Hot50 Awards 2017

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Applauding channel elite Reseller Middle East fetes leading regional IT channel firms at its sixth annual Hot 50 Awards last month.

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n the sixth edition of Reseller Middle East’s Hot 50 Awards, players across vendors, distributors and systems integrators, were applauded for their diligence and innovation in the regional channel industry at PrivÊ Lounge, Nikki Beach Resort, Dubai.

With over 150 attendees, the exclusive event served as a platform for industry stakeholders to network and celebrate the successes of the year. Players that are committed to the channel business and have catered to the evolving customer demands innovatively were recognised as part of the elite Hot 50 club. Chosen carefully by Reseller Middle East’s editorial team, the winners have developed and shaped the regional IT channel business over the last year.

This year, the awards also introduced its inaugural edition of Marketing Megastars, honouring marketing individuals for their creative efforts behind elaborate marketing campaigns to raise awareness and reach about their respective brands. The winners included Sandra Skairjeh, Micro Focus; Manish Bhardwaj, HPE Aruba; Neethu Paul, Epicor Software, Carlos Robles, Gulf Business Machines, Mallika Sharma, Exclusive Networks and Akshat Gaur, Redington Value Distribution.

Over the last six years, the Hot 50 Awards has grown to be a ceremony that the regional channel industry looks forward to annually.

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Marketing Megastars: Carlos Robles, Gulf Business Machines; Sandra Skairjeh, Micro Focus; Manish Bhardwaj, HPE Aruba; Neethu Paul, Epicor Software; Mallika Sharma, Exclusive Networks and Akshat Gaur, Redington Value Distribution

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BEST CHANNEL ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVES BY DISTRIBUTOR

AL JAMMAZ DISTRIBUTION Saudi-based AlJammaz Distribution develops IT channel firms’ expertise and capability to grow their business through three main pillars – inspiration, enablement and empowerment.

The firm assists channel partners to create opportunities to focus in and filter against the noise in the market.

The distributor also helps to generate new leads and hands it over to partners to follow up. Engaging the partner community effectively, the distributor also helps finance channel projects through different payment terms.

Understanding that partners will need to be aided in this dynamic market, it has also appointed account managers for every reselling firm to ensure rapid delivery of services and solutions.

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Partners can take advantage of the distributor’s local inventory for fast delivery and short lead time for delivery on the same day. Additionally, the distributor also provided the channel partners with special discounts, promotions and volume back-end rebates for achieving vendor targets, as part of its engagement initiatives.

The distributor has recently unveiled a cloud platform, which enables channel partners to discover, purchase and manage cloud services via a custom branded marketplace at ease of click.

The company believes that with its experience and key cloud resources, it can help the reseller community to create a lasting competitive advantage with its cloud offerings.

BEST PARTNER EMPOWERMENT INITIATIVES BY DISTRIBUTOR

BULWARK TECHNOLOGIES Over the last year, regional value-added security distributor Bulwark Technologies has attained a significant growth in its revenues. The firm has streamlined its vendor relationships between Bulwark Technologies as a value-added distributor for dealing high end security solutions and Bulwark Distribution, which deals with fast moving security products.

The distributor has also added major security vendors such as Radware and Teramind; and built a stronger information security product and solutions portfolio over the last 12 months.

The distributor has been constantly involved in enabling and empowering its channel partners by creating and executing well-crafted channel programmes.

Bulwark Technologies has expanded its presence in the Indian sub-continent region by opening a new office in Bangalore, India, recently. The expansion plans are in response to the company’s growing business, robust partner network and strong demand for IT security solutions in India.

The distributor’s constant endeavour has been to sculpt the channel landscape and grow into focused territories across the GCC and Middle East markets. As part of this strategy, it has executed comprehensive, actionoriented and established channel programmes. This benefits partners through deal registrations, better rebates, joint marketing activities, technical and sales enablement and promote greater synergy among all its stakehodlers, from vendors and partners to end-customers.

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BEST THREAT PREVENTION PROVIDER

CHECK POINT

As a 100-percent channel-driven firm, Check Point’s partners can leverage the vendor’s accelerated sales team training, free certification and training for technical teams, and co-op funds to grow their business. The company’s unique offerings around threat prevention provides partners an opportunity to address customers’ demands with customised solutions.

Partners can choose areas of specialty that best match their business interests within the vendor’s portfolio.

The company invests heavily in R&D and ensures its offerings are aligned with the smart future customers are now seeking.

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Over the last year, the company has doubled down its focus on cloud, mobile and threat prevention, providing complete security on physical, virtual, public and private cloud environments.

The firm works in conjunction with government agencies to help identify the areas of concern, and lay the groundwork for a safe future where all devices, services and individuals are connected.

