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ISSUE 174 // JUNE 2011 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ WHAT WORKS? Bernard Biolchini, Leveraging Fusion partner programme, VP Sales & GM, AMD Hesham Tantawi, Partnering with customers, VP Asbis Vasant Menghani, High return for partners, CEO Touchmate Sachin Gehani, Rebates work well, Director, Accent Office Supplies ITQAN PREPARING TO CROSS BORDERS PROFILE DCC 2011 Retailers from the region voted their most favourite vendors and selected eleven winners. Turn to page 32 for more details. PRP SUITES Construction projects across the Gulf need a special breed of project management applications. Read about latest entrant on page 29. REVIEW Packard Bell REBATES, PROMOTIONS
Transcript
Page 1: Reseller Middle East

ISSUE 174 // JUNE 2011 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM

PUBLICATIONLICENSED BY IMPZ

WHAT WORKS?Bernard Biolchini, Leveraging Fusion partner programme, VP Sales & GM, AMDHesham Tantawi, Partnering with customers, VP Asbis

Vasant Menghani, High return for partners, CEO TouchmateSachin Gehani, Rebates work well, Director, Accent Office Supplies

I T Q A N P R E P A R I N G T O C R O S S B O R D E R SPROFILE

DCC 2011Retailers from the region voted their most favourite vendors and selected eleven winners. Turn to page 32 for more details.

PRP SuITES Construction projects across the Gulf need a special breed of project management applications. Read about latest entrant on page 29.

REVIEWPackard

Bell

REBATES, PROMOTIONS

Page 2: Reseller Middle East

APTEC DISTRIBUTION FZ LLCCall Aptec at Tel: (+9714) 3697111 Extn:154/155/356/493/496Fax: (+9714) 369 7110Visit : www.apteconline.com Email:[email protected]

Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Page 3: Reseller Middle East

REBATES, PROMOTIONS

Rebates, promotions, loyalty, discountsWhat works?

COVER FEATURE

By any theory of channel

marketing these are established

instruments of “reward power”.

However with shorter life cycles

and new devices being launched

every week, both vendors and

channel players require other

measures to make “rewards”

deliver their power.

IN FOCUS

24 Packard Bell

The vendor is launching a new range of trendy laptops this summer to regain its market share

26 BenQ

The vendor brought in legendary gamers to custom design its new portfolio of gaming monitors

29 Epin

The region’s projects are attracting a new breed of project management suites

32 DCC 2011

“DCC is the ultimate networking event for senior executives from the retail channel”Interview with Farouk Hemraj, CEO of event organizer Distree

PROFILE

Preparing its second wave

Growing competition and increasing regional demand for its services are making it bullish to cross over

62 Products and technology

CONTENTSISSUE 174 // JUNE 2011

44

18

50

REGULARS

04 Editorial

06 Tie-ups

10 Announcements

16 Cloud

21 Movements

34 Connecting the consumer

A channel is being created to enhance excitement across its retail and consumer product portfolio

MICROSOFT

37 High-end SME and retail, key areas

With growth and product movements in these segments, Lenovo has made them a priority for this year

LENOVO

38 Enhanced VAR and retail programs

With sluggish corporate sales the vendor is enhancing it VAR programme and regional super retail strategy

TOSHIBA

41 Local base, regional focus

Starting up a component testing and packing line and entering the Indian market are targets for its UAE operations

INTEGRAL MEMORY

42 Bullish on memory products

Steady demand for memory related products has the company exporting most of its production into regional and far-away markets

TWINMOS

ITQAN

Fujitsu´s S700, S900 thin client series

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 3

Page 4: Reseller Middle East

The last quarter of 2011 is going to be fierce.

The retail community at Distree 2011 voted Microsoft as gaming vendor of the year, Kaspersky as software vendor and Apple as mobile and digital lifestyle vendor of the year.

With super retailers already seeing two smart phones in consumer hands the burning question is what “avatar”, will our familiar brands take up by year end.

Will their product and app launches in the remaining six months, reaching frenzy in the final quarter of the year be “cool” enough to get the third device into the consumer hands?

Corporate sales overall continue to be sluggish. The TCO approach is no longer a buzz word, it’s now lowest bid. Qatar is yet to release its master blueprint and big-ticket funds are not yet flowing into the multitude of players waiting on the sidelines.

Bahrain is trying to get a semblance of order in place to bring back its financial backbone. And leading regional channel players already expect growth to be flat this year around, with the UAE base doing a shade better.

Can anyone blame the brands for trying an “avatar”?

The channel community has challenges on its hands. All reports indicate that SME’s are still buying and will continue to buy at brisk pace for rest of the year. All leading vendors now want their channel partners to move in and focus on this opportunity—-of course capture and expand are built into the final rewards.

But the SME story has never been about relationships and sops. It’s always been price point. So channel players have their work cut out.

On another note, walk into any construction control room and you will find project management charts gathering dust on the wall. “Done once, forgotten after” is the motto of the present breed of such apps. Now PRP, a new project management workflow suite, especially for Gulf projects is “in” to make the difference. Read on in the magazine.

On a final note, a new face at the helm of the magazine, a successful annual conference and glittering awards are a good way to kick off the last half of the year!

Arun ShankarSenior Editor

[email protected]

If you’d like to receive your own copy of RME every

month, log on and request a subscription:

www.resellerme.com

EDITORIAL

PublisherDominic De Sousa

COONadeem Hood

Commercial DirectorRichard Judd

[email protected] +971 4 440 9126

Sales DirectorRaz Islam

[email protected] +971 4 440 9129

EDiTOriAl

Dave [email protected] +971 4 440 9106

Senior EditorArun Shankar

[email protected] +971 4 440 9142

ADVErTiSinG

Group Sales ManagerRajashree R Kumar

[email protected] +971 4 440 9131

Advertising ExecutiveMerle Carrasco

[email protected] +971 4 440 9134

CirCulATiOn

Database and Circulation ManagerRajeesh M

[email protected] +971 4 440 9147

PrODuCTiOn AnD DESiGn

Production ManagerJames P Tharian

[email protected] +971 4 440 9146

Art DirectorKamil Roxas

[email protected] +971 4 440 91112

DesignerAnalou Balbero

[email protected] +971 4 440 9104

DiGiTAlwww.rwme.net

DiGiTAl SErViCES

Digital Services ManagerTristan Troy P Maagma

Web DevelopersJerus King Bation

Erik BrionesJefferson de Joya

Louie Alma

[email protected]+971 4 440 9100

Published by

1013 Centre Road, New Castle County,Wilmington, Delaware, USA

Head OfficePO Box 13700

Dubai, UAE

Tel: +971 4 440 9100Fax: +971 4 447 2409

Printed byPrintwell Printing Press LLC

© Copyright 2011 CPIAll rights reserved

While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all

information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

Avatars of 2011

4 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 5: Reseller Middle East
Page 6: Reseller Middle East

IN THE BEGINNINGTie-ups

Maximiser, launched in 2003, is a

business telephone system, designed

and developed for companies requiring

between four and 100,000 or more IP or

analogue extensions. Vision Business

Management Application Suite is a

Web-based application that offers a

'business dashboard' for companies of

all sizes, delivering real-time information

and historical reports to those that need

it, irrespective of where they might be.

Vision Call Center, delivers a seamless

solution with SpliceCom's Maximiser unified

communications platform and combines

advanced call routing with reporting and

management to optimise inbound call

centre operation. SpliceCom's product line

also includes PCS business telephones, one

of the slimmest desktop IP phones and a

keyless IP Phone.

“We are very pleased to have been

signed on as distributors for SpliceCom.

The company has a world-class portfolio of

products and solutions, including the award

winning Maximiser product that can scale

up to hundreds of thousands IP or analogue

extensions”, explains Fadi AbuEkab, Chief

Executive Officer of SCOPE.

SpliceCom is the only British company

to design, develop and manufacture 'Pure

IP' next-generation communication systems.

Scope ME has regional tie-ups with vendors

like Blue Coat, Legrand, Kaspersky and and

Adenin Technologies.

Scope Middle East, a regional distributor

and technology solutions provider, has been

signed on by uK based iP communications

vendor SpliceCom. Scope will be

responsible for promoting and growing

the regional market-share for SpliceCom's

products which includes 'Pure iP' next-

generation communication systems.

The regional business opportunity for both

partners lies in medium and large companies

phasing out their traditional PBX and

PABX systems and moving towards unified

communications and IP telephony technology.

Scope will distribute the full range

of SpliceCom's products including

Maximiser telephony platforms, Proactive

Communication Station Business Phones,

Vision Business Management Application

Suite and Vision Call Center.

Scope to distribute SpliceCom´s products

Fadi AbuEkab, CEO, Scope ME

wi-tribe, a wireless broadband provider

and part of the Qatar based Qtel Group,

has signed an Mou with Symantec

Corporation. The Mou will cover providing

safety software for consumers and

businesses. The agreement will initially

focus on offering Symantec’s norton

Anti-Virus product to its user base in the

Philippines, Pakistan and Jordan, and will

soon be extended to include products

such as cloud backup and parental control

throughout the group.

Under the terms of the agreement,

wi-tribe will partner with Symantec to offer

products that help secure and reduce the

risk of information loss for consumers and

CommVault, NetApp enter OEM agreement

wi-tribe to provide cloud security for Symantec

To help customers improve the speed,

efficiency, and simplicity of their backup

and recovery operations, CommVault

announced that it has entered into a global

OEM agreement with netApp under which

netApp will integrate elements of CommVault’s

industry leading Simpana 9 software with

netApp SnapShot and replication technology,

under the netApp SnapProtect brand.

NetApp SnapProtect software, based

on an OEM version of Simpana software and

close integration with NetApp SnapVault

and SnapMirror transforms how companies

can efficiently protect, manage and access

enterprise data across all tiers of storage.

Under this expanded relationship between

NetApp and CommVault, NetApp will offer its

NetApp SnapProtect branded software, a unique

packaging of the Simpana snapshot copies,

replication and tape management software,

licensed on a per controller basis.

SnapProtect software is designed

specifically for customers that want to combine

efficient, high-speed NetApp Snapshot

technology and replication with tape in a single

backup solution that accelerates and simplifies

data protection.

According to Lauren Whitehouse, Senior

Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, “more than

one-third (38%) of ESG research respondents

identified improving the backup and recovery of

virtual machines as a key area of focus. As more

organisations deploy virtualisation in production

environments and expand the reach of the

technology, the inadequacies of non-optimised

backup and recovery solutions will continue to

be exposed.”

“As organisations move to cloud and

virtualised environments, a level of complexity

is introduced that is making it challenging for

IT professionals to meet backup and recovery

service levels. Enterprises need a backup

strategy that enables them to reliably meet

shorter backup windows and recovery point

objectives,” Dave Russell, Research Vice

President, Gartner.

With today’s OEM agreement, NetApp joins

a growing list of top-tier storage vendors that

have partnered with CommVault, including Dell,

Hitachi Data Systems, Bull and Fujitsu.

6 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 7: Reseller Middle East

HP signs MoU with Jordan’s Ministry of ICT

The Ministry of information and

Communications Technology has signed a

strategic memorandum of understanding

with HP Jordan. The Mou involves

developing common programmes and

sharing of expertise and practices

around integrated technologies for the

government organisations, supporting

professional iT education and assisting in

fostering innovation.

The MoU was signed by Eng. Atef Al Tal,

Minister of Information and Communications

Technology and Eyad Shihabi, Managing

Director and Enterprise Business Lead, HP

Middle East.

As part of the MoU, HP will share its

expertise with the Ministry as it relates to

becoming an Instant-On Enterprise, an

organisation that embeds technology into

everything it does in order to better address the

growing needs of organisations and citizens.

“We are glad to deepen the

relationship with HP further on the heels of

the remarkable success of their operations

in Jordan,” said Eng. Atef Al Tal, Minister

of ICT.”

“We are honoured to have been chosen

by Jordan’s Ministry of ICT as a strategic

partner for technology innovations,” said

Eyad Shihabi, Managing Director and

Enterprise Business Lead, HP Middle East.

“This is the second MoU we have

signed with the government since opening

our fully owned subsidiary here last year

after the successful implementation of the

first agreement.”

HP launched its fully-owned subsidiary

in Jordan in January 2010. As part of an

agreement signed with the Government

of Jordan, HP has created a regional

Competency Centre that has hired university

graduates over a period of one year.

The signing of MoU between the Jordanian Ministry of ICT and HP Jordan

Polycom, HP alliance around unified communication

businesses. wi-tribe users will be able to

download software direct from the wi-

tribe site that will enable them to protect

precious data such as photos, music and

important documents stored on their hard

disk.

Commenting on the deal Sohail Qadri,

CEO of wi-tribe, said: “In an age where

cybercrime is rife and fear of data loss is

on the increase, the inclusion of tools like

anti-virus and cloud backup are becoming

necessities rather than luxuries. This deal

enables wi-tribe to protect our customers

and offer them peace of mind when using

the Web for surfing or communication.”

Wi-tribe is a focused consumer

broadband company, owned by the Qtel

Group. Headquartered in Qatar, Wi-

tribe operates WiMAX networks in the

Philippines, Jordan and Pakistan.

HP and Polycom, a global leader in unified

communications, announced they have entered

into an agreement under which Polycom will

acquire the assets of HP’s visual collaboration

business, including the Halo products and

managed services business.

In conjunction with this acquisition, HP and

Polycom have agreed to establish a strategic

relationship in which Polycom will serve as an

exclusive partner to HP for telepresence and certain

video UC solutions, including both resale and

internal HP deployments. The two companies have

also agreed to make available Polycom’s video

applications for HP’s WebOS platform.

The alliance extends Polycom’s leadership

in the unified communications and collaboration

market with HP’s installed base of visual

collaboration products and technology.

Azeti networks, a manufacturer of high-

performance monitoring solutions for iT

infrastructures and operational technologies, has

strengthened its presence in the Middle East with

the recent opening of a new office in Dubai.

Having only just recently signed a partnership

agreement with leading distributor Emitac, the

Dubai office is a further step towards building

Azeti’s presence in the Middle East region. Target

market segments include hospitality, telecom, retail,

healthcare and banking sectors.

Produced in Germany, Azeti’s solutions

supports a wide range of IT monitoring with

operational technology and environmental

monitoring that help businesses protect critical

technical infrastructures.

"The new branch office underlines the

importance of the vibrant Middle East region to

Azeti and our commitment to serving this fast

growing market as well as supporting our partners",

said José Bustamante, Vice President MEA at Azeti.

“We have seen significant interest in the Middle

East for enterprise monitoring solutions. Unlike

traditional network monitoring systems that mainly

focus on IP-based processes, our range of products

provides all-round monitoring service”.

Azeti, Emitac tie-up, opens office in Dubai

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 7

Page 8: Reseller Middle East

IN THE BEGINNINGTie-ups

Council in Saudi Arabia to participate in the

global launch of Ethical Hacker.

“We are delighted to be chosen and

recognised by EC-Council for our role in

helping them to deliver certified Ethical

Hacking v7 training into the technology

marketplace”, said Hesham Abdel Mohsen,

Regional Marketing Manager, MEA and

Emerging Market, Global Knowledge.

ComGuard provided all the necessary

support and kits for the successful delivery of

the first EC Council certified Ethical Hacker

training programme in Saudi Arabia. It also

enabled Global Knowledge-KSA to launch in

Saudi Arabia simultaneously with the global

launch CEH v7 by EC-Council.

The certified Ethical Hacker programme

certifies individuals in the specific network

security discipline of Ethical Hacking from

a vendor-neutral perspective. The certified

Ethical Hacker certification will improve

the application knowledge of security

officers, auditors, security professionals, site

administrators, and others concerned about

the integrity of the network infrastructure.

ComGuard, an iT security distributor and

sole distributor of EC Council in the Middle

East and north Africa region recently

delivered the first EC Council’s, Ethical

Hacker training in Saudi Arabia. This was

in association with Global Knowledge, KSA,

which was also part of the global launch.

