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FEBRUARY 2017 | VOL 1 ISSUE 5

THE CHANGE-SPOTTERS AND CHANGE-MAKERS

SHAIKH SALMAN BIN MOHAMED ALKHALIFA, GENERAL DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INFORMATION & EGOVERNMENT AUTHORITY, BAHRAIN

BUCKLED-UP FOR AN OPTIMAL SHIFT TO THE CLOUD

Investing an unwavering faith in the ‘Cloud’, The Information and eGovernment Authority of Bahrain is gearing up for a complete infrastructure overhaul. /16 BROUGHT BY

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EDITORIAL

THE OATH OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

ANUSHREE DIXIT ASSISTANT EDITOR anushree@gecmediagroup.com

2016 was a year of transformation— Digital Transformation being the prime of all. The pledge to embark on the route of digital transformation and the advent of newer technology that made their way right into the mainstream enterprises created an entirely new playground of opportunities for the IT decision makers. Big data and mobile technology have been massively changing the healthcare; Blockchain and Fintech disrupted the BFSI landscape like never before; PoS, AI and DRaaS solution re-approached the retail in newer ways while the regional government organizations invested heavily on transparent Cloud solutions. The year 2016 also say many CIOs shedding off their legacy suits and taking up the role of financial controllers as well. Funding the digital initiatives was one of the prime objectives and top of the ‘to-do’ list of the CIO. The entire ecosystem of the Vendor-Partner-Customer also saw a major change as there were increased collaboration between the stakeholders of the ecosystem. Through ‘The Titans’, we have strived to be the bridge between these ecosystem stakeholders. Through our case studies, exclusive CIO interviews, solution spotlights and opinion pieces we strived to present the pains and pleasures of the customers, so that the vendors have a direct reference to look for when they craft their solutions; we presented exclusive solution spotlights which the CIOs could take as reference while architecting their business models. The Titans’ turns 1! It is indeed a very joyous moment for all of us as we celebrate a year of this niche magazine. We owe this success to all the industry veterans who have played a direct and indirect role in supporting and helping us realize the vision; to all the CIOs who invested their faith in us and trusted us with their stories and experiences; to all the IT vendors, solution providers and channel partners who have leveraged The Titans as their premium CIO’pedia.

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FEBRUARY 2017

THE TITANS

TOP CIOs ACROSS MEA

ABDULLAH HAMOOD AL BARWANI DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE DIVISION THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AUTHORITY ( ITA) SMART TECHNOLOGY’ TODAY IS? My own analogy of a smart technology would be the one that has the following features: a. A smart technology is the one that makes required information accessible to the customer seamlessly through different platforms based on customer’s preference. b. Integrates well with other technology providers c. Has adaptable and customizable design based on customers’ preference. d. Scalable e. Future ready

RECENT PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION The Government Cloud of Oman EXPERIENCE 17 years

2017 ACTION PLANS l Minimizing operational overhead by standardizing technology and procedures. l Enhancing customer relationship by simplifying and automating business processes. l Enhancing cloud offering to meet new customers’ business requirements. l Utilizing data analysis to provide new service offerings.

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FEBRUARY 2017

EXPECTATION FROM TECH VENDORS l Simpler and unified management of solutions with intuitive designs l Better assurance on security l Solutions that integrate well with existing ones rather than revamping

CHAT WITH A CIO

FROM SCRATCH TO SUPREME Within a year of his joining, Ashith Piriyattiath, Group Head- Information Technology at Al Masah Capital Management has successfully built an organization that is fortified in its security and smart in its operations. We had an exclusive conversation with him on this interesting journey. (Excerpts)

THE BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE SCENARIO When Ashith Piriyattiath came on board Al Masah Capital, what was at his disposal was an organization with basic IT infrastructure which had already suffered its share of hack attack and money loss in the course. “The security infrastructure was very weak, so my first agenda was to build a tight firewall and bring everything under one centralized domain. Spoof email was one of the biggest challenges that we faced, hence I got on board Data leak prevention solutions that immediately helped me in getting rid of the issue. There were a lot of challenges on the communication and business applications side as well which I could easily notice. I have been building technologies for all that aspects one by one and now I can justly claim that today Al Masah Capital Management is one of the most secure and smart organizations in the face of the region.” Al Masah Capital has successfully moved a lot of their infrastructure and critical workload to the cloud. “With limited resources, we can manage everything in one window,” says Ashith. RECENT PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION Disaster Recovery (DR) was one of the biggest project that Ashith undertook recently. The project was in partnership with Finesse that offered them a cutting edge DR model. Al Masah had their legacy Data Centre and respective Disaster Recovery running with peak utilization for more than 5 years. Finesse transformed them to new Data Centers with high availability and Disaster Recovery sites using the latest scalable technologies. This covers a revamp of all the corporate data centre and Disaster

the market. One of the value added feature that we saw in Finesse is the way they did the requirement mapping and translating it to technology. The transformation of our data centre and Disaster Recovery sites onto cloud has been achieved with extreme cost efficiency and effective use of resource skill set with multiple layers of Data Security. We at Al Masah Capital Management Limited are very thrilled at our partnership with Finesse and their engagement from the beginning of discussions to completion of the project. The Finesse team has been very responsive at identifying the areas of challenges and suggesting the appropriate solution, working efficiently within the parameters set by us” adds Ashith.

