Reseller Middle East March 2015

ISSUE 219 | march 2015 www.resellerme.com

Path to success

A round-up of the prominent regional resellers and their unique business models.

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How to beat the market blues

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This year, as I wrote earlier, started off with a great deal of optimism in the channel market and it seems to have evaporated quickly. Instead, a pall of gloom has descended upon the Middle East channel industry as we move to the end of the first quarter of this calendar year. A steep decline in oil prices has affected many GCC countries and cash-flow issues in the market have further exacerbated the problem for many channel players. It was pretty much a continuation of rather ordinary and dull last quarter many experienced during the end of 2014. Much of the talk in the industry today revolves around how tough and slow the first quarter has been, although some companies are seeing indicators for a better April-June block. And if that doesn’t pan out, it could ruin many businesses, especially the smaller channel players.

Having said that, there were some exceptions to the rule. Some niche distributors, especially in mobility and security, have experienced a healthy market, and this probably is the key to survive a turbulent market environment. The economies might be on a go-slow mode but that doesn’t mean business has stopped in its tracks.

What smart channel companies should do is to focus on the what-must-be-done and their core competencies rather than spreading options wide.

Planning is now more important than ever and it is important for channel to get a handle on the trends shaping the IT world today. The world is going mobile, supported by cloud computing. On the networking front, software-defined networking (SDN) has quickly matured into a platform many regional enterprises are considering. Internet of Things and machine-to-machine communications are not just concepts discussed at technology seminars anymore. In fact, Cisco estimates IoT alone is a USD 19 trillion market opportunity for the channel.

The writing on the wall is clear – either define your value proposition in terms of service and solutions around these mega trends or drift along to obscurity.

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Reseller Middle East march 2015

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CONTENTS

35

ISSUE 219 // march 2015

cover feature

Path to success

With resellers being the key component of the channel landscape, RME profiles leading players and discusses important factors to their success.

Review

48

BlackBerry Classic

hot products

50

Xerox launches colour C60/ C70 printer

Highlights 6

News

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

30

Prioritising with partners

Mario Georgiou, Regional Partner Director, Juniper Middle East, elaborates on the enhanced partner programme.

Opinion 25

Unraveling MPS

Feature

Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Director, Canon Middle East discusses channel opportunities in Managed Print Services.

42 Betting big

interview 26

Charged up

Ihab Al Saheli, GM, CNS, discusses how the industry is evolving with the current market trends.

52

Divoom presents Voombox-outdoor

Reseller ME explores how partners can monetise Big Data and analytics.

vendor focus 46

Identifying the advantage

Nat Pisupati from HID Global on channel plans for 2015.

56

Dell launches converged appliances

highlights

Prestigio to launch True Key Intel Security enabled devices

Marek Horyl, General Manager and Chief Operational Officer, Prestigio EMEA

Cyprus-headquartered vendor, Prestigio is expected to launch mobile devices with the recently announced True Key

by Intel Security across EMEA with an initial pre-install roll-out in Russia.

True Key is a cross-device application that removes the hassle of remembering passwords. True Key will be available across all of Prestigio’s Android tablets and smartphones by the end of this year, making its customers among the first to benefit from the app, said the company.

According to the statement released by the vendor, remembering the complex passwords and multiple user names needed to log into various applications is difficult, especially when considering that the average user has 25 online accounts and 10 different passwords.

“Our customers want to manage their digital lives on mobile devices, whether that is on a mobile phone or on a tablet and this technology offers a safer and easier way to do that,” said Marek Horyl, General Manager and Chief Operational Officer, Prestigio EMEA. “People are expected to create complex passwords across their digital lives and True Key takes away the hassle of typing, creating and remembering them. By quickly logging users into their favourite websites and apps, this advanced technology allows our customers to enjoy the quality digital experience they want from their devices.”

True Key by Intel Security unlocks

sites, apps and devices by using personal, attributes such as facial features, a fingerprint or devices people own. According to the vendor, the biometric technology used in True Key not only removes the hassle of remembering passwords, it also allows people to customise their level of security by using multiple factors to log in – the more factors added, the stronger a True Key profile becomes.

“Using the same easy passwords over and over, or writing passwords down, are the two most popular methods for dealing with the password problem – neither of which are a good solution,” added Mark Hocking, VP and general manager of Safe Identity, Intel Security. “True Key is a secure and simple solution for managing passwords. The application puts the user in control by offering customizable multilayered protection, and essentially allows them to become the password to unlock their digital identity.”

Kaspersky Lab enhances partner support

Ovanes Mikhaylov, MD, Kaspersky Lab

At a press briefing held this month, the recently appointed Kaspersky Lab Middle East MD, Ovanes Mikhaylov, announced the company’s focus on aggressive growth in the enterprise security sector across the region. He elaborated on the company’s strategy to meet this target by combining

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march 2015 Reseller Middle East

innovation and intelligence with a boost in support for channel partners.

“In the last couple of years we have witnessed a surge in the frequency and complexity of cyber-attacks targeted at enterprises and governments in the Middle East, such as the Desert Falcons espionage campaign that was recently uncovered by our experts. This, together with the growing investments in ‘smart city’ initiatives across the region, demands a greater focus on cyber security, including awareness and protection of critical processes and information. We work with partners and customers to enable this state of advanced security both through our enterprise security portfolio and intelligent services, and by developing our channel partners across the region,” said Mikhaylov.

The MD also announced enhancements to the company’s

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partner programme, aimed at helping local partners protect their current investments and focus more on driving business growth. Kaspersky Lab is automating a number of processes, such as renewals, and is offering new tools and resources. Many of the enhancements are aimed at enabling partners to create comprehensive security portfolios that include a mix of advanced technologies: the company will provide partners with access to new Intelligence Services to enable them to extend the right combination of expertise, solutions and services to their customers.

“We believe that our channel partners are capable of telling our story. This is why we are constantly updating our partner programme and including new educational opportunities, as well as extra support and services,” Mikhaylov added.

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highlights

Global signs MENA distribution deal with Fujitsu

Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MENA, Global Distribution

Dubai-based Global Distribution has signed a distribution agreement with Fujitsu Technology Solutions.

As per the terms of the agreement, the distributor will become a Fujitsu distribution partner in the MENA Region, supplying the vendor’s entire portfolio of IT products and

solutions including its PRIMERGY servers and ETERNUS storage.

The agreement will also cover the product portfolio of Fujitsu’s alliance partners such as Brocade, CommVault, NetApp and SAP. According to the statement released, the partnership delivers major benefits to channel partners and will foster solutions business in the regional reseller community. New Fujitsu partners and existing SELECT partners and SELECT Experts within the channel partner programme of Fujitsu will experience improved presale capabilities and business support from Global Distribution, as well as from the vendor.

The combination of Fujitsu’s portfolio with Global Distribution’s reach in the MENA Region will enable Fujitsu to further target both small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), and the mid-market.

“Global Distribution has a great reputation in regional channel

development and enablement. We are pleased to work with them to expand Fujitsu’s footprint in the Middle East,” said Farid Al-Sabbagh, Vice President and Managing Director, Middle East, Fujitsu.

“Our vision is to enable the reseller community to embrace solution selling and we are committed to support our partners with all necessary tools and tailormade solutions for the vertical the partner is focused on. Partnering with Fujitsu, with its world class variety of products, is a great step forward in our mission. Fujitsu’s innovative VDI-in-a-Box Concept, based on its PRIMERGY server range, and its Integrated Backup Appliance ETERNUS CS200c powered

by CommVault Simpana are just two examples that will fast track our partners to sell reliable and proven solutions,” added Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MENA, Global Distribution.

NNT inks distribution pact with ComGuard

Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, ComGuard

IT security and compliance software solutions provider, NNT has sealed a strategic partnership with ComGuard, the information security

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march 2015 Reseller Middle East

VAD in the Middle East and Asia Pacific region.

The partnership will enable ComGuard to distribute the global player’s IT security monitoring and change detection software to its customers throughout the Middle East.

The distributor will work closely with NNT to provide its vast expanse of channel partners comprehensive support and greater flexibility, combined with pre-sales and implementation assistance; delivering extensive access to the vendor’s solutions.

Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, ComGuard, said, “This is a very exciting partnership for ComGuard since we have been focused on expanding our portfolio this year in order to align ourselves to be able to cater to the multitude of security solutions that are

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becoming mandatory in the various industry segments. With the addition of NNT to our portfolio, we can now address a niche and price sensitive market which we were previously not able to do.”

Jordan Parkin, Partner Programme Manager, NNT, said, “We are seeing huge growth around the globe as customers look to address the gaps in their security defenses.

There is a continuous demand for a reasonably priced, easy to use solution that fully addresses the challenges associated with File Integrity Management, Device Vulnerability Management, and Intelligent Change Control. Comguard already possess a solid offering, and we are looking forward to presenting to its clients a solution that will really add value to their business.”

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highlights

Arrow expands EMC portfolio with VSPEX Blue Arrow Electronics has extended its EMC portfolio with the addition of VSPEX Blue hyper-converged infrastructure appliance. Solution providers can now offer the EMC VSPEX Blue appliance through the distributor to their customers.

The VSPEX Blue hyperconverged infrastructure appliance provides virtualisation and storage in a protected and managed single, all-inclusive product. The appliance accelerates time to market by enabling customers to go from power-on to virtual machine creation within 15 minutes, according to the company.

“For over 14 years, Arrow has been a trusted EMC distributor, and we are thrilled to continue to grow our relationship with the addition of the EMC VSPEX Blue hyperconverged infrastructure appliance to Arrow’s portfolio,” said Gregg Ambulos, Senior Vice President, Global Channel Sales, EMC Corporation. “EMC shares Arrow’s passion for creating agile solutions that solve business challenges and meet the demands of customers in a rapidly changing IT landscape.

The VSPEX Blue appliance does just that, offering customers one of the fastest, and lowest risk, paths to new application and technology adoption, optimal deployment and consistent operations.”

The VSPEX Blue hyperconverged infrastructure appliance provides linear scaling that grows or contracts based on business needs. A single point of hardware and software support

by EMC provides customers with 24X7 support and repair. The company further added that the appliance offers SMB, mid-market and enterprise customers a fast, low-risk path to the private/ hybrid cloud.

DST joins Cumulus channel programme

Shashikanth N, Sales Manager, Big Data Practice & Open Infrastructure Solutions, Data Science Technologies

StorIT Distribution subsidiary Data Science Technologies (DST) has announced that it has joined the Cumulus Networks channel partner programme and is now offering open networking solutions for a range of data centre networking architectures.

Signed under the Cumulus Select Partner Programme for the Middle East, DST will promote and sell Cumulus Linux to its customers and reseller partners and provide system integration and consulting services such as planning, designing and implementing the technology within various customer environments.

“We welcome Data Science

Technologies to the Cumulus Networks channel partner programme and look forward to serving our joint customers with open networking solutions that accelerate innovation and improve economics in the data centre,” said Reza Malekzadeh, VP Business, Cumulus Networks.

“This is an exciting time for DST and Cumulus Networks as key players in the next generation networking movement as the networking world moves towards a disaggregated hardware-software model,” said Shashikanth N, Sales Manager, Big Data Practice & Open Infrastructure Solutions, Data Science Technologies.

“The use of Cumulus Linux for big data and other use cases safeguards businesses from vendor lock-in and we are committed to be part of this growing movement across the global community.

