View
246
Download
13
Category
Tags:
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
The Voice of the Channel
Citation preview
ISSUE 175 // JULY 2011 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM
PUBLICATIONLICENSED BY IMPZ
Nassir Nauthoa, General Manager, GCC, Intel Corporation
C O N S U M A B L E S : P A Y A S Y O U G OFEATURE
SOFTWARE CONGRESS 2011Thought leaders from business and technology deliberated on key issues around convergence of IT and corporate strategy. Turn to page 26.
EXACT SOFTWARE BUyOUTExact Software Middle East has bought out its management's equity and will now operate as distributor. Turn to page 29.
NEW pROdUCTS
RESELLER AWARDS 2011reader's choice n best partner excellence n oustandingexecutive n editor's choice n networking vendor n
software and security vendor n STORAGE VENDOR n
peripherals vendor n components vendor n printing vendor n systems and hardware vendor n it distributor n components distributor n networking distributor n value added distributor n specialised distributor n software and security distributor n peripherals distributor n enterprise reseller n smb and consumer reseller n super retailer n systems integrator
Prestigio's new tablets.Turn to page 64.
Reseller Partner Up Conference
Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecom
Ernest Azzam, Business Manager, Laserjet and Enterprise Solutions, HP
Vishnu Deuskar, Managing Director, Salvus Strategic Advisors
John Andrews, Director of MarketingMEA and APAC, Computerlinks
12 June 2011, Dubai
Reseller Awards 2011
COVER FEATUREIN FOCUS
20 Partner UpReseller Middle East’s 2011 ConferenceTop notch speakers at the Reseller Conference covered a wide gamut of channel topics including upcoming technology trends, value addition, vendor-partner relationships, cash flow and social marketing.
26 Software Congress 2011Thought leaders from business and technology deliberated on key issues around convergence of IT and corporate strategy at this CPI event
29 Linking up again
A core team of ERP specialists that left Arthur Andersen in 1996 finally realise their dream in the Middle East at Exact Software.
64 Products and technology
CONTENTSISSUE 175 // JULY 2011
7473
32
05 Editorial
06 Tie-ups
16 Announcements
70 Movements
FEATURE
58 Pay as you goAfter sales contracts based on printed pages are an important source of recurring revenue. A look at consumables and supplies market.
Prestigio MultiPad PMP7100C
12 june 2011 200 nominations 25 awards400 attendees
PROFILE
Hemayum BazazMadhav Narayan
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 3
Last month we mentioned about the Avatars of 2011. The first salvo has been launched! Anybody who has tried out Samsung’s Galaxy SII will know what we are talking about. The smartphone is very fast on the social media applications and there are a number of reasons for that.
For one it is inbuilt with a dual core Cortex processor giving it a download speed three times faster than any of its closest rival’s currently. Coupled with a telecom carrier’s 4G network, this is being pushed even further upwards.
The second is that each of the social media application interfaces that have been inbuilt into the phone is optimised for the phone. The screen zoom-in and zoom-outs are intuitive and make for a complete experience. Coupled with the super Amoled screen, extra sharp characters, 110% vivid colour enhanced contrast makes the whole user interface leap to life.
Place it next to your laptop, go through the social media applications, and you will not see a significant difference in usage speeds. That is provided of course you are using the same carrier and wifi access points. Priced at AED 2,599 or $707, the price point is way up and very close to an entry level notebook. So what gives?
Which product is being attacked, who is being replaced, and who is being targeted? There are no immediate answers. But Samsung Galaxy SII is sold out. Outlet after outlet in Dubai is reporting a sell-out position, but not to worry stocks are also rolling in, every second day.
The stage has been set for the other Avatars!!
On another note, this issue carries reports on three important CPI events. Our annual Reseller Awards was well received with 400 attendees. We gave away 25 trophies and were floored when we received 35,000 online nominations for our Reader’s Choice selection. We completed our first Reseller Conference on the same day with the pleasure of sitting through some excellent learning and interactive Q&As.
And then there was CPI’s second annual Software Congress. The event opened the wide chasm that exists between end users under pressure to justify hard returns on IT investment versus yet another vendor jugglery called the Cloud. More space to “wait and watch”.
Read on for what this issue has to offer on these topics, as well as how a simple commodity called a printer consumable today drives more than 50% of revenues for some global vendors.
Arun ShankarSenior Editor
arun@cpidubai.com
If you’d like to receive your own copy of RME every month, log on and request a subscription: www.resellerme.com
PublisherDominic De Sousa
COONadeem Hood
Managing DirectorRichard Judd
richard@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9126
Sales DirectorRaz Islam
raz@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9129
EDitOriAl
Dave Reederdave@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9106
Senior EditorArun Shankar
arun@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9142
ADvErtiSing
group Sales ManagerRajashree R Kumar
raj@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9131
Advertising ExecutiveMerle Carrasco
merle@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9134
CirCulAtiOn
Database and Circulation ManagerRajeesh M
rajeesh@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9147
PrODuCtiOn AnD DESign
Production ManagerJames P Tharian
james@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9146
Art DirectorKamil Roxas
kamil@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 91112
DesignerAnalou Balbero
analou@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9104
DigitAlwww.rwme.net
DigitAl SErviCES
Digital Services ManagerTristan Troy P Maagma
Web DevelopersJerus King Bation
Erik BrionesJefferson de Joya
Louie Alma
online@cpidubai.com+971 4 440 9100
Published by
1013 Centre Road, New Castle County,Wilmington, Delaware, USA
Head OfficePO Box 13700
Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971 4 440 9100Fax: +971 4 447 2409
Printed byPrintwell Printing Press LLC
© Copyright 2011 CPIAll rights reserved
While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all
information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.
First salvo is out
ISSUE 175 // JULY 2011 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM
PUBLICATIONLICENSED BY IMPZ
Nassir Nauthoa, General Manager, GCC, Intel Corporation
C O N S U M A B L E S : P A Y A S Y O U G OFEATURE
SOFTWARE CONGRESS 2011Thought leaders from business and technology deliberated on key issues around convergence of IT and corporate strategy. Turn to page 26.
EXCEL SOFTWARE BUYOUTExcel Software Middle East has bought out its management's equity and will now operate as distributor. Turn to page 29.
NEW PRODUCTS
RESELLER AWARDS 2011reader's choice n best partner excellence n oustandingexecutive n editor's choice n networking vendor n
software and security vendor n STORAGE VENDOR n
peripherals vendor n components vendor n printing vendor n systems and hardware vendor n it distributor n components distributor n networking distributor n specialised distributor n value added distributor n software and security distributor n peripherals distributor n enterprise reseller n smb and consumer reseller n super retailer n systems integrator
Prestigio's new tablets.Turn to page 64.
Reseller Partner Up Conference
Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecom
Ernest Azzam, Business Manager, Laserjet and Enterprise Solutions, HP
Vishnu Deuskar, Managing Director, Salvus Strategic Advisors
John Andrews, Director of MarketingMEA and APAC, Computerlinks
12 June 2011, Dubai
EDITORIAL
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 5
IN THE BEGINNINGTie-ups
Help Ag, an information security
consulting company, has been appointed
by F5, an application delivery networking
vendor, as the first official F5 unity
service partner to deliver l1 it support to
customers in the uAE.
As an F5 unity service partner, help
AG has been recognised as having the
in-house technical expertise necessary to
offer responsive support to businesses in
the ME region.
F5 monitored help AG's technical
support service capabilities for six weeks
as well as the degree of difficulty in
each of the cases. As an F5 unity service
partner, help AG will act as a single point
of contact delivering L1 IT support services
in-house on behalf of F5.
“We have been monitored closely by F5
on the level of complexity of our technical
support cases,” explains Stephan Berner,
Managing Director, help AG.
“Thanks to our technical consultants,
we passed with a 100% compliancy of case
quality, which means only support cases
related to bugs or advanced configuration
were opened. As a matter of fact we
are further investing in our F5 service
capabilities to strengthen our position.”
Diego Arrabal, ME Regional Director,
Additionally help Ag, has been officially
named the region’s first support service
partner for Palo Alto networks.
Help AG began working with Palo
Alto Networks in January 2010 and
currently has highest number of Palo
Alto Networks certified engineers in the
Middle East region. This partnership with
Palo Alto Networks defines help AG as
a single point of contact for enterprise
customers.
Help AG’s certified consultants will
provide round the clock, support services
under the service level agreement
through phone, email and onsite support
services.
In addition, help AG SLA customers
will also have access to the help AG
online support centre where they log
their support requests, download minor
and major software releases, utilize the
knowledge base and monitor the support
cases at any point in time.
“From the very beginning we have
invested strongly in our Palo Alto
Networks partnership and as of date we
are the only authorised service partner
and the only authorised Palo Alto training
partner in the Middle East,” explained
Stephan Berner, Managing Director, help
AG.
Recent security breaches at RSA
security and Sony put IT information
integrity at the forefront of business
concerns. “Currently enterprise
customers invest 90% of their budget
for IT security into the network layer,
this is surprising given that 70% of all
attacks and vulnerabilities come from the
application layer,” remarked Berner.
“At the same time, if you look into the
business requirements coming from the
end customer, more and more services
will be “webified” and therefore spending
should be more balanced.”
As the information security market
matures, organisations and government
entities shift to bridge the gap between
policies and procedures and technical
security controls in order to meet
compliance requirements.