ASHITH PIRIYATTIATH, GROUP HEADINFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AT AL MASAH CAPITAL MANAGEMENT Recovery sites. One of the prime factors that Ashith highlighted on this partnership is the seamlessness of the entire implementation. “The Finesse team did a great job in convincing us. The cost was also minimal compared to the other cloud solutions in

ITS ALL IN THE ‘CLOUD’ Ashith is a big believer in the advantages and benefit that Cloud as a technology can bring into the mainstream business. “Cloud is definitely a breakthrough technology. Especially for the start-ups, if they need to have an international standard data center that gives them all the flexibility, it will cost them a fortune. Cloud can be a perfect life-saver here that can offer the best OPEX model in a pay as you go package. Think of a data center with your own exchange server, application server….etc; you need to have the resource also to manage all these infrastructure .But if you have a cloud server, you have an admin console and you can manage everything with minimum resource if they are trained properly. Resource utilization is optimum and the services are more flexible.” “There is no doubt that Cloud is the future,” says Ashith.

FEBRUARY 2017

THE TITANS

CASE STUDY

CARVING AN EXCELLENT NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE With a strong Digital and remittance economy, Middle East banks are at the forefront of adopting the latest financial technology solutions, especially online and mobile banking services. AL-MAWARID Bank S.A.L’s Head of IT, Mr. Ghassan Jumblat tells us how they carved a niche virtualized infrastructure.

nearly all systems now run on VMware. This includes the bank datacentres, desktops across ournetwork ofbranches, and most recently, network virtualization (VMwareNSX).VMwareNSXimprovesthe bank’s securityand application continuity, acceleratesproductinnovationthroughIT automation, and helps us meet stringent regulatory compliance requirements.

Please give an overview of the recent project implementation with VMware.

GHASSAN JUMBLAT, IT HEAD AT ALMAWARID BANK S.A.L How “smart” is AL-MAWARID Bank S.A.L? Please describe your digital transformation journey. AL-MAWARID Bank S.A.L invested in the bank network infrastructure by partnering with VMware and ICC Group to enhance the bank’s digitalandnetworkinfrastructure.AL-MAWARID Bank S.A.Lhasvirtualizedits ITinfrastructure, and

THE TITANS

JANUARY 2017

Working with ICC Group and its subsidiary CCI, we are virtualizing our network. VMware NSX provides unique micro-segmentation capabilities and advanced security inside the data center. Distributed firewalling and automated security policies will boost data protection and support compliance. We can ensure that our security controls are deployed network-wide at a fraction of the cost of a hardware-centric approach. NSX also helps to ensure the bank’s business applications are up and running 24/7. We also anticipate the accelerated provisioning of IT services as a result of the advanced IT automation capabilities of NSX.

What were the business and technological needs for the project? AL-MAWARID Bank S.A.L has faced a number of business needs that lead to implement this project, to mention a few:

customerdatasecurityandconfidentiality, data availability, automated disaster recovery,ForeignAccountTaxCompliance Act (FACTA) requirements, and providing our customers new and innovative products and services. AL-MAWARID Bank S.A.L required a technology vendor that could deliver world-class network infrastructure solutions, has local partner that possess the banking experience. ICC Group not only had the experience, but also a team of highly-qualified consultants who were able to manage the overall project implementationandatthesameenhances our staff skills.

How would you quantify and qualify the business and technological benefits that AL-MAWARID Bank S.A.L has seen from the implementation? The digital network transformations that have recently been implemented at ALMAWARID Bank S.A.L have provided the bank and its clients with enhanced and improved data security and accessibility. Transforming our network to a virtual network has provided our clients with applicationcontinuity,enhancedcustomer experience, and automated IT services, and has also reduced our risk of data loss and application down-time. Together with VMware vSpehre and Operations Management managing and maintaining our private cloud capacity, optimization, monitoringandanalyticshasbecomeeasy and automated.

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VENDOR SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT

A ‘SQOOPE’ OF MOBILITY

A ‘SQOOPE’ OF MOBILITY TalariaX is an award winning Singapore based company with offerings in Enterprise Mobility as well as IT Security space. TalariaX has two product offerings sendQuick and sqoope. sendQuick is the brand name for its highly successful gateway appliance that is deployed at several hundred F500 companies worldwide while sqoope is the brand name for the latest innovation, an Enterprise class, in-premise, appliance based Mobile Messenger (aka Whatsapp which is targeted at Consumers, but sqoope is built for the Enterprise). The Need for Sqoope Instant messaging first gained popularity through personal computers due to its peer-topeer interaction. It did not take long for the same appeal to latch on to the mobile platform and it led to rapid proliferation amongst the masses. Mobile messaging has since become the norm

THE TITANS

FEBRUARY 2017

for communicating freely with one or more users at the same time. Efficiency is a vital aspect in corporate communications. However, enterprise class mobile messaging applications do not exist. Enter sqoope...! sqoope™ is an enterprise class mobile messaging platform designed to cater specifically to the requirements of consumers and Enterprises, big or small. It features unique notification capabilities - like guaranteed messaging status - which ensures cohesive and coherent interactivity within a secure environment. Features include : n Multimedia Chat options includes 1-to-1, 1-to-many (group), 1 to multiple (same message blasted to many individuals). ►n Guaranteed delivery of all messages anytime & anywhere. ►n User authentication via AD, LDAP, Radius and DB.

►n Chat segregation over Channels & Topics for rapid information dessimination to specific targeted individuals or groups. ►n Limitless messaging via mobile data and Wifi. n Applicable across all devices (Phone/Tablet) featuring access/ login via web browser or on any HTML devices (with message history retained in the server). ►n Encrypted messages for confidentialilty purposes and logged into audit for archival (Closed group usage with servers deployed internally). n Indicate awareness to message threads or instructions with the acknowledgement indicator. n All individuals associated with the specific thread are listed and reflected accordingly with their individual responses. ►n Message details will display the date and time of acknowledgement performed by each and every individual involved. n Share multimedia files between one another over the multimedia message delivery system which supports File Explorer, Media Gallery, Music Player and so forth. n Multimedia Capability (Image, Audio, Video & other documents, for instance, PDF, text files and so forth) In short, sqoope sendQuick provides a complete mobile messaging ecosystem that is limitless in performance, enhanced with security measures and features that are applicable to all businesses. This is a perfect solution for consumers and enterprises seeking to reinforce and improve communication channels within the enterprise.

