Reseller Middle East September 2016

ISSUE 237 | SEPTEMBER 2016 www.resellerme.com

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CONTENTS STRATEGIC VAD PARTNER

ISSUE 237 // SEPTEMBER 2016

26

COVER FEATURE

TRIED & TRUSTED

Asim S. AlJammaz, Vice President, AlJammaz Distribution, shares factors behind the company’s success over the last two decades in the IT channel business.

REVIEW

HIGHLIGHTS 6

News

34

Centre of transformation

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

Reseller ME puts the spotlight on the regional data centre market and the opportunities it presents for the channel community.

OPINION

41

Reimagining IT

24

Network revolution

Claire Jones from Juniper Networks, discusses how redefining the role of networking can create new opportunities for businesses.

Reseller ME features GITEX 2016 top players to look out for, their plans for the show and how channel partners can best optimise the prospects.

FEATURE 30

Find and retain

Reseller ME speaks to industry experts to find out how talent can be nurtured at the partner level.

VENDOR FOCUS 52

Open curriculum

Red Hat’s Lee Miles shares insights on open source and the role partners can play in this ecosystem.

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ZenPad 10 Z300C

HOT PRODUCT

57

Samsung unveils Galaxy Note7 in ME region

LEADING NEW ICT

BUILDING A BETTER CONNECTED WORLD

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EDITORIAL FOUNDER, CPI MEDIA GROUP Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Publishing Director Rajashree Rammohan raj.ram@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9100 EDITORIAL Group Editor Jeevan Thankappan jeevan.thankappan@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9129 Deputy Editor Janees Reghelini janees.reghelini@cpimediagroup.com +971 4 440 9167

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Big Data has been a buzzword in the IT market for a while now, and dust is just about settling down after all the hype. According to a new report from SNS Research, Big Data market in terms of products and services is already worth $46 billion, and is projected to reach $72 billion by 2020. Though hardware sales and services account for a lion’s share of current revenue, the research firm says software revenue will surpass hardware investment by more than seven billion in the forecast period. And if various industry analysts are to be believed, this could just be the proverbial tip of the iceberg; surveys show that among companies that have made spending on business intelligence and data warehousing a priority, only one-quarter are including Big Data in their investment plans.

IDC divides the whole Big Data market into three major submarkets – infrastructure, software and services. The research firm predicts all these markets will grow over the next five years, with professional services and support services growing at a fast clip, second only to software. This should come as good news for channel looking for new growth opportunities. So far, the market for Big Data has not gained much steam because of two major reasons – there hasn’t been much user awareness and it is hard to realise the benefits of Big Data without people with the right IT skills, especially data scientists.

Though channel can’t do much about filling the skills gap, partners can really take the charge in creating user awareness about the benefits Big Data brings to the table. For that to happen, partners should take the veneer of technical wizardry off Big Data and show their customers how this technology can help meet their business objectives. The verticals that are projected to spend the most on Big Data include manufacturing, banking, retail and media. Partners, especially those ones who are already selling BI solutions, should tap into these opportunities by creating a compelling value proposition – end-to-end Big Data solutions entailing software, services and hardware (computing, networking and storage).

Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 Printed by Printwell Printing Press © Copyright 2016 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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HIGHLIGHTS

Samsung appoints Aptec as Gulf region distributor

Sherif Fahim, Samsung Gulf and Bahaa Salah, Aptec

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amsung has appointed Aptec, an Ingram Micro company, as the official distributor for the Gulf region for its range of enterprise-focused printing solutions.

Sherif Fahim, Head of Printing Solutions, Samsung Gulf Electronics, said, “We are certain that Aptec’s geographical coverage, decades of experience, extensive customer base and value-added services, especially within the Gulf, will create a whole new range of possibilities for our printing technology. Primed to deliver substantial cost savings to businesses and boost

their mobility and productivity, our printing solutions range from hardware to business applications.”

Bahaa Salah, Managing Director, Aptec, Gulf and Near East region, added, “This partnership with Samsung presents a great and exciting opportunity to further enhance and enrich our enterprise solutions offerings to the channel. As a key point in the value chain, we strive to create sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programmes, logistics services, technical support, financial services, and product aggregation and distribution.”

According to Samsung its growing printing solutions portfolio now includes the latest in the ProXpress series. Set to lower total cost of ownership with a larger toner capacity and reduced power consumption (with Instant Fusing System technology), the ProXpress C3060 series with its Dual CPU (800MHz and 400MHz) ensures better productivity by cutting print times.

Optoma and Mustek forge new partnership in South Africa Optoma, a designer and manufacturer of projection and audio products, has announced that it has formed a new distribution partnership with Mustek Limited, for its operations in South Africa.

Effective immediately, Mustek will bring Optoma’s business and IT range of projectors to South Africa and its surrounding regions. Nick Price, Territory Manager, Optoma said, “We are delighted to announce Mustek as our new distribution partner in South Africa. With three decades’ experience, we’ve witnessed that they have a great knowledge of the local market and an excellent reputation for supplying high quality

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global brands which have real synergy with Optoma.”

David Kan, CEO, Mustek, said, “We look forward to developing a strong partnership with Optoma, which already has a good reputation across South Africa. We supply the biggest top tier ICT brands to the country and firmly believe this alliance will enhance our portfolio of products and brands that we can offer our customers.”

Mustek will be stocking Optoma’s popular, bright projectors such as the S321, S341 X341 and W331.

These SVGA, XGA and WXGA desktop models are lightweight and portable and offer great connectivity with brilliant image quality.

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Levtech Consulting receives accolade for Microsoft Dynamics Levtech Consulting has announced that it got into the 2016 Inner Circle for Microsoft Anilesh Kumar, Dynamics.

Levtech Consulting According to Microsoft, Inner Circle members are those companies that have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help customers achieve increased success. 2016 Inner Circle members are invited to the Inner Circle Summit, taking place in St. Pete Beach, Florida, in October 2016, where they will have a unique opportunity to share strategy and network with Microsoft senior leaders and fellow partners.

“We are delighted to be a part of the elite Inner Circle again, in 2016. As an organisation we have been consistently growing our focus on quality across the board, be it in sales, implementation services, customer support or other aspects. Over the last year, we have been through our own journey of reinventing our business internally, and have successfully achieved many improvements such as the creation of a product development unit, independent project governance body and layered support teams within Levtech, which are now translating into efficiency and cost benefits for our customers. We are working on many more innovative initiatives to help serve our customers better, while looking to aggressively expand in terms of product offerings, territorial reach and industry focus,” said Anilesh Kumar, CEO, Levtech Consulting.

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HIGHLIGHTS

ManageEngine enhances Analytics Plus ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, has announced that the latest version of its self-service IT analytics Sridhar Iyengar, software, ManageEngine Analytics Plus, integrates with its IT operations and monitoring and customer support solutions.

According to company, Analytics Plus now goes beyond ITSM analytics to help enterprises derive insights from the data generated

by ManageEngine’s network monitoring, applications monitoring and customer support software.

The new version of Analytics Plus is generally available now.

“IT teams often look at data from various tools individually, so they miss out on the holistic picture as well as the patterns and anomalies they need to strategically address problems and plan for the future,” said Sridhar Iyengar, Vice President, Product Management, ManageEngine. “Analytics Plus depicts unified IT dashboards by extracting and analysing data from different tool sets embedded in an organisation’s IT and by providing cross-data analytics, all with an easy drag-and-drop user interface.”

The latest version of Analytics Plus is generally available today in two editions and is licensed based on the number of users accessing it. The Personal edition is free. The Professional edition starts at an annual cost of $1,995 and includes two users and a 30-day, free trial.

Additional users are priced under $200 per user per year.

Perpetual buyout license and OEM white-labeling options are also available.

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CMCS forges reseller partnership with TimeXtender

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MCS has recently announced that it entered into a reseller partnership with TimeXtender (TX), a provider of Data Warehouse Automation (DWA) software for Microsoft SQL Server.

The agreement will enable CMCS to offer its clients in the Middle East, North Africa and India TimeXtender’s DWA software alongside advanced solutions from Swedish business intelligence software developer Qlik.

According to both companies, the collaboration will capitalise on TimeXtender’s status as a Qlik Technology Partner to provide existing and future CMCS customers with access to TX DWA coupled with either the Qlik Sense visual analytics or QlikView data discovery tools.

Bassam Samman, CEO, CMCS, said, “Through our landmark partnership with TimeXtender we can now provide our

markets with an integrated solution that harnesses the power of TX DWA side by side with the superior visual analytics Bassam Samman, CMCS and business intelligence platforms of Qlik. This combined package will empower our customers to maximise their corporate data to produce high-quality analytics for making the best decisions, thus enhancing total cost of ownership and accelerating time to value.”

The integrated package to be offered

by CMCS under its reseller partnership with TimeXtender aims to provide data protection while bringing customers analytical visual presentation. According to the company, this offering will help organisations benefit from a modern data infrastructure.

TP-Link unveils new look and brand identity TP-Link has unveiled a complete transformation of its brand, which according to the company, aligns with the consumers’ connected lifestyles.

Celebrating more than 20 years of leadership in the networking space, TP-Link has evolved its offerings from wireless technology, to new products in the Smart Home, smartphone and smart accessory categories. With this in mind, the company felt it was important to revamp its brand with a fresh look.

“Over the past 20 years, TP-Link’s R&D team has consistently evolved to meet the needs of our tens of millions of customers. Now, we’re embarking on a new journey to meet the needs of today’s connected lifestyles,” said Jeffrey Chao, Chairman and President, TP-Link. “As our product portfolio

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continues to grow, it is time for our brand to follow suit. We’re excited to introduce the new TP-Link to the world in the coming months and we can’t wait to bring our customers more dynamic products and enhanced experiences.”

To align with this new corporate strategy, TP-Link also made a number of updates to its corporate identity and the visual representation of its brand. The company’s new tagline, “Reliably Smart,” follows the heritage of the former tagline, while emphasising its move into smart products. It has also updated the logo design to all lowercase and the spelling of its name to TP-Link, instead of TP-LINK, bringing it in line with a simpler approach.

HIGHLIGHTS

axiom launches new concept store in Abu Dhabi Mall

a

xiom Telecom has launched a new shopping concept in Abu Dhabi Mall, which marks its third store renovation in the UAE after Dubai Festival City and The Dubai Mall.

“Abu Dhabi shoppers are largely comprised of young millennials who are looking for a non-traditional retail experience, one characterised by the ability to experience products before making a purchase,” said Fahad Al Bannai, CEO, axiom Telecom. “Today’s

customers are tech-savvy and know exactly what they are looking for in a product. Not only do they have specific requirements – they are searching for ways to make the most of their product and maximise their return on investment. This consumer thirst for experiential shopping is what inspired the creation of our new store concept, which we are introducing for the first time in Abu Dhabi.”

Among the many exciting new services shoppers will discover at axiom is ‘X-Customs’, an are

where customers can get their smartphones personalised.

Visitors can also take their mobile experience to the next level can choose from a host of accessories, including products from industry leaders Beats, Fitbit, Jawbone, JBL, Monster, Merlin, and SanDisk. From the latest in wearables to connected devices, such as virtual reality headsets, 360-degree cameras, and truly wireless Bluetooth headphones, axiom provides a selection of the latest that mobile technology has to offer.

Live demo stations make it possible for customers to experience some of these exciting technologies and accessories before making a purchase. Meanwhile, the new du service desk at axiom allows customers to immediately activate their phone through a host of attractive packages.

Customers can also benefit from axiom’s signature value-added services, which include extended warranty, damage protection, priority repair, pick-up and delivery for phone repairs, and trade-in offers.

STME launches Veritas-NetApp archival solution STME has launched as new deployments. an integrated solution By bundling archiving from two vendors, licenses and physical Veritas and NetApp. storage together, the The bundle, based on bundle helps reduce Veritas Enterprise Vault overall information in conjunction with management costs.

NetApp FAS storage “Archiving is the arrays, combines ideal tool for protecting, solutions from both organising, and searching Ayman Al Bayaa, STME vendors to provide data, helping to meet clients with a comprehensive compliance and eDiscovery archival solution. requirements. The combined Veritas According to STME, the combined and NetApp solution complements Veritas and NetApp bundle is a fully an organisation’s existing backup customisable archiving solution implementation. Archives are for for customers from any industry. discovery, while backups are for It works as a drop-in system for recovery,’’ said Ayman Al Bayaa, existing IT environments as well CEO, STME.