The company is dedicated to support its channel ecosystem and customer base, ensuring it delivers nothing short of excellence by constantly nurturing relationships with both parties alike.

BEST SMB CHANNEL INITIATIVES BY VENDOR

D-LINK MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA The year has been a challenging one for channel players across the region.

Having identified the roadblocks early on, D-Link Middle East and Africa has had plans in place to address and overcome these issues.

Over the last 12 months, the company had to face several challenges such as regional political instabilities, currency fluctuations, declining oil prices and credit crunch because of banking rule changes. Due to the financial instabilities, banks had slashed lending and credit exposure earlier this year causing disruptions in the market.

Amid a challenging market environment, one of the company’s goals was to expand into SMB and niche enterprise markets alongside its

alliance vendors MOXA, GAJSHIELD and Z-COM. The firm has also significantly increased its revenues in the Middle Eastern and African 4G/LTE market, which was another objective for the year.

D-Link MEA has also grown exponentially in the PoE switches market, due to increased surveillance and IP telephony requirements in the region.

Although the economic conditions and reduced spending on infrastructure have shrunk the overall market opportunities, D-Link still holds a formidable position both in the SMB and consumer segments. The firm attributes its success to being able to quickly react to market changes, having strong partner relationships and robust local warehousing facilities.

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BEST PARTNER ENABLEMENT INITIATIVES BY DISTRIBUTOR

EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS ME

Exclusive Networks Middle East has grown significantly over the last year.

The backing and support of its global group has enabled the distributor to be at the forefront of market trends and gain insights into technologies.

This has been translated to its partner community, helping them to stay relevant with their customers.

The distributor engages partners to understand their needs, enables them on solutions accordingly and then jointly executes on programmes to drive demand. These are the three pillars around which the distributor approaches partners – engage, enable and execute.

In 2016, the company held unique events with Fortinet and F5 Networks.

The firm organised the ‘Fortinet Cricket

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Champions League’ powered by Exclusive Networks, a first of its kind.

Partners formed different teams with names from Fortinet’s offerings at the cricket tournament. The distributor also organised end-user events driven by its partners this year. Additionally, the firm has conducted ongoing bootcamps as part of the sales and partner enablement sessions with F5, another key vendor in its portfolio.

BigTec is another major highlight for the distributor. Launched in 2016 in the Middle East, BigTec helps its partners harness the opportunities from new cloud architectures and virtualised data centre functions that are progressively more web-scale and software-defined.

BigTec has partnered with Nutanix, Nuage and Rubrik.

BEST ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS VAD

GULF SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION Gulf Software Distribution (GSD) offers the region’s most comprehensive access to IBM software solutions and the most complete approach in the valueadded distributor (VAD) market, offering its partners programmes that extend market reach and business growth.

GSD is currently the only VAD in the Gulf region procuring directly to IBM the widest IBM software portfolio. It is also the Master Distributor of NetSuite software, an industry leading unified business management suite encompassing ERP/ Financials and CRM. The distributor offers partners with comprehensive access to IBM and NetSuite software solutions and a solid technical ecosystem that ensures the right resources are in place at all times.

It provides the right combination of

resources to help bring more solutions to the market. IBM’s software portfolio offerings are comprehensive and proficient in their ability to tackle real business needs. NetSuite software has built in flexibility, a full ERP suite, and is designed for a modern business in the cloud.

The distributor attributes its success to its team. Its team boasts the broadest range of software certifications, which helps the firm to stand out from other GCC companies.

According to the company, this team supports its customers with tailored solutions designed to help them crosssell other software products using the distributor’s knowledge and expertise.

The team is also able to provide after sales support to customers.

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BEST PARTNER SALES SUPPORT BY VENDOR

INFOR

Infor business applications are specialised by industry and built for the cloud to enable a global supply chain, networked analytics, and an artificial intelligence-led user experience.

The firm’s complete product portfolio equips customers with everything they need to run day-to-day operations and grow business for the long-term.

The firm’s well designed, contextualised business intelligence and user-centric collaboration tools and applications allow to solve any business problem and are built for secure and scalable cloud deployment.

The firm’s channel programme is designed to support the traditional

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channel partner—the firm’s commercial resellers. Partner business markets, sells, installs, services and manages a customer’s complete maturation cycle. Channel partners serve the needs of Infor customers across a wide expanse of industries and micro-verticals. The company said that its partners have the best SMEs in the business and, coupled with Infor’s industry leading solutions, are positioned for continued growth.

The company ensures partners have the right resources and are well trained to be able to leverage market opportunities.

BEST CYBERSECURITY CONSULTING SERVICES

IT SEC

Established in 2013, IT SEC is a pure-play cybersecurity consulting organisation in the region.

