Computer News Middle East August 2017

ISSUE 307 | AUGUST 2017 WWW.TAHAWULTECH.COM

Al Shafar General Contracting Deyaar Why UAE CIOs value data more than employees The age of IT automation

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

SEWA chairman Dr Rashid Alleem on the technological transformation of Sharjah’s critical infrastructure

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EDITORIAL

Life-critical There are many things some of us take for granted in life; shelter, running water, power supplies.

A recurring theme of the August issue of CNME is this infrastructure that we so heavily rely on, and is now becoming more powerful than ever with the help of sophisticated technology solutions.

Our cover interview for this month is with Dr Rashid Alleem, knowledge ambassador for the UAE and chairman of Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority.

Dr Alleem is spearheading the This technological evolution of two of the infrastructure emirate’s most important critical that we so heavily rely on is infrastructure elements, enhancing services for 1.5 million people in the now becoming process. More on page 10. more powerful Newly-appointed Al Shafar General than ever with Contracting CIO Herbert Fuchs, the help of meanwhile, sets out his vision for the sophisticated company’s digital transformation on technology page 16. Herbert brings outstanding solutions. experience to the role, and has a few tricks up his sleeve for how the construction industry can be safer and more efficient through technology.

Another newcomer is Deyaar’s senior IT manager Faisal Ali, who has set his sights on how the next wave of homes can be made smarter through IT. Turn to page 20 for more.

On page 28, Glesni Holland examines the potential for what can be achieved through the automation of back-end IT processes across a range of industries.

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Contents

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ISSUE 307 | AUGUST 2017

10

SEWA CHAIRMAN DR RASHID ALLEEM

16

CASE STUDY: AL SHAFAR GENERAL CONTRACTING

24 'The data advantage'

20

CASE STUDY: DEYAAR

James Dartnell spoke to Pure Storage’s CIO Yousuf Khan, following the release of the firm's recent report that shows that two thirds of UAE CIOs now consider data to be a more valuable asset than their employees.

28 A mind of its own

40 Why successful digital CIOs should fire themselves

46 What is an agile organisation?

What will this impending age of IT automation mean for current employees?

36 Why blockchain makes

sense for the Middle East

32

INTERVIEW: POLYCOM'S MARCO LANDI

CIOs need to have the courage to think differently in the digital world, says Gartner’s research director Ivar M Berntz.

Oracle ECEMEA's Arun Khehar gives his take on why blockchain has the potential to revolutionise various industries and provide enhanced transparency to finance.

50

Avaya Professional Services’ Emir Susic, on how Middle East organisations can prepare themselves for fast-paced business change.

Ringing the changes Riverbed's Elie Dib explains why he believes employee user experience must be prioritised when initiating IT change.

Published by FOUNDER, CPI MEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) EDITORIAL Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129

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CIRCULATION Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9119

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IoT TRENDS FOR 2017 USER ON THE SPOTLIGHT

Big Data analytics transforms everything

50

The role of Blockchain in IoT

50

billion

connected devices by 2010

devices online by 2020

+6

Early adopters go live in 2017, critical masses in 2018

billion dollars in market volume in 2017

Machine Learning true innovation in AI

47%

LPWA expansion to harness the growing IoT

of connections in 2015 will use LPWA

Safety on the Internet of Things

26.4

of the developing projects (2015) were related to Connected Assets

11%

billion

90% CAGR rate from 2017 to 2020

million

at risk due a Mobile Data Breach

2016 was the year when connectivity started to change, driven by LPWA technologies and personal IoT gains traction.

Connected assets and valuable tracking

Connected cars, envolved driving

Connected assets and operations market was valued at

$ 103.82

billion in 2015

Operations market expected to reach USD

215.53 billion by 2022

990

million

cellular connections in the connected car sector by 2015

10

million self-driving cars on the road by 2020

VR, augmented reality

Your own Internet of Things

AR/VR market will grow from

IoT connections will grow from

$ 5.2 6.3

billion in 2015

27

billion in 2025

(CAGR of 16%)

to more than

$ 162

6

billion in 2016

billion in 2020

million units shipped by 2017

28.4

billion devices connected by 2017

Comprehensive Smart Cities

2.33

billion devices

connected within Smart Cities by 2017

Annual Global Smart City Revenue is expected to reach

$ 88.7

billion by 2015

Source: Telefonica

Fax machines

8

AUGUST 2017

www.tahawultech.com

FEATURE

Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority

Dr Rashid Alleem, chairman, Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority

10

AUGUST 2017

www.tahawultech.com

Knowledge is power Honoured as the UAE’s ‘Ambassador of Knowledge’ by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in 2015, Dr Rashid Alleem, now chairman of Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority, is striving to fulfil his vision of a sustainable future in the emirate, powered by technology.

W

hen Dr Rashid Alleem was handpicked by the Ruler of Sharjah, His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al-Qassimi, to lead Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority’s transformation journey in April 2014, he knew how important his work would be in driving the emirate’s critical infrastructure. “His Highness was unhappy with SEWA’s performance at the time of my appointment, and said that he wanted to have someone who could deliver a magic touch, and make changes within a very short time period,” the SEWA chairman says. “I now report to him directly to ensure that we can collectively come up with speedy and efficient decisions to create a better future for the nation through technology.”

Throughout his career, Dr Alleem has accumulated an understanding of the importance of calm yet decisive leadership in a series of high-ranking, www.tahawultech.com

government-critical roles in the emirate. He chaired Sharjah International Free Zone, Hamriyah Free Zone Authority, Sharjah Seaports and Sharjah Customs, and was named the ‘Ambassador of Knowledge for the UAE’ in 2015 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Since the Authority’s creation in 1995, the emirate of Sharjah has seen a tremendous economical and industrial boom, and SEWA now maintains the electricity, water and gas supply for the entirety of Sharjah’s population.

Guaranteeing consistent access to these services for 1.5 million people across 2,600 square-kilometers of land is no small task for Dr Alleem.

“We’re touching people’s lives every second – not just every minute, and we simply cannot afford to have blackouts,” he says.

In December 2015, hackers successfully compromised three energy

distribution companies in Ukraine, plunging nearly a quarter of a million people into darkness for up to six hours. It was the first successful cyber-attack on a power grid, and attracted global attention in demonstrating a hackers’ ability to go beyond merely causing digital chaos, and instead initiating real-time, physical damage to a country’s critical infrastructure.

For SEWA, it was a powerful wake up call, and a reminder of the need to ensure the security and robustness of business systems if such incidents are to be avoided. “Any utility business is going to face challenges in staying secure and protecting the huge volume of customer data that we collect,” Dr Alleem says. “But the blackouts in Ukraine really reiterated the fact that if hackers have the means and opportunity to cause real-world damage, then they will – and we needed to be prepared for that.”

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11

FEATURE

Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority

You can go to a sustainability conference and have green brochures, green tea and green cappuccinos – but just going ‘green’ is not what I believe sustainability is.

Maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction through the reliable delivery of these services requires Dr Alleem to ensure that he can depend on partnerships with both qualified, dedicated employees and the latest technology innovations.

The Ukraine attacks kick-started SEWA into action, and sparked conversations around building backup servers and benchmarking the Authority’s security progress against the work of leading utility organisations outside of the Middle East.

Following a trip which left Dr Alleem “amazed” by the heightened security 12

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levels of the country’s utility industry, SEWA signed a memorandum of understanding with the Singaporean government to enhance relations between the two entities. Earlier this year, he began sending his staff to Singapore on ‘crash courses’ to give employees a better understanding of how to protect their IT systems, and learn how to handle crisis situations.

“I think it’s important to emphasise the criticality of leadership skills in surviving tough scenarios,” he says.

“In my opinion, leaders should know how to manage a crisis.”

A strong believer of “collaboration and co-creation,” Dr Alleem prioritised the signing of various partnerships with top technology vendors to support this vision. “Ensuring that my team is in safe hands is crucial for me,” he says. “I have been highly involved in these IT deals because I want to work with the brand itself, not the middle man, to ensure that my message was being heard loud and clear by industry players.”

Delivering sustainability – which is highlighted in Dr Alleem's 15 principles needed to create “a winning future”

named in his book, ‘The SEWA Way’ – through technology is a major part of the Authority’s IT strategy. “Sustainability is a term that tends to be misused,” he says. “When you talk about sustainability, people presume you’re talking about ‘green initiatives,’ or the environment. You can go to a sustainability conference and have green brochures, green tea and green cappuccinos – but just going ‘green’ is not what I believe sustainability really is.”