Stephan Berner, Managing Director, help AG
help AG first F5 unity service partner in UAE
help AG first support partner for Palo Alto Networks
F5 commented: “In recognition of the
support levels that help AG has already
been delivering upon, we have decided
to reduce the trial period to six weeks
rather than the normal trial period of three
months.”
It was agreed under the F5 unity
service partnership that help AG must
continuously maintain and enhance
their services portfolio. Therefore every
six months a surveillance audit shall be
conducted by F5.
With the certification to provide F5
L1 support, help AG will be able to offer
local and highly responsive field support
by certified F5 engineers within the same
geographical boundaries, time zones and
languages.
F5 solutions help integrate disparate
technologies to provide control of the
infrastructure, application delivery
and data management. Help AG is an
information security consulting company,
founded in Germany in 1995 and has been
present in the Middle East since 2004.
6 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
ACC, said, “AOC is a monitor brand, which
not only offers a wide range but also
provides value for money. With our reach
and product portfolio, we expect AOC to
become the number one monitor brand in
Sudan very soon.”
ACC started operations in Sudan
in 1996 and has four offices across the
country and works closely with close to 200
resellers.
Speaking on the occasion AOC’s
Country Manager for Egypt and Sudan,
Ahmed Mossa, said, “AOC has been
witnessing high business traction in the
continent and we are glad to partner with
ACC, which is one of the most influential
players in the IT distribution space in
Sudan. We are sure that with support from
ACC, AOC will become a top monitor brand
in the country.”
Last year, despite the recession, AOC
shipped 16-million monitor units worldwide.
It has maintained average annual growth
of more than 20% for the past three years.
Admiral Overseas Corporation (AOC) was
established in 1967 in Taiwan. AOC is the
house brand of TPV Technology Ltd.
For Iraq, AOC has announced Al Seera
Computers as its authorised distributor.
Zeyad Al-Sammaraie, Managing
Director, Al Seera Group, said, “We believe
that IT users in Iraq will be happy with AOC,
as it offers a wide choice of eco-friendly,
feature rich, high quality, ergonomically
designed, value for money monitors. As
both, Al Seera and AOC work towards same
goal of providing excellent product at the
best price for consumers and on other hand
safeguarding the margins for our resellers.
Hence, we are excited to introduce AOC to
the Iraq market.”
Al Seera Group has five showrooms and
two service centres, apart from its offices
in Baghdad and Dubai. Al Seera Group was
started in the year 2000 and since then it
has grown to a base of 140 active resellers
across the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Suchit
Kumar, DGM AOC said, “Iraq is one of the
key emerging market for IT products in the
region and the dominance of Al Seera in IT
distribution space will provide us a platform
to address the Iraq marketplace.
For Sudan, AOC has announced
Arabian Computer Centre (ACC) as its
authorized distributor.
Omer Abulgassim, Managing Director,
AOC, manufacturers of flat-screen monitors
and tvs, with operations in close to 100
countries throughout the world, has
appointed it distributor Platinum Micro as
distributor for the South African market.
Platinum Micro will distribute a range of
AOC monitors including the AOC Razor range
of ultra-slim monitors which offer ultra-slim
cabinets of just 0.92cm thickness and 1.2cm
thickness with screen sizes ranging from 18.5
inches to 23 inches.”
Ricky Correia, General Manager, Platinum
Micro said, “We will have stock within a month
and will distribute the monitors nationally
through direct channels, which are soon to
be finalised. This is a huge brand coup for
Platinum Micro and a great opportunity. It will
lead to a permanent presence in South Africa
for AOC and we already have a distribution
channel reward and incentive scheme in
place to attract top resellers.”
Tony Yu, Business Development Manager
for South Africa, AOC, said, “We are glad to
sign up with Platinum Micro and given the
wide reach of Platinum in channels across the
country, AOC will be able to penetrate further
into the South African market”
AOC appoints distributors for South Africa, Sudan and Iraq
(Left to right) Ricky Correia, General Manager, Platinum Micro with Tony Yu Business Development Manager for South Africa AOC.
Zeyad Al-Sammaraie, Managing Director, Al Seera Group
AOC’s Country Manager for Egypt and Sudan, Ahmed Mossa
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 7
IN THE BEGINNINGTie-ups
Xerox Emirates, document management,
technology and consulting services vendor
announced the appointment of tuqnia as
a business partner to sell Xerox products,
services and consumables.
Tuqnia is a systems integrator offering
a range of solutions from Dell, Microsoft,
Juniper, EMC, Symantec and Cisco to name
a few.
The partnership alliance between
Xerox Emirates and Tuqnia will provide their
customers in the UAE with a selection of
products and service offerings.
“We have been rapidly expanding our
presence in
the UAE and
today offer total
solution services
ranging from
IT hardware to
software services
and consulting”,
said Amar Singh,
Sales Director of
Tuqnia.
“Expanding
market reach
not only helps
increase sales
and profits but
is also one of the key criteria to survive in
today’s challenging economy. Our strategic
alliance with Tuqnia will help us expand our
market reach in the UAE thereby offering our
customers the wide range of products and
solutions offered by Xerox”, said Andrew
Hurt, General Manager for Xerox Emirates.
This alliance forms part of Xerox’s
channel vision for 2011, which in summary is
to be considered for business process and
document management opportunities within
relevant markets and leverage distribution
and channel partner relationships.
Tuqnia enters alliance with Xerox Emirates
(Left to right) Andrew Hurt, General Manager for Xerox Emirates and Amar Singh, Sales Director of Tuqnia
Equinox Egypt announced it has
achieved Cisco gold certification in
Egypt. “Achieving Cisco gold certification
concludes an important chapter in our
growth and success story. However, it
also marks the beginning of an even
more challenging chapter where the
expectations are higher and more difficult
to attain,” said Osama Qadan, Managing
Partner, Equinox international, the holding
company of Equinox Egypt.
“We are committed to providing the
tools, training and programs that facilitate
partner growth, differentiation and
profitability,” said Olaf Krahmer, President
and General Manager, Cisco, Egypt.
As Cisco gold certified partner, Equinox
Egypt achieved specializations in unified
communications, routing and switching,
security, and wireless LAN.
Using a third-party audit process, the
program validates a partner’s technology
skills, business practices, customer
satisfaction, presales and post-sales
support capabilities, customers consider
when choosing a trusted partner.
Equinox Egypt achieves Cisco gold certification in Egypt
Golden Systems adds Viewsonic to Its portfolio
golden Systems, distributor of it products
in the Middle East, announced that it has
signed a distribution agreement with
viewsonic, global provider of visual display
products for the uAE, Qatar, Kuwait and iraq.
As per the terms of the agreement,
Golden Systems will distribute and promote
Viewsonic’s range of LCDs and intelligent
communicating tablets through its channel and
retail partners in Qatar, Iraq and Kuwait. Only
the LCD range will be distributed in the UAE.
“We see a huge opportunity for their
products in the Middle East and are confident
their LCD and Viewpad range will be
well-received by our channel partners and
customers in the region,” said Ehsan Hashemi,
COO, Golden Systems.
Viewsonic manufactures LED display
screens, high-resolution LED TV, projectors,
digital signage, mini PC, all-in-one PC, e-books,
high-resolution audiovisual players, handheld
audiovisual players to name a few.
“We are confident our partnership with
Golden Systems will help us strengthen our
brand, expand our reach and increase our
market share further in the Middle East,” said
Junaid Gul, Country Manager Middle East,
Viewsonic.
Golden Systems, represents various
brands which include Gigabyte, Logitech, G
Data, Kaspersky, ZOTAC, BitDefender, Cooler
Master, Intel, Hitachi, Choiix, Axtrom, Leadtek,
Kingmax, Nvidia, NEC, Twinhan, AMD and ATI
to name a few.
Viewsonic develops products including
tablets, LED TVs, computers, LED monitors,
projectors, digital photo frames, digital signage
displays, 3D devices and digital media players.
(Left to right) Ehsan Hashemi, COO, Golden Systems Middle East with Junaid Gul, Country Manager Middle East, Viewsonic.
8 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai, UAE ● Tel: (+971) 4 8863300 ● Fax: (+971) 4 8863311 ● UAE Sales Center: (+971) 4 3555520 ● P.O. Box: 262221 ● Email: info@gse.ae ● Website: www.gse.ae
TM
IN THE BEGINNINGTie-ups
Manufacturer of power
protection equipment, tripp lite,
has entered into a distribution
agreement with redington
gulf, it distributor operating
in the Middle East and Africa.
the move is part of tripp lite’s
efforts to position itself across
the developing markets of the
Middle East and African region.
Under the terms of the
partnership, Redington Value, the value
added distribution division of Redington Gulf,
will distribute Tripp Lite’s range of products
including UPS Systems, UPS Batteries, PDUs,
KVMs, cables, power inverters, racks and surge
suppressors.
For Tripp Lite, the plus point of this new
partnership is Redington Value’s presence in
over 14 countries across the Middle East and
African region. The partnership will also allow
Redington Value to leverage Tripp
Lite’s products along with other brands
like Cisco, Fujitsu and HP as essential
components for a data centre.
"Data centres are now
established as a critical part of IT
development in the region and have
become a key component in attracting
local and global investment from
the IP, telecoms, hosting, integrator,
BPO and IT outsourcing sectors.
Our strategic new partnership with Redington
Value ably positions Tripp Lite as a key provider
of integrated solutions in today's data centre
installations," said Vipin Sharma, Vice President,
Middle East, Africa and CIS Sales, Tripp Lite.