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STME further highlighted that archiving solutions improve many areas of data protection and IT operations. For example, by archiving ‘stale’ data from primary applications, such as Microsoft SharePoint or Windows-based file servers, the storage footprint of these applications can be reduced, improving both backup and recovery performance. In addition, by using archiving, and not backup, for long-term information retention, organisations can optimise data protection strategies – for example, transitioning from keeping backups forever to shorter retention tailored to meet recovery point and time objectives.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Epicor expands cloud-first strategy to the Middle East

also been warmly received by the partner community.

“As a channel partner, our ability to compete and stay relevant in the market hinges on us tailoring our business model to be in line with the latest technology and customer buying models. I see building a cloud practice as key to this strategy. By offering cloud solutions, Epicor is helping us on this journey by allowing us to strengthen our value proposition to both our existing and new customers,” said Vetri Selvan, Managing Partner, RheinBrücke IT Consulting.

E

picor economic climate with Software depressed oil-prices, cloud Corporation solutions also offer lower has total cost of ownership announced its (TCO).” new cloud-first strategy Building on the for Epicor ERP momentum of its deployments in the region. successful move of Sabby Gill, Executive hundreds of multi-tenant Vice President, Epicor Epicor cloud customers Sabby Gill, Epicor International, said, “Over to the new Epicor ERP the last couple of years, we have 10.1 release in the United States seen a growing appetite for cloud and parts of Asia, Epicor is now solutions from existing and new expanding its global cloud footprint customers. Rolling out our cloudin the Middle East and Egypt. first strategy in the Middle East According to the company, its means ERP customers in the region ERP Cloud is based on the nextcan now leverage cloud deployment generation Epicor ERP solution and benefits including business combines the feature set of Epicor consistency, worry-free security, ERP with the business and technical hassle free upgrades, reduced risk benefits of cloud deployment. and faster time to value. Perhaps The company’s decision to offer most importantly, given the current cloud solutions in the region has

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Meta Byte inks partnership with Planview Meta Byte the requirements Technologies has of our customers announced that in the region.” said it signed a new Salil Dighe, founder partnership with and CEO, Meta Byte Planview, a company Technologies. “With focused on work and Planview´s world resource management. class solutions and Under the best practices, agreement, Meta Byte together with our will leverage Planview’s Salil Dighe, Meta Byte local experience and solution to further consulting capabilities, elevate its ability to deliver project we can help our customers and portfolio management and capture new opportunities, by enterprise resource planning optimising their resources and solutions throughout the region. financing capacity.”

“We are delighted to partner In addition to selling Planview’s with award-winning PPM solution products and solutions, Meta provider, Planview, and look Byte will also be responsible for forward to forging an enduring implementation and integration partnership to successfully meet services, project management

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consulting, process change and best practices consulting, product development process expertise, and much more.

Thom Everett, Executive Vice President Global Sales Operations, Planview, said, “This partnership will provide enterprises with a robust solution that delivers the capabilities required to manage and improve the visibility into tasks and projects of all sizes and types. Meta Byte with their ability and capability to deliver successful projects across various verticals in Middle East combined with the power of Planview solutions, will be of great benefit to those enterprises looking to transform their planning and execution capabilities.”

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HIGHLIGHTS

jetNEXUS appoints SCD as Middle East distributor

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pecialist will have access to free Computer technical training.

Distribution Greg Howett, CEO (SCD) has of jetNEXUS, said, “We announced are delighted to be that it has been appointed working with SCD, and as the Middle East selected them as a distributor of jetNEXUS, the distributor for the Middle provider of load balancing East based on their Greg Howett, jetNEXUS and Application Delivery impeccable reputation (ADC) technology. and proven track record in taking According to SCD the agreement next generation technologies to will accelerate jetNEXUS’ growth in market. This appointment builds the Middle East, while opening up upon the success and growth of the significant new revenue streams jetNEXUS partner programme and for SCD resellers through the will address an increased demand sale of advanced load balancing for advanced application delivery technology solutions. technology across Mid-Enterprise jetNEXUS, in association with organisations. With an established SCD will run a formal, technical reseller network and a wealth of accreditation programme to ontechnical resource and support, SCD board partners and help them better is superbly positioned to add genuine understand the technology and value in the channel, and together potential sales opportunities it offers. we aim to help resellers maximise For a limited time only, partners significant revenue opportunities

with our high-quality load balancing solution defined by ease-of-use, cost effectiveness and flexibility.”

With an established reseller network and a wealth of technical resource and support, SCD is superbly positioned to add genuine value in the channel, and together we aim to help resellers maximise significant revenue opportunities.”

UAE homes increasingly getting ‘smarter’ The typical UAE home is witnessing a momentous transformation, according to industry experts, one characterised by the increased adoption of smart technologies – enabling residents to interact with their home in a way they never have before.

According to research firm MarketsandMarkets, the Smart Home market – classified on the basis of products in lighting, security and access, HVAC, entertainment, healthcare, and kitchenware, is expected to reach $121.73 billion by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate of 14.07 percent between 2016 and 2022.

Fahad Al Bannai, CEO, axiom Telecom, believes the GCC – the UAE and Saudi Arabia in particular

further enable the Smart Home evolution. The UAE is estimated to have the region’s highest per capita smartphone – will play an important penetration rate, at an role in this rapid global estimated 73.8 percent, growth. “If you look at the according to Google, as population here in the UAE, well as a wide 4G LTE you see many millennials network that covers 85 who are growing into percent of the country’s adulthood and starting to populated areas. have families, yet are still In addition to passionate about exploring Fahad Al Bannai, axiom Telecom providing a robust the world and advancing data network, both their careers,” he said.

“Many of them will rely on technology operators are taking their own initiative to help residents embrace to help them strike that balance Smart Home technology. Etisalat between home, work, and leisure. offers ‘Smart Living’, a unified Today’s mobile applications, backed approach to home automation by a reliable 4G – soon to be 5G – data network, make it possible to stay that integrates home monitoring, security, safety, and air connected wherever life takes them.”

The country’s telecommunications conditioning management into one system that can be managed from operators, Etisalat and du, have a smartphone, tablet, or computer. launched a variety of offerings to

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HIGHLIGHTS

ThreatQuotient, Help AG partner for Middle East expansion

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elp AG has signed security investments a reseller have been falling victim agreement with to data breaches that ThreatQuotient. disrupt business, cause As the the loss of sensitive vendor’s first regional company data that partner, Help AG has achieved ultimately results in the Gold Partner status under irreparable damage to ThreatQuotient’s Threat their brand. This makes Alliance Program (TAP) and threat intelligence a Stephan Berner, Help AG will offer the ThreatQ threat critical element of a intelligence platform to enterprises business’s security posture,” said looking to augment their Security Stephan Berner, CEO, Help AG. “The Intelligence and Event Management benefits of threat intelligence are (SIEM) capabilities or build their own widely backed by the IT security Security Operations Centers. Help community. As a case in point, recent AG will also utilise the platform for its research by the Ponemon Institute own 24×7 Managed Security Services found that 80 percent of IT decision (MSS) offering. makers whose organisations suffered “In recent years, even large data breaches believe having threat organisations with significant IT intelligence at the time of the breach

could have prevented or minimised the consequences of the attack.”

The focus of the agreement is on enterprise-sized customers and Help AG intends to offer ThreatQ to organisations from the banking and finance, government, oil and gas, retails, telco, and media industries.

80 percent of IT decision makers whose organisations suffered data breaches believe having threat intelligence at the time of the breach could have prevented the attack.”

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HIGHLIGHTS

VMware announces new partner reward programme

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Mware has all clouds and devices, with announced a unparalleled connectivity, new incentive security and visibility. The and reward company’s partners now programme for have an opportunity to partners delivering their deliver this, with a broader solutions and services, portfolio of products including NSX, virtual SAN and services that move JP Barleaza, VMware and AirWatch. beyond core virtualisation.

The new programme called Partners are now being significantly Advantage+, according to the company, rewarded financially, and supported marks a significant investment by for driving sales in areas that are VMware into its partner ecosystem, showing strong market momentum, which total more than 33,000 partners including virtualised networking, in EMEA. It aims to accelerate partnerstorage networking, end-user driven revenue and reward them for computing, business mobility and creating pipelines for these more cloud management. innovative solutions.

The enhancements to the According to VMware, public Advantage+ programme include and private sector organisations providing participating partners with are increasingly looking to them to increased upfront margins of up to help them run, manage, secure and 30 percent and auto-validation on connect their applications across deal registrations.

Gartner, IDC recognise Polycom as ‘leader’ in videoconferencing Gartner and IDC, have separately recognised Polycom as a Leader in the videoconferencing market.

Polycom has been positioned as a leader in Gartner’s July 2016 Group Video Systems Magic Quadrant for the second consecutive year.

In addition, the company was also named a “Leader” in the IDC MarketScape Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing Equipment 2016 Vendor Assessment report.

The IDC MarketScape noted that Polycom “has been recognised for its best-of-breed approach in the video collaboration market” while also emphasising that Polycom solutions “integrate directly with Microsoft Skype for Business/

Lync without gateways, resulting Jim Kruger, Polycom in reduced complexity, lower costs, and a single workflow for a better user experience.”

“We believe the recognition of two of the industry’s most influential analyst firms provides validation of our vision, strategy and solutions in the video collaboration market,” said Jim Kruger, Chief Marketing Officer, Polycom. “Polycom is pleased to be recognised as a Leader in open standards-based interoperability which is critical for creating a broader network of people to connect with.”

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NSFOCUS IB partners with Spectrami and MDS Computers NSFOCUS IB has confirmed its new partnership with Spectrami and MDD Computers, continuing its expansion into Africa and the Middle East.

“We’re extremely excited by the opportunities this partnership opens up to us and we are pleased to expand the NSFOCUS portfolio in the MENA region,” said Anand Choudha, Managing Director, Spectrami. “NSFOCUS being a global player in providing enterprise-level network security solutions and services enables Spectrami to offer an even richer security portfolio, better addressing both regional and international customer demands in today’s complex security environment.”

Under the partnership, Spectrami will work closely with the vendor’s global sales and support teams to ensure its channel partners receive strong pre-sales, marketing, implementation and post-sales services. The goal is to effectively sell NSFOCUS’ complete suite of cloud security, network security and application security solutions to customers, “enabling them to mitigate risk, protect their valued assets and maintain continuity of their business.”

Meanwhile, NSFOCUS’ partnership with MDS Computers will centre on bringing the latest security solutions in the Middle East. “We work with the best vendors in the industry to provide turnkey IT solutions for all business needs. We have received many awards including Top EG MEMA partner from Hewlett Packard.

We are extremely excited by the opportunities this partnership opens up for us,” said Mohieddin Kharnoub, Head of Networking and Security, MDS Computers.

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For more information, please contact ARROW team on + 971 4 501 5814 | marketing.ecs.ae@arrow.com | www.arrowecs.ae

HIGHLIGHTS

Redington Value Distribution partners with Pivot3

R

edington Value and when they can apply them move from legacy data centre Distribution has HCI infrastructures storage environments to softwarepartnered with with simplicity, along defined storage.”

Pivot3, an with providing a innovator in the high performance With Pivot3’s development of environment”, which is offerings to hyperconverged easily scalable with a infrastructure (HCI) real “pay-as-you-grow” customers in Rajesh Mathrani, Redington solutions. According to both approach.

Value Distribution industries such as companies, the partnership “While the HCI market aims to bring smarter infrastructure has been growing exponentially for hospitality, surveillance, solutions to enterprise customers years, this innovative technology is healthcare, across the region. only just beginning to penetrate the transportation, Redington Value offers products Enterprise Data Centre,” said Rajesh and solutions in the Enterprise Data Mathrani, GM Sales ME, Redington Value entertainment, Centre domain across technologies Distribution. “With Pivot3’s offerings education, insurance ranging from compute, storage, to customers in industries such as network, software, security, hospitality, surveillance, healthcare, and retail, we believe virtualisation, high availability, business transportation, entertainment, Redington Value now continuity and cloud along with a education, insurance and retail, we host of offerings across the voice and believe Redington Value and its partners has a unique solution, Unified Communications space. now have a unique solution, which can which can address the Pivot3 is specialises in HCI, with address the need of these industries, need of these their offerings providing customers while providing customers complete industries.” with “immense flexibility on how control over their deployments, helping

D-Link to cement ISP business in MENA D-Link has revealed that it is “strengthening its business and focus” in the Internet ser vice provider (ISP) market, as the company continues to grow its capabilities in this segment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

According to the vendor, the move to focus on the ISP market comes at a time when ISPs in MENA continue to fine tune their businesses as they look to expand their customer base.