By joining the Cumulus Networks programme, DST now partners with a major player in the networking arena, enhancing our standing as an exceptional technology service provider.”

Bulwark signs up RadarServices

Jose Thomas, CEO, Bulwark

Middle East value-added distributor for IT security solutions, Bulwark Distribution, has announced its partnership with RadarServices Middle East, a player in pro-active IT security monitoring and IT risk management with European footprints.

According to the terms of the partnership, Bulwark Technologies will strengthen the sales network for the RadarServices Risk Detection

and Intelligence Service in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Jose Thomas, CEO, Bulwark said, “RadarServices provides key services in the field of IT risk management as a managed service. We see a strong demand for such services.”

Aji Joseph, General Manager, RadarServices Middle East, added, “Our Risk Detection and Intelligence Service allows pro-active, continuous risk identification. No data leaves the client’s premises. There is no additional investment in personnel or in hard- or software necessary.

Results are delivered in an easy to understand Risk Cockpit, through which near-time management of potential risk becomes possible. This is how we understand IT security monitoring – strongly oriented on client needs.”

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Reseller Middle East march 2015

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highlights

Crayon appointed Snow KSA reseller

Joachim Hagström, CEO, Crayon Middle East

Software Asset Management (SAM) firm Crayon Middle East today announced its appointment as the first reseller and deployment partner in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia market for on premise and cloud-based SAM firm Snow Software.

As a Snow Software reseller, Crayon Middle East is starting to supply and support organisations in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia throughout the implementation and the deployment process of Snow Software tools as of February.

Snow Software’s SAM platform covers all computing platforms from the desktop estate through to Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and SAP data centre environments as well as tracking the use of applications hosted in the cloud.

“We, at Crayon Middle East, are very keen to join forces with Snow Software as we believe that their offering strongly complements our global expertise in Software Asset Management, which we extended into the local market,” said Joachim Hagström, CEO, Crayon Middle East.

“The IT landscape is constantly changing as more and more organisations opt for solutions to optimise operational performance, reliability and compliance levels; the composite of Crayon SAM expertise and Snow Software tools will definitely be by far the ultimate solution for any customer. This appointment reassures the credible SAM expertise of Crayon and its commitment to initiate inclusive bundles of solutions to its customer base.”

“We see the Middle East region as an emerging hotbed of technology,” said Andreas Stjernström, Regional Business Manager, Snow Software. “And where there is an increase in the reliance on software to drive competitive advantage, there is increased risk of overspend and compliance failures.

Working with Crayon Middle East, we will help organisations optimise their software to drive the highest value at the least cost.”

GBM scoops IBM award Gulf Business Machines (GBM), has been awarded the ‘2015 IBM Security System Outstanding Performance Award’ at the 2015 IBM InterConnect Business Partner Summit.

John Banks, Director of Software Group, GBM, accepted the award on behalf of GBM from Carola Cazenave, IBM director WW Security System.

“We are delighted to be recognised in this way and very proud to have been given this prestigious award,” Banks said. “As we are celebrating our 25th year this is a fantastic time to reflect on the progress GBM has made. For many years GBM has nurtured partnerships with the world’s leading technology companies and invested in a talented, skilled workforce and this award reinforces that.”

The annual IBM InterConnect event aims to update IBM’s business partners on the company’s growth plans, products and solutions.

The ceremony was held in Las Vegas from February 22nd -26th, and

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march 2015 Reseller Middle East

gathered partners from different countries across the globe.

Bit9 + Carbon Black signs Microsoft endpoint deal (no image) Bit9 + Carbon Black has announced a partnership with Microsoft to integrate some of the company’s endpoint solutions.

The firm’s threat prevention solution will be woven with Microsoft’s System Centre 2012 Endpoint Protection (SCEP) anti-malware solution and Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) When SCEP detects malware or EMET blocks an exploit they will send their alerts to the Bit9 + Carbon Black solution, which correlates the alerts with the collective intelligence gained from its DVR-like endpoint recording and its Threat Intelligence Cloud.

This layered intelligence now shows security personnel what transpired on the endpoint before and after the alert.

“Microsoft SCEP and EMET are rapidly gaining adoption in small and

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John Banks, Director of Software Group, GBM

large enterprises because of their efficacy and the high ROI that most businesses can achieve because they often have no incremental cost,” said Brian Hazzard, Vice President, Technical Alliances, Bit9 + Carbon Black. “We’re building on that expansion by integrating our next-generation endpoint protection platform with Microsoft’s products so organisations can have a multi-layered endpoint protection strategy with an unbeatable total cost of ownership.”

The integrations will be available in the second quarter of 2015.

highlights

HDS to acquire oXya Hitachi Data Systems Corporation (HDS) has announced its intent to acquire oXya, a provider of services for cloud and SAP solutions.

The acquisition of oXya is expected to close by the end of March and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Upon the close of the acquisition, oXya, with more than 500 employees, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of HDS and will continue to execute its current business model under company VP and chairman, Frederic de Belloy, reporting to Hicham Abdessamad, HDS executive vice president, Global Services. oXya helps IT organisations manage private and hybrid cloud environments, and designs the infrastructure for implementations of SAP solutions, including the company’s HANA platform.

The intended acquisition will give HDS partners and customers an extended portfolio of HDS cloud and managed services for implementation of solutions from SAP, including SAP HANA, as well as additional options to fully realise Hitachi Unified Compute Platform solution capabilities for environments that are based on solutions from SAP, including SAP HANA. “Today’s partners and customers demand as-a-service options that enable them to keep pace with market dynamics like cloud, while transforming the way they conduct business,” said Abdessamad. “oXya offers an expanded set of applicationas-a-service offerings, both in private cloud and hybrid cloud.

They have vast experience with managing large SAP solution-based environments and a history of excellent customer satisfaction.”

Red Hat ARM Partner Early Access Programme expands

Mike Werner, Senior Director, Global Technology Ecosystems, Red Hat

Red Hat, the open source solutions provider has announced that its ARM Partner Early Access Programme has expanded to include more than 35 member companies, ranging from silicon vendors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to independent software vendors (ISVs).

Launched in July 2014 with nine participants, the programme aims to deliver, via collaboration, a singular operating platform capable of supporting multiple partner-initiated system designs based on the 64-bit ARMv8-A architecture. As a part of that commitment, programme participants have successfully completed the hardware enablement phase by incorporating necessary architectural requirements into the latest version of the development software. Based on that, Red Hat ARM Partner Early Access Programme participants are now expected to contribute system-specific software and drivers to an open source upstream Linux community for incorporation into future commercial offerings.

Mike Werner, Senior Director, Global Technology Ecosystems, Red Hat, said, “Since its launch just over six months ago, the Red Hat ARM Partner Early Access Programme has achieved two critical goals, driving significant interest and participation from both

hardware vendors and independent software vendors as well as the successful completion of the hardware enablement phase. The programme is a perfect example of how Red Hat, along with our vast network of partners and ISVs, drives standardisation within specific technology segments, with the ultimate goal of delivery of fully tested and certified solutions to the marketplace.”

While the initial integration is completed, the ARM Partner Early Access Programme plans to continue to accommodate future implementations and system designs by delivering development software, documentation and tooling to participating organisations.

stats

MENA public cloud services markets are projected to grow

17.1% $851 $727

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in 2015 to total

million, up from an estimated

million in 2014

Source: Gartner

Reseller Middle East march 2015

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highlights

Help AG achieves Blue Coat certification

Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG

Help AG, the regional information security services and solutions provider has been approved as a BlueTouch Support Partner by Blue Coat Systems, a global provider of enterprise security solutions. This allows the security specialist to extend 24×7 Level 1 and Level 2 technical support to regional businesses that leverage the vendor’s security, visibility and performance optimisation technologies.

Help AG boasts an eight year plus

partnership with Blue Coat and holds the status of Gold Partner.

“We remain committed to addressing the complete life-cycle of our vendors’ solutions. Our post-implementation service excellence has helped us establish long standing relationships with key enterprise and public sector customers in the Middle East who look to us as their trusted advisor and support partner,” said Stephan Berner, Managing Director, Help AG. “Achieving the BlueTouch partner qualification enables us to extend the same quality of expertise, reliability and availability that we deliver for other key vendor partners, across our Blue Coat solutions portfolio.”

According to the company, to assure high levels of customer satisfaction, Blue Coat ensures that all BlueTouch support partners meet a set of stringent supportreadiness and training requirements.

Having met these, Help AG will now be the primary support contact for all its Blue Coat customers. The company’s dedicated support division, the Help AG Security Assistance Centre, is a

benchmark support centre in the Middle East. All members of the team are fully certified on all the major vendor platforms that the solutions provider offers to its clients. Customers can avail of support via a comprehensive set of communications channels and are also provided access to a fully automated web-based support system.

Help AG will also be able to extend a number of additional benefits to its customers. It will be able to provide rapid alerts on new hardware and software upgrades, version releases and hot fixes on Blue Coat products and will act as the single point of contact for all the vendor’s product related issues, thereby reducing customer frustration and time to resolution. The company will also maintain a fully equipped lab environment where all customer issues can be replicated, analysed and resolved.

In extreme cases where Help AG has to escalate the customer’s request, it will enjoy accelerated access to senior Blue Coat support staff.

JadoPado launches online marketplace E-commerce firm JadoPado has today unveiled the evolution of its business into a marketplace.

JadoPado allows sellers to set up a store in a few minutes and start selling their products to a global audience.

The company’s platform lets sellers sell new, used and refurbished products to buyers.

“JadoPado has seen tremendous growth across the region over the last four years by focusing on our customers,” said Omar Kassim, CEO, JadoPado. “We’re taking the next step by revolutionising the way sellers approach e-commerce.”

Products, offers, and order management are all included in the user experience, as well as the ability to customise stores to create unique branded experiences.

Sellers can add offers to existing

products in JadoPado’s catalogue or create new products across 16 level categories and over 5500 categories in total.

Orders and shipping are handled through an interface allowing sellers to ship directly to customers the way they want, whether it be with their own fleet or a third party carrier.

Buyers can message sellers with their queries before or after purchase and use reviews to give sellers feedback about their purchase experience.

JadoPado handles payments on behalf of sellers with an integrated multi-seller checkout process. Sellers can request to be paid out to any bank account globally once a buyer has received their purchase.

“Online behaviour in the Middle East is evolving rapidly and consumers

are making more astute choices when it comes to shopping online,” Kassim added. “We’re seeing steady growth in brick and mortar retailers looking to add an e-commerce channel and trying to figure out how to turn themselves into omni-channel retailers. We see JadoPado as an important part of that mix, allowing retailers to go to market quickly and test the waters before they throw millions of dollars towards change.”

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highlights

VMware broadens partner offerings VMware has announced new programmes and updated solution competencies to its partner network.

The company has introduced its Partner Professional Services Programme, which will enable consulting partners to sell and deliver their own services engagements.

This programme will be available to a limited number of pilot partners in the first half of FY15, and is expected to expand in the second half of FY15.

Eligibility will initially be focused on partners that have demonstrated expertise in selling and delivering software-defined data centre solutions.

Partners will have cost-free access to software-defined data centre architects and experts.

In addition to training discounts and access to VMware architects, customerfocused labs will be offered to partners to accelerate time to self-sufficiency.

