Channel Insights

www.cxoinsightme.com

ISSUE 01

INSIDE BEYOND THE PANDEMIC: WHAT PARTNERS NEED TO KNOW OPTIMISING THE SUBSCRIPTION ECONOMY ERA HOW CHECKMARX AND CYBERKNIGHT COLLABORATION PAVES THE WAY FOR A CYBERSECURE FUTURE

THE CHANNEL

POWERHOUSE How ASBIS Middle East evolved into a formidable distribution player in the regional IT channel space

Hesham Tantawi

A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT OF CXO INSIGHT MIDDLE EAST

www.cxoinsightme.com

CONTENTS 06 NEWS

SYNOPSYS COLLABORATES WITH SPIRE SOLUTIONS TO MINIMISE BUSINESS RISKS

18

CYBERKNIGHT ACHIEVES 200% REVENUE GROWTH IN FY2021

TIMETOREPLY SIGNS STRATEGIC DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH VAD TECHNOLOGIES

24

20

LEAD STORY

28

PUBLISHED BY INSIGHT MEDIA & PUBLISHING LLC

SPEARHEADING WINNING STRATEGIES 18

THE CASE FOR FULL-STACK OBSERVABILITY

22

EMBRACING THE SUBSCRIPTION ECONOMY ERA

20

BEYOND THE BOX

28

EXPLORING MODERN CHANNEL STRATEGIES

21

GREEN STRATEGIES

34

COMMON DENOMINATORS

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

3

checkmarx.com

Know Your Modern App Development Risks?

Find out what you don’t know A common way cybercriminals breach enterprises is by finding security vulnerabilities in the applications they develop. Yet, most enterprises have not found a way to integrate security into there dev (or development) pipelines and eliminate flaws that might lead to data breaches.

BREACH PROOF YOUR SOFTWARE TODAY

EDITORIAL

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE! On behalf of Insight Media and Publishing, I am thrilled to introduce the debut issue of Channel Insights Middle East. We aim to be the region’s premier publication for everything related to the ever-dynamic partner business.

We strongly believe there is a gap in the market when it comes to quality content, actionable insights that can help define future operations, and true innovation on how market developments are reported about the ICT channel sector. Channel Insights Middle East will provide decision-makers with a revolving view of the increasingly digital landscape and offer perspectives on how regional partners can optimally leverage the new age’s opportunities.

The industry has undergone remarkable transformations over the past few years. The pandemic may have wreaked havoc on most things but what remains indestructible is the resiliency of partners.

It is heartening to see value-added resellers and solutions providers stepping up their game by adopting advanced technologies and new business models to meet evolving customer demands and ensure seamless end-user experiences. We hope to play a role in helping partners create long-term visions for their businesses and impart knowledge on the latest industry endeavours and progress.

On a personal level, I am excited to return to and reconnect with the partner world. I am looking forward to having great conversations.

For now, happy reading!

Janees Reghelini

contributing editor, Channel Insights Middle East

Published by

Managing Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevant@insightmediame.com +97156 - 4156425

Sales Director Merle Carrasco merlec@insightmediame.com +97155 - 1181730

Operations Director Rajeesh Nair rajeeshm@insightmediame.com +97155 - 9383094

Publication licensed by Sharjah Media City @Copyright 2022 Insight Media and Publishing

Production Head James Tharian jamest@insightmediame.com +97156 - 4945966

Administration Manager Fahida Afaf Bangod fahidaa@insightmediame.com +97156 - 5741456

Designer Anup Sathyan

While the publisher has made all efforts to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

5

NEWS

Synopsys Collaborates with Spire Solutions to Minimise Business Risks

Spire Solutions has announced a strategic partnership with Synopsys’ Software Integrity Group, a player in application security, to jointly minimise business risks across the software development life cycle (SDLC).

Synopsys helps build secure, high-quality, and compliant software while maximising velocity and controlling costs. This helps organisations create trust amongst users and customers, integrate security without affecting

development velocity and address application security holistically.

Sanjeev Walia, founder and president of Spire Solutions said, “Organisations are heavily dependent on software and applications to run their business. One of the fundamental challenges they face is around the complexities of managing risks associated with their software and its underlying impact on the overall business. Our partnership with Synopsys enables our customers, partners, and prospects to access Synopsys software integrity group which will help secure their software supply chain, build security into DevOps and create a holistic AppSec program.”

“We see every business as a software business as they

are either developing/selling it to customers or relying on it to run most aspects of their operations,” said Tom Herrmann, vice president of Global Channels and Alliances within the Synopsys Software Integrity Group.

“We help companies build trust in their software to protect their bottom line and are eager to do this across the Middle East and Africa with our latest partnership with regional leader Spire Solutions. We are proud to be included as part of Spire’s portfolio of some of the world’s best known cybersecurity products.”

Synopsys will join Spire Solutions stand B20 at #GISEC22, taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from March 21 to 23, 2022.

CyberKnight Achieves 200% Revenue Growth in FY2021 CyberKnight, the pioneer of Zero Trust Security value-addeddistribution, has announced its financial results for FY2021.

In its second year of operation, CyberKnight processed more than $29 Million in orders realising a revenue increase of more than 200% over the previous year.

This notable achievement and the rapid growth are the result of substantial investment into highcalibre business development and technical local teams across the Middle East, a keen focus on expanding the breadth of the channel partner ecosystem, successfully delivering extensive high-ROI marketing activities, maintaining strategic customer relationships, and effectively building out a market-leading Zero Trust Security focused portfolio offering.

6

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

Avinash Advani and Vivek Gupta, CyberKnight

“It’s been a whirlwind year that has ended well for CyberKnight. As face-to-face customer and partner meetings started happening again, sales cycles progressed, procurement cycles reduced, and in-person marketing events were well-attended. I am extremely proud of the CyberKnight team, who went above and beyond to meet the expectations of our vendors,

maintain deep-rooted partner relations, and stayed true to being trusted advisors to regional customers,” said Avinash Advani, founder and CEO at CyberKnight.

“In 2021, we saw quarter-onquarter revenue growth over the same period in the previous year, demonstrating the continued importance of cybersecurity in the enterprise and government segments, as well as a steady market recovery after the pandemic impact of 2020. This led us to overachieve both our top-line and EBITDA in 2021 and over the course of the year, we doubled our team strength, moved to larger offices, and continued to optimise processes by adding further automation to our lead-tocash management, while running a tight ship around collections,” said Vivek Gupta, co-founder and COO at CyberKnight.

NEWS

Timetoreply Signs Strategic Distribution Agreement with VAD Technologies Time To Reply Ltd (timetoreply) has signed a distribution agreement with VAD Technologies (VAD), as the first step in the fast tracking of a strategic partnership to sell timetoreply’s Business Email Analytics products across a select range of countries. timetoreply is the market leader in Business Email Analytics products for Customer Facing and Sales teams globally.

“The purpose of this deal with VAD, one of the largest distributors of IT and technology services in the Middle East, is to drive sales of timetoreply software within Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. We’re excited to be working closely with VAD, having looked thoroughly in the region for a partner with the right reseller network and complementary products in their portfolio,” said Howard Moodycliffe, CEO of timetoreply.

“Email communication continues to grow at extraordinary rates and – despite new technologies entering this space – is here to stay as the preferred method of communication. Businesses in all industry verticals across the Middle East will benefit from timetoreply’s easy-to-deploy solutions and can achieve quick Return of Investment (ROI). VAD over the recent years has built a comprehensive Product and Solutions portfolio to cater to the growing demand of efficient communication management using AI empowered technologies. timetoreply fits perfectly into our offering and our partner ecosystem is looking for this type of solution,” said Mario M. Veljovic, general manager at VAD Technologies.”

Over the last 6 months timetoreply has presented its Business Email Analytics products to a number of VAD’s business partners, and will be working closely with VAD to open discussions more broadly across the network.

‘Help AG As A Service’ Offers Comprehensive Cybersecurity Help AG, the cybersecurity arm of Etisalat Digital and the region’s trusted security advisor, has launched ‘Help AG as a Service’, a service-centric model that provides comprehensive cybersecurity offerings that customers can avail ‘as a service’ based on state-of-the-art platforms Stephan Berner, Help AG and tools. According to the firm, this highlights Help AG’s position as a pioneer in the Middle East’s cybersecurity sector, spearheading the industry’s move towards a service-centric future.

‘Help AG as a Service’ is the culmination of the company’s transition from technology delivery to a service-centric model, which has placed it in the best position to offer the entire lifecycle, from ‘Assess’ to ‘Defend’ to ‘Respond,’ as a service to customers.

