAVVYTech savvy consumers in the UAE are more active on social media platforms than the global average according to findings of a new global report commissioned by BT and Avaya. The report also revealed that major-ity of these consumers will develop a higher loyalty to brands that are transforming their customer experience beyond the traditional call centre.The research revealed that con-sumers in the UAE are among the most tech savvy in the world, regularly using a wide variety of different social media and com-munications platforms. These tech-savvy consumers now expect businesses to keep up. As a minimum requirement; customers expect to be offered a variety of channels to communicate with organisations. They also want organisations to offer the technology they are most familiar with.
For Windows lovers, the wait is finally over as Windows 10 is globally available now. Claimed as Microsoft’s most secure, innovative and personal Windows ever, Windows 10 was launched on the 112th floor of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in a fun filled evening with live demos and displays of the new kid on the block.
Some of the key exciting features of the new Windows include; the personal assistant Cortana. Search your PC and the web from the taskbar to find help, apps, files, settings or anything. Your personal assistant Cortana will be your guide. Windows 10 makes a big push in terms of apps, both built-in and third-party. Microsoft is provid-ing an opportunity to developers to develop apps that will work across PC, Windows 10 on mobile and Xbox too – essentially on every screen size. This is known as the Universal App Platform or UAP.
Windows comes with great built-in apps for photos, music, movies, and email. There is a new Photos app that provides a complete back catalogue as well as editing and filter capabilities. Sport and News are improved experiences and best of all, these apps all start up nice and quick, too.
Microsoft Edge is the new browser for Windows 10. The Windows Store has thousands more apps—from marquee games to apps that help you stay in touch and be more productive.
The other cities in which Windows 10 was launched are Sydney, Singapore, New Delhi, Nairobi, Berlin, Johannesburg, Madrid, London, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Beijing and New York City. The software will be released in 190 countries and in 111 languages this summer. It will be available as a free upgrade to current users of Windows 7 and later versions.
06 AUGUST 2015
MEA
CHANNEL
STREET
HID Global’s innovative Tap Authentication™ solution allows real-time authentication and access to Microsoft® applications on your desktop, tablet and mobile phone with a simple “tap” of your card.
Discover more at hidglobal.com
Simplifi ed access to cloud appsfrom mobile devices
Simply Tap!™
YOUR SECURITY. CONNECTED
SimplyTap_Ad_220x310.indd 1 03/06/2015 13:51
DIGITAL PRODUCTION MARKET GETS MORE COLOURFUL WITH XEROXOne of the industry’s most productive digital production color platform got even better with the addition of an extra color option, boosted up press uptime and offering of multiple speed choices – the calling cards of the new Xerox iGen5 Press. “We launched a digital color revolution when we introduced the iGen platform in 2002,” said Andrew Copley, president, Global Graphic Communications Operations, Xerox Technol-ogy. “And we continue to anticipate change and respond with new ways to convert pages from offset. The iGen5 is fully customizable to meet page volume, application type and color needs – all while delivering market-leading press uptime.”
One Click Access to long term VaultingActifio has entered into a strategic relationship with Google Cloud Platform that will provide Actifio custom-ers with one-click access to Google’s long term vaulting solution, Google Cloud Storage Nearline, right from within the Actifio platform. Now Actifio customers can just as easily add a high per-formance “Vault” profile to their SLA portfolio, enabling them to move application data directly into Google’s new long-term storage platform, Google Cloud Storage Nearline. Other features of the Actifio integration with Google Cloud Storage Nearline include local storage availability, improved data access, compression and encryption etc. “Actifio’s application-centric approach to copy data management frees our customers from the
constraints of any particular infrastructure. That makes Actifio the perfect solution to migrate late lifecycle data – automatically – into a cloud-based storage solution like Cloud Storage Nearline.” said Actifio Founder & CEO Ash Ashutosh. Bob Dolinsky, CIO of Sutherland, a global law firm said “Google Cloud Storage Nearline’s attractive cost per terabyte and fast data avail-
ability are things we are considering as we look for the right solution to reduce our internal technology footprint. Being able to access this type of infrastructure through our Actifio copy data virtualization platform would give us the option to combine the public cloud economics we want with the enterprise features we have and need.”
SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC UNVEILS MICRO DATA CENTRE SOLUTIONS
Schneider Electric has unveiled its new micro data center solution portfolio for customers looking to reduce latency and add capacity while ensuring a secure and easy to manage IT environment. Delivered in a single enclosure, the benefits of the new micro data centre solutions include power, cooling and management software to support a self-contained and secure computing environment. The solution addresses the latency, bandwidth and processing speed challenges that customers face with the surge in connected devices and data applications. Jonathan Duncan, ITB MEA Director for Integrated Solutions & Data Center Applications, Schneider Electric, said: “All enterprises and corporations seek interconnected, faster and safer IT systems to enrich business practices. Schneider Electric’s micro data centre solution caters to this need through combining design utility with the latest in cutting-edge technology.” Steven Carlini, Senior Director for Data Center Global Solutions at Schneider Electric, said: “. It is essentially a ‘plug and play’ data centre that is ideal for private clouds and converged IT systems. In addition, IT installation and operating costs could be minimized to a possible price per watt reduction of as much as 50 per cent.”
emt Distribution has entered into an exclusive distribution partner-ship agreement with CoSoSys to distribute the entire portfolio of CoSoSys Endpoint Protector Solutions in Middle East. “With the rise in awareness about data loss prevention in the region, the opportunities for new business are growing at a fast pace,” said, Mohammad Mobasseri, emt
Distribution CEO. “We will work closely with CoSoSys to lend technical and marketing support to facilitate the growth of business for all our channel partners.” The company offers a rich portfolio of security products to protect over 11 million users worldwide. CoSoSys products provide network device control, DLP for Windows and Mac OS X, Mobile Device
Management (MDM) for iOS and Android, as well as applications for portable storage device encryption and enhancement. “We are glad to partner with emt Distribution, one of the leaders in value distribution business in Middle East, with local reach and global experience. We are confident that the technical expertise and the wide channel base of emt will help
give us desired exposure and gener-ate enough business opportunities for us to expand in the region,” Said Roman Foeckl, CoSoSys CEO. The distribution agreement entitles emt Distribution to distribute the entire range of CoSoSys products and solutions across the region, including countries like KSA, UAE, Oman, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain among others.
EMT FINE TUNES ITS SECURITY OFFERINGS
ASH ASHUTOSH, ACTIFIO FOUNDER & CEO
CHANNEL STREET
08 AUGUST 2015
MEA
DO MOREWhether you’re managing your business, or overseeing your com-pany’s IT, ESET’s security products are fast, easy to use, and deliver market-leading detection. We deliver the protection that allows you to DO MORE. Find out more at ESET.COM/ME/BUSINESS
WITH YOUR I.T. SECURED BY ESET
www.eset.com/me [email protected] +971 4 3754052 - Fax +971 4 4290967 -Dubai Internet City Bldg 2, Off 305 Dubai United Arab Emirates
Gulf Air Renews Partnership with Mercator SolutionsGulf Air have extended their partnership with Mercator Solutions in regards to Revenue Accounting Solutions for another five years. The agreement was signed between A/Chief Execu-tive Officer Mr. Maher Salman Al Musallam (centre), Director of Information Technology, Dr Jassim Haji, and Director of Accounting, Mr. Ammar Mohammed Alsaad, and Mercator Sales Director MEA/Russia/India & Sub-Continent, Mr. Anthony Gilliam and Mercator Regional Account Director, Mr. Manish Mittal.
Dr. Haji commented in this occasion: “We are proud of this strategic partnership with Mercator
and we are sure that the future with this extension will bring more collaboration and prosperity to both parties. ”
Mr. Gilliam remarked about this event: “Our RAPID and RADAR Analytics solutions have helped the national carrier of Bahrain to ensure accurate revenue collections and tracking, plug potential revenue leakages, simplify the billing with other airlines and agents that sell its tickets, and improve decision support for challenges that arise from the aviation industry. We look forward to our continued partnership and support of this leading airline.”
“It’s time for public and private intrests to join together to enhance cybersecurity and
critical infrastructure protection”
HAMED DIAB, MENA REGIONAL DIRECTOR, INTEL SECURITY.
IN PUBLIC
VOLUME AND VIBRANCY IN ONECanon Middle East has launched three new large format printers – the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF830, iPF840 and iPF850 - to bring reliable, precise and productive printing to architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), reprography and CAD environments. Businesses that require eye-catching prints, such as indoor poster and point of sale printing environments, will also appreciate the addition of the latest High Chroma magenta ink for enhanced colour reproduction and more vibrant results. “High-volume, continuous printing is a fundamental tool for these businesses and needs a powerful and dependable large format printer. The new imagePROGRAF models deliver speed, accuracy and colour vibrancy, making them ideal for both print-for-pay and print-for-use environ-ments.” commented Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Director, Canon ME. The new series also offers substantial cost savings over time, which is especially important for high-volume environments.
SECONDS6RIVERBED LAUNCHES RATP PROGRAM
Riverbed has launched its new Riverbed Autho-
rized Training Partner (RATP) Program in the
Middle East, Turkey and North Africa (METNA).
Under this initiative, Riverbed’s certified training
partners will be able to offer the full range
of technical education courses to custom-
ers, employees and partners, in accordance
with Riverbed’s international processes and
standards of quality.
EMPOWERING THE MOBILE
WORKFORCE
ManageEngine’s ADSelfService Plus, its self-
service password management solution, now
updates Windows cached credentials. With this
feature, ManageEngine now provides remote
users with immediate access to their machines
after they reset their passwords, solving one of
the most frustrating forgotten password issues
facing today’s mobile workforce. “ADSelfService
Plus helps users solve password issues on
their own and work uninterrupted even when
they are away from the office,” said Parthiban
Paramsivam, director of product management at
ManageEngine.
SIMPLIFIED SOLUTIONS JOINS EPICOR
INSPIRED PARTNER NETWORK
As a VAR, Simplified Solutions will focus on
bringing Epicor next-generation software
solutions to the rapidly growing Middle East
hospitality industry. The VAR partnership
will pave the way for the promotion of Epicor
iScala ERP as a cost-effective, state-of-the-art
enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for
the hospitality industry.
JOURNEY TO WINDOWS 10 SMOOTHER
WITH CITRIX
According to Nabeel Youakim, Vice President,
Product Management, Windows App Delivery,
Citrix, “We anticipate tremendous demand for
XenApp and XenDesktop in the coming year as
our IT organizations depend on Citrix XenApp
and XenDesktop virtualization technology
to enable successful Microsoft Windows
migrations, which are ideal opportunities for
enterprises to embrace virtualized mobile
workspaces.” Many organizations will also take
the Windows migration event as an opportunity
to further their cloud adoption strategies.
CommScope Global Partner Program Goes the Extra Mile CommScope has introduced a new management tool for the PartnerPRO Network. The Portal is a management software tool for partners that runs on a best-in-class, data management technology created to simplify the process of collaboration for customer projects, ultimately providing cus-tomers faster access to CommScope technology. “CommScope is making a significant investment into this new portal because we are committed to giving our partners the best tools and support to serve their customers,” said Stephen Kowal, SVP, Global Partners, CommScope. “The PartnerPRO
Portal enables a whole new approach to col-laboration with features that will fundamentally change the way we work with partners.” Jim Curran, vice president, Enterprise Sales, MEA, CommScope, said: “Our partners in the Middle East and Africa region are an essential element of our success and fundamental to our regional footprint. They understand the regional specifica-tions and provide local insight to help simplify and accelerate network deployments. Therefore, the new platform will help them to serve custom-ers even better and more efficiently”.
CHANNEL STREET
10 AUGUST 2015
MEA
Trigon LLCUAE, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain+971 4 342 [email protected]
Recently, Fiat Chrysler Automobile (FCA) announced that it would recall 1.4 million vehicles in the US to install software that would prevent hackers obtaining control of the engine remotely, including the steering wheel and other systems in cars. The successful breach allowed hackers to take control of Chrysler’s systems, and they were able to take control of a Jeep. Neil Campbell, Dimension Data’s
Group General Manager, Security comments: “The hack indicates two things. Firstly, the Internet of Things is going to create – and indeed has already created - far more opportunities for hackers to both invade privacy and, in cases like this, escalate the risk from damage to ‘soft’ targets, such as reputation and revenue, to actions that place human lives at risk. Secondly, many well established
industries that have not yet had to deal with IT security as a serious threat will be massively underin-vested in IT security technologies, services and processes.” “With the IoT trend driving innovation and connectivity within their product or service range, industries that are running up against these kind of exposures for the first time will need to engage more closely with industry bodies
and IT security services providers in order to come to grips with the risks they’re facing.Campbell’s advice to organisations is to continually monitor their IT infrastructure and the IT security industry – not only for threats, but for new approaches to managing threats. In addition, organisations need to recognise that people can be both their strongest and the weakest link when it comes to IT security.