Tripp Lite has a 2,500 product portfolio
that allows its customers to organise, connect,
control and protect computer and electronic
equipment that are essential to their day-to-day
operations.
Meeza signs deal with Qatar’s Supreme Council of Family Affairs
Avnet expands distributor agreement with HP
Tripp Lite, Redington Value sign distribution agreement
Meeza, a Qatar based
it solutions and
services provider, has
signed a partnership
agreement with
Qatar’s Supreme
Council of Family
Affairs, a large
government and
public entity.
The partnership covers complete IT
outsourcing including, IT infrastructure
design, building, management and support,
consultancy and project management. With this
new agreement, Meeza will be providing the
necessary IT solutions and infrastructure to help
the Supreme Council for Family Affairs reduce
costs, enhance productivity and efficiency,
provide business scalability as well as reduce
risks.
By signing this partnership, Meeza will
be able to support the government sector,
promote international trends in IT services,
and most importantly contribute to the
2030 Qatar National Vision of a knowledge
based economy.
The Supreme Council for Family Affairs
will be the first government entity in Qatar to
outsource all its services to Meeza, paving the
way for other entities to follow it.
Her Excellency Ms Noor Al Malki General
Secretary of the Supreme Council for Family
Affairs said, “This partnership will enable the
Supreme Council for Family Affairs to continue
functioning in a more professional manner,
supporting the main aim of strengthening the
Qatari family presence and its role in society.”
MEEZA Chairman and CEO, Rashid Al
Naimi said, ”The Supreme Council for Family
Affairs will benefit from Meeza’s experienced
people, standards-driven processes and world-
class technology.
Meeza in turn aims to promote increased IT
maturity within government and public sectors
in Qatar by enabling these entities to focus on
their core functions, increase their productivity
and be able to rapidly scale their organisational
operations to service the Qatari community.
Avnet technology Solutions, expanded its
distribution agreement with HP to cover
Bahrain, Egypt, iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, lebanon,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, uAE and Yemen.
“Avnet will now be able to offer our Middle
East channel partners all elements of HP’s
converged infrastructure, including networking,
servers, storage and software solutions,” said
Venkat Raman, sales director-Gulf and Levant,
Avnet Technology Solutions, Middle East.
As an authorised value-added distributor
for HP’s networking products, Avnet will be
Vipin Sharma, Vice President, Middle East, Africa and CIS Sales, Tripp Lite
MEEZA Chairman and CEO, Rashid Al Naimi
(Left to right) Venkat Raman, Sales Director, Gulf and Levant, Avnet Technology Solutions ME, Dennis Evers, Director Business Development EMEA, Avnet Technology Solution, Alfred Chrispanous, ESSN Distribution Manager, HP ME
responsible for providing HP’s
reseller partners with sales and
technical enablement, logistics
and operational support, and
programmes and services
to develop business growth
opportunities in the region.
In addition to this support,
Avnet is investing in channel
initiatives and will hold a series of
road shows aimed at growing the market for HP
networking solutions. Avnet will also offer training
and educational programs designed to further
increase the data centre and networking skills of
its channel partners across the region.
Commenting on the relationship, Alfred
Chrispanous, ESSN Distribution Manager, HP
Middle East, said, “We are happy to engage
with Avnet and believe that our association will
allow us to enhance our penetration in the SMB
market, and help us gain incremental business in
the region.”
10 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
HP announced that Etisalat has been
selected as one of its eight 2010 EMEA
business optimisation champions. Picked
by a panel of HP business and technology
leaders, EMEA business optimisation
champions are selected based on the
delivery of exceptional business value using
HP software and solutions, with measurable
improvement in it and business outcomes.
Etisalat was chosen as a champion
because its solution demonstrated a fast
and efficient way of generating returns and
benefits. Etisalat’s solution implemented
a service level management platform built
on a range of HP software, including HP
Service Manager software, Universal CMDB
software, Discovery
and Dependency
Mapping software
as well as HP
Operations
Manager, Network
Node Manager and
Performance Insight
software.
The complete
solution provided
Etisalat with a
centralised service
view of customer
networks, enabling
the company to monitor and manage service
level agreements and aiding the connection
of UAE businesses with new markets.
“The major achievements were on
the improvements of the quality of service
enabling proactive monitoring on the
customers equipments, as well as automatic
ticket notification and assignments to the
respective teams,” said Mr. Nasser Salim,
SVP-Information Technology, Etisalat.
“At HP we applaud businesses such as
Etisalat that are challenging and transforming
business practices by using and investing
in a range of technological solutions,”
added Abbass Tarraf, Country Manager, HP
Software– UAE & Oman.
Etisalat is HP business optimisation champion
Etisalat and HP executives at the HP business optimization champion award ceremony
Seagate technology, a vendor producing
hard drives and storage solutions, has
partnered with redington gulf, a Middle East
supply chain solution and service provider,
to distribute its portfolio of retail products in
the region.
Redington Gulf will distribute Seagate’s
GoFlex and Expansion ranges of external hard
drives and the company’s BlackArmor network
attached storage solutions for small and
medium enterprises across the region.
“The continued growth in demand for
digital storage by consumers and businesses,
presents a significant window of opportunity
for us,” said Sofocles Socratous, Seagate,
Sales Director, Middle East.
Ashish Bharti, Senior Vice President,
IT Volume ME Business, Redington Gulf,
said, “Seagate has a strong local sales and
marketing team on the ground in the Middle
East, and we look forward to working with
them. Seagate’s range of retail products
covers the spectrum of users’ needs whether
they are in the home, on the move or at work.”
The Middle East market for hard drives is
estimated to be worth around US$380 million
a year with retail products accounting for a
quarter of total sales.
Redington Gulf, a part of Redington
India, operates across Middle East, Turkey
and Africa region with a turnover of US$1.6
billion for the year 2010-11. Redington Gulf
works with over 5,700 channel partners in 19
markets to distribute close to 30 global IT and
telecom brands.
Redington to push Seagate’s retail products
ANNOUNCEMENTSNVIDIA ANNOUNCED IT HAS COMPLETED ITS $367 MILLION CASH ACqUISITION Of ICERA, MANUfACTURER Of WIRELESS MODEMS fOR 3G AND 4G CELLULAR PHONES AND TABLETS. ICERA IS NOW A WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY Of NVIDIA OPERATING UNDER THE ICERA TRADE NAME.
IN THE BEGINNINGTie-ups
12 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
BG 20.7x27cm.ai 1 6/26/11 12:54 PM
IN THE BEGINNINGTie-ups
passing official tests that
affirm their competence
in using computer and the
internet.
“Knowledge and skills
in computer applications
are particularly crucial
now more than ever as the
GCC region aims to build
a knowledge-based digital
society. Canon is therefore
keen to support the ICDL
Summer Camps for the
second year in a row as we are confident
that this program will serve as a tool towards
achieving our vision of creating a better
future for our society," said Anurag Agrawal,
Managing Director, Canon Middle East.
Meanwhile, Canon Middle East
announced it is also conducting a series
of special photography skills development
training sessions in the various universities
that are hosting the ICDL camps in UAE,
Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. Canon’s training
sessions cover basics of photography,
including better composition, capture and
printing.
Canon's support of the ICDL Summer
Camps is in line with the company's corporate
philosophy of ‘kyosei,’ which envisions all
people, regardless of race, religion or culture,
harmoniously living and working together into
the future.
Canon Middle East, has announced it is
expanding its support to include a greater
number of universities across the gCC for
the "iCDl Summer Camps." the summer
camps, which will run from June to July
2011, are being organised by educational
authorities and universities throughout
the region and overseen by international
Computer Driving license program (iCDl) in
the gCC States and iraq.
Canon revealed that it will be extending
region-wide support this year, to include
countries such as UAE, Oman, Qatar and
Kuwait, while it is likewise increasing the
number of universities and training centres
that it will be supporting.
Canon will partner with ICDL to offer
rewards to students who are enrolled in
the summer camps, giving away valuable
gift items such as printers and cameras in
recognition of the highest achievers among
the thousands of ICDL
candidates.
Thousands of
students all over the
region will undergo
computer training in
accordance with the
globally recognised
ICDL standard through
the summer camps.
The participants are
expected to achieve
the ICDL "Start"
certification after
Canon continues second year support for summer camps
Sandisk expands into Turkey with Telpa Group
SanDisk Middle East and Africa,
announced its expansion into turkey
through its partnership with telpa
group, a mobile retailer in turkey. the
partnership will drive Sandisk MEA’s
strategy in turkey and take advantage
of the country's growing mobile market
growth in turkey.
“Our partnership with Telpa reinforces
our objective to expand our product reach
in Turkey. The entire range of Sandisk
storage products will now be available to
a wider market through the expertise and
established distribution networks of Telpa,”
said Tareq Husseini, Sandisk’s Middle East
and Africa Sales Director.
Telpa has a widespread distribution
network and directly works with 3,500
dealers and 6,200 retail shops. The
company’s infrastructure, with an
established working environment for
dealers and an online B2B platform, will
enhance Sandisk’s market presence in the
country.
Sandisk’s product portfolio includes
flash memory cards for mobile phones,
digital cameras and camcorders; digital
audio-video players; USB flash drives for
consumers and the enterprise; embedded
memory for mobile devices; and solid state
drives for PCs.
Tareq Husseini, SanDisk’s Middle East and Africa Sales Director
14 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
LIME_a2_go way beyond.indd 1 5/30/11 11:19 AM
Contact your sales manager to �nd out more about summer promotional o�ers.