Global Knowledge-KSA is one of the 35

EC-Council training partners in the world and

the sole authorised training centre for EC-

ComGuard launches ethical hacker training in Saudi

Hesham Abdel Mohsen, Regional Marketing Manager, Global Knowledge

infor, a provider of business application

software has appointed MiC (Middle East

investment Company) as a new channel

partner for the region. The reseller

agreement with MiC covers a number of

infor solutions including infor ErP ln and

infor Enterprise Asset Management. infor

now uses twenty sales and implementation

partners for its Middle East operations.

“Our channel strategy is not about the

quantity of partners. Instead we want to work

with a smaller number of quality, growth-

oriented partners who understand the value

Infor solutions can bring to their client base”,

says Paul Hammond, regional vice president

and general manager, Middle East, Infor.

Infor ERP LN has over 30 modules

and is meant for complex manufacturing,

distribution and service industries. This

includes engineering-based industries,

such as automotive, industrial equipment

and machinery, electronics, aerospace and

defence. The solution was recently deployed

at Metito Overseas in the UAE, which provides

water, wastewater treatment and desalination

systems.

MIC, a privately held boutique investment

company, operates across 13 countries

and has recently acquired eight regional

technology vendors in the last 18 months. One

of MIC’s key channel partners is its subsidiary

United Computer Company, Saudi Arabia

whose customer relationships extend across

manufacturing, retail, education, financial

services, energy, oil and gas.

“There is a significant opportunity to

leverage upon the existing Baan customer

base particularly in KSA which has been

established over many years. We also believe

mid-size and large manufacturing communities

are becoming more aware of the benefits of

acquiring and integrating Infor solutions”, said

Abdulaziz Sheikh, CEO UCC Saudi Arabia.

MIC will work with other established

Infor channel partners in the Middle East to

co-operate in the sale of Infor’s supply chain

management solutions. Another reason

for signing up with MIC is its long standing

expertise in Baan ERP across the region.

Infor appoints MIC for enterprise solution roll outs

Fujitsu Technology Solutions, a global iT

infrastructure provider, and redington

Value, the value added distribution

division of redington Gulf, have signed a

partnership agreement for the distribution

of Fujitsu´s Primergy servers and Eternus

storage solutions in the Middle East.

“This agreement is just another step

to fuel our consistent growth throughout

the Middle East, with products such as our

PRIMERGY line of x86 servers, where we

have witnessed growth above average

rates”, says Farid Al-Sabbagh, Managing

Director, Middle East, Fujitsu Technology

Solutions. Fujitsu, offers a complete

portfolio of IT products, solutions and

services. The ETERNUS storage systems

provide business-critical online storage for

enterprises of all sizes.

Redington Gulf’s value division was

set up to support the company’s horizontal

expansion with focus on networking

products and solutions. Within 4 years

the business now includes networking,

software, security, infrastructure, server

and storage products and solutions. It

offers products and services from 14

vendor including Avaya, Cisco, Checkpoint,

Juniper, Molex, Nortel, RedHat, SonicWall

and Trend Micro.

Redington to support Fujitsu´s storage and servers

8 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 9: Reseller Middle East

TM

Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai, UAE ● Tel: (+971) 4 8863300 ● Fax: (+971) 4 8863311 ● UAE Sales Center: (+971) 4 3555520 ● P.O. Box: 262221 ● Email: [email protected] ● Website: www.gse.ae

Page 10: Reseller Middle East

IN THE BEGINNINGAnnouncements

SoftAtHome, a software provider of home

operating platforms that help carrier service

providers deliver convergent applications has

announced it is opening a new office in Dubai.

The office will support current deployment of

its technology with Etisalat and address the

needs of other operators in the region.

SoftAtHome provides a software platform

that enables operators and third party

developers create convergent applications

for the digital home. It combines services

such as voice, video, content sharing, security,

broadband access, connectivity and deploys

them across different devices in the home. This

includes TV set top boxes, home gateways and

connected TVs.

SoftAtHome is a software company backed

by Orange, Etisalat and Sagemcom to deliver

convergence through an operating platform for

the digital home environment. It fosters a new

ecosystem made up of service providers, third

party application developers, integrators and

hardware vendors to accelerate the advent of

the digital home. The company is headquartered

in France with development and sales teams in

France and Belgium.

In 2010, Etisalat has selected SoftAtHome

to deploy their multiplay offering across the

UAE, including IPTV, video on demand, personal

video fecording, internet TV, OTT services, digital

content sharing, application store and broadband

access. The solution will be deployed across

the UAE first, followed by other countries in the

Middle East and where Etisalat as a presence.

In order to consolidate its strategic choice,

Etisalat has also taken a stake in SoftAtHome

to become shareholder of the company.

SoftAtHome selected Dubai as a strategic

place to address the needs of other operators

in the region as Dubai provides a complete

infrastructure and easy access to countries in the

Middle East.

Michel Degland, CEO of SoftAtHome said,

“We are very pleased to open our subsidiary

in Dubai and to deploy our solutions across

the UAE. It represents a key milestone in

the development of our company and in our

commitment to be successful in the Gulf region”.

SoftAtHome opens office in Dubai to support regional carriers

Sharp Middle East has announced

expansion of its business solutions division

(BSD). it is expanding its key focus markets

around the region for its BSD solutions, with

a greater breadth of coverage in the Middle

East and Africa.

Sharp Middle East’s BSD General

Manager, Tomoo Shimizu, said, “The

Sharp to expand office automation solutions

Sharp’s business solution, General Manager, Tomoo Shimizu

division is at the core of Sharp Middle East’s

operations. By growing our BSD team and

increasing the number of key markets it

operates in, we will work towards reaching

our targets outlined for this year, especially

in multi function printers and professional

displays”.

The core areas for the BSD in 2011

include professional displays, managed print

services and document management. The

focus is also on getting customers in the

region to make the switch from black and

white to colour machines. The BSD team has

expanded from six to 19 people, with a further

six to be recruited.

Sharp Middle East serves more than

60 countries. These key markets include

the GCC, countries in North Africa such as

Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and the large

African markets of South Africa and Kenya.

Sharp’s primary business activities include

audio-visual and communication equipment,

health and environment equipment,

information equipment, and crystalline and

thin-film solar cells.

Fujairah Media Group, a Fujairah-based

broadcasting organisation founded as

a joint venture between the Fujairah

Cultural Authority and Arab international

Media Services, has announced that it

has granted the license to Melody Group

facilitating the latter to commence

operations in its Creative City media

free zone.

Across 2010-2011, Creative City has

issued around 1,400 permits varying from

media and consultancy to informatics and

technology.

Following the granting of license, the

regionally and internationally celebrated

Melody Group’s “Melody Arabia”,

“Melody Movies”, “Melody Drama” and

“Melody Hits” TV channels can utilise the

administrative services and other facilities

of Creative City.

Creative City is especially designed

to accommodate all media-related needs

within a comprehensive environment

encompassing all kinds of media, related

technologies and training organisations, as

well as support from freelance journalists.

In one year (2010-2011) Creative City

has so far issued around 1,400 permits

varying from media and consultancy to

informatics and technology.

Melody Group to operate from Fujairah’s Creative City

10 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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Page 13: Reseller Middle East

Canon Middle East gathered key corporate

customers in Fes, Morocco to launch its runner

Advance C2020 office printer and Formula

P150, a portable scanner. Attendees were

introduced to Canon’s latest solutions aimed at

helping offices achieve tangible cost savings

and productivity.

“The launch of this range underlines our

commitment to Morocco’s office and SME

market, whilst providing our customers with

flexible colour and colour capable solutions.

With Moroccan businesses now making a strong

transition to colour solutions, we have a product

to match specific business need,” said Somesh

Adukia, Sales Manager, Canon Middle East.

Canon showcases new scanner, printer at Fes meet

BenQ, a digital lifestyle provider, recently

held its annual projector regional distributors

meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, where it

shared its vision to become number one

projector brand in the world.

Key channel partners from the Asia Pacific,

Middle East and Africa regions participated

in the three-day event which provided an

opportunity for BenQ’s senior management to

share insights into the trends and strategies

that are shaping its businesses as well as

showcase new product offerings.

In the Middle East, for the first quarter of

2011 BenQ projectors sales increased by 60%,

in terms of both revenue generated and units

sold, in comparison to the same period in

2010. According to the latest research report

released by Futuresource Consulting, at the

end of the first quarter of 2011, BenQ is the

number one projector brand in Saudi Arabia

with a 21% market share. In the UAE, BenQ’s

market share is over 16%, and it is the number

three brand in the market. With about 15%

total market share, BenQ is also the number

two projector brand in the Middle East and

Africa region.

Adrian Chang, President of BenQ Asia

Pacific said, “We are currently the number

two projector brand in the world and aim to

take the top spot in the near future with our

enhanced line-up of projectors.”

In the second half of 2011 BenQ will be

offering a range of new models catering to

every audio visual segment.

BenQ hosts annual partner meet in Thailand

QMF Global Consultants Wll,

an independent certification and

consultancy body has successfully

acquired a commercial registration to

deliver its services to businesses in

Bahrain as well as neighbouring GCC

countries.

Following this, QMF has set up an

office in Bahrain to provide services to

organisations across the region. QMF’s

primary products are certification, auditing,

consultancy and development services, in

the field of international quality standards. Its

customer target base is SME and NGOs.

The department for UK Trade and

Investment, welcomed the services provided

by QMF Global Consultants WLL. UK’s

ambassador to Bahrain Jamie Bowden

said: “UK products and services are well

known for their quality and consultancy

services of companies like QMF have

supported many UK companies to achieve

that high quality.”

Vivian Jamal, Director of Business

Development at the Bahrain Economic

Development Board, stated: “Within the Gulf

Co-operation Council, Bahrain is becoming

established as a service centre for the

region and we are pleased that QMF have

chosen to set up in Bahrain.”

UK based certification company sets up in Bahrain

The Runner Advance C2020 is equipped

with solutions to suit small and medium-sized

workgroups in office environments. Running

at 20 pages per minute, it provides a range

of options and functionality for networked

security, worker productivity, cost efficiency and

environmental benefits.

Attendees of the event were also shown

Canon’s ultra portable document scanner.

“As one of the smallest duplex A4 scanners

available, it is suitable for executives who are on

the road between client sites, such as architects,

marketing professionals or designers, so they

can transfer documents back to the office,”

commented Adukia.

IN THE BEGINNINGAnnouncements

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 13

Page 14: Reseller Middle East

nvidia has agreed to acquire icera, a

leading producer of baseband processors

for 3G and 4G cellular phones and tablets.

icera has more than 550 patents granted

or pending worldwide, and its high speed

wireless-modem products have been

approved by more than 50 carriers across

the globe.

The acquisition, for $367 million in cash,

has been approved by both companies´

boards of directors and is expected to be

completed, subject to customary closing

conditions, in approximately 30 days.

By offering the two main processors

used in smartphones--the application

processor and baseband processor,

the combined company will help OEM

customers improve their time to market and

deliver requirements of next-generation

mobile computing. Nvidia will also have

approximately doubled its revenue

opportunity within each product segment.

The market for baseband processors

is one of the fastest growing segments of

the technology industry, worth an estimated

$15billion a year. Icera will be able to leverage

Nvidia´s momentum in the smartphone and

tablet markets to capitalise on this growth.

Icera is a pioneer in next-generation,

multi-protocol wireless baseband processors

with RF components. Its technology scales

from 2G to 4G networks, using a custom-built,

ultra-low-power processor. The company´s

third-generation Livanto line of chipsets

delivers the industry´s fastest data rates,

has short user wait times, reduces battery

drain and supports multiple standards on the

same hardware. Its forthcoming Espresso450

and Espresso500 line of platforms is meant

for 2G, 3G and 4G networks, low-power

optimisation for voice and high-speed data,

and industry´s smallest form factor.

NVIDIA awakened the world to the power

of computer graphics when it invented the

GPU in 1999. Its expertise in programmable

GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel

processing which make supercomputing

inexpensive and widely accessible.

Nvidia to acquire baseband vendor Icera

Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

The Jumbo service centre, the largest of

its type in the region covering 70,000 sq

feet, completed one year of its operation in

the month of April 2011. The service centre

based in Jebel Ali, Dubai services 19 global

brands and has more than doubled the

volume of services and repairs for consumer

and professional electronics products.

“For over 30 years now, the most

important goal for us has been to build a

relationship with our customers both before

and after a sale,” says Deepak Khetrapal,

CEO, Jumbo Electronics.

Supporting the service centre is its

hotline 800 JUMBO, which receives over

10,000 phone calls a month. The 800 JUMBO

call-centre is located inside the Jebel Ali

service centre and calls from the hotline

are handled by trained Arabic and English

language speaking experts.

Of the 19 brands serviced at the centre,

Jumbo is the exclusive service provider for

Sony consumer electronics in the UAE. Other

features of the centre include a dedicated

service section for Sony broadcast equipment

and a Sony dark room for DSL camera

repairs, the only one of its kind in the Middle

East region.

In the retail area, other than Sony, Jumbo

also manages other brands including Apple,

HP, Blackberry, Acer, Nokia, Casio, Dyson,

Gorenje, Brother, Compaq, Dell, Ricoh, Epson,

HTC, Lenovo, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Packard-

Bell, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Toshiba, and

VAIO amongst others. Jumbo is also the

parent company of affordable electronics

major Supra.

Jumbo currently has over 35 stores

across UAE and Oman and is now focused

on expanding its retail presence in Qatar,

Bahrain and Kuwait. Along with its regional

expansion plans, Jumbo also plans to

continue growing business in non retails areas

such as IT solutions. The Jumbo Enterprise

Solutions division caters to various market

verticals including hospitality, retail, education,

healthcare and finance sectors. The services

offered by Enterprise Service Division include

design, building, network consulting and

innovative IT hardware and software solutions.

Jumbo´s service centre completes one year

Jumbo operates the largest consumer service centre in the region. Can it replicate its retail success in the IT Enterprise market space?

IN THE BEGINNINGAnnouncements

14 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 15: Reseller Middle East
Page 16: Reseller Middle East

McAfee announced its Cloud Security Platform,

to help organisations safely take advantage of

cloud computing. The new platform achieves this

by securing all content and data traffic--including

e-mail, Web and identity traffic between an

organisation and the cloud.

“Once you move data or applications to the

cloud, you essentially lose most, if not all of your

security visibility, which most organisations find

unacceptable,” said Marc Olesen, Senior Vice

President and General Manager, Content and Cloud

Security at McAfee.

The McAfee Cloud Security Platform offers the

following modules:

- Web Security provides bi-directional protection

for both incoming and outgoing Web traffic through

proactive reputation- and intent-based protection.

- Web traffic generated by smart phones and

tablets can be directed through the McAfee Web

Gateway using standard device management.

- The Intel Expressway Cloud Access 360,

helps enable an enterprise or cloud provider to

provide access control for cloud applications using

enterprise identities.

- McAfee E-mail Security delivers e-mail

protection, integrating comprehensive inbound threat

protection with outbound data loss prevention.

- The Intel Expressway Service Gateway

off loads application level API security, data

transformation, REST to SOAP mediation, and

identity token exchange, to a high speed gateway at

the network edge or in the cloud.

Another key aspect of ensuring Cloud security

is making sure organisations identify data that

should or should not be moved to the Cloud.

With McAfee´s Data Loss Prevention solution,

organisations can understand where its data

resides, classify that data in terms of importance or

sensitivity, build policies to protect that data, and

then enforce those policies while data travels within

or outside the organisation to the Cloud.

Centralised management and reporting is

also provided through integration with the McAfee

ePolicy Orchestrator platform. The security

modules can be deployed as an on-premises

appliance, software-as-a-service solution or a hybrid

combination of both. Regardless of the deployment

form factor, the solutions can be centrally managed

through the ePolicy Orchestrator platform or the

McAfee SaaS Control Console.