A Motivating Step from CyberoamIn a novel step towards boosting the morale of its channel, Cyberoam is all set to reward cash incentive offer - Cyberoam Sales Bonanza - for its Middle East channel partners. The offer is targeted towards sales representatives who are Cyberoam account managers within its partner companies. Under this offer, incentives are set according to the model numbers - higher the model sold, higher the incentive gained. The offer is valid only for Cyberoam appliances sold within 1st July 2015 and 30th September 2015. Explaining the objective of this offer, Ravinder
Janotra- Regional Manager Sales, Middle East, Cyberoam said “Cyberoam has been a 100% channel driven company with partners playing an instrumental role in extending the company’s reach and support. Our partners constantly engage with the end customers keeping us abreast of their challenges and require-ments eventually allowing us to innovate and bring in advance-ments to our solutions. This offer
is just a gesture to acknowledge our partners’ contributions and also motivate them to secure more organizations with next generation security from Cyberoam.”
QATAR AIRWAYS ON CLOUD WITH OOREDOOOoredoo and Qatar Airways have expanded their strategic partnership, with the national airline moving both its primary and backup data to Ooredoo’s cloud-hosting platform. The move to Ooredoo’s first-of-its-kind cloud-hosting platform will enable Qatar Airways to deploy the latest generation of cloud backup and security solutions quickly and cost-effectively, in a flexible and scalable manner. The cloud-hosting platform, which was launched recently in partnership with Microsoft offers a host of features including advanced cyber security, customer relationship management and file-sharing applications all on Ooredoo’s bigger and faster network.
IS AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY THE NEW VICTIM?
EXPANDING FOOT-PRINT WITH DOUBLE GROWTH
StarLink has unveiled its financial results for H1 2015 which ended on 30th June, 2015. The exceptional performance in the first half of 2015 enabled StarLink to deliver more than double the revenue achieved in the same period last year. “This phenomenal achievement, fueled by record sales in the second quarter of 2015, puts us on track for our annual revenue goal of $100 Million. This year we observed huge growth in some of our new markets, such as South Africa and Egypt, motivating us to expand our Africa footprint in H2, plus launch our European presence” said Mahmoud Nimer, GM at StarLink. Nidal Othman, MD at StarLink added, “We will also continue to build on our best-of-breed portfolio later this year. Simultaneously we will expand our GCC and regional teams taking our employee count to 250 by year-end. The majority of new-hires slated to be on-boarded will be technical, in order for us to continue providing value-add on-the-ground locally in each country that we cover to meet the needs of our Channel Partners.
ACCOR CHOOSES RUCKUS WIRELESS Accor Hotels, one of the world’s leading hotel operators with 3,700 hotels located in 92 countries, has started implementing Ruckus Smart WiFi products and technology across their hotels inGCC and Egypt. The Ruckus Smart WiFi network infrastructure will support free & premium WiFi availability across leading Accor brands including Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, ibis and ibis Styles. AccorHotels’ collaboration with Ruckus Wireless in the region began a few years ago, withthe deployment of Ruckus Smart WiFi networks initiated a year ago. To date, AccorHotels has completed deployment of well over 800Ruckus ZoneFlex™ access points (APs) within these hotels.
RAVINDER JANOTRA- REGIONAL MANAGER SALES, MIDDLE EAST, CYBEROAM NIDAL OTHMAN, MD AT STARLINK
CHANNEL STREET
12 AUGUST 2015
MEA
Cloud | Mobile | Social MediaBFSI | Education | Energy | Healthcare | Hospitality
Business Intelligence & Analytics | Enterprise Content Management | Governance, Risk & Compliance
150+ Enterprise Clients | 250+ Professional Team | Global Offices | Strong Domain Expertise
[email protected] | www.finessedirect.com | facebook.com/finessedirect
Excellence Engineered..!
Beyond System Integration.!
Who Gets the Biggest Slice of Cake?ESET has rolled out its summer sales incentive program for channel partners in the Middle East. Extending over a three month period from the 1st of July to the 30th of September, the program rewards high performing sales personnel from the company’s reseller partners and encourages them to close larger deals for the company’s range of next-generation business security solutions. “When we re-engineered our range of security solutions for businesses, we engaged with a number of large global enterprises to ensure that we had a portfolio of technologies capable of protecting even the most complex IT infrastruc-
tures,” said Pradeesh VS, GM at ESET Middle East. “We now want our partners to target large businesses in the region and close bigger deals. Therefore our new incentive program is structured not only around sales numbers but links rewards to deal size.” The aim of the program is to drive sales of ESET’s new range of business security solutions which were launched earlier this year. These products offer maximum proactive protection with low impact on company infrastructure, and pack a wealth of new features, such as Botnet Protection, Exploit Blocker, Anti-Phishing and Anti-Theft.
MOVEMENTS NUMBER GAME
ALEX WALLNER, Area Vice President for Central Eu-rope and Russia, has taken on additional responsibility for NetApp’s business op-erations in the Middle East,
Eastern Europe and Africa.
JOSEPH HANANIA has been appointed as the Head of the GDO Segment of Xerox.
ALEXANDER FOROO-ZANDÉ has been pro-moted to the position of Regional Channel Manager, Middle East, Turkey & Africa at Infoblox.
percent Gartner says worldwide IT spending to decline 5.5 percent in 2015. Analysts attribute the decline to the rising U.S. dollar
ABU QAFRH EMBRACES EPICOR
SOLUTIONS
Abu Qafrh Holding Company (Abu Qafrh),
has selected the Epicor iScala 3.0 enterprise
resource planning (ERP) solution to reduce
operational costs and streamline its human
resources (HR) department. The solution will
be implemented with the support of Vertical
Solutions, an Epicor authorized Value Added
Reseller (VAR) and a member of the Epicor
Inspired Partner Network in Jordan and Saudi
Arabia.
ARTEC 3D BRINGS SCANNING
WONDER TO KUWAIT
Artec 3D and Kuwait-based company 3D
Utopia, unveiled the world’s first high-speed
full-body 3D scanner for 3D portraits for the
first time in Kuwait at Arraya Shopping Centre
on 15th July 2015. These high-precision scan-
ners are used in the aerospace, medical and
manufacturing industries to guarantee quality
control, capture even the slightest specifics,
down to wrinkles on clothes.
CLIMBING THE NEXT STEP OF
PARTNERSHIP Cyberoam and FDC International have
decided to take their distribution tie up to
the next level. FDC will now be responsible
for distributing Cyberoam products in UAE,
Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan
and Lebanon. This decision is in line with
Cyberoam’s objective of strengthening
its footprint in emerging network security
markets. The region known for its oil business
has been taking cyber threats seriously
after the cyberattack on Qatari Natural Gas
Company hit headlines in 2012. Cyberoam
believes this is the right time to entrench its
presence in the region
NO MORE A ‘THANKLESS TASK’
More than half of IT admin staff (55%) are
not thanked by colleagues for carrying out
essential IT tasks on their behalf, a new poll
has shown. ManageEngine which carried
out the survey, has released the results in
conjunction with the 16th System Administra-
tor Appreciation Day on Friday 31st July, as
part of a campaign to give staff in other roles
an insight into what a system administrator’s
job entails.
WEB CLIPS
5.5
META BYTE IS METRICSTREAM’S PARTNER OF THE YEARMeta Byte Technologies has been awarded by MetricStream as ‘Partner of the Year 2015’ for establishing excellence in innovation and implementation of MetricStream solutions in the Middle East, and for their contribution in generating the highest aggregated sales for the Middle East region. The award was presented by MetricStream at a prestigious awards ceremony in Bangalore, India on April 24, 2015. “Meta Byte is proud to receive the Partner of Year award, which truly reflects our commitment and team efforts. We have achieved this recognition after a year of exceptional contribution for achieving milestones in customer acquisition, and product innovation,” said Salil Dighe, CEO at Meta Byte Tech-nologies. “The strategic partnership between Meta Byte and MetricStream demonstrates a continued commitment to provide outstanding value to our customers in the region,” added Dighe.
CHANNEL STREET
14 AUGUST 2015
MEA
A BRAND NEW AVATAR
Paladion has introduced the company’s new corporate logo. The rebranding of the logo reflects a blend of simplicity, intelligence, direction and attention to detail. The company has gained a firm hold over international markets as a security specialist through innovation, technology and modern research and development practices. It has steadily extended its portfolio to serve a plethora of clients across sectors. The new branding exemplifies how the brand has evolved over the years and emerged as an industry forerunner geared up to enter a new phase of its journey. Firosh Ummer, MD, EMEA, Paladion Networks, said: “Today’s evolving cyber threat landscape looks radically different from the Virus outbreaks, Trojans and Worms that characterized the late 80’s and 90’s. These constantly shuffling approaches and strategies have given shape to a new culture and practice at Paladion. A change therefore was in order. The new brand and values reflect these advancements in the way we do things.”
FIROSH UMMER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, EMEA, PALADION NETWORKS
Fortinet has launched the FortiGate 400D and the FortiGate 900D next-generation firewalls (NGFWs). These new appliances further bolster Fortinet’s portfolio while delivering five times greater NGFW performance than competing products. Fortinet’s new FortiGate 400D and 900D NGFWs are engineered to deliver high-performance security and specifically tailored to meet the grueling demands of mid-sized and enterprise organizations today and into the future. Leveraging Fortinet’s legendary FortiASIC-accelerated performance, both
Appliances utilize Fortinet’s proprietary Network Processor 6 (NP6), providing the FortiGate 400D with throughput performance of 16 Gbps and propelling the FortiGate 900D to speeds of 52 Gbps. Available immediately, the FortiOS operating system guarantees improved Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) stream performance high-throughput, broad security, deep inspec-tion, rich analytics, granular controls and ease-of-use. Reinforced with industry-leading threat intelligence from FortiGuard Labs, the FortiGate 400D and 900D deliver the best-in-class protec-tion and performance.
EGYPT BECKONS TP-LINK
GROWTH BEYOND THE GRAPHSESET is all set to take the security market by a storm. According to Gartner Market Share: All Software Markets, Worldwide, 2014 report, ESET has recorded growth of 8.0% during 2014 in the consumer security software and endpoint protection platform (enterprise) markets, improving its market share from 4.0% in 2012 to 5.1 % in 2014. “Being ranked in the top 5 vendors by market share in consumer security software and endpoint protection platform was our target for this year and we are happy to see that we have achieved that result.” said Ignacio Sbampato, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at ESET. “We feel this growth is a confirmation that more and more companies and consumers around the world trust our solutions to protect their devices and data.”
Fortinet’s New Cyber-security Wonders
WALL STREET FIRMS TARGETED
FireEye has released a comprehensive intelligence report that assesses that a financially motivated advanced threat group has been carrying out ongoing attacks against publicly traded companies in a likely attempt to play the stock market. Designated by FireEye as FIN4, the group has been observed collecting information from nearly 100 publicly traded companies or their advisory firms. “Advanced threat actors conducting attacks to play the stock market to their advantage has long been a worry but never truly seen in action,” said Dan McWhorter, VP of threat intelligence, FireEye. “FIN4 is the first time we are seeing a group of very sophisticated attackers actually systematically acquire information that only has true value to a criminal when used in relation to the stock market.”
TP-LINK is all set to roll out a com-prehensive programme focusing on developing its channel business in Egypt. Roger Gong, Country Manager, Egypt at TP-LINK Middle East, said the company has decided to strengthen its B2B and B2C SOHO and SMB networking business in Egypt as the country is steadily turning around from
the upheaval it has experienced in the past three years.“We have been working so hard to communicate the new business and partners initiatives, and we are working closely with each channel segment to ensure that we lay a solid founda-tion upon which our business will develop and grow,” he said. Gong pointed out that TP-LINK is
building tight alliances with channel partners and developing distribu-tors so that they can start to position their business functions as service providers for reseller partners. He said looking ahead, TP-LINK will be enhancing its Channel Partner Programme and after-sales service. “We have started the process of setting up our own after-sales
call center as this is an important part in our growth,” he said. “Our partners in Egypt can expect to see a broadened product portfolio in the second half of the year and beyond. This is one of TP-LINK’s great advantages. We’ll also work together with channel partners and serve them better than before.”
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AMD has unveiled the newest addition to its A-Series line of desktop processors. The A8-7670K APU provides a superb experience for Microsoft Windows 10, mainstream workloads, and eSports online gaming. “AMD takes great strides to deliver innovative technology that provides the performance and convenience customers need today and tomor-row. The AMD A8-7670K APU is no exception.” said Kevin Lensing, Sr. Director, Client Business Unit at AMD.
“The new addition of the AMD A8-7670K
APU allows us to deliver more options for discerning mainstream PC buyers,” said Zack Shutt, Vice President at Xidax. “AMD’s latest driver and feature support allow incredible new entry points for impressive gaming technologies such as FreeSync™ and Virtual Super Resolution.” Some of the cutting edge competitive features of the processor include; Exceptional performance on today’s modern workloads with 10 compute cores, protection for sensitive data etc. The A8-7670K APU is available now at select e-tailers and participating system vendors.
HELP AG ON CLOUD 9 WITH NEW PARTNERSHIPS
EXTENDING CAPABILITIES AND MORER&M has expanded the capabilities of its innovative R&MinteliPhy automated infrastructure manage-ment system with the inclusion of additional displays. The expansion means that R&MinteliPhy uses fewer IP addresses than before, allowing the system itself to monitor large data networks.
“The additional displays enable alarm messages and instructions to be displayed in each network cabinet, irrespective of whether they are fitted with an analyzer or not,” says R&M Product Manager Reinhard Burkert. “Cabling faults can therefore be localized even faster.