Sakkeer Hussain, Director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa (MEA), said that they view the ISP sector as a very important market for the company and its partner ecosystem. The company has

is witnessing in this vertical is that we continue to customise solutions to suit each and every ISP we work with. a dedicated team and Through our partner warehousing facility in programme, we have Dubai that stocks products decided to raise the for the ISP market. “The ISP game in the ISP space business is a bit complex as more partners are because ISPs require looking to cross-sell products that have been solutions in the IT and customised to suit their telecommunications requirements,” he said.

Sakkeer Hussain, D-Link space. This is spreading “Unlike our consumer and across MEA with government, SMB business, the ISP solutions private sector and telecom require customisations tailored at providers all getting involved.” specific solutions they want to take He said D-Link will “continue to to market.” build a strong team” to serve ISPs Hussain said D-Link’s ISP by providing customised solutions business is “doing well and to them. “With all that we have contributing positively” to the done in this space, we wouldn’t overall revenue figure. “Currently, have accomplished this if we didn’t we work with ISPs in various Middle invest in our technical hub in East and Africa countries, and a key Dubai,” he said. element in the success the company

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APPOINTMENTS

INDUSTRY APPOINTMENTS Cisco Middle East names new MD for East region

Cisco Middle East has announced that Shukri Eid has been appointed Managing Director of its Shukri Eid, Cisco Middle East East Region effective immediately.

In his new role, Eid will lead the Cisco’s business in the UAE, Oman, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen and work closely with partners to support private and public sector customers in their efforts to digitise and transform their operations.

Eid is a Cisco veteran of nearly 10 years and has worked in multiple leadership capacities across the organisation. In addition to his focus on developing and delivering on business strategy, Eid will champion people development and build on the momentum achieved in making Cisco one of the most attractive places to work for top talent in the technology sector.

“I look forward to my new role during what is an exciting time for Cisco and the region. The time is ripe to harness the power of digitization and there is greater need from our partners, customers and governments across our markets to help accelerate their journeys towards becoming smarter, more competitive and more connected in the new economy,” said Shukri Eid, Managing Director – East Region, Cisco Middle East. “Our talented team and expanding portfolio of solutions place us at the forefront of their efforts to capture this immense potential.”

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Ericsson Middle East announces executive leadership changes As part of the recent structural changes to strengthen strategy execution to drive growth and profitability, Ericsson in the Middle East region has announced new appointments to its leadership team.

The following members assumed the following executive leadership responsibility – Isil Yalcin has been appointed Head of Network Products for Ericsson, Middle East; Chafic Traboulsi has been appointed Head of Network Services for Ericsson, Middle East; Teemu Salmi has been appointed Head of IT and Cloud for Ericsson, Middle East.

Rafiah Ibrahim, President, Ericsson Region Middle Isil Yalcin, Ericsson East and Africa Middle East said, “These appointments will enable us to continue adding value to our customers and drive their transformation agenda.

“I look forward to drive this exciting part of the business. Our key focus is innovation to continuously introduce the most advanced technology solutions to our customers” said Yalcin, Head of Network Products, Ericsson.

Paladion appoints new President and COO

Suni Gupta, Paladion

Paladion has announced the appointment of Sunil Gupta, a former COO from Infosys’ EdgeVerve, as its new President and Chief Operating

Officer.

In this new role, Gupta will be responsible for the business strategies and outcomes in MEA and India, and will direct all business units and delivery.

Sunil Gupta, President and COO, Paladion, said, “My immediate emphasis will be on operational efficiency and to

expand Paladion’s footprint into new markets in the pursuit of growth. We will also create new partnerships and business models to deliver greater value to our clients. I look forward to a lasting association with Paladion and a reciprocally progressive impact on both.”

Gupta, who has a B-Tech in Computer Science from NIT Trichy, Madras University, has held several leadership roles over the past 30 years.

These include VP-Engineering in Aricent (erstwhile Hughes Software Systems), CTO in Symphony Teleca, COO in Logica India, and Edgeverve systems (an Infosys company).

TP-Link appoints Business Development Manager

Manoj Mordani, TP-Link

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TP-LINK Technologies has appointed Manoj Mordani as the new Business Development Manager for Mobile Devices in the UAE.

In this new role, Mordani will be responsible for driving, developing and growing TP-LINK’s entire mobile devices business in the UAE channel, providing support to the traditional dealer channels, independent mobile devices retailers and power retailers.

According to the company, Mordani’s appointment as the new

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

Hitachi appoints Regional Sales Director for ME region Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has announced that Assaad El Saadi will lead the Middle East and Pakistan geographies as Regional Sales Director and General Assaad El Saadi, HDS Manager.

In his new role, El Saadi will be responsible for implementing and driving HDS’s development across the regions, working closely with HDS’s headquarters and regional teams to accelerate growth.

Spending over 20 years in the IT sector in the Gulf region, El Saadi comes with experience from Oracle’s Systems line of business, where he successfully led the Gulf region for several years. Prior to his tenure at Oracle, Assaad worked at Sun Microsystems, SAS Institute, Mideast Data Systems and Xerox.

“Recently, HDS has made substantial progress in the Middle East and Pakistan region, and I am looking forward to continue to build and strengthen the ties with existing customers, and grow relationships and solutions for new customers following HDS strategic approach,” said El Saadi. “We will heavily drive our key solutions on; content, enterprise cloud and converged infrastructure, which supports both private and hybrid cloud environments with agility.”

Business Development Manager for Mobile Devices will help TP-LINK to “cement its footprint and business in the reseller and retail segments in the country.”

“I am delighted to join the TPLINK team and look forward to growing this business and cementing the company’s status in the mobile devices segment in the UAE channel,” said Mordani.

Epson appoints new Director of Sales for ME region the Nordics, Middle East Epson has appointed and Africa. After that he Jason Whiley as Director was appointed as Director of Sales for Epson Middle of Business Systems, East. In his new role, where he was responsible Whiley will be responsible for the development for defining and directing and implementation of the sales strategy for strategy for business Epson’s vertical markets in systems products across the Middle East region.

Jason Whiley, Epson ME EMEA. Whiley rejoins “I am excited to be back in Epson having spent three years Epson at a time when Epson Middle as Regional Sales Director for East is on a strong growth path. Our Giesecke and Devrient based focus is to enhance our regional in Dubai. He initially joined the structure, continue to develop company in 1997 as a business our partner network and increase unit manager for the Australian our product and services portfolio business systems division, and to further build on our market later moved to Epson Europe leadership,” said Whiley. “I look in 2006 where he became forward to working with the entire responsible for the development Middle East team to achieve this.” and support of system devices in

Huawei appoints new MD and VP Huawei has announced the appointment of Alaa Elshimy in the role of Managing Director and Vice President for Huawei Enterprise Alaa Elshimy, Huawei Business Group, Middle East. Elshimy will be responsible for overseeing the company’s continued growth in the region.

Elshimy brings a wealth of experience in the regional ICT sector with a career that spans more than 25 years – of which the last 16 years were with HP. Prior to joining Huawei, Elshimy was Managing Director and Vice

President of HP Enterprise Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa, where he specialised in leveraging global resources, team capabilities and customer relationships.

“Huawei is experiencing tremendous growth thanks to its customer-centricity and commitment to developing new ICT solutions through leading innovation that stems from its R&D-driven culture,” said Elshimy. “I am excited to be part of this phenomenal organisation that has established itself as a global ICT leader in such a short span of time, and that is building a successful future based on delivering customer service excellence and innovative technologies for a better connected world.”

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OPINION // JUNIPER NETWORKS

NETWORK REVOLUTION

Claire Jones, Partner Sales Director, Middle East and Africa, Juniper Networks, discusses how redefining the role of networking can create new opportunities for businesses to succeed in the cloud-based digital economy.

Most people love simple-to-use products and services.

Something that is userfriendly, intuitive and which meets their needs perfectly. In a world of multiple choices, with many vendors competing for their business, they not only want the best experience and service but also expect everybody to match – or even surpass – their high level of expectations. As such, many digital businesses have transformed themselves to better meet these sky-high demands by anticipating customer and user preferences and continually innovating to maintain competitive advantage.

This trend is only set to grow in the Middle East. According to a study conducted by Gartner, IT spend in the Middle East market is

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expected to reach $212 billion by 2016, with funds allocated to data centres predicted to touch $5.5 billion by 2019. While it’s great to see such investment being made in emerging technology, it’s important that this is being done wisely. Rather than spending on complex solutions and services that are difficult to maintain and operate, organisations should focus on tailormade solutions for their specific needs.

Continuing the need for simplicity, organisations are always

Reseller Middle East

keen to streamline company operations.

More efficient processes provide many benefits when applied to delivering a rich customer experience, including reduced cost, fewer complaints, fewer errors, and stronger market differentiation. For management, striving for simplicity, closely coupled with innovation, has become a cultural mind-set.

While the owned data centre has long supported business growth, many organisations are now making cloud adoption a

“To ensure a smooth transition towards a data centre network, it’s imperative that businesses work with trusted and experienced channel partners.”

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fundamental part of how they do business. A cloud architecture provides a cost-effective, pay-asyou-go resource that can scale quickly and provide flexible, fast-to-deploy, provisioned services, with applications that can be rapidly spread across geographicallydistributed sites or cloud environments.

As a foundation to the digital business, the network is a critical enabler for enterprises to integrate cloud-based services, especially using hybrid models.

Cloud providers rely on the network to build a flexible and pay-asyou-go infrastructure, which enables them to deliver cost-effective services to their clients.

A simple, well-designed infrastructure can speed up traffic, avoid errors, remove congestion, enforce and maintain ubiquitous security,

while also costing less to operate than traditional networks.

From a data centre perspective, we recommend two key elements to designing a simplified highperformance network:

ARCHITECTURE

Adopting open standards is the ideal route to simplifying network evolution. It increases flexibility, protects legacy equipment and enables the introduction of bestof-breed innovation from a wide development community. Switching, routing and security, coupled with automation and orchestration, should be working in conjunction with an open technology ecosystem to accelerate the deployment and delivery of applications for enterprises and service providers alike.

‘Open’ means publishing APIs that allow partners and customers to talk directly to the operating system and define the network in the manner that best suits their unique needs. It means adding components easily from other vendors as and when you choose, whether it’s network devices, storage or servers.

Customers running bimodal IT, i.e. two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery, one focused on stability and the other on agility, will also benefit from the flexibility and easier integration.

TOPOLOGY

Implementing a topology that reduces the number of tiers to ensure low latency and allow the rapid transfer of data across virtualised environments is imperative. Many traditional data centres still work with a hierarchical tree structure, which was fine in the old client/server environments, but today applications and websites integrate data from numerous geographicallydistributed sources. As a result, the biggest data transfers nowadays are east-west (server-toserver). The preferred topology for new data centre networks is a flattened ‘spine-and-leaf’ approach, which presents a much better foundation on which to build a data centre in terms of scalability, performance, agility and cost.

‘Simple’ from the end user’s perspective also means rapid access to information and short download times.

With many businesses moving towards a service-oriented, scalable infrastructure, flattening the network should empower them to not only create opportunities for deploying automation and virtualisation technologies but also to drive up performance across the network to

improve the overall customer experience.

To ensure a smooth transition towards a data centre network, it’s imperative that businesses work with trusted and experienced channel partners. They should be able to offer flexible, tailored solutions that align with each businesses’ requirements and future growth expansions, while offering on-site and after sales support.

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In short, redefining the role of networking should create new opportunities for businesses to succeed in the digital economy.

Simplicity always wins over complexity in the data centre. This is vital for many businesses in the Middle East that intend to build a network with a strong foundation to help promote innovation throughout their organisation.

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COVER FEATURE // ALJAMMAZ

TRIED AND TRUSTED

In a detailed conversation with Reseller ME, Asim S. AlJammaz, Vice President, AlJammaz Distribution, shares factors behind the company’s success over the last two decades in the IT channel business.

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Reseller Middle East

www.resellerme.com

Could you share an overview of your operations?

We mainly look after the distribution business through first and second tier, targeting retail, SMB, commercial, mid-market and enterprise segments. After 18 years of working in the field of Information Technology, we have established a strong business with coverage and reach of about 95 percent of the Saudi Arabia territory.

We work with systems integrators, VARs, retailers, network solution providers and service providers as our main partners.

Therefore, AlJammaz Distribution’s policy is to serve its partners as a trusted ally, providing them with the loyalty of a business partner and the economics of an outside vendor.