Combining consulting services with related cybersecurity trainings allows the firm to provide 360 degrees holistic cybersecurity services. The firm’s team is a combination of highly experienced and motivated individuals who come from intelligence agencies and cyber command divisions.

IT SEC ensures that customers’ networks are secured and data is protected. The firm takes pride in its team of experienced consultants, who assist in identifying and resolving an organisation’s vulnerabilities to secure against cyberattacks before they happen.

Over the last year, the company has secured more than 150 clients, trained

over 500 cybersecurity specialists and created a unique cybersecurity awareness programme.

Today, the firm is offering fully manged security services that provide comprehensive cybersecurity protection for customers and endpoint protection with $1 million guarantee against ransomware.

The company is also developing the world’s first cybersecurity platform that will protect enterprise and individuals on social media and IoT using artificial intelligence. According to the firm, its structured functional teams work independently on every project to ensure clear communication and applies a unique blend of technology, intelligence, and expertise to protect an organisation.

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BEST CHANNEL MANAGEMENT BY VENDOR

MICRO FOCUS

Global enterprise software firm Micro Focus is uniquely positioned to help customers extend existing investments while embracing new technologies in a world of hybrid IT. Having completed the merger with HPE Software this year, the new Micro Focus is now the seventh largest pureplay software company in the world, the largest in the UK, and second largest in Europe.

The firm delivers customer-centred innovation across DevOps, hybrid IT, security and risk management, and predictive analytics. Micro Focus aims to provide customers with a world-class

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portfolio of enterprise-grade scalable solutions with built-in analytics.

The company believes it is uniquely positioned to help customers and partners address opportunities and challenges within the new hybrid model for enterprise IT – from mainframe to mobile to cloud. In 2018, the channel will continue to be a key focus and the firm will invest in building and enabling its channel ecosystem. According to the company, it is adeptly positioned to optimise disruptive technologies and believes its software solutions are at a competitive advantage.

BEST NAS SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

QNAP

QNAP Systems, as its brand promise ‘Quality Network Appliance Provider’, delivers comprehensive offerings of network attached storage (NAS) solutions featured with ease-of-use, large storage capacity, and trustworthy reliability. Headquartered in Taipei, the firm offers its solutions to the global market with continuous innovation and passion.

In the Middle East, QNAP and its partners have grown sales by 50 percent yearly. The firm takes pride in its NAS offering and believes it’s the ideal option for channel partners.

This is because it offers excellent product quality, service reliability,

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and wide product coverage for home users, small and medium business, all the way to enterprises. It is easy to have QNAP NAS storage fit in with all other IT products and applications such as IoT, surveillance, back up, multimedia editing, education sharing, virtualisation, Big Data analysis, thanks to its wide application scenario.

QNAP also attributes its success to deep collaboration with its partners on selling and promoting its solutions.

The firm said with its commitment and full support to channel partners, it will continue to excel as a leading NAS brand in the Middle East.

BEST IT RISK AND AUDIT VENDOR

QUEST

Quest aids customers to reduce administration tasks so that the focus can be on the innovation necessary for their businesses to grow. Scalable, affordable and simple-to-use, the firm’s solutions deliver unmatched efficiency and productivity.

With its firm commitment to ensuring customer satisfaction, Quest will continue to accelerate the delivery of the most comprehensive solutions for Microsoft Azure cloud management, SaaS, security, workforce mobility and data-driven insight.

Over the last year, the company has won many large deals in the finance and industrial sectors where security, risk, and audit are key requirements for both compliance and safety.

The company said it has

differentiated itself from its competitors in the market by offering powerful tools that don’t compromise between efficiency and effectiveness. Through several investments and hiring of new distributors and resellers, Quest is delivering on its highly aggressive growth plan in the region.

In 2018, we will see the firm continue its investments in ensuring top resources within the organisation and the channel. It will double down its focus on enabling customers’ journey to adopt GDPR and other compliance requirements. The company will grow its strong channel network of over 6,000 partners and focus on helping businesses to grow without worrying about IT security challenges.

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BEST PRE-SALES LED INITIATIVE FOR CHANNEL

REDINGTON VALUE DISTRIBUTION

Redington Value Distribution strives to offer the best to resellers and customers by unveiling innovative solutions such as Red Vault.

A state-of-the-art data centre, Red Vault features a transparent interactive display, which accommodates best-of-breed solutions from over 30 vendors. It helps replicate customer infrastructure and develops solutions based on customer requirements. Connected with the training rooms at the Redington Value facility, channel partners also have an opportunity to gain hands-on experience.

Since its launch, Red Vault has become a serious proposition and boasts around 35 odd solutions and use cases. With representation for every single vendor, Red Vault has become mainstream for the distributor. In the coming months, we will

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see the firm developing the solutions centre to its next phase.