Cyquent Technology Consultants

have launched their cloud based retail

application called Biretail. The product

which is also a business intelligence tool

covers retail functions including sales,

inventory, suppliers and customers as

well as reportingÇ analysisÇ dashboards,

alerting and monitoring. it is an easy-to-

use intuitive solution designed from the

“ground up” for retailers. it is a complete

“Bi in a box” solution and delivers all

components that make up a Bi solution

including data warehouse, ETl, OlAP,

reports, dashboards, KPis and others.

“It´s retail ready and it´s easy to start

since it is available on the cloud”, says

Cyquent launches cloud based retail solution

ClOUD SECURITy SUITE FROM MCAFEE

Juniper networks announced

Junosphere Classroom, a new cloud-

based service designed to enable

educational institutions, partners and

customers to cost-effectively educate

students and professionals on

networking fundamentals. Junosphere

Classroom is based on Junosphere, a

new cloud environment that enables

the creation and modeling of virtual

networks and elements running the

industry-leading Junos operating

system.

Providing the practical application

and hands-on experience required to

effectively learn networking requires

a physical lab and a significant

amount of equipment, which is costly

in terms of initial capital expense

and ongoing operational expenses.

Junosphere Classroom overcomes

drawbacks of traditional approaches

by allowing customers to create and

operate virtual Junos-based networks,

decoupling the educational process

from the requirement for physical

hardware and infrastructure.

“Junosphere Classroom brings the

power of Junos to the cloud, enabling

our customers to learn and experiment in

ways never before possible”, said Manoj

Leelanivas, executive vice president,

Junos Application Software Group,

Juniper Networks.

Juniper Networks hosts

Junosphere Classroom resources in

data centres, designed using Juniper´s

networking and security technologies,

which are accessible to students via

a secure Internet connection. This

“any-time, any-where” access to the

Junosphere environment can extend

individual study time, and is also ideal

for providing remote learning and

home-based education.

The three universities currently

using Junosphere Classroom training

applications include Georgia Institute

of Technology, Princeton University and

Queen Mary, University of London.

Juniper announces cloud based education platform

IN THE BEGINNING

• Operational intelligence: automated data

collection and translation, resource planning,

supplier analysis, inventory optimisation

• Customer intelligence: marketing

automation, marketing optimisation, market

basket analysis

• Inventory intelligence: inventory planning,

assortment, size, space, price, promotion,

markdown optimisation

Praveen Thawani, Director, Cyquent Technology

Consultants.

Cloud

INTELLIGENT FEATURES

16 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 17: Reseller Middle East

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Page 18: Reseller Middle East

EMC introduced the EMC Cloud

Tiering Appliance, enabling storage

administrators to effectively manage their

file-based unstructured data. The Cloud

Tiering Appliance delivers a cost-effective

solution for implementing a tiered storage

strategy that aligns the value of an

enterprise´s information with the most

appropriate tier.

Additionally, Cloud Tiering Appliance

integration with EMC VNX unified storage

extends the simplicity, efficiency and

power of VNX storage to clouds. The

Cloud Tiering Appliance enables EMC

VNX to automatically tier data to the

cloud based on IT established policies

while providing automated tiering within a

storage system.

The tiering strategy allows data to be

tiered directly to public, private, or hybrid

clouds; within a VNX unified storage

system with EMC´s Automated Storage

Tiering Suite; and between storage

systems.

“IT managers are still exploring how

to exploit the various cost and efficiency

benefits of the cloud. The potential

beauty of the cloud in its purest sense is

its flexible, cost-efficient and on-demand

nature,” said Mark Peters, Senior Analyst at

the Enterprise Strategy Group.

The solution enables customers to

reduce capital expenses by lowering

cost of ownership through automatic

movement of inactive data to lower

cost tiers of storage or the cloud. It also

provides transparency to the storage

administrator and end users with

automated, administrator-defined policies

that run on a defined schedule. It improves

performance by allowing organisations

to shorten backup windows. It does this

through complementing an organisation´s

backup strategy, removing inactive files

from backup process and freeing up space

on primary storage used better to optimise

primary storage performance.

EMC ANNOUNCES ClOUD-TIERING STORAGE SOlUTION

VMware announced its user-centric

management service for accessing cloud

applications called VMware Horizon App

Manager. The interface represents the

first component of the company´s “Project

Horizon” vision first previewed at VMworld

2010. Future releases of VMware Horizon will

broker user access to a variety of application

types, virtual Windows desktops and data

resources, while delivering security and

control required by businesses.

“The mobile and cloud era dictates

anywhere, any device access to applications

within and outside the firewall, and introduces

fundamental new challenges to the traditional

enterprise security and management model,”

said Brian Byun, Vice President and General

Manager, Cloud Applications, VMware.

More than ever, enterprises are dealing

with two fundamental client computing

pain points ñ providing secure access to an

increasingly mobile workforce; and managing

the burgeoning diversity of data, applications

and devices needed to run their business.

These challenges result from the transformative

nature of cloud computing and the post-PC era.

At its core, VMware Horizon App Manager

includes an identity as a service hub that

securely extends a user´s existing identity in

systems such as Microsoft Active Directory or

other directory options, into third-party public

cloud applications like Box.net, BroadVision,

Google, Salesforce.com, WebEx, Workday

and others. This dramatically simplifies the

management of multiple access credentials,

a necessity brought about by the growing

number of cloud applications now found in a

typical enterprise.

The benefits include easy, single sign-on

access to their cloud applications through

a “storefront like” application portal; control

entitlement and access to cloud applications

through a centralised application catalog;

and extension of existing on-premise identity

infrastructure.

The growing VMware End-User Computing

portfolio seeks to free end users and IT

organisations from more than two decades

of complex, device-centric computing and

deliver a more user-centric, consumer cloud

experience for the enterprise. This approach

to personal computing enables organisations

to leverage public cloud resources while

extending existing security models and

providing access to applications and data from

any device, where and when a user needs

it. Current pricing in the US and Asia pacific

region is $30.00 per user/per year.

VMware releases Cloud application interface

IN THE BEGINNINGCloud

18 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 19: Reseller Middle East

A new iBM study of more than 3,000

global CiOs shows that 60% of

organisations are ready to embrace cloud

computing over the next five years as a

means of growing their businesses and

achieving competitive advantage. The

figure nearly doubles the number of CiOs

who said they would utilise cloud in iBM’s

2009 CiO study.

As demand for ever-growing amounts

of information continues to increase,

companies are seeking simple and direct

access to data and applications that cloud

computing delivers in a cost-efficient,

always-available manner. The use of cloud,

which began in supporting deployments

mainly inside companies, has now also

grown common between organisations and

their partners and customers.

In IBM’s 2009 CIO study, only a third

of CIOs said they planned to pursue cloud

to gain a competitive advantage. This

year´s study shows a dramatic increase in

the focus on cloud, particularly in media

and entertainment, which rose to 73%,

automotive (70%) and telecommunications

(69%).

From a country standpoint, seven out of

ten CIOs in the US, Japan and South Korea,

and 68% in China, now identify cloud as

a top priority. This is dramatically up from

2009, when CIO interest in cloud hovered

at about a third in each of these countries.

The study also found that more than

four out of five CIOs (83%) see business

intelligence and analytics as top priorities

for their businesses as they seek ways to

act upon the growing amounts of data that

are now at their disposal.

CIOs are also increasingly turning their

attention to mobile computing to keep

pace with the fast-changing marketplace.

As the proliferation of mobile devices

with enhanced functionality and mobile

applications continues to grow, mobile

computing and mobility solutions are now

seen by nearly three-quarters of CIOs as a

game-changer for their business--up from

68% in 2009.

IBM´s global CIO study confirms Cloud take-off

Web security and WAn solutions

vendor, Blue Coat Systems released its

CloudCaching Engine for its MACH5

WAn Optimisation appliances and Virtual

Appliances. The CloudCaching Engine,

which uses an asymmetric acceleration

technology, now allows traditional WAn

optimisation solutions to access the public

cloud. in a public cloud SaaS environment,

the infrastructure is not owned or managed

by the customer, so it is not possible to

co-locate a WAn optimisation solution in

such an environment. Blue Coat solves

this problem by using its CloudCaching

Engine to extend WAn optimisation for

acceleration of cloud-based applications,

including those using video, Web-based

interfaces and iPv6 content.

“Already a majority of companies (52.3%)

use SaaS, and the average number of such

applications per company is climbing sharply,

from fewer than two last year to more than

five this year,” said John Burke, principal

research analyst, Nemertes Research.

The Engine enables businesses to more

readily adopt cloud infrastructure to achieve

operational savings.

The CloudCaching Engine leverages new

developments from Blue Coat´s pioneering

content caching specifically designed

to accelerate and optimise new Web

applications, large video files and dynamic

Web 2.0 content.

As an example of accelerated

transactions that take place, the

CloudCaching Engine helps deliver an

average of 40x acceleration for Microsoft

SharePoint BPOS, without requiring

appliances or virtual appliances on Microsoft

cloud infrastructure. For cloud delivered

video applications, Blue Coat can deliver an

increase in over 500x bandwidth capacity

for on demand video, without dedicated

devices on cloud provider´s infrastructure.

With the ability to cache native on-demand

Adobe Flash video using the RTMP protocol,

users can get a high quality video experience

without consuming WAN or Internet gateway

bandwidth beyond that required to serve the

first viewer. The Flash caching capability was

developed in collaboration with Adobe.

Blue Coat WAN optimisation solutions

can also locally cache on-demand Web-

delivered HTML5 and Microsoft Silverlight

video content and perform stream-splitting

on live video. This allows a single stream

of video to serve hundreds of viewers in a

single location.

“WAN optimisation is an important

and proven technology for data centre

consolidation, but companies need a new

generation of WAN optimisation to address

the proliferation of video, Web content and

cloud-based services that are fundamentally

changing how businesses use and access

applications,” said Nigel Hawthorn, VP EMEA

Marketing at Blue Coat.

Pricing for Blue Coat MACH5 appliances

for WAN optimisation start at US$ 2,995.

Blue Coat makes cloud accessible to WAN

Blue Coat ProxySG 9000 MACH5 series appliance

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 19

Page 20: Reseller Middle East

Authorised distributors for the full range of Lexmark products:

Samih KhaddajLevant Regional ManagerMedmark - LebanonP.O.Box: 90-883, JdeidehTel.: +961-1-895 666Fax.: +961-1-873 558Mobile: +961-3-234 126Mobile: +961-3-234 126E-Mail: [email protected]

Nadim ElKhourySales ManagerMedmark - Saudi ArabiaP.O.Box: 30595, Al-Khobar 31952Tel : 00966 3 890 3753Fax : 00966 3 890 3743Mob : 00966 502706499Mob : 00966 502706499E-Mail: [email protected]

Georges SalibaGulf Regional ManagerMedmark- Dubai UAEP.O.Box 61065Tel : 0097148838448Fax : 0097148838608Mob : 00971506509910Mob : 00971506509910Mail : [email protected]

MEDMARK . Head OfficeP.O.Box 11862, Diplomatic AreaKingdom of BahrainTel: +97317535383 Fax: +97317533356Mail : [email protected]

Introducing Lexmark’s new laser printers and multifunction device...closer than ever to your needs

Great performance. Outstanding colors. Eco design

C925DE X466DE E260DN X792DE T656DNE X658DE

Page 21: Reseller Middle East

across the global marketing organisations

and management of outside resources.

Peter Kobs, who recently joined CommVault

from McAfee, has been promoted to vice

president of sales for the Americas. Formerly

CommVault´s area vice president for the US

Central region, Kobs will step into the lead

Americas sales role.

Alistair Clark joins CommVault in the newly

created role of vice president, worldwide

sales operations. He will be responsible

for initiatives to streamline and increase the

effectiveness of CommVault´s sales force

processes.

Clinton O´leary has

joined Citrix Systems

MEA as Senior Partner

Account Manager.

O´Leary joins Citrix

from Intralinks to focus

on the company´s

reseller relationship

and channel

enablement. In his

previous roles O´Leary has worked in the

Middle East with Microsoft and Emirates

Computers and in South Africa with Dell and

Dimension Data.

Christine Carey has

joined Citrix Systems

MEA as Enterprise

Sales Manager, UAE

Private Sector. Carey

leaves her role as

regional manager for

Middle East at Wyse

Technology with more

than 20 years in IT

sales. Carey has a track record of channel

and sales development.

audit account where he served as manager

for two years. James has worked extensively

throughout the Middle East and Africa.

Christopher Saul has

joined Hewlett-

Packard Personal

Systems Group Middle

East as Business

Development

Manager for Client

Virtualisation. He will

work with tier – one

partners such as

Microsoft, Citrix and VMware to provide thin

client, VDI and server based computing

solutions. Christopher brings with him over

12 years of experience in promoting,

architecting and selling thin client, server

based computing and Virtual Desktop

Infrastructure solutions, Christopher joins HP

from Sun Microsystems-Oracle.

ron Miiller, formerly vice president of sales

for the Americas and an 11-year CommVault

veteran, has been promoted to the newly

created role of senior vice president of

worldwide sales. In this role, Miiller will

ensure that the global sales organisation

leverages best practices andestablishes

greater consistency in sales and go-to-

market processes across CommVault´s

US, EMEA, APJ and China operations,

as well as its OEM sales organisation.

David West has been

promoted to senior

vice president of

marketing and

business development

and will continue to

drive worldwide

marketing, business

development and

strategic alliances. He

will focus on consistency of messaging

Samer Sayed has

been appointed as

Iomega´s B2B Regional

Sales Manager, Middle

East and Africa. Samer

Sayed brings more

than 15 years'

experience to Iomega,

most recently at EMC

where he was the

Regional Business Development Manager.

Prior to joining EMC, he worked at Fujitsu

Siemens Computers and Fujitsu Technology

Solutions, Toshiba Gulf FZE and at PSG

division, Hewlett-Packard.

Brian Gammage has

joined VMware in a

global role as chief

market technologist,

based out of UK. He

joins VMware from

Gartner, where he was

a research fellow and

regarded as an

influential global

analyst in the desktop virtualisation market.

Overall he has more than 25 years IT sector

experience, having also worked at HP,

Olivetti Systems and Acorn Computers.

James Caffrey has

joined Xerox Emirates

as its Chief Financial

Officer, reporting to

the General Manager.

James is an Irish

national with a

Bachelors Degree in

Economics and Politics

as well as a Masters

Degree in Economic Science from the

University College in Dublin. Prior to joining

Xerox Emirates, James worked for Glencore

International AG as well as Ernest and Young.

At Ernest and Young, James was appointed

to the delivery team on the Xerox internal

Corporate appointments

IN THE BEGINNINGMovements

Authorised distributors for the full range of Lexmark products:

Samih KhaddajLevant Regional ManagerMedmark - LebanonP.O.Box: 90-883, JdeidehTel.: +961-1-895 666Fax.: +961-1-873 558Mobile: +961-3-234 126Mobile: +961-3-234 126E-Mail: [email protected]

Nadim ElKhourySales ManagerMedmark - Saudi ArabiaP.O.Box: 30595, Al-Khobar 31952Tel : 00966 3 890 3753Fax : 00966 3 890 3743Mob : 00966 502706499Mob : 00966 502706499E-Mail: [email protected]

Georges SalibaGulf Regional ManagerMedmark- Dubai UAEP.O.Box 61065Tel : 0097148838448Fax : 0097148838608Mob : 00971506509910Mob : 00971506509910Mail : [email protected]

MEDMARK . Head OfficeP.O.Box 11862, Diplomatic AreaKingdom of BahrainTel: +97317535383 Fax: +97317533356Mail : [email protected]

Introducing Lexmark’s new laser printers and multifunction device...closer than ever to your needs

Great performance. Outstanding colors. Eco design

C925DE X466DE E260DN X792DE T656DNE X658DE

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 21

Page 22: Reseller Middle East
Page 23: Reseller Middle East
Page 24: Reseller Middle East

LAPTOPS WITH A STYLE

Packard Bell, owned

by the Acer group,

announced its range of

Easynote laptops with a

strong emotional sales

appeal in mid May.

Using eco-friendly

earthy colours and touch materials, the

appeal of the products is described as

“stylish and trendy” and is expected to do

well across the affluent GCC consumer

segment. The product range is segmented

into entry level, mainstream and high end.

