Reseller Middle East November 2015

ISSUE 227 | November 2015 www.resellerme.com

in focus Value-added distributor ComGuard looks to invest in newer technologies

Converged infrastructure channel prospects Why partners should invest in training and certifications Huawei Honor 7 review

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PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

CONTENTS

40

ISSUE 227 // november 2015

cover feature

review

67

Setting the pace

hot products

Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, ComGuard, on exploring newer avenues of growth along with partners.

Highlights

54 Certify to profit

6

News

We help you catch up on all the major news and announcements in the regional channel community.

Partner Watch

opinion 34

Monitoring security

Sanjay Ahuja from AGC Networks, explains why organisations need to leverage Managed Security Services (MSS).

Reseller ME examines how channel partners can effectively sell converged infrastructure solutions.

69

Linksys unveils improved WRT1900AC Wi-Fi router

70

Microsoft launches Surface Pro 4

How channel partners can grow by achieving relevant certifications and training programmes.

61

The cloud pull

Ali Baghdadi from Ingram Micro elaborates on the company’s recent initiatives in the cloud business.

63

Taking action

Tim Martin from Progress Distribution discusses regional strategies.

Feature 48 The convergence era

Huawei Honor 7

Vendor focus 65

Streamlining for success

AMD’s Omar Fakhri on simplifying the business.

72

Samsung unveils Gear S2

Editorial GROUP Chairman and founder

Dominic De Sousa Group CEO

Nadeem Hood

Publishing Director Rajashree Rammohan raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5685

New vistas for growth

Editorial Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5678 Deputy Editor Janees Reghelini janees.reghelini@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5681 Contributing Editor Annie Bricker James Dartnell Online Editor Adelle Geronimo Advertising Group Sales Director Kausar Syed kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1647 Sales Manager Merle Carrasco merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5676

Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor

Circulation Database and Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh.nair@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5682 Production and Design Production Manager James P Tharian james.tharian@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5673 Designers Analou Balbero analou.balbero@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5680 Neha Kalvani neha.kalvani@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 3751644 Digital www.resellerme.com DIGITAL SERVICES Web Developers Jefferson de Joya Abbas Madh Photographers Max Poriechkin Charls Thomas webmaster@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100

Talk to us: E-mail: jeevan.thankappan@ cpimediagroup.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ ResellerME Twitter: @ResellerME

Any visitor at the recent RSA Conference that took place in Abu Dhabi would have noticed the number of new security vendors exhibiting their wares, including some of the homegrown solution providers. The security market is in the middle of a transition, where users are warming up to startups and innovative solutions, which in turn, has thrown open services opportunities for the channel.

With the evolving threat-landscape and new breed of attacks, users are looking to move beyond traditional defense mechanisms such as firewalls and IDS/IPS to solutions and services that give them pervasive visibility into endpoints, networks and virtual environments. Security budgets in the region are going up, and an average organisation in the region is spending close to eight percent of their total IT budget on security technologies. In some verticals such as BFSI and oil & gas, the figure is in double digits. This has attracted many new vendors to the regional market, and users are leaning on channel partners to cut through the noise and select technologies that can fortify their defense mechanisms.

But, how can you make the most out of these new opportunities in the security space? According to the a recent research report from the IT industry association CompTIA, channel firms will have to up their games to keep pace with a security landscape that is changing quickly and becoming more complex. The report points out that “some channel companies will need to change sales structures, re-train staff or bring in new hires. Others will have to educate themselves on how all the pieces of a complete security solution fit together to provide customers with the best services.”

For any channel firm to make inroads into the security services market, they will have to align their strategies with the customers’ changing approach to security. The focus is more on prevention and protection, with rapid adoption of authentication, identity access and management, and security analytics technologies, rather than just basic security solutions centered on network edge. The opportunity is out there for channel players to take a proactive approach and get into security discussions with their clients to assess risk and plug the gaps in their security posture.

Published by

Registered at IMPZ PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 Printed by Printwell Printing Press © Copyright 2015 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

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Reseller Middle East november 2015

5

highlights

Ingram Micro, Microsoft sign distribution agreement for NEPA region Ingram Micro has announced that it has expanded its distribution agreement with Microsoft to cover the NEPA region (North Africa, East Mediterranean countries and Pakistan) which includes the countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan.

With this contract, Ingram Micro is authorised to distribute the entire line of Volume Licensing products from Microsoft as an official Volume Licensing Distributor in the NEPA region.

Ali Baghdadi, Senior Vice President and Chief Executive, Ingram Micro, META, said, “We are delighted with Microsoft’s decision to appoint us as a regional distributor for NEPA. Our commitment to develop IT solutions in NEPA countries is solid and backed by significant investments.

“Strong partners are key to expanding our reach and to our success. Ingram Micro will help us deliver on our cloud-first, mobilefirst strategy across NEPA,” said Leila Serhan, Regional General Manager, Microsoft. “We’re looking forward to seeing this partnership thrive as cloud uptake increases across the region.”

Fortinet, CyberArk ink VAD deal with Redington Value share, and will address Redington Value has key verticals such as expanded its security oil and gas, education, portfolio with the recent manufacturing and also partnerships with the commercial markets in Fortinet and CyberArk. the mid-market segment.

While the partnership At the same time, it is also with CyberArk is our priority to increase aimed at addressing training capabilities and the growing threat of help channel enablement successful cyber-attacks, Ramkumar Balakrishnan, in a programmatic the Fortinet partnership Redington Value Distribution manner.” is in line with the The new partnership with vendor’s aggressive regional growth CyberArk will enable Redington Value and expansion plans. to distribute the vendor’s Privileged “Fortinet is the number one Account Security Platform across the security vendor in the region, it has Middle East and Africa region. the strongest security portfolio and “A leader in the area of privileged its solutions are what this market access management, CyberArk needs. With Redington’s depth of offers a strong portfolio of products. coverage and focus on the valueRedington’s wide presence in the add model, this is a perfect fit for region and focus on the value-add both companies,” said Ramkumar model aid the market expansion of Balakrishnan, President, Redington CyberArk’s security solutions in the Value Distribution. “For our partners, region, especially among key strategic this is a compelling proposition to verticals such as banks, oil and gas find Fortinet within Redington’s companies and other financial and portfolio. We are committed to public institutions,” he added. increasing the vendor’s market

Unify signs up Mindware as regional VAD

At GITEX 2015, Unify Communications signed up with value-added distributor Mindware to deliver the company’s Unified Communication solutions across the region.

Bashar Bashaireh, Vice President, Middle East, Unify, says, “The partnership adds value to the portfolios of both parties. By joining forces, we can deliver a complete

6

november 2015 Reseller Middle East

and comprehensive added-value proposition to the market place. It is our global strategy to ensure channel embraces UC technologies more.

“We are in a position to leverage the channel network that Mindware has in the Middle East. Our aim is to have a bigger penetration for Unified Communication applications across the different verticals and across the different market segments, whether it is large enterprises or the SMB segment.”

Mario Gay, GM, Mindware says, “The go-to-market strategy is very simple, it is going to be a solution that can be implemented from an enterprise level to the SMB level. As Unify’s distributor partner, we will be offering our valueadded services to integrate and instruct the channel to create the demand for

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the technology.”

Bashaireh says that the distributor’s portfolio of leading technologies also adds value and complements its offerings.

“Mindware enjoys a reputable presence in the market and that’s why they have an extensive network around multiple countries in the region. To empower channel, you need ease of doing business, which Mindware brings on the table and additionally you need reliable technologies, which is what we are offering from Unify,” he adds.

As a value-added distributor, Mindware’s key objective is to simplify solutions around the technology.

As UC is a growing segment, it is necessary to bring in the right solutions into this space.

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highlights

Ixia, StarLink to speed up delivery of network security solutions

Mahmoud Nimer, StarLink

Ixia has announced that StarLink, has begun taking steps to speed up the delivery of Ixia’s security and network visibility solutions to enterprise customers and value added resellers (VARs) across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa regions.

Mahmoud Nimer, General Manager, StarLink, said, “Ixia offers an extensive array of solutions to validate, secure and optimise

Bulwark partners with Varonis

networks and applications. Through deep insight and actionable intelligence against the ever-evolving world of IT security threats, Ixia makes global networks reliable, fast and secure. StarLink is honoured to further its existing relationship with Ixia by becoming Ixia’s regional stock depot for security and network visibility solutions.”

“Ixia is committed to ensuring efficient, cost-effective, and timely delivery of solutions to channel partners and their customers on a global basis,” said Mark Chaplain, Vice President, EMEA Sales, Ixia. “By stocking Ixia solutions, StarLink can rapidly provide channel partners comprehensive solutions that will help grow their revenue while bringing immediate benefits to customers.”

EnGenius holds channel workshops in Saudi Arabia cloud networks for various EnGenius International applications. The solution can recently organised a scale for managing from 1 reseller partner event at to 1000+ Access points with the Movenpick, Jeddah on no extra hardware required, 12th October and Holiday nor any additional software, Inn Al Qasar, Riyadh on subscription or tech support 14th October 2015 to mark charges. the launch of its Neutron The event was well series and ezMaster Yuhan Wang, EnGenius attended by various channel solutions in the Kingdom. companies, including key The day included partners such as Jeraisy, Al Shadady, presentations from the EnGenius team Comlines, PC Time, Network and more. who apprised the attendees about the STC Solutions, Saudi Controls, Shabakah company’s latest series of products.

Net and many other key VARs from Yuhan Wang the company’s Regional Riyadh and Jeddah joined the morning General Manager led the team along workshop. with sales and technical personnel at Wang said, “EnGenius considers the event. More than 40 value added Saudi as one of the important country to resellers from Jeddah and Riyadh focus on. We are focused on increasing attended the partner event in each city. our channel partner acquisition. We are The event was focused on introducing quite satisfied with the turnout at the Neutron and ezMaster launch. event. We will continue holding more The Neutron series powered by such workshops with potential partners ezMaster solution, according to the in the future.” company, enables private or public

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Jose Thomas, Bulwark Technologies

Bulwark Technologies has teamed up with Varonis Systems to distribute the company’s software offerings across the region.

For the last 10 years, Varonis has been developing a range of solutions built on its patented core Metadata Framework technology. Currently powering six distinct Varonis products, the Varonis Metadata Framework intelligently and non-intrusively collects and analyses metadata from customers’ vast, distributed unstructured data stores and enables a variety of use cases, including data governance, data security, archiving, and search.

Jose Thomas, Managing Director, Bulwark, said, “We are excited to partner with Varonis to distribute its industry-leading data governance solutions to the Middle East region. We’re also working towards offering our value-added services to integrate and instruct the channel to create the demand for the technology. At Bulwark, we cater to our customers’ needs and introduce not just products but solutions that make the users’ life easier, efficient, and more secure.

Varonis solutions complement our existing wide array of product and solutions portfolio very well.”

Reseller Middle East november 2015

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Transys eyes transformation opportunities

highlights

Exclusive Networks celebrates 10th anniversary

Prabhu Balasubramanyan, Transys

Dubai-based IT services provider, Transys Solutions aims to capitalise on the digital transformation trend in the region.

“All the work we do is as good as that of tier1 companies, and we are driving consultation-driven transformation services for our customers. We know the typical pitfalls associated with ERP implementations in the region, which often tend to become cost automation affairs. We avoid this and help customers adopt best practices and transform their businesses.

Automation is costly but less painful; transformation is less costly but more painful, which is where we can help,” said Prabhu Balasubramanyan, Executive Director, Transys.

With the increasing popularity of cloud services, Transys plans to change customer mindset about this new paradigm shift in technology. “The best way for customers who have invested heavily in on-premise solutions to start the journey to cloud is to with point solutions, and migrate external-facing applications and then build the integration layer. Cloud should be the first choice for any application exposed to a larger number of target audience, because cloud, by default, gives mobility and analytics,” said he.

10

november 2015 Reseller Middle East

Fari Boustantchi, Exclusive Networks Middle East

Exclusive Networks, this year is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a security value-added distributor. During the recently held GITEX Technology Week, the VAD showcased solutions from its partners such as Fortinet, F5, LogRhythm, Lumension, FireEye and Infoblox. In addition, the firm also demonstrated solutions from new vendors in its portfolio – Bit9+Carbon Black, Netsckope and Ixia.

“GITEX provides an ideal platform for us to present new technologies to the industry and generate

opportunities. It is also a great platform to network with existing customers and understand their requirements and present our new services and maintain brand awareness as well,” said Fari Boustantchi, CEO, Exclusive Networks Middle East.

The VAD has recently moved to a larger headquarters, which features bigger workspace for the company’s growing workforce and included expanded onsite training facilities to host learning programmes and workshops for partners and vendors.