We make sure that our partners receive what they need to run their businesses as well as possible, with maximum efficiency and reliability, so we give them the assurance that we will be there when they need us.

What have been some key developments at AlJammaz in the last year?

Over the last year, we have built the security department and developed our cloud services.

AlJammaz has created a compelling demand generation foundation that vendors and VARs can leverage. Ultimately, we need to help VARs build demand around multi-vendor offerings that combine a group of non-competing vendors.

AlJammaz plays a vital role in achieving this.

Saudi Arabia has always been our focus market. However, we are now also looking at the Gulf market. We aim to replicate our business model and concept ‘incountry value-added distribution’

to other Gulf countries such as UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. We have also opened an office and began operations in Dubai end of last year.

What is your channel strategy for this year?

Our strategy is to develop a strong sales channel including partners and IT pro-community and tightly connect our product marketing initiatives to ensure adequate channel fulfilment. Our aim is to choose the right mix of sales channels and optimise their performance. This includes having the channel and the programmes to support it in place, and also ensuring the measurements are in place to make sure they are accomplishing what we and our vendor partners expect. Regularly monitoring performance and tuning the organisation to execute the strategy is critical to achieving the business results.

in coordination with different vendors. These programmes include workshops and training in different technologies for both, the sales team and the technical team of our partners. We have at least two workshops every week and sometimes six in different cities.

These programmes cover from simple education of technologies to hands-on training on how to install and implement them. We also guide partners through the different tests and certifications.

The third initiative is to empower partners and help them to bundle services and solutions to be able to deliver the project and implement it. We also engage the VAR in a complete package bundle solution from several vendors to offer a comprehensive solution rather than asking the partner to look for the rest.

Could you explain some key channel initiatives undertaken by the company?

We have many programmes and initiatives towards demand generation, enabling and empowering the partners. In demand generation, we have developed joint marketing services and activities working together with our VAR partners. Here we focus on different market verticals to generate demand, leads and manage a pipeline together through joint promotion, events and out bound calls to end customers. The best demand generator that we have seen is when customers are educated on the problems and we show how to address it by using our vendor products and solutions.

On the enablement initiatives front, we provide different programmes to our partners

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“AlJammaz Distribution’s policy is to serve its partners as a trusted ally, providing them with the loyalty of a business partner and the economics of an outside vendor.”

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COVER FEATURE // ALJAMMAZ

How are you enabling your partners to maximise the opportunities within services?

We do this largely by generating leads for resellers to leverage the opportunity. At the same time, we provide a team that can help the reseller with designs, presales and implementation for short-term projects. When it comes to long-term projects, we enable the partner’s team to make them ready to deliver new projects on their own.

Could you share details about the company’s partner programme?

What are the benefits for a valueadded reseller?

Most of our programmes are built together with our vendor partners to help resellers bring more value to their business, to their customers and to differentiate from other VARs in the market. Some of our programmes are related to the specialisation level while others are related to lead generation that help resellers be presented with more opportunities. We continue supporting them even after that – AlJammaz provides white label professional services to systems integrators, which include a complete implementation of projects in storage, IP Communication, UPS and data centres. This way we enable resellers to feel confident when venturing into new opportunities.

Some of the services we provide to resellers include, financials, presales, demand generation, lead generation, after-sales, project implementation, marketing, supply chain services and training and education for VARs and end-users.

What can regional resellers do to optimise prospects in technologies such as cloud, virtualisation and IoT? Resellers need to change their existing strategies, stop running after commodity products and focus on specialised niche market and products. They need to invest in training their team in these new

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Reseller Middle East

AT A GLANCE COMPANY: AlJammaz Distribution HQ: Saudi Arabia YEARS IN OPERATION: 18 VICE PRESIDENT: Asim S. AlJammaz DISTRIBUTION MODEL: Value-added distribution TOP VENDORS: Cisco, EMC, Veritas, VCE, Dell, APC, Panduit TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: Data centres, cloud, IoT and security

technologies, have a three- to fiveyear strategy on how and what they will include in their services portfolio of IoT and study what IoT services the market will need soon.

Cloud is not an option anymore, especially with most organisations looking to cost cut and change their IT from CAPEX to OPEX. The fastest and easiest way to do this is to move to cloud.

What are some factors that have helped AlJammaz Distribution face market challenges?

Being close to our reseller partners is one of our success factors.

Understanding their issues and trying to provide them more support have helped us over the years to do better business. Also, offering new financing programmes, bringing new solutions as per market needs and continuous investments have further helped us grow and face market challenges.

Which of your business divisions have grown the most in this year and what are the factors that have driven this?

Commercial, mid-market and SMB segments of channel resellers have done well this year. The business continues to be strong in these areas especially since these markets were not addressed adequately before.

Many customers in these segments are not yet well-equipped for their communication and infrastructure, however, the market challenges

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today force them to be well ITequipped to compete and run their business.

How do you see the regional channel industry shaping up over the next two years?

Technologies and trends are changing fast, faster than what we have ever seen. We expect large vendors to disappear and small vendors to play important roles. We believe the demand for cloud services will increase while commodity products’ demand will diminish further. Small VARs will exit the business and software developers will play a larger role in the next few years.

Could you share plans for the next few months?

We will continue to look at how to add value to our partners. We believe security is an important subject to invest in. Our strategy includes cloud services and providing an in-country VAD business model in other Gulf countries.

How much growth are you looking to close the year with?

To be honest, we are not expecting large growth this year due to the region’s political and economic issues. We are aiming at a 5 percent increase on growth on last year from the same vendors, but targeting to make some business acquisitions to strength our position in the region.

FIND AND RETAIN

Lack of talent or the skills shortage in the IT channel industry is an issue that crops up in every other business meeting. Even after heavy investments, it continues to be a difficult task to retain good-quality talent. Reseller ME speaks to industry experts to find out how this can be nurtured at the partner level.

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TALENT DEVELOPMENT // FEATURE

The IT space is undergoing several changes with the onset of emerging technologies such as cloud, SDN and IoT transforming operations within organisations. In such a scenario, companies are dependent on talented personnel to carry out functions in this evolving environment. However, the problem arises right from the vendor to the partner level – talented employees are hard to find and harder to retain.

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast: 2014-2019, the Gulf region will post one of the fastest mobile data traffic growth rates, with a 62 percent CAGR. Frida Kleimert, Head of Channel and Commercial Sales, Cisco UAE, says, “In all countries, the networking skills gap is growing – due to this increasing connectivity, the IoT, rising digitisation of all business activity and globalisation of trade and travel.

“As new industries emerge around IoT, the solutions that will be introduced will need partners to provide the connectivity and valueadded services. However, around the world, and especially across the Middle East, there is a significant shortage of people who are qualified to address these trends and required innovations.”

Kleimert believes to address the skills shortage, Middle East governments need to deploy policy and training programmes to help solve the “world’s fastest-growing gap in networking professionals.”

“Through Cisco Networking Academy across the region, we are training students and preparing the future workforce to meet this deficit. Cisco is providing partners with channel

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Frida Kleimert, Head of Channel and Commercial Sales, Cisco UAE

“As new industries emerge around IoT, the solutions that will be introduced will need partners to provide the connectivity and value-added services. However, around the world, and especially across the Middle East, there is a significant shortage of people who are qualified to address these trends and required innovations.”

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FEATURE // TALENT DEVELOPMENT

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.”

Shams Hasan, Enterprise Storage Manager, Dell Middle East, says, finding skilled IT personnel is not the challenge. The problem is that these personnel are not upto-date on new emerging IT trends

71%

Believe the cybersecurity skills gap has a direct negative effect on their organisation.

Source: Intel Security

and technologies that are crucially relevant to businesses today.

“The reasons behind this,” he says, “are because individuals are not able to keep up with the pace of evolution of IT trends. Also, this new speed of change requires a different attitude to upskilling that regional professionals are

Shams Hasan, Enterprise Storage Manager, Dell Middle East

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not acquainted to. Finally, the growing importance of IT as well as the complexities of new trends require something beyond ‘skills’ for customers to trust ‘skilled personnel’- they are seeking a trustable brand.”

The challenge most IT professionals face is that they are expected to fulfil multiple roles within their organisations.

This includes from network and database administration to storage and security and technical support.

Help AG’s CEO Stephan Berner says, “The limited availability of resources, and often the budget constraints associated with employing dedicated means to the various aspects of IT, have meant that even the largest of organisations today struggle with the planning, deployment, management and support of their IT infrastructures. This causes a heavy reliance on technology partners and when these organisations too lack technically proficient resources; it impacts the overall quality of the IT sector in the region.”

Alexander Foroozandé, Channel Manager, META, Infoblox, says cybersecurity is one of the many segments grappling with this problem. And this was also reiterated in one of the findings from a global report, ‘Hacking the Skills Shortage’ released by

“The growing importance of IT as well as the complexities of new trends require something beyond ‘skills’ for customers to trust ‘skilled personnel’they are seeking a trustable brand.”

Reseller Middle East

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Intel Security, in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“A shortage of people with cybersecurity skills results in direct damage to companies, including the loss of proprietary data and IP,” says James A Lewis, Senior Vice President and Director, Strategic Technologies Program, CSIS. “This is a global problem; a majority of respondents in all countries surveyed could link their workforce shortage to damage to their organisation.”

Foroozandé believes one of the ways to tackle it is by staying on top of the latest solutions and products.

He says, “Most vendors provide unique and exclusive access to their partner portals where resellers can find the latest version of their solutions. These portals typically have various different content, tailored to both engineers and sales professionals. Resellers should always request access to these portals and stay up-to-date.”

Aditya Girish, Territory Manager, Middle East, Koenig Solutions, says 42 percent people feel that the best solution to develop the right skill set is for companies to provide training opportunities to their employees.

“Therefore,” he says, “the urgent need is to first develop a learning culture within the organisation.

The next step would be to seek support of IT training experts who can judge the need versus the skill gap currently being faced by the industry, and suggest solutions to fill those gaps accordingly.”

Another challenge that most IT professionals face is that systems and applications change constantly; however many companies delay updating their systems at the same pace.

“This means that some talented potential future team members are behind technically. Hiring companies need to recruit against their culture

Alexander Foroozandé, Channel Manager, META, Infoblox

“Most vendors provide unique and exclusive access to their partner portals where resellers can find the latest version of their solutions. These portals typically have various different content, tailored to both engineers and sales professionals.

Resellers should always request access to these portals and stay upto-date.”

first and skills second and recognise that by offering training to get the employee up to speed technically will attract the top players to their company,” says Claire Donnelly, Senior Consultant, MHC. Once the talent is developed or a person is trained in a particular area, the next necessary steps are to ensure it is a continuous process. And here many organisations fail to succeed.

Omar Akhtar, Regional Channel Manager, Middle East and SAARC, Veeam Software says, “It’s important for vendors, distributors and resellers to be in constant dialogue so that vendors and distributors can understand the skills gap and run regular training programmes to plug that gap.

“It is crucial to create a training or a certification calendar and give resellers advance notice so that they can plan their work schedules accordingly so as to be able to attend these programmes. Veeam in association with our VADS run monthly workshops and provide training on Veeam installation best practices and updates on new technologies so technical resources always have the latest knowledge,” he adds.

Agreeing Donnelly says, training and constant improvement need to form the DNA of a company.

“It should start with the recruitment process, hiring employees with a thirst for knowledge and personal improvement - follow through to the company onboarding programme and tie throughout the companies’ employee review programme, making it the number one priority that the company focus on.

Gamification is one of the innovative and fun ways to encourage learning and in-house training.”

Once investments are made on an employee and they are trained,

82%

Reported a shortage of cybersecurity skills.

Source: Intel Security

the next question is how can they be retained?

Foroozandé says, “It really boils down to the role of the individuals they’re trying to retain. Sales teams are mostly motivated by income and career growth, while engineers mostly by knowledge and technical development.

“It is imperative that the channel community gets this right, as I see a significant increase in employee attrition over the years. Mostly due to increased competition, and frustrations at their current employer where the above points are not addressed. Hire less number of people but make sure you continuously develop and do everything you can to retain them.

Chances are your customers and vendors will notice and will have an immediate and positive impact to your business,” he adds.

According to Cisco’s Kleimert, the shortage of skills in the Middle East channels will continue over the next two to three years. However, she says, this gap in skills shortage will narrow as more people get enabled and trained.

“Cisco plans to work closely and collectively with our partners to enable them with the required skill sets to gear up them for the future.

Progressive public policy, private and public sector partnerships and training programmes can solve Middle East’s IT skills gap in the long run.”