Dr Alleem has spearheaded various projects incorporating his idea of sustainability, comprising a combination of social, environmental and economic factors. He led SEWA’s Solar Street Light Project, and implemented 15 kilometres of solar street lighting in Al Saja’a – a neglected area of Sharjah that was previously in darkness, and was consequently a “prime target” for crime. “A recent police report has shown that since we began the project, the level of crime in Al Saja’a has reduced by 15 percent, and the value of residential properties and land has risen by 25 percent,” he says. “These figures show the real value in creating sustainable solutions.” www.tahawultech.com

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FEATURE

Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority

In addition, 20,000 smart meters have been installed into homes as part of SEWA’s Smart Homes initiative.

“I believe it is important to educate customers – especially families with young children - on how they can make small changes in their everyday lives to reduce their energy consumption,” says Dr Alleem. The smart meters also enable SEWA employees to remotely take readings without having to physically visit each home.

These new devices display the meter reading as a simplified consumption rate, allowing the customer to appreciate how much energy they are using, and whether they will be overcharged depending on their payment package.

“If the customer’s monthly rate is set at 2,000, and it hits 2,005, even though it is only a small increase, it will take the customer into the next payment band which could see a potential rise of 30 percent in cost,” explains Dr Alleem.

“Through this technology, consumers have indirectly been educated on when they should become concerned when reading their meter. I believe it is important that this mindset is reinforced when educating children on how we can help the environment and save money by just switching a light off when leaving a room.”

Aside from enabling sustainable and efficient solutions for customers, Dr Alleem is also keen to ensure operations run smoothly within SEWA’s own four walls. In December 2015, the Authority unveiled the region’s biggest smart control screen, which enables SEWA to monitor the performance and functioning of power plants around the clock. There is also a mobile app in place to allow consumers to pay utility bills online and check their monthly energy consumption against their annual history records.

What’s more, Dr Alleem sought to implement a more efficient record management system to handle the 14

AUGUST 2017

It is important to educate customers on how they can use technology in their everyday lives to reduce their energy consumption.

huge volume of paper documents that had been accumulated over the years.

Many of these remained from decades before, when the emirate’s water and electricity was run by privately-owned Sharjah Electricity & Water Resources Co. “Some of these documents could be between 50-60 years old, and are consequently not in the best condition,” Dr Alleem concedes.

It had previously taken employees 3-4 days to retrieve customer documents, before the installation of Kodak Alaris’ heavy-duty scanners at SEWA’s centralised office 18 months ago. “The scanners are working around the clock, 24 hours a day, and can scan up to 110 pages per minute,” explains Dr Alleem. “We chose Kodak’s scanners because the output files are of a high quality, yet

compressed in size, which maximises our server storage space.”

Digitalising SEWA’s backlog of documents is a hefty process, and currently involves scanning 500,000 pages a month.

With 30 heavy-duty scanners already installed, and another 50 in the pipeline, Dr Alleem and the IT department plan to have completely archived all documents as digitised files within 3-4 years.

Looking ahead, SEWA’s aim is to continue implementing the latest technologies to enhance the delivery of services, and further educate Sharjah’s residents on the ways in which energy consumption and costs can be reduced. “I believe we must continue to engage this vision with young people in particular, and enhance this mindset through the use of smart, innovative technology,” says Dr Alleem. www.tahawultech.com

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CASE STUDY

Al Shafar General Contracting

Bricks CLICKS and

UAE construction giant Al Shafar General Contracting is building the foundations for its digital age. Newly-appointed CIO Herbert Fuchs has been hired to optimise and reinvent the ways that ASGC uses technology to automate time-consuming processes and enhance the health and safety of on-site workers.

W

ith some of the UAE’s most celebrated buildings and developments in its portfolio, including Dubai Internet City’s award-winning Business Central Towers, Etihad Museum and the recent renovations of DXB’s Terminal 1 and Dubai Mall, Al Shafar General Contracting (ASGC) has cemented its regional reputation for excellence in its 28-year existence.

Joining AGC in January, Fuchs has been brought on board to design and execute a comprehensive digital transformation strategy that can assure the company retains its edge in the ever-competitive construction market. He has been working in the Middle East for just over two years, and has already developed a strong attachment to the region. “I’d been 16

AUGUST 2017

here many times previously on business when I was working in Europe, and I always harboured ambitions to live here,” he says. “I’m fascinated by the culture, mentality and opportunities that exist in Dubai and the region.”

Having worked for a range of household names, including McDonald’s and GE, Fuchs joined ASGC with a clear understanding of how high the bar can be set within major corporations. However, he had never previously worked in the construction industry, and was keen to take on a new challenge that would force him to bring fresh ideas to the table. “I’ve had the opportunity to lead a range of transformational projects prior to joining ASGC, as well as building aspects from the ground up,” Fuchs says.

Joining from United Arab Shipping Company in Kuwait, where he had

worked as CIO, Fuchs was buoyed by ASGC’s culture and ambition to succeed in its delivery of technology.

He is also the first figure to ever be appointed in the CIO role at the company, but he says that he does not feel the pressure as a result, and is clear about how he can win support in his early days. “I only feel positive pressure to succeed,” he says. “I think it’s important that I effectively prioritise quick and mid to long-term wins.”

The firm’s chief executive, Bishoy Azmy, has been particularly vocal about the need for ASGC to capitalise on a range of modern technologies.

“Bishoy has made it very clear that if we don’t change the way we do things as a company through digital transformation, then we run the risk of being irrelevant in ten years’ time,” Fuchs says. “He’s especially excited www.tahawultech.com

Our CEO wants information that lets us know where we stand at any point in time, and helps us to learn from our mistakes.

Herbert Fuchs, CIO, Al Shafar General Contracting

www.tahawultech.com

AUGUST 2017

17

CASE STUDY

Al Shafar General Contracting

by the use of business intelligence and analytics tools that can help us with our decision-making – by predicting outcomes and making quicker choices. He wants information that lets us know where we stand at any point in time, and helps us to learn from our mistakes.”

Fuchs and Azmy have worked together to develop a roadmap for ASGC to transform over the coming two years, with “aggressive” timelines driving its execution. “Bishoy is a pushy CEO, and is great to work with because he is aggressive in a positive way,” Fuchs says. “That means he is determined to achieve our objectives in timeframes that will help the company make huge strides.”

Nonetheless, Fuchs has his feet firmly on the ground about what the company needs to do in order to progress. “In a sense, digital transformation is the buzzword of the moment, and too many people try to digitalise too much all at once,” he says. “In my opinion, it’s a case of satisfying two criteria – what we can optimise in terms of our core business, and what we can do completely differently.”

The prospect of automating various aspects of ASGC’s operations has already begun to whet Fuchs’ appetite. While physical labour remains the cornerstone of the construction industry, the planning and strategy aspects that go on behind the scenes have huge potential to be transformed by technology. “Ultimately, one of our most important aims is for technology to help us to reduce the amount of time and labour that is dedicated to a project,” he says. “There really is a fantastic chance for technology to optimise the construction industry.

My dream is to have the cost estimation and tendering processes driven by technology, rather than through manual calculations. If automated, these processes can be completed in just 50 minutes.”

18

AUGUST 2017

Digital transformation is a case of satisfying two criteria – what we can optimise in terms of our core business, and what we can do completely differently.

In addition to the Group’s flagship construction business, it also operates a range of divisions across the steel, pre-cast concrete, electromechanical engineering and interior fittings spaces, and Fuchs believes there is huge potential to automate and enhance a variety of processes in these areas. “I would be very interested in looking at how we can optimise the production of pre-cast, as that’s a very important line of business for us,” he says.

Health and safety has been identified as a key priority in ASGC’s roadmap, and Fuchs has already developed a strong sense of how the company can combine a variety of technologies to reduce the risks that employees are exposed to. “It’s a top priority for us,” Fuchs says. “Millions of man hours are spent on site, so we have to pay a lot of attention to that to ensure that our employees and www.tahawultech.com

stakeholders’ wellbeing is considered.

As well as using the right technology, we have to educate staff about its use and about general best practices on-site.”

Video tools will have an important part to play in raising standards at the company, and Fuchs believes its combination with analytics tools has huge potential. Throw in a marriage of wearable technology and sensors for on-site workers, and there is huge potential for technology that provide vast insight and enhanced procedures for on-site workers. “This will allow us to make all kinds of decisions,” he says. “Are people congregating in www.tahawultech.com

the right areas, or on parts of a site where they are not authorised to be?