The expansion also supports the company’s increased customer support, quality service and partner skill enablement initiatives. “As we celebrate 10 years in the MEA region, our larger office will enable us to sustain rapid growth and boost our support capabilities. This is also in line with our future growth plans and achieve the revenue goal of EUR 1 billion in 2016,” said Boustantchi.

TP-LINK to increase focus on SMB regional channel strategy, At GITEX 2015, TP-LINK the approach will continue showcased its latest to be focused. array of products and Over the next few announced new strategies quarters, we will see the for the coming year. vendor expanding its The networking vendor business to the Saudi is aiming to increase its market “It is one of the focus on the SMB sector.

Denny Liang, TP-LINK most important markets Denny Liang, Vice for us and we will invest President, TP-LINK Middle more in Egypt and South Africa,” he East and Africa, said, “I believe there added. are many opportunities for the SMB As mobile devices become sector within the region. We are increasingly popular within the already a market leader for SOHO, regional organisations, the vendor we are now aiming to enter the SMB believes there is a huge opportunity market as one of the top companies. to increase its market share.

“We have spoken to partners and Liang said, “In 2015, we have communicated to them our plans for maintained our business and our the SOHO SMB market. Our strategy growth. Next year, we aim to do a lot for the SMB market will be launched better, our expectation is to grow by by the end of this year.” around 20 percent in 2016.”

Liang added that in terms of the

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highlights

Oxygen expands security portfolio

Khalid Laban, Oxygen

At GITEX 2015, value-added distributor Oxygen Middle East’s focused on reinforcing its branding and presence in the market.

Khalid Laban, Chief Executive Officer, Oxygen Middle East, said, “The key message for us at GITEX this year was secure mobility. Oxygen has always been innovative in messaging and how we put the structures together. The secure mobility concept is key for customers when they want to implement a BYOD strategy.”

Over the course of last few months, the distributor has signed up with several

key vendors in both security and mobility space. Zimperium and Unify have been added to the mobility portfolio while the company has expanded its security range of brands with companies such as Trustwave, Boole Server, Ziften, plixer and Solus.

The distributor has also opened a dedicated division, which focuses only on security.

“We are looking to focus on end-toend security, from end point all the way to the data centre,” said Laban. “Our plans for the next couple of quarters include strengthening our position in the security field. Oxygen is one of the strongest and most experienced company in the mobility space in the Middle East region.

Our aim is to make sure that we do the same in the security segment and expand it. We are going to ensure that the security infrastructure of an organisation is tied up to its secure mobility and we will focus on providing an end-to-end secure mobility solution to the market.”

Securifi, Logicom ink distribution agreement Securifi announced that they have signed a distribution agreement with Logicom at GITEX Technology Week 2015.

As part of the agreement, Logicom will promote and distribute Securifi’s Almond Wireless Router series through their channel partner network in the UAE, Gulf, Levant, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Italy.

Mohammad Meraj Hoda, President, World Wide Sales and Development, Securifi, said, “Logicom is a reputed and established distributor in the region with unmatched reach in markets, where Securifi is looking to expand. They have a strong channel network and a proven track record in the Smart and Connected Home technologies segment, which bodes well for our future expansion plans. Flexibility with channel reach is also critical for us. Securifi is ahead of the curve with the confluence of

Michael Papaeracleous, Logicom and Mohammad Meraj Hoda, Securifi

technology in our product range and Logicom came across as the perfect partner to bring this advancement to the region.”

Logicom plans to promote Securifi’s products through its extensive channel network by conducting channel engagement, training and activation programs for partners. The distributor will set up go-to-market strategies with key retail partners and provide the needed infrastructure for micro-channel to engage with Securifi brand.

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highlights

D-Link demos Smart home products Being one of the oldest brands in networking in the Middle East and Africa region, D-Link has been a participant at GITEX Technology Week for over 16 years.

This year, the company showcased its latest networking products at the mega technology event.

“Among the highlights of our presence this year was our new 5300Mbps router, which promises to bring impressive wireless speeds to customers,” said Sakkeer Hussain, Director, Sales and Marketing, Middle East and Africa, D-Link.

“Our Smart Home products are also one of the features that we highlighted,” he said “We also hosted live demonstrations of our new offerings. Our technical team was present at our stand to explain to visitors how each of our products work and how they can benefit end-users.”

The company also exhibited a number

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Sakkeer Hussain, D-Link

of products in the 3G and 4G segments, switching, and more.

Aside from showcasing their latest products, Hussain underlined that the event is very important for the company as it give them a chance to meet and engage with their existing customers and partners, as well as gain prospective clients.

Moreover Hussain highlighted that as D-Link has a vast array of products in our portfolio, they consider themselves as a true networking vendor, which differentiates them from the competition in the market.

Biostar highlights Mindware partnership Biostar, the Taiwan-based motherboard, graphics cards and industrial computing systems manufacturer, has signed Mindware as its distribution partner for the Middle East region three months ago.

The vendor is highlighted this relationship with the distributor at GITEX 2015.

Johnson Wang, Marketing and Sales Division, Territory Manager, Biostar Group, said, “AT GITEX, we are announcing and underlining our relationship with Mindware. Over the last couple of months, we have been going to our channel partners in the region to convey that Mindware is now distributing our solutions. The distributor brings on board the strength of its extensive partner network and regional expertise.”

Shabeer Ahamed, Business Development Manager, Mindware, said, “Our initial strategy was to inform the market and emphasise that we now have

Assess vendor equipment and applications

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Johnson Wang, Biostar Group and Shabeer Ahamed, Mindware

the Biostar distribution deal. Through our resources, partners can now avail ready stock, leverage competitive pricing and take Biostar products to the market.”

Ahamed explained that one of the main issues in the market currently is availability and here is where the vendor differentiates itself from competition with the help of Mindware. “We have several channel enablement initiatives including a rebate programme from Biostar. Also, Biostar’s solutions complement our existing portfolio,” he said.

Wang added, “For our channel partners, I like to reinforce that availability and pricing are our differentiators. We aim to be the successors of Intel brand motherboards in the whole Middle East.”

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THE MEAN NUMBER OF DAYS FROM INITIAL INTRUSION TO DETECTION*

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*Trustwave Holdings, Inc. “2015 Trustwave Global Security Report.” 2015. **FireEye. “MAGINOT REVISITED: More Real-World Results from Real-World Tests.” 2015.

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highlights

GBM promotes digitisation and IoT At GITEX 2015, GBM’s participation is around the theme of digitisation and Internet of Things.

Although this has been the focus for the company over the last Hani Nofal, GBM two years, this year, there are tangible scenarios and proof of concepts, which customers can experience.

“Today we can better demonstrate how customers can benefit from these technologies,” said Hani Nofal, Vice President, Intelligent Network Solutions, GBM. “We have partnered with Cisco to support their digital acceleration strategy at GITEX 2015. For us, this is a transformational announcement. Also, it is an important highlight for GBM as it is demonstrating to our customers that they can rely on the combination of Cisco and GBM to take them to the future.”

Nofal said that the Middle East region is unique in the sense that it is not hesitant

to experiment with new technologies and concepts. Over the last few months, the systems integrator has been busy building the foundation of the smart wireless infrastructure for the country.

“But what is also important is to enable services on top of that. Today the key aspect in the region is to find the right talent. We have to transform ourselves and evolve the skillset we have and acquire new talent.”

However, this is not always easy in the region as it is mostly population, which comes and goes. Therefore, it is difficult to keep long-term commitments from individuals.

“These new wave technologies will require different tactics. We are going to continue to invest in the region and have multiple programmes in place. We are looking to acquire resources from outside and potentially thinking about new innovative ways and global partnerships, which will further allow us to attract new talent,” he added.

Bit9 + Carbon Black partners with Exclusive Networks for global expansion The company is now looking to bring Bit9 + Carbon Black has on board four to five key partners in announced that it will each region. It is also now targeting be expanding its current value-added resellers (VAR), managed distribution agreement security service providers (MSSP), with Exclusive Networks, incident response (IR) firms, and as a result of increased specialist security partners. interest globally.

Barrie Desmond, Chief Operating According to the vendor Officer, Exclusive Networks, said, “We it plans to expand its Barrie Desmond, Exclusive Networks are delighted to be furthering our relationship with Exclusive relationship with Bit9 + Carbon Black and Networks in Benelux (in particular Belgium feel it is well timed. The endless string of data and Netherlands), Nordics, Middle East and breaches and hacks mean that security is Asia Pacific. front of mind across the world – nobody can The investment in added distribution turn a blind eye anymore, and every corner further cements Bit9 + Carbon Black’s channel of the earth is waking up to that fact. Bit9 + commitment, following the launch of its new accreditation programme and channel manager Carbon Black has a unique and compelling story to tell in this space, and already has appointments earlier this year. customers they are working with, which The provision of added local support makes it an attractive prospect not just for in these key regions is being driven by VARs, but also for System Integrators, MSSPs increased market interest in sophisticated and Incident Response providers, as there is endpoint security. To date, Bit9 + Carbon a great opportunity to deliver services and Black has mainly sold direct, while capture recurring revenues.” transacting deals through local partners.

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Arrow to launch cloud platform by 2016 Arrow, the regional value added distributor has leveraged its participation at GITEX by taking the opportunity to meet up with its reseller and vendor partners from across the region.

Richard Noujaim, Managing Director, MEA, Arrow ECS, said, “GITEX is a great platform to meet up with customers and partners.

It is also an ideal platform to have discussions with our vendor partners.

We also have the opportunity to present new solutions and meet new channel partners.”

Training is an important element of the distributor’s strategy for the region. Noujaim adds, “We are a major training house and an Authorised Training Centre for most of our vendors. Training is a

The Bit9 Endpoints with Bit9+Carbon Black Richard Noujaim, Arrow ECS

significant part of our offerings. We have many elements to it including aspects such as pre-sales engineering at hand to help partners to respond to customers requests.”

Over the next couple of months, partners can look forward to several initiatives from the distributor, including the launch of its proprietary cloud platform, ArrowSphere.

“ArrowSphere is aimed to be launched in the region in 2016. It is a platform for allowing partners to sell and resell cloud solutions in an administrative and technical manner.

This is progressing well across world and we are positive about the response in the region,” explained Noujaim.

Progress Distribution launches in the Middle East

Tim Martin, Progress Distribution

Progress Distribution, an IT distributor that focuses on emerging technologies within security, networking, infrastructure and storage, has officially launched its operations last month.

Besides offering resellers with commercial and marketing support, it also has a dedicated professional services division, which provides consulting,

training, deployment and technical support.

According to Progress Distribution, its operations in the Middle East will be led by a well-experienced team of professionals, which includes Keith Rich as the CEO, Tim Martin as the CFO and Gareth Morgan as the Sales Director.

“After over 20 years of success with major distributors throughout the Middle East, I am very excited to be launching Progress Distribution,” explains Tim Martin, CFO, Progess Distribution. “We will provide resellers with the support they need to grow their business in the region.”

Currently, Progress Distribution already has relationships with a number of vendors including Censornet, Xangati, Plixer, and AVG. In the coming weeks, the company plans to announce other major vendors who will be joining the portfolio throughout the next year.

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Reseller Middle East november 2015

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highlights

Fujitsu highlights integrated solutions

Synology highlights latest products

Mohit Pal, Fujitsu

As a long time participant at GITEX, Fujitsu considers the event as a very important platform for engaging with industry players in the technology space.

This year, aside from its own stand, the company also had presence at the SAP, Oracle and ForeFront Technologies stands.

Which according to Mohit Pal, Datacentre Specialist, Middle East, Fujitsu, is part of their strategy to ensure that they get to extend their reach to a wider audience.

“Our primary focus was on our SAP solutions,” said Pal. “We showcased our solution for supporting the SAP HANA platform which is called PRIMEFLEX. Apart from that we also highlighted our data centre products, servers and storage solutions. We also have the PRIMEFLEX integrated solution for VMware EVO:RAIL.” According to Pal, another major objective that Fujitsu has for participating at the mega technology event is spreading awareness about their enterprise channel offerings. He underlined that they’ll be engaging with their partners about a new channel strategy. “We have attained a number of good references in the region and have acquired new accounts over the last year. This time, through the new channel strategy we aim to expand our market penetration and further develop our enterprise channel business.”

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november 2015 Reseller Middle East

At GITEX 2015, Synology has brought its revolutionary NAS technology from their home in Taiwan. The company has recently released the 5.2 version of their DiskStation Manager to help businesses manager large amounts of data. From documents to photos and more, DiskStation manager goes beyond simply storing the data by offering a range of applications and services for both home and office.