With ‘Help AG as a Service’, customers can rest assured that they are provided best-of-breed services, irrespective of the underlying technology or deployment model. Driven by its vision to offer the highest level of protection and user experience, Help AG delivers future-ready services in terms of people, processes and technology, on an MRC/PAYG model.

All services delivered by Help AG are fully compliant with regional and country specific data regulations, and the company ensures that it has expertise and infrastructure available on the ground. The company follows the concept of ‘think global, act local,’ aiming to give customers all the benefits of the most advanced global technologies, while fully provisioning them with local expertise.

Stephan Berner, chief executive officer at Help AG, said, “Help AG has been one of the region’s most experienced and trusted cybersecurity partners for more than 16 years, and with the launch of Help AG as a Service, we are truly cementing our place as a pioneer in the regional cybersecurity industry. The future of cybersecurity will be service-led, and Help AG is at the helm of this evolution.”

Berner added, “Years ago, we built our service offering from the ground up with a commitment to delivering truly global and advanced security services while moulding them to address regional market threats and requirements. Our offering has been received very well in the market, enabling us to become the biggest Managed Security Service Provider in the Middle East, and driving us to take ourservice-centric transition to the next phase with Help AG as a Service.”

Under ‘Help AG as a Service’, customers also enjoy SLAbased offerings; cybersecurity expertise on demand, wherein the firm’s experts work as an extension of the customer’s team; and elastic capacity based on the customer’s needs.

Mario M. Veljovic, VAD Technologies ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

9

NEWS

Rackspace Technology Expands Strategic Relationship with AWS

Rackspace Technology is extending its Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) with an additional multi-year joint investment to drive customer value and innovation. The expanded agreement comes after Rackspace Technology’s AWS business has grown by 250% over the past 3 years and was named 2021 AWS Migration Partner of the Year (US & Canada).

“AWS and Rackspace Technology have jointly launched over 1,000

cloud projects enabling clients to fundamentally change how their businesses work,” said Neil Emerson, chief commercial officer at Rackspace Technology. “This agreement continues the commitment of both companies together to provide a full stack of cloud services to assist customers with becoming cloud-first businesses to accelerate their digital transformation, innovate faster, and create value. With AWS’s renowned customer obsession and the Rackspace Fanatical Experience, we share a common culture of delivering the right outcomes for our clients.”

The SCA includes investment to help customers accelerate their applications and data modernisation initiatives through the global expansion of Rackspace Technology’s Modernisation Center of Excellence, which builds on their years of expertise working with the AWS Migration Acceleration Program

(MAP). The two companies also will collaborate to help customers embrace a cloud-built approach by expanding Rackspace Technology’s Elastic Engineering, a service designed to help customers build and operate modern cloud environments while delivering ongoing innovation and transformation, in addition to world-class 24x7x365 operations.

In addition, AWS and Rackspace Technology also have established dedicated teams across both companies to support customers with AWS-specific strategy, cloud-built development, containers, application modernisation, data, and workload management.

Rackspace Technology has over 2,000 AWS customers and 1,000+ dedicated AWS professionals. Their commitment to customer success is demonstrated by 81 published AWS case studies, and 15 AWS Competencies and 13 AWS Service Delivery designations elevate the company’s ability to provide expertise across the full spectrum of cloud services on AWS. In addition, Rackspace Technology holds 2,500+ AWS accreditations.

Kyndryl and Pure Storage Announce Global Alliance Kyndryl and Pure Storage have announced a global alliance that joins the expertise and operational experience of Kyndryl with the best-in-class storage technology of Pure to deliver mission-critical capabilities to enterprises.

As part of the new alliance, Kyndryl will become a key delivery partner for Pure, expanding on already integrated solutions and increasing its existing Pure skills and capabilities to drive transformative business outcomes for customers.

Together, Pure and Kyndryl will deliver jointly optimised solutions to address the complex challenges enterprises face related to application and infrastructure

10

modernisation, automation, multi-cloud management, containerisation, and more – providing cyber resiliency elements natively at the storage layer to enable cloud-based applications coupled with data portability in the cloud or on-premises.

Kyndryl is advancing a strategy that combines deep technical expertise, global industry knowledge and best-in-class technologies from partners to deliver comprehensive and differentiated offerings to customers. Partnering with Pure augments and supports Kyndryl’s approach by providing advanced storage and data management solutions grounded in Pure’s ethos of simplicity, reliability, agility, and innovation that sets the

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

company apart from other infrastructure providers.

“Our alliance with Pure Storage can help customers identify and take advantage of new ways to manage, secure, and analyse their mission-critical multicloud business data,” said Stephen Leonard, global alliances & partnerships leader, Kyndryl. “We look forward to working with Pure to deliver advanced capabilities that customers can use to modernise and transform their businesses.”

“We’ve fostered a true collaboration with Kyndryl that will address our shared customers’ business challenges and drive the transformation and modernisation they are undertaking,” said Wendy Stusrud, VP, Global Partner

Wendy Stusrud, Pure Storage

Sales, Pure Storage. “Our strategic relationship will provide market leading solutions that enable customers to maximise their data assets across their organisations with confidence.”

All new and enhanced joint offerings can be delivered as-a-service and charged on a consumption basis.

Vectra AI Celebrates Channel Achievements at LEAP Solutions by Stc Becomes First VMware Sovereign Cloud Provider in Saudi VMware has announced that solutions by stc, the Saudi Arabia-based digital transformation enabler, is now a VMware Sovereign Cloud Provider.

As a participant in the VMware Sovereign Cloud initiative, solutions by stc will enable customers to run their sensitive and regulated workloads on a more secure and compliant national cloud that meets Saudi Arabia’s data residency and data sovereignty requirements.

The service will further expand solutions by stc’s offerings to provide their customers various services, including control over the access of their data, transparency, visibility into the provider’s operations. This will empower organisations to move to the cloud, increase their agility, and launch modern applications, accelerating digital transformation across sectors including healthcare and education, in line with Saudi Vision 2030.

Saif Mashat, country director, Saudi Arabia, VMware, said, “We’re excited to help bring sovereign cloud services to Saudi Arabia and to work with solutions by stc, which is already helping its enterprise customers in the public and private sector transform with more safe, secure, and trusted cloud services.” solutions by stc, which is already the largest provider of private cloud services in Saudi Arabia, is playing a major role in enabling the Kingdom’s digital transformation efforts and helping drive growth of the cloud market.

The VMware Sovereign Cloud initiative helps customers engage with trusted national cloud service providers to meet geo-specific requirements around data sovereignty and jurisdictional control; data access and integrity; data security and compliance; data independence and mobility; and data analytics and innovation solutions by stc’s private cloud capabilities are built on VMware Cloud.

Vectra AI has announced the winners of its first regional Partner Awards.

Celebrating the dedication of outstanding partners across the Middle East, Turkey, and North Africa (METNA), the ceremony was held during Saudi Arabia’s LEAP conference.

Winners in disciplines from valueadded distribution to systems integration were awarded for their commitment Fuad Enaya, Vectra AI to Vectra’s regional vision, their contributions to the company’s growth, and the parts they have played in the stability and security of end customers’ digital estates.

“Vectra is recognised throughout the Middle East, Turkey and North Africa for our long-standing commitment to the region’s organisations, who face a multitude of threats, from increasingly sophisticated RansomOps to APTs; but we do not stand alone,” said Fuad Enaya, regional partner manager, METNA, Vectra AI. “Our partners are the frontline force through which we provide customers with our patented AI-driven threat detection platform.”

Vectra saw 40% year-on-year sales growth through its regional channel in 2021 and its METNA partners enjoyed growth of 90% over the same period, with deal registration rates rising by 300%. The awards recognised the commitment, innovation, and achievements of 18 partners operating across METNA. “In 2022, we foresee RansomOps hitting more cloud customers; we foresee governments striking back; and we foresee greater demand for managed detection and response, and the automation of key security tasks to relieve the burden on beleaguered CISOs and their teams,” continued Enaya.

“In a world where prevention is regularly defeated and attacks often succeed, we must conclude that motivated threat actors pose a challenge that we must come together to solve. That is what Vectra does through our channel network. We will continue to invest in simplifying our program structures and strengthening our value propositions to ensure our partners can add rich value for end customers and enjoy the revenue growth that goes along with that.”

DID YOU KNOW? By 2026,

25%

of people will spend at least 1 hour a day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education, social and/or entertainment Source: Gartner

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

11

NEWS

Logicom Signs Strategic Distribution Partnership with VAST DATA

Haider Aziz, VAST Data and Spiros Rafailovits, Logicom

Logicom, a regional distributor of technology solutions and services in the Middle East and North Africa, has announced a new distribution partnership with VAST Data, the data platform company for the AIpowered world, as it continues international expansion.