Are they doing tasks that they have not been trained to carry out? We can improve the safety of our staff, as well as streamlining production through this kind of insight.”

Education, of course, remains an important piece of this jigsaw. The ability to inform on-site workers not only of health and safety practices, but also of new information that can impact their operations, is one that Fuchs craves. The use of on-site kiosks to communicate directly with employees is another method that he has mooted, while he is also a believer

in exploiting the rise of personal devices in the workplace. “The widespread use of personal mobile devices opens up all kinds of opportunities for how we can educate users,” he says.

Determined to ensure ASGC’s technology strategy is driven by best practice, Fuchs will be keeping a close watch on international markets to ensure a smooth course for the firm.

“We can benefit from learning from the mistakes of others,” he says. “The US and Europe have often led the way in terms of technology adoption, and they serve as examples to follow.”

However, Fuchs believes that the Middle East region has an opportunity to leapfrog these countries in its drive to adopt new technology. “If you look at Eastern Europe and its adoption of telecoms, it has been able to overtake some countries through the changes it has made. The same absolutely applies to the Middle East as a whole.”

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19

CASE STUDY

Deyaar

Home comforts Since establishing a foothold in the UAE’s real estate sector as a leading developer and property solutions provider, Deyaar’s senior IT manager Faisal Ali has begun spearheading his vision to enhance the everyday lives of residents through the use of smart and innovative technologies.

S

ince the firm’s establishment in 2002, Deyaar has emerged as one of the leading residential and commercial developers in the UAE’s competitive real estate market. By combining innovative strategies with the latest emerging technologies, newly appointed senior IT manager Faisal Ali is striving to provide unrivalled customer service.

Deyaar’s services include property, community and facility management, as well as property development. It has become a well-known brand throughout the emirate over the years, with both residential and commercial properties situated in fashionable neighbourhoods including Business Bay, DIFC, Jumeirah Lakes Towers and Dubai Silicon Oasis. The stellar project of the moment, in Ali’s opinion, is a multi-pur20

AUGUST 2017

pose area of Dubai Production City, which is set to house 27 buildings and will be known as ‘Midtown.’

“I’m a forward thinker, and Midtown is definitely the flagship product for our company at the moment,” he says. “The project is split into six districts, and the first two are set to be complete by the end of 2019, so we have been giving some serious thought to the services and technologies that we will deliver to residents in order to add value to their everyday lives.”

Ali believes that there are a whole host of technologies that will impact the property development market in coming years, but has his eye on the Internet of Things as playing a major part in Deyaar’s progress with the Midtown project.

“Everyone is talking about IoT, but we will be looking at it from a

consumer perspective rather than a developer perspective, which I think separates us from our competitors in the market,” he says. “When we talk about IoT, it’s not just about implementing a bunch of random devices that can talk to each other; we’re intending to build real intelligence within this network. It’s about bringing artificial intelligence into play, introducing blockchain for security reasons, and then packaging all of the smart services together into one solution for the benefit of people that live in Deyaar’s properties.”

A firm believer that this industry should be centred around “services, not nuts and bolts,” Ali is currently investigating the possibility of installing a range of technologies into the Midtown development, before they become outdated.

“If you only look at the technology www.tahawultech.com

When we talk about IoT, it’s not just about implementing a bunch of random devices that can talk to each other; we’re intending to build real intelligence within this network.

Faisal Ali, senior IT manager, Deyaar

www.tahawultech.com

AUGUST 2017

21

CASE STUDY

Deyaar

that is out there now, by the time you come to implement it, it’s already old,” he says. “We have to look ahead of the second and third generation of IoT, and envision what is beyond the horizon, so that we can construct a roadmap to work towards it.”

One solution Ali is particularly invested in is smart parking. While he believes the technology is “in its infancy today,” he’s adamant that it has the potential to add real value to Dubai residents’ daily lives. “Think about how frustrating it is when you almost reach a parking space, and someone else takes it,” he says. “If we set up a smart parking app, connected to smart poles within a car park, you could be assigned a particular space via the app, and then a smart pole could block the space until you come within range, as it’ll recognise your car as having the assigned digital note confirming your space.”

Ali is also contemplating the possibility of introducing a smart valet parking solution, which could correspond with apps such as Google Maps, which could pick up a user’s location when they approach a hotel or mall where their car is due to be parked or collected from. “We are constantly thinking about how we can enhance our services through technology in line with Vision 2021 to provide better experiences for our customers,” he says. “We’re giving these solutions real consideration, but the technology needs to mature before we can look at implementing these services.”

Aside from onsite IoT initiatives at Deyaar’s properties, Ali is also looking to revamp Deyaar’s internal infrastructure, in line with his vision to encourage sustainable and cost efficient methodologies. “We’re looking to bring in a ‘one device’ initiative, 22

AUGUST 2017

so that the entire company would own the same device,” he explains.

“Maintaining one device is a lot cheaper than maintaining a plethora of devices.”

Ali adds that he has analysed the idea from two perspectives. “Firstly, having one device across the board would result in a much better agreement from suppliers, and secondly,

If you only look at the technology that is out there now, by the time you come to implement it, it’s already old.

we would consume much less energy if we were operating just one device.

Both of these reasons will ultimately be more cost efficient in the long run,” he says. “I recently did a very simple calculation, and worked out that if we moved from all the different devices that we currently have to a low energy footprint device, theoretically we could save 152 metric tons of carbon a year.”

In simple terms, that equates to saving 15,000 trees over a period of

10 years. “To me, it makes perfect sense,” he adds.

What’s more, Ali hopes to pursue a paperless strategy within Deyaar’s processes, following the adoption of the ‘one device’ initiative. “I want to look at our managed print rate, because people are still printing so many documents unnecessarily,” he says. “I want to ensure every employee has a stylus, because with Windows 10 today and the widespread availability of touchscreens, we should be able to sign documents online with no real need to print. We could save even more trees doing that too, I just haven’t had chance to do the calculation yet,” he quips.

Deyaar is currently in the process of migrating its company data onto the cloud, and Ali says the coming 12 months will be spent “hybridising” this data. “Typically, we go out on site at the beginning of a project and there is no connectivity or availability there,” he explains. “Now, with the hybridisation of data centres with the cloud, we have the ability to present and access data anytime, anywhere, and I can run my entire office from a handheld mobile device. The simplicity is just brilliant.”

The firm has some exciting announcements coming up at the annual CityScape exhibition, which will be held in Dubai next month.

“In terms of technologies that will shape the future of our industry, I believe mixed reality will be a key player in transforming the way we do business today,” he says. “I expect it to go way beyond a simple sales enhancement tool, and envisage it being included in many of our training and development efforts going forward, where I believe it will ultimately result in an improvement in our delivery of services.” www.tahawultech.com

RESEARCH

The Data Economy: UAE

‘The data advantage’ Pure Storage’s Evolution: The Data Economy 2017 report shows that two thirds of UAE CIOs now consider data to be a more valuable asset than their employees. James Dartnell spoke to the firm’s CIO Yousuf Khan to understand whether the country's IT leaders are all well-advised to set store in cloud, and what they can realistically expect from their IT roadmaps in the next two years.

Yousuf Khan, CIO, Pure Storage

24

AUGUST 2017

www.tahawultech.com

C

IOs in the Middle East can be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed at the pressures they face in 2017. The same old challenges endure – doing more with less, marrying business and IT objectives and ‘keeping the lights on’. What’s more, the sweeping hype around cloud and digital transformation now pose additional headaches, with business stakeholders and customers demanding technology that can offer all-new experiences. But is this anxiety justified, and is technology adoption in the UAE moving as fast as it seems?