The common factor across all the models is

the focus on social media, entertainment,

The vendor is launching a new range of trendy laptops this summer to regain its market share

Aggressive retail thrust in second half 2011, Packard Bell´s GM, Shashank Sharma

IN fOCUSPackard Bell

video chat, picture albums, data storage

and backup and other related accessories

and applications.

“The new Packard Bell range is a “100%

consumer brand”, comments Shashank

Sharma, Country Manager, Packard Bell

Middle East. The product range including

netbooks, desktops and stand alone

monitors is expected to be available across

retail outlets by July 2011. The brand has

been selling across GCC since 2009 and

was previously distributed by Redington,

which also distributes the Acer product

range. However the new Packard Bell range

will be exclusively marketed and distributed

in UAE to the retail segment by FDC

International.

Parallel to the development of the

new range of products, the feeling within

Packard Bell was to have an exclusive

distributor to focus

on the retail segment.

With the volume

market share falling

from 4% in 2009 to

the current level of

1% this has become

more urgent. The aim

is to bring this back to 4% using FDC as the

distributor and the new “emotive” appeal of

the products.

“If you are not managing your inventory

very well in the retail channel, some of

the things you work out on the desk don´t

work out in the field”, explains Sharma.

He intends to support FDC full time to get

the volume sales to their previous levels.

However as a group, “we continue to have

excellent relationship with Redington”, he

asserts.

Sharma´s list of marketing support

activities for FDC include print flyers in

leading newspapers; working with super

retailers to include the Packard Bell brand

in their own communications; availability

of promoters and point of sale materials

at super retail outlets. These marketing

support activities were not available last

year. The other side of activities include

“collect, repair, return”, maintenance

support through a toll free number during

the first year of the warranty and option of

additional two-year warranty.

FDC will be responsible for direct

import of the products into their warehouse

and outward movement to the super retail

outlets. FDC also supplies Acer to the

retail segment but Packard Bell and Acer

products will be managed by two separate

FDC teams. Other than Acer, FDC also

supplies high visibility and fast moving

brands Lenovo, Kaspersky, Sony, Western

Digital and Seagate amongst others, to the

retail segment. “We are very powerful in the

super retail segment because we have a lot

of products that we sell there”, comments

Alan Pourmirza, Infrastructure Manager,

FDC.

From distributor point of view, which

needs to equitably manage all its retail

facing brands, “selling IT products is

like selling ice”, an analogy referring to

the extremely short-term pull of today´s

consumer focused IT products. With

continuous onslaught of new products

almost every month, “time is also the

biggest enemy”. Both inventory at the

warehouse and inventory on the retail

shelves have to be closely managed.

There is another concern on the super

retail front. With limited space on the shop

front and a huge number of ICT brands

and products jostling for visibility, the

most critical parameter for Packard Bell´s

brand in the months of July onwards will

be the “return per square foot “, for super

retailers. No super retailer can afford to

“The new Packard Bell range is a 100% consumer brand”

24 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 25: Reseller Middle East

have a product that doesn´t move sitting on

prime shelf space. “If a product comes and

doesn´t move, we have to quickly decide

what to do”, says Ashish Panjabi, CEO of

consumer wave to take it forward, it

would be like a new organisational setup

in parallel.

Behind the scenes, inside the

consolidated group, the Packard Bell

and Acer teams remain integrated. For

the product design, strategy and OEM

procurement team which contracts

with Intel, Microsoft, board, chipset and

monitor manufacturers, the two brands

are unified in terms of their combined

volumes, product segmentation and

market reach. The financial results of the

two brands are also consolidated. But at

the front end, the two brands face the

market separately.

When Packard Bell merged with Acer

in 2008, there were immediate synergies.

Acer´s strength in laptops helped Packard

Bell to surge ahead in the same segment.

Now when Packard Bell is racing to hit

the consumer market head-on, it remains

to be the same whether the favour will be

returned to Acer in the times ahead.

Watching inventory levels, FDC's Infrastructure Manager, Alan Pourmirza

Packard Bell´s Easy Note product map

“We are very powerful in the super retail segment because we have a lot of products that we sell there”

Jacky´s group.

And that could mean going back to

the drawing board and relooking at the

customer experience, the type of messages

in the communication, the amount of

investment in the media campaigns and

type of store-front promotion.

Will Packard Bell´s new product range

move to the corporate segment? Sharma

clarifies, “That is not the brand objective; as

soon as you go to the office environment

the equation changes”. The channel

partners, service levels, infrastructure

and communication, all need to change.

For Packard Bell, investing in the summer

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 25

Page 26: Reseller Middle East

Monitor made hands-on

For BenQ´s business manager

Mohammed Javeed, the late

night Counter-Strike tournament

involving legendary players,

Emil “Heaton” Christensen and Abdisamad

“Spawn” Mohamed, at Que Club Dubai on 21

May represents the culmination of the effort

by the parent company to roll out the most

advanced gaming monitor.

While carrying the corporate tag line,

“provider of networked digital lifestyle

devices”, the current promotional focus of the

company is the professional monitor segment.

This is the segment that caters to aspiring

gamers and entertainment users, and the

segment that Javed points out is the fastest

growing in the developed economies. Even

in the Gulf, the gaming market is expected to

play a vital role in BenQ´s regional growth. “In

the Middle East and Africa region, we see a

huge potential for technology that takes the

gaming experience to a new level”, clarifies

Manish Bakshi, General Manager of the region.

BenQ´s efforts to accelerate growth and

uptake of this product segment led them to

approach European game vendor, Zowie Gear

The vendor brought in legendary gamers to custom design its new portfolio of gaming monitors.

to help them develop the ultimate gaming

monitor. The Counter-Strike duo team of

“HeatoN” and “SpawN” worked with BenQ´s

prototype development team in Taiwan and

helped develop the near-perfect gaming

monitor. The rest can now go down in history.

“HeatoN” and “SpawN” can look back at their

early years when they spent close to half their

waking life playing Counter-Strike, culminating

in the final roll out of BenQ´s XL 2410T,

advanced gaming monitor.

The development of this advanced gaming

monitor could also have been done by BenQ´s

research and development department, “but it

was their experience that was translated into a

product”, asserts Javed.

Other than the professional monitor

segment for the gaming and lifestyle

community, BenQ segments the remaining

market opportunity into three other product

segments, The lowest end is the essential

monitor segment, which is directed at home

and small office users and is a price conscious

segment. The other two segments are the

corporate and high-end monitor segments,

the latter being used for medical, engineering,

industrial and graphic applications. While the

corporate market is dominated by laptops,

docking stations with large screen monitors

also proliferate in parallel and are reason for

the vendor´s optimism in this market segment.

In total, the regional market is segmented into

four product opportunities.

For sales and distribution across the UAE,

BenQ is using Trigon LLC, which also distributes

other leading consumer brands Viewsonic, LG,

Samsung and Creative. Business development

for the essential monitor series is done by

Trigon´s reseller partners. For the other three

segments namely professional, corporate and

high end monitors, vendor BenQ takes a more

proactive role. For the professional monitor

segment it takes the lead in organising gaming

road shows similar to the one at Que Club.

However engagements with power retailers

for supply of products and price-volume

negotiation, is left to Trigon, which is better

suited in this role than BenQ.

For the corporate and high-end monitor

products, BenQ´s role is in lead generation

and marketing. However once relationships

have been initiated the sales follow up is

handed over to Trigion. The distributor uses

its fifteen-odd channel partners to finalise

relationships with corporate and high-end

customers. With early success in the gaming

and lifestyle product segments, it remains to

be seen what BenQ´s next move will be in

other product segments.

Mohammed Javeed, Business Manager, BenQ Middle East and Africa

BenQ has used legendary Counter-Strike players “HeatoN” and “SpawN” to leapfrog into the gaming product market. Can it replicate this success in other market segments?

IN fOCUSBenQ

26 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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Most advanced gaming monitor: how it was done

Way back in 1999, Emil Christensen played the famous

desktop game, Counter Strike for eight hours a day. As

gaming technology improved, so did his intention to keep

winning and he turned professional. He played for 15 hours

at a stretch, every day for seven years.

Along with his workplace colleague Abdisamad Mohamed, they are

now Counter Strikes legendary players, “HeatoN” and “SpawN”. When

BenQ approached Zowie, their Swedish gaming accessory employer

to help develop the best gaming monitor that technology can provide,

“HeatoN and SpawN” were ideal choices to participate in its product

development. The list of parameters to be incorporated in BenQ´s

monitor rolled out pretty fast, when the duo and their friends sat down

to mull it over. “It was spot-on”, recalls Christensen. After BenQ´s factory

rolled out the prototype, the duo travelled to Taiwan to test the model. At

site they went through more iteration, during which they struggled with

bugs and balancing colour palettes. But their efforts have now paid off

for both vendor and gaming community. For Christensen who all along

preferred playing on his ancient CRT monitor and seldom played on a

LED monitor, BenQ´s latest gaming monitor is now his best.

Specifications: The shooting game mode of the 24.60 inch LED

monitor from BenQ was hands-on developed by “HeatoN” and “SpawN”.

A smart scaling, hot key button allows gamers to switch between four

viewing modes enhancing close ups or wide angle views. The backlit

LED screen has a refresh rate of 120 Hz or 120 times every second using

hyper speed video processing technology. Further each pixel has glow

duration of 2 milli seconds, implying there is no residual glow when the

refresh signal comes back. This makes for ultra-sharp movements

across the screen. The monitor allows two independent video

feeds to display at the same time and is Nvidia 3D vision ready.

The XL 2410T is priced at $490 across the UAE.

Counter-Strike legendary players “SpawN” and “HeatoN” facing BenQ´s LED XL 2410T monitor which they helped develop.

WHEN BLACK IS NOT BLACK!One of the key effort by the gaming duo was to ensure the enemy is visible in the shadows. In other words the enemy colour was calibrated as black while the shadows in which he lurks as near-black. As the enemy lunges out of the corner, “HeatoN” and “SpawN” made sure the rest of the gaming community can spot him.

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 27

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PRP

IN fOCUS

Epin enters GCC

Qatar´s skyline

is being rebuilt.

Many localities of

yesterday are now

a five storey heap of rubble.

The new airport shimmers in

the distant haze, hanging in

its final stages. Many other

billion dollar projects are still

on the drawing board.

The recent availability

of a project management

application suite is expected

to help manage timelines

and costs in a more effective

manner. Speaking at the May session of

the CIO Summit Mena in Doha, QPMs IT

Manager, Christopher McDaniel, spelt it out

for consortium CIOs across the region. A

project resource planning application (PRP)

can cut down cost by 5-7% and manage risk

between 10-25% better than the current

The region´s projects are attracting a new breed of project suites

IN fOCUS

Eliminating the manual factor in projects, QPM´s, IT Manager, Christopher McDaneil

in a project. But when they do risk

management they do it in the beginning,

and never really look at the plan again.

They seldom examine if the risk actually

occurred or update it manually across

different projects”, says McDaniel speaking

from his years of experience.

Today everybody understands the

value of ERP. But twenty years ago it was

hard to convince users that is the right

way forward. “PRP today is where ERP

was two decades ago”, says McDaniel.

To extend the comparison, a PRP system

integrates scheduling, change, cost, risk

and document functions. And a typical ERP

system integrates manufacturing, supply

chain, finance, customer relationship and

human resources.

The real mindset change is about

moving away from Microsoft Projects way

of managing projects which is 95% manual

and 5% inbuilt, towards the PRP way--which

is as many generations ahead of older

suites as “sticks and stones to make fire”.

One such PRP application that is now

available in the GCC is from UK based Epin.

The application by the same name is being

used by McDaniel´s employer QPM in Doha

as well as globally by Nissan and Toyota to

manage their retail refurbishments.

Epin has made early gains in the region.

It is being rolled out in the real estate

division of Al Futtaim Group, Abu Dhabi´s

Urban Planning Council, Commercial Bank

of Qatar, and Gredco in Bahrain.

A key driver for adoption in GCC

according to Robin Shipston, Epins

MENA Director, “are problems that failed

document management and collaboration

have caused”. Not being able to identify

and communicate the core problem

appears to be a reason for breakdown in

workflow. Problems of translating technical

matters and work nuances into a second

language, appears another important factor.

PRP systems like Epin eliminate the

manual factor across complex projects,

since they use standard workflow templates

options.

For a multi-billion dollar roll out project,

spanning a couple of years, involving

multiple contractors with additional

unknowns of new green technology or

materials, an integrated project suite, that

eliminates the “guess work” element is the

logical way forward.

Most project management systems

are dominantly a manual process. Careful

planning and scheduling is done in the

beginning. Once the project is underway

it is difficult, time consuming and

cumbersome to keep updating the project

with changes. If the same parameter needs

to be updated in multiple projects and an

overall cost variation to be generated, it

can be days before the result emerges. And

when it comes, it is usually a best guess,

“something that may or may not actually be

there”.

PRP

represents

an integrated

approach to

managing

project

management.

The suite

does not

just provide

an updated

schedule of

time lines and

milestones,

but allows top management to see their

profit and loss in real time, across a

single project or multiple projects without

the ‘guess work’ element. Real-time

dashboards are available at multiple levels

of management for quick assessment.

“Most people don´t do risk management

"Most people don't do risk management in a project. But when they do risk management they do in the beginning, and never really look at the plan again."

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 29

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QPM´s customer portfolio

CoMPonEnTS oF PRP SUITE

Barwa Financial district

includes office towers,

five-star business hotel,

restaurants, conference centre and

retail shopping area.

Barwa commercial avenue includes

eight kilometres of retail avenue, with

600 retail spaces and 850 residential

units and offices, food courts,

groceries stores, pharmacies.

and have modules across all faces of

project management.

At present Epin is in the process of

setting up offices across the GCC and does

not have any channel partners, system

integrators or consultants in the region.

The sales engagements are done at C-level

since PRP is a high end strategic and

commercial tool. The solution is available

as a hosted application or as system

resident.

The integration of Epin into an

organisations IT environment is usually

quite smooth. “We get support from IT

departments within organisations because

our systems have a light touch on their

activities and don't put a strain on tight

resources”, says Shipson.

This can be a make or break factor

for implementation of an enterprise

application. If the implementation process

is complicated and requires considerable

change management, the probability of

early success and predictable return on

investment reduces. IT departments are

usually under pressure to make back office

(QPM is wholly owned subsidiary of Doha based Barwa and Qatari Diar estate developers)

systems sitting on ERP support customer

facing projects. “A lot of time and money

can be wasted trying to make square

pegs fit round holes”, says Shipson.

Implementation of a PRP like Epin

usually takes about 30 days. Half of the

time is to get the base line in place and

the rest for setting up configurations

and training. A typical team will include

a project manager who is also the

super user with security access to

all levels. Others

include schedulers

and document

management

handlers. Schedulers

and handlers can be

interchanged between

projects. The project

manager remains

on board till the

project is closed. As

the demand for PRP

applications increases

in the region, Epin will need to scale its

go-to-market strategy accordingly.

IN fOCUSPRP

30 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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Page 32: Reseller Middle East

IN fOCUSDCC

ME RETAIL ACAdEMY AWARdS 2011

Distree Events, the organisers of Digital

Consumer Channel, Middle East and Africa,

handed out vendor awards at the fourth

‘Middle East retail Academy 2011 Awards’.

A live electronic voting session determined

the winners in 11 product categories. in

addition, awards were handed out for

specialist and volume distributor categories.

Retailers evaluated vendors on a number

of criteria including partner engagement,

channel strategy, pricing, stock management,

product evolution, margin potential, channel

management and partner programme.

“The fact that there are so many different

winners underlines the variety that still exists

in the market,” said Farouk Hemraj, CEO of

Distree Events, the organisers of the awards.

“DCC MEA and MERA celebrate this

diversity, bringing retailers, distributors and

vendors together for a business-focused

three-day event each year.”