Under the agreement, Logicom will help VAST Data accelerate adoption of its high-performance Universal Data storage platform by broadening reach with key channel partners and markets in Middle East and North Africa.

The distribution agreement seeks to leverage the growth potential of the region supporting VAST Data’s aggressive international expansion utilising Logicom’s extensive experience and highly sought-after network.

Channel customers can purchase Universal Storage through Gemini, VAST Data’s storage business model that redefines the storage buying experience. Gemini is a software offering, delivered to customers as a simple managed service on predefined hardware.

“We look forward to working with Logicom in the MEA market, 12

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

operating from our regional office in Dubai with aggressive expansion plans throughout 2022.

This agreement with Logicom underpins our 100% channel driven strategy which will be critical in successfully attracting an even larger number of trusted channel partners in the UAE, KSA, Qatar and the rest of the region as they introduce Universal Storage to their customers,” said Haider Aziz, regional director, Middle East and Africa at VAST Data.

Spiros Rafailovits, general manager for UAE & Gulf of Logicom, said, “Our more than 20 years’ presence in the Middle East and our recent expansion in Africa demonstrate the company’s growth and success over the years. VAST Data appointing Logicom as its distributors in the region is proof of the value and commitment to a common successful future for both organisations. We are delighted to work with VAST Data and welcome this new opportunity to provide our channel partners with state-of-the-art technology offerings, by helping our partners to differentiate and evolve from their competition.”

SBM Attains Nutanix’s ‘Cloud Champion’ Status Nutanix has deepened its engagement with Saudi Business Machines (SBM), an IT solutions provider in Saudi Arabia, by signing the company as a ‘Cloud Champion’. The two companies will work closely together in providing Nutanix’s hyperconverged infrastructure solutions to enterprises in the Kingdom looking to embrace the power of cloud computing.

Saeed Nader, channel sales manager, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain at Nutanix said, “By attaining the Nutanix’s ‘Cloud Champion’ status, we believe SBM has the capabilities and technical expertise to delight even more customers in the Kingdom.”

‘Cloud Champion’ is the highest level of partnership attained by a Nutanix partner based on fulfilling various certifications on sales, technical and service delivery across the vendor’s entire portfolio. The two companies will collaborate to develop focused use case specialisations in areas like End User Computing, DevOps and Multi-Cloud.

Nutanix will assist SBM in developing and certifying its staff to provide design, configuration and support capabilities. The vendor will conduct regular training and enablement sessions for online certifications, product updates and workshops for hands-on instruction. SBM technical and sales staff will have access to the various tools and resources available as part of Nutanix Elevate (program).

The company will also make available skilled resources to assist the partner in the execution of its Nutanix opportunities.

“We believe that with the power of Nutanix’s solutions, we are now well positioned to serve the digital transformation technology needs of enterprises in Saudi,” said Hassona Al Quraan, VP, Infrastructure & Network Technology at SBM.

DID YOU KNOW? The technology industry is on pace to exceed

$5.3 trillion in 2022

Source: IDC

Solutions that matter.

Cloud Box Technologies is your trusted solution partner for your cloud, cyber security and data center solutions.

IT Infrastructure Data Management ( Data Backup, File / Email Archiving, Data Availability & Data Insight ) Information Securities & Virtualization – Software & Hardware Solutions deployment and Support.

WE do IT right!

Talk to us today.

CloudBox Technologies LLC Laafa Towers, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai - UAE. Tel : +971 4 344 5022 Email : info@cbt.ae I Visit : www.cbt.ae

US

S ER

PEOPLE

CHECKMARX ANNOUNCES NEW VP OF WORLDWIDE CHANNELS AND ALLIANCES

Mark Osmond, Checkmarx

Checkmarx, the global player in developer-centric application security testing (AST) solutions, has appointed Mark Osmond as vice president of Worldwide Channels and Alliances.

In this role, Osmond will leverage the power of the company’s partner relationships to generate new business

opportunities, increase revenue growth and expand Checkmarx’s channel ecosystem.

Osmond joins Checkmarx from Veeam Software, where he most recently served as Director of the Global Cloud and Service Provider Program.

With over two decades of channel and alliances leadership, Osmond has a strong history of building lasting relationships with global enterprise customers and strategic partners.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mark to the team and tap into his unique experiences and invaluable relationships to support our growing team,” said Checkmarx chief revenue officer Roman Tuma. “Our partners play a vital role in ensuring that organisations across the globe are able to combat growing and changing threats, and we’re confident that Mark

brings the necessary experience and drive to bolster Checkmarx’ existing channel ecosystem.”

As a channel-first organisation, Checkmarx empowers its partners to equip their customers with industry-leading application security solutions that work for developers, security and DevOps teams. The entire channel ecosystem – including VARs, SIs, technical alliances, distributors, MSPs, CaaS and others – creates an extended organisation to deliver best-in-class technologies, repeatable service offerings and solutions that maximise organisations’ competitive advantage.

“I’m both honoured and excited to be joining the Checkmarx team,” said Osmond. “I look forward to expanding on the already robust channel and alliance programme and continuing to leverage the rapidly growing AST market, with the ultimate mission of having a direct positive impact on our partners and the organisations they protect.”

SOLARWINDS HIRES NEW GLOBAL LEAD FOR PARTNER SALES

Jeff McCullough, SolarWinds

SolarWinds has announced the appointment of Jeff McCullough, vice president, Worldwide Partner sales. In this newly formed role, McCullough will lead the global channel business, partner development, and strategic partnerships.

His team will focus on building a Partner program strategy supporting global go-to-market teams, while accelerating the company’s routes to market across existing and new partnerships, including cloud service Partners, global system integrators, distributors, and resellers.

“For over 20 years, SolarWinds has been a trusted IT management software Partner for more than 300,000 organisations worldwide,” said David Gardiner, executive vice president and chief revenue officer, SolarWinds. “As we drive to bring functionally scalable observability solutions to market in 2022, we’re excited to collaborate with our global Partner community to help customers with their business transformations and evolving needs.”

“Welcoming Jeff to the SolarWinds family is a key milestone in our global Partner growth strategy and we believe Jeff’s industry experience and leadership will help us build collaborative business relationships, accelerate growth, and effectively expand our routes to market with system integrators, cloud service partners, channel resellers, and distributors,” Gardiner continued.

McCullough brings over 20 years of experience in IT channel sales and senior management, with a particular focus on enterprise sales, strategic alliances, and business development. He most

recently served as vice president with Park Place Technologies, building and then leading the launch of the company’s new channel programme. Prior to Park Place Technologies, McCullough served as vice president of partner sales at both NetApp and Quest Software, and held various positions at HP, including vice president of Channel Strategy and SMB sales. He’s also a founding advisory board member of Sales Community, offering insights, support, and best practices to technology sales professionals.

McCullough holds a Bachelor of Arts from Marquette University and is a graduate of Executive Education of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School.

“It’s an exciting time to be part of a larger growth strategy, and I believe the team has a great opportunity to build momentum,” said McCullough.

“Strategic partnerships will play a critical role to help accelerate that growth, and I look forward to leading the team and aligning our global partnering resources under one vision and strategy.”

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

15

PEOPLE

COHESITY APPOINTS NEW CHIEF FOR EMEA CHANNELS

James Worrall, Cohesity

Cohesity has announced the appointment of James Worrall as head of EMEA channels. Worrall has extensive experience in building sales channels, having been in leadership roles for networking, enterprise IT and technology startups over the last 20-plus years. In his role at Cohesity, he will report into the Cohesity global partner organisation, led by Mike Houghton. Worrall has responsibility for scaling the company’s EMEA partner

ecosystem while advancing the company’s go-to-market strategy in the region.

Before joining the team at Cohesity, Worrall was vice president of EMEA channel at F5 Networks and EMEA channel sales lead at Juniper Networks. In these and previous roles, Worrall held responsibility for developing the overarching channel program and strategy, with a focus on incentivising partners, simplifying processes, and making the technology easy to understand and resell. Worrall is based north of Oslo, Norway, but traces his sales roots back to his youth in Bolton, UK, where he worked in door-todoor sales.

“Cohesity is already helping numerous organisations throughout EMEA transform how they back up, protect, secure and derive value from data through next-gen data management, but I believe we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible and the opportunity for

partners is immense,” said Worrall.

“I am outrageously optimistic about what Cohesity can do working handin-hand with exceptional partners throughout the region. The future of our business is in the channel and I’m focused on continuing to grow, scale, and nurture our partner ecosystem and in the process empower more customers to reap the benefits of modern data management.”