The distributor is looking to onboard ISVs and vertical business specific use cases on analytics.

Over the course of the last 12 months, the distributor has worked towards building its portfolio of offerings in the regional market. Having expanded its operations in most territories, the company has also onboarded new vendors such as Palo Alto Networks, Nokia, Seclore, Nexthink and have gone mainstream with Huawei. It has also intensified its focus in the security, cloud and hyperconverged space, in terms of technologies.

In 2018, the value-added distributor will be massively focused on four areas – mobility, security, cloud and analytics.

BEST CHANNEL SUPPORT INITIATIVES BY DISTRIBUTOR

SPIRE SOLUTIONS

UAE-headquartered Spire Solutions is a value-added distributor of information security solutions and services. The firm assists organisations to build and maintain a secure, compliant and confident operation through its quality partner network and internal team of information security professionals.

Spire Solutions attributes its fast growth to its dedicated team of experts and state-of-the-art customer service.

The company boasts an extensive portfolio of clients who rely on the distributor to work in a secure IT environment.

The company has been busy over the past year with many large project implementations. It has completed

threat exposure management for two large Dubai government entities where it helped build a sustainable and relevant ‘vulnerability management programme’. They ensured this was aligned to the customers’ operational requirements and strategic objectives.

It has also provided expertise to customers within the live vulnerability management and analytics, penetration testing and threat hunting realms.

The distributor has also recently introduced a new rewards programme to partners for the business value they bring. The rewards programme allows partners to sell eligible solutions from its portfolio to earn significant rewards.

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BEST STORAGE SPECIALIST VAD

STORIT DISTRIBUTION Based out of UAE, StorIT is a specialist technology solutions distributor with domain expertise in the areas of data storage, data protection, data analytics and data management solutions.

The distributor has been at the forefront of introducing cutting-edge technology solutions to its 1800 plus regional reseller partner network. The company has been assisting them to augment their business by offering superior technological prowess.

Since its inception, 15 years ago, the company has evolved from a storage centric VAD to a comprehensive data management solutions provider. It asserts experience in providing end-to-end turnkey solutions including consultancy, architecture, implementation, support and training service.

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Over the course of the last 12 months, StorIT has had several prominent milestones. It has added global brands such as Commvault, Tintri and Arcserve to its portfolio for the Middle East and North Africa markets. According to the distributor, it is the first and only distributor to introduce 24x7 Managed Support Services to resellers in the Middle East.

It has implemented around 85 new projects across six countries on behalf of its resellers in 2016. StorIT’s channel education and training initiative has been successful in organising more than 35 training workshops covering more than 200 reseller partners and end customers throughout 2016.

BEST CLOUD INTEGRATOR

TRANSSYS SOLUTIONS Global IT consulting and technology services firm TransSys Solutions is focused on assisting customers maximise value in their IT investments, by delivering unparalleled solutions and services. The company said it leverages Oracle Cloud technologies for solutions that give customers the competitive edge in this evolving business environment.

Over the last year, the firm has been committed to continuous investment in the region. The company has successfully delivered several on-premise and cloud solutions by integrating them with each other as well as to the existing heterogeneous IT systems. It has expanded service offering to include enterprise performance management,

middleware and cloud advisory services. The systems integrator has also expanded its project footprint to KSA, Egypt and Singapore.

With over 150 customers across 30 countries, the firm has evangelised cloud and mobility adoption by leveraging various channels. Boasting more than 140 cloud engagements, TransSys Solutions is a platinum partner with cloud select specialisation for Oracle.

It has developed cloud deployment methodology localised for regional clients. Additionally, it has also developed PaaS for SaaS extension to support client with local customisable components for their cloud deployment.

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BEST RETAIL SPECIALIST DISTRIBUTOR

TRIGON

Completing two decades in the regional distribution space this year, Trigon has stood the test of time.

With strong associations with many global brands, the distributor has an extensive reach to all segments of business including retail, channel and corporate.

Over the last year, the firm has executed end-to-end sales support through the team, comprising of sales managers, product experts, merchandiser and after service facilities. The distributor has worked on retail shelf management technologies and implemented innovative promotional ideas.

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The distributor was chosen as PNY Technologies’ launch partner in the Middle East market. It has developed the vendor’s business extensively throughout the region.

Distributed through its network, the company has ensured PNY portfolio is present at all retail stores. It attributes the vendor’s product growth to its unique promotion ideas.

The firm has expertly managed retail distribution throughout the last year in a market that was facing many challenges.

This was possible only because of its vertical specialisation, dedicated microlevel distribution model and commitment to channel partners.