The nominations for each category

were determined using data extracted from

Monthly Monitor Report--a service that

provides regular snapshot of views, opinions

and the business climate in the region. DCC

MEA 2011 was partnered by Belkin and Intel

as its Platinum sponsors. Dell, Grand Stores,

Kaspersky and Lenovo supported as Gold

sponsors while Cisco, Pro Technology, Asbis,

ITE Distribution and NAVTEQ were Silver

sponsors.

Redington and Eros picked up the volume

and specialist distributor awards respectively.

Retailers vote on eleven vendor categories

Dell awarded desktop, notebook, netbook of the year

HP awarded printing vendor of the year

Kaspersky awarded vendor of the year

Microsoft awarded gaming vendor of the year

32 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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What is the primary objective of a Digital

Consumer Channel (DCC) event?

Hemraj: DCC is the ultimate networking

event for senior executives from the retail

channel in the Middle East and Africa region

focusing on consumer electronics, digital

devices and ICT products. It is a platform

where high-level retailers from around the

region are brought into productive contact

with vendors.

DCC is also about providing an

opportunity to network among peers, learn

about market data that will help retailers and

vendors better understand the region and

make informed decisions for their businesses.

How was this year’s DCC event different

from the previous?

Hemraj: This year saw the launch of

Gamestream11. Backed by Red Distribution,

Microsoft and Sony, Gamestream11 used the

DCC platform to inform the region’s retail

channel about the latest developments

in gaming technology. As well as share

go-to-market strategies and help them with

consumer engagement.

As a sign of economic recovery, we saw

a record turnout of visitors touching 500 on

the second day of the event. This also meant

a record number of one-on-one meetings

recorded at the event from a little more than

1,000 meetings booked before the event to a

final recorded number of close to 2,000.

What was the most significant feedback

from participants?

Hemraj: We always receive positive

feedback from our participants. Based on

their feedback from previous years, we have

added new industry segments this year as

well as added educational sessions like

workshops and panel discussions.

How does DCC vary from those in other

parts of the world?

Hemraj: The main concept is the same in

all the events but the audience is different

catering to the channel needs of the market.

The Middle East is the only place for Digital

Consumer Channel. Our main event is in

Monaco with DISTREE XXL that focuses

on the distributors for the EMEA region. In

Russia, we have a technology week that

not only has a retail segment but a separate

segment for VAR’s.

Are there are any planned changes to next

year’s DCC?

Hemraj: We can only make these changes

once we have had an opportunity to evaluate

feedback from this year’s event. This could

be the introduction of new segments, new

vendors and speakers, additional workshops

and market data.

Interview with Farouk Hemraj, CEo of event organiser Distree

A record number of 2,000 one-on-one meetings was the highlight of Digital Consumer Channel 2011 event at Fujairah, UAE.

Software vendor of the yearWINNER: KasperskyAlso nominated: Adobe, Microsoft, Sage, Symantec

TV vendor of the yearWINNER: SamsungAlso nominated: lG, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba

Mobile communications vendor of the yearWINNER: Apple Also nominated: BlackBerry, HTC, nokia, Samsung

Gaming vendor of the yearWINNER: MicrosoftAlso nominated: EA, logitech, nintendo, Sony

Home networking vendor of the year WINNER: linksys by CiscoAlso nominated: Belkin, D-link, Edimax, netgear

Storage vendor of the yearWINNER: SeagateAlso nominated: imation, iomega, Sandisk, WD

Printing vendor of the year WINNER: HPAlso nominated: Brother, Canon, Epson, Samsung

imaging vendor of the yearWINNER: nikonAlso nominated: Canon, Kodak, Samsung, Sony

Accessories vendor of the yearWINNER: PromateAlso nominated: Belkin, Genius, logitech, Microsoft

Digital lifestyle vendor of the yearWINNER: AppleAlso nominated: Canon, Merlin, Samsung, Sony

Desktop, notebook, netbook vendor of the yearWINNER: DellAlso nominated: Acer, HP, Samsung, Sony

Farouk Hemraj, CEO Distree Events

“DCC is the ultimate networking event for senior executives from the retail channel”

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 33

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An exciting moment at DCC

2011, was the announcement of

Microsoft´s Consumer Channel

Group (CCG), still under formation but in

all probability ready to operate from July

2011. Amongst its immediate objectives: to

create more touch points with consumers,

better communication of what can be done

with Microsoft devices and to elevate the

experience to a “cool” level.

Looking further into the details, the

formation of the CCG is not expected to change

the product distribution structure for the retail

or super retail segments. But it´s expected

to work aggressively towards integrating

Microsoft´s portfolio of disparate products into

a more unified whole with improved consumer

experience and appeal.

The four product segments included as

part of the CCG are: gaming consoles including

Xbox and Kinect; experience accessories like

keyboard, mice, headsets, Webcam; finished

packaged products like Office and Windows;

and Windows Phone.

IN fOCUSMicrosoft

Connecting the consumerA channel is being created to enhance excitement accross its retail and consumer product portfolio

"The idea is not to increase any category

over the other. It´s all about how we create

excitement around our Windows platform",

says Ghassan El Hout, Sales Manager for

entertainment and devices, Microsoft Gulf.

On the engagement side, the CCG

is expected to improve cooperation with

OEM partners, telecom companies, power

retailers and work with them towards creating

“excitement”. "We are partnering with all OEMS

and we stand at an equal distance from them.

But we want the consumers to be picking the

right choice", says El Hout.

Microsoft´s immediate revamp of its

approach to the consumer

segment can also be

explained by what is

happening in the retail

segment. Ask any retail

major and the conclusion

is the same. The whole

consumer IT landscape is

changing-smart phones

have exploded and today

you find a second smart

phone in the hands of

the consumer. With high

product refresh rates from

many brands, consumers

are finding it hard not

to walk into retail outlets and experience the

product. Add to that the strong need to be

connected across social media sites with the

number of new applications to support this and

the pull becomes very strong.

“If you ask a consumer why they have

bought a tablet, most of them don´t have a

very strong answer”, says Jacky´s CEO, Ashish

Panjabi. “A lot of the footfalls in the retail outlets

are about self-justification”. Consumers know

the product has a utility but often find it difficult

to justify to themselves why they should buy

it. The need to be convinced varies from

consumer to consumer.

Today almost all consumer devices are

accessing applications and information through

the public cloud in some way--whether it is a

tablet, slate, windows phone, iPhone or iPad

and so on. The CCG intends to convince this

community of users that, “the Windows platform

is a cool platform, it´s beneficial to use it, and it

complements the total device ownership which

they already have”.

“It´s also to change the way people

purchase a PC-from a DOS based machine at a

rock bottom price deal towards a solution and

need fulfiller”, reflects El Hout.

On the product distribution side, Microsoft

Gulf is using ITE and Logicom for its Windows

and Office applications. For its gaming range it

is using distributors Al Futtaim Electronics and

Pluto Games. The channel community includes

around 90 retailers and 400 retail partners

across five GCC countries: UAE, Qatar, Kuwait,

Bahrain and Oman.

Update on Windows Phone More than 17,000 applications have been developed for this device since Windows Phone was announced. At a recent briefing the vendor announced the availability of Mango, a smartphone developer tool to help build better internet connectivity applications. This is expected to allow easier switching between applications and connections on a smartphone.

Working on the Microsoft consumer experience, Ghassan El Hout, sales manager for entertainment and devices

34 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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Page 36: Reseller Middle East
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Lenovo

IN fOCUS

High-end SME and retail, key areas

At DCC 2011, a key note

presentation by Howard Davies,

from the channel market research

company Context, showed

declining quarter-on-quarter notebook

volume sales from the corporate segment.

By contrast there was climbing demand

from the small and medium enterprise

(SME) segment.

One of the key drivers for SME growth is

the demand for technology that spans both

business and personal needs and provides

access from a range of devices. “SME

decision makers and employees are reaping

the benefits of social networking tools in

their personal lives and are asking how they

can derive same kind of benefits in their

businesses. They want to make information

easier to find, share and connect with people

they need”, says Lenovo´s Middle East and

With growth and product movement in these segments, Lenovo has made them a priority for this year

Africa, head Jack Lee.

So how does the SME segment fit into

Lenovo´s regional market segmentation?

Lenovo segments the market opportunity into

three: corporate, small and medium enterprise

and home segment. For the corporate

segment the distributors are categorised

under the CAB business and include IBM

stalwarts like GBM, EBM as well as C4 and

Jumbo Enterprise. In the CAB business,

Lenovo is fully engaged in the development of

relationships with potential customers.

For the CAB business, the sales cycles

are long and there are deals to be closed.

Hence it works closely with its partners for this

customer segment. Lenovo customers include

Etihad, Etisalat, Du, Abu Dhabi

University and others. The

company has 14% market

share in this segment, second

after HP, followed by Dell.

However Lenovo´s

current focus is the SME. In

the region, more than 90% of

the businesses are classified

as SME. Lenovo again

classifies the overall SME

market into low, medium and high end. It´s the

high-end SME segment that has got Lenovo

excited and where it sees the fastest return.

“The focus is to grow fast and build good

relationships and loyalty with this segment

of SME”, says Djillali Lahiani, Development

Manager, Lenovo Middle East.

So high is the channel priority that a

partner focussing on the high-end SME

segment for Lenovo channel, is actually a

corporate channel partner for HP.

To reach the home customer through

super retail outlets, Lenovo uses either a

fulfilment or value added partner. In the

UAE, Lenovo is using FDC International as

a value added partner. It also has a special

programme for super retail partners such

as Carrefour, Sharaf DG and Jumbo, where

it owns the relationship end to end. For any

promotion in this retail segment it is a joint

effort between

Lenovo, FDC

and the retailer.

“We like to be

involved in the

management of

the relationship.

We can add

value and we

can help by

presenting an

end to end solution for all parties”, says

Lahiani.

Lenovo is also optimistic on capitalising

in the upsurge of social networking devices

through its partner devices like Windows

Phone and its own Ideapad series of

notebooks. “Microsoft is taking the small

office-home office segment very seriously”,

comments Lahiani.

“For super retail promotions especially during festival times, replenishment is more challenging”

Continue on page 39

Focussing on the high end SME, Lenovo´s Djillali Lahiani

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 37

Page 38: Reseller Middle East

Enhanced VAR and retail programmes

The upheavals

of the region

have affected

business

sentiment and buying to

a certain extent. Couple

that with the lingering

recession of 2010 and you

come up with a sluggish

corporate buying pattern

now visible in the second

quarter of 2011. ”Our

Middle East markets are on fire right now.

So for the markets it´s like flat growth”, says

Hesham Tantawi, Vice President, Asbis

Enterprises.

Even for Toshiba with a wide range of

products, the corporate buying pattern for its

notebooks has changed. Toshiba operates in

three price bands and typically has not been

a price conscious brand. The first price band

With sluggish corporate sales the vendor is enhancing its VAR programme and regional super retail strategy

is the entry level, which is a price conscious

band and prone to discounts and price wars.

The price band starts at $500 upwards. The

second price band is the mid range and ends

at the $1,500 price point. This is the volume

segment and accounts for close to 40% of

Toshiba´s regional business.

The last is the high-end segment,

which is above the $1,500 price point and

which Santosh Varghese, Regional General

Manager, Toshiba Middle East admits is

not doing so well. “I think something has

completely changed in this segment”. For a

segment that seldom looked at the pricing

and focussed more on the total cost of

ownership, it´s moved towards lowest price

behaviour.

In order to

boost corporate

sales at the high-

end segment,

Toshiba is

focussing on value

added channel

players on the

lookout for last

minute deals and

pricing. The role

of a Toshiba VAR

manager would be to maintain relationships

with these players so they approached

Toshiba and not a competitor at the time of

final negotiations. Incentives for both SME

and enterprise facing VAR´s have been

announced as part of the recent initiative.

Along with the enhanced VAR

programme, Toshiba also has a rebate

incentive scheme called the “profit for

performance”. This is a rebate programme

Retail and VAR programme revamp, Toshiba´s Santosh Varghese

Toshiba´s notebook range

- Satellite Pro, affordable prices

- Tecra, professional on-the-go

- Portege, for style-conscious

which recognises the commitment of retailers

and dealers and rewards performers who

achieve volume and product mix targets. For

promoters, merchandisers, and other shop

floor sales staff, Toshiba has a “sell and win”

point system which can be converted into

“kind or cash rewards”.

Along with its corporate focus, Toshiba

is also revamping its regional super retail

strategy. It has brought in more direct and

indirect players to manage volumes in this

consumer facing channel segment. In UAE

and Bahrain it continues to use Al Futtaim

Electronics as an indirect channel partner to

manage super retailers.

In Saudi Arabia it has direct relationship

with Jarir Book stores with its 24 outlets

across the country, as well as Extra with its 17

outlets across the country. It uses separate

distributor partners for the corporate market

and reseller channel segments. Since Saudi

Arabia accounts for half of its regional sales

and is a captive market, the company has

IN fOCUSToshiba

For a segment that seldom looked at the pricing and focussed more on the total cost of ownership, it´s moved towards lowest price behaviour

38 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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VAR PROGRAMMERESELLER (SMB+SOHO) Support during sales

run-rate pricing

rebate programme

Product training every quarter

Demand generation

Periodic channel news

Access to Toshiba manager

RESELLER (LARGE ENTERPRISE) Support during sales

run-rate pricing

lower pricing for volume deals

rebate programme

Product training every quarter

Demand generation

Periodic channel news

Demo systems at discount

Advertising support

Participation in seminars

Supported service fee charges

Access to Toshiba manager

created a special channel structure and a local

warehouse to manage the growing volumes.

Across Qatar it also uses Jarir Bookstores

as a direct channel partner and is beginning

to engage with Carrefour. Across Oman it

uses Al Bhawan IT division for corporate sales

and Al Bhawan Electronics for its retail sales.

For both Qatar and Oman, it uses separate

distributor partners for the corporate market

and reseller channel segments.

With super retailers themselves

enhancing their regional focus and increasing

the number of outlets, Toshiba has created

its strategic retail partner programme. “Since

they are present in all the countries, it makes

sense to talk to one central point”, explains

Varghese. Under this programme the sales

strategy will be negotiated and finalised

centrally but implemented locally.

For super retail promotions across the

region, the targets are jointly managed by

Toshiba, the distributor and the super retail

partner. Since its strategic retail programme is

transparent to the distributor, Varghese rules

out any conflict of interest. And wherever

the distributor and the super retailer are

the same, as in Saudi Arabia, the model is

optimally suited.

While the market opportunity is

segmented into three categories, the

channel partners are also segmented based

on volume sales. From the highest to lowest

by volume are, diamond, platinum and gold

partners. The diamond partners are usually

the super retailers and sell more than

300 units per quarter. These partners are

managed directly by Lenovo. The platinum

partners usually sell between 100-300

units per quarter and are jointly managed

by Lenovo and the distributor. “The gold

partners who are the lowest in the rung only

because of the volume and not because of

importance”, stresses Lahiani, sell less than

100 units per quarter.

Similar to the priority focus on the high-

High-end SME and retail, key areas

end SME segment, increasing the number

of diamond partners for Lenovo is another

priority. Lenovo has created the Core Channel

programme to acquire specific resellers, roll

out specific promotions and offer special

incentives for achievement.

For the UAE, Lenovo maintains a

distribution centre for rapid and urgent

deployment of stocks. While channel

partners import regular or run-rate stocks

from Shanghai, the UAE office also maintains

stocks under its control. This is used to close

urgent deals where availability of stock may

be used in the final negotiation. It is also used

during promotions and events or for fast

moving products when stock replenishments

are required within 1-2 working days. The

Dubai based distribution centre can also

supply urgent stocks to Lebanon, Qatar,

Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

However for all stock ordering, there is

only one procurement system. Under normal

circumstances distributors receive goods

within 21-40 days, which is the usual lead time.

In other cases the vendor may use either the

Dubai distribution centre for partial fulfilment,

or may airlift stocks from Shanghai itself based

on the requirement and availability.

