Think Software Booklet 2017 | Issue 6 Volume 2

ISSUE

06 VOL 2

OCTOBER 2017

RESHAPING REGIONAL CLOUD

CASE STUDY: ESNET VAT IN THE GCC CASE STUDY: DSO

TAKE CONTROL WITH CIS 20 MANAGED SERVICES EXPANSION

CENTRE STAGE SAMEH MUHTADI ON PUTTING CLOUD AT THE HEART OF BLOOM HOLDING'S IT TRANSFORMATION

Published by

THINK SS PARTNERS

DEEPAK VERMA CEO & Founder Tel: +971 (0)4 4288388 Email: deepak@thinkss.com

ASHU VERMA Director – Accounts Tel: +971 (0)4 4288376 Email: ashu@thinkss.com

THINK SS KEY CONTACTS 2

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RAHUL MATHUR Chief Commercial Officer Tel: +971 (0)4 428831 Email: rahul@thinkss.com

FAHEEM SIDDIQUI Director of Technology Consulting Services Tel: +971 (0)4 4288327 Email: faheem@thinkss.com

MOHIT SHARMA Product Manager Tel: +971 (0)4 4288324 Email: mohit@thinkss.com

KAVITHA ADVANI Marketing Manager Tel: +971 (0)4 4288345 Email: kavita@thinkss.com

INTRODUCTION

ORGANISATIONS CAN NO LONGER RESIST INCLUDING THESE TECHNOLOGIES IN THEIR BUSINESS MODELS.” Deepak Verma, CEO & Founder

SOFTWARE-DEFINED EVERYTHING

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he world of technology as we once knew it is changing. Vendors that were previously hardwareheavy will no longer be at the forefront of the revolution. Instead, it is the software providers – the AWS, Azures and Googles of this world – that will take the lead in strategic vendor relationships, and ultimately push organisations forward in their digital transformation journeys.

According to Gartner, 30 percent of vendor relationships will have shifted from hardware-focused to softwarefocused by 2020.

Today, more and more conversations in the private sector centre around how and where companies are going to store their data. We recently had a conversation with one of the local banks when they came to visit our data centre space, and the discussion we had was not about how much space they could buy, but it was instead focused on services.

In line with these discussions, Think SS is also transforming. We’ve recently launched four services, with a fifth expected to go live soon. Among them include our backup-as-a-service and firewall-as-a-service solutions; both ref lecting the changes in attitudes

we’re seeing in the market towards relying on a software-defined network with applications in the cloud, as opposed to hosting hardware boxes within an office’s four walls.

Look at the hype surrounding the Internet of Things, the excitement around virtualisation and the software-defined ‘everything’ era we now find ourselves in. Organisations can no longer resist including these technologies in their business models.

The more traditional way of doing business by acquiring various bits of hardware and putting them in your data centre is on its way out.

This digital revolution began way back in the nineties with a slow initial uptake of technologies including QR codes and open-source initiatives. Now, more than ever, we’re being exposed to how technology is transforming the day-to-day lives of business leaders.

From a corporate standpoint, it’s all about the consumption story, and I believe the contents of this issue will demonstrate our proactive attitude towards this theory.

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COVER FEATURE Bloom Holding

CUTTING EDGE

AIMING TO BE AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF A RANGE OF DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES, BLOOM HOLDING NOW DEPENDS ON TECHNOLOGY MORE THAN EVER TO DELIVER COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. BLOOM ENLISTED THINK SS TO INVIGORATE ITS TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE AND BRING GAMECHANGING BENEFITS TO THE FIRM.

Sameh Muhtadi, CEO, Bloom Holding

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edicated to developing sustainable and integrated urban communities, Bloom Holding is at an exciting juncture in its bid to deliver an enriching lifestyle and quality of life to its customers.

The group is driven by its vision to surpass the expectations of buyers and investors through partnerships with best-in-class providers in a range of verticals, including real estate development, education, hospitality, healthcare and property services. The firm has an established and growing portfolio of projects within the UAE, the Middle East North Africa region, Europe and the United States.

Bloom currently runs schools and nurseries in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, and is in the process of expanding its education platform to Dubai, and will be opening a number of nurseries over the next five years.

It currently partners with providers including Brighton College, Dwight School from the US, and Singapore’s Mindchamps for nurseries. The firm also owns a range of hotels, and partners with operators including Marriott, and soon to open Edition hotel in Q1 2018.

However, the firm’s core business is real estate, and it is focusing on new developments and leasing properties. In addition to its three core businesses, Bloom also offers facility management, property management, leasing management and landscaping services which is becoming an increasingly important revenue stream. That’s not all –

THE THINK SS TEAM WERE RECEPTIVE TO FEEDBACK AND DEMONSTRATED AGILITY TO SHIFT THEIR EFFORTS TO AREAS THAT NEEDED URGENT ATTENTION.” Bloom is now taking its early steps in the healthcare sector, and is soon opening a Healthplus clinic in its Bloom Gardens community and its first optical hospital in Dubai.