BEST DEMAND GENERATION INITIATIVES BY DISTRIBUTOR

APTEC, AN INGRAM MICRO COMPANY The regional distributor has had several wins over the course of last year. With a comprehensive vendor portfolio, the value-added distributor offers best-inclass pre-sales support and robust professional and implementation services. The firm is a certified training and learning partner for several of its vendor partners. It has unveiled an automated Ingram Micro cloud marketplace and established

cybersecurity practice with consultancy and value-added services.

The firm’s marketing department also has a wellestablished mechanism of running demand generation activities such as end-user events across the region.

These events are held directly for end-users or together with reseller partners. The distributor provides leads to reseller companies to close the deals.

BEST SMB DISTRIBUTOR

ASBIS MIDDLE EAST The veteran distributor has transitioned from being a specialist components distributor to an IT broadline one over the last few years. The company has developed a strategy that looks at each brand from the perspectives of channel investment, business development, training, marketing, joint marketing, webinars, regional road shows and other channel incentive schemes

and rebates.

In 2016, the distributor has spent over $150,000 in channel and business development initiatives in the regional market. In the Middle East, the company has been distributing global brands that include Intel, Seagate, AMD, Lenovo, Toshiba, Prestigio, Patriot Memory, Dell, Acronis in the PC, server, security and components.

BEST PARTNER ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVES BY VENDOR

AVAYA

With the primary goal of evolving into a software and services company, Avaya has been advancing quickly through investment in new technologies, partnerships, and people.

In this regard, the company’s channel strategy as a whole is complemented with its solutionsoriented sales trainings and rebate programmes. The firm

is also working with its channel partners to empower them to develop value-based selling, which differentiates them as they expand into new solutions and verticals. Over the course of last year, Avaya has launched a streamlined partner programme called Avaya Edge, to deliver a simpler structure and more flexibility to its partners.

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BEST CLOUD SECURITY VENDOR

BARRACUDA NETWORKS Barracuda aims to be customers’ single source for securing all threat vectors, including email, websites, web applications, mobile devices, and network performance - whether on-site or in the cloud. The firm believes the challenges of network and data security are complex, but solving them does not need to be. The firm’s products span content security, networking and application delivery and data

storage, protection and disaster recovery.

The company’s portfolio includes more than a dozen purpose-built solutions that support every aspect of the network – providing organisations of all sizes with end-to-end protection that can be deployed in hardware, virtual, cloud and mixed form factors.

BEST INTEGRATED PARTNER PROGRAMME

DELL EMC Post the merger, the firm has integrated its channel programmes to a unified Dell EMC Partner Programme, which was built from the ground up while preserving the best of both existing legacy programmes. The programme addresses the needs of partners today and in the future. Developed in collaboration with partners globally, the programme’s primary

tenets are to be simple, predictable and profitable. The programme tiers include Titanium, Platinum and Gold, as well as a new status level within the Titanium tier, Titanium Black. The Titanium Black status is an invitation only, special designation created to strengthen the relationship with partners who are extremely aligned with Dell EMC.

BEST MOBILITY INTEGRATOR Established in 2003, EMW Middle East’s mission is based on the principles of excellence, integrity along with respect and care for the customer. The firm provides excellence in systems integration and technical services in the fields of information technology, networks and telecommunications to commercial, government, and international organisations using a

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EMW

customer-first attitude. The firm’s proof of concept technologies are configured and tested by EMW first and then deployed in controlled environment at existing or new customers. The company’s commitment is to show enterprise customers how technology can enable them to achieve their business objectives in the most cost-effective manner over converged platform.

BEST CHANNEL EXPANSION INITIATIVES BY VENDOR

ENGENIUS EnGenius Networks brings high quality broadband access at optimal value for money to SMB customers.

The company’s product developments are driven by its partners including distributors, systems integrators and information technology professionals, but mainly by the SMB segment and the end users. The firm has grown exponentially

and secured some of the biggest projects in the region spanning over a number of segments including hospitality, banking, education and government. Boasting many partners in the region, the firm recognises that they are a vital part of its ecosystem.

It provides all its partners with marketing development funds that can reach up to 10 percent of sales.

BEST CYBERSECURITY VENDOR

FORTINET Fortinet has continued its efforts to raise awareness about brand and value propositions to large enterprises and C-level executives over the last year.

The firm also enhanced its channel ecosystem and invested heavily in R&D to upgrade its solutions to deal with advanced threats and work in a cloud-defined landscape. The company has introduced multiple

products and services to assist enterprises overcome APTs, secure their access layer, grapple with the IoT conundrum, and take advantage of the virtual and SDN era. Driving FortiGate and other appliances, it also championed its Security Fabric architectural approach as a way for enterprises to intelligently deal with emerging cybersecurity challenges.