“For super retail promotions especially

during festival times, replenishment is more

challenging”, says Lahiani. A super retail

establishment like Carrefour will only buy-in

when it sees the value of the complete offer

and controls the deal end to end. Since stock

replenishments are accepted only twice

a week, holding stock at the partner is a

critical factor in going ahead with Lenovo´s

promotional offer. With the vendor talking

responsibility for all key relationships across

SME´s and super retailers, the next six months

will indicate whether these efforts are paying

off or not.

In order to set targets with its channel

partners, Toshiba uses a market sizing

approach. Data from IDC and GfK is used to

lock the current and projected base size of a

market segment. The target share from the

overall market as well as the target share

per price band is worked out from the base

size. Lastly the company reviews its channel

players operating per market and per price

band.

As per figures from GfK Retail and

Technology tracking, Toshiba had a market

share of 23% of the notebook volumes

shipped from July to December 2010. And

for mobile computers it had a share of 18% of

the volume shipped for the full year of 2010.

Overall Toshiba´s retail volumes grew by 9%

in 2010 over the previous year.

On the logistics side, all imports by

regional and local channel partners are first

shipped to Dubai as the central hub. From

here they are forwarded to the regional

channel players warehouses. Shipping orders

are placed on the basis of three month

forecast and inventory is managed at 30-45

order stock. With a robust product and brand,

regional growth appears to be next highlight

in this year´s calendar.

From page 37

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 39

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Local base, regional focus

The uK based component

manufacturer is looking at setting

up a testing and packaging plant

in Dubai. At present integral

manufactures its products in Taiwan and

ships them to uK. At the plant in new

london each of its products is then quality

tested and shrink wrapped and sealed for

forwarding to 55 other countries.

The problem is you need volumes to

do that and we are trying to build volumes”,

says Integral Memory´s Sanjiv Kotecha,

speaking at DCC 2011. If the trading volumes

across the UAE and the region go up, the

products will be bulk shipped from Taiwan to

Dubai, loosely packed in trays. At Dubai the

products will be quality tested, repacked and

made available for re-export. Since Dubai

is better placed for re-export than London,

with cheaper labour costs, “that will be the

ultimate aim”, says Kotecha.

The Dubai plant investment is expected

to be around $0.2million. Similar to the UK

setup, Kotecha expects to use the spare

capacity of the proposed Dubai plant to pick

up local orders for component testing and

Starting up a component testing and packing line and entering the Indian market are targets for its UAE operations

packaging. “We are

always being asked

to do other peoples

stuff”, referring to the

testing and packaging

contracts, managed by

the 50 employee team

in New London.

Other than the Gulf, Kotecha has his eye

set on India as the next target destination.

“That is a fantastically growing market”, close

to Dubai and can also be serviced from Dubai.

Integral currently has offices in Spain,

France, Portugal and Netherlands as well as UK

and UAE. The current product range includes

memory cards, mobile memory, USB flash

drives, encrypted USB drives, card readers and

adapters and DRAM memory chips.

Integral expects its new solid state

drives (SSD), encrypted flash drives, USB 3.0

flash drives and micro SD to drive growth

in the region. The SSD are made from flash

layer technology using an additional linear

dimension. They have no moving parts,

consume less power and generate less

heat. At present however they are about 3-4

times more expensive than conventional

storage devices. “For people who understand

technology and the early adopters this

product has an immediate market”, says

Kotecha. As the price drops this product

segment is expected to compete and

overtake sales of conventional external and

internal storage devices. “The Ipad is all SSD”,

Kotecha points out.

The other differentiated product from

Integral is the encrypted USB. With corporate

data loss, a serious legal issue in UK, the

research and development team in the

country came up with a password protected

USB. “Research shows that most users lose

their flash within the first year of usage”. The

encrypted USB from Integral has a hardware

set password that cannot be deleted.

Incorrect entry more than six times triggers

erasing of the stored data.

About the other products, micros SD are

now used in tablets, smart phones, cameras

and other consumer devices. With the

exploding consumer market for smart-phones

and tablets in the region, the company is

bullish on its 32GB product in this segment.

The faster USB 3.0

is expected to be

available from middle

of 2011.

In the UAE, Integral

uses Touchmate as

its distributor. Holding

stocks for flash memory is usually the trickiest

amongst channel partners due to volatile

pricing and life cycle. But since Integral only

manufactures this product segment, it is

ready to take the risk and hold the stock for

its partners. “We are used to it” says Kotecha,

“and we can handle the risk of holding

the inventory”. It also has considerable

experience working on promotions with

European super retailers like Tesco and Asda

including two-for-one and bundled offers. If

Kotecha gets the UAE volumes to shoot up,

India and the rest of the region are logical

next steps.

Boosting UAE volumes, Integral´s Sanjiv Kotecha

“We are used to it and we can handle the risk of holding the inventory”

The encrypted USB from Integral has a hardware set password that cannot be deleted. Incorrect entry more than six times triggers erasing of the stored data.

Integral Memory

IN fOCUS

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 41

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IN fOCUSTwinmos

For Dubai based Twinmos the

core business of the company is

memory related products. it has

contract manufacturing plants in Taiwan and

research and development for new products

is done out of Dubai. its product range

includes flash memory cards and drives,

memory modules, solid state drives, portable

drives, hi-speed hubs, micro SD chips, uSB

3.0 add-in cards, uSB 3.0 and 2.0 cables.

Historically it started as a manufacturer of

memory chips for system integrators. Even now

this remains an important part of its business.

System integrators who assemble desktops,

servers and workstations based on bulk orders

require memory chips. They also need memory

chips to upgrade older systems or for after

Bullish on memory productsSteady demand for memory related products has the company exporting most of its production into regional and far-away markets

sales and repair which is a smaller part of the

business. These are supplied by Twinmos.

Even large OEMs source memory chips

from Twinmos. Original memory chips for

established notebook brands are more

expensive than the chips supplied by

Twinmos. Memory upgrades prior to the final

sale is a common requirement for resellers of

established brands. Hence there is a demand

for memory upgrades from Twinmos even for

established brands.”We have a solution for

all branded PCs”, says Mohd Mazharul Islam,

Managing Director of Twinmos.

In the UAE, Twinmos acts as its own

distributor. The Dubai operations is the hub for

exports into Africa, rest of the gulf, Persian Gulf,

Levant, Eastern Europe, CIS and south Asia. In

other countries Twinmos uses a distributor to

manage its sales and business development.

Distributors in other countries are

expected to send in regular three-month

sales forecasts. Orders cycles start from

the third week of the month and goods are

shipped by the end of the month.

All goods are air shipped from the plant

in Taiwan to Dubai and from Dubai to other

countries. An inventory of 30 days stock is

maintained in Dubai. Form its plant in Taiwan

it receives goods in two types of packing.

For its channel community it receives goods

in bulk packing and for its retail business it

receives goods in smaller packs for retail

store shelves.

“There is back and forth information on

inventory”, says Mazharul, since its objective

is to maintain just in time stocks at its Dubai

warehouse hub.

Approximately 50% of the goods

imported into Dubai are re-exported by

Twinmos to other countries. Out of the

remaining 50% sold into the local market

through its reseller community, Mazharul

estimates another 30% moves out of the

country. That brings the net re-exported out

of Dubai to 80%. Any reduction to the 5%

local duty surcharge would greatly benefit the

local reseller community in their re-exports

since it would drop the price point.

With converging form factors across the

flash drive and solid state drives, Mazharul’s

medium term outlook is to focus on the micro

SD as the driver of Twinmos’ growth.

Exports major part of UAE sales, Mohd Mazharul Islam, Managing Director, Twinmos.

42 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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pROfILEItqan

When Feras Al-Jabi, General

Manager of itqan received

the Feigenbaum leadership

Excellence Award in early 2011, recognising

him as an accomplished leader, it was also

recognition of how itqan has repositioned

itself to meet the demands of its

customers.

The Abu Dhabi based systems

integration company has been in operation

since 1984. However it is only over the

last ten years that it has started offering

enterprise applications and solutions along

with its traditional offering of hardware and

infrastructure.

Being at the helm of the company since

1998, Al-Jabi has structured the company

to foster close engagement with its public

sector customers who have been with Itqan

since its origin. Rather than migrate away to

the multitude of other market opportunities

in the UAE and GCC, Al-Jabi has chosen to

offer newer and more varied technology

solutions to this portfolio of long term

customers. The approach has been to offer

new solutions to existing clients rather than

existing solutions to new clients.

Explaining this Al-Jabi says, “Maintaining

long term relationships with them, is more

healthier and profitable than to keep moving

outside the markets we have developed”.

Itqan defines its primary customers as

the government sector covering four areas

of defence, education, healthcare and

citizen centric departments. The last area

includes service intensive departments with

continuously scalable requirements and

accountability built around the customer´s

customer.

Preparing itssecond wave

The oil and gas market segment was

where Itqan historically started its business.

Today this remains more of a supporting

market after the government, rather than its

primary market. While the telecom segment

is an opportunity, ITqaan has not developed

any specific solution or internal practice for

this vertical. For this segment it offers its

standard practice engagements.

Inbuilt in Itqan´s previous five year

strategic planning is the continuing and

primary focus towards the public sector. This

is one of the reasons for Itqan´s long term

stability in the region. Business expansion

and growth of the sector, pro-technology

governance, migration, integration and

deployment of new technologies have

contributed to return Itqan´s time and cost

investment towards this segment.

Al-Jabi describes the return on

investment from this sector as, “fair, enough

and plenty”. And buzz words describing

its strategic approach to this market as

“focussed, responsive and nimble”.

Another possible reason for Itqan´s

long term stability is the careful selection

of technology platforms. Starting off with

only a hardware infrastructure service, the

company now has four mature practices

that it can offer its public sector customers.

The most recent solutions are built around

Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM platform

and Microsoft Sharepoint Portal. It also offers

SAP and Oracle enterprise applications

and implementation. However the return

on investment focus is around Microsoft

technologies and less on SAP and Oracle.

Itqan selects the technologies based on

business needs rather than the “latest and

greatest solution” available.

Facing the market is the current umbrella

of practices including hardware infrastructure,

enterprise applications, business intelligence

and scalable service support. “At any

particular time, we come across lots of

businesses which require at least two

portfolio of offerings to be delivered at once”,

says Al-Jabi. Most customer requirements are

covered by these four practices.

Considering the high profile and critical

nature of its public sector customers, the

challenge for Itqan has been to manage their

growing requirements using its established

practices. Till recently, it has neither found

“our structure has been simple and clear for years. our strategy is our core market, core offering and partnership”

Growing competition and increasing regional demand for its services are making it bullish to cross over

44 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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the need to venture into a vast portfolio of

technology offerings for each practice nor

stretch itself out by developing business

across adjacent geographical regions.

“Our structure has been simple and

clear for years. Our strategy is our core

market, core offering and partnership.

We have planned our capacity in terms of

these solutions without sacrificing quality of

service, nor the reach”, says Al-Jabi.

But the rapid regional economic

growth has also brought its share of foreign

competitors with a different basket of

strengths and solutions. One such bloc of

competitors that continue to penetrate the

local market is Indian system integrators. An

important difference between Itqan and this

bloc of players lies in the nature and origin of

their growth.

Itqan originated as a hardware services

company, and has gained expertise in

application and software development over

time. The Indian bloc have originated from the

realm of software development and have built

up application integration skills on multiple

hardware platforms over time. Both appear

to have the same goal but have progressed

through different streams of work.

Another key differentiator is the

vast factory of software developers

available to any India based systems

integrator. Perceiving this differentiator

as a weakness Itqan has tied up with the

India office of Capgemini to outsource

software development on a need basis.

Most of Itqan´s projects are now a hybrid

of onsite and offshore services, also called

mixed delivery, between the two partners.

Specifically Itqan has left the SAP and Oracle

development resources to its Indian partner

as well as other complex projects. However,

“CAP gemini is not involved in each and

every transaction of Itqan”, clarifies Al-Jabi.

While the Indian system integrator bloc

has relied extensively on the SEI certification

model for software quality assurance, Itqan

has used ISO standards to control internal

quality till date. Historically ISO standards at

Itqan are not a recent initiative and quality

assurance is part of its internal day-to-

COMPAriSOn OF BuSinESS MODEl

Home grown system integrator indian system integrators

Origin from datacentre, hardware Origin from software development

Country focussed Regional and global focus

Long term contractual engagement Varied pattern of contractual enagagement

Usually focussed on public sector or semi-government

Usually focussed across multiple vertical segments

Limited technology offerings based on customer requirement

Needs to carry broad pallet of technologies and skills

Limited investment in technical manpowerUsually vast investment in technical

manpower

Will scale using alliances and acquisitionWill scale with equity resources and

organically

Source: ResellerME

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 45

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Knowledge Management

As the company repositioned

itself in the local market from

an infrastructure service provider to a

solutions provider in the late nineties, this

was one of the first practices to kick off. In

the initial stages this included document

management, imaging and archiving

solutions. With the launch of Microsoft´s

Share Point portal in 2002, the practice

expanded to a full portfolio adding

workflow, business process management

and Web based portals. Increasing

competency in this practice has led to

the development of a product known as

Ediwan, a trademark of Itqan, which is a

middle ware connecting to back office

legacy applications and single sign-on at

the front end.

Recent customer: Abu Dhabi

Educational Council (portal), Western

Region Development Council (portal),

Twofour54 (content management)

Application implementation

This covers the deployment of ERP

packaged solutions built around Oracle

suite, SAP and Microsoft Dynamics and

other solutions for healthcare and human

resources. The domain expertise for the

ERP applications is in the market segment

of government and oil and gas. Ekawader

is a human resources and payroll

application especially built for the regional

market that sits on top of Microsoft

Dynamics. For this enterprise portfolio

of applications there is less effort on

customisation and more emphasis on the

key features of the enterprise applications

allowing easy upgradability.

Recent customers: Farah Leisure

Parks, Gulf Allied Digital Media (partner

with Sumtotal Systems), Sharjah Museums

Department (eKawader), Securities and

Commodities Authority (ERP)

information infrastructure

When the company started its business in

1984, this was its main forte and continues

to this day to be its primary revenue

earner. All components that sit below the

application layer covering the operating

system, networking, storage, virtualisation,

connectivity falls in this practice. As

an active hardware player, Itqan has

relationships with Dell, HP, Cisco, Huawei,

EMC and Oracle-Sun. Years of competency

in this area allow Itqan to roll out an

integrated solution rather than multiple

boxes at the time of implementation.

Recent customers: Maritime Industrial

Services (unified platform based on

Microsoft technologies), Mafraq Hospital

(unified communication implementation),

Ministry of Health (Al-Nabed datacentre)

Outsourcing

This covers additional resources

deployed around customer infrastructure

to help them manage their support

functions including the help desk. The

focus of the managed services is looking

after the customer´s customer, rather than

an inward focussed approach.

Recent customers: Panasonic

(technical support)

Itqan´s four business practices

day operations and work culture. Itqan´s

ISO standards are also meant to gain the

confidence of prospective customers. It has a

trio of ISO certifications with the most recent

being in May 2011. Considering its relationship

with Capgemini, phasing in the SEI model is

also part of the quality initiative target.

How do Indian system integrators view

local players such as Itqan? They are rated

high because of their deep and long term

contractual engagements with the public

sector. Any Indian system integrator wanting

to enter this sector would probably be

more successful through a joint bid with

a local player. However for now Indian

system integrators don´t view their local

pROfILEItqan

2000GULF EXCELLENCE FORUM AWARD

2004, 2006 MICROSOFT WINNING CUSTOMER AWARD

2005 - 2006 SHEIKH KHALIFA APPRECIATION CERTIFICATE

2006 THE BEST ICT COMPANy: ARAB TECHNOLOGy AWARDS

2007 THE BEST SySTEM INTEGRATOR: ARAB TECHNOLOGy AWARDS

2008 CERTIFIED ISO 20000

2008 MICROSOFT DyNAMICS, PRESIDENT´S CLUB WINNER

2009 RECOGNISED AT MICROSOFT DyNAMICS WORLDWIDE PARTNER CONFERENCE

2011 CERTIFIED ISO 27001

Recent recognition

46 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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DISTRIBUTORS WANTED

LED

LCD

PLASMA

DVDPlayers

AudioSystems

Phones

One of the most prominent GCC based consumer electronics brand with over 2,500 products across 40+ categories is in the process of appointing distributors. Financially sound business with prior experience

in consumer electronics preferred. Interested companies may send in their details to:

[email protected]

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Oman Distributors 20.7x27cm_2.ai 5/2/11 6:30:06 PM

Page 48: Reseller Middle East

Direct outbound: It is a

sale made directly by the

manufacturer to the end user

through their sales force, agents, or

representative. This channel addresses

primarily large-size business customers

or corporate accounts. Sales in which the

vendor plays a significant role in developing

the business, but does not directly deliver

the product, are not considered direct

outbound sales.