“As companies face new challenges in this liquid business environment, the ability to deliver dynamic services offers new and exciting opportunities for our partners,” said Dave O’Callaghan, Senior Vice President, Channels and Alliances, and

co-leader, Global Partner Organisation, VMware. “At Partner Exchange, we look forward to closely engaging with our partners to capitalise on these new opportunities in this services-centric world.”

VMware’s vCloud Air Network Programme will also expand to include managed services opportunities for vCloud Air Network service providers, enabling partners to use the service as their core infrastructure while differentiating through their managed services.

The new managed services model will be available in Q2 to qualified service providers.

“At VMware, together with our robust partner ecosystem, we continue to help transform some of the world’s leading companies,” said Todd Surdey, Vice President, Strategic Alliances and Emerging Partners, and Co-Leader, Global Partner Organisation, VMware.

“We come together with our strategic and emerging partners to empower business transformation in the mobile-cloud era.”

VMware has also introduced new and revised solution competencies for the VMware Partner Network.

Its Mobility Management Solution

Dave O’Callaghan, Senior Vice President, Channels and Alliances, and Co-leader, Global Partner Organisation, VMware

Competency is now available to partners in the mobility management space, and provides AirWatch enterprise mobility management technology training within a programme framework.

Partners achieving the competency are eligible for solution rewards rebates when they sell AirWatch products and the VMware Workspace Suite.

The Software-Defined Data Centre Competency will be available in Q2 and will encompass elements of VMware Networking, software-defined storage, server virtualisation, Management Operations and Management Automation Solutions Competencies, and rewards partners who have invested in all five competencies.

Polycom announces Dimension Data as SI partner At Polycom’s annual partner event held in Orlando, Florida, this year, the global video, voice and content collaboration solutions vendor has announced Dimension Data as its global systems integration partner for the fourth consecutive year for delivering collaborative solutions to enterprise clients around the world.

Mark Arman, VP Worldwide Channels, Global System Integrators, Polycom, said, “The needs of the modern workplace are constantly evolving, so it’s critical for Polycom to have partners like Dimension Data who can meet our customers complete business needs with transformative solutions today and

into the future. We congratulate Dimension Data and look forward to supporting their continued success.”

Peter Menadue, Dimension Data’s Group General Manager, Microsoft Solutions said, “Being awarded Systems Integration Partner of the Year for the fourth consecutive year underscores our commitment to delivering communications solutions to our clients across the globe with Polycom.

“Last month, Dimension Data announced the launch of our workspaces for tomorrow initiative where we’re also using Polycom’s technology. Workspaces for tomorrow empowers employees to

Peter Menadue, Group General Manager, Microsoft Solutions, Dimension Data

choose the best environment for their work style and activities. In addition, Polycom’s technology is currently being used in collaboration deployments globally and will continue to be a strong partner with the much-anticipated launch of Microsoft’s Skype for Business which we will launch in May 2015.”

www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East march 2015

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APPOINTMENTS

Software AG appoints new VP for Middle East

Rami Kichli, VP, UAE, Software AG

Software AG has appointed Rami Kichli as the new Vice President for the firm’s UAE division. According to the company statement, Kichli will expand the firm’s Middle Eastern business and reinforce its position as the leading provider of Digital Business Platform solutions through product innovation, strategic acquisitions, and a strong customer focus.

Kichli has occupied sales and managerial positions for various IT companies in the Middle East for around 20 years. He worked for SAP prior to joining Software AG and has held executive posts at Exact Software.

Kichli holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

“With over four decades of leadership in enterprise IT solutions and a unique Digital Business Platform at the heart of the convergence of social, mobile, cloud, and big data, Software AG can help Middle Eastern businesses achieve the levels of efficiency and performance necessary to stay relevant within today’s highly competitive markets,” said Rami Kichli, Vice President, Software AG. “Through strategic improvements in business development, planning and execution, and channel and account management the company’s regional presence and reach can be improved further to leverage growth opportunities.”

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march 2015 Reseller Middle East

www.resellerme.com

emt Distribution appoints new CISO Regional IT security products distributor, emt Distribution has announced the expansion of its team with the appointment of Erdal Ozkaya as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

Ozkaya had been advising and creating content to government departments, Fortune 500 companies and information security professionals to prepare them against latest cybercrime.

“Ozkaya is from Australia, and he had been working there in the management field for over 15 years,” Mohammad Mobasseri, CEO, emt Distribution, said.

“We are confident he will be a big asset to our organisation and also support the enterprises and government entities in the region to combat against cyber-attacks or threats. His global experience and knowledge will bring new perspectives to IT security in the region.”

Ozkaya said, “It is important to share the same vision and passion

Erdal Ozkaya, CISO, emt Distribution

with whom you work. And I am glad emt shares a similar vision and is passionate about its work, which has lead them to be one of the fastest growing value added distributors across the globe and in the Middle East in particular.

“Enterprises in this region need to embrace information security at a faster pace to defend themselves against the growing menace of cyber threats.”

Enterprises in this region need to embrace information security at a faster pace to defend themselves against the growing menace of cyber threats.” stats

$270 MEA ICT spending will cross

billion Source: IDC

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highlights

Spectrami appoints new Sales & Operations Director Value-added distributor for security and storage solutions in the MEA region, Spectrami has appointed Punit Bhatia as its new Executive Director – Sales & Operations.

Bhatia brings with him more than 21 years of experience in the IT sector majority of which is in the region, which will enable him to spearhead the distributor’s expansion plans in the region. He will be responsible for formulating strategy and leading the teams to execute it to enable growth and to achieve operational excellence, according to the company.

Anand Choudha, Managing Director, Spectrami, said, “Bhatia joins us with wealth of experience from Middle East marketplace. He brings with him a unique perspective to our business and has immediately become a valuable addition to our team. With, him on board our team, we are even more committed towards MEA market ever before.”

Bhatia said, “I am delighted to join Spectrami, their approach towards adding value to distribution has been well received and appreciated by vendors and resellers community alike. The vendor extension model of Spectrami is a unique model, which empowers partners and enables them to execute enterprise class implementations with the best of the breed technology products and solutions. I look forward to expanding and enabling the company’s eco-system by building stronger partnerships with existing partners, appointing new strategic and vertical focused partners and providing better and scalable support to potential new resellers and business across the region.”

Riverbed’s Taj ElKhayat promoted as Regional VP METNA

Taj ElKhayat, Regional VP, METNA, Riverbed Technology

Riverbed Technology has promoted Taj ElKhayat to the position of Regional Vice President for Middle East, Turkey, North, West, and Central Africa (METNA). In his new role, ElKhayat’s responsibilities include strengthening the company’s position as a key technology provider for the hybrid enterprise, expanding its penetration into new industry verticals and growing its regional footprint in emerging markets.

Elkhayat joined Riverbed as General Manager for the MENA region in January 2013 and was promoted to Managing Director for METNA in January 2014. During this period, he set in place Riverbed’s go-to-market strategy for the region, which entailed growing the company’s customer base in the key markets of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt; engaging more deeply with a select group

of focused channel partners; and strengthening local ties with Riverbed Technology Alliance (RTA) partners such as EMC, VMware and Microsoft with the intention of creating joint opportunities.

Kristian Thyregod, Senior Vice President, EMEA, Riverbed said, “Elkhayat has done an outstanding job in the region, and since he joined the company, he has brought strong vision, leadership and passion to the team. I am delighted to promote Taj to this expanded role, where he will focus on selling solutions across the Riverbed portfolio, help his team drive even closer engagement with our customers, and widen and strengthen relationships across our channel ecosystem, to deliver even further growth in the region this year.”

“We have already firmly entrenched Riverbed in the GCC and Saudi Arabia and will now look to expand, together with our partners, into neighbouring markets. I look forward to creating synergy between the professional services, marketing, technical, sales and channel teams to help our customers unlock all the business benefits of the hybrid enterprise,” said Elkhayat.

In the last 24 months, the vendor has seen a substantial growth in METNA. During the same period, the company has added key regional enterprise customers in verticals such as airlines, public sector and education.

We have already firmly entrenched Riverbed in the GCC and Saudi Arabia and will now look to expand, together with our partners, into neighbouring markets. I look forward to creating synergy between the professional services, marketing, technical, sales and channel teams to help our customers unlock all the business benefits of the hybrid enterprise.” www.resellerme.com

Reseller Middle East march 2015

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Canon

opinion

Unraveling MPS Hendrik Verbrugghe, Marketing Director, Canon Middle East, says, as increasing number of organisations opt for Managed Print Services (MPS) in the Middle East, the channel community must take on a more proactive role to leverage the opportunity.

Managed Print medium-sized businesses. Instead Services (MPS) offer of buying 30 individual desktop great opportunities printers, they are opting for 2 for businesses to multi-function devices with a sound reduce printing costs and support partner. MPS is heading improve productivity, and mid-market, a sign of increased steadily, the concept is seeing awareness about its many benefits. traction among organisations in In all cases, MPS is poised the Middle East. Industry experts for growth in the Middle East have already predicted a double as organisations flock to it to digit growth for this segment fulfil different motives, ranging and according to an IDC report, from budgetary purposes, to large companies in the Middle environmental compliance, as East are ready to look beyond well as security and reliability traditional printing and explore considerations.

MPS as a business solution.

With so much of traction, The headroom for growth in there lies a great opportunity Managed Print Services in the for the distributor community.

Middle East Region is obvious.

However to reap benefits, Hardware sales figures are still they will have to acquire the high in the Middle East compared necessary knowledge and pass to other regions. However, it is the United Arab Emirates that is seeing a strong growth market MPS is poised for MPS, thanks to its political for growth in and economic stability.

Other markets are on the Middle East as the contrary seeing a organisations flock to it rise in MPS, because of to fulfil different motives, the pressure imposed ranging from budgetary by hardships to better purposes, to environmental manage budgets. While the public sector continues compliance, as well as to be an important segment security and reliability in the Middle East, it is also considerations. pertinent to note that MPS is now attracting interests from small and

it on to others in the chain.

The status quo in most office environments around the Middle East is a fragmented, unreliable printing infrastructure with little or no checks and balances.

Distributors can offer them extra value by efficiently managing that dark area for them.

Organisations across the region are often cash-strapped and face pressure to integrate supplier without exceeding costs. It is much more costeffective to consolidate the company’s printing infrastructure and assign it to one provider than have multiple contracts with multiple vendors for small machines. This core idea of MPS could well be leveraged by distributors in the region who can then educate companies about the aforesaid crucial advantage.

As the trend for MPS picks up, distributors will also have to expand their reach and move beyond boundaries.

Organisations are looking at reliable, consolidated partnerships with suppliers and vendors who cannot provide services across territories may find themselves losing out on the opportunity.

As has been the case in the

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past, change is often resisted.

IT heads at organisations might be open to the MPS idea but might have a few reservations about it. Distributors can also step in here and present a full assessment of the existing infrastructure to the company, obviously free of charge. They can then design a specific solution for the client’s needs for the decision makers to see the full benefits that await their organisation with MPS. Distributors will also have to maintain a low profile in order to avoid intimidating IT heads, allowing them to take on the lead on the project. They will need to provide solid support to this effort and orchestrate it of course, but without taking the central role of IT. Canon Middle East has realised the opportunities and are well ahead of time. Our distributors are now venturing into the regional markets and offering MPS solutions directly to end-customers.

When it comes to MPS, we also help clients to develop a print policy, implement the solution, and tweak it during a transitional phase. We then follow up with additional support ensuring that the customer is always satisfied.