Infor announced that Saudi
Printing and Packaging
Company (SPPC) has invested
in its ErP ln enterprise
resource planning solution.
infor’s channel partner, Comm-
it, is working with infor and
SPPC in the roll out.
Infor ERP LN will provide
visibility of SPPC’s operations
across its three companies
in the city of Riyadh, Jeddah
and Dammam, which are
responsible for printing the
Kingdom’s most popular newspaper
and magazine titles, as well as flexible
packaging and commercial labels.
"We are confident that Infor ERP LN
will significantly contribute to SPPC’s
improvements in operations and revenue
generation for many years," said Naushad
Khalid, general manager, Comm-IT Middle
East LLC.
"As an increasing number of enterprises
in the Middle East turn to Infor ERP LN,
we have witnessed its benefits to reduce
complexity, increase flexibility and internal
visibility and control for the company."
The ERP will integrate data across
SPPC’s supply chain – from the raw
materials to the completed printed
product or label. This will increase SPPC’s
control over its supply
chain and help improve
accuracy, enabling sharper
information to make better
decisions.
It will also help
SPPC improve visibility,
traceability and connectivity
within the sales,
procurement and finance
departments. Once the
application is implemented,
the sales team will be able
to automatically process
orders and follow up on status as well as
check inventory, location and lot control,
instead of its previous manual system of
telephone and email follow ups.
“With our heavy printing and
packaging operations we required a
solution that would integrate data across
our major activities and plug in the holes
in our old manual systems,” said Saad Al
Azwari, the chief executive officer of SPPC,
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
"We continue to improve our Middle
East customers' operations by providing
flexible solutions that enable them to be
dynamic in their approach to the ever
increasing customer demands in the
region," said Paul Hammond, general
manager, Infor Middle East.
Comm-IT to roll out Infor ERP at SPPC
Avnet technology
Solutions, a value added
distributor in the Middle
East and Africa region,
held a special training
programme called “HP
Software Academy” in
association with HP to
educate its partners in
Jeddah and riyadh, Saudi
Arabia.
“HP Software
Academy” was a one day event designed specifically
to inform partners about the HP software portfolio. All
participants were awarded with a certificate which was
presented by HP and Avnet.
"HP Software Academy was a perfect opportunity
for Avnet and HP to meet with our partners. It also
enhanced the understanding and knowledge of
partners about the wide portfolio of HP software
products and solutions available for them in Saudi”,
said Emad Aboukhater, Avnet account manager for HP
software solutions.
Emad further added, “At the same time, the
sessions also acted as a strategic venue to discuss the
current challenges in the industry and develop solutions
and strategies that can help reinforce HP leadership in
the KSA region."
Encouraged by the overwhelming response Avnet
plans to take the “HP Software Academy” to remote
areas in Saudi Arabia like Mecca and Abha later this year.
Avnet holds HP software training in KSA
HP opens second office in Cairo
Paul Hammond, General Manager, Infor Middle East.
Emad Aboukhater, Avnet account manager for HP software solutions
under the patronage and presence of
HE Dr Magued Osman, Egypt’s Minister
of Communication and information
technology, HP announced the opening of
its new premises in Smart village, Egypt’s
Communication and information technology
business park.
The event highlights the stability of
the Egyptian economy, development
of Egypt’s ICT sector that continues to
attract international investment, and HP’s
commitment and contribution to local
businesses and governments.
“We are honoured to have such an
auspicious opening for our Smart Village
premises,” said Eyad Shihabi, Managing
Director and Enterprise Business Lead, HP
Middle East. “The investment into our new
premises, increasing staff strength and growth
is a testament to our commitment to the
Egyptian people and the country.”
The 5,500 square metres HP premises
in Smart Village will be its second major
Representatives of HP and Information Technology Industry Development Agency (left to right): Eyad Shihabi, MD, HP Middle East; Yasser El-Kady, CEO, ITIDA; Bassem Bouzid, Regional VP and GM Enterprise Services HP MEMA; and Hussein Hamza, Country MD, HP Egypt.
Continues in page 18
IN THE BEGINNINGAnnouncements
16 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
HP and local Kuwait
partner, tawasul
Services have
implemented HP
Business Availability
Centre Software
at Kuwait national
Petroleum Company
(KnPC). KnPC
one of the world’s
largest national oil
companies, is using HP solutions to transform
its technology environment, streamline
operations and provide advanced warning of
service disruptions and isolation of their root
causes before they impact the business.
With more than 7,500 users, KNPC was
determined to continue providing superior
service while their information and IT
projects rapidly increased. Historically, KNPC
managed information and IT projects through
manual change processes.
“KNPC is striving to improve our ability
to respond to market changes to supply gas
to businesses more efficiently,” said Khaled
Al-Asousi, IT Manager, KNPC.
“By eliminating manual practices and
providing better change processes, HP
Software will help KNPC accelerate business
transformation without increasing risk,” said
Tayfun Topkoc, HP Software Director for the
Middle East.
The HP solution includes HP Network and
Operations Management Centre, HP Business
Availability Centre and HP Storage Essentials.
Al rajhi Holding, a diversified business
conglomerate with operations across the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the uAE, has
secured and integrated its wide area network
using Sonicwall’s network Security Appliance
series. the implementation was done with
Sonicwall’s partner networker Strategy.
“Our partner in Saudi Arabia, Networker
Strategy, worked with the Al Rajhi’s team in
Saudi Arabia to roll out Sonicwall’s NSA 240,
2400, NSA 3500 and NSA 4500 firewalls over
the course of a year. We are pleased with this
initiative and hope to continue deploying new
and improved solutions to strengthen Al Rajhi’s
network,” said Shahnawaz Sheikh, Sonicwall’s
Regional Director, Middle East, Africa and
Turkey.
“Instead of one appliance per application,
security consolidation aggregates multiple
interconnected security applications on a
single piece of hardware without compromising
security and performance,” said Afran Khan,
branch manager, Networker Strategy.
As malware and phishing attacks were
growing in strength and frequency globally,
controlling peer-to-peer applications, instant
messaging and the sharing of multimedia
content and applications became critical. With
ever-growing Internet security threats and
increased vulnerabilities due to employee
remote access and branch connectivity issues,
Al Rajhi's technology team decided to take
decisive action.
The group sought an integrated solution
to manage and secure traffic across their WAN.
They consulted their IT solutions provider
Networker Strategy, who suggested Sonicwall’s
Network Security Appliance series.
With Sonicwall, the group was able to
improve bandwidth by 75%, reduce IT costs by
30%, streamline administration with centralised
management, lower hardware costs through
consolidation and, by training in-house staff on
Sonicwall technology, internalise functions they
used to outsource.
The group, with distributed server assets
across various locations: Jeddah, Jubail,
Dammam and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia; and
Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah in the
UAE, sought to gain enhanced returns on its
technology investments by better controlling the
cumbersome and expensive maintenance and
upkeep of hardware and network infrastructure.
Al Rajhi had deployed a SSL-VPN 2000
secure remote access solution and have already
upgraded to the more powerful Sonicwall
Aventail E-Class SRA EX-6000. The group is to
further update its network security to the high-
performance low-latency SuperMassive Next-
Generation Firewall. Plans are also underway
to adopt the Sonicwall Global Management
System, which allows users to manage and
monitor the activity of all its Sonicwall devices
from one central console.
“The benefits achieved through deploying
Sonicwall had a significant impact on our
operations. Al Rajhi now has an integrated
network with a centralised data centre in our
head office in Riyadh and seamless connectivity
to network users in different areas.” explained
Dr Marwan Al Siddiqi, group ICT director, Al Rajhi
Holding Group.
Networker Strategy implements Sonicwall suite at Al Rajhi
Tawasul to roll out HP portfolio at Kuwait Petroleum
Announcements
Tayfun Topkoc, HP Software Director for the Middle East
office in Cairo, with the first established in
Nasr City which also serves as the country
headquarters. At the new location, HP will
accommodate the Enterprise Services Global
Delivery Centre and go-to-market teams.
“In Egypt, we’re not just focused
on commercial progress but also social
investment, given the large, young Egyptian
population who are well-positioned to take
on a greater role in the ICT sector,” added
Hussein Hamza, Managing Director and
Enterprise Business lead, HP Egypt. “We’re
laying particular emphasis in two areas:
innovation in education and entrepreneurship
education. At HP, we believe innovation
in education is vital to developing the next
generation of high-tech innovators and
entrepreneurs.”
HE Dr Magued Osman, Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology joined an HP delegation to officially open HP’s new office in Smart Village, Cairo.
From page 16
IN THE BEGINNING
18 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
IN FOCUSConference
PARTNER UP Reseller Middle East’s 2011 ConferenceTop notch speakers at the Reseller Conference covered a wide gamut of channel topics including upcoming technology trends, value addition, vendor-partner relationships, cash flow and social marketing.
On 12 June, reseller Middle East kicked off
its first conference directed at the reseller
community. the conference was a day-long,
single track event, held at Westin Dubai,
uAE. the highlights of the conference were
intended to be the wide range of channel
issues tackled by a high-level team of
experienced industry leaders selected from
vendors, distributors and consultants. the
presentation content of each topic was set to
appeal at an operational level rather than at
a conceptual level.