Bloom Holding CEO Sameh Muhtadi appreciates that for the firm to stay ahead of the curve in such diverse industries, a competitive edge is necessary. “I am in no doubt that in order to grow in today’s world, we need to embrace technology; it’s not a choice,” he says. “Technology enablement is critical to our growth, and we are hugely excited about the benefits technology is already bringing to us.”

Muhtadi takes a practical approach to technology, and knows that helping customers and enhancing operations must always be a priority. “My leadership team and I fully understand that technology will help our business in many ways, from streamlining

and improving internal processes to enhancing the overall customer experience,” he says. “Technology helps us in all our smart initiatives, such as cost reduction and avoidance, revenue enhancement and improving the engagement of our workforce.”

Muhtadi is also committed to ensuring that he is personally equipped to swiftly to any technologies that are new to the market. “I make continuous efforts to enhance my own understanding of how the current era of disruptive technology is going to impact the sectors we operate in, more specifically to develop smart cities, which is in line with our UAE government initiatives,” he says.

Within the company’s four walls, technology has also had a farreaching and unifying impact. “IT is the backbone of our company,” Sayed Arekat, CFO, Bloom Holding says. “Today’s CFO needs

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COVER FEATURE Bloom Holding

TECHNOLOGY HELPS US IN ALL OUR SMART INITIATIVES, SUCH AS COST REDUCTION AND AVOIDANCE, REVENUE ENHANCEMENT AND IMPROVING THE ENGAGEMENT OF OUR WORKFORCE.” to collaborate very closely with the Head of technology as both run critical functions in a company.

With technology disrupting almost all aspects of how we conduct business, IT has emerged as a very important business partner who we need to work with very closely to ensure we continue to give our internal and external stakeholders the best possible experience.

The increase in cloud adoption and maturing solutions offerings in the UAE, has caused business models to gradually shift from fixed-term, fixed-cost strategies to variable-usage-based models, according to Bloom’s Head of Technology, Vikas Bhagat. “This is changing the IT expenditure cost profile at Bloom,” he says. “With the needs of data sovereignty and compliance requirements within our group, there is a consensus throughout that certain IT transformational services will need to be on private cloud while others shift to a public model.”

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This need to adopt changing business models within the company prompted Bhagat, Muhtadi and Arekat, along with Bloom’s senior management team, to decide on a shift in IT policy that would set the wheels of operational change in motion.

Bloom enlisted Think SS to deploy new infrastructure and managed its IT security, leaving the firm with enough resources to focus on developing its business applications.

“Project Vision” began the execution for both short and long-term strategies around infrastructure investment, where Bloom and Think SS partnered to devise a plan that would decide which business solutions should be moved to cloud, and how they could actively support the company’s long-term growth aspirations with a non-linear growth of expenditure.

Naturally, Bhagat was determined that the shift was managed carefully.

“At Bloom, building a robust and secure IT infrastructure was a

concern, given the decentralisation from the group holding company,” he says. “We decided to move to a hybrid cloud environment after careful deliberations and first level internal data classifications. We consciously developed a hybrid cloud strategy to create the right balance of security, flexibility and cost efficiency.”

“Cloud takes center stage in our IT strategy, and most initiatives are extensively leveraging this very disruptive force. Our strategic business application portfolio is fully cloud-based.” said Bhagat The partnership with Think SS ensured a smooth delivery of the extensive work, and Bhagat views the collaboration with the IT services provider as a holistic journey that has helped to deliver a substantial, positive impact on the firm. “It’s fair to say that the work we did was more of a complex program rather than a project,” he says. “It had 15 different technology deployments, and we had to carefully plan downtime so that the user experience wasn’t affected.”

He also speaks highly of the service that Bloom received from Think SS throughout the course of the changes. “The Think SS team were receptive to feedback and demonstrated agility to shift their efforts to areas that needed urgent attention,” he says. “To continue this success, we need to work and support each other as partners and continue to focus on operational excellence.

Time to

Renewal WHY THINK SS?

Think Software Services has a market-leading technology, capable of managing thousands of corporate customer contracts and licenses in a single repository.

We help the customer to have a complete renewal visibility & control and increase efficiency and productivity.

A PASSION FOR PERFECTION Call +971 4 4288300 | 380 sales@thinkss.com www.thinkss.com

We offer end-to-end capabilities from the initial notification through out to completion of the transaction and expiration notification along with a streamlined renewal process.

We provide timely support to clients to ensure no gap in license compliance as well as provide 30-60 days advance notification and renewal quotations.

Artificial Intelligence

FEATURE

FUTURE IS NOW

AI UNLEASHES THE POWER OF AUTOMATED DECISION MAKING.

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hen Apple announced the app store on 10th July, 2008, the world was in for a surprise.

It revolutionised the way people or businesses communicate, experience various services, and listen to music, store date and more. However, everything that is created eventually sees its destruction and the same is true for mobile apps. By 2020, there will be more than 5 million apps available on the App Store. It’s hard for people to download ten different apps for one activity – though they would like to experience and compare the products and prices that they are going to use – people now find it difficult to browse and find the right app or product for them because it involves a lot of planning and searching.