“GITEX was a very important showcase for us,” says Victor Wang, Sales Manager, Synology. “We want to have more awareness of our products in the market in the Middle East, and GITEX has been a key event for us.”

Founded in 2000, Synology aims to

deliver agile and cost-effective solutions, solid customer service Victor Wang, Synology and ultimately to ensure individuals and business a bevy of choices when it comes to data storage and management. The technology centralises data storage, simplifies data backup and shares and syncs files across different platforms with access to that data on-the-go.

Synology has experienced success at this year’s GITEX, and has reiterated that they will be back next year. “In fact, we hope to have an even larger stand in the future,” says Wang.

Lexmark opens KSA office

Lexmark International has announced the opening of Lexmark Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, further expanding its presence in this key region to support demand in the Middle East.

According to the company, the Riyadh office will focus providing Lexmark’s customer service to existing customers, while concurrently reaching out to new companies and organisations to help them better manage their unstructured information challenges with Lexmark’s award winning managed print services (MPS) offerings and unique software solutions.

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The Saudi operations will be headed locally by Saeed Alajou, General Manager Saudi Arabia and will report to the General Manager of the Middle East and Africa, Mathias Militzer.

“Besides the growing demand of Managed Print and Document Services we recognise that unlocking the important content that is trapped in organisations’ paper and electronic documents is one of the biggest business challenge of today,” said Mathias Militzer, General Manager, Lexmark Middle East and Africa.

The office will be situated in the city center of Riyadh and Lexmark is looking for Saudi nationals to fill crucial roles to help the growing demand for its products and services.

“Saudi organisations are focused on implementing technologies and solutions that will assist them to become more efficient and remain competitive at a global scale.

Our investment in this region is a testament to the growth in the market and we remain committed in making this vision a reality,” added Militzer.

highlights

StorIT launches managed services for channel network At GITEX 2015, StorIT has launched a new managed services in partnership with HASZone.

According to Suren Vedantham, Group Managing Director, StorIT, the launch of this new offering was one of the company’s Suren Vedantham, StorIT primary highlights during the mega technology event. “Our new managed services offering can enable our resellers provide their customers with a resilient and secure IT infrastructure,” he said. “It can be instrumental for them in terms of database and applications management as well.

“This can create a lot of value for our resellers by uplifting their portfolio and at the same time strengthening their competitive edge in the market. It

could also complement their initiatives on adapting to the new technologies surrounding the industry.”

Vedantham further explained that HASZone’s managed services expertise, paired with StorIT’s array of solutions delivery, will ensure its customers realise various benefits such as highly resilient and secure IT infrastructure, centralised and streamlined service management, increased service levels, tested and certified disaster recovery and business continuity solutions, and predictable costs.

Vendantham also highlighted plans to keep on improving its market offerings.

“Our primary goal is creating long-term partnerships, hence, we will continue on ensuring that we stay on top of the latest technology trends and translate them into great business propositions.”

Almasa Value Distribution aims high segments such as healthcare, Almasa Value education and retail. We have Distribution, part of also expanded our relationship Almasa IT Distribution, with existing vendors and a celebrating its 20th year case in point is LG. We are now of operations in the the official distributor for LG’s region, plans to focus on TV solutions for the hospitality partner enablement and sector.” build channel loyalty to El-Tawil said some technology fuel its growth.

Roger El-Tawil, Alamasa Value trends such as cloud, Big Data The VAD, which Distribution and IoT are quickly gaining has four vendors in its traction in the region. “However, portfolio, is also planning we are still in the infrastructure phase to add three more vendors in the of these trends. Mobility is also a big coming year. trend, because people in this region are “We remain focused on expanding our portfolio and expanding our channel always on the lookout for ways to stay connected at any time, anywhere.” reach,” said Roger El-Tawil, Executive He adds that Almasa has forged Director of Almasa Value Distribution. channel initiatives with vendor partners, “However, our strategy is to focus on and plans to bring in new products and companies which have compelling, value-added solutions to the verticals niche offerings and are complementary they are currently serving to increase the to the existing portfolio. This helps us company’s wallet share. to focus more on the top performing

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ARM rebranded as Credence Security ARM announced that it will be rebranded as Credence Security.

According to the company, the purpose of this rebranding exercise, which includes a new logo, is to better reflect Credence’s position as one of the most trusted providers of cyber security, digital forensics and IT security solutions in the Middle East, Africa and India.

Garreth Scott, Sales Director, Credence Security, said, “One of the key reasons that system integrators and channel partners in the region choose to partner with Credence is because, unlike most other distributors, we focus on taking a consultative solution approach – we collaborate with our partners and their customers to understand their needs both from a technology and business perspective and then work very closely with our partners to deliver tailor made solutions. As such, our clients rely on us and trust us to deliver best in class IT security solutions that will protect their organisations from some of the most severe and malicious attacks.”

“It is very important to us that our company name and logo clearly reflect these values of trust and confidence that our partners have in us – and nothing says trust, confidence and reliance better than Credence! At the same time, we wanted our name to communicate our core focus on security solutions which is why we settled on Credence Security,” said Garreth.

Reseller Middle East november 2015

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Global Distribution signs distribution deal with Cathexis Global Distribution has announced that is has signed a distribution agreement with Cathexis, an electronic and software systems development, and manufacturing company, specialising in video surveillance solutions.

According to the distributor the new distribution agreement completes its vision to build a comprehensive CCTV Solution Portfolio for its Partner Community in the MEA Region.

“We are very excited about this relationship, and are confident that with Global as a partner we will dramatically accelerate our growth in this region. Our software offers a sophisticated surveillance environment for security, and also provides specialized features, video analytics and integration with third-party systems that go “beyond security”, said Gus Brecher, Marketing, Sales and Business Development Director, Cathexis Technologies.

“Global has built an impressive Portfolio for the growing IP based CCTV Market and CATHEXIS is an important part of it.”

“This is another step in our efforts to ensure our partner community is able to embrace solutions selling and targeting specific verticals and technologies,” said Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MEA, Global Distribution, Global Solutions Network.

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november 2015 Reseller Middle East

highlights

Business DNA eyes future technologies UAE-based IT service provider Business DNA’s theme at GITEX 2015 was, ‘looking back from future,’ where it showcased solutions around retail, healthcare, hospitality and public sector.

“We are demonstrating future technologies such as cloud, mobility and IoT, and also demonstrating new business modules focused on talent management, facilities management, and so on. This is in addition to our standard services around networking, cabling and security,” said Tarek El Goweiny, CEO, Business DNA. Business DNA, which started off a retail service provider, is also showcased digital retailing solutions such as self-scanning and iStore, which is an omni-channel solution in addition to PoS hardware offerings. “We were the first company to bring digital retailing solutions to the region and we helped set up Souq Planet, the first digital supermarket in the UAE. Now, we are in the second phase of implementation to help them

Tarek El Goweiny, Business DNA

with analytics and business intelligence capabilities to monitor and manage customer behavior and enhance user experience.”

Goweiny said his company with an offshore development centre based in India is now developing solutions focused on IoT and mobility management.

Over the next 12 months, Business DNA plans to strengthen its partnership with Samsung and bring the vendor’s solutions around digital display, surveillance and printing to the market.

Westcon emphasises on channel enablement Every year Westcon Middle East participates at the regional ICT technology show, GITEX, by hosting its partners at its lounge in a series of business-tobusiness reviews.

Steve Lockie, Group Managing Director, Westcon Group, said, “In this manner, we showcase the entire Steve Lockie, Westcon Westcon Comstor Group portfolio including our training, support, professional services and logistical services offerings.”

According to Lockie, GITEX is an ideal place to connect with partners. “Our ‘Connect’ lounge is central to this and offers partners an opportunity to have true business-to-business reviews.

“The show is highly relevant in bringing together the key decision-makers in the region in an environment where we can share our mutual business plans and strategies.”

Over the next few months, the

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company is looking to extend the Comstor Edge initiative, which was launched last year, to the Westcon business.

“In terms of channel enablement, training is a big focus for us. We are a huge believer of skills transfer.

The other major focus area, which is the key objective with the Comstor Edge programme is Marketing-as-aService. Here we work very closely with our partners to create demand in their end user base by providing them with marketing support,” added Lockie.

In terms of technologies, the distributor is betting big on cloud services, mobility and security solutions.

He said, “With cloud services and changing consumption models, the region will be highly impacted. We also see threat identification, prevention and remediation at the edge and in mobility, especially in wireless mobility gaining huge traction. We are seeing the most growth in mobility and security around that mobility.”

highlights

Canon, Cerebra announce VAD partnership

Canon Middle East has partnered with Cerebra Middle East, a local valueadded distributor, as a forerunner to predicted growth in the UAE’s security and surveillance market, as the country gears itself up for the Expo 2020 in Dubai.

The UAE’s security market is part of the Middle East’s physical security market, which is projected to surge by a massive 23.7 percent to $10.9 billion

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november 2015 Reseller Middle East

by 2020, up from its 2014 level of USD 3 billion.

Growing at more than double the global average of 5.5 percent, the Middle East has become the fastest and largest market for security solutions, and it will contribute 10 percent to the global physical security market by 2020.

Anurag Agrawal, Managing Director, Canon Middle East, said,

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“Canon Middle East is looking to establish itself in the country’s security market and make strong headway in the IP camera industry, much ahead of EXPO 2020 in Dubai.

The partnership with Cerebra Middle East signifies the start of a new era for Canon in the UAE and we look forward to using Cerebra Middle East’s vast network and knowledge to make the UAE an even safer place for both individuals and businesses.”

As part of the new partnership, Cerebra Middle East, will be an authorised partner for the sale of Canon’s comprehensive range of Network Visual Solutions which comprise of network cameras and network solutions in the UAE. The alliance will enhance Canon Middle East’s IP Security Camera business, especially in the government, industrial and retail sectors, where the company is exploring business opportunities.

Quality service every time.

At Trigon service comes first. We service our partners - dealers, resellers, retailers and corporate clientele spreading across more than 15 countries – the Middle East, Africa and Asia providing them with distribution of world-class IT peripherals and services. At Trigon we continue to innovate in all areas, building on the strength of our people and the quality of our brands. Our warehouse and logistics network, backed by state-of-the-art software, after sales support ensure a seamless distribution process. Trigon is one of the first IT distributor in the UAE Together for a better tomorrow to be awarded the coveted ISO 9001:2008 certification.

Dubai: P.O. Box: 32610, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971 4 3426060, Fax: +971 4 3547779, E-mail: info@trigon-gulf.ae Bahrain: P.O. BOX 75149, Manama, Bahrain Tel: +973 17292904, Fax: +973 1729 5183, Email: trigon@mylightspeedoffice.com KSA: Office 508, Al Rossais Commercial Center, Olaya Street, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Tel: +966 11 460 3114, Fax: +966 11 460 3112

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APPOINTMENTS

Industry appointments An overview of the latest people movement within the IT channel business.

Logicom announces senior leadership changes in the UAE and Gulf

TP-LINK appoints Associate VP for SMB in MEA region

Mounir Sarkis, Logicom

Logicom has announced the appointment of Mounir Sarkis and Peter Irinarchos as Regional Director and General Manager for UAE and Gulf, respectively.

Sarkis will be responsible for the extended region of the GCC, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

According to the company, he has proven his leadership qualities within Logicom first as Sales Manager in the UAE and the Gulf and then as General Manager of Logicom Saudi Arabia.

With this new role, Sarkis will be leading Logicom’s strategies for Sales Revenue and Partner reach in the extended region.

Meanwhile, Irinarchos will be taking on the leadership role of General Manager for Logicom in the UAE and the Gulf, succeeding Sajith Raj. In his previous role with the Group Strategy and Planning team, Irinarchos was engaged with different parts of the Logicom business, and has helped the Group in many new vendor engagements and business development activities, as well as the extension of the Logicom facility in Jebel Ali.

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TP-LINK Technologies has announced the appointment of Ram Praveen as the new Associate Vice President, SMB for Middle East and Africa (MEA).

According to the vendor, Praveen’s appointment as Associate Vice President will help TP-LINK gain better penetration and adoption of its solutions in the SMB segment.

In his new position, Praveen will be responsible for the development of TP-LINK’s SMB channel business across the MEA region. In addition, Praveen will lead the SMB division of the company, his role will entail tasks on strategising, structuring the SMB solutions business, setting up a dedicated team, onboarding distributors and channel partners and supporting end customer businesses with the company’s comprehensive product line and solutions.

Praveen said, “The number one priority is to ensure we are able to provide full support to our distributors, channel partners and build the end customer networks, thus ensuring TP-LINK becomes the go-to brand when it comes to choice

Ram Praveen, TP-LINK

for SMB networking and wireless solutions.”