Reseller Middle East march 2015

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interview

CNS

Ihab Al Saheli, General Manager, CNS

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march 2015 Reseller Middle East

www.resellerme.com

Charged up Ihab Al Saheli, General Manager, CNS, discusses company plans and how the industry is evolving with the current market trends.

What have been some of the highlights at CNS in 2014?

Last year, we have seen major breakthroughs in two different areas. At CNS, our primary business focuses include payment systems, payment gateways and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). Last year, we expanded our coverage in these solutions beyond the UAE and now have major installations in Oman, for both payment systems and EFTs. Earlier, we focused only on local banks but now we have expanded our operation to cover multinational banks in the country. This line of business – the payment systems and EFTs – have shown a sustainable growth year-on-year.

The second area is around cloud. Assessing the market opportunities, we had partnered with VCE last year for converged infrastructure, and we are seeing the fruits of the partnership now. We did more than one transaction for converged infrastructure and we will continue to focus on it.

Last year, we were also

For 2015, we have identified three growth areas in terms of our portfolio – cloud, mobility, and we want to reposition ourselves in security.”

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Reseller Middle East march 2015

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interview

CNS

able to grow our managed services business, which is a critical line of operation for CNS. We also managed to add couple of major deals into our clientele, and we will continue to focus on that.

Were you able to make margins from hardware?

We made a noticeable growth in terms of our revenues from hardware. However, the entire market is still struggling with the margins from hardware. Although we did improve, it is not in line with the growth in the revenue itself. Another growth area that has helped us in terms of numbers is services. For example, integration services, managed services, and Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) services, which we will continue to focus upon. The challenge is as more people move to cloud, the demand for AMC will reduce and the demand for managed and integration services will increase. This is the way we are foreseeing it and we are reshaping the organisation accordingly.

As an SI in today’s ecosystem, what kind of challenges do you face?

From the perspective of the whole industry, the major challenge SIs face today are the expectations from both, the technology owners and the customers.

Often, we find ourselves in situations where customers are expecting the services to come from the

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vendors and at other times, when they are expecting it from the SI but the vendor wants to provide it himself.

This is a challenge. And there is no clear solution around this except ‘value’. The customer and vendor must realise and appreciate the value that is provided by the SI. But this area will continue to be vague.

How does an SI go forward in a cloud-enabled environment?

We believe the role of an SI will continue to exist in such an environment. Traditionally the SI’s role included their ability to integrate the different systems. However now with the advent of cloud, the demand is moving more towards systems that are already pre-integrated. This is where one needs to start thinking about the type of consulting and architectural framework that needs to be delivered to the customer so that as an SI, you build their cloud presence appropriately.

Also, as the market and

“We play the role of technology or integration consulting as part of the services we provide to our customers.”

march 2015 Reseller Middle East

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the customers are moving towards cloud, there are certain services that are associated around it, which must be provided. And that is also creating subsets of services, which are required by customers. People are moving towards the cloud in a phased manner because of which integration is required. These integrations are permanent or transactional or even transient in nature. This creates subset of services, which we are delivering to our customers.

Are SIs moving towards the role of consultants?

They should be prepared to move to that role, however I don’t see this happening in 2015. But I think three years from now, SIs who don’t have solid consulting practices, will find it difficult to survive. Although I believe a pure consulting model will not work for SIs as there will be a conflict of interest. We play the role of technology or integration consulting as part of the services we provide to our customers.

What are CNS’ plans for this year?

In 2014, we had expanded to Oman and we will continue our investment there this year. We are also looking to address Qatar as a market this year and will be selective about certain opportunities in other GCC countries, especially Saudi Arabia as the potential is large.

For 2015, we have identified three growth areas in terms of our portfolio –

From the perspective of the whole industry, the major challenge SIs face today are the expectations from both, the technology owners and the customers.” cloud, mobility, and we want to reposition ourselves in security. We have been doing security but have not been aggressive enough, and will look into revamping it.

We are also packaging and productising our managed services offering. Usually, there is confusion in the market regarding which company is doing what kind of managed services. We believe that we have identified our core competencies and will be packaging our offering around network, security and infrastructure management services.

We also plan to increase our headcount by around 8 or 10 percent.

interview

Juniper Networks

Mario Georgiou, Regional Partner Director, Juniper Middle East

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march 2015 Reseller Middle East

www.resellerme.com

Prioritising with partners Mario Georgiou, Regional Partner Director, Juniper Middle East, discusses the enhanced partner programme unveiled recently.

Last month, at Juniper’s inaugural Ideas Connected event in Las Vegas, the company announced enhancements to the Juniper Partner Advantage (JPA) programme, which was originally launched in 2012. It was also an opportunity for the vendor’s management to interact with more than 400 partners across the globe.

Mario Georgiou, Regional Partner Director, Juniper Middle East, says, “The focus at the event was largely around marketing and partnering for business growth. We want to enable our partners by educating them on new demand generation, equipping them with the right tools and growing their customer base. We aim at going deeper with customers and our channel partners to operationalise the next wave of IP networking.

We have now enhanced the JPA programme in line with the growth we have experienced over the last two years.”

The idea, he says, was to simplify the framework of

the programme in order to make it more accessible for partners. From having seven specialisations, the vendor is now focusing only on three – routing, switching and security – while also integrating the services and ‘champions’ portion into it.

Georgiou says, “We are asking our partners to do more around services because this is very important, not only for extending our reach into the market but also for our partners’ profitability. And profitability for partners is a key issue we are addressing with the enhanced programme.

Services is a big growth area in this regard.”

Besides simplifying the programme, Juniper also aims to “make more noise around champions.”

The company has three levels of partnership programmes – elite, select and value.

And within each level, there are three different types of ‘champions’, which is a sub-programme launched in 2013 – aspiring, innovative and engineer. “The highest level is engineer champions.

It is not just about product certifications but also goes around implementing solutions.

We will be pushing the number of champions at both elite and select levels. We expect elite partners to be at the engineer level and be our extension. We want to focus on developing this community of champions within our partner programme, going forward.”

As part of the programme enhancement plans, Juniper will reduce the number of elite partners across the world and in EMEA to 100 from the previous 190 (approximately).

“We are asking our partners to do more around services because this is very important, not only for extending our reach into the market but also for our partners’ profitability.”

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He adds, “We are bringing this down because we expect our elite partners to bring in a specific revenue level depending on the regions or countries they are from. And we aim to extend the select level even more this year. In this level, partners are specialised in one solution or many. Elite partners are expected to do all the products and also be our support partners.”

While routing, switching and security are going to be the three main focuses, the company will also concentrate around data centre, cloud and intelligent networks.

“These are the main aspects, which we will be driving forward with our partners. Partners need to be able to go out there and sell the whole data centre or cloud solution. Networking and security are important, but how about the other portions that compute, such as servers, software and storage? We are working closely with our partners as they have different storage machines and compute solutions; and having an open solution is key for them to be able to create their own stack,” explains Georgiou.

“We want to help our partners position where customers should be getting to right now, not only in the future. We want to be focused with fewer elite partners as high value selling will be with these partners.”

Partners can also expect increased product margins propelled by services at the front end and extensive rebates at the back end, if they achieve the different targets that are set by the company. Over the next couple of months, we will continue to hear more updates from Juniper, as it drives business growth.

Reseller Middle East march 2015

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interview

IBM

Driving partnerships Reseller ME catches up with Michael Gerentine, Global VP Channel Marketing, IBM, at the company’s PartnerWorld Leadership Conference held in Las Vegas this year.

Michael Gerentine, Global VP Channel Marketing, IBM

Can you elaborate on IBM’s announcement of formation of One Channel Team?

The thought process behind IBM One Channel Team revolves around how we can be more agile and can go faster to market by working with our channel partners. We want to bring simplicity to our channel ecosystem. Therefore, across

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march 2015 Reseller Middle East

IBM we have consolidated the channel marketing team for software, hardware and also for the global business partner team.

It is now all integrated under the One Channel organisation.

My role is to integrate this team and to be able to work with all the recently announced business units such as cloud, analytics, commerce and security. I head a team that

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will build and develop channel marketing plans and make it easier for our partners.

The next step is to review the different co-marketing programmes and the various education portals that we have.

We want to consolidate and simplify this. We will have a standard portal and set of tools for all education and training programmes. It then goes back

to how we can make it faster and simpler for our partners.

How is IBM helping partners to evolve through Business Transformation Initiatives (BTI)?

During my conversations with IBM’s Global Business Partner Advisory Council (GBPAC) two years ago, I discovered that partners were keen to evolve

and adapt to market trends and tap into profitable opportunities, provided we enabled and supported them. So we built a consultative engaging workshop for business partners and ran about 150 of them. This year, we plan to double that. This is a huge investment on our part and we are now going to deploy this around the world. What we are learning is that, around 34 of the partners that we have met through BTI have on an average increased their revenue by at least 20 percent. And 20 out of the 34 have increased their revenues by 45 percent. So this is a working model.

What have been some learnings through BTI? Most partners do not have a consistent selling model.

Therefore, we are looking at these partners from a strategic point of view and at a firm level.

Usually, other organisations ask partners how many deals they have done this week or month.

Or how many leads they have generated? We on the other hand is saying, “we want to talk about what you want to be in the next two to three years”. It is at a strategic level. We look at how they can grow and be more profitable as a company. We have received positive feedback from partners on this front.

At IBM, everyone is trained on the same methodology and the same approach for sales. We have consistency, which makes it more efficient. Partners are now learning that they too need to have consistent selling models. They have also learned that they are not investing in marketing enough. They need to drive marketing because as they move to the recurring

revenue model for cloud, they need to have different make up of their infrastructure and other expenses for marketing investments.

Partners also told us that if we were going to sell solutions, then they need to have a one-stop shop for education and training. This was another learning for us as we had different portals across various divisions of the company.

Taking this into consideration, we have launched PartnerWorld University as a platform for partners to come to for training across all business units. We are going to invest heavily in this area to ensure partners receive the right content.

How are you planning to bring partners the awareness of digital marketing and the opportunities that it can bring to them?

The focus is to communicate that as the market changes, work changes and transformation is required.

We need to get our partners to do more digital marketing.

Historically, what they like to do is run events, and do basic traditional level marketing tactics. We have now launched IBM Digital Content marketing platform and it is available free for any PartnerWorld partner.

We are going to start working with them and have a huge campaign to educate them on how they can do more digital marketing. What we have learned this, if we do the marketing ourselves, we are not as effective as giving the money to our partners and teach them how to do it. They can then drive the business based on what their core competencies are.

Today we sell hardware box, do a cloud offering or individual software, but there is more focus on integrated solutions in the Middle East. Partners want to know how better they can package a solution.”

How can partners make the transition and transform to emerging technologies?

Many of our partners are sophisticated but they are focused on one or two different product offerings.

We need to move them to a solutions selling model, which has a higher value. And this also means they need to have deeper education.

Partners must focus on education and certification.

Also today partners believe only if they focus on all

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industries and all technology, can they be profitable. They don’t want to be excluded from potential leads. However, that’s not true. We are getting them to realise that they need to take a step back and figure out what their core competencies are. We are compelling them to make a decision based on their history and strengths.

You cannot be everything to everybody. It is all about focus, going deeper and creating a specialty. And it is important for partners to identify the top three industries to be present in as vertical focus is key.

From our perspective, partners are going to see a deeper focus on the business development side because that drives more loyalty. It drives more business for our partners and we make more profits out of that as well.