“James is full of energy and ideas and has been instrumental in building world class channel programmes for other IT vendors,” said Mike Houghton, vice president, global partner organisation, Cohesity. “As enterprises throughout the EMEA region are looking to deploy next-gen data management technologies, James will play a key role in the EMEA organisation, ensuring our go-to-market strategy and local partner ecosystem are scaling and evolving to capture these opportunities while helping partners differentiate and positively impact their bottom line.”

F5 NAMES NEW EMEA VICE PRESIDENT FOR CHANNEL SALES

Nasser El Abdouli, F5

F5 has appointed Nasser El Abdouli as its new vice president for channel sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

With over 22 years of industry experience, El Abdouli will assume overall responsibility for ensuring F5’s channel ecosystem is equipped to build and deliver best-in-class 16

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

IT solutions for customers of all sizes. He will report to Pierre Castelnau, senior vice president for EMEA Sales at F5.

El Abdouli has worked at F5 for over 11 years, most recently as the Director of Channel Sales for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META). Since 2010, he has been a key contributor to F5’s expansion and success across the region. Prior to joining F5, El Abdouli held senior channel and business developmentrelated positions at Citrix, NICE Systems and Check Point.

Pierre Castelnau, senior vicepresident for EMEA Sales at F5, said, “Our partner ecosystem is evolving as applications become an increasingly strategic asset for our customers. Nasser has made an immense impact in the META region through collaborating

with our partners and continually ensuring they are aligned on new trends and solutions. We are delighted that Nasser’s ability to inspire and support the channel will now benefit F5 across EMEA.” Nasser El Abdouli, channel lead for EMEA at F5, said, “I am humbled to take on this new role.

EMEA is an incredibly diverse theatre – rich with both talent and business potential. Our partners are integral to our success across the region, but we can always do more. F5 is changing fast, and the pressure is on for our channel ecosystem to keep up and continually transform our go-tomarket capabilities. Together, we’ve never been in a better position to help our customers operate faster, more securely and in ways that are truly-application centric.”

ANALYSIS

THE CASE FOR I FULL-STACK OBSERVABILITY Mark Maslach, vice president, global channels and strategic alliances, Cisco AppDynamics, examines the rapidly growing fullstack observability solutions market and how regional channel partners can tap into the opportunities it presents.

18

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

t’s safe to say that the pandemic was a major catalyst for driving increased digital transformation across the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the AppDynamics report, “Agents of Transformation: The Rise of Full-Stack Observability”, we found that digital transformation is now running three times faster than prior to the pandemic and that technologists expect an even greater pace of innovation in 2022 and beyond.

Much of the focus for technologists will be on moving on from the reactive mode seen over the course of 2020-2021 and embedding the processes and technologies to support accelerated

digital transformation as part of everyday business. But this new approach cannot survive without full-stack observability; the ability to monitor the full IT estate, from customer-facing applications through to third-party services and core infrastructure.

Such platforms are not only critical for understanding the technology sprawl caused in large part by the switch to cloud technologies, but are also indispensable in designing new digital customer experiences with incredible performance at the core.

Now that businesses are moving towards cloud-native architectures to enhance the efficiency and productivity of their IT Ops teams, they will need new solutions to deliver on customers’ demands for high performance. Innovative businesses will have to move beyond traditional application monitoring to implement fullstack observability and application security across these cloud-native environments.

The market for full-stack observability solutions is rapidly expanding and there is now a huge opportunity for channel partners that understand the benefits and can adapt their practices accordingly.

Businesses are under IT pressure Mass cloud migration has placed technologists in the UAE under enormous pressure. Across IT functions the challenges of multi-cloud and remote-working ecosystems were keenly felt.

AppDynamics research found 79% of UAE technologists are seeing more IT complexity now than they ever did before COVID-19 emerged.

Mark Maslach, Cisco AppDynamics

But consumers experienced their own changes. Lockdowns forced them to turn to digital to go on with their lives. Presented with a wide choice of digital experiences, they are drawn to those that are efficient, easy to use, secure, and available around the clock. This adds more pressure to the technologists and application owners responsible for delivering them. Our recent App Attention Index 2021 shows that 75% of UAE consumers will no longer tolerate poor performance, with 68% going as far as to characterise such brands as “disrespectful”. Brands must aim for nothing less than perfection in 2022.

However, our research shows that 85% of UAE technologists are still relying on multiple, disconnected monitoring solutions that are incapable of uniting under a single dashboard, making their day-to-day operations extremely challenging, if not impossible. How can they accelerate transformation under current complexities without the means to understand the entire IT environment? This presents an opportunity for channel partners to play a key role, providing expertise, support, and information to technologists, as they build business cases for full-stack observability.

Performance issues in the modern digital marketplace have a significant impact on the business.

Left unchecked, they can escalate into frustrated customers who move to competitors, never to return, and

a tarnished reputation from which the brand may never recover. Just as they will not settle for anything less than millisecond latency, neither should the team providing that experience on behalf of an enterprise. And the channel can argue, convincingly, that reaching that level of optimisation requires complete, real-time visibility across the entire IT environment.

Technologists must also tie their projects and investments to real-world business impact, demonstrating how their actions have improved operations. Almost all UAE technologists (99%) believe having the ability to monitor all technical areas across their IT stack and directly link that performance to business outcomes is important.

So, channel partners should have no problem in winning them over.

But while UAE technologists have identified a need, converting that need to investment may be challenging amid concerns around implementation times, scalability, and integration. They will need to present an ironclad business case to decision makers before embarking on any meaningful change.

Empowering IT operations teams Channel partners work on the ground with clients and can quickly formulate a message that resonates with stakeholders. Among technologists, the case for full-stack observability writes itself. A tool that gives insights across AppOps, DevOps, NetOps, InfraOps, and SecOps is welcome and necessary.

But the case is just as strong for the business-oriented decision maker.

The channel can speak the language of business and inspire C-level executives to act today to fine-tune their ability to win over customers and keep them engaged.

For partners, the opportunity to extend application performance monitoring to full-stack observability represents a major change in market relevance. This year will be all about the digital experience. Move early, and partners will operate in a largely uncontested market space.

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

19

INTERVIEW

BEYOND THE BOX

Ranjith Kaippada, managing director at Cloud Box Technologies, explains how the solutions provider goes the extra mile to tailor solutions that enable regional organisations realise their digital goals efficiently.

W

hat have been two milestones at Cloud Box Technologies over the past year?

Over the past year, we have emerged as one of the finest enterprise valueadded systems integrators in the region. We are self-equipped today to deliver the solutions we offer to our customers.

and boost performance. Every customer is unique and hence we work on customised transformational strategies to ensure new business models, which can help improve their decision-making capabilities and in turn ensure operational efficiency.

We are also offering vertical industry focused solutions and services like our AI offering for healthcare and retail.

How is Cloud Box enabling customers to accelerate digital transformation agendas?

The acceptance for the need to improve business efficiency through digital technology is what defines business transformation. There are emerging technologies which are paving the way for businesses to deliver their product and services, and this works differently for every department, be it marketing, logistics, supply chain management or finance. We have been focused on strengthening our digital transformation offerings and are working closely with our global vendors to enable work from anywhere requirements. We are also working around infrastructure solutions along with SAP HANA and the recent launch of our security offerings are some of the key drivers that are enabling our customers on their digital transformation journey.

As a systems integrator and solutions provider, what are the challenges you see in the market today? How is Cloud Box addressing these issues?

We all know 2020 was a year of challenges with unexpected cracks that highlighted business vulnerabilities.

Our biggest learning is in accepting these challenges, taking risks and more importantly focus on the need to be agile across the board. Business will never be the same and we must work towards a different future than the one we anticipated and must therefore be focused on innovation and the ability to take risks.

Adopting digital technologies require both IT and business to work together to map out the digital transformation journey. Some of the challenges we see today are lack of digitalisation strategy, budget constraints, complex organisation structure, lack of expertise and skills, policy bottlenecks and bureaucratic inertia, privacy and security, lack of innovation and transitioning staff to new technologies.

We are always at the forefront to help customers with their digital transformation journey. We help companies build the strategy, offer flexible payment plans, provide necessary experts and skillsets. We also train the team to help them understand deeply the journey of transformation.

How can regional customers successfully embed security in the modern hybrid organisation?

Many organisations are equipping themselves with good leadership, strengthening the IT needs, adapting the new normal and strategising on the future of the business. They are looking at assessing and becoming more prepared to tackle sudden changes, to enable themselves to make sharper and quicker decisions and 20

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

use resources more effectively. The top priority of a company’s efforts to improve cybersecurity culture focus on training employees. The primary goal of a security culture is to foster change and enhance security, so it must be disruptive to the organisation and deliberate with a set of actions to promote the change.

How are you setting the company up as customers’ trusted advisor and helping them navigate the increasingly digital landscape?