As an aside from his day-to-day work as Pure Storage’s CIO, Yousuf Khan has spearheaded a research team that has investigated some of the most important perceptions, spending habits and anxieties around enterprise technology in the UAE. The Evolution: The Data Economy report surveyed 9,000 IT leaders across the North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, with 300 of those respondents coming from the UAE. Khan says that his research work is partly driven by a desire to expand his own capabilities as a CIO. “It’s an incredibly exciting time to be a CIO, with unprecedented levels of innovation and all-new value propositions making the role an increasingly important partner to the business,” he says. “I think it’s important to be open to building out innovation and change ways of thinking through the use of research. One of my key objectives is www.tahawultech.com

Technical complexity and competing priorities – at 51 and 47 percent – are the biggest barriers to adopting digital solutions in the UAE.

to network with my peers, and I know that it’s important to be thoughtful of each marketplace. It also helps me to be a better CIO.” While few CIOs would disagree that data is one of an organisation’s most valuable assets, Data Economy’s findings around information and its importance to an organisation are

perhaps the report’s most striking elements. An eye-catching 66 percent of respondents in the UAE believe that the data their company holds is more valuable than the people they employ, while 75 percent of respondents believe its importance was so great that it should be shown as an asset on a company’s balance sheet. Khan attributes this finding to the increasing realisation of the invaluable insight that effective data can provide. “Data is what enables CIOs to be a strategic part of a business,” Khan says. “It can influence and drive a business, and the UAE’s environment is so competitive. Big Data is now akin to big intelligence. Organisations recognise the importance of being informed in terms of product development, and this is a key reason why they believe data should be on the balance sheet.

It’s a central, underlying piece of digital transformation, which is at the heart of conversations and is used as a communications currency.”

While many technologists – vendors and end-users alike – across the world believe that cloud will be the overriding and dominant means for housing data and applications in years to come, the figures – for the near future at least – suggest that this vision is a work in progress. The research shows that that 43 percent of UAE CIOs – compared to an average of 34 percent in the EMEA region – want to increase their investments in on-premise storage solutions in the next 18-24 months, suggesting that legacy technologies won’t die out just yet. “Workloads will be spread across AUGUST 2017

25

RESEARCH

The Data Economy: UAE

public and private clouds, as well as on-premise models,” Khan says.

“There’s a bit of differentiation across markets, but largely speaking, this will be the case.”

This finding is in keeping with another in the report – 77 percent of IT leaders in the UAE think that cloud and on-premise solutions should complement one another, rather than compete. The UAE can take heart from the figure, with more developed European markets Spain (82 percent), the United Kingdom (72 percent) and France (68 percent) recording similar levels of expectation.

“As we’ve seen in the last few years, the market has adopted a narrative of public cloud versus traditional onpremise,” Khan says. “Anecdotally, we know that that’s an oversimplification – something that came out strongly in the research. The ideal scenario for businesses in the UAE is one where solutions can co-exist, giving them greater choice and control, driving the data advantage they are looking for.”

An average of 39 percent of storage currently runs in a traditional onpremise environment in the UAE, with 25 percent in the public cloud and 23 percent in a private cloud. Storage is seen to be slowing down digital transformation progress in 69 percent of businesses, and is regarded as an after-thought in the rush to innovate and bring new solutions to market for 76 percent of businesses in the UAE. “When networks don’t grow with data, that’s a huge problem,” Khan says.

This finding could prove to be problematic. The ability to deliver a quicker organisational response through the use of data has shot up the list of priorities for the survey’s participants. Almost three quarters (74 percent) of respondents see more demand in their business for 26

AUGUST 2017

real-time analytics and interactive simulations compared to a year ago.

In terms of budgets, however, this demand has seen an encouraging response; IT budgets are increasing in various areas over the next financial year, including business applications and analytics (58 percent) and cloud applications (56 percent). Cloud infrastructure spend, meanwhile,

66 percent of the UAE's IT leaders now believe their organisation’s data is more important than its employees.

is set to increase for 49 percent of participants, compared to an average of 50 percent for the EMEA region.

“The ability to respond quicker is now a tremendous game-changer from digital transformation perspective,” Khan says.

However, while CIOs may harbour ambitions to implement various technologies that can benefit their organisations, the reality for many is one of inhibitors. Technical complexity (51 percent) is the biggest barrier to con-

verting to digital solutions, followed by competing priorities (47 percent), which was considered a much bigger issue in the UAE than the EMEA and Russian average of 29 percent. Could this suggest that UAE CIOs are under excessive pressure to deliver on an overload of objectives? “I believe that simplifying the infrastructure side of things will allow CIOs to drive change across the board,” Khan says. “This will allow them to shift their focus to work on high performance solutions.

They need to be focused on solutions and platforms that can help them to make the most of their data.” Other key issues also played a part; a reliance on IT to deliver strategies (39 percent) and a lack of digital skills (38 percent) were the next biggest factors in the UAE. End goals for the vast majority of organisations centre around one overarching objective: putting customers first. The Data Economy report revealed that the most used digital platforms are: the digital management of customer records and purchase history (86 percent); digital platforms for internal communications (84 percent); digital platforms for customer support (79 percent) and digital communication with customers (79 percent). The key factors driving the adoption of digital solutions in the UAE are new business models (54 percent), competition (48 percent), customer demand (48 percent) and to create cost savings (46 percent).

“In my own experience as a CIO, I’ve been a customer of different types of digital solutions,” Khan says. “I’ve had very similar experiences as the CIOs I’ve spoken to in the UAE; the customer experience is becoming increasingly important. Solutions that can support this aim will inevitably gain traction in the near future.” www.tahawultech.com

24th October 2017 | Dubai UAE

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FEATURE

The age of IT automation

A mind of its own

Gartner has predicted that by 2017, 75 percent of enterprises will have more than four diverse and automated technologies within their IT management portfolios. How should CIOs go about implementing automation strategies into their business models, and what will this impending age of automation mean for current employees?

T

he term ‘robot’ was first coined when Karel Capek granted factory androids the ability to perform the work of ‘two-and-a-half humans’ in his 1920s play. Little did any of us think that before a century was up, these would become real-life, increasingly common additions to the workplace as we know it today.

Contrary to public hysteria, we’re not about to be completely overrun by our mechanic counterparts.

McKinsey found that fewer than 5 percent of occupations can be entirely automated using current technology, and only 60 percent of occupations could have 30 percent of their tasks automated as things stand.

Reddit user FiletOfFish1066 was among this 5 percent. He was fired from his programming job at a well-known technology company last summer, after he spent the first eight months of his tenure completely automating his own job. Six years went by before his manager noticed he was spending his entire working 28

AUGUST 2017

day playing computer games, whilst pocketing a $95,000 salary.

That being said, the need to consider the potential for automation within the enterprise is becoming a pressing concern for CIOs around the globe, particularly in the Middle East.

Research firm IDC claims that digital transformation is not possible without an automation strategy, but when can we expect to see these materialise in businesses in the region?

“While Middle East organisations are still in the early stages of adopting automation, thanks to a culture of innovation, it could accelerate quickly in the coming 5-10 years,” says Hichem Maya, head of industries, SAP MENA. A major barrier in organisations adopting these automation strategies can sometimes be perceived as coming from employee reluctance to change, but Maya believes that CIOs can swerve this hurdle by adapting their approach. “Rather than entire jobs being replaced by artificial intelligence and robots, CIOs should emphasise to workers

that automation will lead to greater collaboration between people and machines, with new opportunities for workers with skills that, in some cases, have not even been created yet,” he says.

However, it seems that not all employees are averse to riding the automation wave, as shown in ServiceNow’s latest report, ‘Today’s State of Work: At the Breaking Point.’

“Faced with the reality of how work gets done today, the vast majority of people we surveyed are crying out for change,” says Mark Ackerman, ServiceNow’s sales director for the Middle East. “They want their work tools to mirror the consumerised tools they are so used to using in their personal lives, and see this as a way to increase productivity, freeing them from the heavy administrative burden they carry today.”

Three out of four respondents said that they want simple, selfservice support processes that make administration “as easy as using Amazon or FedEx,” according www.tahawultech.com

to the report. “Nine in ten said that automating their work processes would make them more productive,” continues Ackerman. “Only 5 percent disagreed with ‘consumerising’ support processes, and just 4 percent disagreed with automating administrative tasks.”

Regardless of the workforce’s attitude towards automation, the introduction of a widespread automation strategy will undoubtedly result in various changes within the enterprise. “Organisations need to focus on upskilling their staff by partnering with vendors and educational institutions, in order to create higherqualified and better-paying jobs within organisations that better utilise employee talents,” Maya says.

A mere 4 percent of CFOs in a recent Oxford Economics and SAP study said that automation is causing jobs to disappear, while 85 percent said that finance headcounts have “held steady”. In addition, 73 percent of the CFOs that took part in the study agreed that automation is in fact improving www.tahawultech.com

finance department efficiency, giving executives more bandwidth for value-added tasks that require human judgement, such as fraud detection, compliance, Big Data analytics and driving business strategy.

Today’s breed of business users is more tech-savvy, independent and social than ever before, and many of this new generation have grown up enjoying the instant gratification of the Internet age. What’s more, Ackerman believes that if these new workers suspect that established processes are slowing them down, they will have “no qualms” about working around, or replacing, certain systems to get what they want.