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COVER STORY

THE BUSINESS OF

‘INFORMATION’ We all would remember this! In 2016, when we launched ‘The Titans’, the CIOs were on the path of irrevocable dynamism in their role as the torchbearers and guardians of the ‘Information’ world. It is not that the focus has diverted now; But, this is 2017 and we are at a phase where there is no time for ‘Trials & Errors’. The clock is ticking and the resources are running out. WORDS BY ANUSHREE DIXIT

We saw many niche technologies making their way into the mainstream business in 2016. We also saw many CIOs leading the change by adapting

THE TITANS

FEBRUARY 2017

to the changes. But, a very crucial percentage of organizations emptied their pockets to technologies that were a misfit to their business models.

Organizations can no more afford these downfalls. This fact may or may not be applicable on a global scale, but the CIOs in this region have to take the reins of supremacy now. As digitalization and ICT runs down the central nervous system of the enterprises, the CFOs, CMOs, CEOs and CDOs are all under the radar to walk parallel with this. The designation of ‘CIO’ is not going anywhere, but, as we had closely watched in 2016, the CIO was

COVER STORY

-ABDULLAH AL BARWANI,

-DR. JASSIM HAJI,

-SAEED AL QASSIM

DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE DIVISION THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AUTHORITY ( ITA)

DIRECTOR IT, GULF AIR

HEAD OF IT OPERATIONS, NAKHEEL

“2017 will be the end of the legacy virtualization and the world will start shifting to containers enabled by the software defined datacenter.”

“CIOs should engage themselves in cost savings by consolidation and optimization of services by investing in cloud solutions and employee digital services.”

they should be working in parallel as the decision makers. “CIO should focus on bridging the business- Technology gap and should

be business oriented. Also, they should learn new skills to be “Digital Officers” instead of traditional IT officers,” says Abdullah Al Barwani, Director of

“CIO should focus on bridging the businessTechnology gap and should be business oriented.”

prophesized to be the next CEO, but if he/she fails to make the right and relevant choices, the CEO or the CFO will have to replace the CIO. We are well into 2017, and ‘The Titans’ takes this opportunity to explore what resolutions some of the leading CIOs and IT decision makers have taken to be the wave of change in their enterprises. INITIATING THE CULTURAL CHANGE Yes, by cultural change we actually mean a change in the culture of the organizational hierarchy. A CIO should not limit himself only to being a gadget guru or giving his opinion on matters related to just ‘IT’. CIOs should actually design and have the control of the ‘Digitization map’ of the organization that includes aspects like; Strategy, Marketing, Designing, Planning and Budgeting. Because it is the CIO who knows how the digital architecture of an organization should look like and what technologies best fit in. CIOs should understand that they should no more be answerable to CFOs or CEOs….. but

FEBRUARY 2017

THE TITANS

COVER STORY

-MISHAL ALHELLOW,

-VENKATESH MAHADEVAN,

-ALIASGAR BOHARI,

HEAD OF IT AND PR, ARCAPITA

HEAD OF IT, DUBAI INVESTMENTS PJSC

DIRECTOR OF IT, ZULEKHA HOSPITALS

“building trust with the head of business units is very important as it’s the most critical success factor for any successful CIO.”

“While state-of- the-art as a term may definitely sound good to the ears, it is important that the vendors learn to differentiate between “State of the Art” and “Relevant”

“Today’s CIOs are challenged to understand their organization’s digital readiness, adapt their business model and unlock their digital potential to grow, protect and transform their business.”

EXPECTATIONS FROM THE VENDORS Solutions that integrate well with existing ones rather than revamping

Simpler and unified management of solutions with intuitive designs Better assurance on security

Automation of IT Services reducing the IT expenditure, with uncompromised security

Scalable platform without vendor lock-in

Build confidence in customers to use cloud solutions for mission critical data

Work proactively to increase productivity

Instantaneous Customer Support and Customer Satisfaction

Start wearing the Customer’s hat more often

THE TITANS

Secure and less vulnerable solutions

FEBRUARY 2017

Cost effective Vendor Independent scalable solution such as SDN, NFV etc..

Experience and Expertise with the Tools Needed for the Business

Infrastructure Section, ITA Oman. Yes, it is all about bringing that change in the ‘Tradition’. A CIO’s resume in 2017 is all about showcasing that change. Venkatesh Mahadevan, Head of IT at Dubai Investments makes an interesting statement here on how a CIO resume should look like. He says, “Talk about Organizational Transformation and how you leveraged on Technology to bring about this shift. Your Business experience, if any, must be clearly brought out. For e.g. In my case, I have handled Marketing Operations for a Global organization and that surely carries weight, since people then get to know that you understand not only IT, but business too. DIGITIZATION: WOW OR WOE? Aliasgar Bohari, Director of IT, Zulekha Hospitals, says, “The two commonly interrelated issues that are changing the face of any industry are customer