As time goes on, the advancement of technology has enabled new things that are attractive to people as they improve and enhance our daily lives in different ways such as booking tickets for a movie, making dinner plans, hailing a cab, setting reminders, maintaining health and planning for travel and much, much more.

The main problem when someone tries to decide what dress to buy, plan a dinner, find the right diet, follow a schedule, book flights, hotels, events or places, planning a trip or understand the common diseases related to food, diet or medicine, or understand the workings of the MRI scan or X-Ray with patient information is that is really hard.

You have lots of complex data or processes for some kind of decision

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making but Complex Decision Making process (CEP) does not help in accurate decision making when it applies to real life scenarios. Humans make so many decisions each and every day. Have you realized that?

Your brain makes dozens of Boolean decisions every single second through chemical reactions. Of the 400 billion bits of information reaching the brain per second, only 2,000 bits are utilized and make us aware of our surroundings.

(Source: Quora) Based on this are impulsive and logic thinking, where more complex decisions are made. According to multiple sources on the Internet, the average amount of remotely conscious decisions an adult makes each day equals about 35,000. In contrast, young children only make about 3,000 decisions each day. (Source: Quora) In another study, more than 200 researchers at Cornell* found that people make an average of 226.7 decisions about food alone (Source: Wansink, Brian and Jeffrey Sobal (2007), “Mindless Eating: The 200 Daily Food Decisions We Overlook,” Environment and Behavior 39:1, 106-123).

Now look at this real life example Every day you have choices to make. Some of those choices don’t have much to do with your eternal salvation (“What color shirt should I wear?”), and some of them have everything to do with it (“Should I break this commandment?”).

You may sometimes wonder, “Do my choices really matter?” Or you may even think, “If no

one knows what I’m doing, do my decisions really affect anyone?”

The answer is yes! Decisions do matter. (Source: IDS) In decision-making ‘Framing’ & ‘Rational Thinking, Intelligence and Conflicting Desires’, are few critical factors. For example: At a practical level, the rules of rational choice are not technical—they are basic strictures such as to obey transitivity (if you prefer option A to option B, and option B to option C, then you should prefer option A to option C) and to avoid having decisions affected by irrelevant context. Interestingly, psychologists have found that people sometimes violate these strictures of instrumental rationality. Humans are quite prone to having their decisions influenced by totally irrelevant contextual factors. Advertisers are quite aware of this flaw in human cognition.

They know that the claim “96% Fat Free!” will sell more than “Contains only 4% Fat”.

(Source:Big-questions) The point is not to get the precise answer so much as to see whether you are in the right ballpark. The answers of many people are not. The most common answer given is 95 percent. Actually, the correct answer is approximately 2 percent!

Artivatic.ai is aiming towards the same to change the way machines & human interact and takes decisions in real life with use of core AI & neuroscience based technologies. There is solid need of AI in Insurance sector to improve efficiency, personalization, underwriting, approvals & claims processing to save million dollars.

The important case in insurance sector is underwriting that involves the evaluation of the ability to repay the mortgage loan, during this stage of the loan process, a lot of common problems crop like in these 3 large domains credit reputation, capacity and collateral. The entire process of underwriting was taking time and at the same time bringing a lot of risks to the company. The organization has often come across applicants who are not sure what to share and how much to share. The semi-manual process within the institution for Underwriting is resource and risk intensive. In case of underwriting process, the insurance institution now with Artivatic (AV) is achieving much higher accuracy though AI enabled automation and decisionmaking. The ever-evolving AV brain here considers multiple sources of for diverse genomes on applicant, peergroup, product, social, IoT and come

ARTIVATIC.AI IS AIMING TOWARDS THE SAME TO CHANGE THE WAY MACHINES & HUMAN INTERACT AND TAKES DECISIONS IN REAL LIFE WITH USE OF CORE AI & NEUROSCIENCE BASED TECHNOLOGIES.� up with a holistic decision making for the institution on which policy would be the best suit for the applicant if he is qualified by the AV AI system to issue an insurance. Thus, the scoring and flagging of applicants helped the client to reach a much superior efficiency.

Some other areas of AI applications are KYC Automation, Consumer genomics,

product genomics, anomaly & fraud detection. AI will help to reach up to 95% of accuracy in short time and based on more data & interactions further improvement up to 100% in long term.

By 2020, AI will play significant role among many BFSI sectors including banking, insurance & capital markets.

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FEATURE

VAT

ONE STEP AHEAD

AS THE UAE PREPARES ITSELF FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF VALUE ADDED TAX (VAT) NEXT YEAR, RAHUL MATHER, THINK SS’ CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFER, LOOKS AT HOW BUSINESSES CAN SEEK TO LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY TO ENSURE THEY ARE FULLY PREPARED FOR THE IMPACT THAT TAX IS SET TO HAVE ON THEIR ORGANISATION.

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Rahul Mathur, Chief Commercial Officer

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he six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has finally joined the VAT bandwagon, with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar set to rollout the new regime in January 2018.

According to EY, the proposed VAT rate of 5 percent on the supply of goods and services is expected to contribute approximately $25 billion to the GCC’s annual GDP, but the road to implementation may not be easy. As the new year draws in, organisations need to realise that they there could be a need to completely overhaul their taxation systems and business processes if they are to be compliant in time.