“Enterprises have an enormous opportunity to shift their employees from mundane administrative work to high-value initiatives that flow directly to their bottom line,” he says. “I do not believe that businesses need to transform their culture and overcome widespread objections – they already have enthusiastic groundswell that they can leverage to drive change.”

CIOs should emphasise to workers that automation will lead to greater collaboration between people and machines.

Hichem Maya, head of industries, SAP MENA Similarly, Gartner believes that ‘old guard’ companies – those with large amounts of legacy technologies and processes – will not necessarily be the ‘first movers’. Rather, the savvier companies among them – typically startups or newer organisations – will be the ‘fast followers’, as they will recognise the need for competitive parity for speed, cost savings and increased productivity of this technology. The research firm also AUGUST 2017

29

FEATURE

The age of IT automation

predicts that by 2018, 45 percent of the fastest-growing companies will have fewer employees than instances of smart machines.

While manufacturing and retail tend to be the typical industries that spring to mind when considering those most susceptible to automation, Ackerman believes that any industry which relies on technology as either an enabler or a differentiator will be liable to complete transformation.

“No area of an organisation will escape the ultimate automation or orchestration of processes,” he says. “IT organisations that take advantage of orchestration – which makes complex procedures easy to repeat while reducing the possibility of human errors – are able to improve efficiency and service quality, while reducing operational costs.”

As far as progress in adopting automation in the Middle East goes, Maya believes that in tandem with emerging technologies, such as IoT, artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain, automation is helping regional organisations to become more efficient, productive and profitable. “As organisations face

30

AUGUST 2017

Enterprises have an enormous opportunity to shift their employees from mundane administrative work to high-value initiatives that flow directly to their bottom line.

Mark Ackerman, sales director, Middle East, ServiceNow an ever-growing amount of data, they need to mine it for business insights through automation of processes,” he says. “As a result, there will be a growing need for data-centric roles, such as data analysts and scientists.”

We are gradually reaching a new age of automation in which machines can not only perform a range of routine physical work activities – sometimes in a more efficient and cost-effective way than humans, but are also increasingly capable of achieving activities that require cognitive capabilities. These include making snap judgments, reading a situation from an emotional perspective, or even driving. Take the rise of autonomous vehicles for example; driving was previously considered too difficult to automate successfully, but by the end of the year, Dubai Police plan on deploying a fleet of self-driving police cars that will scan people and identify criminals and “undesirables”.

But aside from robotic-type technologies such as these, automation has ample

benefits to offer in terms of enhancing enterprise processes, as opposed to directly replacing them. By 2018, Gartner predicts that 20 percent of business content will be authored by machines; this includes shareholder reports, legal documents, market reports, press releases, articles and white papers, which are all candidates for automated writing tools.

What’s more, even supervisory duties are increasingly shifting to monitoring an employee’s accomplishments through performance measurements that are directly tied to productivity and customer evaluation. Such measurements can be consumed more effectively by smart machine managers, modified to learn based on staffing decisions and management incentives.

While this might still sound as if machines are increasingly becoming the backbone of a business, Maya believes it’s not all doom and gloom for employees. “By freeing up employees from routine tasks and allowing them to work remotely and at non-standard times, organisations can emphasise that employees can enjoy a better working culture and work-life balance,” he says. Just be sure to not get caught enjoying it too much, like FiletOfFish1066. www.tahawultech.com

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INTERVIEW

Marco Landi, president for the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, Polycom

A lot of companies are dismantling entire office areas to create collaborative workspaces for a more flexible generation.

Marco Landi, president for the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, Polycom

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AUGUST 2017

www.tahawultech.com

So far, yet so near

Polycom’s president for the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, Marco Landi, shares his thoughts on the potential for video conferencing solutions in the GCC, and why traditional workspaces are being transformed by advancing work cultures and technologies in the APAC-EMEA territory.

Y

ou manage a large chunk of the world for Polycom…

I took over Asia on 1st April, and have been in charge of Polycom’s EMEA region for two years.

It’s a massive region to manage, and I was keen to work beyond EMEA. We also wanted to bring more consistency across the company. We don’t have a worldwide sales leader, so we decided to split the world in two, between myself and my counterpart, who runs the North and South America regions. It has made things tighter and more structured. So far, I’m really enjoying the role.

What’s Polycom’s outlook for the Middle East region?

When I took over two years ago, it was a bit of a struggle. Like everyone else in the market, we had suffered.

I think we’re now doing a lot better.

You could maybe say that we’d hit

www.tahawultech.com

the bottom, but the last three or four quarters have really been strong.

There’s a lot of opportunity, and this region is a particularly dynamic voice market, while video is still in a bit of a transition.

Avaya’s struggles and Cisco’s decreased focus on voice present opportunities for us. In terms of video, that’s where the biggest opportunity is for the Microsoft transition. The transition is from video conferencing being a separate, niche application to being integrated in the collaboration piece, where you put voice and video conferences, content management and instant messaging into one platform.

What kinds of transitions are your customers experiencing in terms of their use of your technology?

There are a lot of questions – not so much around the value of the technology, but more around the

extent of the transition to newer usage. It’s no longer just a case of buying endpoints for a video conferencing room.

It’s now a case of your Microsoft transition – Skype for Business, Office 365 – so it creates a mixture from on-premise to the cloud. A lot of customers want to do it, but then they need to consider what they need to do and how long it will take.

In the Middle East, cloud here is not as developed, so there is a lot of discussion as to the type of solution that will be used. That is transforming the video market, but it’s taking time.

Given Microsoft’s increasing focus and investment in AI, will partnering with them in the coming years give you an advantage in terms of making your products and services smarter?

Being frank, Microsoft is a great partner of ours, but they do have their AUGUST 2017

33

INTERVIEW

Marco Landi, president for the Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, Polycom

own agenda and strategies, which can always change. I’ve been involved in a situation where you can be a crucial part of a strategy one minute, but then someone changes their mind and focuses on something else. Suddenly, you can become less important and get left a little bit. It’s not without risk.

Video conferencing was a dedicated market, where there was a lot of investment, with the Middle East as a classic example. The oil price was very strong, and this market was prime for it because companies here have relationships around the world.

Video got to the point of saturation, and in the last 10 years, video growth has typically been around 2-4 percent.

Microsoft has expanded that dynamic from being a boardroom tool to being used across an organisation, and moving from being a video conferencing solution to a complete collaboration solution.

Microsoft has a lot of strategic initiatives, but there’s no guarantee that tomorrow or at some point they won’t decide to shift their focus on another space, like gaming.

What kinds of work culture differences have you observed across all the markets you manage?

I haven’t seen any company, whether it’s here, in India, Japan or the UK, that is not looking for a different way that its employees can work. Companies are at different stages. A company in Europe may be planning for offices with a 10 percent reduction in seats.

Everyone buys into the fact that new ways of collaboration will expand, with tools and content added on top. We want to see video on mobile phones and huddle rooms, not just on laptops.

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AUGUST 2017

Companies may have a logistics centre in Dubai, but want to connect that to their other offices.

The foundation for this region to be successful in that respect is there.

The only thing I haven’t yet seen in this region is mobile working and telecommuting. In London, every company is trying to reduce the cost of real estate. Telecommuting is also more efficient; an employee can start work from home at 8.30am and finish later than they normally would, because they’ve saved hours in the day. A lot of companies are dismantling entire office areas to create collaborative workspaces for a more flexible generation. In India or Japan, they may recoil at the suggestion of getting rid of a physical boardroom.

How important is physical geography in the video solutions market? What kinds of challenges or opportunities does this region face in that respect?

I think that the more spread the region is, and the harder it is to travel around it, the more it benefits video.

For example, I now go to China and India a lot. India has a population of 1.3 billion people. It’s a three-hour

flight from New Delhi to Calcutta, and a similar distance between the country’s other major cities.

Companies may have connected their three main offices, but in the next 10 years, that number will jump to 50. In China, every company there is talking about “second and third tier” cities – the 700 one-million-people cities that will be created in the next few years. Customers there have already connected 100 offices, but now they’ll soon need to connect another 1,000.

Africa is in the same situation.

The market looks at video technology as a way to save on travel costs, and customers buy it to connect to long-distance destinations.

A customer in Sharjah will want to connect to London and Houston.

Geography is the main driver of it, but the verticalisation of apps is playing a part too. Those motivations for buying video are about 70-30 split.