CATALYSTS

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COVER STORY

expectations and the speed of technology evolution. The Transformative CIO requires to provide a perfect Bridge between these two prime aspects. Mishal AlHellow, Head of IT and PR at Arcapita strategically puts across this points for a CIO as a mandate in order to walk hand in hand with digitization. l An inspiring Vision: CIOs should participate in reshaping their organization vision & mission by collaborating more with CXOs. l Value delivery approach: CIOs should bring immediate value to their organization by clearly defining two streams of projects with different speed of execution. Long term planning is no longer applicable for all kinds of projects. Innovation requires faster execution and immediate realization of the intended value. l Agility: CIOs should be able to change direction with minimum impact to their organization. l Trust: building trust with the head of business units is very important as it’s the most critical success factor for any successful CIO. WHAT TO TAKE, WHAT NOT TO TAKE Regardless of the fact that whether you are a literature fan or not, The Shakespearean Dilemma of ‘To be or not to be’ is hard to ignore. The procrastinations, the monologues and the undeniable soliloquies are a part of every CIO’s life. Though we always say that the CIO who adopts to the change will only move ahead, this certainly doesn’t mean you have to take in each and every technology that comes up on board, regardless of the requirement of the sector that you work for. 3 golden rules: Stop, Think, Act! A transformative CIO has to keep these points in mind. The same rule applies for the vendor as well. As Dr. Jassim Haji, Director IT, Gulf Air puts across, “The way for technology providers to become friends to organizations is to resolve problems more than providing a menu of solutions to be sold. Technology providers these days focus on selling products and services walking away, not to help you achieve and resolve problems within your organization.” Finally As we began the story, 2017 would not be a very good playground for trail and testing. Based on our conversations with various vendors and CIOs from across the region, there is an absolute need for ‘Automation’ technologies, regardless of what basic technology it comes from (Cloud, Virtualization, BI….etc). So vendors have a clear roadmap. For the CIOs, the idiom ‘Time is Money’ never held so much truth as this period in time. Optimize your resources with the required technologies. ‘Information’ is your ‘Business’ and there is a very thin line between ‘Right technology’ and ‘Relevant technology’. Choose wise!

THE TITANS

FEBRUARY 2017

COVER FEATURE

SHAIKH SALMAN BIN MOHAMED ALKHALIFA, GENERAL DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INFORMATION & EGOVERNMENT AUTHORITY, BAHRAIN

“Here after, any technology that does not support a hybrid cloud environment, will not be viable for the future of the government.”

THE TITANS

FEBRUARY 2017

COVER FEATURE

BUCKLED-UP FOR AN OPTIMAL SHIFT TO THE CLOUD Investing an unwavering faith in the ‘Cloud’, The Information and eGovernment Authority of Bahrain is gearing up for a complete infrastructure overhaul. In an exclusive rendezvous with Shaikh Salman bin Mohamed AlKhalifa, General Director of Information Technology, Information & eGovernment Authority, Bahrain. WORDS BY ANUSHREE DIXIT The market and the past few years are a striking testimony of this fact that, Cloud no more stands as a choice for the modern workspace— be it the private sectors or the government organizations. Standing up as a model government organization that is welcoming this ‘Cloud’ change with open arms, the Information and eGovernment Authority of the Kingdom of Bahrain is architecting a master plan for an optimal shift to the cloud. Upon the completion of the shift, the organization would emerge as one of the smartest government organizations in the region to elevate the concept of an ‘OPEX’ focused approach and a

higher level of public cloud environment security. ‘SMART TECHNOLOGY’ TODAY IS? At present, we are talking about utilizing technology to fix and resolve business challenges as well as assist in delivering the strategies of the organization. One of the major issues that IT and business are facing, in order to meet business needs, is the procurement of capacity - whether it is compute or storage. The government of the Kingdom Bahrain believes that the Public Cloud will help alleviate the burden of this hight CAPEX process and move towards a more OPEX focused

FINAL PHASE: moving more critical workloads that require higher level of security

EVALUATION STAGE: shifting the non-critical work load to the Cloud

SECOND PHASE: testing-out of low risk products to be moved to the Cloud

FIRST PHASE: design stage

FEBRUARY 2017

THE TITANS

COVER FEATURE

Sheikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa began his career in the CIO as a Network Engineer and executed the Government Data Network (GDN) project which resulted in linking all of Bahrain’s ministries together. He later became Section Head of the Smart Card Initiative project which developed and deployed the national ID card using the Smart card Technology. In 2004 he moved to the Royal Court to set up the IT infrastructure and returned back to the CIO in 2006 to become Director General of IT. At this juncture, the CIO managed the National Government Network and the organisation became the service provider for applications for multiple organisations including E-government and the establishment of the Government CERT. The most significant project was the strategic initiative executed by the organisation is to execute the IT shared services. Its goal was to consolidate and restructure all government IT systems to optimise its performance and efficiency, as well as improve integration between government agencies. He also established the government’s private cloud which is the foundation for the consolidation project in government agencies.

RECENT PROJECTS IMPLEMENTATION: Currently, we are testing the feasibility of moving to the Cloud and how it will impact our daily operation; in addition, investing in technology that would help support us to move to the Cloud. Security is the key aspect of the cloud, it is what’s preventing most organizations to go to the Cloud, so we are at the pilot stage of easing the migration process and testing the security solutions that will give us an even higher level of comfort to secure our public cloud environment.

The first phase is the design stage, second is the testing-out of low risk products to be moved to the Cloud out-of-which difficulties will be met technically when migrating data, the third phase include moving work load more critical workloads that requires a higher level of security. As we continuously engage government bodies, we have recently participated in the Amazon Web Services - Bahrain Immersion Day; which was organized in the Kingdom of Bahrain - gathering around 340 decision-makers and specialists from the Information Technology arena.

ACTION PLANS OF 2017: Moving to the Cloud will be approached in several phases; presently, we are at the solution’s evaluation stage as we are shifting the non-critical work load to the Cloud – once that has been achieved, we will start moving the more critical work load. There are certain architectural changes in design that need to be enabled and delivered for us to reach the optimal shift to the Cloud.

EXPECTATIONS FROM TECH VENDORS If we successfully implemented the three pre-mentioned phases, there will certainly be a reduction of costs in the government’s hardware purchases. Hereafter, any technology that does not support a hybrid cloud environment - will not be viable for the future of the government. This will require vendors to propose solutions and systems that will adopt the cloud approach and positions it as a top priority.

approach.