Smart Choice for Everyday Computing
MAC IN UAE JUST GOT BETTER WITH MS OFFICE 2016
Microsoft’s final version of Office 2016 for Mac is now available in UAE . Office 2016 for Mac is now available in 139 countries and in 19 languages, with the Arabic version expected later this year. Office 365 subscribers can get the newest version of Office for Mac immediately. Ihsan Anabtawi, Regional Manager - Applications and Services, Microsoft Gulf said “Microsoft has gone a long way to give Mac users a better experience with the Office 2016 for Mac to echo our deep commitment in enabling people and organizations to do more and achieve more with Microsoft offerings. We have added features like improved Mail Merge in Word, Propose New Time in Outlook and support for External Data Connections in Excel. Users will now seam-lessly work across devices and platforms with similar interfaces, while the cloud connection that comes with Office 2016 for Mac will help to enhance collaboration, leading to increased productivity.”
IBM AND MUBADALA BRING WATSON TO THE MENAIBM and Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala), the Abu Dhabi-based investment and Develop-ment Company have entered into an agreement to bring IBM Watson to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). According to Homaid Al Shemmari, CEO of Aerospace & Engineering Services at Mubadala. “We are confi-dent that together we can continue to acceleratethe region’s knowledge-based economy by empowering businesses to capitalize on new opportunitieswith this world-class technology.” “This collaboration is another important demonstration of IBM’s commitment to bringing Watson to all corners of the world and accelerating adoption of cognitive computing as the new technology standard for innova-tion,” said Mike Rhodin, senior vice president, IBM Watson. “Mubadala’s strong relationships throughout the MENA region will enable local organizations and entrepreneurs access to Watson to transform their work.”“Bringing IBM Watson to the region represents the latest major milestone in the global adoption of cognitive computing,” said Mounir Barakat, executive director of ICT at Aerospace & Engineering Services, Mubadala. Mubadala and IBM will establish the joint venture through Mubadala’s wholly owned information technology services subsidiary, Injazat, which will be the exclusive provider of Watson technology in the region.
Help AG has signed new partner-ship agreements with Bit9 + Carbon Black in the GCC. “This allows us to better mitigate and remediate cyber attacks and breaches. We can protect customer endpoints and perform rapid large scale investigation in the event of an attack. This accelerates remediation, allowing us to get cus-tomer IT systems up and running
with minimal impact on business,” says Stephan Berner, MD at Help AG. “Also, because we will be using this technology ourselves, we will be capable of providing an unmatched level of expertise and support to our customer base .” Bit9’s Connect Partner Program includes a number of Help AG’s existing vendors such as FireEye, Palo Alto Networks, HP,
RSA, and Splunk. Elaborating on this synergy, Stephan says, “This was a factor in our strategic decision to partner with Bit9 as combining best-in-class technologies to deliver comprehensive IT security solutions is a core principle of our business. We are keen on growing this partnership to benefit the enterprise businesses that choose our security
services and systems integration offerings.” Jessica Couto, Director, World Wide Channel Sales, Bit9 + Carbon Black, said: “We look forward to the extensive range of opportunities that this partnership will bring, and we believe that this joint venture will allow us to foster stronger relations with key custom-ers across various sectors.”
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18 AUGUST 2015
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GEC AWARDSG L O B A L E N T E R P R I S E C O N N E C T
2015
FOR DETAILS V IS IT WWW.GECOPEN.COM
FOLLOW US: www.enterprisechannelsmea.comGec Open GECOpen Enterprise Channels MEA
Contact: Ronak Samantaray <[email protected]> + 971 555 120490
15th October 2015
Raffles Dubai, Wafi Mall
7:00 pm onwards
GLOBALENTERPRISECONNECT
B R O U G H T B Y O R G A N I S E D B Y
We at GEC understand the crucial importance of competition, inspiration and recognition. These are
extremely vital to success in any field whatsoever. Hence, just like in 2014, we shall be glad to give away
awards to the ones taking the lead in the ICT revolution across the Middle East region. The best shall be
awarded, and the rest shall definitely be inspired to put up a tougher fight next time.
GET INSPIRED
After a successful three-year collaboration with NetApp, this year marks the fourth consecu-tive year the Sauber F1 Team has worked with the company as a Technical Partner. NetApp provides the Sauber F1 Team a reliable, flexible and uni-fied storage infrastructure for all
IT services involving engineer-ing, business and administration at its headquarter in Hinwil, as well during the Formula One weekends around the globe. In 2007 the Sauber F1 Team and NetApp started working together, building up their partnership in early 2012 when
NetApp became Technical Partner of the Sauber F1 Team. This year NetApp provided the Sauber F1 Team with an upgrade to a system of the FAS8000 series, which delivers signifi-cantly higher performance and an increased storage capacity.Monisha Kaltenborn, Team
Principal, Sauber F1 Team said, “The quality and quantity of the new system doubled our storage capacity as well as tripled our data access performance. We are pleased to continue our successful collaboration and look forward to strengthening our long-term partnership .”
COMPUTING EXPE-RIENCE AT ZENITH
AMD has unveiled the new AMD FirePro S9170 server GPU, the world’s first and fastest 32GB single-GPU server card for DGEMM heavy double-precision workloads. Designed with compute-intensive workflows in mind, the AMD FirePro S9170 server GPU is ideal for data center managers who oversee clusters within academic or government bodies, oil and gas industries, or deep neural network compute cluster development. Sean Burke, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Professional Graphics group said, “The AMD FirePro S9170 server GPU can accelerate com-plex workloads in scientific computing, data analytics, or seismic processing, wielding an industry-leading 32GB of memory. We designed the new offering for supercomputers to achieve massive compute performance while maximiz-ing available power budgets.” “There are some HPC workloads which require as much data as possible to stay resident on the device, and so the 32GB of memory provided by AMD FirePro S9170, the largest available on a single GPU, will enable the acceleration of scientific calculations that were previ-ously impossible,” said Simon McIntosh-Smith, head of the Microelectronics Research Group at the University of Bristol. To address future needs for HPC devel-opment, AMD FireProS9170 server GPU supports the latest version of OpenCL while ready for the OpenMP and OpenACC developer tools with planned availability in Q3 2015.
STORAGE THAT MATCHES THE SPEED
Growing with the PartnersChannel partners now have new ways to drive revenue and strengthen client relationships with Xerox’s Personalized Application Builder and enhanced Global Partner Program. “We’re bringing solutions and services to our channel partners with speed and efficiency so they can capture a piece of the significant SMB document management market opportunity,” said Chris Govier, General Manager, Middle East Operations, Xerox. “Our mission is to help partners expand their profitable revenue by con-necting Xerox technology and services to their unique solutions so they can help their customers simplify everyday business processes.” Available for partners in the US, Europe and
across developing markets including UAE, the Personalized Application Builder is a set of tools, training and marketing resources that enables partners to personalize solutions to meet their customers’ unique requirements – and then differentiate themselves by branding the solution under their own name. “With Xerox’s Application Builder program we can increase our value to existing clients and gain new customers by delivering personalized solu-tions,” said Gunnar Fransson, CEO, xllnc. “The applications help us achieve credibility as an IT and MPS provider, allowing us to secure a larger share of our customers’ IT budget.”
‘ALL EYES ON THE CFOS’With oil prices slowly recovering from the dramatic fall last summer which forced global organizations to put multi-million dollar projects on ice, ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) has detailed the key areas in which chief financial officers (CFOs) work-ing in the sector can galvanize the finance function in the fight to future-proof their business in an ever more volatile market. Speaking on the report, Jamie Lyon, the author and ACCA’s head of corporate sector says, “We have all seen the impact of volatility in the market hitting the cost base and impacting capital expenditures over the last year or so. The big question now is how low and how long the oil price will remain at present levels.” “Corporate reporting challenges are also a key test for CFOs, particularly in relation to asset impairment and stranded assets” Lyon says.
FORTINET TO DELIVER MORE WITH MERUFortinet has closed the acquisition of Meru Networks. With this, Fortinet expands on its secure wireless vision and enterprise growth focus, broadens the company’s solutions portfolio, and expands its oppor-tunity to uniquely address the $5B global enterprise Wi-Fi market with integrated and intelligent secure wireless solutions.The addition of Meru’s intelligent Wi-Fi solutions to the Fortinet portfolio extends the delivery of a secure, uninterrupted user experience – anytime anywhere – providing peak performance in environments requiring high capacity load and a high-density of wireless users, such as enterprise, education, healthcare, and hospitality. Fortinet and Meru customers will benefit from Fortinet’s commitment to providing secure, uninterrupted connectivity for their highly mobile end-users, while offering channel partners a broader solutions portfolio to take to market.
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n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >
Payment Successful!With that smartphone in your hand, your PoSS (point of shopping and point of sale) is on a single device. The era of mWallet has proliferated the popularity and need of next-gen mobile capabilities like NFC and mobile payment apps, which has created a unique marketplace for technology vendors and retailers alike to explore and exploit the mobile technology that is revolutionizing the retail industry and make way for the mobile currency.
Smartphone penetration in countries like UAE is hovering at nearly 75% and broadband penetration expected to hit 100% anytime soon. With this statistics
in hand, it is not surprising to see why a big chunk of retailers and billers from the region have deployed a mobile optimized website. According a study published by Global Card Processing, the top 3 global challenges in mobile payment are directly related to the front-end consumer experience; mobile checkouts, biometrics and the cross-platform solutions available in the market. The payment processing arena has shifted significantly of late, driven by demand for more intuitive, efficient, seamless and modern capabili-ties among retailers.
“One of the major trends in the market has been the birth and rapid coming-of-age within mobile point of sale, as consum-ers and corporate purchasers alike are showing their willing-ness and desires to use tablets, smartphones and other gadgets to complete transactions”, says Marcelle Malhab, Business Development Manager – MEA B2B, LG Electronics Gulf.
OMA Emirates has introduced the ‘Mobile Solutions’ -one of the industry’s first audio-jack and Bluetooth based NFC/contactless mobile card acceptance solution. “It is a future-proof solution for contactless payment acceptance by providing support for both magnetic stripe, con-tactless and EMV cards, and is fully compatible with any Mobile Solutions mCommerce platform including the mPOS application, management portals and gateway to instantly accept all of the
Optimus mobile payment solutions go beyond traditional mobile wallets, offering powerful system architecture that is intuitive, responsive, agile, all without compromising on security. The solution is specifically developed using high-integrity development processes that are typically used for security-critical applications, with enhanced encryption technology, faster real-time payment authorization, transaction monitor-ing, offering rapid deployment, scalability and interoperability” says Meera.
Software AG is penetrating this aspect of the market through WebMethodsMobile, a highly integrated solution designed to effectively enhance an organization’s payment system.“Our solution also dramatically mobilizes busi-
nesses’ SAP solution by strengthening the value chain, mitigat-ing cost, saving time, implementing relevant mobile applications and enabling SAP business suite functionalities and processes in mobiles phones.”says Rami Kichli, VP, Software AG, Gulf & Levant.
The mobile payment market is estimated to reach $142 billion by 2019, according to Forrester research. For retailers, the convergence of smartphone and the technology surrounding them cannot go unnoticed. Hacking has hindered customer adoption of mobile pay-ments till late but increased innovations in NFC have highly nourished the tokenization facility and security measures like biometric authen-tication have rendered mobile payments more secure. So, the battle field is open for the retail players—it is time to make the right partnerships in secure solutions and take the mobile payment industry by storm. ë
latest NFC payment methods”, says Niranj Sangal, Group CEO, OMA Emirates – Solution Gulf.
Renjan George, MD of DVCOM Technology states that utility and Online Shopping Compa-nies have created their own mobile applications enabling users to make quick payment through the mobile applications conveniently. “We provide OpenSource solutions, which allow technology partners to build their own solutions on top of it to complement their businesses and revolutionise the mobile payment capabilities”, adds Renjan. 3iInfotech has an inbuilt API which helps build a bridge between the external vendors and the internal database. “This tool can connect employees to any banks as and when required. API interacts with the database information of
the banks and customers but remains a fully secured platform reducing the safety risk to staff and recipients.”saysMr. Ashish Dass, President -EMEA, 3iInfotech.
Meera Kaul, CEO of Optimus says that the much-hyped mobile wallets, and the mobile POS payment solutions are just some of the ways in which mobile technology is revolutionizing the retail payment landscape. In fact, digital wallets are mere extensions of traditional credit and debit card services, with a reliance on intermediaries to process transactions. “We use the current mobile payment techniques accepted in the region. The
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ENTERPRISE APPS
With a coach full of experts on board, we take a journey through the Retail Kingdom. From Barter systems to Beacon systems,
the industry has seen, lived, and accepted all the dynamics of trends and technology to reach a predictedUS$ 284.5 billion milestone. A close look at the tech vendors, disties and apparatuses fuelling the journey and nourishing the kingdom and what they have in store for the future.