If a region’s size is a major factor in its interest in video solutions, does that mean that video uptake will be limited in the Middle East?

If you think about the amount of visas you need to get, and the current political situation in the GCC, then there’s a clear need for it.

Customers use Dubai as a hub to reach India, Pakistan or anywhere else in the world. Companies may have a logistics centre in Dubai, but want to connect that to their other offices. Our customers here tend to be international, and are selling their products and services abroad. This is the UAE’s main strategy, to be a hub that can connect different regions. My boss even suggested that I move to Dubai to make my job easier given the large region I cover. www.tahawultech.com

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INSIGHT

Arun Khehar, senior vice president of applications, Oracle ECEMEA

Why blockchain makes sense for the Middle East Arun Khehar, senior vice president of applications, Oracle ECEMEA, gives his take on why blockchain has the potential to revolutionise various industries and provide enhanced transparency to finance.

B

lockchain protocol has the potential to revolutionise finance by increasing transparency and simplifying processes. Investments in this innovative technology are constantly increasing in the Middle East, and organisations in the region – from governments to financial institutions – are launching countless initiatives to develop potential applications.

Dubai's government believes its blockchain strategy has the potential to generate 25.1 million hours of economic productivity each year in savings.

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AUGUST 2017

A bright future Dubai announced earlier this year that it aims to become the world’s first blockchain-powered city by 2020. Why? Because its government believes blockchain will make public services more efficient and help promote entrepreneurship due to the competitive advantage it offers.

The emirate believes that real estate, fintech and banking, healthcare, transportation, urban planning, smart energy, digital commerce and tourism will all be major beneficiaries of blockchain.

Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, managing director of Dubai Future Foundation, argues that blockchain will result in substantial economic savings that can be reinvested in value-added sectors and will contribute to saving millions of hours wasted in entering data and ensuring its veracity.

Dubai’s government believes its blockchain strategy has the potential to generate 25.1 million hours of economic productivity each year in savings, and will help it achieve its goal to be paperless in 2020.

Mysterious origins This is quite an achievement given that less than 10 years ago, most people hadn’t heard of blockchain.

It all started in 2008, during the middle of the credit crisis. Amid general distrust in banks and a desire to run the finance industry differently, software developer Satoshi Nakamoto (whose identity remains unknown to this day) unveiled a new digital currency, Bitcoin, powered by a new type of decentralised technology called blockchain.

Blockchain is best described as a mutually distributed ledger. All the records of the ledger, known as blocks, are written continuously, chronologically and publicly on the database, which means the system is potentially safer and more efficient than previous transactional systems.

“The major forces driving the blockchain market are transparency and immutability, and reduced total cost of ownership,” Marketsandmarkets says. “The blockchain market is growing rapidly because of the high adoption of this distributed ledger technology across various applications such as payments, smart contracts, exchanges, digital identities, and documentation.”

The research firm estimates the global blockchain market will grow from $210.2 million in 2016 to $2.3 billion by 2021, an annual growth rate of 61.5 percent. www.tahawultech.com

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INSIGHT

Arun Khehar, senior vice president of applications, Oracle ECEMEA

Increased transparency By removing the need for intermediaries, blockchain protocol gives a very high level of control.

Its transparency also gives finance professionals valuable insights into financial transactions.

It could make processes like reconciling inter-company accounts and resolving financial disputes with a client or vendor much easier. It could help CFOs plan better, as they would not have to wait for a payment to clear or set aside collateral to cover counterparty risk.

Blockchain can basically ease finance. In cross-border payments, it could be used to replace the traditional SWIFT network and cut transaction fees significantly. It offers

a convenient way to send money cheaply and efficiently, to facilitate remittance flows.

Janina Lowisz, Bitcoin remittance platform Cashaa’s chief marketing officer says, “Blockchain technology enables fast, cheap and frictionless processes within organisations, and between organisations and their partners, through near real-time settlement, improved information sharing, reliable tracing of any document or other item, instant proof of any part of a process occurring and with less chance of error and fraud.”

Smart contracts This is the core proposition of smart contracts – computer protocols that can self-execute contractual

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agreements – thereby automating the entire agreement process. In businesses with heavy supply chains, the benefits in terms of efficiency and costs could be immense.

However, adoption by finance professionals is currently very slow.

An Oxford Economics global survey of CFOs and finance executives released in April 2017 showed that only 7 percent of finance executives currently rate blockchain as an important core technology to their finance function’s successful performance.

As with any new and disruptive technology, there is always a lot of skepticism to start with. However, as the internet has taught us, only the companies that embrace change will succeed in the long term.

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䤀一䐀䤀䄀 簀 唀䄀䔀 簀 䈀䄀䠀刀䄀䤀一 38

AUGUST 2017

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ᰠ夀漀甀爀 䤀吀匀䴀 倀愀爀琀渀攀爀ᴠ www.tahawultech.com

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INSIGHT

Ivar M Berntz, research director, Gartner

Why successful digital CIOs should fire themselves CIOs need to have the courage to think differently in the digital world, says Gartner’s research director Ivar M Berntz.

T

he real challenge (and opportunity) of digital business is that few people within most companies know enough about technology to lead a digital transformation. Because so few businesses have been able to successfully scale digital business, experienced leaders are in extremely short supply.

CIOs have an opportunity to step forward and utilise their technology savviness, in combination with business and delivery knowledge, to lead the transition. However, some CIOs hesitate to step forward not because they lack the technical skills, but because they’re missing soft skills. Fortunately, these skills can be learned, and CIOs looking to step up should focus on three: courage, communication and credibility.

First, tackle the courage aspect of becoming a great digital leader.

HAVE THE COURAGE TO FIRE YOURSELF While CIOs should not literally ‘fire themselves’, they should evolve their role and responsibilities to better match a digital business. The key is to move from an operational CIO who is running the day-to-day and responding to business objectives set by the CEO, to a role that is leading the digital transition. Start 40

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by delegating the everyday running of the IT department to a COO of the IT organisation and embrace a leadership role in the digital business.

DEAL WITH CHALLENGES Change is scary, and people will be threatened by a large transformation.

Remember that the current business model — although not sustainable in the digital world — represents how people have built their careers, including the CEO. This means that the idea of change will create fierce opposition. The CIO must now be responsible for leading the change in a way that deals with opposition, but also evolves the business.

The CIO must now be responsible for leading the change in a way that deals with opposition, but also evolves the business.

BE COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE By moving toward digital transformation, you’ll inevitably be in uncertain positions — and that’s a good thing. According to the 2017 CEO Survey, CEOs want two traits in digital business leaders: open-mindedness and entrepreneurship for dealing with new business opportunities and threats.

BE READY TO SAY NO Instead of simply agreeing with the CEO when you know something is a bad idea, speak up. CIOs need to be able to tell people what they need to hear and not what they want to hear. If a new competitor on the market will take away 20 percent of the company’s market share, that’s something the CEO should know, even if it’s not something that’s positive.

EXPLAIN CHANGES The fact is that in the transition to digital, everyone will have to give up something that made the company (and them) successful in the past. For example, a part of the company that was key to success in the past might not have a place in the digital future. Some executives and employees might need to give up sole ownership of resources to run an area, or even the area itself. www.tahawultech.com

PRESENTS

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INSIGHT

Lizzie Cohen-Laloum, senior vice president, EMEA Sales, F5 Networks

The future of all things that think, sync and link With the augmentation of artificial intelligence (AI) and smarter ways in which apps will digitally disrupt our human conscience, Lizzie Cohen-Laloum, senior vice president, EMEA Sales, F5 Networks, believes now is the time to re-evaluate the future of thinking.

T

he physical and virtual world are paving the way for powerful thinking in the future. The generation of simulated ideas could deliver untold benefits to a society becoming more dependent upon the automated mind.

Think about it. You could wake in the morning and review your dreams, play them through social media and share them in a virtual environment for others to explore. In years to come, consider an ecosystem of interconnected apps in the cloud to help you diagnose your health in real-time and control organic clothing that can self-repair human tissue.

Imagine your role at work embracing biometrics to perform duties with digitally assisted deductive reasoning inside your head.

Sound implausible? The combination of biological and digital intelligence is a growing area in ‘knowledge engineering,’ with the aim of solving complex problems that can work in harmony with human expertise.

But I know what you are thinking.