Cloud Box Technologies (CBT) has been working closely with companies to make their digital transformation strategies a reality. We work closely with customers to assess the risks and opportunities of deploying new digital technologies and how they can use these technologies to improve performance. CBT helps businesses with data and information management, and analytics to help them unlock their organisational potential, improve decision-making,

INTERVIEW

GREEN STRATEGIES Fayez Al Nobani, channel sales director and mechatronics engineer, Middle East and Africa, Fluke on how the vendor is empowering channel partners to drive customers’ sustainability goals.

P

lease share two milestones at Fluke in the past year 2021 was an exciting year for Fluke. We implemented a new strategic business model to combine our go-to-market strategy for Fluke’s three business units: Fluke Industrial, Fluke Calibration and Fluke Networks. We created two functional sales structures including Channel Sales – to focus on distribution – and Specialised Sales – to focus on customers. This simplified and harmonised our regional structures to provide one central point of contact for our three business units, offering a high-quality service experience for our channel partners and customers.

Fluke has faced some challenges related to supply chain and components shortages; however ,our response was unique. As Fluke is part of the Fortive Corporation, we were uniquely positioned to utilise the power of the Fortive ecosystem to solve complex issues and ensure our products could reach those who needed them most to keep our region up and running.

Can you elaborate on Fluke’s MEA channel strategy for 2022?

The challenges impacting the global supply chain will remain for some time in 2022. Our goal is to work closely with our key channel partners and customers to not only to deliver the best-in-class products, but to enhance their buying experience by offering professional and technical expertise when advising them about new solutions to their most critical problems.

We will continue to increase our reach across the region. Africa is showing faster recovery rates after pandemic, and we believe this will continue in 2022. In addition to this, some of the world’s largest solar

and renewable projects in the world are in the MEA region. As a leading global manufacturer of compact, professional electronic test and measurement tools and software, Fluke offers innovative and reliable solutions for maintenance teams, making their jobs safer and more efficient. Recently, we introduced the world’s first CAT III / 1500 V safety rated True-RMS clamp meter for solar installations.

What support and resources can channel partners rely on from Fluke?

Fluke’s new strategic model was designed to enhance our channels partners experience and simplify our regional structure. This means we have more staff in our service centres available to work closely with partners, and more importantly, by having a separate function for channel marketing ensures we can focus on their needs and share successes achieved in different regions.

We are committed to bringing the latest innovative solutions to the market together with our channel partners. In 2021, we launched the Fluke 1770 Series of Power Quality Analysers and the Fluke ii910 Precision Acoustic Imager, a unique product which can detect and measure partial discharge and pneumatic leaks in a range of industries. We have many exciting new product launches in the pipeline for 2022.

How is Fluke enabling channel partners to drive their customers’ net zero goals?

Fluke’s technological advances in the approach to energy loss detection and sustainability can contribute to a company’s efforts to achieve netzero and become an active part of the UAE’s net-zero economy ambitions.

This process starts with education.

We help Fluke’s channel partners understand how our innovative tools can help transform the energy and utilities sector by enabling companies to quickly transition to a more sustainable consumption of energy sources. Energy leaks, for instance, not only lead to loss of our precious resources, but also entail economic losses for businesses.

With our decades of experience in refining the technology that ensures energy efficiency, we are positive of the many opportunities for industries to enhance energy usage and thereby contribute to sustainable energy growth in the region.

Can you share market plans for the region for the upcoming quarters?

With most of the countries in MEA regions close to declaring full recovery after COVID-19 pandemic, we should see an acceleration of activity. At Fluke, we have missed working closely with our channel partners and customers, but we are very pleased to revive this effort by securing face-to-face meetings to showcase and demonstrate our latest solutions.

We are open to discussing exciting opportunities our channel partners and customers, particularly during our attendance at key exhibitions, seminars and conferences in the region.

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

21

INSIGHT

EMBRACING THE T SUBSCRIPTION ECONOMY ERA Kerry Grimes, head of global partners, AVEVA, shares insights on how the subscription economy is disrupting traditional models and why partners must optimise the prospects it offers.

22

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

he age of the subscription economy has arrived. The concept is growing at a rapid pace across the US and Europe for services of all kinds. In the last decade, subscription models – such as Netflix for TV, Spotify for music, Adobe Creative Cloud for design services and Ring for home security – have steadily weaved themselves into our everyday lives and businesses.

Given the rapid pervasiveness of the model, it is clear that companies and individuals are realising the many benefits of access to flexible, scalable technology on their terms.

In the world of software, subscription models are radically disrupting the traditional perpetual licensing

is far less when compared to an outright purchase. When software is subscribed to, customers pay just a fraction of the total cost in the first year.

This means software acquisition is shifted from the capital budget (CapEx) to an operating expense (OpEx), capital spending can be reallocated to other expenditures.

This means customers can potentially fund other highpriority capital projects.

model and revolutionising the way companies, partners and customers work together.

In the last fiscal year, AVEVA registered record subscription growth as businesses sought access to transformational technology on an agile basis.

According to ARC Advisory Group, subscription models are predicted to grow at a pace nearly four times that of traditional software over the next five years in the industrial automation software markets, with Enterprise Asset Management and Field Service Management software markets leading the global transition.

Profitability In the first instance, software subscription differs from traditional licenses because it allows customers to spread payments and only pay for what they need as they go. This flexibility provides advantages to customers that want to manage cashflow.

What’s more, through subscription licensing, the cost to use software in the first year

Flexibility The subscription model also affords customers unprecedented access to technological innovation and transformation at a lowerentry price point, as well as flexibility, scalability, and in-built customer support. You buy only what you require and scale it as your needs change, while your cybersecurity needs are fully managed by the service provider.

For example, our subscription program ‘AVEVA Flex’ affords customers the rights to use and continually receive updates to software innovations. A huge advantage of this model is that as soon as features are added to the software you are using, it’s automatically available with no new roll out or purchase required.

By removing the traditional barriers to software adoption, customers are empowered to leverage leading technologies and respond quickly to evolving market demands, without having to navigate onerous capital budgeting cycles.

A case in point: AVEVA Operations Control software is available on a subscription basis – delivering a game-changing mix of cloud, on-premise and hybrid solutions across the company’s entire industrial portfolio.

For the first time, businesses of all sizes will be able to focus on enabling their workforce, leveraging agility and flexibility to optimise their operations.

From industrial IoT architectures and cloud-drive remote edge management to multi-site control,

Kerry Grimes, AVEVA

our software is now available via a flexible usage model under a simplified subscription.

Agility Subscriptions-based software allows access to a variety of market-leading technology solutions on-premise or in the cloud – all in one bundle.

Companies can flexibly monitor and operate systems from a variety of platforms, such as web, mobile, cloud and desktop. Organisations can also benefit from various “sized to fit” scalable options with the capacity to adjust scale usage and data points as needs evolve.

This type of model also lends the flexibility required to enable a variety of architectures and integration capabilities with an array of open, seamless, hardware-agnostic solutions.

With subscriptions, the capacity to implement technology across a variety of industrial applications is greatly enhanced and simplified.

It also means clients are afforded the flexibility to adapt the solution architecture at any point in the project lifecycle – including prototyping, design, commissioning and expansion.

With such powerful benefits, it’s no surprise that the subscription model is gaining rapid global dominance. Its unique combination of commercial, architectural and technical advantages is set to continue disrupting the world of industrial software and beyond – allowing customers to leverage the power of world-class technology on their terms.

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

23

LEAD STORY

SPEARHEADING WINNING STRATEGIES Hesham Tantawi, vice president, MENA, ASBIS Middle East, reflects on the company’s growth story and how ensuring robust supply chain and cash flow management played a critical role in its success.

24

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

25

LEAD STORY

O

ver the years, the regional IT channel industry has shown fortitude in the face of adversity. While some have fallen victim to the recent economic upheaval, many don’t allow external factors to control their success. One such company is the distribution leader ASBIS Middle East, a three-decade old plus firm who has not only stood the test of time but has grown consistently year after year.

Hesham Tantawi, vice president, MENA, ASBIS Middle East, attributes this growth to diligence, having business continuity and diversification plans in place, thinking outside the box and nurturing a growth mindset within the workforce.

Reflecting on the past two years, Tantawi says, “When COVID-19 emerged and impacted the regional market and economy almost overnight, companies were shutting down all around us. However, we did not find it difficult to make the transition to remote work as we had implemented tools like Teams and Zoom three months before the pandemic. Our workforce was well-versed with the conferencing,

ASBIS grew by

18% in 2019-2020 and by

23%

in 2020-2021 in the region

26

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

The key to success is planning. If you understand and meet vendors’ business objectives, evolving market demands and ensure supply, you can be sure to grow.”

communication and collaboration benefits these digital technologies enabled. We are licensed from Jebel Ali, where we also have our logistics centre. We did not close our warehouse or stop working even for a single day.”