The conference was kicked off by a
short welcome address by Reseller’s senior
editor Arun Shankar, after which the key note
speaker was invited to the stage
The keynote address for the conference
was presented by Nassir Nauthoa, General
Manager, GCC, Intel Corporation. There
were a number of important highlights in the
presentation. Nauthoa drew the attention of
the audience to the increasing purchasing
power of the emerging markets. The index
used to track the changes in purchasing
power of the markets is the number of weeks
of income required to buy an average priced
consumer laptop.
In 1994, it required 151 weeks of income to
buy a laptop in the emerging markers versus
6 weeks of income in developed markets. In
2010, the same comparison has changed to 12
weeks of income in emerging markets versus
1 week of income for developed markets.
This shows that a vast segment of population
in the emerging markets is moving towards
affordable ownership of a PC or a laptop.
Today, one billion people own a PC device,
but 2.2 billion people can afford a PC and have
not invested in such a device. A further 3.5
billion people still cannot afford a PC device.
The engine of the emerging markets
is so compelling that by end 2011 and early
1 2
8
12
3
97
20 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
2012, the total number of PCs shipped to the
emerging markets will overtake the developed
markets.
Nauthoa also pointed out the changing
nature of the personal computing device. It is
not just PCs and laptops which the growing
segment of population will use for computing.
By 2015, only 56% of mobile traffic will be
generated by laptops. Rest of the traffic will be
generated from smart phones, home gateways
and others. The forms of computing devices
are changing and the all-in-one PC screen,
ultra-book, smart TV, tablet and netbook are all
possible variants of today’s desktop PC.
However is the PC dead? Nauthoa
indicated that the death knell of the PC was
announced in 1997 with the network computer;
again in 1999 with internet appliances; in 2005
with the cloud; in 2007 with the smart phone;
in 2009 with the netbook; and in 2010 with the
tablet. In 2010 there were one million devices
shipped per day. All forecast indicate that by
2015 there will be two million shipped per day.
So the PC is not dead!
Intel’s vision of the future: by 2020 there
will four billion connected people, 31 billion
connected devices and 25 million applications.
The key drivers for computing devices will
remain performance, security and connectivity.
After Nathuoa’s visionary address,
there was a round table discussion on the
growth dynamics across the Middle East.
The participants were jointly made up of
speakers from the Reseller Conference and
some special invitees. The speakers of the
conference who sat on the panel included
Nassir Nauthoa, Intel Corporation; Meera Kaul,
Optimus Technology and Telecommunications
and Hesham Tantawi, Asbis.
The special invitees included Sukant
Mishra, Managing Director, Octagon
International; Prateek Dayal, Channels &
13
4
10 11
5 6
1PCs shipped to emerging markets will overtake mature markets by the end of 2011: Nassir Nauthoa, General Manager, GCC, Intel Corporation
2Market dynamics through the eyes of data: Vasudevan KS, Managing Director, Satvik
3Shifting trends in the market: Amir Sohrabi, Regional Alliances and Partner Development Manager Middle East, SAS
4Value addition is a differentiator in the channel: Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecommunications
570% of UAE companies have no anti-counterfeit policy in place: Ernest Azzam, Business Manager, Laser and Enterprise Solutions, HP
6Sorting out vendor and partner disconnects: Hemayun Bazaz, Channel Manager, HP Networking
7Present cash flow projections to decision makers on daily basis: Vishnu Deuskar, Managing Director, Salvus Strategic Advisors
8Due diligence before exports: Dr Ashraf Ali Mahate, Head of Export Market Intelligence
9Know your reseller’s business like your own business: Hesham Tantawi, Vice President, Asbis
10Social media still an unknown ROI: John Andrews, Director of Marketing MEA and APAC, Computerlinks
11End of the day, question and answers
12Audience participation
13Audience participation
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 21
Pulsar series UPSs. The right UPS solution for your business.• From office networks to data centres
• Power range up to 20 kVA
• Advanced power management capabilities
• Unmatched reliability
www.eaton.com/powerquality
Authorised Distributor: PO Box 62757, Dubai, UAE • Tel: +971 4 3552270 • Fax: +971 4 3552131 • e-mail: savio@mso.com.sa • www.alfalak.com
Alliances Director, Xerox Emirates; KS Parag,
Managing Director, FVC; Parag Saxena, Head
of Sales, Redington Value; Patrick Mulligan,
General Manager, Emitac Distribution.
Reseller Middle East’s senior editor Arun
Shankar, moderated the discussions.
The next pair of speakers after
the panel discussion was Vasudevan KS,
Managing Director, Satvik and Amir Sohrabi,
Regional Alliances & Partner Development
Manager Middle East, SAS. Both addressed
the issue of analysis to aid in channel sales.
The focus was on interpreting market
dynamics through the eyes of data; the
shifting trends in the market; the changing
business priorities and an introduction to
marketing, risk and operation analytics.
The next speaker was Meera Kaul,
Managing Director, Optimus Technology and
Telecommunications. Her theme was around
possible value addition by a distributor in
the channel market. With channel sales
accounting for 60-80% of IT vendor sales,
the role of a channel player is vital in today’s
market. A channel player is faced with the
task of differentiation from other players and
the increasing demand from customers, but
is probably the only one who has a deep
understanding of a customer’s complex
ecosystem.
Kaul presented how a channel player
can leverage on this fact and be better
prepared to address tomorrow today. For a
vendor, value and volume are like birds of two
different colours. “Channel has become an
extension of the vendor”, she summarised.
An important topic before lunch
was counterfeit products in channels by
Ernest Azzam, Business Manager, Laser and
Enterprise Solutions, HP. Azzam pointed out
that the current market size for counterfeit
products is $775 billion and will cross
one trillion in 2015. The number of jobs
lost because of this illegal trade in G20
countries alone is two and half million. Usage
of counterfeit products is an operational
disconnect for HP since it creates void
warranty claims when toners leak inside the
printer.
Across the Middle East last year HP
conducted 3,000 channel audits to check
for trading in counterfeit. Any incidence of
illegal trading leads to termination of business
partner status. According to Azzam, a starting
point for corrective measures is an end-user
corporate policy that avoids purchase of
counterfeit products. 72% of UAE companies
have no such anti-counterfeit policy in place.
After lunch, the audience was
presented with a business focussed and
well directed presentation by Hemayun
Bazaz, Channel Manager, HP Networking.
Bazaz explored in straight-forward language
disconnects that sometime exist between
vendors and reseller partners in the channel
space.
Partners complain that vendor programs
are complicated in terms of rebates, available
marketing support and specialisation training
programs. Vendors complain that partners
do not make an effort to understand their
programs and miss out on financial returns.
Bazaz stressed that the solution lay at the
half-way mark, both sides making an effort to
meet mid-way.
The next presentation was on cash flow
management by Vishnu Deuskar, Managing
Director, Salvus Strategic Advisors. Deuskar
presented a sound operational plan to avoid
cash flow crisis. Companies should have a
daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly cash flow
forecast based on probabilities with worst
case scenarios in-built separately and
highlighted.
This should be sent to decision makers
on a daily basis to avoid emergency plans
being created like private funding at high
interest rates. Another possible area of
financial loss by traders in the re-export
business is in currency mismatches, when
incorrect rates are used in quotations and
invoices.
Continuing on the economical
perspective of the market, the next topic was
on the dynamics of exports out of UAE. Dr
Ashraf Ali Mahate, Head of Export Market
Intelligence talked about the need to export
out of UAE in the face of growing entry of low
cost players and development of production
scale. Dubai is ideally suited to be a hub for
exports. All countries can be reached by
shipping within 30 days and by air within 24
hours.
Exports have been consistently growing
at close to 30% for the last five years.
However Mahate warned that an exhaustive
due diligence of a planned export strategy
should be completed before project roll out
is initiated. The due diligence should cover
target countries, IP protection, distribution
partners, and marketing plans amongst
others.
The next topic addressed by Hesham
Tantawi, Vice President, Asbis was on
bottlenecks in the channel. Hesham chose
to focus on explaining the drivers of sales
in the current market, types of pricing, the
relation between value and price, and some
key parameters of profits. On pricing Tantawi
differentiated between market based and
cost based pricing. He gave an empirical
formula for the calculation of GPROCA.
An interesting numerical example
showed that a 10% improvement in lead
generation and conversion process actually
yields 46% increase in sales and 61% increase
in profits.
The last session of the day was
addressed by John Andrews, Director of
Marketing MEA and APAC, Computerlinks, on
the subject of zero cost marketing and the
power of social communications. Andrews
started by comparing the costs of launching
a brand over the last ten years. In 2001,
the launch cost of Microsoft XP brand was
$0.7 billion, and in comparison the Coke
advertising budget in 2009 was $3.6 billion.
In addition to the five Ps of marketing,
Andrew added process and physical
evidence to bring it to seven Ps.
For zero cost marketing, Andrews listed
electronic mailing, e-newsletters, social media
and press opportunities. Andrew pointed
out that although his company maintained
a social media team to monitor customer
feedback, the team was still posted as a
marketing expense without a tangible return
on investment. His key takeaway, “people are
your biggest marketing asset, more powerful
than any social media.”
The Reseller Conference concluded
with a vigorous question and answer session
directed at a panel made up of speakers
again. Speakers participating in the end of
day session included Meera Kaul, Hesham
Tantawi and John Andrews.