Direct inbound: It is a sale made

directly by the manufacturer to the end user

via telesales or call centre methods. These

include vendor direct catalogues, and

typical vendor-direct companies.

internet direct: It is a sale that has

been initiated and completed via the world

wide Web. Payment must be received

via electronic means. Sales made via the

Web sites of dealers or retailers will not be

included here, but accounted for within the

dealer or retail channel itself.

Dealer/VAr/system integrators:

They are firms that offer value with the PC

sale beyond both price and availability.

Although most are local or regional, some

are multinational in scope. Dealer/VAR/SI's

tend to focus on sales to a smaller set of

customers, which purchase a higher volume

of PCs, generally ranging from small office

to Fortune 500 accounts. Examples of

Dealer/VAR/SI channel categories include

corporate account resellers, computer

specialty dealers, value-added resellers

including application VARs and network

integrators and systems integrators.

Sub-Channels

Corporate dealers: They are large

channel partners who have a national

coverage and address primarily medium

and large businesses. With a turnover of

more than $10 million, out of which more

than 50% will be made through large

accounts, they will usually represent the

largest dealers in a country or region. They

resell all IT products (PCs, portables, entry-

level servers, mid range systems, networks,

peripherals, software), and they usually

reference all major PC vendors.

Traditional dealers: They are

IT dedicated resellers, predominantly

IT product resellers, who sell standard

products. They would do more than 80%

of their business on standard hardware/

PC sales. Those dealers who add value to

the product through consulting or support

will be considered as VARs if this non-

hardware activity generates more than 40%

of their turn over. Traditional PC dealers/

resellers would address a large range of

customers, from home users to medium-

sized companies.

Value Added resellers: They are

channel partners that have a service or

application oriented business and "value-

added" expertise. They sell all IT products

but will do at least 40% outside hardware

sales, that is software and services. The

VAR channel includes many kinds of

partners, according to their expertise

and value-adding functions. Due to the

recent market evolution, many former

"dealers" have moved towards more

"service oriented business models" and

have developed "value adding" integration

expertise, thus leading to an increasing

number of VARs.

IDC includes the following categories

in the VAR channel: Hardware Platform/

Network VARs; Solution VARs; Application

VARs; Systems integrators/large systems

houses; Retail; Vendor store; Telco Channel;

Telecom Operators; Cable TV Operators;

Telecom Specialist Stores

IDC channel definitions for EMEA

pROfILEItqan

counterparts as a threat. MahindraSatyam´s,

regional Vice President Manojeet Choudhury

clarifies on the non competing nature of

local and Indian system integrators. “The

kind of projects they are doing, we are

not there. And the kind of projects we are

doing, they are not there”. The market is

large enough for both types of players and

everyone appears to have a distinct space

to operate for now.

However those dynamics may change

over the next five years. Internally Itqan has

announced it wants to be the leading systems

integrators player across the GCC in less

than five years. It has pulled out its “regional

player, acquisition game plan” shelved

since 2008 when the global meltdown took

place. As part of that plan it had earmarked

acquisition of two regional players allowing it

to advance outside UAE. Now it has decided

to go down that route once again.

Within UAE it has already stretched itself

to Al Ain and the western side of Abu Dhabi,

entrenching itself within oil and gas and

defence establishments. Now with foreign

player competition building up in UAE, it is

going to be a race on who sets up fastest

across GCC. “We have tremendous pressure

from certain customers in Saudi Arabia and

Qatar to come over”, says Al-Jabi. Add to

that vendor pressure from Itqan´s partners,

who anticipate the UAE success story

being replicated in other countries and it is

not difficult to understand Al-Jabi´s bullish

outlook to cross over.

However the road ahead is challenging

and one of the formidable challenges is to

build a large team to manage expansion

across GCC. “Technology skills cannot be

built overnight. It takes time and investment

and has to be a long term strategy”, says

Choudhury. Itqan will probably need to

follow the same model that its Indian peers

have done over the last two decades,

perhaps replacing India for Egypt. If Itqan´s

Al-Jabi pulls this off the next award five

years from now will definitely be bigger than

2011´s Feigenbaum recognition.

48 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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COVER fEATURE

REBATES, PROMOTIONS

WHAT WORKS?

Rebates, promotion, loyalty, discounts

50 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

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corporate channel partners to start focussing

on the high-end SME segment. It is also actively

developing its diamond partner channel

segment, a status accorded to partners who

sell more than 300 units per quarter. It is doing

this through the Core Channel programme with

objectives of acquiring specific resellers into the

Lenovo relationship.

In the case of AMD, its recent

repositioning of OEM products has meant

equivalent work on channel development.

The product segments now include APU,

CPU, chipset and embedded, server, software

By any theory of channel marketing

these are established instruments of

“reward power”. However with shorter

life cycles and new devices being

launched every week, both vendors

and channel players require other measures

to make “rewards” deliver their power.

Channel rewards are generated at all

four levels of the distribution value chain.

Outwardly they may have the same form but

as we move down the chain from vendors

to distributors to resellers and retailers they

reflect unfinished business at those levels or

below them.

THE VEnDOr ViEW

At the vendor level, channel motivation

programmes can get initiated due to a

number of reasons. During the current

volatile market environment, vendor

activities are being adjusted to compensate

for sluggish activity across the traditional

corporate segment, contrasted by higher

rates of growth from others.

At Toshiba for example, sluggish

corporate sales has prompted it to recharge

its corporate VAR programme. In terms of

value additions these include access to a VAR

manager, demand generation, regular product

training, rebate schemes, and other sops

around discounts and volume pricing.

Combined with these tactical measures

Toshiba is also maintaining its rebate incentive

scheme called the “profit for performance” for

its channel community, and “sell and win” point

system for its shop floor executives.

For Lenovo the focus is to capture market

share in the top end of the SME market in

the region. It has pulled in its best performing

By ARUN SHANKAR

“This programme is still going strong since

its launch in 2009”, says Bernard Biolchini, VP

sales AMD, META regional office.

For security software major, Kaspersky,

it monitors the number of licenses sold to an

enterprise. When the number of licenses sold

reaches 500, it steps in for direct engagement

with the customer in parallel with channel

partner. “We need to be as close as possible

to the customer for this”, says Tarek Kuzbari,

Managing Director of Kaspersky Lab Middle East.

For memory manufacturer Twinmos, the

possibility of dead stocks is operationally

unlikely. “Whatever is going to be obsolete, we

This program is still going strong since its launch in 2009. Our partners’ success is our own, which is why it was important to design a program that

caters to local and regional partners and lets us equip them with the necessary tools”.- Bernard BiOlchini, VP SaleS aMd, MeTa

solutions. The new channel initiative has

materialised in the form of the Fusion partner

programme.

This is a global partner programme that

combines incentive and resource programmes

and is now available for partners reselling the

complete portfolio of products. The change is

towards more personalised resource availability

using three levels of performance differentiation

named as elite, premier and select. There are

also six tiers of channel segmentation named

as e-tailers, retailers, commercial solution

providers, consumer solution providers and

commercial volume resellers.

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 51

Page 52: Reseller Middle East

know it one year before”, says Mohd Mazharul

Islam, Managing Director, Twinmos. However

he acknowledges based on market conditions

stocks can become slow moving leading

to the possibility of dead stocks, because

of the volatile nature of the product. Under

these circumstances, Twinmos gives a rebate

to its channel partners on the next stock of

shipments to adjust for the lower giveaway

prices used to clear the existing stock.

Retail focussed promotions can be

driven by the brand, or by the distributor, or

by the brand and distributor. Any of these

combinations is possible and all are in active

use. Leading IT brands like Lenovo, Toshiba,

Kaspersky, Epson and Microsoft have made

direct contact with super retailers, in parallel

with their distributors a key priority in 2011.

With retail segments overflowing with

COVER fEATURERebates, promotion, loyalty, discounts

customers to catch the latest connected

devices and application devices on the

shelves, this is a key for retail promotions.

For Toshiba, it has brought in Jarir Book

Stores and Extra in Saudi Arabia as direct

channel partners. Since Saudi Arabia accounts

for more than half of its regional sales, this

move demonstrates the importance of the

segment and the region for the vendor. It

has also created a strategic retail partner

programme, where it negotiates the promotion

activities at the retailer’s central decision

making office.

For security software major, Kaspersky,

Sandisk across the region include embedded

and encrypted content on its devices, like

movies and songs that are user-accessible

on payment. As well as custom label OEM

products and merchandise for super retailers.

While this market segment is booming

for de Boer, he emphasises, “We are not

yet at a point where we are done with

developing this category.”

For Microsoft, it has created the consumer

channel group to revamp its consumer product

portfolio and visibility in the retail segment.

The new approach is to create more touch

points for the consumer, to raise excitement

levels in the segment and to strengthen brand

attributes to a “cool level”.

From a vendor perspective, Touchmate

is keen to offer its channel partners higher

margins above its competitors. “Along with

our rebate scheme the margins to our channel

partners is never less than 10%,” says Vasant

Menghani, CEO Touchmate. The company

always has aggressive promotion and rebate

scheme running with its partners and claims

that sales targets are tripled during such times

and achieved as well.

increasing the brand awareness at retailers is critical to boost the sales of renewal.”

- Tarek kuzBari, Managing direcTOr, kaSPerSky laB Middle eaST

almost every electronic device uses either an embedded

flash or has a slot for an add-on flash card. That makes our category attractive for distributors, resellers and retailers,”

- PaScal de BOer, VP reTail SaleS and MarkeTing, SandiSk eMea

the involvement with the super retailer is

part of its direct touch model. Distributor,

vendor and retail partner meet to discuss the

annual engagement and possible value-add

from the vendor and distributor. “Increasing

the brand awareness at retailers is critical to

boost the sales of renewal,” says Kaspersky’s

Kuzbari. For the vendor there is a direct link

with license renewals from the SME and small

office-home office segment, and the visibility

of the brand across the super-retail segment.

A product category like flash memory,

where Sandisk operates is also growing

rapidly. Almost every electronic device uses

either an embedded flash or has a slot for an

add-on flash card. “That makes our category

attractive for distributors, resellers and

retailers,” says Pascal de Boer, VP Retail Sales

and Marketing, Sandisk EMEA.

Since Sandisk products are used in

fast selling electronic goods like cameras,

smartphones, tablets, media players, there is

considerable opportunity to offer the add-on

Sandisk product along with the actual device

as “bundle promotions” across retailers.

Other upcoming retail opportunities from

52 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 53: Reseller Middle East
Page 54: Reseller Middle East

THE CHAnnEl ViEW

From a channel partner point of view,

“reward power” takes on a different meaning.

Distributor and resellers can have their own set

of objectives and associated activities. If a certain

product has been impacted due to a parallel

activity run, or if there is a volume shortfall either

at the distributor or reseller end, then a more

focussed activity is usually planned.

The scale of this activity will depend

on shortfall in volume and availability of

marketing support. “Such limited time period

offers are successful and resellers know that

an investment today yields higher returns

tomorrow,” says Sachin Gehani, Director

Accent Office Supplies, a printing reseller.

“Incentives and rebates are an important

of the channel strategy and build a strong

relationship,” says Harprit Singh, Managing

Director, VIP Computers. However there are

two sides of such exchanges. On the one side

are the additional volumes generated and

the related exchanges of “Dollar and cents,

how much do you get?” On the other side is

the partnership effort that goes into the effort,

the transfer of knowledge and the vendor

know-how.

For a specialised component distributor

like VIP Computers, the most important factor

may not be the successful exchange of volume

and rebate. It has also to do with the channel

partners’ long term acceptance of the margins

offered, the commitment to the product range,

and the vision of growing the product in a

certain region or operational space.

at the time of arrival in its Dubai warehouse.

Anything that the partner wants should be

forecast and included in its sales orders.

“Normally we don’t have anything to sell

without a forecast,” explains Alan Pourmirza,

FDC’s Infrastructure Manager.

Asbis Enterprises, leading distributor for

Intel and AMD and operating across Europe,

Russia, CIS, Africa and the Gulf also has a

loyalty club based on sales performance of

its partners. It is called “Fusion Club” and

recognises top sales customers around a

selected vendor. At present “Fusion Club”

is being supported by AMD and hence the

quarterly getaways are for regional partners

who have topped AMD sales in the country or

region.

The last three quarterly getaways have

been to Slovakia, UAE and France. The

main highlight is networking with key AMD

and Asbis managers and team building in a

relaxing environment.

Says Hesham Tantawi, VP for META

region, explaining his vision of Asbis’

customers, “A partner is a customer who

focuses with you to develop his market, and

COVER fEATURE

distributors use many strategies to gain the loyalty of resellers, but at the end of the day, what matters most is the price point.”

- Sachin gehani, direcTOr accenT Office SuPPlieS

along with our rebate scheme the margins to our

channel partners is never less than 10%,”- VaSanT Menghani, ceO TOuchMaTe.

“This tells us the long term sustainability of

the relationship. Many customers come in for

short term, one-two deals. These are not our

best customers”, says Singh. Across the region

VIP Computers has chosen to pre-select its

partners and has a hundred on its list.

Rebates and marketing support are more

likely to flow when a channel partner has

worked their way towards a distributor’s top

rungs, usually a loyalty club. FDC International,

an extended chardware distributor managing

storage drives, memory, mother and display

boards, and laptops rates its customers on

the basis of “magic-four” parameters. These

include on-time payments within the credit

period; trading with at least four FDC product

categories; predictable sales cycles and

showcasing of the product range.

Out of a total base of 650 partners, only

fifty old partners are included in its “magic-

four” club. FDC extends preferential channel

support for them including longer term sales

contracts.

However incentives are not the primary

strategy that FDC wants to follow with its

partners. Close to 100% of its goods are sold

Rebates, promotion, loyalty, discounts

54 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 55: Reseller Middle East

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• Advanced power management capabilities

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Page 56: Reseller Middle East

COVER fEATURE

you help him to develop and achieve this, then

its partnership.”

Managing customers doesn’t always need

a loyalty programme on the scale of Asbis’.

Modest inventory control, credit extensions

and channel protection by the distributors can

also help retain customers. For Medmark one

of Lexmark’s three distributors in the region,

protecting its market share of 85% and its

partner loyalty some of them extending back

eight years, is the most important.

Medmark doesn’t keep back-to-back

stocks for fast moving goods. It believes in

making goods available for its partners. It

receives two incoming shipments every week

and holds an average inventory of 60 days.

Out of this only 35-40% of the stock is sold

before arrival in the warehouse. Rest are kept

as ex-stock. “At any moment the partners don’t

need to buy a lot and block their capital,” says

George Saliba, Sales Manager, Medmark.

launches, limited shelf space and limited

inventory capacity create significant challenges

for the vendor, distributor and the retailer.

All brands and retailers follow the same

annual calendar across the region. New

product launches are timed with Gitex,

shopping festivals, back to school, Ramadan

and other special occasions. Some brands

share their activity plans well in advance with

the retailers. Others may arrive just a week

earlier. “The brands that miss out are the ones

that are slow, with wrong marketing push

or sitting stocks,” says Ashish Panjabi, CEO

Jacky’s group.

With multiple product segments like LCD

and plasma TVs, mobile and smart phones,

tablets, cameras, laptops, printers, gaming

software, devices, consumables and others

competing for shelf space—the most critical

factor is how much space to give a particular

brand in its product segment.