The UAE has been toying with the idea of introducing tax for a long time, and while the Executive Regulation of the law is yet to be released, only time will tell in understanding how it will impact businesses and industry specific transactions in the region in the coming years. But this dynamic shift for the country’s economic market will undoubtedly require a certain level of ‘handholding’ and assistance to ensure organisations are completely compliant with the new law.

Firstly, assistance will be required for a Gap Analysis Programme (GAP)

assessment to take place, which involves analysing where the organisation is currently in comparison to where it needs to be to ensure VAT compliance.

Secondly, from a technology perspective, the current financial systems within organisations will need to be tweaked in order for technology to become an enabler and not a hindrance in assisting a company’s VAT objectives.

However, some outdated systems will likely require a complete revamp which will make this more challenging and time consuming.

GAP assessments include impact analysis on each of the revenue and procurement line items, along with inter-company transactions, goods and services which may be zero-rated tax items or exempted items, impact on export and import transactions. On analysing the above, the overall impact in financial terms is derived as a part of the assessment.

In light of this, Think Consulting, a division of Think Software Services, has put its hat in the ring to assist its existing clients in this journey. We have come up with a unique proposition as a one-stop end-to-end solution provider on VAT advisory, including IT support and deployment services. We strive to enlist professional advisors who understand our clients’ business, to ensure both VAT compliance and IT are professionally handled. We have VAT experts on-board who have completed implementations globally in matured tax environments, and who also share expertise on our IT solutions and can appreciate how to best suit the needs of individual organisations.

Over the course of 2-3 months, we conduct an exclusive programme to familiarise senior management teams on the principles of VAT and its general implications. This includes conducting a VAT impact assessment on the business and ERP systems; recommending

THIS DYNAMIC SHIFT FOR THE UAE’S ECONOMIC MARKET WILL UNDOUBTEDLY REQUIRE HANDHOLDING AND ASSISTANCE TO ENSURE COMPLETELY COMPLIANT WITH THE NEW LAW.” changes to the accounting systems to ensure compliance with new legislation, and assisting in the process of VAT registration with the FTA. In addition, we provide ongoing VAT support to our customers throughout the process, as well as deploying the necessary IT solutions – such as SAP B1, in case current financial systems are not compliant.

We believe that following this process will lead any organisation to

be fully informed on complying with the VAT law in time for January.

While it is expected for there to be teething issues and reactions, we’re confident that in time, taxation will become a natural part of the current systems. But if organisations are to be fully informed on the financial and operational impact VAT will have on their business, they must act now.

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CASE STUDY DISASTER RECOVERY

DISASTER RECOVERY AS A SERVICE DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING IS THAT AREA OF SECURITY PLANNING WHOSE PRIMARY PURPOSE IS TO RECOVER DATA SO THAT YOUR ORGANIZATION CAN SMOOTHLY RESUME WORK AFTER THE EVENT OF EITHER A NATURAL CATASTROPHE OR A MAN-MADE DISASTER. DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING IS A PART OF THE LARGER, MORE EXTENSIVE PRACTICE OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY.

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isaster Recovery Planning is most of the times overlooked because it is hard to believe for organizations that they can be affected by natural or man-made calamities at all. But with changing times and environment, these threats are becoming more real than before. The changing environment is bringing about a regular deluge of f loods, hurricanes, and earthquakes while the man-made disasters are not looking to lessen anytime soon.

That’s why it’s important that Disaster Recovery Planning is a must for your organization.

Think SS understands your predicament with Disaster Recovery Planning and is now ready to launch their Disaster Recovery-asa-Service (DRaaS) into the cloud market, as a part of their WannaGo Cloud Services.

The service will help you, as an organization, to drastically reduce IT costs through the use of cloud as opposed to on-premise solutions.

THINK SS IS FOCUSED ON DEVELOPING, IMPLEMENTING AND REGULARLY UPDATING DISASTER RECOVERY PLANS FOR MAINTAINING AND SECURING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S MISSION-CRITICAL INFORMATION.” With the advent of DRaaS, your organization need not face and spend valuable time and money on increasingly complex environments and business conditions. ThinkSS advocates simplification of IT infrastructure while aligning solutions to business objectives.

Aside from the solution’s technical specifications, 24x7 technical support and many other benefits, WannaGo Cloud also stands to

help organizations from a business perspective. The fact that the service has a pretty competitive price and no setup fees makes it more appealing and justifiable for your organization and business stakeholders.

CREATING AN ORGANIZATION-CENTRIC DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING REQUIRES A LOT OF TIME, EFFORT, SKILLSETS, AND FINANCE. NOT ALL ORGANIZATIONS HAVE THE CAPABILITY, TECHNICAL RESOURCES OR HUMAN RESOURCES TO TAKE UP THIS VENTURE. THIS IS WHERE THINK SS’ WANNAGO CLOUD SERVICES COME INTO PLAY.” Issue 05 A special supplement of Think Software Services

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FEATURE Security SANS 20

UNDER CONTROL

THINK SS’S SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR DIGITAL CONSULTING SERVICES, FAHEEM SIDDIQUI, EXPLAINS WHY THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET SECURITY’S TOP 20 CRITICAL SECURITY CONTROLS SET THE BENCHMARK FOR ENTERPRISES THAT ASPIRE TO WORLD-CLASS SECURITY STANDARDS WITHIN THEIR ORGANISATION.