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CENTRE OF TRANSFORMATION Legacy data centres may have been a blue chip company dominated space but today smaller organisations too are eyeing the space, thanks to evolving business models. Reseller ME puts the spotlight on the regional data centre market and the opportunities it presents for the channel community.

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DATA CENTRE SOLUTIONS // FEATURE

Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego

“Middle East organisations are changing their mindset on data centres from a cost centre to driving new business models in the digital economy.

Organisations – from SMEs to large enterprises – are increasingly placing how they manage, store, and analyse their data at the heart of their operations.”

For any organisation today, be it enterprise or a SMB, the data centre is undoubtedly the most critical element of its infrastructure.

More than its basic function of storing, managing and analysing a company’s large amounts of data, it is also a critical component of a firm’s ICT framework.

While several large organisations have their own data centres, increasing costs and complicated business operations are compelling some firms to outsource its data centre management and maintenance requirements.

According to a report, ‘Global SMB Spending on Data Centers Market 2014-2018’ released by Infiniti Research, small to midsize businesses will allocate larger percentages of its technology budgets for data centre services. This will result in a considerable expansion in the sector, leading to a compound annual growth rate of 18.39 percent from 2013 through 2018.

Additionally, an IDC report states that the market for managed and data centre services is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.8 percent between 2013 and 2018 to reach a total of $971.8 million by 2018.

With evolving business priorities, organisations are increasingly looking at reducing its CAPEX and are opting for consumption-based pricing models.

Savitha Bhaskar, COO, Condo Protego, says, “Middle East organisations are changing their mindset on data centres from a cost centre to driving new business models in the digital economy.

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Reseller Middle East SEPTEMBER 2016

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FEATURE // DATA CENTRE SOLUTIONS

Organisations – from SMEs to large enterprises – are increasingly placing how they manage, store, and analyse their data at the heart of their operations.”

Channel partners have a big opportunity in the space provided they play their cards right.

Anoop Sharda, Chief Technology Officer, Buzinessware, says, “Resellers can definitely take advantage of the data centre services ranging all the way from virtual servers, cloud servers, dedicated servers, co-locations spaces and all services in the IAAS space, be it load balancers, database-as-a-service, storage or back-up-as-service, disaster-as-aservice so on and so forth.”

He adds that resellers can begin tapping into the opportunities present by starting to package data centre services along with their existing products and services as add-ons or value-added services for their customers.

“They can give storage services, disaster recovery services, cloud connections, virtual private cloud, hybrid cloud services and the like.”

Bhaskar believes channel partners and systems integrators in the Middle East should help customers identify their data centre needs, deliver the solutions that meet those needs, and then upskill customer staff to use the latest solutions.

“Vendors and distributors are essential in helping partners acquire the skills and knowledge on the latest solutions, especially in software-defined data centres and all-flash storage,” she adds.

But that is also the challenge most channel partners face – lack of skillset or adequate knowledge – and this is the case with most emerging technologies as well.

Partners need to understand how the emergence of cloud is

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Reseller Middle East

Anoop Sharda, Chief Technology Officer, Buzinessware

“From the Middle East and the data centre services perspective, it’s really just the beginning of what’s going to take shape and form.”

impacting data centre solutions and what that means for end customers.

They need to be in a position to guide customers through the intricacies of such scenarios.

Sharda adds, “Resellers definitely need to be educated in this space. They need to be fully aware of the potential products and recurring revenue capabilities in the segment.

“What we have seen till date, is a simple reseller hosting package, which partners have bought, however, this is not even the beginning of the opportunities out there,” he adds.

While the onus is on the vendors and distributors to empower the channel in this area, it is also simultaneously the responsibility of the partners to stay plugged into the latest developments in the market.

“We at Buzinessware are planning to launch a business-ina-box end-to-end channel partner programme for infrastructure services for the Middle East. What that will entail is a control panel where the reseller will be able to market their products and their own prices to their customers with their own branding, which will be a significant push from infrastructure services market into the reseller channel,” adds Sharda.

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The decisions partners take today will set the course of their businesses for the next few years.

Therefore, it is imperative that they view the larger picture before taking any action.

Sharda says, “From the Middle East and the data centre services perspective, it’s really just the beginning of what’s going to take shape and form. And I believe going forward, there will be many partnerships in the reseller channel provisioning all that can happen through partner programmes, which can help the system develop cloud benefits to one and all.”

According to Bhaskar, in the coming years, the largest Middle East opportunity will be in hyperconverged infrastructure.

She says, “By combining data storage and processing in one factoryassembled box, hyper-converged infrastructure is the foundation of software-defined data centres, and can lower TCO by 30 percent.”

Channel partners have a mammoth task ahead of them, first identifying their strengths and then in the areas within data centre solutions and services where they can build their businesses. Those who dive into the opportunity and maximise it, will be the ones who have a higher chance of survival in the digital era.

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

aljammazVAD

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SEPTEMBER 2016 Reseller Middle East

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GITEX PREVIEW

Reimagining IT IN ITS 36TH EDITION AND GOING STRONG, GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK IS BACK AGAIN THIS YEAR, FROM 16TH TO 20TH OCTOBER. UNDER THE THEME ‘REIMAGINING REALITIES’, THE REGIONAL IT EXHIBITION IS SET TO PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN DEFINING THE LATEST TRENDS AND SHOWCASING INNOVATIONS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE. RESELLER ME FEATURES TOP PLAYERS TO LOOK OUT FOR, THEIR PLANS FOR THE SHOW AND HOW CHANNEL PARTNERS CAN BEST OPTIMISE THE PROSPECTS.

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Reseller Middle East SEPTEMBER 2016

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GITEX PREVIEW

ALCATEL-LUCENT ENTERPRISE

A10 NETWORKS Hall 1, F1-25

ARBOR NETWORKS Hall 1, E1-40

Hall 1, D1-30

Who

Who

Application networking and security provider

Company highlights

Who Provider of enterprise communications solutions and services

Recently signed a technology partnership with Cylance

GITEX plans

GITEX plans • The company will showcase A10 Harmony solution architecture, which is a solution that empowers businesses to deliver secure application services across traditional data centres, private, public and hybrid clouds, helping them become more secure, responsive and operationally agile as they bridge traditional and cloudbased application environments.

• It will demonstrate our wide range of market leading security solutions including DDoS protection, SSL Inspection, data centre firewall, Gi/SGi firewall, secure web gateway, web application firewall and DNS Application Firewall.

• ALE will introduce Alcatel-Lucent Rainbow, a new, cloud-based free premium service operated by ALE. It provides customers technology investment protection regardless of existing communications systems.

• It will showcase its cloud managed network infrastructure service designed and delivered by its business partners.

Its Network-on-Demand service enables businesses to avail networking technology on a pay-per-use basis.

• ALE will also display its comprehensive portfolio including smart deskphones, new series of DECT handsets, latest stackable Switches and the new and improved OpenTouch Suite solutions.

“GITEX provides us the ideal platform to meet with CIOs and IT managers and discuss this revolutionary architecture that will help enterprises become both ‘cloud-ready’ and ‘cloud-native. The show presents the channel with an excellent opportunity to meet with best-of-breed technology vendors and engage in discussions whereby they can learn about new technologies and enhance their solution portfolios.”

“Our channel partners can maximise their presence at GITEX by getting to know the latest product offerings provided by vendors and ensuring that their portfolio is complete to address the needs of the market. The exhibition provides them with the opportunity to interact with existing and potential customers, and drive conversations around our offerings.”

Henk Jan Spanjaard, Vice President, EMEA Sales, A10 Networks

Baher Ezzat, Regional Director Middle East, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

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Provider of network visibility, management, and security solutions

GITEX plans • The company’s focus at GITEX will be on the most comprehensive portfolio of DDoS protection products and services that are designed to meet the multidimensional needs of any organisation.

• It will also be focusing on their advanced threat solutions, which protect critical assets from advanced threats that are within an enterprise’s network right now.

• The company will also be showcasing its new security platform for advanced threat protection – Arbor Networks Spectrum. It is designed specifically for security teams, from the most senior responder to novice analysts, to search the entire network to uncover, investigate and prove sophisticated attack campaigns within minutes, not hours or days.

“Channel partners can maximise the opportunities GITEX presents by building key connections with existing and potential new clients given the various number of exhibitors’ across different sectors visiting the show from around the world.”

Mahmoud Samy, Regional Director, High Growth Markets, Russia, CIS and Middle East, Arbor Networks

ARUBA, A HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE COMPANY Hall 1, F1-15

Who Provider of next-generation networking solutions for enterprises

GITEX plans • The company will launch its ‘Aruba Mobile-First Platform’ • It will educate partners on its new ‘Partner Ready for Networking’ programme • It will showcase integrated wired and wireless access layer portfolio, secure IoT support, and advancements in network management and security solutions, which will enable customers to get ready for the mobile-cloud world.

BULWARK TECHNOLOGIES

BUZINESSWARE Zabeel Hall, Z-B20

Hall 1, C1-20

Who Who

Hosting solutions provider

Value-added distributor of IT security solutions

GITEX plans • The company will showcase and offer the latest technologies spanning enterprise information archival, advanced malware protection, managed file transfer and two-factor authentication, in addition to its other security technologies.

• As a part of its growth strategy, it is currently in talks with multiple vendors to take up their products through its established channels. It will showcase two new partnerships at the show.

“Partners are our only way to market at Aruba. Hence, we strategise before and after GITEX for joint planning on activities, executive engagement and working together to follow up after the event with customers that have shown an interest in our solutions. We had previously manned some of our channel booths jointly and we are seriously considering hosting stands for complementary partner solutions in future shows.”

“Our approach at the show this year has been driven based on a strong demand in the security distribution market. We consider GITEX as an opportunity to showcase the entire product range to our existing and new partners. At the show, we will undertake activities to acquire new channel partners to increase the penetration of our channel base in the region. We will facilitate reseller-vendor meetings, introducing the latest offering from each of these vendors.”

Osama AlHaj-Issa, Channel Director, Middle East and Turkey, HPE Aruba

Jose Thomas Menacherry, Managing Director, Bulwark Technologies

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GITEX plans • The company will demonstrate endto-end managed cloud capabilities and build awareness to be seen as a true cloud player dedicated to the Middle East region.

• It will launch its unified Infrastructure­-as­ -a-Service control panel, which allows customers to provision, orchestrate and manage end-to-end online infrastructure needs ranging from domains, hosting, cloud solutions, dedicated and managed services.

“GITEX for us is more of a regional business platform to showcase our capabilities not only to the audience in the UAE but across the MENA region. It allows us to reach out and demonstrate that there is a reliable Infrastructure-­as-­a-­Service partner in the Middle East. It is a great platform for channel partners because they can not only view but also get a very good working idea about different types of new products, launches and sign trade agreements.”

Sajid Mulla, CEO, Buzinessware

Reseller Middle East

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GITEX PREVIEW

CISCO

COMMSCOPE

Zabeel Hall, Z-B40 and Hall 1, B1-1

Who

Who

ICT systems and network services provider

GITEX plans • The company will use the show as a platform to accelerate digital transformation • It will highlight its recently launched solutions such as Cisco Tetration Analytics platfor m, Digital Network Architecture (DNA) and Cisco Digital Ceiling Framework, in addition to its latest technologies for data centres, cloud, security, collaboration to name a few.

• It will showcase how these solutions deliver advanced threat protection across the entire attack continuum – before, during, and after an attack.

“MSPs and VARs know that much learning and vendor interaction happen at events such as GITEX and hence attendance can increase their efficiency and their revenue. It also provides channel partners to interact with top executives, thought leaders, industry experts, and peers to better identify the best possible solutions for their clients. It also offers practical how-tos, automation best practices, and the latest business solution trends.”

Shadi Salama, Channel Leader, Middle East Theatre, Cisco

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Hall 1, F1-40

Reseller Middle East

Provider of infrastructure solutions for communications networks

GITEX plans • The company will be showcasing highspeed fiber networks, which will support the demands of the future mobile population. Wideband multimode fiber (WBMMF) could contribute to the nextgeneration data centres, considering it fits the requirements of 100G and 400G and extends the adaptability of multimode data centres.

• Customers can expect more from the new CommScope who is well-positioned to address bandwidth needs through a convergence of network technology, including outdoor cellular towers infrastructure, distributed antenna systems and data centre infrastructure.

D-LINK Zabeel Hall, ZL-D6 and ZL-B1

Who Connectivity and unified network solutions provider

GITEX plans • It will showcase business solutions such as 4K2k resolution/60frames per second HD cameras, 10G Switches range, IP telephony, structured cabling solutions and alliance security and industrial networking for niche verticals such as the transport, oil and gas industry from MOXA and Gajshield.