What are some of the unique aspects of the Middle Eastern channel ecosystem when compared with global counterparts?

When it comes to education, many countries in the Middle East prefer online training, more than North American countries.

This could be because of the distance and convenience factor.

Also, the Middle East region is demanding more packaged solutions. Today we sell hardware box, do a cloud offering or individual software, but there is more focus on integrated solutions in the Middle East. Partners want to know how better they can package a solution. We need to leverage our distributors more in this region to enable this. I see more bundle solutions offerings.

Reseller Middle East march 2015

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Path to success With resellers being the key component of the channel landscape, RME profiles leading players and discusses important factors to their success.

Global vendors depend on regional resellers to deliver products and solutions efficiently to customers. With relationships being the core of most businesses in the Middle East, resellers carry a significant responsibility. They are the most important link in the distribution channel. However, it is not an easy role to be in, especially when faced with constant challenges such as low margins, cut-throat competition, dynamic technology trends, changing customer demands and market turbulence. Only the ones who evolve along with the industry can be successful.

The regional IT market features a vast network of reseller partners, some of whom have been operational for more than two decades. However, in this feature, we take a look at only some of the prominent players, based on availability, market experience, value addition, technology partners and product portfolio. Over the next few pages, you will learn about what makes their businesses work year after year and how the future of the industry is expected to shape out.

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Reseller Middle East march 2015

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Top resellers

Accent Office Supplies Sachin Gehani, Director Back in 1999, Accent Office Supplies started out as a small supplies-only company, with just three members. And over the years, it has grown its brands and customer portfolio. Today it boasts of multiple brands and branches across the UAE and abroad, with a large employee base.

Sachin Gehani, Director, Accent Office Supplies, says, “Our business lines broadly will fall into supplies, printers, laptops, desktops and servers, LED monitors, networking products and accessories. However, this is a broad categorisation, our product portfolio is constantly evolving and we believe that this is the only way we can stay ahead of the competition.”

Accent is not just your run of the mill trading company, says Gehani. “We are a one-stop shop for all your solution requirements. While we do have an advantage in pricing due to our large exports division and volume buying, this box movement is not the only thing we rely on.

“Our focus is heavily on providing accurate solutions to clients, after considering each individual needs and the latest technologies available at our disposal. Of course, this has to be done in a cost effective manner to provide maximum value. Large availability of a range of products, competitive prices, informed sales team and prompt after sales service are our focus areas.”

But the most important factor, which differentiates them is the healthy long-term relationship shared with all clients.

“Almost more than 70 percentage of our clients have been with us for 5 plus years and we never underestimate the value of that relationship. It is only by excelling each time, every order, we can keep ahead of competition.”

As a reseller in the current market, there are a number of challenges the company faces, from uninformed competitors offering substandard products, undercutting by various resellers in order to move volumes, currency fluctuations to maintaining profitability.

However despite these challenges, the company has had a successful run. Gehani says, “I strongly believe that any company is only as strong as its people are. Therefore, we attribute our success to each and every employee who is with, or has been with Accent; everyone from drivers, office boys, sales team, logistics and Top vendors management.”

HP, Dell, Canon, Going forward, he believes Lexmark, the regional IT channel will Samsung and have to evolve, considering the Xerox pressure mounting up on the bottom line. “Continually adding Distributor value to the clients is the only partners way to survive, else, it’s going to Redington, Metra, get tougher.”

Simba, Aptec – an Ingram Micro company, Almasa IT and Despec

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march 2015 Reseller Middle East

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DataCare Suresh Shetty, MD Armed with 12 years of market experience, DataCare begun operations as a data storage media specialist and this continues to be the main focus for the company.

Suresh Shetty, MD, DataCare, says, “We continue to hold the pole position within the data storage media segment. The data storage category has grown over the years and we have expanded our product line to include other data storage related products such as networkattached storage, which is becoming popular with both consumer and enterprise users.”

Besides data storage media products, other products include Printronix printer ribbons, Wacom graphics tablets and Ncomputing Zero clients, which the company defines as ‘core products’. Shetty adds, “We have a substantial business out of the core product area too, as we have export customers to whom we supply complete IT range to facilitate comprehensive logistics, but this is not on a regular basis.”

Top vendors HP, IBM and Printronix forms HP, IBM, the company’s top vendors in terms Printronix, Wacom, of revenue. “We also have other NComputing, WD, brands on board such as Wacom, Qnap, Synology Ncomputing, WD, Qnap and Synology too with which we have had great Distributor success. We are constantly looking partners out for new vendors with innovative Despec, Redington products that fit in our portfolio.” and Metra serve The biggest challenge, says Shetty, is the largest part managing credit. “You make the credit of the product control too tight, and you start losing on legitimate business, you go easy a bit and portfolio. The reseller also there is the risk of defaults. For us, the has a working credit insurance is too expensive, and relationship with defaults, if any, would eat through the Aptech, Logicom bottom line. However, we have managed and FDC. fairly well thanks to a balanced credit policy and a product line that can’t be converted liquid overnight by defaulters.”

DataCare attributes its success to its ability to quickly adapt to market changes. “We also invest in IT and mobility, for example, system remote access, automatic report generation. This ensures our IT systems are efficient and help us keep an eye on the overall business trend.”

Experts Computer Shailendra Rughwani, Managing Director Twenty-one years ago, Dubai-headquartered Experts Computer commenced operations in reselling and trading computer hardware from global brands and has since witnessed the evolution of the market.

Shailendra Rughwani, Managing Director, Experts Computer, says, “IT is one of the most dynamic and vibrant industries and the market trend changes frequently. Mobility is presently the trend in the market.

All the mobile devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones are in demand today. We have also seen an increasing demand for desktop PC and all-in-one PC product lines.”

The reseller says its market differentiation has been its years of experience in the market. “We are one of the oldest and reputed computer company in UAE and most of the customers trust us to deliver. We emphasise on best prices, prompt deliveries and best after-sales service.”

Top vendors There are several challenges in the computer hardware market and some of this continues Sony, HP, Dell, to be, “Overstocking, price fluctuations and outdated inventory,” he adds. However, the reseller Canon and other has managed to expand its business over the years thanks to a “good and dedicated team, who top brands have been with us for many years. This is the key to success,” Rughwani explains.

He is also positive about the future of the market. According to him, although the market Distributor conditions look severe at the moment, it will definitely get better over the next couple of years. partners “Regional IT channel is expected to grow in the coming years due to the developments taking Redington, Metra, place in the region. With the upcoming Expo2020, lot of infrastructure investments are expected Logicom in UAE, which should benefit IT as well. The future looks good in the next few years for the IT companies based in UAE.”

Fourth Dimension Computer Ghaith AL-Marsoumi, Operations Manager

Top vendors Epson, Canon, HP, Dell, Samsung

Founded in 1999, Fourth Dimension Computer’s core operations include distribution, wholesaling, reselling and retailing businesses.

Distributor “We began business from a store located at Computer Street, Dubai and have improved partners our operations over the last several years. Our focus is more on exporting and have a larger Redington, business in this segment, although we do have strong operations in the local market as well. The Logicom, Asbis, products that we resell include printers, scanners, projectors along with laptops and desktops. And FDC as a reseller, we do good numbers and see the majority of business coming from Canon and Epson products,” says Ghaith AL-Marsoumi, Operations Manager, Fourth Dimension Computer.

The company was one of the four resellers for the German brand, TechniSat in the region.

“However seeing our good work and because of the sales we did for them, we were made the exclusive distributor for the brand in the Middle East. We are also distributors for the US brand, Patriot for its memory and flash products and also for the Chinese brand, Tenda for its networking products.”

The company has also launched three of its own brands – both Platinum and Elegant are accessories products while Pilot is a range of mid-market positioned tablets.

“The mid-market positioning of our brands have helped us in our success and growth story. Also we have good channel partners in the Middle East,” says AL-Marsoumi. The common problem that most players face in the market is keeping up with the evolving technology. “It is highly dynamic, but we must equip ourselves to stay ahead of market demands and understand technology to be successful in the market.”

Today the company has its head office located on Bank Street with two showrooms on Computer Street and a logistics division and two warehouses in different parts of Dubai.

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Top resellers

Lucky Star Computers KU Shankri, Founder and CEO

Top vendors HP, Lenovo, ASUS, Dell, Acer

Distributor partners Logicom, GBM, FDC, Redington Gulf, Jumbo

Lucky Star Computers was established in 1998 with a focus on four main lines of business – SMB, trading, retail and service – and has since gone to form longlasting relationships with customers.

One of the major issues in the channel has been the competition from the power retailers. To differentiate itself from the market, KU Shankri, Founder and CEO, Lucky Star Computers, says, “We have segmented ourselves into a niche area, which does not thrive merely on economic rationality but emphasises on value additions in terms of technical expertise dissemination, high-end solutions to the discerning customers who seek such services and are willing to pay little higher than a typical consumer driven by economic considerations.”

With about 70 percent of the business coming from systems and hardware category, the reseller sells products from across brands such as Acer, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus and Acer.

Although Shankri has been in the market for the last two decades, she says, every day is a new learning experience. “I do not hesitate to take risks in investment decisions. If an idea excites me, I tend to pursue it till it is implemented or culminates in an appropriate response. I have stopped looking back at failures and tend to look at the positive side.” She believes this thought-process has helped the company thrive in the competitive market space.

Today Lucky Star boasts of seven showrooms, out of which two are located in India.

Shankri says that though the market conditions are favourable for companies to do business in the region, it is necessary to fight the competition from the power retailers. “The threat of the power resellers who have encroached upon the space, which was traditionally led by SMBs, must be dealt with. This is a serious challenge, which needs a concentrated effort from all quarters.”

Maxtouch Computers Ramesh Belani, Managing Director Having set shop 12 years ago, Maxtouch Computers is an authorised distributor for View Sonic, Liteon, Apacer, Plextor, Tripp Lite, Acer, Microsoft and preferred partners with major brands such as HP, Juniper, Aruba, Cisco, Cyberoam, Symantec, Toshiba, and Dell. The product line with these brands include servers, notebooks, desktops, workstations, projectors, storage systems and security products.

And it also has its own in-house IT accessories brands called Vsonic and JSD. Ramesh Belani, Managing Director, Maxtouch Computers, says, “As a value-added distributor, we aim to differentiate from our competition. Our flexible mode of operation and access to channels give us an edge over our competition.”

While there are several challenges in the regional channel landscape, one of the major ones for the reseller include political instability in the Middle East countries, which impact numbers.

Top vendors He says, “Vendors’ pressure on volumes on monthly or quarterly intakes is another challenge HP, Juniper, we face. This pressure results in insecurity on relations between vendor and distributor. Also Viewsonic, the increase in cost of operations, largely due to rents, has resulted in higher turnover of Samsung, Tripp employees, as they move from one firm to another seeking better incomes to meet living costs.”

Lite, Aruba, Liteon, Belani attributes the success of the company to two aspects, “Our experienced and Apacer, Plextor dedicated team and our loyal customers have been the backbone of our success story.”

How will the future shape out for the regional channel players? He says, “Due to increasing Distributor cost in operations, which affects margins, the channel environment will eventually lead to partners eliminating the distributor layer. Because going forward, vendors may deal directly with power Redington, FDC, retailers, retailers and traders. This has been happening in USA, Europe and some North and Metra South African countries.”