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FEBRUARY 2017

It is worthy to say that government IT is rapidly changing to adopt smart technologies as well as cloud computing technologies in providing the key services. Tech vendors are expected to support the government in managing technology supply chain from being a mere System Integrator to a partner in building unified systems within the government by focusing on efficiency and cost optimization, facilitating the adoption of sophisticated technologies and transferring the knowledge essential so as to enhance ICT capabilities of the government. We expect our vendors to remodel their approaches and methodologies – in line with strategies and policies of Bahrain’s government; additionally, adopt to a new era of delivering smart government services in a prompt, cost effective method. They are also expected to stimulate and assist smart technology innovations as well as become digital transformational enablers from traditional data centric applications to cloud aware smart solutions.

SI SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT

UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET PULSE our customers. 3. IP software: We have invested to bring breakthrough technologies to market for Accounts Payable Automation wherein we are able to reduce finance AP processing costs by 40-60%. We have also invested in SCOMPLY, which drives revenue & productivity improvement for Government Regulators. 4. Cloud & Security: We are ideally positioned to walk through the transformation journey with our customers for consolidation, security and cloud

NIKHIL KOTHARI, DIRECTOR, INTERTEC SYSTEMS Intertec has successfully transformed itself from a local IT services provider to a global player that leads in transformational IT projects and managed services. We serve customers in 18 countries currently and have local offices in 5 countries. We have seen many smaller competitors disappear in 2016 due to the unchecked credit Businesses operate so that they can earn profits. What we see as a trend in 2017 is that the verticals that have had a difficult 2016 will be forced to invest to sustain and grow their business. However, with capital liquidity shortage, they will focus on investments that will reap cost savings or revenue growth. That’s where companies like Intertec Systems come into picture. Our growth focus in 2017 Our bets on these customer objectives are as follows:

1. Be #1 local company in transformational managed services: We have been in this business since 10 years. We made a substantial capital investment 3 years ago to ensure competitive advantage in the market place. We have had a triple digit growth in this business last year and will continue to be #1. Our customers have been delivered 15-40% cost saving with strong SLA’s. We have ISO 20000, 27001, 31000 and MSP certifications and process automation consultants for our local NOC. This really sets us apart for the long term and makes us a real partner to our customer’s transformation. 2. Digital transformation: Research shows that organizations that adopt Digital transformation are 26% more profitable than their peers that stray. We are investing on driving business process automation, omnichannel digital and Analytics with

IT Market We are set to grow 30% year or year over 2016, as against the market CAGR at 6.29%. We have been very quick to change our strategy and roll out in Q4 2016 and we can see results. We have increased our focus on large value projects in Managed Services, Infrastructure transformation, Security, Business Applications and Digital transformation. There is also a change in our solutions and delivery team as a process. We have consolidated the practices into a global presales and delivery. Achievements In 2016, Intertec has achieved many milestones and recognitions such as Cisco Best Commercial Partner, Fortinet Best Growth Partner, Infor EAM Best Implementation Partner amongst others. We have also initiated our market entry to the US & UK. Our Dubai-based NOC for managed services is one of the most advanced in terms of technology, process and integration. We service 18 countries across MENA on managed services across Data Center, Cloud, Networks, End Users, Applications and Databases.

FEBRUARY 2017

THE TITANS

CASE STUDY

REVAMPING THE HYBRID CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE Al Naboodah Group Enterprises recently built a niche Data center with Nutanix to support its growing ‘smart’ landscape. The results that followed was 99.9% uptime and a flexible environment with their private cloud.

How does Al Naboodah Group Enterprises define a ‘Smart’ organization? Our organisation is relatively smart as of today, but it is getting much smarter with fast steps almost every month. The reason behind that is the strong belief of our board of directors and our top management in the value business can achieve by investing in latest smart technology. We have been focusing and investing in the areas of smart data analysis and dynamics reporting using analysis tools from top IT vendors. We use such smart tools to look at previous experience to improve performance, anticipate future cases, thinking and reasoning what to do next and what should be the next step. We have also started looking at smart technologies such as software robotics and consider the option of utilizing such smart technology within our business if proven to add value.

Do you have any recently completed major IT project? We have recently completed building our Tier II equivalent Data Center (ANGE Data Center), where we have utilized the latest advanced technology at multiple fronts including power, cooling, networking, security equipment and the private cloud technology from Nutanix, which gave us the ability to have our own private cloud while

THE TITANS

FEBRUARY 2017

MARIO FOSTER, GROUP CIO, AL NABOODAH GROUP ENTERPRISES

CASE STUDY

still using some of the classic DC equipment and limited public cloud solutions. We have initially evaluated the public cloud options and its reliability in the MENA region and the capability of such cloud solutions to address our specific business needs as a large group with diversified businesses within multiple industries which alone makes it a challenge to find a public cloud provider that is able to meet all such business requirements in a multi-tenancy cloud environment. After an extensive review and a third party independent assessment to our needs, the decision was taken 6 months ago to build a new Tier II equivalent Data Center for the Group and to have Hybrid Cloud model as our adopted cloud model part of our cloud strategy, where in our case it fits us the best and it is the most popular and safest model being followed.

What was the need for the project? In order to complement the latest and smart technologies that were penetrating our

organization and the organisationâ€™s business expansion at multiple fronts in multiple locations across the world, we had to look at our current infrastructure and whether it is capable of supporting such projects or not. We found out that our old infrastructure was not ready to handle such demand and a major investment must be made in a new DC.