Conference
IN FOCUS
Pulsar series UPSs. The right UPS solution for your business.• From office networks to data centres
• Power range up to 20 kVA
• Advanced power management capabilities
• Unmatched reliability
www.eaton.com/powerquality
Authorised Distributor: PO Box 62757, Dubai, UAE • Tel: +971 4 3552270 • Fax: +971 4 3552131 • e-mail: savio@mso.com.sa • www.alfalak.com
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 23
Panel discussion: Middle East growth wave
the leading question to the panel was to
summarize their assessment of the growth
dynamics in the region. From a technology
point of view, nauthoa indicated that the
multiple technology life cycles had not
created any cyclical period of sales in the
Middle East and as per the technology
dynamics there should be good growth in
the region. But where is it, remains the big
question?
Tantawi of Asbis, who had just returned
from a trip to Egypt indicated that current
business was about 80% of the expected
value. And overall growth across North Africa
was expected to be flat by the end of the
year. Kaul of Optimus, indicated that different
regions are at different points of the innovation
curve. For some it was cloud and for others
it was infrastructure. Overall an upswing was
expected.
Parag of FVC, which operates in MEA
countries, indicated that it was important to
understand customer pain areas. Once that
has been achieved business needs can be
addressed and market growth can happen.
Xerox’s Dayal mentioned that revenues across
the region have been consistent. The company
changed its channel structure over the last few
years and has seen significant growth at the
lower end of its product range.
For Octagon which uses Kenya as its
trading hub, the growth from Africa is in double
digits and is looking “very green at present”.
Inspite of the volatility in the region, Mishra
indicated that overall Middle East business
was stable. For Redington which operates in
six African and six Gulf countries, the business
from Africa has been good and the momentum
of sales is picking up driven by Saudi along
with Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.
However, each market has different demands
according to Saxena.
Emitac’s Mulligan pointed out the inherent
risks still prevailing across the region. “I think
we're in really dangerous hands. There's a lot of
volatility in the market and significant financial
exposure in places like Bahrain and Libya. So
markets are unpredictable. The question is: how
do we balance growth and danger?”
The next round of questions was on
managing credit risks through channel
partners. Tantawi pointed out that Asbis always
monitors every channel partners risk as if it
were its own. It always monitors the sales of
each of its partners and understands their
business as well. Octagon’s Mishra stated that
there have been substantial changes in the
way the channel is working, but the challenge
still remains on how to manage credit risk?
For Redington Value, the problem of credit
risk was addressed seven years ago when
they brought in credit insurance. However the
distributor carefully monitors the behaviour of
its reseller channel partners. “It’s the classic
problem of distribution, sell to end users
and the risk is low. Sell to resellers and the
risk is high,” remarked Saxena. For FVC, it
manages risk based on the vertical market
segment where it operates. “For example
there is always a long payment cycle in the
government sector”, said Parag.
In terms of market development the panel
was asked about their changing business
models. Intel’s Nauthoa was of the opinion,
“we need to ask our channel customers what is
the purpose of their business? This will deliver
focus. Then match the customer with the
supply chain.”
PArtiCiPAntS
Arun Shankar, Senior Editor, Reseller Middle East (moderator) Patrick Mulligan, General Manager, Emitac Distribution Sukant Mishra, Managing Director, Octagon International Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecommunications Prateek Dayal, Channels & Alliances Director, Xerox Emirates nassir nauthoa, General Manager, GCC, Intel Corporation KS Parag, Managing Director, FVC Hesham tantawi, Vice President, Asbis Parag Saxena, Head of Sales, Redington Value
For players that operate in Africa,
like Octagon, the weak infrastructure
would be a constraint in limiting roll out of
connected consumer devices. “Africa is a
generation behind. Technology is available
but cannot be used because of a lack of
infrastructure,” said Mishra.
For Optimus, operating across vast
geographies from Levant, West Asia, North
Africa and the Gulf, "every country has
its own growth curve and technology is
taken up differently in different territories.
For example, the UAE is all about cloud
services but that is not being spoken of at
all in Saudi,” said Kaul.
For Redington Value, their biggest
value-add opportunity in the near future
lies in the growing requirement for security.
For FVC another value-add player, the
challenge is always to keep asking “where
is the big value? We need to add value or
die,” said Parag. Another key differentiator
that FVC adopts is to look at cutting-edge
technology from the point of view of the
customer and ROI. //
Conference
IN FOCUS
(LEFT TO RIGHT)
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 25
IN FOCUSSoftware Congress 2011
SoFTwARE CoNGRESS 2011Thought leaders from business and technology deliberated on key issues around convergence of IT and corporate strategy
On 27 July 2011, the second annual Software Congress was
organised by CPi in Dubai. the half-day Congress featured
speakers from various corporate end-user organisations
and sponsors including Etisalat and SAS.
The speakers included: Dr Deepak Kalra, Group IT
manager, Safeer Group; Dr Hazem Turki El Khatib, CIO
Department of Finance, Abu Dhabi; Carel Badenhorst, Head
of technology practice, SAS ME; and Ahmed Al Hammadi,
Manager, Product marketing e-hosting, Etisalat.
After the four speaker sessions a panel discussion was
held with Sathya Mithra Ashok, Senior Editor of CPI’s Computer
News as the moderator. All the speakers were invited as members
of the panel discussion. In addition they were joined by Ramesh
Krishna Bhandari, Business Development Specialist, Central
Marketing, Etisalat; Arun Tewary, CIO, Emirates Flight Catering and
Rolf Elevald, Director of Information and Software Development,
Jumeirah Group.
A lot of the debate focussed around adoption drivers and
inhibitors for Cloud based computing. Excerpts of the key
statements from the sessions and the panel discussion:
On ups and down of IT spending: Business will not invest in IT, if they are not doing good business
On selection of a supplier: They should be able to defy you in terms of thinking
On managing recession: A rolling-wave approach for IT spending may be necessary, since long-term planning is not possible
On selection of a technology: Don’t run after a new technology, focus on matured technologies
On project management: There is nothing like best practices, every organisation is different.
On project management: The success or failure of a project is yours not of the implementation partner
Dr Deepak Kalra, Group IT managerSafeer Group
Panel discussion in progress
26 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
On late adopters to cloud services: I don’t see ERP moving to the cloud in a hurry
On first movers to the cloud: I see the SMEs moving to the cloud
On inhibitors to cloud adoption: Nobody is asking you to move lock, stock and barrel into the Cloud
On Cloud SLA’s: Check the SLA for a pay-back or guarantee clause for free service in return
On Cloud technologies: Vendors are being forced to move to the cloud
On SLAs: We can provide an end-to-end SLA for a cloud application
On cost of roll outs: An ERP implementation can cost upto AED 15 million per govt department
On consolidation: We are hosting 30 ERP solutions for government departments
On changing role of IT: The challenge is to move from a technology partner towards a strategic partner
On relevance of Cloud: Cloud computing is an IT issue not an end user issue
On IT planning: Each IT manager needs to have a three-year IT strategy.
On Cloud adoption: In the Middle East we are not yet ready for the Cloud
On adoption of new technologies: You have to be very careful with new technologies, since you are sitting on a gold mine of data that has to shine
On inhibitors to data analysis: 60% of cases data is not shared because of ownership or politics
On inhibitors to data analysis: 61% of cases data is not shared because of corporate culture based on silos
On inhibitors to data analysis: 42% of cases data is not shared because of lack of business sponsorship
On server under utilisation: 45% of RAM not used 99.9% of time, 85% of CPU not used 99.9% of time, 68% of hard disk space not used at all
On server ramp-up time: We need 4-6 weeks lead time to set up a server
On post-virtualisation benefits: Server utilisation increases from 10% to 75%
On post-virtualisation benefits: 100 servers can be reduced to 8 servers
On disaster recovery: Out of country, backup requests are considered on case to case basis
Ramesh Krishna Bhandari,
Business Development Specialist, Central Marketing, Etisalat
Dr Hazem Turki El Khatib, CIO Department of FinanceAbu Dhabi
Carel Badenhorst, Head of technology practiceSAS ME
Ahmed Al Hammadi,Manager, Product marketing e-hosting, Etisalat
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 27
Exact Software Middle East
IN FOCUS
in middle of June 2011, the core
team of Exact Software Middle
East, led by nizar Badwan,
bought out the management
stake of the netherlands based parent
company Exact international. the local
subsidiary which had since 2002 existed as
direct sales model was now “green to go” to
change into an indirect, distributor-reseller,
vAr based model.
Why did Badwan and his team buy out
the parent company’s shares and change the
sales model for a solution that today exists
in 15 countries across the Middle East? The
story goes back more than fifteen years to
a time when Badwan was working in Arthur
Andersen in Denver, USA.
At Andersen, Badwan’s forte was in
the alignment of business and IT strategy
in enterprise customers. He worked with
organisations to define their IT strategy and
keep it in sync with business strategy. He
also worked on implementation of business
solutions aligned with business outlook.
Badwan and a core team moved to the
Middle East in 1996 and brought with them
Great Plains Dynamics ERP to an as yet virgin
market for business solutions. After setting
up as a local office and distributor, they found
the market to be devoid of VARs and the only
resellers that existed were pure box pushers.
Over the next four year’s Badwan developed
the market for VARs and groomed them to
be consultants, implementation and support
partners for the ERP solution. The customer
base reached close to five hundred by the
year 2000.
In the year 2000, Microsoft acquired
Great Plains Dynamics and Badwan’s team
ceased to exist in the Middle East as a
local supporting entity. “Somebody moved
my cheese and we needed to go find new
cheese,” Badwan reflects.