ROUTE OF RETAIL “Perhaps the most prominent trend in the retail sector in the last few years has been the dramatic increase in the popularity and usage of eCom-merce. This is a trend that is driven by conve-
nience.” saysPradeesh VS, GM of ESET Middle East. “The factors that have facilitated its growth however can be listed as rise in the number of devices connected to the internet, better and faster internet connectivity, wider availability and usage of credit cards and payment channels that are vital to online trade, and of course the resur-gence in the economy. The retail industry is one that has constantly evolved from single product outlets to departmental stores. “The recent evolu-tion witnesses an effective usage of marketing and technology combined to enhance the shopping experience making it unique for the shopper by the retailers. Technology and online marketing promotions of brands, products and services etc. paved the way for retailers to extend Online Shopping Portals and e- Commerce sites to the
n B Y : A N U S H R E E < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M > n P H O T O : S H U T T E R S T O C K
Baby boomers to Gen Y, the retail has been such an industry that has been travelling in parallel with the generations. Modernism is a term that defines it across the generations. But fact of the matter is that a plethora of challenges always tailbacks the retail sector in rising above the customer expectations, blame it on the ever evolving customer/consumer behaviour, ppp, or the advent of various smart technologies that have been determining the demands of the consumers for advanced personalization, single transaction platform, omni-channel experience etc. So where is the retail sector heading to?
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE RETAIL AND DISTRIBUTION
SECTOR
The Ageless Industry
COVER STORY
22 AUGUST 2015
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COVER STORY
homes empowering the users to shop online any product or service needed.” saysRenjan George, Managing Director of DVCOM Technology. Mr. Rami Kichli, Vice President, Software AG, Gulf & Levant believes that the market is now heading towards the large box market concept in order to adapt to the dynamic and changing tastes, demands and habits of consumers. “These changes are always creating new market gaps that provide a wealth of opportunities for retail businesses. Aside from these trends, e-commerce will also greatly shape and influence the retail industry, opening a new dimension within the sector which offers huge potential. The retail market in the Gulf region, and in Saudi Arabia in particular, still remains largely untapped and is ripe for a flourishing new era.
Smart payments and online payments are the tools that changed the entire landscape of e-commerce. As MeeraKaul, CEO of Optimus says, “The proliferation for state-of-the-art pay-ment gateways has been necessitated by a growing demand for e-commerce and mobile-commerce, as well as encouraged by the government, for example in a country like UAE.”.
APPEASING THE CUS-TOMER APPETITE‘Going to store’ seems like a statement echoing from the past. In the present day, the store comes to you or you carry the store wherever you go. The store in your hand is also getting improvised daily with retailers trying to personalize the store as much as possible. As Gregg Petersen,
MEA23AUGUST 2015
COVER STORY
MEA23AUGUST 2015
RENJAN GEORGE, MANAG-ING DIRECTOR OF DVCOM TECHNOLOGY
“Big Data is the way to make bigger decisions in improving customer satisfaction by listening to their aspirations and demands”
GREGG PETERSEN,REGIONAL DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST AND SAARC, VEEAM SOFTWARE
“So far we have only seen the beginning. The new reality requires a robust IT infrastructure, and the retail industry needs to adapt to this or perish.”
MR.AMANULLA KHAN,DIRECTOR-MEA OF BELKIN INTERNATIONAL
“The near future holds vendors investing in category management to help retailers plan, decide and use their shelf space to drive most profitabil-ity. ”
n 3i Infotech solutions help maintain the zero
inventory feature which is favoured by the digital
retail market. ORION iGo, our mobility application
is facilitated to enhance the customer reach and
reduce revenue losses. 3i Infotech’s ORION 11j
offers connectivity and integration with most of
the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook
and Yammer.
n DVCOM: As a Value Added Distributor, we con-
stantly evolve and deliver voice communication
based solution and services catering to the retail
sector providing them with a state-of-the-art next
generation OpenSource based IP Telephony, Call
Centre, IVRs and more complimenting solutions
to enhance their businesses.
n LG: From the store front to the point of sale,
LG retail signage solutions can enhance the cus-
tomer experience while improving ROI. To cater to
the evolving market, LG has developed a public
display network that replaces traditional static
signage to give retailers better content manage-
ment control. We also provide incomparable cus-
tomer service. Our vertical market managers and
application engineers customize effective and
scalable digital signage solution tailored to our
customer’s specific needs.
n The OMA ‘RETAIL SUITE’ provides technology
to retailers using any CRM with customer data and
linking its services and providing a mobile friendly
application to work around it by using social
media. Mobile Solutions’ one of the industry’s first
audio-jack and Bluetooth based NFC/contactless
mobile card acceptance solution which supports
Apple Pay, MasterCard contactless and Visa pay-
Wave using Ingenico devices
n Optimus data analytics offering for retail pro-
vides exactly this – data gathered across multiple
touch points & interaction points, is structured,
integrated and analyzed to unlock insights sur-
rounding consumer behavior to tailor messaging
and marketing, leading to increased customer
conversion rates, enhanced customer retention,
and improved customer loyalty.
n Software AG’s CEM Solution delivers action-
able information by capturing customer activity
across channels to engage each individual at the
right time, through the right channel with a rel-
evant interaction. This is particularly beneficial for
retailers, as it allows businesses to implement a
more comprehensive digital marketing strategy
by coupling customer-defined preferences and
past transactions (e.g., historical data) with cur-
rent information such as location, weather, traffic
and social media (e.g., real-time big data)
KEY SOLUTIONS AT A GLANCE
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MANISH BHARDWAJ, SR. MARKETING MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST & TURKEY AT ARUBA NETWORKS
“Until recently, technol-ogy hasn’t kept pace with these crucial arms of the retail business. That’s changing with advances in location-based technology.”
Aruba Meridian-powered mobile apps and location capabilities give customers a unique and memo-
rable shopping experience wherever they happen to be – at home, in the store and anywhere in
between. The new platform enables retailers’ marketing and IT departments to partner more effectively
resulting in increased customer loyalty, satisfaction and revenue.
Reliable guest Wi-Fi that’s always on
Aruba’s answer to the mobile engagement challenge starts with an ultra-fast, highly scalable Wi-Fi
infrastructure and ClearPass Guest capabilities, which securely connect visitors to the network via
a browser-based portal. The Wi-Fi network remembers opted-in guests during future visits, and the
one-time registration process provides context around each user’s unique identity, what devices they
use, and their specific interests.
Meridian content management
In addition to delivering the back-end technology for guest mobile engagement, the Meridian platform
includes the Meridian Editor content management system, which gives venues a quick and simple
way to create and improve their own customized mobile apps. A highly visual, cloud-based content
management system, the Meridian Editor makes it easy to enter location-specific information like
places of interest on a map, directions, onsite events, and services.
Aruba Location Services powered by Aruba Beacons
Identify a visitor’s location at a venue and work with Meridian-powered mobile apps to deliver many
location-aware services to guest mobile devices.
THE ARUBA SOLUTIONS
Regional Director, Middle East and SAARC, Veeam Software aptly puts it across, “Always on, always available” – This is what is required of retailers today.” Digitalisation of the retail space has increased the sales market, offering us the opportunity to personalise products and services.
Needless to say, it is also equally important to keep an eye on all the channels. As consumers today are research savvy, the retailers need to create an ultimate omni-channel experience that would keep them engaged. “The impact of anywhere, anytime access to the Internet can have a considerable and lucrative impact on retail outlets. Inspired by these technology-enabled consumers, retailers are offering mobile apps to engage with customers.”says Manish Bhardwaj, Sr. Marketing Manager, Middle East & Turkey at Aruba Networks. He asserts that the first wave of enterprise mobile apps generally failed to take advantage of technologies that personalized the experience of consumers based on who and where they are. Niranj Sangal, Group CEO, OMA Emirates – Solution Gulf says, “We at OMA Emirates have been working on solutions to empower retail outlets to use customer data with their preferences and enhance it with services like m-commerce, Loyalty and other value added services using social media.”
Voice sales channel is also one of the key facets of the retail industry. DVCOM is ideally contributing to that field with their mobility in telephony. “Mobility in telephony is one of the key component in reaching out to consumers at a large scale impressing them on the products, offers, new launches and special deals in the market right just in time when needed.” Says Renjan. Software AG is addressing the increasing demand for this new platform by offering smart signage that has been developed with advanced features. Software AG’s product features a component that responds to viewing audiences by showing the right ad or offers the right service to the right demographic at the right time and adjusting the playlists and content. “Such a feature will ensure that businesses communicate their message and present their product in the most efficient manner.”says Rami. “The essence of our omni-channel retailing solution is the ability to harmoniously link the digital and physical selling environments affording customers the best choices for their lifestyle.” says MeeraKaul.
CONTENT ON THE GO…. As the saying goes ‘Content is the King’…… so the retail kingdom needs to make necessary provisions to ensure the glory of the king. Digitalisation of the retail space has increased the sales market, offering us the opportunity to
PRADEESH VS, GENERAL MAN-AGER AT ESET MIDDLE EAST
“While through our online store, we are capable of delivering an assured quality of service, we need to be confident that customers who visit brick and mortar outlets also receive the same level of quality and commitment.”
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MEA25AUGUST 2015
personalise products and services. “Customers can browse through products and compare them with competitive products; in line with the market trend we offer personalised buying experience to customer through the digital platform. We interact with customers on social media allowing them a space to offer their feedback and watch videos demonstrating the features, benefits, management and setting up of our solutions.” Content is such an avenue that needs to be added in all the right proportion. As Renjan says, “Content curation must be reformed by providing discerning information to ease the decision making process of the consumer.”
According to Meera,from a Retailers perspective, Content Curation is the step before Thought Leadership. “While the latter requires considerable investment in resources and time to create unique content, Curation is the process of republishing existing content within a niche space to engage with customers, often with a simple additional input on part of the retailer.” Curation strategy, that is aligned with their target
COUNTRY-WISE CONTRIBUTION TO GCC RETAIL MARKET
Source: Alpen Capital
2010 2013 E2011 E 2015 E
10 %
08 %
06 %
04 %
02 %
0 %Saudi Arabia UAE Qatar Kuwait Oman Bahrain
9.4%
7.7%6.8%
7.9%
6.8%4.4%
MR. ASHISH DASS, PRESIDENT -EMEA, 3I INFOTECH LTD
“3i Infotech solutions help maintain the zero inventory feature which is favoured by the digital retail market. These are the features that the retail industry is looking to adopt.”
NIRANJ SANGAL, GROUP CEO, OMA EMIRATES – SOLUTION GULF
“OMA Emirates’ belief is that data must be trans-formed into customer insights and followed up by action.”
MARCELLE MALHAB, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER – MEA B2B, LG ELECTRONICS GULF
“One of the major trends in the market has been the birth and rapid coming-of-age within mobile point of sale….”
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THE BLOCK Emerging technologies are rewriting the retail rules. POS evolution, wearables, iBeacons and augmented reality are some of the technologies all set to change the retail landscape. “Wearables, smart countertops and facial scanning are just some of the technologies that retailers should be looking at implementing in their stores over the next few years. We see our contribution in almost all but specifically in digital signage we foresee a drastic change”,saysMarcelle. At LG, retail is considered a major leading vertical for digital signage and certain brands are considering digital signage as an essential standard in all their shops. “We believe that the GCC is still an untapped market for these products. In terms of verticals, retail stores are one of the key drivers of the digital signage business. This is due to bundled solutions facility they can offer. Resellers have the opportunity to bundle solutions, accessories, and services on our high resolution and engaging LG
why it is essential to invest in partner recruitment and training. And it is definitely beneficial to have a VAD that is capable of delivering the support needed to ensure this.”
“The roles within the channel in recent times have integrated. The integration and overlap in roles have helped the channel partners to work together to produce better results” saysAmanulla Khan. Renjan says, “We communicate with our partners/customers on the channels they prefer. We conduct continuous partner engagement programmes both internal and at places outside to share new technologies and brands launched.”
OMA Emirates has launched the OMA Retail Suite that provides retailers with customer insights. “The Software AG Digital Business Platform allows users to implement integrated requirements and real-time applications”, says Rami. Optimus provides a platform driven innovative solution for Retail to ensure the cross-channel optimized experience for customers. The digital store platform basically provides the framework to dock all solutions into one single platform, from point of sale, to flexible buy and return anywhere functionality, baskets, appoint-ments, endless aisles, payments etc.
THE GROWING KIDS ON
audience, & business needs, whether it is driving higher sales, demonstrating expertise, making contacts with influencers, or brand building.”
“This trend provides a wealth of opportunities for retailers who can utilize this platform to har-ness the collective weight of the curated content to help their brands gain a wider reach.”he says.
According to Alpen Capital Report, the GCC markets have also shown a healthy appetite in the luxury retail sector with the segment expected to grow to US$ 9.4 billion in sales by 2018. Airport duty free sales are expected to touch US$ 6.6 billion in 2018 based on the high passenger traffic in the region. Additionally large scale regional events such as FIFA World Cup 2020 in Qatar and EXPO 2020 in Dubai will boost the sector.
SWIMMING THROUGH THE CHANNELSThe inherent pattern of customer’s decision-mak-ing process navigates across multiple channels. Pradeesh says, “As a vendor, we understand that having the right channel eco-system is a vital factor to this. While through our online store, we are capable of delivering an assured quality of service, we need to be confident that customers who visit brick and mortar outlets also receive the same level of quality and commitment. This is
THE VEEAM ADVICE
FOLLOW THE 3-2-1 RULE
BRIDGING THE AVAILABILITY GAP
82% of CIOs say there
is a gap between the level of availability they provide and
what end users demand.Veeam bridges this gap by providing custom-ers a new kind of solution - Availability
for the Modern Data Center which deliv-ers Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs)
and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) of less than 15 minutes
for all applications and data.