• It will provide visitors a hands-on experience of D-Link’s latest range of high-speed Wi-Fi routers, cloud products, 4G/LTE fixed and portable routers, home automation devices and loud-enabled IP cameras.

“We engineer and manufacture the right solutions for connected and efficient buildings, cities and data centres, but they require the expertise of a partner to be implemented. GITEX is a great platform for channel partners to understand and educate themselves on the latest technologies that are impacting the industry. Also, through such platforms, CommScope as well as the channel partners can share their perspectives into the opportunities for the future and address the challenges they face.”

“GITEX has always been a venue for D-Link to interact with end-customers and partners to share new ideas, solutions and get a first-hand feedback from them. The event has also always served as a great venue to launch new products since the touch and feel experience can be shared to an audience craving for new technology and ideas. As for our channel partners, we believe that it’s important that they get to see and experience our new products at the stand as this will help them understand the latest market trends and the future IT landscape.”

Ehab Kanary, Vice President of Enterprise, Middle East and Africa, CommScope

Sakkeer Hussain, Director, Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa

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EPICOR SOFTWARE F5 NETWORKS Hall 7, B7-35

FIDELIS CYBERSECURITY

Hall 6, CLD-9

Hall 1, E1-30

Who ERP and retail solutions provider

Company highlights Recently announced its ‘Cloud First’ strategy for ERP deployments in the Middle East

GITEX plans • The company’s theme for this years’ GITEX is ‘Grow business, not software’.

• It will showcase its flagship ERP solution, Epicor ERP. Available in the cloud, hosted or on-premises, it is built on the five principles of collaboration, mobility, choice, responsiveness and simplicity.

• It will use the show as the first opportunity to display cloud solutions around its ‘Cloud First’ strategy.

“GITEX is an excellent opportunity for partners to build visibility, brand awareness and credibility, with vendors and customers, through ‘power of association’. By this, I mean, partners should try and have a presence on their vendors’ stand – this sends a clear signal to customers that the partner is trusted by the vendor, which in turn should help the partner generate good quality leads.”

Hesham El Komy, Senior Director, Epicor Software

Who Who

Developer of application delivery services

Computer security firm focused on prevention of advanced threats and data breaches

GITEX plans • The company will highlight how applications are more vital to business performance, security and availability than ever before.

• It will showcase applicationfocused access and identity services, and protection solutions that cover the entire network stack such as DDoS Hybrid Defender, SSL Orchestrator, as well as its fraud prevention products, WebSafe and MobileSafe.

• It will display hybrid cloud deployment. F5’s main offering in this space is Silverline, a suite of managed, cloud-based security services that let organisations rapidly deploy enterprise-grade app services across hybrid environments, without the need for additional or upfront investments in IT infrastructure and support.

“Security threats are evolving fast in the Middle East, and organisations need to be forwardlooking if they want to remain relevant and trustworthy.”

Diego Arrabal, MEA Director, F5 Networks

GITEX plans • The company will highlight how organisations can leverage its solutions to reduce the time to detect and resolve incidents and prevent data theft.

• It will demonstrate its Fidelis Network and Fidelis Endpoint solutions • It will showcase the new Barncat threat intelligence database and new freeware tools, which members of the security community can take advantage of to counter attacks and prevent data theft without cost.

New resources include the Barncat Threat Intelligence Database, the ThreatScanner tool for finding malware residing on an endpoint, and CCNumberFinder to support PCI DSS compliance.

“Now more than ever, it is important for partners to approach customers with solutions and services, rather than trying to push applications and products. The market opportunity is there, and customers will listen to those partners who first understand the problem, before trying to fix it. GITEX gives partners a fantastic opportunity to build these relationships with customers.”

Peter George, President and CEO, Fidelis Cybersecurity

www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East

SEPTEMBER 2016

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GITEX PREVIEW

FOCUS SOFTNET Hall 7, E8-10

GRANTEQ DISTRIBUTION

FORTINET Hall 1, E1-10

Zabeel Hall, Z-G22

Who IT solutions and consulting services provider

GITEX plans • The company will demonstrate vertical market capabilities through its CRM suite, retail management suite, point of sale, restaurant management systems and its facilities management, property management, services, and manufacturing solutions among others.

• The company will be placing the spotlight on its next generation ERP-on-cloud product - Focus 8 Ready for Cloud and presenting the latest versions of Focus 8, which incorporates WMS (Warehouse Management System) and MRP (Material Requirement Planning) modules.

• It will also showcase Focus i, its mid-tier ERP solution with integrated business intelligence tools, and its complete range of Focus ERP solutions, including financials management, supply chain, and other modules.

“GITEX Technology Week is important for Focus Softnet as it provides us with an opportunity to meet customers, existing and potential partners.

The vast reach of the event brings us the opportunity to increase the awareness of our brand, products and services to a larger audience. We hope to sign new partnerships and hold product demos for our customers and partners.

Moreover, our partners and their customers are welcome to visit our stand to meet our technology experts and development team, and gain better understanding of our solutions.”

Ali Hyder, Group CEO, Focus Softnet

Who Cyber and network security software, appliances and services provider

Who Distributor of integrated AV, control and IT technologies

GITEX plans • It will demonstrate how enterprises can protect themselves from the most sophisticated cybersecurity threats through Security Fabric, an integrated, collaborative, and adaptive architecture designed to deliver distributed security for global enterprises, and enable protection against threats from IoT and remote devices, through the infrastructure core, and into the cloud.

• It will educate enterprise organisations on how they can leverage the Security Fabric to give customers a take on the ever increasing performance requirements of the borderless network, today and into the future.

“Fortinet is committed to delivering security without compromise.

The number of potential attack vectors have multiplied in recent years. Our aim at GITEX is to educate organisations and show them that in order to successfully compete in this new digital economy, they need a well-coordinated security solution such as Security Fabric, which can see and govern data across an entire borderless network without compromising agility or performance.”

Alain Penel, Regional Vice President, Middle East, Fortinet

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GITEX plans • The company will be showcasing all new retail window digital signage and communications along with interactive kiosks such as Human Machine Interface (HMI).

• Through GITEX, it aims to have more partners on board across the Middle East as well as enable partners to understand how they can leverage through its USPs. • As a value-added distributor, the company’s focus is not to grow alone but also ensure its partners flourish and end-users achieve ROI.

“GITEX is a one-stop-shop for channel partners and specially when the market conditions are a little stringent at this point, they really need to dive deep into the best what they can offer. We’re confident that our solutions are most eligible for the business scenarios today as our value-adds revolve around faster collaboration and are completely smart solution based.”

Girish Narayanan, Managing Director, Granteq Distribution

Reseller Middle East

SEPTEMBER 2016

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GITEX PREVIEW

INFINET WIRELESS

INFOBLOX

ZABEEL Hall, Z-J10

Hall 1, F1-15

Who

Who

Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) development and manufacturing company

GITEX plans

Provides solutions across DNS, DHCP, and IP address management, the category known as DDI

GITEX plans

KODAK ALARIS Hall 4, C4-10

Who Information management solutions provider

GITEX plans

• The firm will launch its ‘Actionable Network Intelligence Platform’ in the Middle East • It will demonstrate its DNS Firewall as a service solution that extends its DNS protection to roaming devices off premise, as well as Infoblox Threat Insight that prevents DNS based data exfiltration with built-in streaming analytics • It will showcase its Threat Insight solution that prevents DNS based data exfiltration with built-in streaming analytics.

• Under the theme ‘Digitise your City’, the company will showcase its latest solutions for reigning in data chaos to enable core business functions to reduce costs and improve overall results.

• It will host one of GITEX’s ‘Breakfast Briefings’ on 17th October for a select group of CIOs from the financial industry.

• It will showcase document and information management solutions for the government, healthcare and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) segments.

• It will unveil solutions such as the Kodak i5850S Scanner, its new high-volume production scanner that offers three-pocket sorting capabilities.

• It will showcase its new i3300 Scanner.

“Our participation creates a central venue throughout the event to enable our partners to interact with several customers from within our ecosystem. Our partners can indeed capitalise on our presence and the business potential we create for them with our media and PR partners, providing them with an opportunity to interact with customers and ultimately increase their own sales revenues.”

“Joint participation with vendors on their stands will elevate partners’ position in the eyes of the customer and shows trust and commitment. Also the adage ‘seeing is believing’ holds true and partners should not just enter into discussions with customers but also demonstrate product capabilities by way of demos wherever possible. Finally post event follow-ups are key to success.”

“There is no better event than GITEX for channel involved in the IT industry to attend in order to learn more about the latest trends like cloud, Big Data, mobility and IoT, as well as engage with prospective vendors in order to add to their product and solution portfolios. Due to the fact that customers from across the region converge at the show, the channel should make the best of the opportunity to meet with as many of these CIOs and IT managers as possible in order to build relationships and possibly even tie-up business deals.”

Kamal Mokrani, Global Vice President, InfiNet Wireless

Cherif Sleiman, General Manager, Middle East and Africa, Infoblox

David Whitton, Regional Sales Director, Middle East and Africa, Kodak Alaris

• It will showcase a brand new range of solutions for backhauling 4G/LTE traffic, for mobility applications, for deploying high-capacity networks for ISPs and for meeting the increasingly demanding and complex needs of enterprises of all types.

• It will unveil InfiLINK XG 1000, the latest addition to its Point-to-Point product portfolio.

• It will launch an extended range of its InfiLINK XG models, which now support new frequency bands.

• It will showcase its revamped InfiMAN 2x2 product family, complemented by a new smart antenna base station sector unit (known as the Qmxb) and a new range of subscriber terminals fitted with 300 mW (25 dBm) radio transmit modules.

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MANAGEENGINE Hall 7, A7-10

Who Provider of cost-effective enterprise IT management software

GITEX plans • The firm will be highlighting the recently launched Analytics Plus, a self-service IT analytics platform that provides a better look at data using rich visualisations and dashboards • It will also showcase its entire IT portfolio solutions, which includes solutions for network performance management, IT help desk, application performance management, desktop and mobile devices management, log analysis and security, privileged password management and active directory management and reporting.

• It will make announcements around Business Intelligence and Analytics, MDM, Active Directory Management, IT Security, Network and Applications Management at the show.

“GITEX, being the largest ICT event in the region, is an ideal platform for us to engage with prospective channel partners and create some good business opportunities in the region. Continuous interaction and meetings with existing partners at the event will strengthen the channel network.”

Nirmal Manoharan, Regional Director of Sales, ManageEngine

NEXTHINK

PURE STORAGE

Hall 7, C7-20 and Hall 4, C4-1

Who

Hall 6, CLD-15

Who

End-user IT analytics, security and ITSM company

GITEX plans

Enterprise data flash storage company

GITEX plans

• It will educate end-users of the importance of monitoring end-user behaviour and application behaviour patterns throughout the organisation.

• The company will discuss how organisations can achieve control and visibility in the BYOD era through IT analytics solutions.

• The company will showcase the new features of its Nexthink 6.5, the company’s IT analytics solution, which include improved accuracy and usefulness of boot and logon duration metrics, and more granularity for visualising CPU activity.

“GITEX has a huge impact on our business and it has always provided fantastic exposure for companies in the region. The event is the best place to learn about what’s new in the market. We believe that the key to maximising opportunities at GITEX is to be highly visible not just in terms of being present at the event, but exploring the technologies featured at the show and meeting our current partners. In addition, it is a great platform to meet and build rapport with new partners.”

Maged Eid, Regional Director, Nexthink

www.resellerme.com

• The company will launch its recently released FlashArray// m10 and FlashBlade solutions regionally.

• It will showcase how enterprises can migrate to All Flash Storage, in order to reduce TCO, realise operational efficiencies and gain a competitive advantage.

“Our theme for GITEX is ‘Hello Possible’ - our radically simple flash storage is the catalyst that gets companies to their next big thing faster by helping them unlock their future possibilities, today. So our focus will be on highlighting how our solutions, built with simplicity and the cloud in mind, can help customers on their journey to the all-flash data centre. For partners looking to build a robust storage solution practice, they should use GITEX as an opportunity to make sense of the transformation that is taking place across storage solutions and data platforms.”

Christian Putz, Director, EEMEA, Pure Storage

Reseller Middle East

SEPTEMBER 2016

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GITEX PREVIEW

RIVERBED TECHNOLOGY Hall 6, CLD-16

SAP Hall 6, Smart Dubai stand

Who

Who

Application performance company

Enterprise software company

GITEX plans

GITEX plans

• The company will launch SteelConnect 2.0, its product that unifies network connectivity and orchestration of application delivery across hybrid WANs, remote LANs and cloud networks.