The distributor also ensured to keep the lines of communication open with its key customers and partners and engaged with them online daily through digital platforms. “This way, we could continue extensive conversations without any disruptions. We were attending 10 to 12 meetings every day,” he said.

And with time the company saw that moving their operations online was beginning to pay off.

“Business was happening smoothly, we were delivering goods on time and meeting our customers’ requirements,” he adds.

Tantawi admits that the technology industry had it easier than the others as the pandemic restrictions delivered new opportunities.

He explains, “As we were already on digital platforms, we were well-equipped to meet new market demands. For example, as schools had moved to online learning and businesses to remote working, suddenly there was a need for every home to have PCs and cameras to facilitate the new environment.

“Everything in computing was the need of the hour back then and this gave us a chance to take the lead in the market. We worked closely with our vendors to accelerate and ensure the supply line. Our years of expertise in logistics, realistic forecasting for six months ahead and good supply chain management enabled us to procure and deliver goods in the needed time frames. This directly contributed to our sales, and we saw significant growth during the pandemic years.”

Revealing that this growth path also had hurdles, Tantawi says, “Of course there were challenges but none that we couldn’t address.”

The company had faced issues with credit in the beginning, however, through clear communication with customers and partners, it was solved in the first 15 days of the pandemic.

“We extended our credit lines to customers, and this contributed further to our growth.”

ASBIS saw significant growth not just in the region but also globally. The company announced its record-breaking financial results for 2021 recently – its sales revenues amounted to $3.1 billion, exceeding the three billion mark for the first time in its history.

When compared to its 2020 revenues of $2.4 billion, this was an increase of 30%. At the same time, the distributor announced its net profit doubled to $77.1 million, compared to $36.5 million in 2020.

In the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, ASBIS recorded $948 million revenue, up 10% compared to the same period in 2020. In contrast, the net profit was $28.7 million for Q4, an increase of 34% from 2020.

“Regionally, we grew by 18% in 2019-2020 and by 23% in 20202021,” adds the distribution chief. “We are aiming to close this year with high double digits as well. Overall, we attribute this growth to ASBIS being a powerful distribution house, specialised

TANTAWI’S SECRET TO SUCCESS PLANNING

Plan for stock for at least six months in advance, manage cash flow well, put in place business continuity strategies and anticipate market changes to be ahead of the curve.

INNOVATION

Introduce new technologies and solutions and constantly look out for new methods of selling.

TRAINING

Ensure your workforce and partners are well-equipped to meet customer demands in the digital era.

Provide regular training sessions, practical workshops and one-on-one meetings to help your personnel and channel get certified in modern technologies.

GROWTH MINDSET

Nurture a growth mindset within your staff and partners and design mutually beneficial initiatives to help motivate better sales.

in EMEA emerging markets. We are adding new technologies, capabilities, and innovations every year. We make it a point to be ahead of competition and market demand with pioneering technologies and talented resources. We look at distribution as a structured business.”

Through robust supply chain and cash flow management, the distributor extensively maps markets and quickly adapts to evolving conditions.

Tantawi says, “We are successful and have long-term operations today because we do not hesitate to adapt as fast as possible to the dynamic market landscape. We boast great relationships with our vendors and is the preferred distributor for every one of them.

“The key to success is planning. If you understand and meet vendors’ business objectives, evolving market demands and ensure supply, you can be sure to grow.”

Tantawi goes to explain how owing to the pandemic there was a severe shortage of CPUs, hard drives and so on last year. “We

To thrive in today’s digital world, it is imperative that partners be first to the market with new technologies and methods of selling and establish clear, stable partnerships.” were able to grow only because of our strengths in supply chain management. When you plan for six months, you have supplies available to sell every day.”

ASBIS’ channel partners were also able to leverage the distributor’s strengths in supply chain management and catered to customer demands successfully during the pandemic years.

He adds, “We provide extensive training to our channel ecosystem every week. While this was mostly online the last two years, we are now

moving back to in-person sessions.

We also have certification for our staff – every person of our workforce must complete two training sessions every quarter and get certified.

We place a special emphasis on education – this means educating ourselves as well as our partners.”

Tantawi further urges partners to embrace education and innovation. “To thrive in today’s digital world, it is imperative that partners be first to the market with new technologies and methods of selling and establish clear, stable partnerships.”

According to Tantawi, the future looks bright and will be defined by mutual growth for the company and its partners.

He adds, “Our channel partners are a vital part of our success. Over the next few quarters and coming years, the market will see us even more active as we expand our reach and portfolio to new levels. Partners can expect to see deeper support from us, and we look forward to growing together and powering regional customers’ digital transformation journeys.”

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

27

FEATURE

BEYOND THE PANDEMIC:

EXPLORING MODERN CHANNEL STRATEGIES Industry experts explore how IT partners can build successful businesses in the post-COVID-19 world.

28

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

I

n 2020 when the world was brought to a standstill with the emergence of COVID-19, everyone hoped to be where we are today – at the beginning of the end of the pandemic. While it made us rethink everything we knew about life and business, the pandemic also compelled organisations to double down on innovation and introduce new models and technologies that are most likely to remain.

The disruption the pandemic caused affected all layers of business, including regional

technology partners. However, most of the channel community ended up rising to the occasion and becoming the advisors that customers were frenziedly seeking.

“Partners stepped up to reduce the disruption for customers, but it wasn’t easy,” says Sherifa Hady, vice president channel, Europe Middle East & Africa at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. “They had to work hard to navigate the complexities of the pandemic, to ensure the safety of employees.

They had to re-organise their IT infrastructures to support the work-from-home trend.”

Agreeing Sakkeer Hussain, director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East, says, “Partners had to go the extra mile, which is paying off in spades today. They identified new revenue streams and played to their strengths. Some partners also went ahead and upskilled to better optimise market opportunities.

They kept customers at the center of everything they did and offered customised solutions. They helped fuel the region’s accelerated digital ambitions.”

Hady adds, “Enterprises wanted to ensure that employees working from home had the same experience as working from office – they needed to have the same access to systems, data and applications. Partners were helping customers transition to the cloud and embrace As-aService models (Software-as-aService, Network-as-a-Service) in order to give organisations the operational flexibility, efficiency, security and cost benefits they required to retain their competitiveness.”

Realigning priorities Today, as the global and regional economy opens full-fledged, it is important that partners maintain the momentum of their enthusiastic approach.

Alaa Bawab, general manager, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions

Partners need transparency right from deal registration through to the entire sales process between them, their distributor, and vendors.”

Rahil Ghaffar Virsec

Group (ISG), Middle East & Africa, explains that by continuing their efforts, partners can create more agile and scalable ways of managing the sales experience for customers.

“Partners need to continue paying attention to what digital transformation means to their customers, and to their own business,” he adds.

Murali Konasani, CEO, TekSalah, notes that even in the post-pandemic period things like customer buying habits to business operation models are all still evolving.

“Taking this as an opportunity, partner organisations must continuously innovate themselves to become more relevant to their customers. They must look at aligning workforce and be prepared with an operation model ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

29

FEATURE

exploring new technologies and products that they would not have tried earlier.”

Hady says the most important priority for ICT partners as the economy revives back to prepandemic growth is ‘readiness’.

“The need to decide the role that they want to play in future and then develop their capabilities in order to best deliver the intended solutions and services.”

for sustained growth, innovation, and resiliency,” he adds.

According to Siddhartha Chakraborty, country manager, UAE, Logitech Middle East, partners are certainly reviewing their priorities as the impact of COVID-19 abates. For example, the channel is increasingly adopting online business and e-commerce, he says.

“Many channel partners, especially resellers, have a traditional, bricks-and-mortar background, but after the impact of COVID-19, they understand better the importance of e-commerce,” he explains. “To this end, they have started investing in the infrastructure they need to succeed online, not only for selling products, but also to invest in their digital systems and processes so that they can operate more efficiently and fully tap into the growing digital opportunities.

“The traditional partners are becoming more open and are 30

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

The traditional partners are becoming more open and are exploring new technologies and products that they would not have tried earlier.”

Siddhartha Chakraborty Logitech Middle East

Understanding partner expectations Developing the right technical and business capabilities will define the success of partners in the post-pandemic age. However, it is imperative that vendors and distributors offer relevant support that can empower them to grow in today’s digital-first landscape.