In 2002, the same team that left Denver
in 1996, regrouped as Exact Software Middle
Linking up again A core team of ERP specialists that left Arthur Andersen in 1996 finally realise their dream in the Middle East
East, and operated as the local subsidiary
for the Netherland based ERP vendor. They
set up the operation as a direct sales model
and engaged directly with small and medium
businesses in the region. That is until middle
of June 2011.
After working in the region for just under
ten years, Badwan and his team felt that
further penetration in the market required
them to go indirect. There were also VAR
partners like Compusoft, Afcom, Emitac and
others, from Badwan’s Great Plains business,
who wanted to engage with Exact Software
but could not do so because it was built up as
direct sales operation.
In June 2011, Badwan and his core team,
still loyal to each other since 1996, bought out
the parent company’s management stake and
cleared the formal route to transform to an
indirect sales model across the region.
Globally, Exact Software operates in
40 countries and has an installed base of
180,000 countries. But it exists as an indirect
sales model in only two other countries, US
and Netherlands. Now Badwan has added
Middle East to that select group of operations
justified on the basis of scale and go-to-
market opportunities.
The first industry groups on the business
development road map are manufacturing,
wholesale distribution, professional services
and human resource management. As with
any other indirect sales operations partners
would fall into two categories: VARs who
would invest in consulting and customer
support activities; and resellers who would go
down the opportunity or trading route.
On priority, Badwan is looking for
channel partners who can get Exact into
customer accounts where they have failed
to penetrate till now; or VARs who have
industry specialisation – a key expectation of
customers today.
What are Badwan’s credentials now that
“Today if I hand over a customer to a reseller that can’t support them – I will probably lose the customer and eventually lose the reseller."
Committed to going the partner route, Nizar Badwan, General Manager, Exact Software Middle East
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 29
he has taken the first step in his go-to-market
vision? Badwan and his team have nine years
of first-hand experience in implementing
these solutions across the region, which they
are ready to pass onto partnering VARs. For
the other category of resellers, Badwan is
looking at tapping into business contacts
developed during the Great Plains stint from
1996 to 2000, when they operated across the
region in the same indirect sales manner.
The installed base of customers is a
referral point where Exact has a reputation
and proven track record of software
performance. From the revenue point of view,
the annuity of license renewals across the
installed customer base is the supporting
income to keep operations moving till the
indirect channel ramps up.
Some of Exact’s leading customer names
include Electric House Establishment in
Saudi Arabia, Gulf Investment Corporation in
Kuwait, Nutrecia Middle East in UAE, Eagle
Industries in UAE, Eli Lily in UAE, amongst
others. The customer base is also built up
from multinationals like Siemens and Loreal,
which are large enterprise customers on
an aggregated global basis, but on a local
scale fall into the small and medium business
segment.
The core modules of the solution include
manufacturing, accounting and human
resources. Across the Middle East, Exact also
has an office in Kuwait.
Looking at the bell shaped curve of
software licenses versus the number of
establishments, the extreme points are set at
5 users to 1,200 users. But the sweet spot is
set at 20-30 users. In the Middle East a 20-30
user license falls into a small and medium
category, but this would be different in the US
or Europe.
Is Badwan going to open up the
customer base to partner’s from the outset?
“Today if I hand over a customer to a reseller
that can’t support them – I will probably lose
the customer and eventually lose the reseller.
So it’s a lose-lose situation.” Once Badwan
sees a strong community of resellers that
gives everyone confidence, and he can
introduce to the customer, “the customer
will benefit, reseller will benefit, and I will
benefit.”
For now Badwan’s local operation will
have their hands-full managing the roll out
of Exact Software into the channel. But over
the months once the roll out has stabilised
itself, and the community of resellers
familiarised themselves with the product and
the core team, will there be more software
products in the pipeline or a business name
change? Even for Badwan that is still work in
progress.
Exact Software Middle East
IN FOCUS
Exact Software's HR and professional services interface
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 31
The ResellerAwards 2011
reader's choice n best partner excellence n oustandingexecutive n editor's choice n networking vendor n software and
security vendor n STORAGE VENDOR n peripherals vendor n components vendor n printing vendor n systems and hardware vendor n it
distributor n components distributor n networking distributor n specialised distributor n value added distributor n software and
security distributor n peripherals distributor n enterprise reseller n smb and consumer reseller n super retailer n systems integrator
COVER STORYThe Reseller Awards 2011
12 june 2011 n 200 nominations n 25 awards n 400 attendees
32 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
"Our partners are core to our business and a key driver for Cisco's
future growth," said the visionary CEO of Cisco, John Chambers
at an annual partner meet.
With partners a key component of Cisco’s annual growth,
their programmes have also changed with technologies. One
of the initiatives announced is to help partners monetize the cloud
opportunity and expand their professional services practices. Another
programme is towards selling end-to-end communications called
Collaborative Professional Services.
As more customers place a premium on working with certified
partners, developing talent to strengthen joint competitive advantage is
also a priority. This has led to the formation of the Partner Sales Force
programme.
This programme focuses on increasing partner’s business revenue by
leveraging Cisco's expertise to help partners differentiate.
The vendor continues with its three types of partner relationships:
Resale Channel programme, Managed Services certification and
Outsourcing Channel programme. The Fit4Talent programme helps
identify the right channel partner.
In February 2011, Blue Coat introduced its Cloud Partner
programme. This is an internet delivered service that leverages
web security technology and collaborative web-pulse community
to provide web protection to users. Blue Coat provides existing
partners with the sales and technology training they need to begin
selling the new service.
The Blue Coat cloud service complements existing Blue Coat
products and allows cloud-ready partners to expand their product
portfolio. By offering both an appliance-based and a cloud-based web
security solution, partners can help their end-users choose the solution
that is right for their business. Benefits include expanded solution
portfolio, new revenue opportunities, new service opportunities, better
customer visibility.
Other channel partner programmes during 2010-11 included Blue Coat
Assessment Service: a new cloud-based reporting and analytical service;
Fast Start enablement programme to quickly ramp up partners that sell
Blue Coat WAN optimization solutions; new Try-and-Buy programme to
simplify the evaluation process and reward partners that successfully
convert evaluations into sales; new training and education resources
through the Blue Coat University; and the virtual marketing service centre.
Networking Vendor of the Year
Cisco
Blue Coat Systems
Software and Security Vendor of the Year
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 33
During 2010-2011, Western Digital launched top of the range
products including Caviar Green 3TB, VelociRaptor 600GB,
Scorpio Blue 750GB. All these products excelled with fastest
access speeds available. In line with upcoming product
technologies it launched the SiliconEdge Blue, the first consumer-
oriented solid state drive.
Western Digital’s product portfolio allowed channel partners to be
ahead of competitors by offering select technology and capacity point,
which in turn boosted sales.
Western Digital’s philosophy is to develop the three P’s: people,
partners and products. With this in mind the vendor launched an
enhanced online version of its loyalty programme called SelectWD partner
programme online. An EMEA-wide telemarketing project “serving the
channel” was also initiated to reach past, present and new partners.
Through the online loyalty programme partners were able to feel
more connected to their sales performance and accumulated rebate
returns. The ongoing programme supports three types of partners:
platinum, gold and silver. It has more than 1,000 members across EMEA.
The product range from Genius includes accessories like mice,
keyboards, webcam and digital cameras, graphic tablets,
headsets, headphones, speakers, subwoofers and gaming items.
In 2010, the vendor launched its power retail programme for
all its retail partners in UAE, which includes a dedicated brand
representative. For the reseller market, Genius launched the Shop-In-
Shop programme. This programme has been successful in implementing
a retail concept in distribution stores. The programme allows partners
the flexibility of stock rotation and a dedicated in-store sales executive to
promote the products.
A technical support centre available at 800-GENIUS has been set up,
however the returns of defective goods under warranty remains at 0.1%,
year on year.
Channel meets and road shows were conducted for partners in UAE,
KSA, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. The vendor participated in Cebit, Gitex,
Computex, Elecomp, Saudi Arabia Gitex, Distree Monte Carlo and Distree
Fujairah.
Using its established base in the Gulf, the vendor is now expanding
into the African market.
Storage Vendor of the Year
Peripherals Vendor of the Year
Western Digital
Genius
34 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 35
HP LASERJET XXX XXXXXXET ASIMI, UT FUGITE NESCIAT RATATIO. IPSUS ET FUGANOSA CUM IUSCIA EL INT
Et asimi, ut fugite nesciat ratatio. Ipsus et fuganosa cum iuscia ipsum
WOULD YOU LIKE TO CUT YOUR PRINT COSTS? The HP LaserJet P2055 Printer isn’t just a decision to choose leading-edge print technology; it’s an investment in effi ciency that will quickly pay for itself and then start paying you back.
Make an investment that will pay you back, choose HP. To fi nd out more, go to www.hp.co/me
IT’S MORE THAN A PRINTERIT’S A SMART INVESTMENT
HP LASERJET. IT PAYS YOU BACK.
Intel is not only the world’s largest semiconductor company but
designs technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s
computing devices.
Over the last 15 years, the channel has proved its importance
and value to Intel’s growth and success, and delivers now just over
a third of all Intel’s sales. Intel has been in the Middle East region for over
two decade and has continually supported the reseller channel with latest
knowledge and strategic tools.
During 2010-11, Intel transformed its Channel Partner programme into
a new programme designed to recognise and reward all partners for the
Intel-based hardware solutions they sell.
The Intel Channel Partner programme, meant for PC builders has
been merged into Technology Provider Programme meant for resellers.