Praveen explained that TP-LINK has traditionally been linked to the SOHO market and through the enhanced SMB offerings, channel partners can expect to increase their business potential as the company sharpens its channel partner strategy.

He also pointed out that with the increase in security, hospitality, small businesses in different verticals, the growth for SMB networking is entering the prime.

“We are not foreseeing any major threats to the growth plans. We are seeing fast adoption of solutions which are quick to setup, easy to manage and maintain with less opex costs, serviceability and availability are trending,” he said.

“We are not foreseeing any major threats to the growth plans. We are seeing fast adoption of solutions which are quick to setup, easy to manage and maintain with less opex costs, serviceability and availability are trending.”

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APPOINTMENTS

Infoblox names new Vice President of Worldwide Channels Infoblox has announced that Ricardo Moreno has joined Ricardo Moreno, Infoblox Infoblox as Vice President of Worldwide Channels. In his role, Moreno will be responsible for all aspects of the channel partner business, including channel partner recruiting, development and programs across all routes to market.

Moreno joins Infoblox after 18 years at Cisco, where he most recently was vice president for the US and Latin America field partner organisation, leading Cisco’s biggest and most critical channel partner business group.

Previously, as senior director for strategy, planning and programmes, Moreno was responsible for Cisco’s widely recognised Worldwide Partner

Programme. Under Moreno’s leadership, Cisco launched the Teaming Incentive Programme, the Cloud and Managed Services Programme and Architecturebased Specialisations. Before that role, Moreno was the chief of staff for Cisco’s channel chief, helping shape the Cisco worldwide partner organisation. Moreno also built the Latin Americas channel organisation, and held leading roles in emerging markets.

“I’m excited to join Infoblox, an industry leader in network control, because the company has a great story to share with channel partners and is very committed to a partner-centric model,” said Moreno. “As networks become more complex, Infoblox has a great opportunity to help customers by working with our partners globally to reduce complexity while increasing reliability, efficiency and security.”

Qualys announces new leadership

Simon Azzopardi, Qualys

Dan Barahona, Qualys

Qualys has announced the appointment of new executives Simon Azzopardi and Dan Barahona.

The company named Azzopardi as Vice President and General Manager, EMEA and Barahona as Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations. Each will draw on deep industry and sales experience to provide strategic leadership to accelerate Qualys market penetration.

“Companies of all sizes are dealing with sensitive data and complex regulations, particularly in Europe.

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november 2015 Reseller Middle East

Qualys has an impressive set of marquee accounts in the EMEA region,” said Simon Azzopardi, Vice President and General Manager, EMEA, Qualys. “They also have established significant partnerships that uniquely deliver sovereign security services to their local markets.

I’m thrilled to join Qualys at a time when there is significant opportunity to further develop the market.”

“The global rise of costly data breaches has moved security and compliance to the centre stage,” said Dan Barahona, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, Qualys. “Qualys has delivered an impressive array of new services that expand our reach well beyond the vulnerability management market.

I look forward to helping deliver critical cloud services to organisations around the world through strategic partnerships and the expansion of our sales force.”

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Sophos appoints new Vice President MEA

Sophos has announced appointment of Harish Chib as Vice President for its Middle East & Africa (MEA) region. This Harish Chib , Sophos new strategic leadership position will focus on strengthening the company’s sales and channel strategy for that region.

Chib joined Sophos through the acquisition of Cyberoam in 2014 where he successfully led channel strategy and sales operations for 10 years. In this new role, he will drive business development opportunities, and oversee the integration and expansion of Sophos and Cyberoam channel ecosystems across MEA. “Harish’s expertise in leading and scaling sales operations and leveraging the partner ecosystem makes him the ideal leader for Sophos’ growing focus in the Middle East and Africa,” said Karl Heinz Warum, VP CEEMEA, Sophos. “His proven success with Cyberoam’s sales and channel gives him the right experience to further expand our strong sales and partner network. It is our ambition to be the vendor of choice for both endpoint and network security solutions, and under Harish’s leadership, we will bring together our channel and sales organization with the Cyberoam ecosystem and bolster sales engineering and reseller enablement initiatives in MEA.” Chib said, “A growing number of businesses in MEA are experiencing increased digitization, however, the menace of cyber-attacks and cybercrime is stalling their ICT adoption.

Resellers from across the region have a tremendous opportunity to leverage the synergy of both Sophos and Cyberoam products in endpoint, cloud and network security to protect their customers with advanced and next generation technology from a global leader.”

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AGC Networks

Monitoring security Sanjay Ahuja, VP, Middle East and Africa, AGC Networks, explains why organisations need to leverage Managed Security Services (MSS).

We are getting close to the point (if we aren’t there already!) where we need to acknowledge that trends like Big Data, BYOD, cloud, mobile, social and virtualisation are no longer ‘emerging’ technologies that enterprises can leverage to gain a competitive advantage. One could argue that these technologies are critical business enablers that all enterprises need to leverage if they are to remain competitive. According to the Cisco Global Cloud Index, from 2013-2018, the Middle East and Africa is expected to

have the highest cloud traffic growth rate in the world with a GAGR of 54 percent and cloud workloads are expected to grow at a CAGR of 39 percent for the same time period.

Faced with the growing number of cyber threats, it is imperative that enterprises make IT security their number one priority, particularly as we continue to make the push towards ‘Smart Cities’ and ‘E-Government’.

Unfortunately between the pace of technological advancement, shortage of skilled IT resources in the

Managed Security Service providers ensure that enterprises get a bespoke set of services based on their needs and their appetite for handling risks in the environment 34

november 2015 Reseller Middle East

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region, and the pressure on IT departments to focus on business critical infrastructure and services, security tends to get lost in the shuffle. It is against this backdrop that enterprises should consider outsourcing the implementation, operation, and management of their IT security to third party vendors; commonly referred to as Managed Security Service (MSS) providers.

In addition to freeing up IT resources to focus on business critical functions, there are essentially four key arguments in favour of making the switch to MSS. Security is a 24/7 job Unlike most other IT functions, security is not an 8:00am – 5:00pm, Sunday – Thursday, job! Enterprises need to be vigilant against attacks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year; something that requires a significant investment in terms of technology and manpower.

Managed Security Service providers ensure that enterprises get a bespoke set of services based on their needs and their appetite

for handling risks in the environment. MSS also builds in an unmatched level of redundancy thus providing enterprises with 24x7 availability.

Access to latest technologies Combatting cyber-attacks can be likened to a game of ‘Whack-a-mole’! Given the pace at which technology is evolving, just when you think you have snuffed out a threat in one area, a new threat crops up in another. It is impractical from both a cost and logistics standpoint for enterprises to keep upgrading their infrastructure and software to keep up with the ever changing threat landscape.

Ideally, every enterprise should have a mirrored test environment for creating and testing correlation rules. Turning a rule on in production can easily have unexpected, adverse effects such as flooding or slowing the application. A test environment is a must if an enterprise is to effectively manage the system without causing problems across the organisation. The cost associated with such a setup can be prohibitive; another reason to switch to an MSS provider.

Leverage global experience One of the biggest advantages of MSS providers is their ability to leverage the learnings and expertise from across the globe. Most MSS providers have operations across all the major continents and have, in all likelihood, had to prepare for

or counter just about every threat out there. This gives them a decided advantage over in-house teams and allows them to be proactive and put systems and plans in place to protect enterprises in the region.

Economies of scale Opting for MSS will result in a substantial reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) - similar to other ‘as-aService’ offerings, MSS gives enterprises the flexibility to significantly reduce their CapEx and transition to an OpEx model. These savings can then be reinvested in IT infrastructure, services and applications that will have tangible business benefits and positively affect the bottom line.

Access to talent pool Staffing a true 24x7x365 Security Operation Center (SOC) requires a minimum of seven full-time employees for one setup. While IT departments, network groups or even security teams may have the talent/expertise, they rarely have the current and well-practiced skill set that is required to execute real-time or even batched security event analysis, on the millions of events that are generated from their environment on a daily basis, to find the one or two true security incidents. To provide the necessary skill sets, analysts must receive periodic training which adds thousands of dollars in annual investments.

Of course, nothing can compensate for experience, and finding employees that have this experience can be

time-consuming and costly.

One must also consider the costs of turnover should personnel critical to the daily operation of the technology depart.

Not having the proper security personnel puts tremendous pressure on IT departments to recruit, train, compensate and retain a 24x7 security staff. Tools such as SIEM for example, are not easy to understand out of the box and by no means easy to use. Learning how they work takes weeks, if not months, of training depending on the specific SIEM technology and the personnel’s background.

MSS Integrators allow in-house security teams to spend their time focusing on strategic efforts, instead of having to spend their time and energy on keeping complex technology up and running, performing event analysis and managing security technology.

According to Gartner, by 2020, 60 percent of digital businesses will suffer major service failures due to the inability of IT security teams to manage digital risk.

Believing that ‘it won’t happen to me’ would be a mistake and given the strain on internal IT resources, enterprises would be well served to leverage MSS.

While there is no magic formula, at a very minimum, enterprises should consider outsourcing Vulnerability Management/ Penetration Testing (VM/PT), the management of the infrastructure components (including firewalls, UTM, IPS/IDS), Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Mobile and Channel Security.

Sanjay Ahuja, VP, Middle East and Africa, AGC Networks

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Reseller Middle East november 2015

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OPinion

Microsoft Gulf

Driving demand Haider Salloum, Small Medium Business Director, Microsoft Gulf, explains how channel partners play a crucial role for IT adoption within SMBs.

In the mobile-first, cloud-first world, technology is a make-or-break factor for any business. The businesses that embrace technology to reinvent themselves and their industries will thrive, while those that choose to hang on to the status quo risk extinction.

Currently, SMBs constitute 94 percent of all companies in UAE and are widely considered the key drivers for economic growth and employment. However, the low level of modern ICT integration into business threatens to derail the current SMBs environment, which has prompted IT players and governments to advocate for a more tech-savvy SMB community.

The Microsoft partners play a key role in driving adoption of IT solutions within the SMB segment, providing customers with a range of costeffective IT products and

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solutions to help them achieve their business goals. It is for these reasons that Microsoft has, over the years, created a culture of supporting SMBs through its wide network of channel partners, who play an indispensable role within the start-up ecosystem in terms of helping a start-up enhance their output and profitability.

Our partners are on the frontlines of aiding businesses use technology to transform, through our powerful offerings, our ubiquitous mobile solutions and our intelligent cloud.

With IDC predicting demand for cloud and hybrid services to reach US $108 billion by 2017 globally, a new and vibrant market opportunity exists for IT channel partners who are investing in the cloud to satisfy growing demand. By extending cloud services to small businesses, channel partners are able to widen their revenue streams through managed or hosted services.

Cloud technology solutions enable SMBs to build modern workplaces where projects can be worked on remotely collaboration is enhanced through virtual meetings. This results in deeper business insights and a stronger connection with customers.

Cloud solutions powering SMBs The cloud opens up new business opportunities for partners to support SMBs, and IT corporations are helping them take advantage of those opportunities through programmes geared towards extending cloud adoption.

IDC research shows that cloud-oriented partners, with more than 50 percent of their revenue coming from

Cloud technology solutions enable SMBs to build modern workplaces where projects can be worked on remotely collaboration is enhanced through virtual meetings. This results in deeper business insights and a stronger connection with customers. the cloud, have experienced on average 1.6 times the gross profit and 2.4 times faster growth than noncloud-oriented partners. The research further reveals that Microsoft cloud partners are evolving quickly and capitalising on the recurring revenues generated from managed services.

For example, Microsoft is boosting cloud adoption through its Cloud Solution Provider programme (CSP) and the Azure Certified for Hybrid Cloud programme. CSP allows partners to own 100 percent of the customer lifecycle. This programme gives Microsoft partners complete control to ensures that SMBs can rely on partners to get the most out of their cloud solutions.

Microsoft also has the broadest set of Go-To-Market (GTM) and licensing offerings to enable any type of partner to benefit from the cloud opportunity and build a recurring profitable business while ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction are maintained.

Cloud accelerated adoption programmes CSP allows partners to address customers’ IT needs across infrastructure and CRM with

Office 365, Windows Intune, Enterprise Mobility Suite, Azure and CRM Online. CSP is designed to strengthen customer relationships and expand cloud sales opportunities by enabling partners to own and control the customer billing, sell integrated offers and services in a single package, as well as directly provision, manage and support products and services.