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Faheem Siddiqui, Senior Director, Digital Consulting Services

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n the face of increasing reports of data loss, cyber-attacks and threats to user privacy, organisations today are faced with huge pressure in ensuring that their corporate and user data remain secure.

As cybercriminals adapt to new security measures and take advantage of systems’ vulnerabilities, the threat landscape continues to evolve and grow. For security professionals, this makes prioritising security measures an ongoing conundrum.

While there’s no silver bullet for security, organisations can reduce the chances of compromise and mitigate potential attacks by implementing a risk management approach that helps them establish control over their critical data assets.

Implementing the Centre for Internet Security’s (CIS) Top 20 Critical Security Controls – previously known as SANS Top 20 Critical Security Control – is an ideal way to build a strong foundation for your security strategy.

The controls are a recommended set of actions for cyber-defence that provide specific and actionable ways to stop today’s most pervasive and dangerous attacks. A principal benefit of the controls is that they prioritise and focus a smaller number of actions

with high pay-off results. Their effectiveness lies in the fact that they are derived from the most common attack patterns highlighted in leading threat reports, and are vetted across a very broad community of government and industry practitioners.

What’s more, they were created by the people who know how attacks work – the NSA Red and Blue teams, the US Department of Energy nuclear energy labs, law enforcement organisations and some of the nation’s top forensics and incident response organisations.

That group of experts reached a consensus, and today Think SS has the most current controls. The key to continued value is that the controls are updated based on new attacks that are identified and analysed by groups from Verizon to Symantec, so they can stop or mitigate those attacks.

Ransomware is just one example of the kind of toxic threat that enterprises must now repel. Its alarming proliferation has caused a number of chief information officers to wake up to the reality of its severity and scale.

The advantage of CIS 20 is its currency. Ransomware is a prime threat and has been for over a year with WannaCry, Cryptolocker, Locky and the likes making headlines. CIS 20 is the only guidance document that describes actionable ways to guard against this threat. In its v6.1 released in August 2016, it assigns Cryptolocker risk within its Top 10, and classifies it as ‘foundational’ control while describing ways to mitigate it. Currency and adequacy are what set this series of guidance apart from others.

The controls take the best-inclass threat data and transform it into actionable guidance to improve individual and collective security in cyberspace. Too often in

IMPLEMENTING THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET SECURITY’S (CIS) TOP 20 CRITICAL SECURITY CONTROLS IS AN IDEAL WAY TO BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR YOUR SECURITY STRATEGY.” cybersecurity, it seems that bad actors are better organised and collaborate more closely than those they attack.

The controls provide a means to turn that around.

Cybersecurity attacks are increasing and evolving so rapidly that it is more difficult than ever to prevent and defend against them. Does your organisation have an effective method in place to detect, thwart, and monitor external and internal threats to prevent security breaches?

This course helps you master specific, proven techniques and tools needed to implement and audit critical security controls as documented by the CIS. As threats evolve, an organisation’s security should too. To enable your organisation to stay on top of this everchanging threat scenario, SANS has designed a comprehensive course on how to implement the critical security controls, a prioritised, risk-based approach to security. The controls are the best way to block known attacks and mitigate damage from successful ones. They have been adopted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, state governments, universities, and an array of private sector firms.

The controls are specific guidelines that CISOs, CIOs, IGs, systems administrators, and information security personnel can use to manage and measure the effectiveness of their defences. They are designed to complement existing standards, frameworks, and compliance schemes by prioritising the most critical threat and highest pay-off defences, while providing a common baseline for action against risks that we all face.

The controls are an effective security framework because they are based on actual attacks launched regularly against networks. Priority is given to controls that a) mitigate known attacks b) address a wide variety of attacks, and c) identify and stop attackers early in the compromise cycle.

SANS’ in-depth, hands-on training teaches you how to master the specific techniques and tools needed to implement and audit the critical controls. It help security practitioners understand not only how to stop a threat, but why the threat exists, and how to ensure that security measures deployed today will be effective against the next generation of threats.

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FEATURE Managed services

ROUTE ONE

THINK SS’ ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT OF PRE-SALES, TEJVIR SINGH, DISCUSSES WHY ORGANISATIONS IN THE REGION SEEKING A FLEXIBLE BUSINESS MODEL AND A SIMPLE ROADMAP TO SUCCESS SHOULD GIVE SERIOUS CONSIDERATION TO MANAGED SERVICE OFFERINGS.

Tejvir Singh, Assistant Vice President – Pre Sales, Think SS

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he growing complexity of IT infrastructures and the increasing number of compliance mandates that businesses must now adhere to are collaboratively driving the growth of managed services in the market.