Are my apps ready to handle the future? As technology professionals, 42

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we need to think holistically and determine what is important and ask the right questions. Applications will no longer be confined to specific devices or cloud architecture, but will be part of an ecosystem of high-tech, ubiquitous sets of software solutions. Digital identity is your most valuable asset, and governments are already exploring paperless passports. This is the era of ‘the human as the password.’

Humanised interfaces will require business owners to think about how the brand should feel, interact and even engage physically with the human body. While AI learns more about the way we think, so too will our ability to control gadgets with our minds.

This is the era of the human as the password.

Machines for every means – perhaps more devices for our vices. From smart refrigerators that manage your eating habits to homes that can automatically adjust to heating and lighting preferences - the transformative experience of any object could soon be controlled by our own conscience in collaboration with apps.

It’s time to collect our thoughts.

We are transitioning to a point where AI becomes pure intelligence that can mimic cogitative reasoning of human beings. We need to plan for a world where telepathic functions, the human and the manufactured conscience will work in natural harmony. Predictions suggest that business models based on today’s static information and cloud architectures will face further challenges. Companies will need greater flexibility and freedom to adapt quicker as new dynamic app intelligence caters for the rapidly evolving behavioural patterns of cyber-citizens. Apps too will become mission-critical to protect brand equity and enter data-trade relations with customers – essentially the new form of commercial currency, thanks to all things that think, sync and link. www.tahawultech.com

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INSIGHT

Tamer Elsawy, software business unit executive, IBM Middle East & Pakistan

A ride for the everyday superhero Tamer Elsawy, software business unit executive, IBM Middle East and Pakistan, reflects on how the automotive community can adopt technology to bring about the necessary industry transformation.

B

ruce Wayne’s ride of choice is beloved across the car industry. The long, lowslung and aerodynamic ‘Batmobile’ first appeared in ‘Batman: The Animated Series’, and always managed to save the day at the very last moment. With a dramatic entrance, Batman’s joyride came packing a couple of machine guns to defend itself, a grappling hook and crazy armour, alongside a futuristic technological advancement or two.

Most would agree that automotive fans favour this vehicle because the Batmobile continued to evolve, with each reincarnation reflecting the everevolving technologies of the day.

Outside of the world of fiction the automotive industry is rapidly evolving as well, with leading car manufacturers reaching out to the latest technologies to deploy vehicles for today’s drivers. Rather than strapping crime fighting weapons to the doors of sedans, companies are 44

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harnessing the power of cognitive computing to create much needed customised solutions such as predictive maintenance based on real driving behaviour. Something as simple as knowing when and how often a car is stationary can get its users a better premium from insurance companies. Just one of the many ways enterprise solutions can be leveraged through measurement, reporting and basically – Big Data.

Sounds out of this world? It no longer is with industries converging and going outside of traditional boundaries. Market forces, dramatic changes in regulatory rules and concerns over sustainability – combined with advances in technology and the ability to better predict and manage production – are creating a unique opportunity for broad transformation of the automotive industry. Innovative business models and new methods of collaboration aimed at increasing

value for consumers are allowing the vehicles of our childhood imagination to come alive.

So how can the automotive community adopt technology to bring about the necessary industry transformation? We see the value chain as a three-tiered process with a focus on mobile-enabled, cloud-driven solutions that simplify and accelerate the process of collecting and analysing key analytics, and then layering personalised services based on the consumer’s choices and habits. This includes the collection of data from multiple sources, sometimes gathered in real time.

The bottom tier is the first layer to the IoT value chain and is essentially driven by sensors in order to turn objects into ‘smart’ things. For years, sensors have been widely used across numerous industries to collect data on important process variables. With the greatly reduced cost of sensors today, almost every device is rapidly becoming smart and sensors are www.tahawultech.com

Innovative business models and new methods of collaboration are allowing the vehicles of our childhood imagination to come alive.

being placed in almost anything to provide valuable data.

In the middle layer, a solution platform brings an IoT device to life through Big Data, the cloud and artificial intelligence. In order for the automotive industry to incorporate www.tahawultech.com

new era technology, it is required to integrate it into their value stream, which looks at the sequence of activities required to design, produce, and distribute a vehicle. Companies like Toyota and BMW continuously document, analyse and improve the flow of information or materials required within their value stream. In other words - how security, scalability, cloud and so on are mapped out within it will play a huge role.

At the top, you have the controlling layer. Think of it as a joystick, as this layer is made up of all the software applications that bring forth an action.

From the consumer’s point, this is the functional layer that makes all the futuristic and personalised services come to life. This layer is where the transformation lies. To put this into a real world example, if there is a breakdown in the family car, various sensors instantaneously send a message to a maintenance system which autonomously dispatches

assistance, whether it be a recovery service as is the case today, or an autonomous drone that can diagnose and repair the fault automatically, as it might be in the not so distant future.

The transformational part is when that system can send a drone to fix the fault, and when a family holiday goes uninterrupted thanks to this solution.

All superhero vehicles have one core purpose – they provide the protagonist with a way to save the day.

So imagine how IoT technology, like cognitive computing, will be there for your future super self? Be it a weather adaptive vehicle for the super dad who is concerned about road safety during a sand storm, or the selfdriving limo for the entrepreneurial CEO who is multitasking her start-up into a Fortune 500 company. The technology is not that far away and we, along with industry partners, are just working out the last of the mechanics to bring all this transformational capability into the everyday journey.

AUGUST 2017

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INSIGHT

Emir Susic, senior director, Avaya Professional Services’ EMEAA

What is an agile organisation?

Avaya Professional Services’ senior director for Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Emir Susic, gives his take on how Middle East organisations can prepare themselves for fast-paced business change.

D

igital transformation could generate $16.9 billion in extra revenue each year for companies in the Middle East from 2017 to 2021, as well as $17.3 billion in annual cost savings and efficiency gains, according to PwC. The agile process is a great way to capture this value and deliver on your digital transformation objectives. By taking small, cost-effective steps for trial and error, it has evolved to be a proven approach to transformation, as the world around us continuously shifts the goal posts of success.

An agile approach to digital transformation is increasingly being championed as a way of navigating through challenges. Organisations that are unable to respond to new opportunities – and threats – quickly and effectively face the threat of becoming irrelevant.

So what exactly is an agile approach? It really comes down to how enterprises introduce new applications for the digital age. It starts with the initial assessment of whether an application works for the organization or not, then designing the solution, testing it, and hopefully succeeding as quickly and cost effectively as possible.

By following this process across the enterprise, agility delivers a significantly lower risk and investment of time and resources. Within this 46

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Organisations that are unable to respond to new opportunities quickly and effectively face the threat of becoming irrelevant.

process, the months that it would generally take a team to build a solution are minimised to weeks, if not days. The transition from ‘presentation to production’ is the time to get a solution delivered, from presenting it to the customer to having it up and running, and we now look to achieve this in 2-4 weeks.

That’s easier said than done.

The major challenge when following an agile process to application development is consensus. Not only do the needs for customised applications vary based on one’s business, but these needs become even more diverse when you go down to the business unit and country level.

Achieving consensus early in the process from stakeholders

not only enables you to design the right solution for the right team. It minimises the times you go wrong, and promotes financial buy-in from your internal stakeholders from the get go. This makes total sense as an agile organisation ultimately empowers its teams to be more responsive to changing customer trends.

BUILDING BLOCKS OF SUCCESS Once the consensus is set, moving into the digital age is only possible if your technology platform has three essential characteristics: being open, modular and easily extensible.

Being open is about supporting the design, creation, and deployment of advanced applications without developers having to acquire specialised expertise.

Being modular means the platform allows you to select a range of capabilities over time to meet your company’s goals and drive business results – ambitions that will likely change over time.

Being easily extensible then becomes paramount. This requires having a platform on which your organisation can expand and adapt as your customers evolve, shaping new and differentiated experiences for them, as well as accommodating future requirements of the marketplace. www.tahawultech.com

TECHNOLOGY DIGITAL HEALTH TECHNOLOGY VISION 2017 Instead of people adapting to technology, people are shaping technology to adapt to us. Technology for People shows the way to an exciting future where healthcare technology is designed by humans, for humans, to create positive change that can transform healthcare organisations and society. These five trends demonstrate the fact that while technology is all around us, we are at its centre.

TREND 1

AI Healthcare Experience Above All

UI

84%

81%

72%

of healthcare executives believe AI will revolutionise the way they will gain information from and interact with customers.

of healthcare executives say it is extremely or very important to offer their products/services through centralised platforms/assistants or messaging bots.

of health organisations are already using intelligent virtual assistants to create better customer interactions.