The popularity of this programme has seen Microsoft expand CSP into 135 markets, with new products (Azure and CRM Online joined Office 365, Intune and EMS) and additional platform capabilities to help partners drive marketing and sales automation and scalability.

Most recently, Pacific Controls Cloud Services (PCCS), the Middle East’s leading ICT-enabled managed services company, announced its participation in the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Programme (CSP). This has given PCCS complete ownership of the customer lifecycle, allowing it to easily sell Microsoft cloud services and help customers realise the benefits of the cloud by owning the entire billing process and directly managing support.

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Empowering more channel partners IT solutions providers are increasingly engaging with partners to devise better ways to empower SMBs and widen their adoption of modern technologies. In July, for instance, Microsoft announced the Azure Certified for Hybrid Cloud programme, which extends the success of its Cloud OS Network (OS) to empower service providers to bring hybrid cloud solutions to even more SMB customers. The programme enables service providers to deliver Microsoft-certified hybrid solutions that will make it easier for SMBs to leverage the cloud on their terms, through certified partner solutions and best practices for hybrid cloud deployments, including connections to Azure globally.

SMB upskilling SMBs in the region still face high operational costs and collaboration challenges that could be easily addressed by adopting smart collaboration features, as well as the powerful cloud-based software solutions delivered through channel partners. In order to empower these organisations to take advantage of the available technology, however, it is not enough for IT organisations to simply provide businessenabling technologies. They must also work closely with their partners to help SMBs fill the skills gap that can exist as the rate of technological innovation accelerates. Aware of this fact, Microsoft — together with local partners — offers on-premise workshops and free online classes in basic business skills, as well as online tutorials about products, and hands-on training on their technologies.

All of these assets can help SMBsSanjay to become Ahuja,confident VP, Middle East and Africa, AGC Networks technology leaders.

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INTERVIEW Infor

Resource reach

Charles Phillips is an industry heavyweight. The Infor CEO was a member of Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and a highly-rated Wall Street enterprise software analyst for a decade. He discussed the potential of cloud-based ERP and an integrated supply chain with James Dartnell.

How do you perceive the Middle Eastern market; does the US really believe the region is catching up in terms of technology adoption?

I would say it’s progressing faster than the US market, which presents a fantastic opportunity for us. Sometimes it can be a good thing to start off later in terms of technology adoption, as you have clean infrastructure and don’t make the same mistakes of the previous three generations. The region can skip legacy systems which is a bonus. We’re investing in the region and are meeting with a number of customers and investors here.

What importance does the Saudi Arabian market have for you?

We’ve just opened our office in Riyadh which is obviously a big step forward. Now that we’ve learned the market better, we can start to build a team as well as work with partners so that we can accelerate our investment.

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Off the back of your GT Nexus acquisition, do you believe that e-commerce in the cloud is the future?

The reality of global commerce is that more and more is being done through value chains of partners, particularly in the US and Asia, so what was once done by one company is now done by a collection of companies. The problem is that things still have to be run as one company in terms of visibility and efficiency. Even small companies are now doing it. This network allows you to be connected to your suppliers, your shippers, ocean carriers and transportation companies so you know where your products are at all times.

Once they’re delivered, you have visibility, which produces less inventory, and that saves costs. I need to know when my product is coming. Is it in a distribution centre? When do I pay the supplier? We build collections of companies that are integrated through our network. Very few ERP firms understand the complexity of multi-enterprise ERP. Customers have wanted this for a while, they want to know what generates demand so

november 2015 Reseller Middle East

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they can plan ahead. Orders constantly change, so this needs to be communicated between buyers and suppliers, and this network provides that visibility.

Against the backdrop of digital disruption, how do you plan to collaborate with SMBs? They can receive the sophistication and complexity of our solutions, but without the deployment difficulties. We get most of our enhancements through listening to customers so that’s always key for us.

The complexity of small businesses surprises people.

They’re going international much quicker than they used to, but don’t have the IT staff.

We usually start off with a blank slate to ask them what’s working and what isn’t for them to generate new ideas and business models, and from that comes technology.

What kind of acquisitions will you be looking to make in the near future?

We’re looking for innovators who want to be early adopters and consider advanced concepts before competitors do. The industry is changing,

and a lot of larger companies have moved into legacy territory. Scale platforms like Amazon and Google, and technologies like cloud and Hadoop are making things faster and better than what we had before. A lot of newer technologies are cheaper, or free, and architectures will change over the next five years.

In terms of the Middle East, it’s about betting on what’s lasting and what’s fading. We don’t own data centres or a database, we run on Amazon and don’t want to make money on infrastructure. That’s the business model of the future, the server-less world.

Will the technology industry change now more than any time over the last 10 years?

It’s accelerating. Newer technologies are now mainstream, and companies are now spending again after the financial crash of 2008.

There’s a supercomputer on demand for everybody who wants one, which opens the door to new types of applications and processes.

Architectures will change and machine learning opens new opportunities.

Cover feature

ComGuard

Setting the pace

Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, ComGuard, on exploring newer avenues of growth and how partners can develop their capabilities to capitalise on the prospects.

There are increasing number of emerging technologies such as IoT, Big Data and analytics, data centre and cloud solutions and infrastructure networking solutions, which are creating profitable business opportunities for the channel market.

Although most of these technologies are currently in nascent stages, channel players are observing a definite interest from regional organisations to learn more about it.

Identifying that venturing into these areas early on will beget maximum benefits, value-added distributor, ComGuard has created two initiatives. One is an

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independent company, Recconix, which focuses on IT service management solutions and the other is a division within the company called, Emerging Technologies (ET). Here the focus is on converging technologies such as IoT, storage and Big Data.

Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, ComGuard, says, “As ComGuard, we are seeing how we can consolidate our portfolio on the security side and how we can get more into the data centre and building up of private clouds space. We have brought in business leaders – Mandar Sule to head Recconix and Boby Joseph to lead the ET division.”

Over the course of this year, the company has signed up with a number of new brands such as

november 2015 Reseller Middle East

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Arcon and NNT to further strengthen its portfolio.

It is also looking for new hardware or software vendors, which will have an impact on its revenue next year.

Channel partners need to identify newer areas of opportunities in order to diversify and maintain the profit margin.

“But it will also

depend upon how the talent is developed in those areas. This is a key concern today in the market, however we have identified this and developed key training initiatives, which I believe is giving us an edge in the market,” he says.

Training is a key element of the distributor’s strategy

“For large projects, we are acting as a technology hub where partners have the right bandwidth to do large projects, and we are educating them on how this can be done.”

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Reseller Middle East november 2015

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in the region. It has redesigned its training solution centre recently and is now looking to see how it can do more on a group level.

He adds, “Our training revenues are growing exponentially.”

Along with extensive training programmes, the distributor has also been active in the market through a number of channel initiatives, assisting partners to seize the opportunities in the emerging technologies.

With the aim to help channel partners build comprehensive solutions, the distributor has also been enabling them to deliver complete RFP, which they can then evaluate.

“We can make these RFPs vendor neutral and ask for solutions, which will clearly help our partners win the bid and help our end-users obtain the best solutions.

“We have come out with group financing scheme, which has various time frames such as three-year period or five-year period, where customers can pay over the decided time. This is having a positive impact both within the partner community as well as endusers. This way partners get long-term financing, which helps to win the bid and enables end-users to finance long term projects.”

For 2016, the distributor’s objectives are clearly laid out. The goal is to create enough interest

within the two streams – first, traditional network and security, which has been its stronghold and second, emerging technologies.

“The idea is that our existing customers will see us being active in the new areas and this will also lead to obtaining new customers. We are aware that we may not get orders within these technologies

The idea is to place more intelligence into the existing data. Our focus is on any technology that makes the environment more intelligent and the city smarter or have a legacy city turn into a Smart City. Everything can be accessed by just a touch of a button or through smartphones, this is the future.”

The distributor is

“It will depend on how aggressively they develop talent in these areas because it is not so much of a money game anymore, but all about talent. Early movers into these areas will have a competitive advantage.” by next year even, as it may take a couple of years. But we are moving in the right direction and the group will have the appropriate branding in terms of acceptability, both from partners’ and end-users’ perspective,” says Chauhan.

At GITEX 2015, the company showcased smart lighting system, where it is helping in making lamp posts intelligent.

“We are focusing on emerging technologies such as IoT and Big Data.

working with its tier-one partners to implement key projects, which are driven by government or large corporates.

“To enable partners to stay relevant in an evolving ecosystem, we are working together with them. For large projects, we are acting as a technology hub where partners have the right bandwidth to do large projects, and we are educating them on how this can be done.”

The distributor is

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Cover feature

seeing the most demand coming from markets such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Kuwait.

“While the demand for new technologies is still fairly low in these countries, there is a keen interest from the government to try and save energy. For example, if we implement smart lighting, it saves almost 40 percent energy, which is big for a country.”

Chauhan agrees that the business has been sluggish over the last two quarters but as a distributor it has been assisting partners in all ways possible.

“We have been telling our partners that if they have a project where finance is the issue, then we can offer innovative solutions such as our finance scheme. Partners need to be transparent and discuss their issues with us, then we can always find a solution together.”

Over the course of next year, the distributor believes most players will move into newer areas.

“It will depend on how aggressively they develop talent in these areas because it is not so much of a money game anymore, but all about talent. Early movers into these areas will have a competitive advantage.”

The distributor is expecting to grow between 30 to 40 percent in the coming year.

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ADVERTORIAL

ChanEx 2015

Saudi IT channel executives meeting and conference in Istanbul

Al-Jammaz Distribution brings together top partners and vendors to discuss key market trends.

S

audi-based VAD, AlJammaz Distribution has organised the second ChanEx (Saudi IT Channel Executives Meeting and Conference) event in Istanbul – Turkey between 8th and 10th of October 2015.

The theme of the ChanEx2 2015 was “Let us share together technology transformation thoughts and ideas for the coming years”. At the three-day event, Asim S. AlJammaz, VP, Al-Jammaz Distribution, shed light on the business challenges, directions, market fluctuations. “The objective of this event was to bring together CEOs, directors and decision makers to share ideas and discuss issues they 44

november 2015 Reseller Middle East

face together in the Saudi IT Industry, think about market transformation and how they can stand together, integrate their resources and complement each other as much as possible to provide a much healthier market to compete,” he said.

The top international vendors such as Cisco, EMC, APC, Panduit, VCE, Fluke Networks, Ruckus Wireless, Rittal, Honeywell and

Linksys have taken part of this gathering to give their views on market directions, new trends and expected transformations.

Abdullah AlSwaha, Cisco Saudi Deputy GM, said “Cisco is committed to partnering with its customers and partners in this digital transformational journey by delivering life changing solutions for joint success and outcomes.”

“Cisco is committed to partnering with its customers and partners in this digital transformational journey by delivering life changing solutions for joint success and outcomes.”

Abdullah AlSwaha, Cisco Saudi Deputy GM

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Ashraf Jarad, Channel Manager KSA, EMC, said, “Cloud, Big Data, softwaredefined, mobility and security are changing the way people live, businesses operate and the world works. As an end-to-end IT vendor, EMC and its channel partners are well-positioned to drive these trends, just as we did when we helped revolutionise the power of storage.”

“Linksys is a well-known brand in the consumer segment for innovation and quality. Today Linksys is also focusing in the business segment with a large portfolio that address the business needs. I am happy to be here today with the top systems integrators in Saudi to network and offer them our services and strengths,” said Zafer Mohiuddin, Country and Channel Manager, Linksys.

“I am happy to be here today with the top systems integrators in Saudi to network and offer them our services and strengths.”

Zafer Mohiuddin, Country and Channel Manager, Linksys.

Some of the top IT companies that participated at the event include, Ebttikar, AlFannar, Matco, Hasoub, Sure tech, Prime gate, Golden First, SBM, Nizak, STS, Data Consult, Data serve, 3T, ITS, NESMA, SACS, MDS, SNC, AEC, MIS, NSA, iNet, EXD, NATCOM, ACS, INS, GBS, ATP, AIT, SIS, AlFalak, Future Tech, AlMajal Alarabi, British Telecom, InfoTech, Gulf Solutions, Abdullatif IT, Anmat Tech, Computech, Muhaira, Comlines, PC Palace and Alfuzail.

“EMC and its channel partners are well-positioned to drive these trends, just as we did when we helped revolutionise the power of storage.”

Ashraf Jarad, Channel Manager KSA, EMC

“The Information Technology industry is changing fast, faster than what we think,” said AlJammaz.

“We can stay in business only if we are capable of proactively predicting where the business is moving and how fast it is moving.

Having our top technology vendor partners with us in this top IT resellers gathering event, added a lot of value toward the discussions between the executives during the event. We look forward to continuing these conversations in the next Saudi IT Channel executives Meeting and Conference event in ChanEx3 2016.”