PRACTICE INCREASING SPEED OF RECOVERY
An ideal recovery target
should be less than 15 min-
utes for all applications, without
compromising quality and functional-
ity. To be risk-aware and engage in
proactive surveillance is not enough.
You have to practice increasing speed
of recovery in a production-like
test environment.
Doing backups without
regular testing of data
recovery is a waste of both time
and resources. Introduce tests
that show that all IT platforms work
as they should. It is also important
that company employees know the
procedures that apply in the event
of a shutdown and subsequent
recovery.
TEST RECOVERY
For a comprehensive data
protection, organizations should
have three copies of the data, stored
on two different kinds of media, with
one of them stored offsite. This is a
simple and reliable solution to keep
the data intact.
The UAE's retail market continues to grow steadily with retail space growing by
7 percent in 2014 to reach
1.6 million square meters and sales growing
6 percent to $70.9 billion.
COVER STORY
MEA27AUGUST 2015
screens and help to up sell and make more profit in their total proposal. “she adds.
OMA Emirates has been working with its solution on POS for over two decades and has been associated with top vendors worldwide. OMA Emirates and Ingenico have partnered in the region for over a decade, and provides cutting edge POS based solutions to this market. Today POS has changed the perception of being used not just for payments but increases the number of services which can be enabled on the same POS for e.g. Utilities payment, Government fees, Value Added service (e-remittance, E-voucher, MPOS, Loyalty etc.). “In the past OMA Emirates’ started its contribution keeping Retail industry in mind where a POS was connected to an ECR machine and an integration was done to ease long queues and easy reconciliation and today loyalty and other services are introduced to make sure more revenue is generated for the retailers. OMA Emir-ates has been constantly increasing the services and the new Retail Suite that we have introduced adds value and enables retailers work with
with e-commerce/M-commerce. “says Niranj. In 2013, Software AG had already showcased
Smart FactoryKL’s Augmented Manufacturing which piqued the interest of many visitors. Aug-mented Manufacturing from SmartFactoryKL features a context-sensitive work area that guides an individual, with the help of augmented reality, through complicated production processes. The system, in combination with the ARIS Mash-Zone, runs as an app on tablets and provides innovative and state-of-the-art support for work-ers in the assembly industry. “We at Software AG look forward to developing a specialized roster of products and services in the field of wearable devices and augmented reality. Wearable devices and the Internet of Things are already being integrated to diverse areas of everyday life, and explorations into a wide range of applications are just scratching the surface. This trend holds great potential and possibilities that may lead to real-time personalized services for every person on the planet. Businesses need to understand the value of collecting and mining the vast amount of data available to identify opportunities in time and before their competitors. “says Rami.
Ashish of 3iInfotech says that Cloud comput-ing is an inevitable step to achieve Augmented Reality. Information on cloud also facilitates wearable computing. Since we are already provid-ing cloud based applications, this gives us an edge to develop expertise in Augmented Reality and Wearables.
Wearable devices will generate 5% of sales for the Global 1000 by 2020
FINALLY… A small glimpse into the future tells us that mobile and digital payments are all set to con-sume the majority of the retail transaction space. Integrated cloud based solutions, omnichannel retailing, predictive and intuitive technology will bridge global trends and consumer behaviour. The near future holds vendors investing in category management to help retailers plan, decide and use their shelf space to drive most profitability. With the importance and depen-dency on digitalisation, E-tail is a market that should be considered. Working with an aggres-sive plan of action, e-tailers would be a segment to be included into business plans. The ability of getting information on a single click will be a trend that catches on among shoppers especially with the ability to reserve products online and to be picked up in-store. In-store trip planners will ease the process of the customer visit further as well. With the pace with which technology is changing the retail landscape, the US$ 284.5 billion milestone is just at the doorstep. ë
Information Management, bringing in the use of social media and finally empowering retailers
THE LG PROPHECYn The bezel to bezel size of video walls is expected to go slimmern Below 32” digital signage is expected to find its way in the marketn Outdoor LED Panels are expected to be more advanced and have the capability to accommodate this region’s conditionsn Major manufacturers are adopting the LED Matrix (pitch) technology and add it to their SKUsn Software companies will focus more on interactive solutionsn Cloud based solutions will find its way into the market
MR. RAMI KICHLI, VICE PRESI-DENT, SOFTWARE AG, GULF & LEVANT
“Cross-channel harmo-nization of processes and the provision of relevant information in real time are becoming the integral components of a strong retail business with an eye to the future.”
MEERA KAUL, CEO, OPTIMUS
“With the region poised to be a watershed for e-commerce, our solu-tion offering for retail allows for this ubiquitous customer, providing integrated platforms and modules for a flawless customer experience.”
COVER STORY
28 AUGUST 2015
MEA
n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >
The BIG trend in retail: Cherish or perishBig data is not a new terminology for the retail, only the exploitation of it has been rampant in this decade. It has been evident that retailers who leverage their big data are in better shape to come up with more customer rewarding and customer preferred products and are better positioned to understand the market dynamics.
The new-gen customers, whom I would fondly like to address as the ‘TechieTricky’ customers, are not easy to satiate. The retail is no more a ‘sell and forget’ business.
A mere sign board that reads ‘See you again’ is definitely not enough to bring back a customer to your doorstep. The days of one shop per corner has diminished from the face of earth long ago and now in order to connect and have a deeper understanding of the customer demands and choices—Big data is the true catalyst.
According to Mr. Ashish Dass, President -EMEA, 3iInfotech, effective analysis of large volume and variety of customer data helps retail-ers gain a deeper, encompassing understanding of each customer to create a smarter shopping experience. The sources of the large data can vary from POS systems, online transactions, loyalty management programs etc. “Retailers can penetrate into the customer preferences, get a deep insight of the shopping patterns and achieve precise customer segmentation. This enables them to devise highly poised and effective promotion management schemes.”says Ashish.
“Retail Time Experience Tracking system is taking Big Data to another level in the retail sector”,opinesMr.Amanulla Khan, Director-MEA of Belkin. Renjan George, Managing Director of DVCOM Technology says that initiatives like customer loyalty and engagement programmes collects lot of data for retailers to impress them more on their forthcoming brands, stores, offers, etc.
At Optimus, the belief is that analytics can help guide competitive pricing, new product lines, promotions and deals, enhance product manage-
deliver tailored and seamless brand experiences to consumers, across channels – online, physical store & mobile – to eventually drive enterprise-wide profitable growth”, says MeeraKaul, CEO of Optimus. .
Software AG’s CEM Solution delivers action-able information by capturing customer activity across channels to engage each individual at the right time, through the right channel with a relevant interaction.Mr. Rami Kichli, VP, Soft-ware AG, Gulf & Levant believes that Big Data helps analyze customer activities in order to gain insights on trends in consumer demands, tastes and interests and enable companies to design and develop their services and customer interactions to meet the client’s desired objectives and foster satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.
Big Data plays a huge role in customizing marketing messages to target customers in a more efficient and effective manner. “This is particularly beneficial for retailers, as it allows businesses to implement a more comprehensive digital marketing strategy by coupling customer-defined preferences and past transactions with current information and push relevant offers, creating instant promotions, and building marketing campaigns. Using a set of customizable smart tools, the CEM Solution Accelerator allows retailers to create, manage and execute smarter campaigns through any channel.”says Rami
So building brands with Big data doesn’t sound as a choice anymore, right? It is the need of the hour. For forward thinking organizations, big data is the biggest tool to taste success and prog-ress in this immensely competitive market. The stage is set… it is time to unleash the advanced analytics on big data. ë
marketing endeavors of a retailer.“At Optimus, we are ready with a Big Data product and solution portfolio to enable retailers to optimally extract the maximum value from their data capture. “Our solution helps manage data to build a holistic, 360 profile of the consumer, with analytical tools and mathematical models that help marketers to
ment as per seasonal retail needs, target products to customers, enable strategic content curation, and even help curate shopping experiences in-line with customer tastes and preferences. Basically, Data, that has been analyzed to arrive at key findings and insights can help guide all
MEA29AUGUST 2015
BIG DATA
Glimpses of the beautiful evening
GEC IFTAR
30 AUGUST 2015
MEA
GLOBAL ENTERPRISE CONNECT IFTAR 2015AT THE ARMANI HOTEL, DUBAI
Glimpses of the beautiful evening
MEA31AUGUST 2015
FARID FAROUQ,HEAD OF IT AT DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE
WHEN WE HEAR THE WORD DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE (DWTC) IMAGES OF
EXHIBITIONS, BUSY HALLS, COUNTLESS FOOTPRINTS OF EXHIBITORS AND VISITORS
FLASH ACROSS OUR MINDS. IT IS NOT EVERY DAY THAT YOU HAVE A CANDID
TALK WITH A MASTER MANAGEMENT MIND BEHIND ALL THE SYNCHRONIZED
OPERATIONS OF THE WORLD CLASS EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS. ANUSHREE DIXIT
OF EC MEA IN CONVERSATION WITH FARID FAROUQ, HEAD OF IT AT DUBAI WORLD
TRADE CENTRE ON HIS ROLE AS THE CHARIOTEER OF IT OPERATIONS AT AN
ORGANIZATION THAT STANDS AS AN EPITOME OF TRADE AND COMMERCE.
Harnessing the Reigns of IT for Spell bounding Spectacles
32 AUGUST 2015
MEA
MY VIEWS
DWTC fortifying its security gates?When people used PCs mounted on a stand, the risk was minimum. As technology advances, so does the risk. Our exhibitors and visitors come with a large number of smart devices that are connected to our networks. At this moment, our prime concern is to ensure their security. First we understand the various applications that the exhibitors or visitors use, browse or connect to and then we make sure we have the right solu-tions in place to protect them. Security is always listed on the top in our strategic projects here at DWTC and we take it very seriously.
And does DWTC have its own BYOD policy in place?All visitors and exhibitors bring their own device. We don’t have a choice there. But yes, we do have set policies for that as well. No matter how many people connect to our system— our network would not be hampered.
What are your views on cloud adoption? Public, private or hybrid—
which one do you vouch for and why?For me, cloud is a gateway to achieve my organisations objectives. We are in an era where our choices are numerous but before making the choice, one must understand the objective of the business and what the business needs. As IT heads, we scrutinize which of the available solutions will add value to the business. If cloud gives value to my business, I will go for it. It all depends on the nature ofdata I am hosting on it. There is no one- size- fits- all solution for that. The way data is treated depends onthe organisation’s business model, mind-set and management.
How open are you to the idea of entrusting parts of your operations to a third party service provider under the managed services model? Entrusting your business to a third party is
always an option that can be considered. Again, it depends on whether it would add value to my business. We don’t look at it just as a cost saving strategy. It is about adding value to the organisa-tion. Against the widespread belief of the CIOs existence being at stake, I am of the belief that our existence is ALWAYS at stake …but we have to evolve ourselves. We will be able to protect ourselves only by evolving. Change is happening around us;we either reject or accept it. Evolution is the key to success.
What’s your strategy of choosing your technology providers or partners? Is it big brands all the way? What determines your selection- brand legacy or innovative technology (irrespective of where it comes from)?While choosing partners, we look for an organisation that will support us in achieving our business objectives and one that will provide long term sustainability. Many big brands are our partners, but it is not only big brands all the
way. Sometimes, some big brands don’t evolve with time but for small companies—evolution is the key to sustenance. We are open to and work with smaller organisations as well. Innovation is the most important criteria for us in today’s time. Risks are involved in every partnership but that doesn’t stop us from venturing into them.
What has been your approach to digital transformation? What would you call yourself as- digital resistor, digital explorer, digital player, digital transformer or digital disruptor? I think our exhibitors should answer this (He smiles). I believe that being an IT head; you don’t fit into any one terminology. Whenever there is a new technology, you have to be an explorer; whenever change is needed you have to be a transformer. Your role changes with the circumstances; but the journey towards a smarter world stays constant. ë
You have been commanding the regime of IT for over 2 decades now. How do you perceive the evolution?IT once used to be an altogether different compo-nent of an organisation. IT used to get involved in developing key applications; you had your own data centre to host your data and everything was hosted internally. It was not only an IT house but a development centre as well. Flash forward to the present day— the scenario has changed radically. Today we see a lot of reliance on ready-made applications and a gradual shift from internal development. The evolution has been further fuelled by the ‘Cloud’—you no more need to host your applications and it has also minimised the toil that goes into implementation. The expertise that the IT department needs today is very differ-ent from the expertise needed 20 years ago.
How has the relationship between CIOs and technology/solution providers evolved with this change? CIOs are getting closer and closer to technology vendors as we are relying on their solutions;key mission critical applications are also outsourced from external vendors. So we look forward to work with vendors with whom we can establish partnerships as well rather than making it a one or two transactions or an open and shut deal. The concept of partnership has evolved; it is not just an agreement on a piece of paper or a mere contract anymore.
What is your definition of smart enterprise at DWTC?Our definition of smart enterprise is ensuring the utmost satisfaction for our exhibitors and visitors. We host a great number of mega events annually such as GITEX Technology Week, Gulf food etc…. welcoming over 2.45 million visitors a year. All the exhibitors use some or the other smart technology to exhibit their products or to make demonstrations, regardless of the event being IT or non-IT. Our responsibility is to ensure that exhibitors achieve the standards that they expect from us and ensure smooth demonstrations. We provide them the connectivity and support to put up a great show all year round. Technology also penetrates in various other areas where we need to guide visitors to their respective exhibition areas or halls. In line with the expectations of the exhibitors, visitors and the technology we are improving greatly YoY.