As a partner operating in the region, Konasani, says, vendors and distributors need to keep it simple when it comes to partner programmes. “The channel ecosystem is evolving significantly, especially considering the increasing as-a-service and cloud environments. What we would appreciate as partners is if vendors and distributors worked on building an unbiased culture and creating trust with all stakeholders.

It is important for brands to keep in mind that partner success means everyone’s success. They need to have a customer-centric mindset and design a win-win channel programme.”

He adds that while challenges will always exist, proactive and transparent communication practices help minimise the impact.

“Vendors and distributors must have continuous enablement engagements with partners and facilitate resources for regular demand-generation campaigns,” he says.

Rahil Ghaffar, director, Sales for Middle East & Africa, Virsec, says, “Everyone knows that the channel values margins and incentives the most from a partner programme

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANNEL PARTNERS As organisations seek faster go to market solutions with flexibility and security, and further to optimised business overheads, adoption of cloud-based workloads, intelligent automation, data management and security is bound to grow multifold. By shifting towards solutions that deliver complete business outcomes and by aligning innovative technology offerings to ‘customer business priorities’, channel partners like us can leverage a world of as-a-service subscription economy.”

Murali Konasani, TekSalah

Channel partners who can tap into market trends and offer guidance, services, and solutions, will be the ones to succeed within this rapidly changing IT landscape. Network simplification, cloud transition support, shift to flexible subscription models are some of the opportunities that channel partners need to be aware of. With many key services such as deployment and decommissioning included in subscription offerings, these models give IT staff more time to carry out the more complex, value-add business tasks. It’s vital that channel partners broaden their own offerings to reflect this new demand.”

Cloud, 5G, cybersecurity, IoT, data and analytics, automation and so on are some of the biggest opportunities partners must captalise on. Partners need to think out of the box, be agile and always available, offer flexible options and most of all understand the customer’s core business objectives. Value-added resellers must invest in upskilling and bridging the skills gap within their firms. They have a unique opportunity to truly understand how their offerings can propel businesses digitally in the post-pandemic world.”

Sakkeer Hussain, D-Link Middle East

Sherifa Hady, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Digital transformation is still very much the standout opportunity, and those channel partners that are focused on solution-selling and enabling their customers to transform their businesses will stand to gain the most. Supporting these customers will require an understanding of how to create seamless integration between vendors, and the ability to help customers to find the value in those enterprise technologies that are still emerging including software-defined infrastructure, artificial intelligence, IoT, edge computing and 5G.” Alaa Bawab, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), Middle East & Africa

As the rewards of using containers to develop cloud-native applications, and leveraging Kubernetes to manage those containers becomes clear, 2022 will be the year that channel leadership must step up and ensure that their teams understand the containers’ opportunity. However, I’d say too many resellers do not yet truly understand the benefits containers can bring to their business and crucially, their customers. The technology is only growing, and channel teams who don’t invest in training and education today will not last long.”

Samer Semaan, Pure Storage ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

31

FEATURE

Value creation is another critical element for the channel as the traditional approach of competing on hardware margins is now just a race to the bottom.”

Mark De Simone Delinea

but there are a lot of other factors gaining importance today. Partners need transparency right from deal registration through to the entire sales process between them, their distributor, and vendors. They are at the front line in an opportunity, so it is natural for them to expect a streamlined in-depth training programme for their technical team members from their OEMs, to ensure that their team is well equipped while presenting the solution to their customers.”

Concurring with Ghaffar, Mark De Simone, regional director, MEA at Delinea, says, partners are greatly aided by vendors and distributors, and this helps them to rapidly ramp up their skill sets on new solutions, 32

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

enabling them to shorten their time to market.

“Value creation is another critical element for the channel as the traditional approach of competing on hardware margins is now just a race to the bottom.

“Instead, partners are looking to differentiate themselves by building world-class professional services practices. Having support from vendors and distributors such as specialised trainings that enable them to strengthen their professional services offering is perhaps the largest need of the channel, as it then allows partners to deliver complex projects,” he says.

According to Hady, four to five years ago, partners had different expectations from vendors.

They were looking for things like consistency, access to tech resources, MDF, rebates, deal registration, an account manager and so on, from partner programmes.

“Today, besides consistency, they want to have a joint go-to-market business analysis where each partner is managed and treated differently based on what services they can provide. They want to be acknowledged by the vendor, have access to all the resources and incentivised depending on what they can specifically offer – delivery services, support services, post sales services etc. So, it’s not just the matter of wanting a certain percentage from ‘selling a box’ anymore,” she explains.

Designing digital futures Partners must invest in their own digital-led cloud-first futures to be in a strong position to help customers navigate theirs. So, how can they do this to effectively leverage market prospects? Ghaffar believes it is by adopting a new line of business and beginning the transition to a cloud-first model.

He says, “There is a massive opportunity ahead because cloud services are rewriting the rules of the business. They open doors for partners to recurring revenue

streams and a sustainable business model. They can integrate multiple products and their services into said model and be innovative in their approach to differentiate themselves from others.

Customers today are becoming more open to outsourcing their services and partners should leverage this as an opportunity.”

De Simone adds, “The key to a digital-led cloud first future is to embrace the reality that the business model of a partner will evolve from that of traditional integration and support, to a MSSP / cloud model delivered via public clouds in a fully secure service play.

“This is a tall order in terms of SLAs, contracts, and migration activities. It also requires channel to keep their clients’ best interests in mind by being neutral and advising customers as to whether an on-premises recurring contract, or a cloud service delivered over three different clouds is the right fit for their organisation.”

The adoption of as-a-service and managed services solutions have exponentially grown over the past two years. In fact, Samer Semaan, channel manager, Middle East at Pure Storage, says, “Some early adopters in the channel are claiming that around 75 percent of their revenue is now being driven by managed services at the expense of ‘traditional’ reseller methods.

This trend will continue to grow and evolve in 2022, and we will see bigger year-on-year growth in as-aservice adoption than ever before.

“This is being driven largely by end-users, who are asking more questions of resellers about cost efficiency, flexibility and user experience, driven by a need to be more agile following the challenges of the past two years. This is why, 2022 will be the year of as-a-service.”

To sum up, channel partners have to continue being bold and playing to their strengths while also exploring new market opportunities to ensure success and growth in the digital modern age.

INTERVIEW

COMMON DENOMINATORS Vivek Gupta, co-founder and COO, CyberKnight and Shabir Bhat, regional sales director, Checkmarx, discuss how the two companies’ shared vision for a cyber-secure future will enable them to empower organisations to win against tomorrow’s threats.

A

s we move into an increasingly digitaldriven world, web applications and APIs have become the primary tools for interacting with customers. In line with this, application security is a priority for companies across all industries.

A study by Gartner revealed that by 2022, API threats will

move from an infrequent to the most frequent attack vector, which could result in increased data breaches for enterprise web applications.

Today, businesses require application security technologies that are not only simple to implement but also provide robust protection and high-value findings without disrupting operations.

With the increasing sophistication of cyber-attacks over the last couple of years, organisations are getting more exposed to security breaches from software vulnerabilities.”

Vivek Gupta CyberKnight 34

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

To address customer challenges regional value-added distributor, CyberKnight, has partnered with Checkmarx – a global application security testing solutions provider. Through the partnership, the two organisations will enable customers with access to a comprehensive platform that will unify application security into a single platform and help them identify security vulnerabilities instantly.

“With the increasing sophistication of cyber-attacks over the last couple of years, organisations are getting more exposed to security breaches from software vulnerabilities,” said Vivek Gupta, co-founder and COO, CyberKnight. “Today microservices, containers and Kubernetes have created application security blind spots, making it now more pertinent than ever for security leaders to push security further left.”

Gupta highlighted that onboarding Checkmarx into CyberKnight’s extensive portfolio of security vendors will enable them to secure the software development process by integrating automated application security into DevOps. “Furthermore, adding Checkmarx to our portfolio supports our vision to help better

serve the needs of enterprise and government customers in the MENA region,” he explained.

Over the past year, Checkmarx has performed strongly in the region and saw a 100% year-onyear growth, adding an array of key customers from the UAE including banks, government institutions and federal firms among others.

“Checkmarx is a channelfocused organisation,” said Shabir Bhat, regional sales director, Checkmarx. “Last year, we accelerated our channel programme with a focus on adding key partners across the Middle East.”

He added, “We chose CyberKnight as our VAD because of their strong market expertise and local presence in each country across the Middle East. They also have a strong connection with top enterprise customers in the GCC, which we believe will help us achieve our localisation objectives. More importantly, they have a robust channel network, which will ensure the seamless and effective delivery of our solutions.”

Shedding light on how CyberKnight plans to facilitate the growth of Checkmarx’s presence in the region, Gupta touted the VAD’s well-adept team of industry veterans and extensive market expertise. “Our team’s combined experiences with deep-rooted customer relationships will drive accelerated market penetration and revenue growth for Checkmarx through targeted new logo acquisition.”