The event also served as a platform where top vendors and IT executives exchanged thought-leadership and key trends in the market.

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ADVERTORIAL

feature

Converged infrastructures services

The convergence era The regional market is seeing an uptake for converged infrastructure solutions. Reseller ME examines how channel partners can effectively sell these solutions.

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november 2015 Reseller Middle East

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Enterprises are increasingly becoming more dependent on technological innovations to ensure smooth and cost-effective functioning of operations. Converged infrastructure is one such approach, which aims to reduce compatibility issues among various components of an organisation such as servers, storage systems and network devices.

There are various benefits of converged infrastructures from centralised management, better control and simplification of IT resources management to reduced initial deployment time.

Kartik Shankar, Senior Sales Manager, StorIT Distribution, says, “This helps in software projects to go live much faster, and it also enables faster provisioning of resources besides other advantages such as scalability, cost effectiveness and reduced foot print in data centres.”

While it is difficult to add more variants to a converged infrastructure due to its standardisation, hyperconverged infrastructure is a software-defined approach towards converged infrastructure, which allows the addition of different traditional data centre aspects. It depends on the organisation to see

Partners should evaluate the lead carefully and design a solution that balances between cost effectiveness, robust to handle the kind of proposed workload, growth and scalability.”

Kartik Shankar, Senior Sales Manager, StorIT Distribution

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which approach suits its requirements better.

“There is a role for both converged and hyperconverged, depending on what the customer needs.

Converged infrastructure is best suited for today’s mission critical enterprise applications that rely on resiliency and data services that are built into the infrastructure and tailored to provide highly available service levels with predictable performance,” says Jan Lawford, Senior Director, Global Strategic Accounts & EMEA Channels, VCE. “Hyper-converged is appropriate for workloads that do not have high system resiliency requirements, or native cloud workloads that have resiliency built into the application.

Appliances are purpose built systems that are targeted for specific use cases and environments.

Their characteristics typically include easy customer deployment, comprehensive software stacks already installed, and extreme ease of use.”

A recent Gartner report states that IT infrastructure spending

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feature

Converged infrastructures services

in the Middle East and Africa is forecast to reach $3.48 billion in 2015, a 0.9 percent increase from 2014. Also, the server market will continue to lead IT infrastructure spending through 2018.

This indicates that regional customers are showing a keen interest to deploy converged and hyper-converged infrastructures.

Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Middle East, Dell, says, “Customers’ interest in integrated systems continues to grow with the opportunity to deploy simplified yet powerful solutions that offer high performance, fast deployment and lower operational costs.

This is best achieved in converged and hyperconverged infrastructure.”

Lower operational cost is definitely a compelling feature for organisations.

Ramkumar ‎Balakrishnan, President,

Data centres are getting all virtualised and as a result customers are looking for partners who can provide virtualisation services such as capacity planning exercises, design and build private clouds, create cloud strategies and provide multiple services including setting up of VDI environment.”

Ramkumar Balakrishnan, President, Value Distribution, Redington Gulf

Value Distribution, Redington Gulf, says, “With standardised commodity hardware that is balanced for compute, network, storage and virtualisation requirements, expanding the network will be far simpler. Adding new hardware to infrastructure will be faster because, like building blocks, it should snap into place with

Partners should primarily focus on storage, networking and compute, these areas need to be properly addressed by the converged infrastructure solution, so they need to have a 360 view around this.”

Taj ElKhayat, Regional Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Riverbed Technology

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the existing hardware.

Maintenance and support costs also are expected to be lower. Interoperability and installing maintenance patches and upgrades will also be more efficient with a converged infrastructure.”

The advantages of these integrated systems are clear for customers, but how can regional channel partners ensure they gain recurring profits in this space?

Taj ElKhayat, Regional Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Riverbed Technology, says, partners should primarily focus on these three areas: storage, networking and compute. “These three components need to be properly addressed by the converged infrastructure solution, so partners need to have a 360 view around this.”

According to Shankar from StorIT

Distribution, the most important phase in the convergent infrastructure business is the sizing of the requirement and designing.

He says, “Partners should evaluate the lead carefully and design a solution that balances between cost effectiveness, robust to handle the kind of proposed workload, growth and scalability.

“Converged and hyper-converged infrastructure approach gives partners more control on customers IT environment compared to the traditional approach.

It helps end-customers’ IT resources to spend more time to enhance their business by planning and deploying new IT initiatives rather than getting involved in less technical activities like break and fix, trouble shooting, evaluating individual components of the datacenter for compatibility etc. On the other side, it helps partners to support customer with faster response, quick resource provisioning and better SLAs with lesser resource and cost.”

Balakrishnan further says with evolving trends, the focus today is more on selling solutions as a package, starting from consultation to implementation.

“Data centres are getting all virtualised and

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Converged infrastructures services

Converged infrastructure brings together compute, storage and networking, as well as offer a differentiated value proposition in systems management, partners need to understand how to lead such discussions as well as build such solutions for customers.”

Shams Hasan, Enterprise Product Manager, Middle East, Dell

as a result customers are looking for partners who can provide virtualisation services such as capacity planning exercises, design and build private clouds, create cloud strategies and provide multiple services including setting up of VDI environment.

We are positioning ourselves as a solutions partner in an effort to cater to an industry that is fast-changing into a marketplace for all-in-one solutions.”

It is also important for partners to know if a converged infrastructure solution will be best suited for an organisation.

This can only come with in-depth knowledge of the technology and thorough understanding of the customer’s requirements.

Hasan explains, “Converged infrastructure isn’t a best-fit for all use cases, partners should not attempt to shoe-horn converged

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infrastructure solutions into all user needs.

Converged infrastructure brings together compute, storage and networking, as well as offer a differentiated value proposition in systems management, partners need to understand how to lead such discussions as well as build such solutions for customers.

Also, partners need to find vendors they can partner with who have true end-to-end value in the converged infrastructure space.”

While education and developing skills are important factors, choosing the right vendor too is equally significant. With the right vendor, partners have the opportunity to avail appropriate support and resources to further develop their capabilities.

ElKhayat adds, “Riverbed assists its partners by letting them have the entire share of the services business and readily supports those partners who are keen to take advantage of this. So, channel organisations that already have competency in the domains of storage, networking and compute clearly have the motivation and the support necessary to rapidly scale their abilities in the services domain.”

Balakrishnan adds, “A deeper engagement between vendors and partners is crucial to enable the success of any IT solution. Partners should forward to trainings and enablement

There is a role for both converged and hyper-converged, depending on what the customer needs.”

Jan Lawford, Senior Director, Global Strategic Accounts & EMEA Channels, VCE

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Fast facts Converged infrastructure can increase productivity by

178%

Converged systems can reduce time to market for new services by

51%

Adopting converged infrastructure can cut your average annual data centre costs by

50%

Source: Convergence with Vblock Systems: a Value Measurement, IDC, September 2013

apart from periodic forums about the latest technology updates as well as key insights into market verticals.”

Partners need to focus on enhancing their skillset and capabilities to be able to lead the converged infrastructure discussion with customers while also ensuring they are updated on current market trends. This will be the key difference between partners who are able to monetise the opportunities in this space effectively and those who are not.

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Partner training and certifications

Certify to profit

Increasingly customers are demanding to work with those partners who have a high-level of certifications. Reseller ME speaks to industry players to understand how channel partners can stay ahead of the curve by achieving relevant certifications and undergoing extensive training programmes.

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Dynamic technological evolution is compelling regional channel players to increase their focus on training and certifications.

In such an environment, channel partners need to create a differentiation for themselves to have continued business opportunities. This differentiation will only come through specialisations, in-depth knowledge of products and solutions along with current market trends. In order to effectively take a product or solution to market, a channel partner need to invest in adequate training programmes and acquire appropriate certifications.

More and more regional partners today understand the significance of upskilling and also understand how it can impact their business in a big way.

“Channel partners today are willing to invest the needed time in training and educating their resources into the newer technologies that emerge into the market as this adds more value and gives a differentiating proposition for their customers,” says Guurprit Ahuja, Director, Middle East and Africa, Acronis.

Agreeing, Jose Thomas, Managing Director, Bulwark Technologies, adds, “Channel Partners showcase immense interest to upskill through

Channel partners today are willing to invest the needed time in training and educating their resources into the newer technologies that emerge into the market as this adds more value and gives a differentiating proposition for their customers.”

Guurprit Ahuja, Director, Middle East and Africa, Acronis

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training programmes resulting in a deeper knowledge of our solutions portfolio to positively impact customers.”

If channel players do not upskill then the consequence is that they will be left behind, says, Frida Kleimert Knibbs, Head of Channels and Commercial UAE, Cisco.

“Due to new disruptive technologies in the market places, the skills gap is so huge that it will take some time for channel stakeholders to narrow it.”

However, there are many challenges that a partner may face here.

From keeping up with training programmes, ensuring they have the right talent pool and identifying which programmes suit their business objectives.

Knibbs adds, “Keeping pace with training as well as developing the right mix of IT professionals is indeed a challenge.

Through our programmes, we share our upcoming and disruptive technologies with our partners and incentivise them to adopt it. With these incentives, we eventually make a change in our partner programme

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ADVERTORIAL

Dell GITEX party 2015

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Partner training and certifications

and enable our partners with new capabilities through training and certifications to address the IT skills shortage.”

Sometimes, vendors tend to push their certification programmes to the extent that it becomes obvious that they have a revenue opportunity with it.

“In such a case the partner begins to question if the vendor is in the business of these certifications in order to benefit themselves or whether they hope to deliver value to the partner. No doubt in theory, certifications are a good way of estimating and ensuring a partner’s technical proficiency, but vendors need to engage with their partners to understand what real value they can instill into their programmes though innovative measures,” explains Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG. It is also the vendors’ responsibility to gain

Certifications are a good way of estimating and ensuring a partner’s technical proficiency, but vendors need to engage with their partners to understand what real value they can instill into their programmes though innovative measures.”

Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG

an understanding of their partner’s business strategy so as to offer relevant certifications.

Berner adds, “All too often we are approached by vendors who expect us to invest in certifications that do not actually align with our line of work and therefore are not beneficial to us.”

He also adds that it is much more important that the people who are certified have the right hands-on experience on the products and know what they are talking about.

“These days it is so easy to get a certification based on theoretical knowledge, sometimes

Knowing the products inside and out is one thing, however official certification certainly adds strong value to the overall image.”

Aditya Girish, Territory Manager Middle East, Koenig Solutions

certifications will be granted without attendees passing any exam. It’s not about quantity but all about quality. This is the way how vendors should enforce their technical partner enablement.”

Another concern which makes partners hesitant to invest in staff training is the fear of employee attrition.

But this requires a change in mind-set according to Manju Mathew, Marketing Manager, StorIT Distribution.

“In today’s fast paced world, attrition is inevitable. However the technology disruption in Information Technology business is so short that businesses can find a balance between both of them because the knowledge gained or transferred has limited time of usability. This would be one of the main reasons why we recommend businesses invest their time in training and certification.”

Certifications enable partners to stand out in a highly competitive market. Growing number

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of customers prefer partners who are certified in specific technologies.

And this is not at all surprising or sudden, for example, won’t a heart patient always opt to go to the cardiologist rather than the general physician? Similarly, customers are looking out for experts to trust to help them transform their business in line with the technological advances.

Dan Smith, Head of Integrated Marketing, Middle East and Africa, for Xerox’s Developing Markets Operations, says, “Certification provides partners with key skills and abilities, in a measurable and replicable fashion, by training them on the latest technologies and techniques in the industry.

Xerox offers specific guidelines and solutions that can assist partners to develop solutions that can have a positive impact on their customers.

“Moreover, we persuade our partners to brand our solutions and services as their own and regardless

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920 000 230 | www.al-jammaz.com |

.com/aljammazVAD

.com/AlJammazVAD

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Partner training and certifications

of where they are in the developer landscape, they are encouraged to use the company apps and tap into our expertise.

We also recommend our partners to get involved in marketing. We believe that our most successful partners are also the ones who deeply believe in marketing. They leverage the suite of assets and tools available from the partner portal to create co-branded email campaigns, multimedia presentations and even proposal generator pieces that really do stand out.”

Mathew says while resellers need to make investments when it comes to training and certifying their staff to stay ahead of the curve, they also need to attend training programmes and increase their knowledge base.

“This will offer resellers a competitive edge but they need to have the vision to build the skills to increase the competency levels of their staff and to meet customer satisfaction levels in terms of support.

Certifications are definitely important as it gives the end-user confidence that the reseller has the required skills sets to deploy the technology.”