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Printek Supplies Manoj Tiwari, Managing Director Printek Supplies established business in the region in 2004 with the trading of impact and non-impact printer supplies such as ink cartridges, toners and ribbons, and was also into the trading of backup tapes. The company delivers products from a large portfolio of global brands such as HP, IBM, Canon, Brother, Epson, Samsung and Imation.

According to the company’s Managing Director, Manoj Tiwari, Printek Supplies experienced a substantial growth till 2013. “With shifting market trends, evolving dimensions of reselling business and as new players Top vendors entered this category, our business was affected over the last two years HP, IBM, Canon, or so.”

Brother, Epson, While the recession had little impact on the company’s turnover, Samsung and today however printing has taken a backseat in organisations as they Imation. adopt environmental friendly policies. But observing that the market is saturating, Tiwari says, “We want to grow by expanding into markets, Distributor which has in-country consumptions rather than re-exporting. With this in partners mind, we opened a showroom in Saudi Arabia in 2011, which is doing well Redington, Metra, today. This year, plans are underway to expand to few other countries Despec, Logicom within the GCC region.

“With almost 70 percent of business coming in from HP products today, we hope to shift this to other brands such as Epson, Canon and Xerox, in order to help increase our margins.”

The reseller sees the growth largely coming from verticals such as banking, healthcare, hospitality and government.

In 2015, we will see the reseller focusing more on increasing Saudi sales. “This will help us have a better bottom line. We have a three-member team present on ground.

Also this year, we are focusing more on end-user sales rather than resellers. We are also trying to expand more into corporate businesses,” says Tiwari.

Q-Line Electronics Sunil Lalwani, Managing Director Q-Line Electronics started out as a small store on Bank Street in Dubai in 1993, with its main line of business in IT and electronics. Today the family-owned business has branched out to four stores and deals with products such as printers and supplies, laptops and tablets.

Sunil Lalwani, Managing Director, Q-Line Electronics, says, “The channel business has grown more challenging with each passing year. The political scenarios in the Middle East countries and currency fluctuations affect business in a big way. Also, this has led to the closure of many markets and entering new markets has its own set of challenges. Earlier we had never targeted markets such as the Far East, Europe or Americas. For many years, we were depending on the African and Top vendors the Middle East markets, however now we believe it will be more lucrative to explore into newer markets and this HP, Canon, Lenovo, will be our focus this year.”

Acer and Epson Besides market conditions, product lines have also changed, says Manish Doolani, Sales Director, Q-Line Electronics.

“When we had started our business, desktops were the most preferred product lines. Today, we see growth in the sales of Distributor tablets and laptops as well. Although desktops are still selling, the percentage of business has declined comparatively.” partners In such dynamic market environment, it is necessary to be vigilant and take up new growth opportunities. “The good Redington, Metra, thing about this industry is that when one product line declines or disappears, another one comes along,” adds Lalwani.

Logicom and And for this, one must be adequate with the emerging technologies. According to the MD, as a reseller, Q-Line takes Trigon trainings and certifications seriously. “This helps our staff to be well-versed with market conditions and new products.”

The key word for 2015, according to the reseller, is ‘patience’. “This year, we need to be patient and wait for political scenarios to resolve. We expect 2015 to be the most challenging year till date. All major markets that buy from Dubai is at a standstill. We must have a slow and steady approach towards business. We are hoping the market becomes better in Q2 and Q3.”

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Top resellers

Scantrans Computers Anil Beriya, Director Scantrans Computers is a Dubai-based reseller for networking products operational since 2004.

Anil Beriya, Director, Scantrans Computers, says, “Our main line of products include networking active products from TP-Link, Cisco, Linksys, D-Link, Netgear and HP. At the same time we are doing networking passive products from 3M, Kuwes, D-Link and Linkcomn.

“We believe our strength lies in availability and cost effective products for the smooth running of an organisation’s networks. As we have been focusing in this category, we know networking products require commitment on service and availability. We have our customer base who trust us for our commitment on availability with competitive price.”

According to Beriya, the networking business is undergoing a tough period as there are many new entrants in this field. “A major problem area is the price range between different brands.

Many new entrants try to establish and garner a piece of the market share with low pricing, at the cost of services. This is affecting business for established brands where a quality of service is offered with products.”

While players are diversifying business and looking to venture into other avenues for growth, Scantrans’ dedicated focus on networking products has enabled it to grow and sustain the business over the years.

Beriya says, “Focused vision on networking products, committed service to clients including availability of products, and maintaining reasonable margin have helped us in our growth journey.”

He further believes Top vendors technological advancements will TP-LINK, Cisco, keep the future of the regional IT Linksys, Netgear, channel market active. “However, D-Link, HP, 3M, price competition, low margins Kuwes, Linkcomn and shrinking market share due to e-commerce will make a big impact Distributor on the future of an IT reseller.” partners Aptec, Logicom, MES, Asbis, Track Distribution, Redington, Trigon

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Winning Deal Computers Maher Abu Amarah, President Established in 1982, the Jordan-based reseller, Winning Deal Computers, began its UAE operations in 1995 and is celebrating its thirtythird year in business, says its President, Maher Abu Amarah.

“Winning Deal Computers, Dubai, was founded to meet the needs of the rapidly growing infrastructure in the region. Today, we supply our channel partners with the latest desktops, printers, laptops, tablets, network products, CPUs, memory, hard drives and accessories products.”

The company has large retail outlets in Khalid Bin Al Waleed Street, Bur Dubai, and a showroom located in Computer Street for wholesale business.

With declining hardware margins and stiff competition in the market, it is not an easy task to sustain operations and be profitable. Amarah says, “There are several challenges in the market for players like us. Constant and rapid changes in technology, deteriorating PC sales and the market Top vendors shift to mobility have compelled us to Lenovo, HP, Dell, try and be a step ahead.”

Toshiba, Microsoft, According to Amarah, the company’s Intel, Asus, APC, dedicated and qualified sales, technical Epson, Acer, support, accounts and logistics team Samsung, Linksys, have enabled it to be successful in the D-link, TP-LINK, region. “Also, we make it a point to Kaspersky, Logitech always update our product lines with and others the latest technology and offer it to our customers at competitive prices. This Distributor also has helped us to grow and reach partners where we are today.

Redington, Asbis, “The key elements of our growth are GBM, Mindware, low margin, key account management, FDC, Logicom, reliable logistics structure, and attention Trigon, Jumbo, Al to customer feedback,” he adds.

Futtaim, Almasa, As far as the future of the regional Aptec, EMPA, Eros IT channel is concerned, he says, it is and others not possible to predict, however, “The MEA market is a rapidly growing region, especially for mobility and security.”

feature

Big Data and analytics

Betting big

Insights from Big Data and analytics can transform businesses and give it the power to make informed decisions. Reseller ME investigates what the channel partners can do to reach out to customers more effectively and monetise this technology.

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Big Data and analytics is increasingly being termed as the modern day oil. And organisations understand this much better today than a few years ago. But Big Data alone cannot serve the purpose entirely, you need analytics. Businesses need to have their huge repositories of data categorised and analysed to be able to extract any information of value, which can be then used to take an informed decision and enhance productivity.

According to IDC FutureScape for Big Data and Analytics predictions 2015 report, rich media (video, audio, image) analytics is expected to triple this year and emerge as the key driver for Big Data Analytics technology investment.

Dan Vesset, Program Vice President for Business Analytics and Big Data research, IDC, emphasises in the report, “Leading organisations are changing how they measure their operations, interactions with customers, and resource allocations. Faster access to more relevant data and constant experimentation is creating a further gap between leaders and the rest of the organisations.

It is also creating new challenges for IT and business leaders tasked with their organisation’s Big Data and analytics strategy and execution.”

The research firm has further predicted that the Big

For partners to ensure that there is more profitability in this area it is also important to associate Big Data with ‘big spend’, they have to ensure that their customers get immediate value from embarking on Big Data projects.”

Dan Smith, Head of Integrated Marketing, Middle East and Africa, Xerox

Data and analytics market to reach USD 125 billion worldwide in 2015. And the region too is increasingly becoming committed to leap on to the Big Data and analytics bandwagon.

Dan Smith, Head of Integrated Marketing, Middle East and Africa, Xerox, says, “According to Frost & Sullivan, the GCC’s Big Data market is set to grow nearly five-fold from USD 135.7 million in 2013 to USD 635.5 million in 2020, and last year’s GITEX focused on enabling the Middle East businesses to deliver new customer and product insights, and enhance ROI avenues.”

The question regional channel partners should be asking themselves is, are they doing everything it takes to acquire a share of this market?

Partners’ prospect From the statistics, we can see that there are huge opportunities for those partners who are agile and can adapt to the evolving customer demands.

With the help of Big Data and analytics tools and solutions, partners are in a position to direct organisations on how to approach the deluge of data they are facing today.

According to Smith, Big Data helps to make it possible for partners to provide an unprecedented array of insights into customer needs and behaviours. “It helps to effortlessly sift through vast quantities of data and organisational complexity, rapidly changing customer behaviors, and increased competitive pressures. It helps companies to collect and analyse behavioural data by scrutinising customer actions, feedback gathered through Web forms, surveys and through social channels, and voice-ofthe-customer data.”

‘Now’ is the time for regional partners to broaden their skillset and invest into this field. Smith says, “For partners dealing with this technology, it can help to advance their Net Promoter Rate (NPR). Moreover, it is

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believed that those that use Big Data analytics efficiently display productivity rates and profitability that are five to six percent higher than those of their peers.”

Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MENA, Global Distribution, says, “The number of true Big Data projects we see in the region are limited, hence the wider partner community hasn’t yet captured the anticipated growth in this area. The ‘Big Data’ projects seen in the region today are in reality ‘dash boarding’ projects.”

The two main elements partners should concentrate on continues to be enhancing skillset and understanding the value and potential the technology can give to organisations. Also, when talking about Big Data and analytics, partners must present the bigger picture. It is not just about a particular solution or product but how it can impact the business positively from an overall perspective.

Smith adds, “For partners to ensure that there is more profitability in this area it is

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feature

Big Data and analytics

also important to associate Big Data with ‘big spend’, they have to ensure that their customers get immediate value from embarking on Big Data projects. The term is data monetisation which is the practice of applying analytics to gain profits from Big Data. This can be successfully implemented by enterprises that rely on analytics for decision making.”

Agreeing Veljovic says, “It’s down to developing the skills to sell ‘ROI’ rather than just ‘products specs’.

The partner community needs to be able to sell the true value of Big Data and Analytics to businesses in the region. Specialisation on selected verticals is key and building knowledge within that particular vertical is just as important.

More than the IT skills, it is about understanding the customers’ business.”

Partners need to go deeper with the technology.

And the only way to do it is by investing in training and education. If partners focus on building specialisations and becoming experts in a particular aspect of the technology, they are carving a niche for themselves and customers will come seeking their services.

Vendors’ role Vendors also play a crucial role in this regard. By investing in partner training and education, they are building a better prospect for their offering.

Robert Brower, VP of Worldwide Customer

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The two main elements partners should concentrate on continues to be enhancing skillset and understanding the value and potential the technology can give to organisations. Also, when talking about Big Data and analytics, partners must present the bigger picture. It is not just about a particular solution or product but how it can impact the business positively from an overall perspective.

Support and Training, CommVault, says, “One of the things we do as a vendor is manage, access and protect the data, and every ‘byte’ is visible to us.