• It will highlight its acquisition of Aternity, which enabled it to add user experience monitoring to its set of capabilities of SteelCentral network and application visibility solution.

“Our theme at GITEX this year is ‘Experience the future of networking’. This is in line with our corporate strategy in 2016 and reflects Riverbed’s leadership in emerging areas of network, particularly that of Software-Defined Networking. We approach GITEX with a clearly defined multi-faceted strategy. Our prime objectives are to engage with existing and potential customers to grow our sales funnel; launch the latest versions of our SteelCentral, SteelConnect and SteelFusion platforms and raise awareness around these solutions; demonstrate our commitment to our channel through our support for our distribution partners; and raise awareness about the value that our relationship with Microsoft brings to deployments of their widely popular Office 365, Azure and SharePoint platforms.”

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

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Reseller Middle East

• Visitors can experience how realtime analytics drive the World Expo 2020 experience, including mobile tourism apps, digital signage, and augmented reality for visitors, and connected construction, a digital boardroom command centre, and situational awareness for organisers.

• Attendees will also be able to experience the latest connected construction, connected stadiums, Smart Cities, and Digital Boardroom solutions.

• In startups, the SAP Training and Development Institute will showcase the SAP Startup Focus Program, which helps analytics startups to accelerate their development and bring solutions to market.

“Channel partners are essential for SAP’s strength at GITEX, amplifying best practices and developing new business leads. Recognising our partners’ achievements, SAP will honour our top UAE partner deployments by presenting the UAE winners of the SAP MENA Quality Awards.”

Tayfun Topkoc, Managing Director, SAP UAE

www.resellerme.com

SOPHOS Hall 1, D1-10

Who Security software and hardware company

GITEX plans • The company will focus on its vision of ‘Synchronised security’, and showcase its extensive portfolio.

• It will showcase its broad portfolio of security solutions including SophosIntercept – its next-generation endpoint technology to boost protection against unknown exploits, the most updated versions of Sophos Clean and SG UTM, and its recently launched synchronised encryption solution - SafeGuard Encryption8, which can automatically respond to threat incidents from connected endpoint protection.

• It will also showcase Sophos Mobile Control 6.0, a container solution with Sophos Secure Email that enhances data protection.

• It will promote its newly launched partner programme for the MEA region, which has been designed to address the needs of different partners and their engagement levels with the company.

“Given that several ICT domains remain channel-driven, GITEX is where partners can look forward to exploring innovative technologies and pioneering best-practices. It allows them to choose the vendor that has the right vision, commitment and portfolio for the changing ICT scenario in MEA.” Harish Chib, Vice President, Middle East, Africa, Sophos

STORIT DISTRIBUTION

SYNOLOGY

VEEAM

Hall 6, CLD-34

Hall 6, CLD-18

Hall 6, CLD-16

Who Who Specialist IT distributor of enterprise data management solutions

GITEX plans • The distributor will focus on promoting its full-range of data management and data protection solutions at the show.

• It will showcase its turnkey solutions for converged infrastructure, cloud computing, virtualisation, business continuity and disaster recovery, high performance computing, archiving, data analytics and data centre solutions.

• The company will also highlight its value-added services such as Business Need Assessment, Architecture and Proof of Design to optimise solutions to customer requirement and its managed services. StorIT’s vendors will focus on the latest innovations in the IT space through its presentations

“GITEX is the best opportunity for channel partners to reach out to their existing and potential customers, meet them and introduce new technologies to them. Partners can also scout for new vendor partners who are offering innovative and disruptive technologies. We have received great response from GITEX over the years and are looking forward to a successful participation once again this edition.”

Manju Mathew, Marketing Manager, StorIT Distribution

Who

Network-attached storage vendor

Software development company

GITEX plans

GITEX plans

• The company will showcase the latest innovations in storage and networking solutions to visitors, customers and channel partners.

• For enterprises seeking storage solutions with uncompromising performance and throughput, it will be demonstrating its upcoming allflash storage FlashStation FS3017.

• It will also be unveiling an exclusive innovation aimed at speeding up worldwide business collaboration, as well as a new disaster recovery solution that is unique, costeffective, and intuitive.

“We deeply value our relationship with our channel partners and work closely with them to deliver best-inclass products for our customers. At GITEX, we look forward to helping our channel partners maximise their revenue streams by introducing them to our latest portfolio of storage and networking solutions. We will utilise these partner meetings to share best practices for pre-sale and after-sales support that will enhance existing customer relationships as well as build new ones in the region.”

Victor Wang, Sales Manager, Synology

• The company will be showcasing its new Veeam Availability Suite 9.5, an upgraded version of the earlier solution that delivers recovery time and point objectives (RTPO) of less than 15 minutes for all applications and data.

• On 17th October, the second day of GITEX, the company will host its ‘Veeam Gitex Party’ for all of its alliances, channel partners and end-users. It will be hosting its annual Partner Awards at the same event to celebrate the accomplishments of the top performing channel partners.

“At GITEX we intend to educate regional CIOs and IT managers about the need to transition from legacy backup solutions to high availability data centre solutions like the Veeam Availability Suite, in order to make the most of their investments in virtualisation and become always-on, always-available operations. We have experienced a great deal of success and accelerated growth in the region as evidenced by our Q2 2016 results where we achieved 22 percent YoY growth in total bookings revenue. This goes to show that enterprises in the Middle East are embracing Veeam’s innovative approach of delivering availability solutions.”

Gregg Petersen, Regional Director, MEA and SAARC, Veeam Software

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VENDOR FOCUS // RED HAT

OPEN CURRICULUM Lee Miles, Regional GM, Red Hat, shares insights on open source and the role partners can play in this ecosystem.

What has been the focus at Red Hat over the last few months?

In the last several months, we have increased our focus on certifications in the region.

Customers look at Red Hat and its partner ecosystem quite confidently as there are many Red Hat certified personnel in the market. That has been a heavy focus for us in the last 12 months. The focus for the next year will be looking at providing academic programmes and how we can help in designing and setting up open source curriculums at university levels. In this regard, we are looking at universities and academic institutions across the region and rolling that out as a certified programme. With the goals we have for the region, we need to make sure we can fulfil the demands of the customers. From that perspective, it is important to keep getting fresh people in the market with Red Hat certifications.

When you say open source, it brings in an idea of integration and collaboration. How do you think partners can leverage that aspect of the technology?

We don’t consider ourselves as a vendor. Open source is an ecosystem and we are a member of that. We need customers who are educated and are prepared to use it in the best possible way. We need to promote basic and extended

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knowledge and this is where partners are extremely relevant because we cannot do this on our own. Partners have the unique advantage of not only seeing things from Red Hat’s point of view but also have the opportunity to witness the integration with other aspects that our customers are really interested in. This way, they can build a bigger picture and have the feedback between the two. So, having partners and distributors as filters between what a lot of end customers are doing, help us deduct the big lines about what we need to care about and what we need to invest in. It is a healthy and successful relationship for both sides. One of the advantages of Red Hat’s business model with subscriptions and the like, is that we have renewal talks for typically once a year, which means we are continuously conversing with our customers. This helps us to know the feedback and decide what we are doing is working or not.

This whole ecosystem is working extremely well, it couldn’t exist without partners.

Are there any updates to the partner programme?

We had recently released some work around our partner awards. We are going to recognise our partners’ achievements through the year.

We have also started the whole drive towards getting the volume and rhythm of enablement to our

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partners, which we have announced earlier in the year. We boast a broader portfolio today as compared to in the past. Many of our partners are taking advantage of those other areas with their customers and they need to be educated on this.

Which are the technologies that Red Hat is pushing to its partners?

We certainly see cloud as being a huge topic right now. And the dilemma customers are going through is do they opt for an open, hybrid or private cloud environment.

We are doing a lot of work with our partners to ensure they have the knowledge and understanding of what best fits a customer’s requirement. Other than that, there are two key areas – app development at the integration layer and the mobility layer. These are the topics we are discussing with our partners and we see the demand coming from these two areas.

What kind of adoption levels do you see in the region?

Globally, verticals such as telco has already embraced the open source approach and now we see the finance sector quickly following suit.

From a local market perspective, we are seeing a really good adoption on open-source-first-strategy.

Partners need to understand and embrace the demand of open source strategy that the regional customers have today.

Stand # C1-20, Hall#1

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REVIEW

ZenPad 10 Z300C

RATING

The Asus ZenPad 10 isn’t going to win any outstanding performance awards, but if what you’re after is a budget, convertible tablet with a decent sound system, then this is the device for you, writes Glesni Holland, Deputy Editor, CPI Media Group.

The 10.1-inch screen and 1,280 x 800-pixel resolution puts Asus above some of its competitors, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab A, which supports a 9.7-inch screen with a slightly lower resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels. Asus’ ‘Splendid’ app also allows users to adjust image colour, brightness, contrast, and sharpness of the display, as part of their Tru2Life technology.

Where the ZenPad let’s itself down is its camera. The 0.3MP front camera lagged, meaning there was a slight delay before it was able to capture a selfie – albeit, a poor quality selfie at that. Don’t fall for the ‘beautification’ mode that is included within the camera app; according to the company, it balances facial features, softens complexions

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and removes skin blemishes to create flawless photos — all in real time (which is debatable, considering the pre-selfie delay mentioned above.) The front camera’s only purpose should be for video calling.

The keyboard is equipped with DTS-HD Premium Sound, which claims to transform stereo audio into virtual surround sound, and considering the price and size of this device, it actually achieves this reasonably well. While it may not suffice as a primary music player, it is perfectly adequate for a good quality Netflix experience.

The tablet alone weighs a total of 510g, which makes it ideal for on-lap usage. It also doesn’t feel top heavy when connected to the keyboard. The size of the keyboard and touchpad mean it is useful for replying to emails and posting on social media, but it probably wouldn’t be appropriate to try and compose a document of great length, especially if you are used to operating on a laptopsized keyboard.

Despite the particularly disappointing fact that the keyboard and tablet need to be charged separately, the tablet’s battery life is impressive, and one of the major perks of this device. Predicted to last eight hours, it was able to withstand steady usage (browsing, social media, apps, and a few episodes on Netflix) and still be operational after a full day.

However, the processor wasn’t the best at coping with certain tasks on some of the apps. Similar to the delay on the camera app, there was also a significant five second delay when trying to ‘undo’ artwork or notes. The tablet runs on a standard quad-core processor, but has failed to bring itself up to date by still using the Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system, whilst its competitors take full advantage of Marshmallow’s nifty features.

So all in all, while being slightly outdated on the software side, this tablet is ideal if you’re after a sturdy device with an attachable keyboard, good speakers and a vibrant display, but don’t expect show-stopping camera functions or a speedy navigation system to be included in this budget purchase. The price for the tablet and keyboard combined retails at approximately $250.

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Alcatel OneTouch Pixi 3 (8-inch)

In terms of design, Alcatel OneTouch Pixi 3’s build doesn’t exude any kind of premium appeal to it.

However, the 8-inch device does feel solid and well-built, and its curved edges makes it comfortable to grip.

The entry level tablet runs Windows 10 as its OS, is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 SOC processor and comes with 1GB of RAM. Performancewise the device is not particularly impressive as it tends to be slow in loading apps and other media. But if you’re not doing any heavy multitasking that involves swiftly switching apps the tablet does an okay job.

It only packs an 8GB of internal storage, which is quite disappointing but at least it is expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Pixi 3 4G packs a 5MP primary camera on the rear and a 2MP front shooter for selfies. The rear camera takes clear

and decent shots, however, the front camera tends to produce dark and grainy photos even when shot from a bright area. Therefore, it is highly recommendable for users to stay in a well-lit spot when using the device for video calls.

The Pixi 3 4G accepts a micro-SIM and can function as a smartphone too. Connectivity options of the device include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, 4G. The tablet is also equipped with a 4060mAh built-in battery, which satisfyingly lasts up to at least eight hours of full usage. It comes in three different colours – white, gold and volcano black, and is priced at AED 499.

RATING

Bose

QuietComfort 35 There is a new addition to the market already awash with wireless ANC cans –Bose’s new QuietComfort 35, which is the cordless version of the company’s famous QuietComfort 25 active noise-cancelling headphones.

Available in black or silver, these cushy headphones are comfortable, lightweight and offer acoustic noise cancelling technology with warm bass at all volume levels.