Aditya Girish, Territory Manager Middle East, Koenig Solutions, “Knowing the products inside and out is one thing, however official certification certainly adds strong value to the overall image. Training

and certification serves as independent proof of the skills and abilities required to implement a customers’ specific needs.

It also offers a method for bringing employees and IT professionals up to speed on the latest technologies.”

Certified channel partners become preferred partners for that solution and enjoy better margin compared to noncertified counterparts.

“Trained partners could position the product or solution, do a good product demonstration, conduct Proof of Concept and also provide a good after-sales support to the satisfaction of the customers,” says Thomas.

Ahuja adds, “The key to selling is how you can act as a technology consultant for your customer—and the confidence from your customers will only come if they sense that you are highly proficient with the product or service you are promoting.”

Partner training and certifications are the utmost vital elements for the success of a partner’s business.

Open discussions about business objectives with their vendor partners will also go a long way to help achieve this. Partners must continuously invest time, money and resources to enable and enhance its employees’ capabilities to be ahead of competition and for continued business.

How can vendors / distributors encourage partners to upskill?

Cisco works closely and collectively with our partners to enable them with the required skill sets to gear them up for the future. Through our partner and incentives programmes, we motivate them to upskill. Our VIP programme is one of the most appreciated programmes in the industry. We provide partners with channel enablement programmes, which include training, certifications and specialisations, in addition to technical support, productivity tools, online training, marketing resources and sales promotions. Through our new specialisations, we help partners develop skills critical to business success and help increase their profitable revenue.

Frida Kleimert Knibbs, Head of Channels and Commercial UAE, Cisco Channel growth and development would be a main area of focus for us.

We have been empowering our channel community, which has significantly contributed to our growth and development as a value-added distributor in the region. We are offering certifications and value-added channel enablement sessions to motivate and upskill our partners to the wide array of our technology offerings. These partners could enjoy better margins and more leads assigned to them.

Apart from these, there are partner incentive programmes to motivate and encourage them to engage in suitable technology certifications.

Jose Thomas, Managing Director, Bulwark Technologies Focusing on partner profitability is a key motivator as partners are keen to evaluate and measure their profitability per vendor line. In order to derive successful results, it is imperative for partners to be fully skilled in the areas of expertise to achieve maximum profitability. Another way to encourage partners is recognizing and rewarding successful and valuable partners for their hard work.

Dan Smith, Head of Integrated Marketing for the Middle East and Africa region of Xerox’s Developing Markets Operations

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www.mindware.ae

INGRAM MICRO

Partner watch

The cloud pull Ali Baghdadi, SVP and Chief Executive, Middle East, Turkey & Africa, Ingram Micro, discusses the company’s recent initiatives in the cloud business.

Ingram Micro’s primary focus at the 35th edition of GITEX Technology Week was on cloud solutions and related services.

Over the last several months, the regional distributor has invested significantly in building its cloud business.

The firm has announced the launch of its cloud platform, Ingram Micro Cloud marketplace, which enables channel partners to maximise prospects in the cloud space.

According to the company, it is a vendor to user platform, where the user can log in and

buy what he needs as a cloud service, irrespective of if it is server, power, storage or applications. The distributor aims to introduce it in the region by early 2016.

Ali Baghdadi, SVP & Chief Executive, Middle East, Turkey & Africa, Ingram Micro, says, “All these services are now available on the Ingram Micro Cloud and can be managed by the reseller or the distributor on behalf of the reseller or the end-user himself; and we can bundle services along with that.”

The distributor has also launched a comprehensive range of education initiatives such as Cloud University and certifications.

Baghdadi says partners have a huge opportunity in the cloud space.

“There are so many different aspects for partners, and we have a whole range of education programmes

“Partners need to join our Cloud University to learn more on how to sell a cloud solution and retain customer loyalty.” to complement these opportunities. We have to entice and educate them on the benefits of undertaking cloud offerings. Partners need to join our Cloud University to learn more on how to sell a cloud solution and retain customer loyalty.”

The regional distributor is one of the few global players who have been appointed by Microsoft for its Cloud Service Provider (CSP) programme “We are now a Microsoft CSP for the Gulf and Middle East region. We are growing our CSP programme with Microsoft in November.

We are excited about that as it gives us the ability to

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enable our partners to start introducing new solutions.”

Over the next few months, Microsoft CSP is going to be the distributor’s main play.

“We are setting up in every single country what we call the console, which will allow us to push and serve the customers and partners, we are doing this in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE. It will be rolled out to the whole region.

“We have nearly 70 vendors plugged into our cloud offerings.

We are doubling in size almost every year and we are growing by over 30 percent,” adds Baghdadi.

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Dubai: P.O. Box: 32610, Dubai, UAE. t: +971 4 342 6060 f: +971 4 354 7779 e: info@trigon-gulf.ae www.trigononline.com

Bahrain: P.O. Box: 75149, Manama Kingdom of Bahrain t: +973 172 92904 f: +973 172 95183 e: trigon@mylightspeedoffice.com

Saudi Arabia: Office 508, Al Rossais Commercial Center Olaya Street, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia t: +966 11 460 3114 f: +966 11 460 3112 e: shabuddin.m@trigon-gulf.ae www.trigononline.com

Progress Distribution Partner watch

Taking action Progress Distribution, a new player in the regional distribution space, is set to empower the channel, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Tim Martin, says.

Progress Distribution, a boutique IT distributor, has recently set up shop in UAE, with primary focus on emerging technologies within security, networking, infrastructure and storage areas.

Tim Martin, Chief Financial Officer, Progress Distribution, says, “To do business in the Middle East region you need to understand the culture and know how to approach people. We believe the Middle East reseller market needs to be serviced by people who understand the business.”

Backed by several years of experience, Martin along with other key executives who are at the helm of the company – Keith Rich, CEO and Gareth Morgan, Sales Director – come with a thorough understanding of the regional channel space.

“Currently we are aligning our strategies to the growth markets,

which continue to be virtualisation, hyperconvergence, security and storage. We need to be present in the market with new innovative vendors and new technologies that

opportunity within them and those that have the latest technologies.”

Terming itself as a value-added distributor who is dealing in high margin products where

“Currently we are aligning our strategies to the growth markets, which continue to be virtualisation, hyper-convergence, security and storage. We need to be present in the market with new innovative vendors and new technologies that are coming up.”

are coming up.

“There are lots of different opportunities around which the reseller market in the Middle East needs a distributor who they can trust. There is a margin opportunity for everybody as new technology vendors come to market. We want to ensure we are bringing in new innovative vendors, who have the profit

services can be attached, the company is looking to empower the channel partners with technical training.

“We will either have our in-house technical staff who are already accredited with the specific products or we will bring in executives from oversees in order to educate and empower the channel locally. It is

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not just about selling the product but it is about going and teaching them about the product.”

Next year the company aspires to have a booth and demonstrate new technologies at GITEX. “GITEX is a fantastic value for money forum for new businesses such as ours,” adds Martin.

The company is currently on a heavy recruitment drive and is looking for aspiring sales professionals. Having signed up with quite a few partners already, the distributor aims to bring on board six new vendors over the next six months. “We are looking to grow the product portfolio but at the same time remain focused on what we do.”

Besides offering resellers with commercial and marketing support, the company also has a dedicated professional services division, which provides consulting, training, deployment and technical support.

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Vendor focus AMD

Streamlining for success Omar Fakhri, Head of Sales, Middle East and Africa (MEA), AMD, communicates the company’s approach to simplify the business for partners and customers alike.

When Lisa Su, CEO and President of AMD took over the company’s reins last October, she had a two-pronged focus in mind.

The first was to work a lot closer with customers and partners and to understand their business better while leveraging their interaction and reach within the next tier down.

Omar Fakhri, Head of Sales, Middle East and Africa (MEA), AMD, says, “For AMD, it is all about utilising our partners, their reach and expertise to understand how we can work together to go to the market and develop the business.

The second focus was to simplify the business.

“We are streamlining our systems and have also simplified our partner programme. This is enabling us to become a lot more responsive and reactive to our partners and to the market.”

The company has announced enhancements to its AMD Partner Programme (APP) in the first half of this year. The

changes largely revolve around reducing the number of tiers from four to two, in sync with its overall aim to simplify the business.

“We have also simplified the way the partner programme is rolled out to make it easier for partners to understand the advantages. One of the challenges we have faced in the past is that even though we have a really good partner programme, partners haven’t really understood how they can maximise their business to get the most amount of rebates and benefits.”

Through these enhancements, the company is able to update its partners on a regular basis and have a visible overview of partners’ performance at any point within the quarter.

Another challenge Fakhri notes is that the business is quarter-end driven, which means majority of the selling happens in the last two weeks of the quarter.

“To avoid this, we are offering frequent benefits

to incentivise partners and spread their business evenly across the quarter.

This is not only good for us but also for our distribution partners because they can then manage their inventory better. This means everyone can manage their business a lot more efficiently.”

Within the APP, there are two levels of partnership – Select and Elite. Elite partners include systems builders or subdistribution partners, and they receive rebates based on volumes and targets.

While Select partners are more about providing information.

He says, “Select partners have access to our portals, which have detailed information about current products, new releases and launches. We have also made this easier to access.”

In terms of markets, we will see the vendor paying closer attention to countries such as Egypt and South Africa.

“We are observing a lot of interest from consumers in Egypt, particularly on

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the component business.

The Egyptian consumers are well-educated about technology and are clear of what they require.

“We are also focusing more on South Africa and have been developing the business with partners.

In terms of ROI, UAE has always been a good market for us.”

Over the course of next few months, the company is focused on stabilising and growing its core PC business, which primarily includes desktop and notebook processors and chipsets, discrete GPUs, and professional graphics.

“We are continuously working with our partners in the region to help them grow and prosper with AMD’s broad, industryleading technology portfolio. With this is the ongoing development of the APP, which has been simplified in line with our CEO Lisa Su’s strategy of simplifying the business and enabling the company to have closer relationships with partners and customers,” Fakhri adds.

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REVIEW

Huawei

RME RATING

The Honor 7 is the latest mid-range offering by Huawei, which is designed in a metallic body with a 5.2-inch encasing. This gives the device a ‘business-like’ feel to it, which is appealing.

However, as soon as you open the smartphone, you’ll find that it’s not all ‘business.’ It leverages the Android 5 Lollipop complemented with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1, which gives an upbeat interface that consumers of all ages will surely appreciate. It has a 1080p resolution and pixel density of 423ppi, offering the users a fairly decent display.

As always, one of the most sought after aspect of any smartphone today is the camera, Honor 7 sports a powerful 20MP rear camera with Phase Detection

Huawei Honor 7

Honor 7, one of the latest smartphones by Huawei was launched in the Middle East last month. Online Editor Adelle Geronimo gets hands-on with the new device.

Auto Focus. The rear shooter is quite speedy in snapping photos, however, when taking burst shots it tends to lag a little bit. Up front is an 8MP camera with its own LED flash, which selfie-takers will love.

The power and volume buttons are carefully positioned and are ideal for single-handed operation, but the new ‘smart button’ seems a bit redundant and was hardly used.

Honor 7 is also equipped with a fingerprint sensor just below the rear camera. While the intent of the security feature is good, getting it to work properly gets a bit tricky sometimes.

It is armed with a 64-bit Octacore Kirin 935 processor clocked at 2.2GHz with 3GB RAM which makes the device very responsive.

A feature that was quite

enjoyable was the ‘knuckle mode,’ wherein users can just double tap the screen with your knuckles for screen shots. Though screen capture is a menial task, it is great to know that we can do so many gestures now to communicate with our devices.

As for the battery life, it sports a 3,100 mAh battery, which lasts up to about 20 hours of average usage – phone calls, messaging, social media and taking photos. It also only takes about an hour to get it fully juiced up again.

Honor 7 comes with a 16GB internal memory, which can be further extended with a microSD card. It comes in dark grey, silver and gold colour schemes and is exclusively available at Souq.com for AED 1,399.

www.resellerme.com

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CREATING OPPORTUNITIES COMPUTING

NETWORKING

www.octagoneinternational.com +971 4 2776389 | +971 4 2776380

GAMING

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hot products

QNAP releases TVS-ECx80USAS-RP series NAS

Wileyfox launches Swift and Storm smartphones Wileyfox is entering the GCC smartphone market with its products, Swift and Storm.

Both devices, introduces the Cyanogen Operating System 12.1 to the region.

Both devices are built with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, which according to the company, offers superior battery life. The devices also have dual-SIM functionality, and support 4G LTE connectivity.