BEST STORAGE SOLUTIONS VENDOR

FUJITSU Japanese information and communication technology firm Fujitsu offers an extensive range of technology products, solutions and services.

Understanding that customers are faced with challenges such as exponential data growth, business continuity, regulatory compliance, security, and increasing environmental

problems, it provides expertise in data storage solutions to address these issues and provide optimum outcomes.

The company also enables its customers to digitally transform with connected technology services, focused on artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and cloud; with security as the defining layer.

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BEST IT SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

GULF BUSINESS MACHINES Gulf Business Machines (GBM) offers comprehensive end-to-end IT solutions designed to meet business objectives. Despite a challenging year from a market perspective, GBM has been able to grow significantly and be aligned to its strategies and plans, thanks to its several years of experience in the GCC. The company believes its value

is based on industry knowledge and experience gained from implementing hundreds of major projects across verticals. Business analytics, cybersecurity, mobility solutions, cloud and managed services and infrastructure solutions are some of the domains that the systems integrator has built deep expertise around and that are critical for business.

BEST SECURITY SERVICES PROVIDER

HELP AG Since its inception in 2004, the systems integrator has remained solely focused on addressing every aspect of cybersecurity assurance services and solutions alone.

Dedicated focus in this segment has enabled the firm to develop high level of technical competence within its team. Positioning itself as

a trusted security advisor for its customers, Help AG has differentiated from competition by building an unparalleled services portfolio. According to the company, by investing heavily into recruiting and training the most technically adept employees, it boasts a competitive advantage in service delivery.

BEST CHANNEL MARKETING INITIATIVES BY VENDOR

HPE ARUBA Legacy Aruba and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Networking channel programmes have been successfully merged to allow partners to capitalise on the growing enterprise mobility market and ensure they remain on the edge of today’s mobilefirst world. HPE Aruba’s new programme Partner Ready for Networking (PRfN) is

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laser-focused on networking and supplies partners with predictable profitability, ease of doing business and mobile-first networking advantages. The company has also doubled down on its channel marketing initiatives over the last year to ensure partners are equipped with the right resources to expand their businesses.

BEST IOT SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

HUAWEI ICT solutions provider Huawei has worked closely with channel partners to aid customers’ in their digital transformation journey. One of the key components to successfully operate in the digital era is having robust, agile and collaborative smart solutions.

The company has an extensive and compelling portfolio of IoT solutions to cater to customers’

evolving demands. Believing that a strong ecosystem drives innovation, the company has been ensuring joint investments and partnerships between all stakeholders in this segment. According to the firm, it is committed to facilitating the future information society, and building a better connected world.

BEST PARTNER TRAINING INITIATIVES BY VENDOR

INFOBLOX Infoblox’ promise to channel is around three key pillars – partner enablement, business transparency and partner profitability. The firm has made significant regional investments in increasing the level of support it provides customers, through partners, with a powerhouse to localise support offering and introduce training centres.

The firm has been dedicated to investing in its channel community within the Middle East and Africa region. The firm is offering partners multiple avenues of enablement and revenue creation through its channel programme. It is also supporting partners in their quest for customer advisory roles and profitability.

BEST POST-SALES SUPPORT BY VENDOR

JUNIPER NETWORKS Juniper Networks has enhanced its Partner Advantage programme over the course of this year. It has also developed training programmes along with specialisation and certification courses.

Partners have an opportunity to take advantage of the ready-toexecute marketing tools through

the firm’s marketing concierge.

The company’s partner focused marketing campaigns enable its channel community to leverage new business opportunities around data centre and network security. The vendor also ensures superior post-sales support to guarantee customers are happy throughout the cycle.

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BEST ENDPOINT SECURITY VENDOR

KASPERSKY LAB Celebrating its 20th year as deep threat intelligence and security experts, Kaspersky Lab prides itself of having protected over 400 million users and 270,000 corporate clients. The global cybersecurity firm commits itself to constant innovation aimed at creating next generation security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe.

The company has recently introduced Kaspersky Endpoint

Detection and Response that’s aimed at bringing enhanced incident mitigation, better visibility over endpoints, compatibility with traditional endpoint protection products and investigative capabilities for security teams and SOCs. Kaspersky Lab’s comprehensive security portfolio includes the latest endpoint protection and specialised solutions built with adaptive security strategies in mind.

BEST INFORMATION MANAGEMENT VENDOR

KODAK ALARIS The influx of data and how it is managed stand out as the biggest opportunities for transformation for today’s businesses. Kodak Alaris Information Management combines the science, technology and partnerships required for companies, large and small, to use data

to drive business efficiency, growth and profitability. With a range of scanners, software, support and services, endto-end capture solutions, the company strives to deliver the best capabilities to enable its customers transform data into a powerful competitive advantage.