What are the benefits reaped out of this Data Center Project? We now have an advanced infrastructure environment that offers full redundancy at all fronts, which is already reducing our unplanned downtime for business dramatically (close to 99.9% uptime). We have a top rated enterprise level data availability solution from Veeam Software. We have a proper centralized monitoring and alert system to ensure the security and availability of our business data. With the introduction of our private cloud, we now have a flexible environment, where

we are able to easily scale up or scale down based on our business needs. We are also able to publish our business applications to all our offices across the world in a secure fashioned way over the internet utilizing our private cloud solution. On the sustainability side, our new data center is using a technology that environmentally friendly and it uses at least 45% less power than traditional data centers.

Do you expect 2017 to be a busy year for you and your team? Without a doubt, 2017 will be one of the busiest years for me and my team. We already have two projects started to have a standard single Enterprise Help Desk System, and we are implementing Managed Print Services (MPS) across the Group in addition to multiple other projects either already running from last year or planned for 2017. We will not have a single month where we are not working on an x number of projects at the same time.

FEBRUARY 2017

THE TITANS

CHAT WITH A CIO

A GIANT LEAP TOWARDS DIGITAL SUPREMACY According to Gopi Krishnan, CIO of Al Hilal Bank, Standardization, Consolidation, open standard based and agile application frameworks are the way forward to ensure reduced risk, support overheads and faster time to market for new products, features and functionalities desired by banks.

According to you, how was the year 2016 for your organization? 2016 has been ayearofaccomplishments forthe Bank’s ITDivision.While delivering keyenablers for business throughout the year, the Division’s leadership also framed the Bank’s IT strategy through to 2020. Bank’s strategic reviewthisyear led to a re-evaluation of the role that technology must play in the Bank’s business model and the way in which we compete in our target markets. Following the approval of our transformative strategy, IT has been prioritized as a critical strategic enabler. Bank has always recognized the importance of technology in delivering servicestocustomers,managinginformationand ensuringthatinternalprocessesandtransactions are executed efficiently.The difference lies in the way that the Bank intends to exploit strategic opportunities that technology offers.

Tell us about any recent project implementations that you spearheaded? Al Hilal 2.0 Program has been a significant leap for us towards digital supremacy and as part of the program we are thrilled to be at the verge of launching one of the region’s most unique online account opening application, which will literally bring banking at the door steps of our potential customers to enable them to do banking anytime anywhere. We are very zealous about our loyalty initiative – JOUD, which was commenced and enables customers to collect, manage and redeem loyalty points through a platform integrated with multiple merchants across retail, hotels, airlines industries. JOUD has become a brand in itself and going forward we are bullish in making it more attractive via partnerships with other

THE TITANS

FEBRUARY 2017

How ‘Smart’ or ‘Digital’ is your organization? Digital Offerings n Availability of products / prices tailored for digital channels / personas n Level of interaction with customers on product design

GOPI KRISHNAN, CHIEF INFORMATION & DIGITAL OFFICER, AL HILAL BANK

loyalty offerings to avail the best redemption options and facilities to our customers. Process efficiencies and innovations to achieve them is at the heart of our IT Strategy and are a very important stream within Al Hilal 2.0. We are proud to have initiated a Bank wide Enterprise Content Management (ECM), which enabled branchestoscancustomerdocumentsandmade digitalcopiesavailabletobackofficestaffdirectly resulting in huge cost savings and reduced turnaround times (TATs) from eight weeks to the same day..

n Breadth of digital VAS offers available for customers, e.g., geolocalized n Discount program, mPayments, gamification, phone top-up, PFM, FX Digital Delivery n Range of features (functionalities) and quality of user experience (layout, speed, etc.) offered by individual channels (e.g., internet, mobile) n Consistency in consumer experience across all online and offline touchpoints considering all paths-to-purchase (i.e., channels integration) n Quality of digital sales tools available to RMs (e.g., CRM, product simulation, mobile office); digital equipment present in the branches Marketing n Advancement in direct campaigns for clients, i.e., using predictive analytics, event based campaigns, next best product, etc. n Advancement in digital campaigns for both clients / non-clients using e.g., social media, 3rd party portals, search optimization Digital Processes n Easier KYC process application for the new customers n Availability of different authentication methods / customizations n Level of digitization of sales and services processes (initiated by the customer), e.g., new C/Aopening, personalloan, certificate ordering n Level of digitization of internal processes (initiated by the bank), e.g., soft collection, credit review

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CASE STUDY

KUTTAB INTRODUCES SELFPUBLISHING CONCEPT IN THE REGION USING CANON TECHNOLOGY and expertise. “Initially when we started out, we used to print books using the traditional offset- style. It was required to have a minimum quantity of copies to go ahead with printing which wasn’t preferred by publishers who did not want to have a large number of copies. Also, the turnaround time was not supporting the growth that Kuttab has envisioned to achieve,” said Jamal Al Shehhi, the founder of Kuttab Publishing. “Also the self-publishing concept through an online channel where the publisher can upload their books online and have lesser number of copies printed was something Canon offered to us,” said SHEHHI”

ORGANIZATION BRIEF Kuttab Publishing is a UAE-based publishing house that started operations in 2010 to support Emirati writers. The publishing house expanded their operations and opened the first, one-of-a-kind culture cafe called Kuttab Cafe giving a medium to publish their books. The company now has three main lines of business - Kuttab Publishing, Kuttab Cafe and Kuttab Smart Printing. They currently have 22 employees and 101 writers in their fold. . Objective To establish Kuttab as a leading publishing house and to promote Kuttab Café and Smart Printing as an easy and friendly option for writers looking to publish their works.. Challenges