The Wileyfox Swift, selling at only AED 499, features a 5-inch HD Coring Gorilla Glass display, an impressive 13MP dual LED flash rear camera and 5MP secondary camera with a wide range of shooting features, the Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Chipset, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal ROM, expandable up to 32GB. The higher range, Wileyfox Storm features a larger 5.5-inch full HD display, a crystal-clear 20MP rear camera and 8MP front camera – both with flash and various shooting features, the Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Chipset, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal ROM, expandable up to 128GB, and is priced at AED 799.

QNAP Systems released new 12Gbps SAS-enabled, 40GbE-ready TVSECx80U-SAS-RP series rackmount NAS. Available in 24, 16, 15 and 12bay models, the series is compatible with the high-density 12Gbps SAS RAID expansion enclosures REXP1620U-RP and REXP-1220U-RP. Featuring Qtier Technology, that drives Auto Tiering for optimal storage efficiency, the company highlights that the TVS-ECx80USAS-RP series can help businesses save money on expensive Flash technology but still enjoy exceptional application performance and lower TCO of storage.

The TVS-ECx80U-SAS-RP series sports a unified NAS that supports

Auto Tiering to deliver constant optimisation of data across highperformance SSD, 12Gbps SAS drives and high-capacity SATA disks.

The TVS-ECx80U-SAS-RP series is powered by a quad-core Intel Xeon E3 v3 processor with 16GB DDR3 or 8GB DDR3 ECC RAM. It has a 3,800+ MB/s throughput and 268,100+ IOPS, supports 10GbEready network connectivity, and features pre-installed 256GB mSATA modules for caching to improve the overall workflow of IOPS-demanding applications.

The TVS-ECx80U-SAS-RP series offers up to five years warranty with three-year global warranty inclusive at no extra cost.

Linksys unveils improved WRT1900AC Wi-Fi router Linksys announced it has improved upon its best AC1900 wireless router to deliver better performance with more processing power, more memory, and fully open source ready.

The improved WRT1900ACS DualBand Gigabit Router is equipped with powerful hardware including a dual-core 1.6 GHz processor, 128MB flash memory, 512MB DDR3 RAM memory, eSATA and

USB ports. The new WRT ships with Linksys Smart Wi-Fi setup and management tools, and the company also collaborated with Marvell and OpenWrt.org to ensure full open source support in the latest version of OpenWrt’s Chaos Calmer release (15.05).

The Linksys WRT1900ACS DualBand Gigabit Wi-Fi Router is capable of speeds of up to 1.3Gbps on the 5 GHz band and up to 600Mpbs on the 2.4 GHz band.

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hot products

Synology releases DiskStation Manager 6.0 beta Synology announced the beta release of DiskStation Manager (DSM) 6.0, the latest version of its NAS operating system.

Based on a more efficient system architecture by rolling 64-bit architecture on compatible models and modularising a greater number of applications, DSM 6.0 delivers significant advancements in productivity, flexibility, and performance.

The platform features a virtualised DSM, which according to Synology, can create a multi-tenant environment with flexible resource control and secured isolation, and can assist in live migration, allowing users to migrate virtualised DSMs from one Synology NAS to another.

It also has a snapshot and replication feature, which allows

TP-Link announces Pharos series

users to replicate data from a primary site to one or more remote sites － up to every 5 minutes － delivering frequent data protection, while the quick failover guarantees the lowest Recovery Time Objective. It has a MailPlus Server comes with an active architecture, load balancing, and content filters.

In addition it feature Cloud Station Server and Cloud Sync allow users to flexibly sync files within specific subfolders. It also has a Revamped Video Station that supports offline transcoding, on-screen buttons, and Windows 10.

Microsoft launches Surface Pro 4

Powered with Windows 10, the latest version of the Surface Pro transforms from a tablet to a laptop in a snap with its multi-position Kickstand and improved keyboard. Equipped with Intel Intel’s Core i5 or Core i7 processor and can be configured with a lower or higher amount of storage

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and RAM. It 12.3-inches in diameter, weighs 1.69 lbs. and is just 8.45mm (0.33 inches) thick. The industrial design retains the iconic look and feel as the same as last generation.

Surface Pro 4 sports the PixelSense display which can give users extremely high contrast and low glare. It can also run the full suite of Office products. It also features one USB 3.0 port, a Mini-DisplayPort and a Micro-SD card slot. Users need to separately purchase the new Surface Pen which comes in five different colours and supports 1,024 levels of pressure, features a tail eraser, connects magnetically and also has interchangeable tips. The new TypeCover is optional as well.

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TP-LINK has introduced Pharos series, an outdoor wireless solution, designed for long distance wireless backhaul, point-to-multipoint connections and outdoor Wi-Fi coverage solutions.

With Qualcomm Atheros enterprise level chipsets, high gain antennas and high power amplifiers, the Pharos series, according to the company, are built to maximise and stabilise long distance wireless transmission performance. In addition, the specially designed weatherproof enclosure and PoE power supply ensure that Pharos series can be used in various weather conditions, from dry to humid, in temperatures from –30°C~70°C. TP-LINK highlights that the Pharos series develops proprietary MAXtream TDMA Technology to improve wireless performance of large scale network in complex wireless environments.

Pharos Control – TP-LINK’s Centralised Management Controller Software, allows administrators to easily manage all the devices in their network from any PC, with no extra cost or special training. Functions like device discovery, status monitoring, firmware upgrading, and network maintenance can be all be remotely managed.

USA | UAE | KSA | KUWAIT | QATAR | BAHRAIN | OMAN | EGYPT | TURKEY | SOUTH AFRICA

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hot products

Samsung unveils Gear S2 Samsung Electronics has launched the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch in the UAE this month. Unveiled at the company’s pop-up shop at Dubai Mall, the Samsung Gear S2 is its latest release in the wearables category.

The Samsung Gear S2 comes in a versatile, circular design with an intuitive, custom UX and advanced features that allow users to enhance and personalise their mobile experience.

The device’s rotating bezel, along with the Home and Back buttons, ensure that users will have a quicker, more precise method to comfortably access notifications and applications.

Introduced in two different options – the Gear S2 Classic and the Gear S2 Sport –the device is only 11.4-millimeter thick. It also offers a vibrant viewing experience for a smartwatch, thanks to its 1.2inch circular screen and its 360 x 360 resolution (302 ppi). The Gear S2 is also powered by the latest Tizen OS and an optimized 1.0 - GHz dual core processor, letting the Samsung Gear S2 perform tasks easily and efficiently.

The Samsung Gear S2 Sport will be available in a Dark Gray case with a Dark Gray band and Silver case with a White band. The Samsung Gear S2 Classic will be available in a Black case with a Leather band.

The Samsung Gear S2 Sport and Gear S2 Classic are available at major retailers in the UAE for AED 1,199 and AED 1,399, respectively.

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Eaton announces new Automatic Transfer Switches Eaton has introduced two new automatic power transfer switches (ATS) that offer an easy and inexpensive way of implementing dual-source redundancy for new and existing IT and networking installations.

The new ATS 16 and ATS 30 provide enhanced operational security by allowing equipment with only a single power input to be supplied from two independent power sources. This enables customers to ensure business continuity, resilience and uptime, even if one of the power sources fails.

Both products occupy only 1U of rack space and provide fully automatic seamless switching between power

sources. The ATS 16 is rated at 16 A and has two IEC C20 connectors for power inputs and eight IEC C13 plus one IEC C19 connector for power output to supported equipment. It incorporates, as standard, an LCD that provides metering and basic configuration capabilities.

The ATS 30 is the only 30 A automatic transfer switch on the market and uses hard-wired connections for both input and output, according to the company. It also includes integral network facilities, available as an option on the ATS 16, and network connectivity allowing users to access, configure and manage the units from remote locations.

ZOTAC’s ZBOX BI323 and CI323 nano Mini PCs Zotac International has introduced a more capable and more energy efficient ZBOX Mini PC with Intel Braswell processors.

Both ZBOX BI323 and CI323 nano are powered by an Intel N3150 quad-core processor utilising a 14 nanometer low-power process with tri-gate transistors, vastly improving energy efficiency without compromising computing power. The company is also introducing a USB 3.0 Type-C port on the front for hassle-free expansion or connectivity on both models.

Connect up to three displays to see more, do more, and be more productive with more screen space with a box a fraction of the size of desktop PCs. With DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA connectivity,

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the added flexibility with more display compatibility adds a wider window of uses.

The ZBOX BI323 and CI323 nano are also available in PLUS versions, preinstalled with 4GB memory and a 120GB SSD for nimble OS and application load times.

The devices are easily upgradable with tool-less access to SO-DIMM memory slots and 2.5-inch HDD/SSD bay for further customisation.

The ZBOX BI323 and CI323 nano also come with Windows 10 Home models.

A W A R D S

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& MEet 23rd & 24th November, 2015 Grand Millennium Al Barsha, Dubai, UAE

www.resellerme.com/hot50MEet Join us for Reseller Middle East’s annual Hot 50 Awards and inaugural Reseller MEet on 23rd and 24th November, 2015 respectively.

The Hot 50 Awards honour channel players who have worked effectively to create value in the industry. The Awards are open to vendors, distributors, resellers, systems integrators and power retailers.

For the first time in the region, Reseller Middle East is organising an enterprise channel meet – Reseller MEet, offering vendors and distributors an opportunity to target partners they want to know better in a unique format, which allows a mix of methods such as – one-to-one meetings, company booths and private lunch.

To make the most of these two flagships events, hurry and contact us now.

Event Partners

For sponsorship enquiries Rajashree Rammohan Publishing Director raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5685 +971 50 173 9987 Chris Stevenson Commercial Director chris.stevenson@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5674 Kausar Syed Group Sales Director kausar.syed@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 1647 Merle Carrasco Sales Manager merle.carrasco@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5676 For general and agenda-related enquiries Jeevan Thankappan Group Editor jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 375 5678 For registration enquiries CPI Events Team +971 4 440 9100 bitevents@cpimediagroup.com

Column

Channel surfing Reseller Middle East’s deputy editor offers her thoughts on the Middle Eastern technology channel.

Janees Reghelini, Deputy Editor, Reseller ME

Quality vs. quantity A growing number of channel players are looking to optimise their business by ensuring they go to market with fewer but more focused partners. While many players have already implemented this approach, others are going to follow suit.

Also, with challenging market conditions, regional players are on the lookout for ways to streamline business. In such a scenario, partners need to carve a niche or specialisation for themselves in order to stay relevant. And I believe partners are gradually realising this and are trying to make this happen. If vendors are going with just a few partners, then they need to evaluate how they can be the chosen ones. At the same time, they shouldn’t be in a haste to be chosen by just any vendor. Both parties need to see how they are relevant to

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each other’s business. Shortterm profits can be made one way or the other, the challenge is to maintain the growth over time, and for this partners should concentrate on being an expert in their line of business. While the market has begun conversations about moving towards solutions selling, it will be a long way off before we see a noticeable uptake within the channel community. But that is eventually the future, where partners are in a position to offer comprehensive solutions within a single technology in a specific vertical. Customers demand for a high-level of expertise, vendors depend on focused partners to meet those expectations.

Be sure to take a look at this month’s feature on partner training and certification, which gives an in-depth view on why and how partners should upskill to stay

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differentiated. Most players know why it is important, but sometimes it is a matter of looking at it with single-minded focus and actually going about doing it.

On a separate note, GITEX 2015 was a successful one for us. If I had to mention one takeaway from the event, it would be that the show saw many vendors leveraging the strength of their partners with more emphasis on solutions selling. This is interesting as it indicates where we can expect the market to be in a few years’ time.

We are hosting Reseller MEet this month, an inaugural event, which offers vendors a platform to have one-on-one meetings with relevant enterprise channel partners, all in a single day. We are well underway with our pre-event planning and expect it to be a hit.

You will hear all about it next month, until then that’s all from me.

Here’s an idea: Design the smallest, fastest, smartest LaserJets ever.

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We started with a blank page and asked “What do businesses need now?” The result is the all-new HP LaserJets, built around a breakthrough in toner chemistry. Thanks to new Original HP Toner with JetIntelligence, the new LaserJets are up to 40% smaller, up to 40% faster and use up to 53% less energy.1

The world’s most preferred printers: Worldwide printer market share, and HP printer brand awareness, consideration, and preference study in 9 markets 2014.

Based on HP internal testing of predecessor devices completed 1/2015 or published information and subject to device settings. Actual results may vary. Faster refers to First Page Out Time (FPOT). For energy efficiency, the HP M252 is 15%, HP M277 is 16% and the HP M553 is 53% lower versus predecessor. For details see hp.com/go/ljclaims © Copyright 2015 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

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