BEST PRODUCT INNOVATION

LINKSYS Since its inception in 1988, Linksys has pioneered innovative products and solutions aimed at delivering unprecedented wireless connectivity.

Over the last 12 months, Linksys has seen exponential growth year-on-year, exceeding the market average. The company has successfully introduced the mesh networking solution in the Middle East – Linksys 28 RESELLER MIDDLE EAST HOT 50 AWARDS

Velop. The solution, according to the company, extends 100 percent WiFi connectivity to every corner of the home.

The firm is focused on enhancing its consumer and SMB product portfolio with the aim to bring the latest technologies to the marketplace, making it easier to manage networks and help customers attain quality wireless connectivity throughout the home.

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BEST VIDEO COLLABORATION VENDOR

LOGITECH For over 20 years, Logitech has been focused on designing products aimed at connecting people’s various digital experiences. The company offers a range of products including PC peripherals; cases and keyboards for tablets; equipment for gamers; mobile speakers and earphones for music and sports enthusiasts; devices to make video collaboration simple in the

workplace; and entertainment and control products for the home.

Having innovated in the video collaboration space, the company is committed to ensuring that its designers and engineers set their sights on how to create better experiences with Logitech devices for richer, more comfortable, more productive and more convenient experiences.

BEST SUPPORT SERVICES PROVIDER

MDS AP MDS ap is the successor of Sybase Products with over two decades of history operating in the MENA region. As a SAP Gold Partner, the company is focused on helping customers run businesses better by leveraging their data assets and maximising the ROI of their investment in SAP solutions.

The company’s technology expertise spans multiple areas including data management,

analytics, business intelligence, enterprise architecture, data governance, mobile and omnichannel as well as SAP cloud solutions.

The last 12 months saw significant wins for the firm, having achieved a 65 percent increase overall license revenue from its SAP business. The firm has also signed partnerships with major organisations across UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

BEST EMAIL SECURITY VENDOR

MIMECAST Mimecast has been focused on securing email and data for 24,900 customers and their millions of employees worldwide since 2003. The company’s next-generation cloud-based security, archiving and continuity services protect email and deliver comprehensive email risk management.

As a channel-oriented organisation, the company prides itself for having a robust channel programme aimed at 30 RESELLER MIDDLE EAST HOT 50 AWARDS

supporting its distributors, and integrating its products into resellers’ service stacks; providing them with the educational tools, sales enablement and marketing support needed to deliver Mimecast offerings to regional customers.

Through its security, archiving and continuity cloud services, Mimecast is committed to delivering comprehensive email risk management in one fullyintegrated service.

BEST CYBERSECURITY SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

NANJGEL SOLUTIONS Regional systems integrator Nanjgel Solutions has grown significantly over the course of this year. It has designed its own Nanjgel Cybersecurity framework, comprising global technologies integrated together to maximise visibility, control and management. The firm has added new vendors and customers over the past year.

It has also opened offices in India, Kenya and Saudi Arabia.

The company believes by offerings its own dedicated support instead of depending on its vendor partners; it has a huge competitive advantage.

According to the firm, its engineers are a source of inspiration to clients and they also deliver complete support.

BEST CABLING VENDOR

NEXANS Nexans offers an extensive range of cables and cabling systems that suit customers’ present and future requirements.

The firm attributes its success to its two-decade-old expertise in the region, robust partner network and strategic marketing approach. Despite challenging market circumstances, the firm has grown significantly.

It has won several large projects during the course of last year. According to the firm, its strategy is established on continuous innovation in products, solutions and services, employee development, customer training and the introduction of safe, lowenvironmental-impact industrial processes.

BEST PAYMENT SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

OMA EMIRATES OMA Emirates Group provides cutting-edge technology for the payment industry, over the last 25 years. The vast experience spans across card personalisation and Point of Sale (POS) acquiring domains, outsourcing solutions for card issuance and acquiring, POS managed services, data centre hosting, transaction processing

and value-added services.

Highly experienced professionals in the technical and management spheres deliver its solutions. These services are provided together with the strategic partnerships with leading global technology vendor partners and are designed to provide clients with a seamless customer experience.

HOT 50 AWARDS RESELLER MIDDLE EAST

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BEST PARTNER ACCREDITATION PROGRAMME

RED HAT Global provider of open source software solutions Red Hat utilises a community-powered approach to provide reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualisation technologies.

The firm also offers extensive support, training, and consulting services. It also ensures partners are equipped with the right tools and are educated

around newer technologies. It assists channel firms to navigate the IT environment adeptly and recognises them for their efforts.

As a connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT.

BEST PARTNER GROWTH SCHEMES BY VENDOR With an extensive portfolio of cloud solutions, SAP is fully committed to driving the Middle East organisations’ digital transformation.