THE TITANS

FEBRUARY 2017

Kuttab Publishing opened a oneof-a-kind culture café called Kuttab Café that aimed at promoting Arabic book publishing with a focus on the concept of self-publishing. Initially when they started out, they used to print their books using the traditional offset- style. It was required to have a minimum quantity of copies to go ahead with printing which wasn’t preferred by publishers who did not want to have a large number of copies. Also, the turnaround time was not supporting the growth that Kuttab has envisioned to achieve as also the self-publishing concept through an online channel where the publisher can upload their books online and have lesser number of copies printed. Kuttub was therefore looking for solution provider that would support them in their growth with the adequate knowledge, technology

PROJECT SPECIFICS l Canon carried out a demonstration of two production printers - Océ VarioPrint 6160 Ultra+ and imagePRESS C700 showing the capabilities and performance of the machines. Kuttab realised that they could achieve similar results like offset using the machines that too with lesser printing and paper costs and high quality of prints, in a short amount of time. l The unique features of the printers, the easily workflow process and also the support and after sales support services provided by the Canon team was greatly influential in sealing the deal with Canon. l Kuttab signed a partnership with Canon Emirates in December 2014, appointing them as their solution provider for their printing endeavours. THE CANON SOLUTION The Océ VarioPrint 6160 Ultra+ The Canon imagePRESS C700 RESULTS Canon carried out a demonstration of two production printers - Océ VarioPrint 6160 Ultra+ and imagePRESS C700 showing the capabilities and performance of the machines. Kuttab realised that they could achieve similar results like offset using the machines that too with lesser printing and paper costs and high quality of prints, in a short amount of time. l Kuttab is seeing an increasing number of writers self-publishing their books. According to Kuttab, there is less wastage of resources, and saving of paper. l

TOP CIOS ACROSS MEA

KHALIFA ALANSARI HEAD OF IT NATIONAL BANK OF BAHRAIN

SMART TECHNOLOGYâ€™ TODAY IS? Smart technology in banking started back on 2014 with further enabling the customers to use the mobile apps, easily contact the banking system with various upcoming tools

RECENT PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION Enterprise Storage renovation and refresh EXPERIENCE 20 years

2017 ACTION PLANS Core banking refresh is the most priority

EXPECTATION FROM TECH VENDORS More understanding of our core business as well as the customers need

FEBRUARY 2017

THE TITANS

EXPERT VIEWS

BEING A ‘2017’ CIO An Up & Close interview with Mr. Venkatesh Mahadevan, Head of IT at Dubai Investments PJSC brought out various aspects of how a CIO’s resume should look like in 2017. (Excerpts)

technology providers to provide you with in 2017? How should they be your best friends? In my opinion, Technology providers should always be friends. There needs to be a shift for technology providers to offer solutions that can make a difference to business, and not just technology for the sake of it. It’s time for the tech providers to come up with tech solutions that are built around business and are completely relevant. While state of the art maybe a good and nice thing to hear, it is important that they learn to differentiate between “State of the Art” and “Relevant”. Some of the immediate things that come to mind are :-

VENKATESH MAHADEVAN, HEAD OF IT –DUBAI INVESTMENTS PJSC. AND GM-TECHSOURCE LLC. How should a CIO resume look like in 2017? A typical CIO resume should reflect significant accomplishments from a business perspective. Less of Technology and more of Customer Impact, Organizational impact etc. While technology and your experience with multiple platforms or ERP’s may be a plus and can be included, it need not be standing out in your resume. What really needs to come out is the Impact that you have made on business in your role as a CIO. If that impact can be quantified, then even better, it’s the icing on the cake! Make sure your bullet points are quantifiable as far as possible. It always helps if the person reading it can put a number or a value to the point, then it suddenly starts making sense. Have you run a large customer service organization and impacted Performance

THE TITANS

FEBRUARY 2017

Metrics?, then please bring it out. Talk about Organzational Transformation and how you leveraged on Technology to bring about this shift.. Your Business experience, if any, must be clearly brought out. For eg. In my case, I have handled Marketing Operations for a Global organization and that surely carries weight, since people then get to know that you understand not only IT, but business too. Please bear in mindthat your resume will be read by multiple stakeholders and influencers, so your language needs to catch their attention. For eg. You may want to bring out the fact that you have been involved in a “Clean Slate” environment.. Ofcourse, but in the end, remember “NOT” to forget the Basics

What do you expect the

l Complete Automation of IT Services reducing the IT expenditure l Cost effective Vendor Independent scalable solution such as SDN, NFV etc.. l Scalable platform without vendor lock-in l Build confidence in customers to use cloud solutions for mission critical data. Today, Customers are still not comfortable or confident on cloud security and integrity of mission critical data. More transparency in cloud data security and integrity will improve their confidence in cloud solutions.

How Should they be your best friends. l Providing frequent information / consulting with the Technology trends that might be helpful to customers l Implementing the latest and Relevant Technology solutions in a cost effective Win – Win manner l Approaching tech providers, should not be a burden for the CIO. l Don’t sell to the CIO what you have in your store or shelf, LISTEN to him carefully and understand his requirements. Just because you have a solution for a specific industry, say FMCG, the next CIO of an FMCG who walks upto you, does not mean he is your target for the ready solution you have. l Start wearing the Customer’s hat more often

CASE STUDY

QIIB DELIVERS FAST, FLEXIBLE ISLAMIC BANKING SERVICE With Misys, QIIB has built a modern core banking platform that caters for end-to-end Islamic finance

“We are taking advantage of the business process management engine in Misys FusionBanking Essence Islamic to simplify processes and drive greater automation. Streamlined workflows will allow us to seamlessly and efficiently manage transactions from end-to-end, from origination to customer fulfilment.” -Nasser Mahmoud, CIO, Qatar International Islamic Bank

About Qatar International Islamic Bank Established in 1991, Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) is a privately owned bank based in the State of Qatar, offering personal and corporate Islamic banking products and services. QIIB operates a network of 14 branches and over 70 ATMs across the state, and also offers online, mobile and phone banking services.