Additionally, in line with Checkmarx’s regional channel strategy, CyberKnight will distribute the vendor’s offerings to an elite group comprising a select few but highly-specialised partners across all key regional markets. CyberKnight will also continue to drive Checkmarx’s

We will be enhancing our Partner Strategy across three pillars – recruit, repeat and retain. We will also focus on developing new areas for growth and innovation.”

Shabir Bhat Checkmarx

brand leadership and awareness through strategic marketing initiatives.

Channel commitment and support Competition and lower margins are the key challenges that the channel face. This is why CyberKnight’s channel programme has been specifically developed to help partners differentiate themselves while increasing profitability.

“We help our partners go-tomarket faster with next-generation technology, such as Checkmarx, to complement their portfolio offerings and secure long-term revenue growth. Meanwhile, we provide our channel ecosystem with product expertise, support and enablement to help them succeed throughout all the stages of their business from pre-sales to marketing, post-sales, business development and lead generation,” said Gupta.

As for Checkmarx, the channel ecosystem remains fundamental to

its continuous growth. Reiterating the company’s channel-first strategy and commitment towards improving the productivity of their partners, Bhat said, “We will be enhancing our partner strategy across three pillars – recruit, repeat and retain. We will also focus on developing new areas for growth and innovation to spread awareness about our cloud-centric approach towards DevSecOps across the region.

“This year, we are eyeing a 100 percent growth. We aim to launch our AST Cloud and reach new verticals and markets with a clear focus towards SMB/mid-market,” he added.

Application security solutions that address the increasing challenges that the growing threat landscape brings are no longer a ‘nice to have,’ but rather a ‘musthave.’ Through its synergetic partnership, Checkmarx and CyberKnight aim to enable customers and partners alike to win in the digital era.

ISSUE 1 / 2022 | CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST

35

MARKETING

MARKETING MINDS

Marketing is an important function across all businesses in all sectors.

If partners didn’t pay attention to this task before, they are certainly seeing its value today. Investing in digital marketing strategies are becoming fundamental for growing revenues, acquiring new leads and enhancing brand image. In this section, marketing leaders who deal with the regional channel business shed light on how partners can improve their marketing plans and become active marketeers for their own businesses.

SONALI BASU ROY

marketing manager, Bulwark Technologies

Why should regional channel partners invest in digital marketing tools and personnel?

Digital marketing has been driving immense customer engagement and interest. Customer engagement is the holy grail of marketing; creating an emotional attachment to a brand, which can create loyalty. This leads to long-term, less price sensitive and therefore more profitable customers. Hence, regional channel partners should invest in digital marketing tools and personnel.

How can partners effectively use Market Development Funds (MDFs) from vendors?

A digital marketing strategy for any vendor/organisation must include the following aspects: build organisation’s customer personas, identify the goals and the digital marketing tools required, evaluate existing digital channels and assets, plan and evaluate own and third party media campaigns. Partner businesses must collaborate the above requirements for the creation and execution of a sound digital marketing strategy for the vendor and the organisation to yield greater lead generation and ROI. Which is the biggest digital marketing trend in 2022?

Automation (email, social media/SMS, Data Management etc.) and Artificial Intelligence (SEO, Videos, YouTube Marketing etc.) are some digital trends currently impacting the marketing landscape.

36

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

MARKETING

IRMAK PARLAT YILMAZ

alliance marketing manager, GBM

Why should regional channel partners invest in digital marketing tools and personnel?

Simply because digital marketing is the today and tomorrow of marketing. When put into action with the right strategy, it will open doors to channel partners. Even though traditional marketing like customer events will still be there, it’s the digital marketing efforts to follow up and lead nurturing that will deliver long-lasting value to customers.

How can partners effectively use Market Development Funds (MDFs) from vendors?

Data driven marketing is the key to success. Channel partners sometimes spent the MDFs just to avoid getting penalised for not using it, or just to tick the box – both these scenarios are huge waste of time, money, and resources. Gone are the days when adding the vendor logo to an event invite would attract crowds. We need to work on actual data, map solutions with where each of our customers potentially need them (not what we want to promote), and target more proactively.

Which is the biggest digital marketing trend in 2022?

Metaverse will shape the future of digital marketing

ANNU VISHNU

senior marketing specialist, AmiViz Enterprise Market Place

Why should regional channel partners invest in digital marketing tools and personnel?

Digital marketing is like the engine of the entire channel community. It is the tool that supports and promotes awareness, enablement, remarketing, lead generation, and loyalty. Channel partners must invest in digital marketing to effectively reach customers and help create awareness of the brand and build fruitful opportunities.

How can partners effectively use Market Development Funds (MDFs) from vendors?

Partners can achieve this through effective planning and execution of a campaign that is in line with the revenue goals of the company. MDFs can help drive more sales and build a company’s pipeline.

Partners can use it to increase portfolio revenue, execute go-to-market activities for customers, conduct training and certifications to optimise staff to sell and reach new customers, drive renewals and new business. MDFs are critical to devise the right kind of ROI desired by a partner organisation.

Which is the biggest digital marketing trend in 2022?

Marketing automation, Big data, AI, and Machine Learning

NILU KAMKARFAR

marketing manager, MEA, Rackspace Technology

Why should regional channel partners invest in digital marketing tools and personnel?

Digital is often a prospect’s first touchpoint with an organisation. Therefore, it is important to make the right impression with your brand positioning on the website and social media platforms. It’s critical to match the right message and value proposition to address the pain point an individual is researching about and be the trusted provider for their digital transformation.

How can partners effectively use Market Development Funds (MDFs) from vendors?

A strategic MDF plan and budget will help showcase your abilities with your stakeholders. By leveraging MDF funds effectively, we are increasing awareness of our brand, products and services, which in turn helps to, nurture leads, prospects and opportunities further down the sales and marketing funnel. You can utilise MDFs effectively through digital, PR , account-based planning and physical events to increase sales and drive demand generation.

Which is the biggest digital marketing trend in 2022?

Video Marketing – short, educational videos using AI/ML animations, as seen on TikTok and Instagram Reels. Leveraging its trends—such as challenges, hashtag videos, lip-syncing videos and more—has the potential to create impactful content strategy for brands.

38

CHANNEL INSIGHTS MIDDLE EAST | ISSUE 1 / 2022

experience matters

With Over 14 Years Providing Security Services In An Ever Changing Threat Senario We've Seen It All - With Predictability Nanjgel's Cyber Security Managed Services, now brings you affordable cyber security solutions, as services, with more than 40 CERT certified agents ensuring not-just-robotic interventions.

You can pick up a bundled offer, or you can customise a set of services that are tailored for your infrastructure and at price that is nearly half of what is being offered in the market, without compromising your company's security and ensuring business continuity at 100%.

CYBER SECURITY MANAGED SERVICES

PREVENTION & DETECTION

Next-Gen Antivirus Network Analytics Endpoint Detection & Response Deception User Behaviour Analytics Patch Management Vulnerability Management Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

Log Management Desktop Management Application Performance Management Network Performance Management Server Performance Management File Integrity Management Asset Management Web Application Firewall Email Gateway Management Web Gateway Management CASB Gateway Management

response orchestration

Monitor & Control

Security Orchestration Pre-set Remediation Custom Remediation Automated Playbooks Automated Incident Management

Threat Intelligence Threat Hunting Dark Web Monitoring Third Party Vendor Risk Management Anti Phishing Brand Protection Executive Digital Footprint

cyber risk services

digital cyber

intelligence

VAPT Web Application Testing PCI DSS Cloud Penetration Testing Network Security Testing Mobile Penetration Testing Web Penetration Testing Dark Web Alerts on demand Red Teaming Exercise

Desktop-as-a-Service VPN-as-a-Service VDI-as-a-Service Application Delivery-as-a-Service MFA-as-a-Service

INFRA AS- A SERVICE

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES |saudi arabia |oman |kuwait |qatar |bahrain +971 529021125 [DXB] | +966 54895 9963 [KSA] sales@nanjgel.com

Industrial IoT Solutions Improve process agility with advanced data collection, analytics and visualization capabilities at the edge.

Allied Telesis ruggedized Industrial Ethernet switches provide enduring performance in harsh environments, such as those found in manufacturing, transportation and physical security. Offering high throughput, rich functionality and advanced security features, our switches deliver the performance and reliability demanded by deployments in the age of the Internet of Things.

For more information, please contact one of our Allied Telesis Account Managers today.

Tel: +971 4 454 8740

© 2022 Allied Telesis, Inc. All rights reserved.