According to the firm, publicprivate partnerships between SAP, its channel partners, and customers are driving new levels of innovation in the digital economy, helping organisations to simplify operations and

SAP

improve people’s daily lives.

The firm has doubled down its efforts to aid partners’ grow their businesses profitably over the last year. The SAP MENA channel ecosystem has experienced a robust demand for solutions running on the in-memory platform SAP HANA, real-time business suite SAP S/4HANA, and SAP Leonardo IoT platform.

BEST POST-SALES SUPPORT BY DISTRIBUTOR

SARIYA IT DISTRIBUTION Saudi-based value-added distributor Sariya IT Distribution is solely focused on network security products, making the firm an authority in this space. The company’s priority is around partner training – monthly training sessions are held through its branches. Committed to the channel, the distributor offers

32 RESELLER MIDDLE EAST HOT 50 AWARDS

in-depth post-sales support so that partners can ensure their relationship with customers is an on-going one. As a value-added distributor, it provides partners with credit facility, product sales and launch training, marketing activities, technical trainings and helps with proof of concepts.

BEST SME SECURITY VENDOR

SONICWALL SonicWall has been operating as a trusted security partner in the industry for over 25 years. The firm has ensured that its offerings evolve along with industry changes to fit in seamlessly with both big and small organisations’ objectives and help them grow.

Its next-generation cyber defence platform is built on a cloud-based, multi-engine

sandbox that captures malware to safely identify and block advanced threats.

Over the last year in the Middle East market, the firm has enjoyed great success across verticals such as education, retail and healthcare sector with key areas of implementation being perimeter security, secure email gateways and distributed enterprise deployments.

BEST UTM VENDOR

SOPHOS

Headquartered in UK, Sophos offers security solutions covering endpoint, mobile, server, encryption, web, email, Wi-Fi, and UTM/next-generation firewall.

Boasting robust operations in the MEA region, the firm has gained a strong momentum across its products over the last year. It is also driving the effort

to make its technology and products available through Sophos Central, its cloud based platform. The company follows a ‘channel first’ sales strategy that allows it to efficiently scale its customer base. In 2018, we will see the firm continuing investments in its channel ecosystem.

BEST PARTNER COLLABORATION BY VENDOR

SPLUNK Established to pursue new vision around making machine data accessible, usable and valuable to everyone, Splunk provides software for searching, monitoring, and analysing machine-generated Big Data.

According to the firm, machine data is one of the fastest growing and most pervasive segments of Big Data – generated by websites, applications, servers, networks,

mobile devices and the like that organisations rely on every day.

By monitoring and analysing everything from customer clickstreams and transactions to network activity and call records, Splunk converts machine data into valuable insights irrespective of the type of business. Working closely with channel partners, the firm offers customers operational intelligence.

HOT 50 AWARDS RESELLER MIDDLE EAST

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BEST PARTNER DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

BY DISTRIBUTOR

BEST CONSUMER OFFERING BY VENDOR

TECHACCESS

TOSHIBA

TechAccess offers technology products and solutions across networking, storage, hardware, software and security vendors. It offers its resellers industryleading support as they take complex enterprise solutions to market.

TechAccess promotes a ‘test before you invest’ approach and has established a Solution Centre to help potential customers to evaluate IT solutions that best fit their firms.

With a presence in Dubai since 1997, Toshiba offers a complete range of smart digital life products and consumer electronics, designed by global innovators and backed by millions of R&D investments.

As the Middle East continues its dynamic development, the firm aims to continuously provide world-class solutions, particularly in social infrastructure and healthcare, with products as diverse as turnkey power generation systems, elevators and diagnostic imaging equipment.

BEST CHANNEL TRAINING INITIATIVES

BEST PORTABLE STORAGE VENDOR

WESTCONCOMSTOR

WESTERN DIGITAL

Focusing on enabling its channel partners to adopt innovative technologies, Westcon-Comstor promotes a business culture that revolves around – empowering people, instilling ethics and respect, and creating valuable synergies.

The company is also continuously striving to introduce various value-added services such as Marketing as-aService (MaaS), Credit as-a-Service (CaaS) and the likes. Offering solutions on convergence, security, networking and mobility, the company delivers support and has dynamic relationships with its vendors and channel partners alike.

With the everincreasing diversity of information in the digital age, Western Digital strives to create environments for data to thrive. The provider of storage technologies and solutions offers a full portfolio of high-quality storage solutions with customer-focused innovation, high efficiency, flexibility and speed to enable people to create, leverage, experience and preserve data. With two brands in the MEA region, WD and SanDisk, meet data storage requirements from flash storage all the way to enterprise solutions.

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