This is a tactical decision the retailer has

to take along with the brand. The shelf space

has an ROI– whether it is funded by a brand,

distributor or retailer or co-funded. All parties

are looking for a return on their investment.

incentives and rebates are an important of the

channel strategy and build a strong relationship,”- harPriT Singh, Managing direcTOr, ViP cOMPuTerS

Medmark also extends preferential credit

terms of 60 days to its partners and says that

profit margins are much higher on Lexmark

products in comparison to its competitors.

Existing channel partners are also protected

when prospective customers make a bid to

enter the network. “We don’t keep an open

market and keep adding channel players”,

says Saliba. It also runs an incentive loyalty

programme for its partners.

While FDC and Asbis may set the turf

for gaining partner loyalty, sometimes it may

not be enough. Says Accent Office Supplies’

Gehani, “Distributors use many strategies to

gain the loyalty of resellers, but at the end of

the day, what matters most is the price point.”

Gehani has his share of favourite distributors

based on operational matters like preferential

stock allocation, priority documentation,

priority delivery, higher rebate and other

related reasons.

However, even if a reseller shies away

from distributor loyalty they still remain

committed to high volume vendors. Gehani’s

favourite promotion scheme is anything to do

with HP. “Given the volume of HP sales today,

the rebates achieved by meeting targets

turn out to be a huge number and these

add considerably to the bottom line”. This is

especially important since profit margins based

on sales of HP products are marginal.

Similar programmes by Microsoft,

Lexmark, Brother and Canon although

generating less volume and reseller rebates

are useful in retaining channel loyalty.

THE rETAil ViEW

From a retailer point of view the sheer

number of brands, refresh rates of new

“a partner is a customer who focuses with you to develop his market, and you help him to develop and achieve this, then its partnership.”

- heShaM TanTawi, Vice PreSidenT, aSBiS MeTa

Rebates, promotion, loyalty, discounts

56 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 57: Reseller Middle East

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Page 58: Reseller Middle East

ASBIS’ FUSION CLUB

• Asbis’ customers who top AMD

sales get to meet key vendor and

distributor managers at offsite

locations.

• Indepth sales and technology

sessions, networking and team

building are the objectives of these

excursions.

• Asbis partners from UAE, Serbia,

romania, Croatia, Slovenia,

Bulgaria, Czech republic, Poland,

lithuania, Belarus, russia and

ukraine have participated in three

excursions so far.

COVER fEATURERebates, promotion, loyalty, discounts

Some brands have a stronger presence than

others, but if the product does not move some

very urgent decisions need to be taken. “All

of us are looking at what we are sacrificing in

return for what we are getting,” says Panjabi.

If the product does well and stocks move

the next challenge is to ensure sufficient

inventory has been planned and is available.

“When you have bigger events like Gitex,

planning needs to start months in advance,”

says Panjabi. “And the planning has to be

down to the T.”

If the product comes in one week late it

is of no use. At any other time of the year it

can be substituted with another brand. But

during Gitex if a fast moving product runs

out of stock the damage is considerable.

During such events, both the distributor and

the retailer plan for sufficient inventory with

backup stocks on both sides. Since a retailer

can only hold that much stock on the shelves,

they usually invest in off-site warehousing

under their control.

During prime shopping periods, retailers

also experience conflicting requests for

stretched brand targets. Excessively selling a

particular brand over another may help reach

58 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 59: Reseller Middle East

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Page 60: Reseller Middle East

elements for their survival objectives.

Page 61: Reseller Middle East

Select iT products are entering

Africa after being re-tested as

“Ok”

Oversold and returned

products are being consolidated

by vendors across Europe and sent back

to production or testing factories for re-

certification.

Large channel

players who

have access

to hardware

testing plants

are part of the

vendor “re-

certification” or

“re-furbishment”

programmes. These products include

routers, switches, internal and external hard-

disk drives amongst others.

Worldwide about 35 vendors have

already initiated these programmes, out of

which 25 are from Europe. Channel players

who are supporting the re-certification

initiative point out that the testing of the

products at the labs are as stringent as the

original products. Their role is to consolidate

unsold components from the market, move

them to the labs for re-certification, repack

and distribute to selected regions.

From a reliability point of view, the re-

tested products are no different from their

Africa’s discount channel

first-run counterparts.

To boost the movement of these

products vendors have also launched

special incentive and rebate programmes.

However the singular most important factor

in this programme is the discounted price

offered by the distributor to its customers.

These products are priced 15% less than its

counterparts. The final differential price to

the end customer is not known.

Channel players are not shipping these

products into the Gulf. They are being

shipped out to most countries in Africa,

which accepts these products at a lower

price point.

we don’t keep an open market and keep adding

channel players.”- geOrge SaliBa, SaleS Manager, MedMark

its target but will also risk the retailer losing

support from the compromised brand. At this

stage the trade off needs to be evaluated. “It’s

like a chess game, which piece to move up

and which works better for you”, says Panjabi.

With so many factors to juggle why are

retailers moving up the brand complexity

ladder? The reason remains the same as

Gehani’s - the final bottom line.

With brands sold in UAE offering low

operating margins, for a retailer like Jacky’s

the rebate generated from the volumes of a

special launch is what sustains the business.

“In the end you need to supplement it with

whatever the brands can support you with” is

Panjabi’s summary of survival in the business.

While the elements of channel “reward

power” still play the same roles, today’s brand

dynamics require all players to adapt these

Rebates, promotion, loyalty, discounts

COVER fEATURE

Reseller Middle EastJUNE 2011 61

Page 62: Reseller Middle East

This is an ultra slim monitor with an asymmetric and eye-catching design. it has a transparent

frame with sleek black aluminium finish. The viewing frame area is in 16:9 proportion and

supports a maximum of 1920x1080 pixel resolution. it has a 12 million to 1.0 contrast ratio and

a 5ms fade out rate suitable for fast moving images. its materials are recyclable based on iSO

1043/11469 standards; it is Energy Star 5.0 compliant, and has a 68% power saving on stand-

by mode. it allows connectivity to a DVD player or gaming console using VGA or DVi port with

HDCP protection or digital HDMi interface. The monitor ships with VGA, DVi and HDMi cables.

pRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY

Available from July 2011

This is the latest version of Packard Bell´s

All-in-one entertainment combination

desktop. The size format has been

squeezed down to 20 inches and

features the Touch portal application

for complete social networking and

interactive sound and video multimedia

usage. This includes TouchMemo,

TouchFriends, TouchBrowser,

TouchMusic, TouchPhoto, TouchVideo,

TouchCam interfaces with uploads

into YouTube and other online sharing

portals. There is also a TV-tuner interface

with digital TV type of True studio-audio

of THX TruStudio PC.

The home desktop uses either a 2nd

Generation Intel Core processor or the

latest AMD processors up to Phenom II

X6. It has an option for NVIDIA or AMD

Radeon HD discrete graphic cards,

with full Microsoft DirectX 11 support to

enhance the display to a full gaming

experience as well as wireless keyboard

and mouse. It has an in-built Autobackup

suite for file backup and data duplication

giving the home-user a trouble free

usage style.

ONETWO-S

Packard Bell

STYLISH NEW RANGE FROM PACKARd BELL

MAESTRO 230 LEd MONITOR

62 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 63: Reseller Middle East

Powered by 2nd

generation intel Core

processor family

with intel Turbo

Boost 2.0 Technology

ensures you get a

zippy multimedia and

entertainment run-

through. For 3D visual

effects, the ixtreme comes

fitted with new generation

nViDiA GeForce GT400

series graphics card and a

HDMi 1.4 port or new generation

AMD radeon HD 6000 series

graphics card.

For sharing and editing photos

on social media Web sites the system

comes loaded with CyberLink MediaShow

5 software and full version of Adobe

Photoshop Elements 8. An auto-backup

button on the top of the chassis allows

convenient overnight backup routines

to be triggered. There is also a device

deck with ports for inserting, stacking and

holding devices like USB, MP3, cameras,

camcorders and connecting cables. For

AMD loyalist, the system can also be

shipped with the latest AMD processors.

This laptop is designed to support quality entertainment for the

user. For high display graphic performance it uses 2nd generation

intel Core processors and nViDiA GeForce GT540M with 2 MB

VrAM or nViDiA GeForce GT520M with 1 MB VrAM. For high

sound fidelity the laptop has Dolby Home Theatre with premium

speakers and multimedia optical drive.

The HDMI output port allows viewing of high definition movies.

To enhance the social networking experience it has a 1.3 mega pixel

high definition Web cam and high definition audio/video recording

It is fitted with both USB 3.0 ports for rapid data transfer as well

as conventional USB ports, blue tooth and wifi connectivity. Internal

storage capacity is set at 750GB. The battery life provides 9 hours of

usage and uses Optimus technology for optimisation. Anti-virus and

MyBackup 2.0 are pre-installed on the system.

IxTREME dESKTOP EASYNOTE Tx

This tablet has a 10-inch multi-touch screen, optimised for wide angle viewing

and automatic light adjustment with 1280x800 pixel resolution. it uses Google

Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” operating system, which is Google´s new OS version

optimised for tablets. The operating system supports the latest version of Flash

improved browsing experiences. The tablet has an in-built GPS for real time tracking

using Google Maps. For gaming it has in-built sensors with nViDiA Tegra 2 processor for

high definition displays. The Dolby Mobile chipset fitted on board enhances the high quality

stereo sound. it has 2 and 5 megapixel cameras in the front and back for quick grabs during

social meetings. The battery has a 10-hour backup rating. For TV viewing it has an HDMi output

socket. it can accept additional 32GB capacity hike through a micro SD.

LIBERTY TABLET

Page 64: Reseller Middle East

Similar ta traditional desktop PC, and offering the same end-

user experience, thin clients are cheaper, easier to manage

and more reliable, since they contain no moving parts. Fujitsu

has brought in Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology for

its FuTurthin client product segment. Offering both power

and ethernet via a single cable for increased flexibility and

connectivity, PoE technology requires very low power

consumption, benefiting both the environment and

companies´ bottom lines. Thin clients can also be connected to

traditional electrical outlet if preferred.

Upto four displays can be connected to the FUTRS900 thanks to an additional graphics

card, making it ideal for environments where operators need multiple screens. System

performance is enhanced with twmemory slots for increased local performance, while both

models feature integrated WLAN for improved connectivity. The thin clients are able to provide

processing capabilities for performance-intensive 3D modelling. They are among the first to

introduce support for DirectX11 graphics technology. UAE pricing starts at $354 for the S700

and $435 for the S900.

Kingmax Waterproof SDXC Class 10 memory card has a

64GB storage capacity, with 65 MB/sec read speed and 40

MB/sec write speed. The memory card lineup includes SD

3.01 specifications, which add a new Ultra High Speed Bus

I interface structure that will enable transfer speeds of up

t104 MB/sec. When paired with a UHS-I device, Kingmax´s

Waterproof SDXC UHS-I and SDHC UHS-I memory cards

are designed for recording HD-resolution videos while

simultaneously performing other recording functions at high

speeds. The SDXC memory cards adopt the newest exFAT file system to store DVD

image files, HD films and any virtual machine hard-drive files over 4GB, resolving the

issue of the FAT32 format´s failure tsupport larger files. This also allows for more free

space after fragmentation and with the better utilisation of free-space allocation. The

Waterproof SDXC Class 10 supports built-in content protection for recordable media,

together with error correction code and wear-leveling features, which enhances the

reliability of the memory card. It alsincludes a write-protection switch, which keeps

your data even safer, preventing accidental data loss whilst in operation.

pRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY

TwinMOS has launched its A2 premium series of uSB

devices. This product range has a maximum capacity of

32GB. The devices are in-built with uSB 2.0 and have a

standard plug and play feature. it has an anodised and sand

blasted body in black, brown, blue and red colours.

Capacity: 2,4,8,16,32 GB; Interface: USB 2.0; Maximum

data transfer rates: 2GB-4GB: Read 15MB/s, Write 5MB/s;

8GB-16GB: Read 20MB/s, Write 10MB/s;

32GB: Read 30MB/s, Write 15MB/s;

Dimensions: 59mm X 17.7mm X

7.7mm; Weight: 10gm; Storage

life: More than 10 Years;

Warranty: As per product

lifetime; Operating

systems: Windows 2000,

XP, Vista7, Mac OS 10.4 or

later, Linux Kernel 2.4 or

later, Drivers required for

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The DataTraveler product range uses a native

uSB 3.0 controller for better performance and

power management. it has a read speed of

100MB/s and a write speed of up to70 MB/s.

When plugged into a uSB 2.0 port, the read and

write speeds reduce to around 30MB/s. The

series is available in 16,32,64GB capacities. it

is backwards compatible with uSB 2.0 and is

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OTHER SPECIFICATIONS

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64 Reseller Middle East JUNE 2011

Page 65: Reseller Middle East

AWARDS2011

For more information please visit:www.resellerme.com/awards2011

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Page 66: Reseller Middle East

The Fermi architecture-based product brings

new performance and enhanced features such

as NVIDIA PhysX, 3D Vision, SLI and Surround

technologies to this summer´s PC games. With

a starting price of $199, the GeForce GTX 560

now joins previously launched GTX 560 Ti GPU

in delivering top-rung gaming experience for its

price class.

NVIdIA´S GEFORCE GTx 560 GPU

NANO GAMING RAM FROM KINGMAx

Hd 6990 Dual GPU with 3072 Stream Cores Each; 830 MHz GPU Core

Clock; 5000 Mhz Memory Speed; 4 GB GDDR5 High Speed Memory;

AMD HD3D Technology; PCI-E 2.1 Bus Support; Microsoft DirectX 11 Support; AMD

Eyefinity Multi-Display Technology up t4 displays; AMD CrossFireX multi-GPU Support; 3rd

Generation TeraScale Engine; Accelerated VideTranscoding, Encoding, and Upscaling; AMD

PowerPlay Technology; Enhanced Unified VideDecoder (UVD 3); Enhanced Internet Browser

Application Support; Enhanced Microsoft Office 2010 Support; HDMI 1.4a with support for

stereoscopic 3D; Deep Color and xvyCC extended gamut

Hd 6790 840 MHz GPU Core Clock; 4200 Mhz Memory Speed; 1 GB GDDR5 High Speed Memory;

AMD HD3D Technology; PCI-E 2.1 Bus Support; Microsoft DirectX 11 Support; AMD Eyefinity

Multi-Display Technology up to 4 displays; AMD CrossFireX multi-GPU Support; 3rd

Generation TeraScale Engine; Accelerated VideTranscoding, Encoding, Upscaling; AMD

PowerPlay Technology; Enhanced Unified VideDecoder (UVD 3); Enhanced Internet Browser

Application Support; Enhanced Microsoft Office 2010 Support; HDMI 1.4a with support for

stereoscopic 3D, Deep Color and xvyCC extended gamut

Hd 64503rd Generation TeraScale Graphics Engine; 40nm Process Technology

GDDR5 Memory; AMD Eyefinity

Technology; AMD Advanced

Parallel Processing

Technology (APP); AMD

CrossFireX Technology; AMD

HD3D Technology; Accelerated

VideTranscoding; AMD PowerPlay

Technology; Built-in Mini-DisplayPort

1.2 and HDMI 1.4 Outputs; Microsoft

Windows 7 Support; Microsoft

DirectX 11 Support; OpenGL

3.2 Support; Enhanced Internet

Browser Applications.

AMds LATEST xFx GRAPHICS CARdS

Kingmax has released Nano Gaming Ram,

a 8GB dual-channel DDR3 2400MHz

overclocking module with nano thermal

dissipation technology and does not use a

thermal heat sink. This makes the module

lighter, more eco-friendly and cooling is

increased by 10% during overclocking. It

has also released the 64GB micro SD card

with an adapter thus making it suitable for

multiple devices and purposes and a good fit

for entertainment on-the-go.

pRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGYnew Arrivals

Page 67: Reseller Middle East

IBC PAGE

Page 68: Reseller Middle East

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