As things stand, the market for managed services stands at $152.45 billion, according to a recent report by marketsandmarkets.com. However, the research firm has forecast this to grow at a CAGR of 11.1 percent to hit $257.84 billion by 2020.

The fast-paced, changing IT trends and the large volume of cyberattacks across the industry now demand the adoption of more requirement-specific infrastructures. In order to counter the ever-present security threats that we all hear about so frequently in this day and age, IT managers are expected to ramp up their organisation’s defence mechanisms.

This can lead to them being put under a lot of pressure to constantly buy new products and hire internal resources for every technology function. But all too often, organisations end up paying the price because IT departments take on more than they can handle in some of their business-critical areas.

Sometimes, it makes sense to relieve some of that pressure. This is where managed services can provide such organisations with an opportunity to slash their capital expenditure and meet the requirements for new practices in the industry.

Organisations that replace the traditional ageing CAPEX purchase model and plan their five-year IT roadmap with managed services at the heart of it can see savings as high as 30-40 percent. That constitutes a huge portion of an IT budget, and represents potential for spend in other areas that could have been pipe dreams beforehand.

As cloud computing matures, it is also worth noting that an increasing number of service providers are offering more than just end-to-end connectivity and virtual services, but managed services over the assets, applications and services. This expansion of the service provider portfolio will undoubtedly contribute greatly to the growth of the managed services market.

Over the last decade, managed service offerings have transformed delivery models. We’re seeing an increased demand for managed security

services, but given the way in which cybersecurity issues have gained such exposure in recent months, this is unsurprising.

And while every customer has different demands, and therefore faces a different kind of threat depending on the industry in which they operate, what is deeply concerning is how organisations are increasingly finding that they have inadequate resources to cope with the diversity and severity of these cyberattacks.

Unfortunately, the reality is that

MANAGED SERVICES CAN PROVIDE ORGANISATIONS WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO SLASH THEIR CAPEX AND MEET THE REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW PRACTICES IN THE INDUSTRY.”

senior management teams across the world are only just beginning to take cybersecurity seriously. For years, initiatives surrounding the defence of security systems have been inadequately funded, and the situation has only been exacerbated by the global shortage of IT security professionals. For those who do stay in their jobs, they are often demoralised when their employers continually fall victim to attacks, and more often than not realise that to a certain extent, they are fighting a losing battle.

This major hurdle to cybersecurity success can easily be circumvented by opting for managed services models, where skilled staff who are purely dedicated to supporting your organisation work around the clock to ensure you are protected 24/7/365.

Managed service providers already possess the assets needed to combat threats, so you don’t need to own them.

Think SS offers a range of managed services, including those for security, infrastructure, cloud, backup and disaster recovery. This includes log analysis for firewalls, as well as an anti-virus suite, encryption and ransomware services.

We have qualified, certified resources spread across the UAE and India that are experienced across a range of fields, and are committed to making your experience with technology as easy as possible, and putting your mind at ease around how your IT is run.

I am an advocate of managed services adoption across industries, but of course choosing the right services and MSP is not always as straightforward as one might hope. Naturally, in certain verticals, compliance obligations may prove to be an inhibitor, but regulations are constantly evolving and I am confident that companies will look to adopt managed services once they are able to.

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FEATURE Digital transformation

AT ANY COST

THE ONGOING DRIVE TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY RATIOS AND REDUCE COSTS IS ACCELERATING THE PUSH TO DIGITISE ENTIRE INDUSTRIES, PARTICULARLY FINANCIAL SERVICES. DEEPAK VERMA, THINK SS’ CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, EXPLORES HOW THE PACE OF CHANGE IS ENHANCING DIGITAL INITIATIVES WITHIN BANKS IN THE REGION.

Deepak Verma, CEO & Founder

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ith the aim of providing fast, accurate and quality banking experiences to their customers, banks have been at the forefront of adopting innovative technologies to remain relevant in an industry that is increasingly being driven by the need to shift from ‘conventional banking’ to ‘convenience banking.’

But in the face of digital transformation, the banking sector is not alone in its attempts to redefine the customer experience through the use of technology.

Digitisation in the form of convenience for customers can create a rapid customer base acceleration, which will ultimately lead to higher profitability.

Organisations can also maximise the potential of digital by having data available to access and analyse at any time. The constant stream of data that is created in a digital banking environment is only heightened in this region by the high penetration levels of smartphones – with the UAE ranked the highest globally. According to RFi research, 82 percent of UAE customers currently use at least one digital banking app, and with mobile banking transactions reportedly growing more than 70 percent year-on-year, there is undoubtedly potential for digital to take a firm hold on this industry going forward.

In light of this, the need to replace legacy solutions has never been greater. Solutions that previously attempted to replicate existing online capabilities in the form of digital banking, in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ business model are now outdated.

The focus should instead be shifting

82 PERCENT OF UAE CUSTOMERS CURRENTLY USE AT LEAST ONE DIGITAL BANKING APP. onto exploring the work being done

by FinTech companies in the region, if banks wish to collaborate on the latest innovations in technology.