Bose utilises four separate microphones and an ANC chipset to block out external noise, and promises 20 hours of wireless listening on a single charge and 40 hours wired. You RATING can use the headphone even when the battery runs out by plugging it into your music device with an analogue cable that comes along with the product.

QC35 can be paired with with two different devices via Bluetooth or NFC at once. You can switch between audio sources by flicking the QC35’s power switch or by using the Bose Connect app, which is available on both Android and iOS devices.

The back of the right ear cup of QC35 contains buttons for power/pairing, volume and track control, which can also initiate voice commands such as Siri, and a micro-USB charging port.

Bose has used digital signal processing technology in QC35, and volume-optimised EQ, which gives you balance audio performance at any volume. Retailing at $350, QC35 falls into the premium category and its price tag makes you wonder if this product stands a chance among audiophiles in a crowded market. We would reckon QC35 has more than a fighting chance.

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HOT PRODUCTS

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CANON UPDATES MAXIFY PRINTERS Canon Middle East has launched four new four-in-one multi-function devices (MFDs) and a new colour single-function printer (SFP).

Accoriding to the company, the new MAXIFY printers hope to bring improved levels of efficiency, quality and choice to small business and home office customers. The four-in-one devices continue to offer fast scan, copy and fax alongside professional quality prints.

The MAXIFY MB5140 and MB5440 feature Canon’s Single Pass two-sided Scan functionality, which allows both sides of the document to be scanned simultaneously.

This latest range of printers benefit from high-yield XL ink tanks, producing up to 1,200 black-and-white pages (MB2140 and MB2740) or 2,500 blackand-white pages (MB5140, MB5440 and

SAMSUNG UNVEILS GALAXY NOTE7 IN ME REGION iB4140) before cartridges need to be replaced.

Canon underlined that the upgraded printers have been designed to assist growing businesses in gaining greater visibility of their printing habits. This includes identifying usage patterns and arming themselves with the information they need to control print costs. There is now the option to keep a record of total volumes printed, scanned or faxed, to allow users to get a better picture of how the device is being used in the office.

MAXIFY devices – with built in Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity – also allow printing to be shared between multiple PCs and wireless devices around a small office. Compatibility with the Canon PRINT app allows users to connect to the printer, using a smartphone or tablet device for printing and scanning.

SYNOLOGY LAUNCHES ROUTER RT1900AC Synology has unveiled the Synology Router RT1900ac, which is powered by the Synology Router Manager (SRM) operating system.

According to the vendor, SRM expands the possibilities of the Synology Router RT1900ac wireless router, “allowing users to enjoy intelligent Wi-Fi connectivity, detailed network management and analysis, strengthened security, and more.”

The desktop-like interface provides a fluid and intuitive way for users to manage network and wireless settings.

Plus, the DS router app for Android and iOS devices makes it possible to monitor and change settings on Synology Router RT1900ac from anywhere.

In addition to the standard four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, the router is equipped with three adjustable long-range antennas and 802.11ac wireless technology, allowing for combined transfer speeds up to 1900 Mbps.

It also comes with a dual-core 1.0 GHz processor for “smooth performance,” even when multiple clients are connected. The USB 3.0 port and SD (SDXC) slot can be used to attach external storage devices.

The RT1900ac is now available for customers in the UAE as well as in KSA and Jordan.

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The latest in the Note series made its debut in the Middle East region last month. The curved, 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED screen is equipped with the advanced camera that was introduced on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.

With the improved S Pen, users can ‘bring ideas to life, the moment inspiration strikes’ without even unlocking the screen, by using the ‘screen off memo.’

The tip of the S-Pen has been reduced by nearly 50 percent and now totals 0.7mm in diameter, which provides “a real pen-like experience.” Due to its water resistant certification, the S-Pen also allows users to jot down ideas when the screen is wet.

Coupled with Samsung Knox, the Note7 provides ‘heightened security and privacy’ for its users, through its fingerprint scanner and iris scanning technology.

The secure folder ‘instils a new level of user confidence’ through its added layer of authentication to keep private and personal information safe.

In addition to 64GB of internal memory, the Note7 offers expandable storage and microSD support of up to 256GB.

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HUAWEI HONOR 8 LAUNCHED IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Honor, the smartphone e-brand from Huawei, has officially launched its newest flagship device, honor 8, to the Middle East and European markets.

The device has a 3D grate design has been created with a two-sided 2.5D, 15-layer glass body, which reflects light producing an aurora effect with intricate patterns, meaning no two phones appear the same.

With the 12 MP dual camera and RGB and monochrome sensor, the device captures more light to deliver amazing picture quality.

The smartphone also has some new photography modes, manual operation capability, as well as its 8MP wide-angle front-facing camera that works well even in low-light.

According to Huawei, honor 8 boasts powerful functionality to match its look, with a 0.4 second phone unlock and smart-key function to set up instant access to any part of the phone, making it incredibly intuitive.

Its 3,000 mAh battery with Smart Power 4.0 maximises stand-by time allowing the honor 8 to keep going for up to 1.22 days of heavy usage. Just ten minutes of charging will allow two hours call time, and 30 minutes will recharge the device to 47 percent.

Moreover, honor 8 is equipped with an 8-core CPU up to 2.3 GHZ, 4GB RAM, Kirin 950, i5 CO processor and Rapid-Smart file processing system.

HONEYWELL LAUNCHES NEW WIRELESS RING SCANNER Honeywell has announced the release of its new 8670 Wireless Ring Scanner with Bluetooth technology, designed to allow workers in the Middle East to keep both hands free whilst completing tasks.

The new scanner, according to the company, fits comfortably on a finger and uses Bluetooth technology to connect to a range of computing devices such as PCs, laptops, tablets, vehicle-mounted computers, rugged

mobile computers and smartphones.

The 8670 Wireless Ring Scanner delivers high-speed decoding, motion tolerance and the ability to decode poor quality or damaged bar codes.

The 2D imager can also be used as a 1D scanner and can capture small bar codes in high detail.

Since the scanner is separated from the Bluetooth and battery module, the 8670 Wireless Ring Scanner is lightweight and comfortable for workers, according to Honeywell.

The soft, elastomeric finger and wrist straps provide comfort, are impervious to moisture and are easily cleaned.

The new ring scanner can be used across all areas of a distribution center, as well as in the field in transportation, logistics and retail environments.

XTOUCH UNVEILS ITS LATEST 4G DEVICE – A3 XTOUCH has announced the launch of its latest 4G LTE smartphone, A3 featuring touch Fingerprint Sensor technology, Live Photos.

The XTOUCH A3 is a 5-inch HD dual SIM 4G LTE smartphone crafted in one-piece metal body. The smartphone is powered by a fingerprint sensor, located on the back of the device. The fingerprint technology enables secure and fast unlocking, it can also be used as a clicker for the 5MP front camera.

This technology is supported by Quick Start Apps allows users to customise the phone to open applications of their choice with each finger. Furthermore, Smart Gesture Control allows users more possibilities by just sliding left, right up or down to start apps like gallery, clock, music, messaging and so on. Also different letters can be drawn on the lock screen to reach specific applications.

XTOUCH further highlights that complementing the front camera is a 13MP back camera which delivers sharp detailed photos and videos. The A3 phone offers a unique photo taking capability with Live Photos mode in the camera, which brings your photos to life. Powered by a MediaTek Quad-core processor, the phone delivers premium performance and decreases power consumption. With 1GB RAM, 16GB built-in storage that can be extended up to 128GB ensures all the programs and apps run seamlessly to deliver the best.

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SONY LAUNCHES NEW SIGNATURE SERIES BOSE FLAUNTS SOUNDSPORT AND SOUNDSPORT PULSE HEADPHONES Sony introduced a new ‘Signature Series’ flagship line that represents the convergence of Sony’s superior analog and digital technologies.

This series of high-resolution audio products is made up of the MDR-Z1R stereo headphones, two new WM1 series Walkman models (the NW-WM1Z and NW-WM1A), and the TA-ZH1ES headphone amplifier.

According to Sony, it has continued its pursuit of the ultimate materials and structures for reproducing the best sound possible, taking an unconventional approach to designing the Signature Series. As part of the

series, Sony also unveiled the MDR1000X hi-res wireless noise canceling stereo headphones, which has noise cancellation features.

The Signature Series also features a hi-res power home audio system (model MHC-GT7DW), two wireless Extra Bass headphones for sports use (models MDR-XB80BS and MDR-XB50BS), and a NW-A30 series Hi-Res Walkman that has a 3.1-inch touch screen. Sony seeks to expand its lineup of audio products and propose new ways of experiencing music, in order to meet the demands of modern consumers’ ever diversifying musical tastes and listening styles.

SENNHEISER UPGRADES SURROUND SOUND GAMING WITH PC 373 The PC 373D is the successor to the popular PC 363D. Powered by Sennheiser’s acoustic technology, the open acoustic gaming headset delivers 7.1 Dolby Surround.

According to the company, surround sound immersion is just one click away, thanks to the completely overhauled software of the headset’s Surround Dongle, which immediately gives you the best possible surround sound available without the need to tab out of your game.

The software’s intuitive interface tailors the experience to each gamer, their game, or their surroundings. The equalizer also offers four settings including optimized modes for competitive and immersive gaming, and even for music.

The headphones also have noise-cancelling microphone plus an

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optional noise reduction algorithm, the PC 373D guarantees clear team communication with no background noise. Three side tone settings, that are adjustable via the software interface, which means that gamers can choose just how much they hear their own voice – there is no need to shout into your microphone ever again. Muting is as simple and quick as raising the boom arm.

Equipped with velvet ear pads, the user’s ears can still breathe even as the tension rises, while the padded headband ensures the comfort continues no matter how late into the night the gaming session lasts.

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Designed exclusively for exercise, Bose highlights that SoundSport wireless headphones present various benefits for fitness aficionados as it can bring good audio for users, a stable and comfortable fit, and durability for daily use inside or out. For tracking personal performance, SoundSport Pulse wireless headphones come with a built-in heart rate monitor measured through the ear.

According to the vendor, the headphones were designed with a sport-version of StayHear+tips designed to stay secure and comfortable during exercise. Made from soft, flexible silicone, the device’s umbrella shape creates a gentle seal in the ear, while an extended wing ‘locks’ in the fit.

For indoors or outside, SoundSport headphones are sweat and water resistant with powerful audio performance. Their inline mic and remote let users stay focused while skipping songs, adjusting volume, or taking and making calls.

The SoundSport Pulse headphones include a built-in heart rate monitor with the precision of a chest strap. It is also compatible with Runkeeper, Endomondo and other fitness apps. The device comes in in Power Red. SoundSport Pulse has up to five hours of battery life and SoundSport has up to six hours.

The SoundSport headphones are already available in the market for AED 599 while SoundSport Pulse will be available in September 2016.

COLUMN

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

Janees Reghelini, Deputy Editor, Reseller ME

Keep calm and plan it We are once again preparing ourselves to endure another year of ‘GITEX madness’. This issue carries a sneak preview of what to expect from some prominent players at the show. Inarguably, GITEX is the largest regional IT exhibition, but do partners have a proper strategy in place to maximise the show’s opportunities?

What can be challenging with a show of this scale is that there is a lot of noise and most players’ primary objective is being visible.

While there is nothing wrong with that, partners need to also take a step back and identify what they aim to achieve from this platform.

How can they differentiate what’s of value and what’s not. This can be done if they take the time to design a clear strategy as to how to go about 62

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the event. Some of you might be exhibitors with own stands or have a presence on your partner vendor’s stand. Plans should be already in place as to what the company aims to launch or announce. But for a partner who is not exhibiting and is attending the show, one critical aspect is planning. Look up who are the exhibitors and try to schedule meetings prior to the show, to ensure you meet the people that is of relevance to your business. Partners should also make sure that they have a definite objective in mind when having these meetings, try to be concise but clear. Everyone is trying to get the most out of their time at the show. Have the floor plan handy with you, easier to navigate through the event. Apart from the exhibition

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itself, the show also features a number of conferences on varied topics. It is definitely worth looking up the schedule online and identifying which topics are of interest to you and plan your days accordingly. Planning ahead can definitely help you have a productive event.

You are going to see us, either holed up at the CPI ‘60 Minutes’ stand or the media room, frantically typing away at the keyboard or walking briskly from one interview to another. It will be really hectic but I can say from experience nothing compares the adrenalin rush at the end of having a successful show. We are excited and looking forward to meeting you all to learn about your plans and share market knowledge.

Wish you a fruitful GITEX 2016.