Organisations usually have data that is being generated now and data that has been generated in the past. By sifting through the back up, indexing and tagging them, we give all our customers and partners who work with these customers, the ability to go back into the archive and extract relevant information out of that data.

We enable partners to be able to glean information and mine intelligence out of that repository of data.”

Also, through training programmes, vendors enable partners to understand Big Data and how it can be applied to store, manage, process and analyse massive amounts of unstructured and polystructured data.

Smith from Xerox adds, “The vendors can help partners tap the Big Data

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and analytics potential for organisation by helping in shaping a plan. Most enterprises can recognise that they have opportunities to use data and analytics to raise productivity, improve decision making, and gain competitive advantage.

However, actually plotting an analytics plan is complicated.

And in this aspect vendors can guide the partners.”

He further adds, they can aid partners to set a strategy; draw a detailed road map for investing in assets such as technology, tools, and data sets. “Then they can also enable partners tackle the inherent drawbacks of securing commitment, reinventing processes, and changing organisational behaviour.

“They can help explore the technologies underpinning Big Data and determine how Big Data systems can complement business intelligence solutions and processes. They can also help partners to differentiate their business and provide a better

service to their customers,” he says. “The vendors can also provide solutions to challenges that partners may face from time to time such as going through the sheer volumes of data and accessing the level of detail needed, all at a high speed. One possible explanation is hardware.

There are vendors that use increased memory and powerful parallel processing to crunch large volumes of data extremely quickly.

Such an approach can allow organisations to go through enormous data volumes and gain business understandings in near-real time.”

The partners who are successful with Big Data and analytics today are those who have really understood the technology inside-out.

However, that is only a small fraction of the partner ecosystem. Partners should foster their capabilities and look at the comprehensive picture if they wish to tap into existing market opportunities with Big Data and analytics.

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vendor focus

HID Global

Identifying the advantage HID Global’s Business Segment Director for PACS, Jaroslav Barton and Nat Pisupati, Regional Sales Director Identity & Access Management, MEA, take us through the company and channel plans for the year.

HID Global’s Business Segment Director for PACS, Jaroslav Barton and Nat Pisupati, Regional Sales Director Identity & Access Management, MEA As organisations work towards adopting and adapting to the emerging technologies, one of the most crucial factors to consider remains to be security.

Over the last year, there have been reports of several security breaches, which have further compelled businesses to be more vigilant in securing their premises.

Secure identity solutions manufacturer, HID Global’s Business Segment Director for PACS, Jaroslav Barton, says, identifying the demand and potential in the market, the firm is in the process of increasing its offerings in segments such as physical access control and identity insurance. “We see an increased demand in the market for having combined

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and converged solution of secure identity, which will have to protect not only the entrance of the building but also the assets in the building such as data residing in the computer, network and clouds,” he adds.

He goes on to say that solutions that were secure two decades ago are now susceptible to threats as technology has evolved and hackers too are equipped with advanced tactics to create a security breach. “It is necessary for us to be two steps ahead of these offenders and offer future-proof solutions.”

Tapping into current market trends, the company is also in the process of using smartphones as access control devices, instead of the traditional

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card. “Our HID mobile access solution provides a high secure virtual credential that can be loaded into the mobile phones, with which one can open doors. Additionally, we support Bluetooth smart technology and with gesture technology enabled, we can activate the readers from a longer distance.

This provides better convenience and we have observed a keen interest from the regional customers for this technology,” says Barton.

Nat Pisupati, Regional Sales Director Identity & Access Management, Middle East & Africa, HID Global, says, partners can expect a number of initiatives from the vendor this year in terms of new solutions and technology.

“Without new products, you are not going to gain a sustainable growth. We are not looking at increasing our partner ecosystem, we are going to work with our existing welldefined set of partners with new products to increase our market share as well as our sales.”

HID’s Advantage Partner Programme empowers partners to increase their market share while also maintaining their business profitability.

According to the company, partners can take advantage of the programme’s streamlined channel engagement model as it is designed for long-term success.

The company invests in the

enablement of partners through the programme with features such as a tiered structure for pricing, market development funds, training resources, leads, and early access to product and technology direction. Based on the level the partners are at, the company shares marketing funds, invests in solution seminars, roadshows and training programmes. “As our technology is constantly evolving, we must ensure they are aware of the new developments.

Therefore, every six months or so, we fly in trainers from US or UK to train our partners on new products and solutions,” says Pisupati. Besides on-site training initiatives, the company also provides a global portal for its partners, and a variety of online technical training and solution sessions through the Genuine HID Academy.

“We are concentrating on our mobile access technology, that’s mainly for our Physical Access Control Systems (PACS) partners.

Each partner is on a different product line. At Intersec, our focus was mainly on cloud-based mobile access technology, which our PACs partners will benefit from.

When choosing partners, the company looks for those who are technically proficient and have good customer service. “We also want them to have a good market reputation and know the business very well. These are some of the criteria we rate them on,” adds Pisupati.

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Blackberry

RME RATING

BlackBerry Classic

For users looking for a simple straightforward smartphone, BlackBerry Classic could be the perfect match.

The BlackBerry Classic is an enhancement of its previous version. QWERTY keypad, the popular Blackberry trackpad is all here along with the latest iteration of the Blackberry OS, BB10.3 At first glance, the device appears solid and has a professional charm, historically wooing the sentiments of the ‘businessman’.

However, this time the brand doesn’t limit itself to this category and is aiming at the larger segment of mobile professionals who are looking for a no-frills dependable smartphone.

The QWERTY keyboard has always been a convenient and a welcomed feature. The return of the trackpad brings back memories for previous generation Blackberry users, however it might not be as useful today. The same Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that powers the Q10 along with an Adreno 225 for graphics powers the device. This gives an indication into the performance one could expect from the Classic. The battery life matches with what exists in the market today, for everyday apps such as Emails, SMS and average browser usage. However, increase the media consumption on this device and it really starts to show that the 2515mAh battery is not built for modern media-savvy users. The screen also has a slightly lower resolution than the BB Q10 and being a non-IPS display, the viewing angles can be disappointing for a device launched in this generation.

The strongest point of any BB10 device is the Blackberry Hub and the ease of functionality it promises to bring with it. And in this regard, the Classic does not disappoint. In terms of usability, the OS is pretty simple

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with the App Tray on the right and the BB Hub on the left, as you swipe more to the left you get more into the basic settings of your device.

You will find all your accounts and all app notifications in this Hub. This makes it easier to access these apps and respond to new notifications.

The BB10.3 now brings the Amazon App store to the user so they can install Android apps that are not available in BB world. The challenge for Blackberry is not how they can get these apps to their BB fans but how practical it is to do so. Android apps are not native to the BB ecosystem and are hence bound to have problems while they are being used. Google Maps, Twitter, Evernote, FB messenger respond slower and even the Whatsapp application, which by far is the most common messaging service (replacing BB Messenger of course) runs slower than other platforms. Blackberry must optimise the compatibility of all such apps if they expect a better demand for this device.

The smartphone is equipped with a rear-facing camera of 8MP that comes with enhanced shooting features such as HDR and Time Shift, where one can take a series of photos and edit offline at a later stage. The quality is decent and produces clear enough images in daylight, however struggles to give an equal quality while taking pictures in dim or low light.

The inclusion of BlackBerry Assistant is a commendable feature. It works instantly by holding down the dedicated button between the volume buttons and gives you results from varied search engines.

All in all, the BlackBerry Classic will be ideal for those users who do not have heavy media consumptions and simply want a straightforward smartphone.

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hot products

Xerox launches colour C60/ C70 printer

Wacom presents Cintiq13HD touch Wacom has introduced the Cintiq 13HD touch for discerning professional creators of digital content. The latest addition to its lineup of creative pen displays, the Cintiq 13HD touch is designed to offer a natural pen and touch experience to designers, artists and image editors.

The Cintiq 13HD touch’s compact design can be easily connected to both Mac and PC computers.

Whether positioning it on the desk or on a lap, the Cintiq 13HD touch’s adjustable stand is optimised for use in a choice of four settings – flat, 22°, 35° and 50°. Its screen displays 16.7 million colours to ensure crisp colour quality, according to the company.

In addition, the wide-format HD LED display’s 178° viewing angle and 1920x1080 resolution are particularly beneficial to those working with intricate graphics or images.

While the Pro Pen, offering 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity as well as tilt recognition, drives the overall creative experience on the Cintiq 13HD touch, it is the newly added multi-touch integration that allows the user to navigate the desktop or rotate and zoom in and out of an image or illustration in a liberating and intutive fashion.

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The latest Xerox colour C60/ C70 Printer gives users a costeffective option for a broad range of printing needs. According to the company, the device is suitable for any print environment and offers turn-key features and media-weight versatility. Users can easily enhance and expand their application offerings to include rugged polyester labels, menus, signs and vinyl window clings. It offers sharp, consistent and accurate image quality with the 2400 x 2400 dpi resolution and enhanced front-to-back registration accuracy. A first for this product category, Xerox further

said that the device prints on linen for applications such as event planning, appliques and luxurious embellishments.

It features speeds up to 70 pages per minute (ppm) in colour, 75 ppm in black and white. It also equipped with efficient pre-programmed workflow solutions for job accounting, job security, monitoring and tracking.

Zotac Steam Machine steps up gaming experience

Zotac International, a manufacturer of graphic cards and mini-PCs, has introduced Zotac Steam Machine SN970.

Inspired by the ZBOX signature form design, the SN970 features rounded edges and slightly elevated for greater airflow, it is fashion and function integrated.

With NVIDIA graphics and technology powering the unit, up to 4 displays can be connected simultaneously. NVIDIA Surround and Steam Big Picture bring

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the immersive experience to users on the big screen, said the company. Each unit comes with a Steam controller to give users better control in action and storage also comes included in the form of a 64GB M.2 SSD and a 2.5-inch 1TB HDD. Equipped with 802.11ac wireless, users can enjoy a fast connection to the network for a smooth gaming experience.

Valve’s much anticipated SteamOS brings users the complete Steam platform experience along with other innovations. Pre-loaded with the Steam Machine, the unit will boot up the OS when it is powered on for the first time, saving gaming time.

Some of the innovations brought by the SteamOS are in-home streaming, multimedia playback, and library sharing capabilities; making the unit living roomfriendly for the entire family.

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Sony announces Xperia Z4 Tablet

Terming it as the slimmest and lightest tablets in the market, Sony Mobile has launched Xperia Z4 Tablet. Sporting a 10.1-inch 2K display and long battery life (up to 17 hours of video playback), the latest tablet delivers all the portable performance users need said the company.

Equipped with best-in-class Sony technologies and experiences, users can view good-quality media, even outdoors in direct sunlight. It is also powered with front stereo speakers for an immersive surround sound effect.

DSEE HX processing upscales the audio fidelity of tracks to near High-Res Audio quality. It supports digital noise cancelling for those times when you need to block out background noise.

Xperia Z4 Tablet comes loaded with a 8MP main camera, featuring the company’s leading technologies for great shots in all lights, and a high quality 5.1MP wide-angle front camera.

Packed with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core 64 bit processor, users can browse faster and get the optimal graphics experience on a 2K display. Whether using Wi-Fi or 4G LTE, multi-tasking on the move is made easy – download email attachments in seconds and enjoy video streaming with no delays or unwanted buffering.

And with 32GB internal memory, there is plenty of storage space.