But while the growth of FinTech – whether blockchain or advances enabled by the rise in Big Data and analytics – not only increases the risk of non-traditional competition for the UAE’s banks, it also raises interesting challenges for regulators, which is something organisations should also keep in mind.

And like every digital transformation strategy, the initiatives and decisions that are behind creating digital platforms have an impact on a variety of roles within a business. Starting from the top, a good place to start is ensuring that the culture of management executives, from the CEO across the board, can appreciate the potential for digital. This is essential if this vision is to be replicated across the business. While the back-end technical work will be carried out by the IT department, a major hindrance in digital transformation succeeding in businesses often comes down to resistance of employees. But

while millions of staff hours are still being devoted to trivial or manual activities, particularly in customer service, business support and operations, banks still have some way to go in reaping the huge benefits that going digital has to offer – not just in terms of improved service, speed and accuracy, but also in improved leadership.

Based on this need to incorporate technology into the core of the business, alongside the belief that business analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) will be major players in this digital age in years to come, Think SS has developed a digital experience platform (DXP), which we hope to launch in Q1 2018.

The platform, which is based on AI proprietaries, brings profitability, agility, fraud control and credit approval processes – all of which are offered as cost efficient solutions, and are ideally suited to banks offering personal loans to customers.

Ultimately, our vision is to work with regional banks to transform the way personal loans are delivered to customers in the Middle East by making them completely digital.

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FEATURE Milestone

MILESTONE:

WATCHING OUT FOR YOU DEEPAK VERMA EXPLORES HOW THINK SS’ MILESTONE SURVEILLANCE SOLUTION HAS THE POWER TO GIVE ORGANISATIONS UNIQUE BUSINESS VALUE THROUGH THE USE OF ANALYTICS AND THE MONITORING OF CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR.

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he UAE is renowned for the importance it places on the safety of its residents and visitors. World Economic Forum research has ranked the country as the world’s second safest for tourists and businesses – behind Finland – and that is testament to the security measures and technologies implemented by this country’s leadership and private sector.

The country has gained a reputation for hosting large events – including New Year’s Eve fireworks celebrations at the Burj Khalifa – as well as boasting one of the world’s safest and most efficient airports. This culture of security makes people feel safe, which is one of the UAE’s main selling points for prospective residents and those looking to set up businesses.

While the UAE’s government has already set the standard for the kind of security infrastructure that is needed to help people sleep at night, the private sector needs to follow suit.

With the surveillance world moving from an analogue to an ITbased approach, the CIO is now tasked with managing this aspect of an organisation’s infrastructure.

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This means that factors including the ROI of a product, the value-add to the organisation and the business applications that it could interact with must all be considered.

Where possible, it makes sense to anticipate events through the use of CCTV cameras. Embedded analytics

THE MARRIAGE OF SECURITY SYSTEMS AND ANALYTICS OPENS UP A WHOLE HOST OF POSSIBILITIES IN MANY INDUSTRIES.”

can provide a path to enforcing the prevention of problems, rather than a cure. Security analytics bring refreshing possibilities which allow us to use findings to revise schedules, rebuild urban spaces, reallocate resources and make security an invisible, unseen hand. It can help us identify physical threats that are miles and hours away, and make the world safer.

Milestone forms a crucial part of Think Software Services’ portfolio.

Focused on setting up surveillance systems in and across campuses, Milestone supplies, installs and runs a variety of security systems – including cameras, sensors, alarms, servers and storage devices.

The marriage of security systems and analytics opens up a whole hosts of possibilities in many industries, including retail, construction, entertainment and hospitality.

Our business analytics help clients in retail and hospitality to generate footfall and increase consumer spending, which allows them to anticipate in-store customer behaviour rather than be led by it, which enables our clients to develop better relationships with their customers.

We aim to create a sense of trust with our clients, while we also maintain a symbiotic relationship between the sales and services teams of Milestone. We have a clear chain of communication, which ensures better results for customers. Our highly skilled team of technical and installation experts provide 24/7 customer service.

Our focus is not driven by mere box selling, and we are very much driven by value rather than volume.

Milestone already boasts a number of clients who have reaped the benefits of our services. These include the Ajman Department of Economy, Canadian University in Dubai and Repton Schools in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Milestone is registered with

Dubai Protective Systems and Dubai Police, while we strictly adhere to the Abu Dhabi Monitoring Control Centre (ADMCC) guidelines, which strive to create a secure and intelligent city.

Milestone’s main advantage is that it understands technology, data and networking; and with the right kind of knowledge at its disposal, the company can help the customers to develop truly game-changing solutions.

Looking forward, Milestone plans to scale up its research around CCTV and delve into some of the most important areas of technology that are already influencing the Middle East. We are trying to ascertain how the Internet of Things can influence CCTV and assess its impact on the

surveillance industry, and provide solutions based on that understanding.

In terms of analytics, meanwhile, we want to look at how we can interpret information generated through CCTV. In a retail outlet, for example, Milestone can already analyse behavioural patterns of customers and study fastmoving items to provide relevant solutions to the customer.