Playing host to such mega events round the year is an uphill task—especially in terms of ensuring security. In the wave of IoT, how is
“OUR DEFINITION OF SMART ENTERPRISE IS— ENSURING THE UTMOST SATISFACTION OF OUR EXHIBITORS AND VISITORS”
MEA33AUGUST 2015
MY VIEWS
Going to the office? BYO Apple Watch
ARUBA NETWORKS
n W O R D S : MANISH BHARDWAJ , S R M A R K E T I N G M A N A G E R , A R U B A N E T W O R K S , A N H P
C O M PA N Y
“Gorgeous”. “Beautiful”. “Actually useful”. “Epic”. The accolades from the reviewers of the Apple Watch keep pouring in, and the new device – though not the first of its kind in the market – holds the potential of becoming as ubiquitous as the iPhone or the iPod.
However, the expected popular-ity of the Apple Watch raises interesting challenges for CIOs and IT managers. The Apple Watch is merely a herald of an expected tsunami of BYOD smart devices and Internet-of-Things wearables into the workplace, potentially opening up new risks to corporate data privacy and security.
It’s highly likely that the first Apple Watches in the workplace will be personally owned. Yet, these devices will be able to interact with cor-porate networks; and access, download and store company data. Other wearables (not the current version of the Apple Watch) come with built-in cameras. In fact, one of the more interesting features of the Apple Watch is the ability to tether to, and control, iPhones over a remote connection.
IT departments will be understandably worried about the impact of the Apple Watch on the workplace. Even though many
organisations have already adopted BYOD policies, several new conundrums will pop up.
At the very top of the list: is it appropriate to allow wearable devices to connect to enterprise networks? What if the device is already tethered to a smartphone that has already been given access?
Bear in mind that, according to a study by Aruba Networks, the new generation of employees – dubbed #GenMobile – expect mobility
at the workplace to be a given, so any blanket decision to ban such devices from the workplace will be highly unpopular. In fact, almost two thirds of study respondents say they use mobile devices to
help them manage their work and personal lives better.
If the decision is made to accept Apple Watches and other wearables into the organisation, will existing BYOD policies that govern the use of corporate data be enough- will new policies be required?
When tinkering with these policies, CIOs have to keep in mind the fact that there will be other IoT-based devices coming along that could be embedded into an
employee’s clothing or even office pantry appliances. In fact, the acronym “BYOD” will soon have to be replaced with “BYOX”, with the “X” symbolizing “practically anything”.
Once policies have been amended appropriately, then - and only then - can CIOs turn their attention to the underlying com-munications network. Many IT organizations have already put in place solutions that can secure any mobile device that connects to cor-porate Wi-Fi; giving them complete visibility of the number, type and frequency of mobile devices assess-ing their network. What’s more, these platforms are also capable
of enforcing flexible security policies that are capable of analysing – and acting on - the context of how an employee uses the mobile device. For instance, an employee using an Apple Watch at a coffee shop to access corporate data may not be granted the same level of access as one who uses a PC during office hours. Depending on the context, different poli-cies can be applied to make sure that the right balance between flexibility and security is met.
Given these considerations, CIOs will need to skilfully juggle the competing require-ments to arrive at an enlight-
ened BYOX policy that is most appropriate to company’s needs. The Apple Watch certainly won’t make that juggling act any easier. But it will certainly make it more beautiful. ë
The launch of the Apple Watch heralds the transformation of BYOD into BYOX. How can businesses accommodate #GenMobile’s adoption of wearables, while still staying in control?
GUEST TALK
34 AUGUST 2015
MEA
Let us show you beyond the horizon with new technologies and features that will power your business.
Join us at the 35th edition of GITEX where we are showcasing the technology of tomorrow and demonstrating the full potential of a smart, connected future, built on the power of the internet. The internet future of everything.
www.gitex.com
Let us show you beyond the horizon with new technologies and features that will power your business.
Join us at the 35th edition of GITEX where we are showcasing the technology of tomorrow and demonstrating the full potential of a smart, connected future, built on the power of the internet. The internet future of everything.
www.gitex.com
n W O R D S : S O U M YA < S O U M YA @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >
MANAGED PRINT SERVICES
Almost 75% of offices print on a daily basis. In such a scenario, MPS comes as a magic tool that saves on time and money. Though a complete transition to a service model might be still far off, it’s needless to say that the exciting journey towards making businesses smooth and sustainable has started and the pace is surely riding an upward curve.
The market is relatively buoyant with 51% of organisations (either already using or planning to use MPS) indicating they plan to increase expenditure on MPS over
the next year (according to the latest reports from Quocirca). Though hardware sales figures might be still high in the Middle East compared to other regions, the transition to a service-based model has surely begun. Many organizations have already looked at the basic MPS to reduce cost and optimize legacy environments. Some markets are more advanced than others; the United Arab Emirates for example has shown to be a strong growth market for MPS, thanks to its political and economic stability. Other markets are on the contrary seeing a rise in MPS, because of the pressure imposed by hardships to better manage budgets.
The benefits of managed print services can be plentiful and profitable, depending on how comprehensive the deployment is, with MPS specialists within the IT channel absolutely key to SME’s realizing these benefits. By entirely outsourcing the management of print infrastruc-ture to channel specialist and vendor provided solutions, companies of any size can reduce over-expenditure on time and money, as well
P In Printing - Pain OR Profit ?
LEADING THE BRIGADEMAGIC QUADRANT FOR MANAGED PRINT AND CONTENT SERVICES
CHALLENGERS
NICHE PLAYERS
LEADERS
VISIONARIES
Xerox
Canon
Ricoh
Kyocera Document Solutions
HP
Konica Minolta
Lexmark
Toshiba
ARC
COMPLETENESS OF VISION
AB
ILIT
Y T
O E
XE
CU
TE
As of November 2014
Source Gartner (November 2014)
FEATURE
36 AUGUST 2015
MEA
as removing headaches such as maintenance issues and worries about downtime, with channel providers ensuring the proper support is provided in a timely fashion. MPS is also flexible, with solutions agile enough to provide functionality on whatever infrastructure your enterprise works on, whether it’s on-premise or cloud.
As a result of the digitization of business processes and content in the enterprise, Quocirca estimates that around 20 per cent of enterprises have moved to next generation contracts that incorporate document workflow and additional services such as MDS (managed document services) and IT services (ITS). The tightly con-tested MPS market is characterised by a cluster of leaders, with Xerox remaining in the lead. Other market leaders are HP, Ricoh, Lexmark and Canon with Lexmark showing strong growth and continued investment in and enhancement of both its MPS and ECM portfolio. Konica Minolta has made significant progress since last year, with strong growth in MPS revenue, which has helped expand its market penetration. (Source- Quocirca 2015)
As such, for channel dealers, industry expertise remains a key differentiator as these providers expand their business process automation capabilities and look to drive more business value.
Understanding what these businesses need is half the battle, and to appeal to SMEs, providers must realize this. “Lexmark has a long tradition and extensive experience of working in the MPS space with its IT channel partners and their customers, from SMEs to large enterprises, benefiting from this”, comments Mathias Militzer, GM, Lexmark Middle East and Africa .
“Xerox is making investments to drive enhanced service performance through predictive analytics and a focus on consistent delivery through integrated back-end platforms. This makes us the leading Managed Print Services provider. With service delivery being a key MPS market driver and a clear differentiator, we continue to strive to raise the bar”, remarks the confident Andrew Horne, General Manager, Xerox Emirates. He adds that they work with the client on agreed expectations and utilize processes which enable end-user satisfaction and accelerate adoption.
Canon Middle East offers managed print services (MPS), a program that gives enterprises full control over their office print devices. The program involves the deployment of a Man-aged Print Services solution that ensures active management and continual optimisation of an organisation’s print infrastructure and related
business processes. KYOCERA Document Solutions offers
Managed Document Services (MDS) rather than Managed Print Services (MPS). Rather than focusing on a company’s print processes alone, KYOCERA MDS looks at an organization’s entire document workflow, addressing not only its printing, but also its copying, scanning, archiving and faxing.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY, HONEY!!Hard copy and electronic documents remain integral to today’s business communication. However, “document production is a significant business expense - costing up to 3% of revenue and according to studies, only 20% of the print costs are visible costs”, Hendrik VerbruggheMarketing Director, Canon Middle East tells us. Many organisations don’t have the time, staff or expertise to effectively monitor or manage their print environment. MPS providers like Canon work with organisations to understand exactly what they are spending on print and where they are spending it. This information can then be used to design a print solution that will cut costs and reduce inefficiencies. “In fact, Canon MPS has already helped customers to
FEATURE
MEA37AUGUST 2015
So MPS is a flexible answer to pressure on OPEX and CAPEX.
PLAYING IT SAFE Since security breaches can damage a brand and result in severe fines, it is protection that pays dividends in the long-term. When asked about the security considerations Canon looks into, Hendrik tells us that a Canon MPS audit will reveal potential improvements to endpoint print security in a company’s infrastructure. Canon can then implement enhancements so the company can keep information away from those not authorised to see it, as well as achieving regulatory compliance.
Canon’s advanced document management software systems such as uniFLOW which are part of the Canon MPS offering address several security concerns with features such as hard disk encryption, secure password printing, hard disk removal and scanner locks. For instance, with Universal Login Manager (ULM) solution deliv-ers convenient user authentication through prox-imity cards or picture logins. The Xerox approach integrates into clients’ existing IT environment and network with minimal disruption, “so MPS becomes a more welcome part of their business”, says Andrew. During the transition from their current state to the ideal future, Xerox helps connect everything to the client’s IT environ-ment in a secure and compliant way. Turning on
MARKET LEADERS
STRONG PERFORMERS
CONTENDERS
Xerox (+)
Canon (+)
Ricoh (+)
Kyocera (+)
HP (+)
Konica Minolta (+)
Lexmark (+)
Toshiba (=)
Other venders
VERRY STRONG
MARKET PRESENCE
LOW
WEAK VERRY STRONG
Customer base*
Completeness of offering
Quocirca MPS vendor positioning
“We are using Nashuatec MPS (local partner-Mannai).Our
main challenges are with remote sites which have very little physical
infrastructure as the MPS software is hosted on a local machine and
if a site does not have regular stable power it
can cause printing issues .MPS brought down
Capex costs and we have a low Opex cost when
acquiring new printers.”
solutions for secure printing from mobile devices and taking over the responsibility of managing the print servers and print queues through Xerox solutions such as ConnectKey along with software partners solutions help protect from SMBs and large enterprise customers.
“Our alliance with Cisco provides cloud-based services and technology solutions that combine intelligent network and print”, Andrew tells us. “It also enables customers to simplify print and network infrastructure management, improve business processes results and reduce overall costs. McAfee embedded Control software use a whitelisting method that allows only approved files to run, offering significantly more protection than traditional black listing tactics, or continu-ally building higher walls around printers.”A variety of secure pull printing solutions is available on the market to enable mobile workers to print their documents securely. KYOCERA Document Solutions offers KYOCERA MyQ. KYOCERA MyQ 4.4 Business Pro edition offers Job Roaming, allowing print jobs to be pulled from any device within the corporate MyQ Cloud, regardless its location. KYOCERA Mobile Print allows users to scan or print securely from a smartphone or tablet PC via a wireless network (iOS and Android). AirPrint allows users to print documents directly from their iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or any kind of Mac. AirPrint works seam-lessly with many Apple apps, including Safari,
MUBARIK HUSSAIN HEAD OF IT, PETROSERV
LIMITED
reduce print-related costs by up to 60%”, remarks Hendrik. “With regular reviews, Canon can ensure that the company’s ROI will be achieved and targets are met now and in the long term”, he adds.
One of the primary outcomes that customers wish for is to reduce cost and improve efficiency, and there are also options to reduce CAPEX and OPEX. Xerox Emirates offers a leasing facility which enables customers to finance the capital cost of equipment if it is required. OPEX is generally reduced as a result of the efficiencies that are introduced as part of an MPS solution.
FEATURE
38 AUGUST 2015
MEA
l Major supplier of A3 MFPs and works with partners to fill the gap in its A4 portfolio.l ECO-MDS” leveraging the Toshiba Carbon Zero Scheme, Managed Energy Services and its ECO-MFP productl Broad range of both proprietary and third party solutions.
WHO SCORES WHERE? (SOURCE- QUOCIRCA) l Broad and mature MPS portfoliol Depth and scale of service offeringl Tight synergy between its document outsourcing and BPO businessesl Strong analytics and reporting capabilities
l Strong end-to-end hardware and software and services portfoliol One of the broadest product ranges in the industry l Only MPS provider that also provides personal systems professional services for HP desktops, laptops, tablets and other mobile devices as a complete end-user workplace services offeringl Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
l Global scalel Unified service and delivery infrastructure l Effective approach to busi-ness process automation
l Acquisitions in the business pro-cess automation spacel One of the broadest MPS and ECM portfolios in the industry l New brand identity l Business process automation capabilities and industry alignment l Mature MPS infrastructure and proactive capabilities
l Mature set of MPS offerings tar-geted at businesses of all sizesl Broad end-to-end hardware and software portfolio l Expansive and loyal partner net-workl Expanding mobile print and cloud services that offer advanced device management
l A company in good health, with both its hardware and services business growing. l IT infrastructure management services are particularly a strong differentiator in the midmarket
l Sustainability, through its long-life ECOSYS technology, which is known for high reliability, low total cost of ownership (TCO) and reduced environ-mental impact. l Strong integration with its hardware and software portfolio
Mail, Photos, iWork and PDFs in iBooks
MAKING A CHOICE & PUT-TING THE BEST FOOT FORWARD Canon’s MPS segment has uniFLOW Secure Printing solution in its portfolio. uniFLOW
allows users to send sensitive documents to any network printer and only print when they are there to collect them. This could be a printer on a different floor, building, city or even in a different country. So everyone can choose when and where they print, safe in the knowledge that their documents remain secure.