manual and paper- based, which slowed turnaround times for transaction processing and product development, drove up costs and introduced a degree of risk. Knowing that it could not afford to be held back by siloed, inefficient systems, QIIB set out to streamline and unify its core banking activities. Products Misys FusionBanking Essence Islamic l

The challenge For QIIB, shaping an exceptional customer experience is key to staying on track for success in Qatar’s increasingly crowded and competitive banking market. QIIB’s previous core banking platform was not adapted to fully support today’s needs for Islamic banking services, which meant that the bank had to rely on separate inhouse systems to build and manage Shari’ah compliant offerings. The lack of integration resulted in high costs and complexity, and dulled efficiency. To add to the challenge, many elements of operations were

The solution To take its operations to the next level, QIIB chose Misys FusionBanking Essence Islamic, which supports end-to-end Islamic finance on a modern core banking platform. Streamlined operations, automation of previously manual activities and elimination of redundant process steps will provide QIIB with the flexibility it requires to deliver dynamic Islamic banking services. Cutting costs and time-to-market

Today, QIIB has a core banking platform that is perfectly adapted to support the bank’s unique obligations as a Shari’ah-compliant financial institution. “It is a great advantage to have a core banking system that has been developed with the needs of Islamic finance in mind,” says Nasser Mahmoud. “We no longer have to worry about complicated and timeconsuming workarounds; with Misys FusionBanking Essence Islamic we can easily build and manage Shari’ah-compliant products—all on a single, powerful platform.” Streamlined, simplified processes will also enable QIIB to accelerate the processing of new product sales, helping the bank to deliver a more responsive service to customers and saving time that can be used to bring new products to market. Mohammed AlMawlawi, General Manager of Business Development and Marketing at QIIB said, “Our vision is to go beyond expectations. Our close collaboration with Misys enables us to achieve that goal. We are able to further apply our own innovation on top of the new solution which will support us in driving advanced banking automation and a more intelligent banking future.” “We are committed to helping banks excel in the increasingly indemand area of Islamic finance,” said Nadeem Syed, CEO, Misys. “QIIB will benefit from our cutting edge technology, optimising Islamic banking processes so that it can drive growth, performance and compliance. Having worked with the bank for many years, we are keen to continue supporting its transformation journey.”

FEBRUARY 2017

THE TITANS

THE CHANGE-SPOTTERS AND CHANGE-MAKERS

THE ‘I’ IN THE CIO INNOVATIVE, INTELLIGENT, INSPIRING OR INVOKING? BROUGHT BY

TOP 50 CIOS WHO HAVE BEEN PAINTING THE TOWN ‘TECH’

LEADING IT PROJECTS THAT ARE MAKING WAVES IN THE REGION

1st Anniversary celebrating its

with more than 50 CIOs

As we celebrate the 1st Anniversary of Titans, we look back at 2016 on the great note that we started! The response has been overwhelming! Carrying on with the belief, we look forward to the same love and support that we have had in the previous year!

For details visit www.ec-mea.com/the-titans

DISTIE SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT

ENGAGE, ENABLE, EXECUTE Challenges or Weakness I think we’re perfect, but then I’m biased! The biggest challenge we have in the Middle East right now is budget constraints from the end user, cash flow in the channel, and a huge selection of vendors in the market all claiming to have the magic solution to cure cyber attacks! We are fortunate at Exclusive Networks that our vendors are in constant demand, and meet the market needs of today and tomorrow.

NATHAN CLEMENTS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS Solutions in Portfolio We are a global trusted cyber security, and next generation datacenter, Value Added Distributor and our key vendors include Fortinet, F5, SentinelOne, Gemalto, Nutanix and Rubrik to name a few. We work with a significant number of reseller partners around the world, to boost their business opportunities in cybersecurity and help achieve new revenues from the evolving technology landscape. 3 key pillars of strength We are part of a global group with revenues in excess of $1.5bn. This gives us a global insight into technology and market trends, which we share with our partner community to help them stay relevant to their customers. With the information we share we engage our partners to understand their needs, we enable them on the

THE TITANS

FEBRUARY 2017

solutions that match their needs, and we jointly execute on programs to drive demand for these solutions. So, our three pillars are ‘Engage’, ‘Enable’, ‘Execute’. Partnership with Fortinet Our partnership with Fortinet dates back to 2003, we have grown up together, just like childhood friends! We have a global partnership with Fortinet which gives us the priveliged accolade of being one of their largest customers. We have a true partnership whereby we take full ownership of their Gold, Silver and Authorised Partners. And we constantly drive our 3 pillars with these partners to engage them, enable them, and execute campaigns to deliver incremental business back to Fortinet. Right now we are focusing on the ‘enhanced technology’ from Fortinet, and evangelizing their ‘Security Fabric’.

Geographical Coverage Exclusive Group are a global business. Exclusive Middle East have offices in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. In fact I’m excited to announce we will be moving in to a new, and much bigger office in Riyadh in March to cater for our expanding team there. In terms of further expansion, watch this space, because we plan to open other regional offices in 2017 to offer truly local sales and technical services. Portfolio Enhancements With Fortinet, Exclusive Networks will continue its aggressive endeavours on capturing a larger market share across EMEA, and driving their ‘Security Fabric’. BigTec is a major highlight for the Exclusive team. Launched in 2016 in the Middle East BigTec helps its partners harness the opportunities from new cloud architectures and virtualised datacentre functions that are progressively more web-scale and software-defined. The evolution to full virtualisation of complex IT functions is embodied by BigTec’s enterprise transformation framework, guiding reseller partners and their customers from physical to hybrid and virtual datacentre environments. BigTec has partnered with Nutanix, Nuage and Rubrik.

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