The CCTV market is dominated by low quality products, but that’s something we’re committed to changing. We want to create a much more robust system that’s reliable, can be scaled up and adds value to the clients. Most importantly, we want the people of the UAE and the GCC to feel safe on their own streets.

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CASE STUDY Dubai Silicon Oasis

THE RACE TO INNOVATE

THINK SOFTWARE SERVICES (“THINK SS”) HAS SIGNED A DEAL TO PARTNER WITH DUBAI SILICON OASIS AUTHORITY (“DSOA”), THE REGULATORY BODY OF DUBAI SILICON OASIS (DSO), THE INTEGRATED FREE ZONE TECHNOLOGY PARK.

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SOA is a government-owned free zone that promotes modern technology-based industries in the context of a modern, vibrant community, with state-of-the-art infrastructure and in-house business services. DSOA’s high-tech ecosystem consists of six key elements: large enterprises, startups and medium-sized businesses,

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venture capital funds, universities and incubators, hi-tech infrastructure and government and business services.

Looking ahead, the authority has made it its mission to align its overall goals with the ambitions of the UAE Vision 2021. The carefully designed DSOA 2021 strategy is built around fostering technology and entrepreneurship through an integrated

ecosystem, and to become the home of choice for the world’s brightest individuals and organisations.

“We want to attract companies who desire a transparent and secure environment and to develop a fullyintegrated, sustainable and happy community through collaboration, innovation and technology,” says Badr Buhannad, Executive Vice

President - Corporate Strategy, ICT and Risk Management. “We also aim to create an innovative and productive environment, through a culture that maximises the value of people.”

DSOA’s strategy is also to become a leading smart community within the UAE. The Silicon Park (SP) project, an initiative by Dubai Silicon Oasis, aims to be the embodiment of Dubai’s vision 2021 to transform the emirate into a smart city. “A Smart City’s main aim is to provide better connections and increase cooperation between the emirate and its residents,” Buhannad says. “It promotes the use of government facilities using the largest possible number of smart applications.”

DSOA’s two state-of-the-art data centres offer hosting services tailored specifically to its business partner’s requirements, and are designed on tier III standard architecture.

“DSOA is dedicated to promoting technological collaboration and innovation,” Buhannad says. “Our hitech ecosystem and the state of the art infrastructure are specifically designed for technology based organisations to interact and support one another for ideas, technology and business to flourish.”

Buhannad goes on to add that the comprehensive service provided

by DSOA will satisfy the highest technical demands. “Each data centre provides a minimum N+1 redundancy for every rack cabinet, delivering the highest levels of uptime availability to our customers,” Buhannad says.

“Companies at DSO enjoy an advanced data centre infrastructure along with superior facilities, including fully redundant back up UPS, gas fire suppression systems, pre-terminated ‘plug and play’ structured cabling systems, and a dedicated temperature and humidity controlled environment.”

THE PARTNERSHIP WITH THINK SS THROUGH ITS CLOUD SOLUTION, WANNAGO CLOUD SERVICES (“WGC”) ALIGNS WITH DSOA’S GROWTH STRATEGY OF DEVELOPING A FULLY INTEGRATED, SUSTAINABLE AND HAPPY COMMUNITY.” DSOA is also determined to provide a tailor-made option for home-grown firms who are looking to reap the benefits of localised IT infrastructure.

“DSOA’s data centre strategy is to be an enabler for companies to host their data locally within the UAE and to also build an ecosystem for the key stakeholders’ like resident companies, partners and vendors,” Buhannad says.

What’s more DSOA has made it its mission to apply the latest international standards of security, availability, and scalability; thus, providing a mission-critical environment that allows companies to keep servers and applications available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The data centre is connected and backed by both the telecom operators Etisalat and DU, which provides additional flexibility to customers.

“DSOA possesses a co-location infrastructure service that provides the required infrastructure components for hosting equipment in the data centre,” Buhannad says. “The facility has proven to be a valuable colocation facility for customers looking for data redundancy within Dubai, or as a secondary site in UAE.”

As part of its drive to enhance the variety and quality of its services, DSOA signed a reseller agreement with Think SS. WannaGo Cloud Services is the best of breed cloud solution by Think SS. Combination of WgC solution along with DSOA’s rack spaces in their data centre will be provided to the DSOA and other customers in the region.

“The partnership with ThinkSS aligns with DSOA’s growth strategy of developing a fully integrated, sustainable and happy community through collaboration, innovation and technology,” Buhannad says.

“The services provided by both the companies are complimentary, as DSOA is into data centre provisioning, while ThinkSS provides the WgC solution, design, architecture and transformation strategy, as well as expert resources to its customer.”

Buhannad adds that the partnership with Think SS will deliver the most critical of DSOA’s KPIs. “Combining the effort and synergies of both the companies provides a onestop shop for the customer, with quick enablement and providing a significant value driver for any customer.”

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Think SS IT Transformation Race is focused on

Winning

Established since 2001 in UAE Market Think SS has a very Innovative & Smart Portfolio to serve UAE IT Industry!

System Integration

Public Cloud & Managed Services

Advisory & Consulting Services

Partner Cloud Services

Milestone

Consulting

Security Surveillance

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