“Xerox has the bandwidth and strength to support integration and document security on a global scale”, says Andrew. That’s critical for large enterprises and small businesses alike. Among Xerox’ most competitive & distinct solutions are the Next Generation MPS. With so many mobile workers, and the transient nature of business in
XEROX
RICOH
HPLEXMARK
CANON
KYOCERA DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS
KONICA MINOLTATOSHIBA
FEATURE
MEA39AUGUST 2015
the region, Mobility is increasingly becoming a common request from the market place. In keep-ing with this market feedback, recently Xerox also launched Digital Alternatives. Another competitive print solution is Xerox Mobile Print Solution which empowers today’s mobile users with the freedom to send print jobs from any email-enabled device. As Andrew tells us, it is “simple, convenient and secure”.
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES One of the key drivers in uptake of MPS is the role played in environmental sustainability. Hendrik comments, “Sustainability is one of the core pillars of our organisation, reflecting our corporate philosophy of ‘Kyosei,’ meaning living and working together for the common good. As part of the MPS installation, Canon proactively ensures that an organisation’s printer fleet is managed to be profitable, flexible, as well as reducing the entity’s overall carbon footprint through less printing and lower power consump-tion, therefore helping organisations be more productive and achieve their corporate social
responsibility targets”. Andrew remarks, “Xerox Corporation is one
of the leaders in our focus on environmental sustainability and right from the engineering design to the use of our products in the field there is evidence that we are assisting out customers to reduce their carbon foot print as well as our own”. All Xerox products qualify for “EnergyStar” power saving features to reduce consumption, and within the UAE, Xerox is engaged collecting used toner cartridges for recycling. “In 2015 YTD, over 1000kg of used cartridges have been collected from our customers as part of our local efforts to support the environment”.
SMARTEST SECTORS IN THE REGIONAccording to Gartner, organisations can save up to 30% of print-related costs with effectively man-aged print services. Verticals such as hospitality, banking, finance, medical, oil & gas are seeing a great uptake of MPS solutions.
GETTING INSPIRED Canon Emirates recently signed a deal with
Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai. Last year, Canon Emirates signed long-term MPS agreements with luxury resorts Yas Viceroy, Anantara Dubai The Palm Resort & Spa and the Movenpick Hotel Jumeirah Lakes Towers. Canon Emirates also entered into a new MPS deal with Etihad Rail.
By implementing the new Xerox MPS tools, Dubai Culture has successfully addressed a number of challenges that indirectly affected the overall workflow efficiency experienced previously. The successful transition with Xerox Emirates also helped DWTC save energy, reduce waste, strengthen security and save costs.
FINALLY…The main challenges companies face with print management is cost control, closely followed by downtime – two factors that can be addressed through MPS adoption. Organizations also want to reduce carbon footprint and incorporate more sustainable ways in today’s environment. As MPS moves up the value chain, analytics promises to be the next key differentiator amongst leading MPS providers. In all cases, MPS is poised for growth in the Middle East ë
MATHIAS MILITZERGENERAL MANAGER, LEXMARK
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
“Lexmark has a long tradition and extensive
experience of working in the MPS space with its
IT channel partners and their customers, from
SMEs to large enterprises, benefiting from this.”
ANDREW HORNEGENERAL MANAGER, XEROX
EMIRATES
“Xerox is making investments to drive
enhanced service performance through
predictive analytics and a focus on consistent delivery
through integrated back-end platforms. This makes us
the leading MPS provider.”
HENDRIK VERBRUGGHEMARKETING DIRECTOR, CANON
MIDDLE EAST
“Canon MPS has already helped customers to reduce print-related costs by up to 60%. With regular reviews,
Canon can ensure that the company’s ROI will be achieved and targets are met now and in the long
term.”
FEATURE
40 AUGUST 2015
MEA
CONTACT US: [email protected]
STEPHAN BERNER,MD OF HELP AG
How has 2015 been for Help AG so far?Help AG has stayed firmly on its exponential growth curve through 2015. We have imple-mented a number of strategic growth initiatives including the launch of our Managed Security Services (MSS) division, signing of partnership
agreements with four new vendors- Bit9, Elastica, OPSWAT and SafeNet, and the opening of a fully functional operations center in Saudi Arabia that enables us to deliver all our implementation, consultancy, service and support offerings from within the Kingdom.
We continue to see healthy penetration in a
number of key verticals. If we had to estimate the breakdown of our business through 2015 accord-ing to revenue per segment, it would be along the lines of Government 32%, Banking 30%, Oil & Gas 16%, Education 12%, and Misc 10%.
Over our last interaction at GISEC
EVEN THE BEST OF TECHNOLOGIES CAN’T PROTECT AN ORGANIZATION’S ASSETS UNLESS THEY ARE MANAGED
EFFICIENTLY. THAT IS WHERE THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF A TRUSTED AND ABLE PARTNER COMES TO THE FORE. MR
STEPHAN BERNER, MD OF HELP AG, IN A CANDID CONVERSATION WITH SOUMYA FROM EC MEA ,TELLS US HOW
BACKED WITH GLOBAL EXPERTISE AND A STRONG LOCAL PRESENCE, HELPAG IS ON A ROLL IN THE REGION.
Understanding Security, Delivering Perfection
42 AUGUST 2015
MEA
MY VIEWS
2015, you were talking of the grand plans and expectations from the newly launched services division- the Managed Security Services from Help AG. How has that shaped up and how is it being received by existing and potential clientele?Yes, our MSS division has been operational for over 4 months now and there is a very positive market response. The prime reason for this is the time and effort we invested prior to introducing the service. This included a year-long evaluation phase to help us identify and address the prime customer grievances with MSS offerings.
What made you make this transition into security services model? And what makes you think it does fit the region’s requirements?The transition was a natural progression for Help AG. From the onset, we focused on building an unmatched level of technical expertise and maintained and 80:20 technical to sales personnel ratio. As a systems integrator, we were- and remain- one of the few that could build upon the capabilities of our vendor’s technologies when the solution fell short of customer requirements.
Our increasing focus on delivering services is therefore bred out of a market need for specializa-tion. Deploying even the best security technolo-gies will not safeguard organizations if they are incorrectly managed. Unfortunately, even large enterprises in the region simply do not have the required resources. This where Help AG steps in and offers the most broad range of security services delivered by extremely well qualified professionals to help customers get the most from their security investments and identify potential vulnerabilities before they escalate into issues.
A lot is being talked about the effects of fluctuating oil prices on the businesses in the Middle East region. Have you been feeling the heat too?Actually, IT market forecasts from all the promi-nent research firms show that there is an up-tick and spending is set to increase. This growth is particularly rapid in the security space. There has been a visible change in the industry’s view on IT security. Deals such as Cisco’s acquisition of IronPort and Sourcefire highlight that even the largest of vendors recognize this as one of the fastest growing segments. Since we are firmly placed in the top of this segment, we continue to be financially healthy without any sort of third party financing such as venture capital, debt or credit.
Needless to say successful partnerships are the oil for the channel economy; what have been the latest updates on that front for Help AG? New partners or new partner programs on the cards?Just this year, we signed new partnership agree-ments with Bit9, Elastica, OPSWAT and SafeNet. Every new technology we add to our portfolio has to meet the requirements of our customers and the security requirements we see coming up. Our security analysis team is a great source of knowledge and insight into these needs. For us, vendors must be evaluated from both a technical and commercial perspective, and all aspects of a solution need to be correct.
Till 2016, you are focusing on your existing markets in UAE & Qatar, expansion into KSA and promotion of the MSS. So, how’s the expansion plan into the KSA shaping up?It’s going very well. KSA is without any doubt an interesting and challenging market with huge
potential. For us it was essential to identify and recruit the right professionals to run our KSA business. This we successfully accomplished when we hired Grant Taylor, a well reputable and recognized information security expert, already in May. Grant is instrumental to put the right team in place and follow our pro-active and quality service driven business approach.
We have to think global but act local, hence we will focus on bringing the best local and international talent on board, implement a strong information security practice, and having the top class security analysts to provide vulnerability assessment and penetration test services to serve the kingdom out of Riyadh. We expect to have a team of 14 specialists by the end of 2015.
What other plans up your sleeve to promote MSS?One of the key ways in which we have promoted our MSS and other services has been by establish-ing a 100 square meter office space to showcase and demo different services to customers. I
believe that allowing our customers to see in real time how Help AG security analysts operate in the Security Operations center gives them confidence that they are placing their trust in the right organization.
GITEX 2015 is coming up in few months; so what’s going to be the focus this time? While the expo aims to focus on IoT, how is Help AG matching the pace and the strategy?While we will attend GITEX to engage with exist-ing and potential partners, we do not participate in the exhibition ourselves. This is the result of a strategic decision to instead participate in a big way at GISEC. As a dedicated security platform, GISEC is far more relevant to Help AG and it gives us exposure to a more niche audience.
Have there been any changes in your expansion strategies? Are there any markets other than UAE, Qatar and KSA that have caught your fancy of late?
It is still early days for our presence in Saudi Arabia so our core focus will be on developing our business there before we look at another expansion. Our strategy has always been to grow while building a robust and sustainable business. Last year, we grew our business in Qatar by 120% and we can say with confidence that it is a mature market for us. This gave us the confidence to look at the next big market. In a similar fashion, we will first establish a stable and profitable business in KSA.
How has been the relative performance of the business in the UAE and Qatar?We have been faring extremely well in both countries. In 2014, we did business of $38 million, up from $26 million in the previous year. This impressive 70% year on year growth was achieved primarily through incremental business with existing customers, demonstrating their faith in Help AG and reinforcing our position as the Middle East’s trusted security advisor. ë
“AS A SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR, WE WERE- AND REMAIN- ONE OF THE FEW THAT COULD BUILD UPON THE CAPABILITIES OF OUR VENDOR’S TECHNOLOGIES WHEN THE SOLUTION FELL SHORT OF CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS. ”
MEA43AUGUST 2015
MY VIEWS
n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >
Rethinking Enterprise Solutions with Huawei
HUAWEI
‘The recently held global Huawei Network Congress (HNC) 2015 in Beijing stood witness to the legacy of Huawei’s unwavering commitment as it unfolded an accolade-winning bunch of enterprise solutions. Hany Hussein, VP of Channel & Alliances, Enterprise, Middle East at Huawei shares the Huawei vision for breaking conventions and rulling the roost with a dedicated partner network.
As the market focus shifts to ana-lytics based solutions, enterprises are under constant pressure to accommodate business needs to process huge amounts of data
that can leverage the competitive advantage. Hany Hussein, VP of Channel & Alliances, Enterprise, Middle East at Huawei says, “Big Data is a topic of heated discussion across industries today which we have identified as part of our company strategy to drive and support businesses with the necessary robust infrastructure and cooperation of key alliance partners to enable analytics-based solutions. Part of the foundation of our new channel strategy comes from embracing the latest technology trends in the region and understand-ing the needs of the partner eco-system in the enterprise business.”
In line with its commitment to open technol-ogy standards, Huawei is refurbishing its channel partner strategy that is all set to grow Huawei’s network of partners and identify new business opportunities in the enterprise market. “As part of our strategy, we want to enlarge the channel partner program and develop our training and certification programs that we run with our training partners. The Huawei Service Certifica-tion Program (HSCP) will be a major focus for us this year as we look to improve the services we provide to our partners.” says Hany. To enhance
the partners’ capability in addressing the market, Huawei is committed to developing the right tools to engage and empower partners, providing expanded training and certification programs and more robust technical knowledge platforms that will enable them to deliver exceptional value to end users. Hany adds, “We ultimately want our partners to be successful and identify new oppor-tunities for growth this year – we play a large role in this and want to offer the highest levels of support. We will continue to work with selective partners and develop a close knit and transparent partner network. We will also develop stronger incentives and provide our partners with more opportunities to maximize their profitability.
The HNC 2015, held in Beijing stood symbol to this commitment with the launch of a series of innovative enterprise solutions. At the event, Huawei introduced the world’s first software-defined networking (SDN)-based Agile Internet of Things (IoT) Solution. The solution enables objects to connect to the Internet and communi-cate with each other, while enabling convenient network management and maintenance.
Huawei also unveiled its Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Big Data Security Solution at HNC. The solution protects the core informa-tion assets of enterprises from APT attacks by providing fully-connected network protection covering cloud, pipe, and devices. Shedding
more light on this, Hany says“Huawei is keen to demonstrate how it is building Business-driven ICT Infrastructure (BDII)which we believe will lead the way to the next industrial revolution by facilitating in-depth integration of ICT infra-structure development and software applications, development of innovative infrastructure, and joint innovation efforts with partners.