Xperia Z4 Tablet will launch globally, in 4G LTE and Wi-Fi variants, from June 2015.

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HTC unveils One M9 The HTC One M9 was unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2015. The latest flagship in the HTC One family, the HTC One M9 sports a classic and sleek design. Compact and easy to hold, the all-metal unibody design is highlighted by a dual-tone silver and rose gold finish.

The new HTC Sense 7 experience is highly customisable and is created with the user in mind.

Sense 7 reinvents the home screen to deliver the most useful apps to the homepage based on the user’s location. The main camera features 20 megapixels that highlight details and a sapphire cover lens that protects from scratches. The camera also shoots movies in 4K resolution. The HTC One M9 addresses low-light shots with a powerful UltraPixel front-facing camera.

It features a dynamic auto exposure and UltraPixels, which capture 300 percent more light than standard cameras deliver sharper, more natural and balanced self-portraits in any lighting conditions.

The dual front-facing speakers combined with 5.1 channel Dolby Surround sound simulation, allows the use to get closer to the action.

Uniting HTC BoomSound and Dolby Audio creates immersion vibrant audio experience, so users can enjoy movies with rich, clear and powerful sound even without connecting headphones or external speakers.

HTC Connect makes it easy to enjoy multimedia experience beyond your phone. A three-finger swipe on the screen connects the phone to compatible TVs or external speakers.

HTC One M9 will be available with a range of unique and customisable accessories including the second generation HTC Dot View case. The HTC One M9 will be available globally in dual-tone silver and rose gold, single-tone gunmetal grey, single-tone gold and dual-tone gold and pink in from mid-March.

Divoom presents Voombox-outdoor Divoom’s latest launch, Voomboxoutdoor packs in enhanced sound performance and wireless function into a portable, rugged design. Built for

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outdoor music listening, the speaker features a water-resistant case that protects its components from splashing water and dust. Built with Bluetooth function, it allows users to wirelessly stream audio from iPhone, iPad or any other smartphones and tablets.

The NFC technology allows for easy pairing with other NFC-enabled devices. It has a 12-hour rechargeable battery, enabling users to go without connecting for long hours. It is also equipped with a built-in mic to make and take calls wirelessly individually or in a group.

26 - 28 APRIL 2015

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Fujitsu launches N7100 scanner

Brocade VDX 6940 now available

The Brocade VDX 6940 delivers the “industry’s highest port density in a fixed switch, making it the most efficient leaf and spine switch,” said the company.

Ideal for building Ethernet fabrics in demanding environments, with the company’s VCS Fabric technology, the Brocade VDX 6940 simplifies network design and operations for both cloud and Big Data network fabrics. These switches are designed to simplify network architecture, help reduce operational and capital expenses, and deliver line-rate performance on all ports, for all packet sizes.

According to Brocade, it supports market’s highest 10 GbE and 40 GbE density in a fixed form factor. It is also equipped with an optimized packet buffer and latency for better application performance. The latest version comes with improved capacity and the ability to scale up to a 120 GbE uplink with Brocade ISL Trunking.

The Brocade VDX 6940 is available in two models. The Brocade VDX 6940-36Q offers 36 40GbE QSFP+ ports. Through a breakout cable, each 40 GbE port can be broken into four 10GbE ports for a total of 144 10GbE connections. This represents 40 percent more port capacity than any other network switch in its class. The Brocade VDX 6940-144S provides up to 96 10GbE ports, along with 12 40GbE or four 100GbE ports in a 2U form factor.

Brocade VDX 6940 switches is now available in the market with a starting price of $27,995.

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Fujitsu has launched its N7100 network scanner, which speeds up image processing within the scanning workflow “by a factor of ten” compared to its N1800predecessor.

It features a new active paper feeding mechanism, which is designed to prevent paper jams and maintains separation between sheets to avoid multiple pages being loaded into the scanner at the same time.

It also includes automated PaperStream image enhancement capabilities and USB ports for keyboard or IC reader connectivity to further increase efficiency.

The scanner can be operated without a PC and all N7100 scanners within a company can be monitored and managed by a central administration tool.

The N7100 offers an enhanced CPU and GI processor which speeds image processing by a factor of ten compared to its predecessor, the N1800.

The new solution scans paper-based information from its input tray at 25 pages per minute – A4, colour, double-sided, 300 dpi / 50 images per minute.

This reduces the total time needed to capture information by approximately 50 percent.

The N7100 features a new active feeding system based on the Fujitsu ‘Brake Roller’ technology.

It also offers two USB ports for peripherals such as a keyboard and, with the help of the SDK (Software Development Kit), it can also support devices like IC readers.

In terms of security, the N7100 offers security login authentication, encryption, automatic deletion of temporary document data and secure initialisation leaving no trace of old user data.

The network scanner comes complete with network scanner admin software and scanner central admin console for centralised management.

It allows administrators to access individual network scanners or connect to a central admin server to configure and manage all the N7100 scanners in the network simultaneously.

The scanner will be available at Fujitsu sales partners starting April 2015, at $2,149 RRP.

Genius introduces Bluetooth 4.0 NFC Headband Headset

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Genius’ new Bluetooth headset, HS-970BT, gives users the power of wireless connectivity. Users can instantly pair HS-970BT with NFC enabled devices by just tapping the headset to the device and the connection is ready. The Bluebooth function allows users to connect the headset to other Bluetooth devices such as iPhones, smart phones or tablet PCs. HS-970BT enables users to stream music anywhere with clear sound quality and easily control the volume control and skip tracks. With the built-in microhone, users can also chat with friends while on the move. You can pair this headset with two devices simultaneously and don’t have to switch between two different devices.

HS-970BT is available in black and white colours.

26 - 28 APRIL 2015

Dubai World Trade Centre

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Edimax presents BR-6288ACL dual-band 802.11ac router Edimax has launched the BR-6288ACL dual-band 802.11ac router with the latest 11ac standard for improvements in the speed, reliability and quality of wireless communications.

It’s a 5-in-1 dual-band Wi-Fi router with an easy 3-step setup using a smartphone app or web-based smart iQ setup, which meets the user’s Wi-Fi demands and according to the company, is the first product of its kind to feature a green, power-saving TX power switch to adjust the Wi-Fi signal strength. The smartphone app and web-based interface also support auto firmware upgrade and comes in a sleek design, delivering wide-reaching WiFi coverage. ​The Edimax BR-6288ACL router supports the latest IEEE 802.11ac wireless standard, meaning higher data rates in the 5GHz band. With 150Mbps speeds in the 2.4GHz band and 433Mbps speeds in 5GHz, the BR-6288ACL is ideal for HD video streaming and large file transfers. The router is also backward compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n to ensure compatibility with legacy Wi-Fi devices.

The Edimax BR-6288ACL router provides simultaneous 2.4GHz (802.11n) and 5GHz (802.11ac) wireless network connectivity for maximum flexibility of use.

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Dell launches converged appliances Dell has announced the release of its second set of XC Series of web-scale converged appliances.

The solutions are designed to support customers deploying virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI), private cloud and Big Data.

The appliances offer customers solutions based for the first time on Dell’s PowerEdge 13th generation server technology combined with Nutanix software and Dell global services and support.

The appliances integrate enterpriseclass storage, compute and hypervisor resources into a single solution.

“We’ve seen strong customer interest in our debut Dell XC Series appliances, and our newest offerings substantially raise the bar,” said Alan Atkinson, Vice President and General Manager, Dell Storage. “The new web-scale converged appliances add greater configuration flexibility and pack more performance and

capacity into our 13th generation servers, making them even more compelling for customers looking to adopt a newer, integrated systems model for delivering IT to their organisations.”

The XC Series of web-scale converged appliances offers customers a range of integrated solutions for various workloads in virtualised environments.

This includes the new XC Series XC630 and XC730xd, built on Dell PowerEdge 13th generation server technology.

The new XC630 introduces a 1U form factor to the XC Series portfolio and supports more virtual desktop users in half the rack space compared to Dell’s debut XC720xd.

The XC730xd (2U) can support 60 percent more storage – up to 32 terabytes – compared to the previous generation.

MMD introduces Philips QHD display MMD, the brand license partner for Philips Monitors, has announced a new addition to the line-up of Philips UltraWide displays. The new 34-inch BDM3470UP display offers Quad HD resolution to bring graphics and images to life.

The UltraWide panoramic desktop provides space for managing bright ideas, easily showing several windows side-by-side with detail-rich clarity, according to the company.

The latest Philips display uses advanced AH-IPS LED panels, which keep colors consistently bright and accurate even at a 178° viewing angle. And at 34 inches, the new BDM3470UP is expansive enough to provide

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users with space for their brightest ideas.

The UltraWide 21:9 panoramic view offers room to arrange multiple windows, for sideby-side comparison or for busy multitasking involving a whole range of applications. The CrystalClear Quad HD resolution of 3440 x 1440 pixels makes it possible to zoom fine detail. The new display also features Philips SmartUniformity mode: with dedicated metrics to assess colour accuracy, the mode is calibrated to deliver at least 95 percent average luminance uniformity.

The new 34-inch display is strong on connectivity, supporting HDMI, MHL for enjoying mobile content on the big screen, DisplayPort, DVI and VGA as well as USB 3.0 for superfast data transfer. Leveraging the benefit of these connectivity choices, the new display also features MultiView technology, which enables users to work with two devices simultaneously, and to partition the UltraWide screen area for viewing content from two separate streams.

23rd March 2015

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

Effective engagement success

Janees Reghelini, Assistant Editor, Reseller ME

Last month, I had the opportunity to visit ‘the entertainment capital of the world’ – Las Vegas, to attend IBM’s annual PartnerWorld Leadership Conference. At the event IBM urged its partners to ‘differentiate’ and to ‘move’ along with the evolving market trends. The company is changing its market and channel strategies along the lines of what they call, ‘CAMS’ – Cloud, Analytics, Mobile and Social.

One of the key takeaways that I would like to share here is around ‘engagement’.

The region is good with face-to-face engagement, but today it is just as important to engage through mobile and social mediums.

Virginia Rometty, IBM’s CEO, said, “When I think of engagement, I think of re-imagining work.” And I believe that’s the good and concise way of looking at

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it. Partners need to be open to do things in a different way, discard the traditional way of running business. What is most important today but not being done is ‘to be present with the customer at all times’. From the moment he walks in to the store, expresses his desire to buy a product, to delivery, depending on how the deal is closed.

We often talk about technology in the way it impacts the market. But how many resellers who sell the technology actually have it implemented in his or her own store? And I can imagine how advantageous it will be for the partner to be in a position to sell the technology authoritatively. After all, nothing beats personal experience. While distributors do undertake proof of concepts, if resellers too practiced it, I believe the game would be quite different. Of course, vendors only stand to gain if

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they looked at investing in this area.

Besides implementing what they sell wherever applicable, I’m also talking about depending on technology for some of the most basic conversations with customers. Even from a service perspective, this could go a long way.

And when all it takes is having an active social media presence on different platforms, it does seem like a ‘little’ thing from which there could be long-term benefits.

Resellers should brainstorm for better and more impactful engagements with their customers. To win in this cut-throat market, every small element counts.

This month, we have featured some of the leading resellers in the market, who have been in the business for long.

And do not miss the interview with IBM’s Michael Gerentine on the company’s restructured channel approach.

ISSUE 219 | march 2015

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VOICE OF THE CHANNEL