TREND 2

Beyond Health Platforms

90%

78%

66%

of health executives believe it is critical to adopt a platform-based business model and engage in ecosystems with digital partners.

of health executives agree that competitive advantage will be determined by the strength of the partners and ecosystems you choose.

of health organisations are taking steps to participate in digital ecosystems.

TREND 3

Healthcare Workforce

80%

71%

71%

of health executives agree the digital revolution is driving a restructuring of corporate economics.

of health executives report they are already using on-demand labor platforms.

of health executives agree that organisations that are able to build a strong liquid workforce will win the war on talent.

TREND 4

81%% 80 of health executives agree organisations need to understand where to understand where people want to be, and shape the technology to act as their guide.

% % 7182

of health executives agree industry leaders will be the organisations that truly tap into what motivates human behaviour.

90% of health executives report a gap between what customers want vs. need.

TREND 5

of Healthcare

68%

66%

42%

of health executives believe their organisations are entering entirely new digital industries.

of health executives agree that many innovations their organisations areworking on fall into grey regulatory areas.

of health organisations have already joined a consortium to self-regulate.

SOURCE: ACCENTURE

INSIGHT

Elie Dib, senior managing director, Riverbed

Ringing the changes Riverbed’s senior managing director for the Middle East, Turkey and North Africa region Elie Dib gives his take on why employee user experience must be prioritised when initiating IT change.

A

ll too often, user experience is overlooked in IT transformation projects.

It is the most fundamental measure of success, as without measuring this before and after any digital transformation programme, there are no empirical metrics to help validate claims of any clear change in the experience with confidence.

User experience often determines the increase of productivity, employee engagement, cost savings as well as enhanced customer service.

OPERATIONAL INEFFICIENCY Business unit leaders and IT professionals are often summoned to war-room meetings to explain why an IT-related project or change aimed at improving business productivity or

The bottom line is that no enterprise can manage or improve until it can measure.

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customer service resulted in so much negative feeling toward the initiative.

Unfortunately, this is often because all parties are not aligned. More often than not, these situations can easily be avoided by starting at the vantage point of the end-user experience to see how IT services are being consumed.

Business unit leaders and IT professionals need to sit down together and map out objectives and KPIs for technology changes. If both parties know what the outcome must be, there is no room for confusion in delivery.

INEFFECTIVE CHANGE MANAGEMENT Users need to be brought on board the journey of change. Reasoning behind the changes needs to be explained, and effective training put in place to make any change in strategy or a transformation as positive as possible. In addition, for future change initiatives, empirical evidence can prove to be invaluable.

Businesses must be able to measure system performance against enduser productivity over time to ensure there’s no real negative impact, but rather only improvement.

POOR VISIBILITY OF THE END USER EXPERIENCE The three previous topics can easily be combined within the one single

category of poor visibility of the enduser experience: in other words — the visibility gap. In short, this relates to the lack of insight into how IT services or change initiatives and digital transformations actually impact the experience of users, which ultimately impacts business performance.

The key thing to keep in mind is that any effect on end-user experience can only be measured from the end-user’s perspective of how they are consuming IT services — and with proactive alerting so when there is a deviation in performance, IT is notified directly, and doesn’t rely on the workforce calling their IT team or the CIO to complain.

CLOSE THE VISIBILITY GAP The bottom line is that no enterprise can manage or improve until it can measure. The solution is simple.

Measure and benchmark your business’ existing user experience and instantly compare any variations when a change is made.

Whether the business is looking to change a specific IT component or to enable full-scale digital business transformation (in a positive manner) CIOs, IT professionals and their business unit partners need to ensure the experience for their end-users is optimised as part of the project — in effect, treating them like IT consumers. www.tahawultech.com

PRODUCTS

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Launches and releases

Brand: AMD Product: Radeon Pro WX 9100

Brand: Huawei Product: Nova 2 Plus The Nova 2 Plus features a 5.5inch screen and has a smooth metallic unibody, measuring as thin as 6.9mm. It is powered by Huawei Kirin 659 chipset and is equipped with Android 7.0 Nougat operating system and EMUI 5.1 user interface.

The new smartphone features a 20MP high-definition front camera, a 12MP and 8MP rear dual camera and a professional portrait mode. It is also equipped with Huawei’s 3D facial recognition and optimised beauty feature to deliver crisp and clear portraits.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The smartphone sports Huawei’s Smart Power Saving 5.0, which according to the company, can extend battery life by up to three hours.

The Nova 2 Plus also supports aptX wireless Bluetooth technology, which promises the shortest audio coding lag time for videos and games.

The Huawei Nova 2 Plus will be available in black, gold and blue at AED 1,399.

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The Radeon Pro WX 9100 workstation graphics card is designed for demanding media, entertainment, design and manufacturing workloads.

The device delivers up to 12.3 TFLOPS of peak single precision compute performance.

The Radeon Pro WX 9100 graphics card, according to AMD, is powered by next-gen compute units with Rapid Packed Math and an Enhanced Geometry Pipeline which improves processing efficiencies.

The Radeon Pro WX 9100 uses 16GB of high-bandwidth cache based on the latest and ‘ultra-fast’ HBM2 Error Correcting Code (ECC) memory.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: According to AMD, the Radeon Pro WX 9100 has 51 percent more memory bandwidth, 2.6 times the performance/ Watt, 2.3 times the compute performance and a wider range of API support including Vulkan 1.0, OpenGL 4.5, OpenCL 2.0, and DirectX 12.1 than its predecessor.

The graphics card is also equipped with the latest display technologies, including support for 8K at 60Hz and 4K at 120Hz. It also has the DisplayPort 1.4 that’s HDR-ready, which allows it to support up to six displays using AMD Eyefinity Technology.

Brand: Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company Product: Aruba 8400 Core Switches Ethernet ports. The key features include high performance 19.2 terabits per second switching (1.2Tbps/slot) capacity. According to Aruba, the switches’ fabric design also enables seamless upgrades so enterprises can scale as their bandwidth increase.

The Aruba 8400 Core Switches, according to the company, extends intelligence from the edge to the core and ‘allows CIOs to derive better business outcomes from their networks.’

It is a Virtual Switching Framework (VSF) with two chassis scales up to 512 10GbE, 128 40Gbe or 96 100 Gigabit

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The network switch features ArubaOSCX with built-in REST APIs and Python scripts, which allows users to take advantage of intelligent monitoring and visibility through the Aruba Network Analytics Engine. It also has advanced layer feature set which includes BGP, OSPF, VRF, and IPv6, and features a compact 8U chassis with high density, line rate 10GbE/40GbE/100GbE connectivity. www.tahawultech.com

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COLUMN

Glesni Holland, Deputy Editor, CNME

BEYOND HUMAN R

esearchers at the Facebook AI Research Lab were recently forced to halt artificial intelligencepowered chatbots, after the robotic duo – ‘Bob’ and ‘Alice’ – began using a new, incomprehensible language developed without human input.

Bob and Alice’s bot-natter simultaneously offers a glimpse of both the menacing and marvellous potential of AI. The pair were negotiating with each other over the ownership of virtual items, in an attempt to understand how linguistics played a role in the way such discussions materialised.

In the bizarre dialogue that followed, the exchanges became seemingly nonsensical. “I can can I I everything else,” said Bob, to which Alice replied, “Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to.”

54

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Personally, I’d feel much more comfortable if robots could actually communicate in a manmade language. If we are expected to eventually work in tandem with these machines, we surely need common communication platforms that both parties can understand.

While some claim that the neural networks had simply modified human language for the purposes of more efficient interaction – shorthand, if you will – mass hysteria inevitably dictates that there is something more sinister involved.

Stephen Hawking warned in 2014 that AI could signal the end of the human race, and tech ambassadors such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates have also voiced their concerns in recent years. “It would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate,” Hawking said. “Humans, who are limited by slow biological

evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”

But Facebook researcher Dhruv Batra isn’t getting carried away, and has done his utmost to reassure the general public that panicking is a waste of time. “While the idea of AI agents inventing their own language may sound alarming or unexpected to people outside the field, it is a well-established sub-field of AI, with publications dating back decades,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

So, should Dubai’s residents be alarmed given the recent emergence of robot police officers on the emirate’s streets?

In a word, no. AI has begun to dominate the focus of R&D at the world’s biggest technology companies, and, for now, AI is not yet ‘evil’. While chatbots can be programmed to seem very humanlike, it’s a gross exaggeration to suggest that they are capable of plotting a coup. www.tahawultech.com

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