As Hany beautifully puts it across, “Providing technology innovation is the core commitment that Huawei is proud to give to its customers.” Huawei is also committed to enhance the journey of partners to success and business growth in the region. “We believe that the support of our partners and their value-added propositions towards understanding the market, the industry and unique needs of the customer will provide a more compelling experience for the end–user engaging with Huawei technology. In turn, the impact that will be made on the end-users will ultimately, bring ample opportunities to our channel partners for business growth.”
Huawei has laid out a new four-point channel strategy to support its Middle East partners. The four pillars are-a greater Partner Focus, Partner Enablement, Partner Profitability and augmenta-tion of its regional Partner Program
Huawei believes that the traditional approach to simply just sell or ‘shift’ boxes to the end users is not enough to stand apart from the
44 AUGUST 2015
MEA
INFRASTRUCTURE
HANY HUSSEIN,VICE PRESIDENT OF CHANNEL& ALLIANCES, HUAWEI, ENTERPRISE, MIDDLE EAST, HUAWEI
“Entities in the Middle East continue to choose Huawei for the company’s unique ability to address their needs through customized, innovative and flexible solutions, creating maximum value for their business.”
competition and certainly not enough to keep their customers engaged in the long term. It is about providing strategic business counsel and acting as a trusted advisor to the end-users through the valued partners that will help positively drive business through innovative business solutions. “By
taking on a select and close-knit network of partners, we believe that our customers will not only have a better experience working with Huawei technology but will also be able to better understand the value-added propositions we offer in the form of services and solutions.” ë
MEA45AUGUST 2015
INFRASTRUCTURE
Re-Kindling the Passion for Sports and Humanity
GEC OPEN
GEC Open—Our Initiative to Feel Human While Being Human; To Feel Good Whilst Doing Good- The region’s only corporate golfing and networking event
Enterprise Channels MEA is all set to put to rest the fears of Einstein. As a leading IT media house, we root ourselves to the belief that, we bind the industry together, every day.
Whatever we do is a collective and connective initiative towards the betterment of humanity and society at large because at the end of each business day, we retire as human beings and every morning we wake up to do something special that makes us feel human while being human.
Enterprise Channels MEA’s tour de force GEC Open is all set to flag off on 15th October 2015. Taking forward the success legacy of 2014, this year the corporate networking golf tournament
“It has become appealingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” Albert Einstein.
is all set to rule the green turfs of seven countries in GCC, Europe and Asia. As we hoist our flag in these seven countries, we wish to build a bridge, bring in the best practices, share success stories and explore the benchmarks and pathbreaking projects that have been defining these countries and share it with the other counterparts— we understand it as our true corporate and social responsibility.
While going closer to several countries, the 2015 journey also aspires to take humanity closer to business. In this vision, Dubai Autism Centre, UAE Red Crescent Authority and KISS (Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences) have joined hands by associating with the initiative. DAC, KISS and UAE Red Crescent are the official charity partners for the 2015 GEC Open. Every time a player gets on the golf course, many children and many lives are empowered, nourished and educated.
“We are extremely happy to announce that GEC Open 2015 will be held in 7 countries. The kind of trust that the IT industry had shown on us to make 2014 GEC Open successfully in Dubai, UAE has certainly prompted us to take it to other countries. We are extremely confident of the sup-port and trust from the entire IT industry of the
region to make it a grand success. Our heartfelt gratitude to Dubai Autism Centre and UAE Red Crescent for joining us and we sincerely hope that this association would play a great role in serving humanity,” said Sanjay Mohapatra, Editor, Enterprise Channels MEA.
GEC Open 2014 was in association with Breast Cancer Arabia. We, thus, are striving to continue our legacy in awakening care and compassion amongst the players towards the society at large and encouraging them to put their best foot forward in reaching out to the lives of the less fortunate.
Founded in 2001, Dubai Autism Centre is the largest, most innovative and comprehensive non-profit organization in the United Arab Emirates serving children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.”We, at Dubai Autism Center, are continuously striving to spread social awareness of Autism. We are extremely happy to be associ-ated with the GEC Open 2015, a great corporate platform with high profile attendees and top lead-ers from seven countries, helping us to serve our purpose in reaching out to the world to empower individuals with Autism”. saidMohammad Al Emadi, Director General – Dubai Autism Center.
n W O R D S : A N U S H R E E < A N U S H R E E @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M >
46 AUGUST 2015
MEA
GEC OPEN
Established in 1983, the UAE Red Crescent Authority is a volunteer humanitarian organiza-tion that supports official authorities in times of peace and war.
“The spirit of poverty eradication through education has been the essence of my life at KISS (Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences). Our effort towards establishing a poverty free country has been a great challenge but has never daunted our drive. We have strove with a single-minded focus to bring smiles on the hapless faces for which the institute has been coveted with “Special Consulta-
tive Status” by the United Nations, the highest rec-ognition of the world body, the UN for any NGO of the world. It would indeed be a great pleasure and opportunity to be associated with GEC Open 2015, which will immensely supportive of our noble cause and facilitate our reaching out to the world of like minded individuals and organiza-tions in our stride on this Mission. “TOGETHER WE CAN AND WE WILL”, remarked Prof. AchyutaSamanta, Founder (Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences) & ISA Laureate-2015
GEC Open 2015 is the only corporate golfing
event held during the week of GITEX wherein Corporate Executives and corporations will have the opportunity to test their skills on the best golf courses of the region. It’s an exciting synergy of sports, business and humanity that gives you the opportunity to showcase your brand to participants, including key decision makers and powerhouses in the industry and fellow vendors, from across the globe. This tournament offers you a rare and valuable face-to-face networking opportunity.
It’s time to put the best club forward! ë
MOHAMMAD AL EMADI,DIRECTOR GENERAL – DUBAI AUTISM CENTER
“We, at Dubai Autism Center, are continuously striving to spread social awareness of Autism. We are extremely happy to be associated with the GEC Open 2015, a great corporate platform with high profile attendees and top leaders from seven countries, helping us to serve our purpose in reaching out to the world to empower individuals with Autism”
ACHYUTA SAMANTA,FOUNDER (KALINGA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES) & ISA LAUREATE-2015
“The spirit of poverty eradication through education has been the essence of my life at KISS. It would indeed be a great pleasure and opportunity to be associated with GEC Open 2015, which will immensely be supportive of our noble cause and facilitate our reaching out to the world of like minded individuals and organizations in our stride on this Mission.”
MEA47AUGUST 2015
GEC OPEN
NetApp All Flash FAS (AFF) 8000 series packs world-class performance and the industry’s best data manage-ment in a single solution. It ships with NetApp Data ONTAP FlashEssentials innovations, which increase flash performance and efficiency.
The AFF8000 line is built to take high-performance flash storage into the mainstream. The AFF8000 series delivers the most complete all-flash offering for the enterprise. Customers benefit from built-in data protection, multiprotocol support, scale-out performance, and seamless data
movement from flash to disk to cloud. Other features include quality of service, multi-tenancy, and NetApp’s best-in-class application integration for simplified configuration and management of SQL and Oracle databases, virtualized servers, and VDI workloads.
Customers benefit from built-in data protection, multiprotocol support, scale-out performance, and seamless data movement from flash to disk to cloud.
The All Flash FAS incorporates software optimizations derived from
NetApp’s advanced technology devel-opment lab. These innovations include a flash-optimized read data path, inline compression, and zero-based inline deduplication. FlashEssentials is included in clustered Data ONTAP, the foundation for Data Fabric, NetApp’s vision for the future of data management. NetApp’s approach enables customers to have control and choice in how to manage, secure, and move data from flash to disk to cloud.
Brocade Flow Optimizer is an open and agile policy-based SDN solution that detects and manages large Layer 2 through Layer 4 traffic flows in service provider and enterprise networks. It enables proactive traffic visibility and traffic engineering of the network, allowing customers to take specific actions based on established policies and in turn, eliminate network congestion and mitigate network attacks resulting from large volumetric traffic flows.
The Brocade Flow Optimizer application is supported on the Brocade MLX Series Routers as well as the Brocade ICX Switches. The Brocade Flow Optimizer provides an integrated, higher-performing, more scalable, and cost-competitive solution. Customers can significantly simplify their network operation as well as reduce operational cost. By using this architecture with SDN applications such as the Brocade Flow Optimizer, organizations can improve visibility over network traffic and simplify forwarding control.
KEY CAPABILITIESn NetApp OnCommand Performance Manager 2.0: This new software release gives users a comprehen-sive dashboard to automati-cally evaluate performance and troubleshoot issues to maintain optimal system operation.n Workload Wizard: This wizard provides automated setup for Oracle and Micro-soft SQL Server installations to simplify storage settings and host server connection setup.
NetApp All Flash FAS (AFF) 8000 series
PLEASE SEND YOUR FEEDBACK AT [email protected]
BROCADE FLOW OPTIMIZER SDN APPLICATION KEY CAPABILITIESn Provides real-time network visibility with policy based detection and management of large Layer 2 through Layer 4 traffic flows n Improves overall customer experience and eliminates network congestion n Avoids expensive net-work failures and service interruptions n Helps the IT team gain real-time event logging and traffic statistics using a simple and user friendly Web-based GUI.
INNOVATIONS
48 AUGUST 2015
MEA
BAHRAIN | UAE | INDIA | SAUDI ARABIAOMAN | TURKEY | QATAR
GEC OPENG L O B A L E N T E R P R I S E C O N N E C T
W W W . G E C O P E N . C O M
GLOBALENTERPRISECONNECT
B R O U G H T B Y O R G A N I S E D B Y
I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H
KODAK i2820 Document Scanner KODAK i2820 scanner is a top of the range addition to Kodak Alaris’ award-winning i2000 Series Scanner platform, adding new features and enhancements that address the challenges faced by users with heavy-duty desktop scanning needs. The scan-ner reverses the build-up of paper and makes businesses more productive. Dual indirect LED document illumination requires no warm up time and delivers outstanding image quality which means information is captured clearly for more accurate OCR. Integrated Perfect Page technology corrects image imperfections to minimize the need for rescanning with Smart Touch technol-ogy allowing specific processes to be programmed for staff to then start multiple step scanning at the touch of a button. This includes creating PDFs, attaching documents to emails, organizing them in folders or sending them to Cloud services.
With the inclusion of KODAK Capture Pro Software Limited Edition, users can test the popular application and upgrade to the full version if they need to address more complex batch scanning requirements.
Incorporating a new engine in the scanner driver, Kodak Alaris is now offering support for nine different barcode types including PDF 417, Code 3 of 9, Interleaved 2 of 5 and EAN 8 and 13.
The benefit is clear: better operator productivity as more sheets can be loaded per batch so staff can whizz through workloads faster. Further, it supports Windows, LINUX and Apple Macintosh and can be enhanced with optional DIN A4 and A3 flatbeds for the scanning of exceptional, fragile or bound documents. It also has the abilityto scan in duplex and colour.The KODAK i2820 document scanner is available with a list price of approximately AED 6,900/-.
Schneider Elec-tric Micro Data Centre Solutions Schneider Electric micro data center solution portfolio is ideal for those customers who are looking to reduce latency and add capacity while ensuring a secure and easy to manage IT environment.
Delivered in a single enclosure, the benefits of the new micro data centre solutions include power, cooling and management software to support a self-contained and secure computing environment. The solution addresses the latency, bandwidth and processing speed challenges that customers face with the surge in connected devices and data applications.
Available in the Middle East through Schneider Electric’s channel partners and distributors, Schneider Electric’s micro data centre’s physical infrastructure solutions include the enclosure, uninterrupt-ible power supply (UPS), power distribution, management software (DCIM), environmental monitoring, cooling and security – all tested in a factory environment, assembled, packaged and then shipped complete.
Solutions include SmartBunker SX: traditional for IT rooms, SmartBunker CX: optimized for office environments, SmartBunker FX: ruggedized for any environment and SmartShelter: multi-rack, ruggedized for any environment
KEY CAPABILITIESn Simplified managementn High levels of securityn Optimised installation and operating costsn Configured, delivered and installed in the shortest possible timen Reliability via standardization and factory testing
KEY CAPABILITIESn Larger input tray capable of holding 100 pages.n Offer scanning speed of 70 ppmn In terms of daily volume, the new scanner is rated at 8,000 pages.
INNOVATIONS
50 AUGUST 2015
MEA
Connect. Share. Give. Take. Solve. Save. Smile. Unify.Introducing Unify.Unifying business communications for the new way to work.
unify.com
Copyright © Unify GmbH & Co. KG, 2015
Learn more about these award-winning servers and revolutionary in-server flash designs.
To Learn More, Visit Dell.com/accelerate
Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
1 Based on Principled Technologies report ‘Simplifying systems management with Dell OpenManage on 13G Dell PowerEdge servers’, September 2014, commissioned by Dell, testing Dell’s 13th generation R730 with Enterprise-level Dell systems management. As compared to manual configuration.
2 Based on product specifications for Intel S3700 SATA SSD and Express Flash results from the Storage Networking Industry Association.3 Based on Dell internal analysis August 2014 comparing SATA SSDs to Express Flash - PCIe-Gen3 x4 testing random reads.
©2015 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Dell, the Dell logo and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc. in the United States and other countries.
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