The Technology Provider programme supports the sales and marketing
efforts of all reseller partners that specify, design, build or resell Intel-
based technology solutions through a single membership programme.
The Technology Provider programme keeps the most successful
elements of the Channel Partner programme and also supports other
business models which deliver Intel-based solutions to end customers.
HP has a comprehensive printing portfolio with solutions for
consumer, commercial, corporate and graphics segments. It has
inkjet printers for consumer and commercial setups, laser printers
and multi-function devices, large format printers and production
outdoor and indoor printers, and commercial web digital printing
presses.
During 2010, HP’s Imaging and Printing group, decided to take a
pro-active approach towards restructuring the channel programmes.
The hardware and supplies channels were merged into one business.
In addition HP has partner-specific programmes to cater for the different
types of business and channel partners. It now has the largest channel
team ever in the Middle East.
A number of product update tours have been completed keeping
resellers up to date on the latest products and technologies such as
the ePrint cloud printing technology. Another announcement was
Printonomics, which is an effort to educate partners to enhance the office
printing environment, reducing unnecessary waste and saving their
customers time and money. The vendor also held total cost of ownership
workshops for channel partners and provided them with marketing and
sales tools.
Components vendor of the year
Intel Corporation
HP IPG Middle East
Printing vendor of the year
36 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Dell was once a leading proponent of the revolutionary, just in time,
direct sales model. Today 25% of its global commercial revenue
comes through the channel. In the Middle East, 100% of its
revenue is generated through the channel.
Dell launched its key channel programme PartnerDirect in
EMEA in early 2008. However the vendor brought in various key channel
initiatives in the last year. For marketing development funds, Dell has
allowed partners to use Campaign Builder for better content and quicker
implementation. The Voluntary Concessions programme allows partners
with outdated inventory to lower costs.
The Smart price list offers fixed configurations, at fixed prices with
unique identifiers and volume discounts across the product portfolio.
This price list is the single source for competitive pricing, and allows
distributors to order and match their inventory codes with Dell SPL ID
numbers.
Systems and hardware vendor of the year
Dell Middle East
Aptec operates across Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan, Turkey,
Azerbaijan and Morocco. It completed thirty years of operation in
the year 2010. It initiated advanced logistical services in the UAE,
Saudi Arabia and Egypt dedicated to IT, telecom and electronics
industry. It uses Altair fleet management and tracking devices to
manage its vehicle movements.
Its revenue grew by 14% in 2010 over the previous year. The last
twelve months saw it receiving various recognitions including Microsoft
highest OEM distribution revenue of the year; highest commercial
distribution revenue of the year to Aptec Saudi; HP distributor of the year;
best distributor of the year by Linksys; and D-link distributor of the year
awards.
Aptec also added new tie-ups to its portfolio. It is now an authorised
ME distributor for Avaya enterprise. It is also regional distributor
for Cisco, which allows it to offer the full portfolio across ME and other
emerging markets.
Aptec focused on its main deliverables for resellers: value technology,
value services, and value delivery.
IT distributor of the year
Aptec Holding
38 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
FDC considers itself to be a house of brands. These include Lenovo,
Acer, Packard Bell, Asus for notebooks; ECS, Asus, Asrock, Intel for
motherboard; Seagate, WD for hard disk drives; XFX, Asus, Palit,
ECS for graphic cards; Liteon, Sony for ODD; Kingston, Apacer for
Memory; Intel, AMD for CPU and Kaspersky for security.
It received various recognitions over the last twelve months including
AMD Award: Elite Fusion Partner 2011; AMD award: FDC as premier
member of the AMD Fusion Partner Programme 2010; Inter Regional
Award Winner: Intel Solution Summit 2011.
FDC supports its channel partners by having dedicated in country
account managers looking after sales, service, replacements and
warehousing. This ensures pending issues get resolved without delay.
There is also a centralised contact centre for consolidation of pending
reseller issues.
FDC has a preferred four point-programme for its channel partners.
Members get preferential status for marketing support, pricing, rebates
and allocation of stock.
Sales and technical staff from channel partners receive regular
vendor and technology training from FDC.
Components distributor of the year
FDC International
During the year Westcon’s Cisco division won the Cisco UAE
distributor of the year award; regional distributor of the year
award for its Africa and Levant operations; and global distributor
of the year award at the Cisco Partner Summit, 2011. As part
of the continuing relationship with Cisco it received exclusive
distributorship of Cisco Tele Presence and Iron Port.
Westcon believes its resellers go through a six-step cycle in any end-
user engagement. This includes preparation, approach, discovery, solution
design, presentation and implementation.
It therefore offers various real-world, analytical, online and email
based tools for every stage. These include WebTrack, FastTrack,
MailVision, SolutionsBase, ServiceVantage, Current Analysis, E-Business
Compass.
To ensure larger success for its channel community it has expanded
its support across the full six-stage sales and implementation cycle. The
support includes: Credit as a service, around finance; Marketing as a
service, around go-to-market activities; and Annuity tracker, for renewable
licenses.
Networking distributor of the year
Westcon Middle East
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 41
During the year FVC received various vendor recognitions. From
Polycom it received Partner of the Year for the MENA region;
and Competitive Knock-Out Award at EMEA level, for replacing
competitive products with Polycom in one of the leading telcos
in the GCC region. The company was recognised by nCircle as
Partner of the Year for 2010 in EMEA.
FVC entered into a partnership with du to set up a video network
operations centre. The key offering is video as a managed service and
to move it from a capital purchase to an operating expense for potential
customers. FVC is in various initiatives to replicate this model with other
regional telecos. This offering is built around Polycom’s open visual
communication initiative.
The business strategy is built around various drivers including:
demand creation for emerging technologies, enablement through
education and development of technical competence through training.
As an extension of the above, it has created a dedicated support
programme for specialised resellers built around related attributes:
demand creation, differentiation and profitability. The programme is
called CHEER for channel enablement, empowerment and rewards. The
programme also has a back-end CRM to support lead generation.
FVC, Inc
Specialised distributor of the year
Optimus Technology and Telecommunications
Over the last year, Optimus doubled the number of channel
partners; started ventures in Afghanistan and Pakistan;
opened inventory of goods in Qatar and Egypt; enhanced
credit management and cash flow; increased the size of local
technical and sales teams in UAE, Qatar, KSA, Pakistan and
Egypt; conducted certification and training programmes; and launched
new products from security, information, storage data and convergence
technologies into its channel.
Optimus claims to be a distributor that has executed the value model
across multiple regions. Optimus 360 is meant to encapsulate the full
portfolio of value addition for its reseller community. This includes sales
and marketing support, lead generation, centralised pre-sales help desk,
bid support services, professional services support desk, training services,
logistics support services with multi-country local stocking, financial
support services
The distributor provides a single window for its resellers to access a
broad portfolio of infrastructure technology and telecom solutions.
Value added distributor of the year
42 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Across 2010-11, the distributor created a reseller profiling
programme based on the strengths of the reseller, available
market opportunity and strengths and weakness of vendor
technologies. The partner profile summary is shared with
Computerlinks’ professional services team and a gap analysis
report is generated.
Training programmes are planned out on the basis of this gap
analysis and further developed into growth opportunities for each
reseller across finance, education, teleco, e-governance and other
vertical markets.
Computerlinks and partner vendors support the cost towards
training and certification, business development and long term growth
of specific reseller partners. This brings a better understanding between
the distributor and its reseller community, which Computerlinks believes
is its unique value-add in the region.
Another initiative is the facility of virtual proof of concepts called
“demo on demand”. This is a service where demonstration or proof of
concept videos are hosted or sent via e-mail as embedded files and
give the reseller a virtual hands-on of the technology or product.
Software and security distributor of the year
Computerlinks
During 2010-11, Logicom was awarded the Highest Sales
Revenue Award 2010 by Linksys; and Microsoft OEM
Readiness Champion Award. Along with its portfolio of
primary vendors including Microsoft, Cisco, HP, the firm also
added Hitachi, Belkin and Adobe.
It is implemented Microsoft CRM to manage its sales requests
and transactions with resellers and has developed an online portal for
booking orders. It expanded its warehouse facility in Dubai by 7,000
sqm to increase the size of its inventory reducing lead times for its
resellers. It will further expand its warehouse area in 2012.
Technology training for its reseller partners is conducted under
“Logicom Technology Forum”, which is a regular monthly training
workshop. The forums also involve customer interactions and the
distributor has completed ten of these events in 2010-11.
It is leveraging on its key relationships with HP and Cisco.
Peripherals distributor of the year
Logicom
www.iomega.com
©2011 Iomega Corporation, Iomega, ScreenPlay and the Stylized “i” are registered trademarks or trademarks of Iomega Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Certain other product names, brand names and company names or designations of their respective owners.
Access & stream Internet content on your TV!Non-stop entertainment is now yours with the Iomega® ScreenPlay® DX HD Media Players. Access videos, movies, photos and music on the Internet and enjoy it all on your own large screen TV in full 1080p high definition. With the ScreenPlay DX HD Media Player you can save up 2TB of digital content. The ScreenPlay TV Link DX is an easy and convenient way to view digital content stored on a USB drive and watch it on your TV.
• Crystal clear quality with 1080p HD
• Extensive audio and video format support
• DLNA Certified® for easy streaming
• WiFi adapter and full QWERTY remote included
ScreenPlay® DX HD Media Player
ScreenPlay DX Media Player ad_217x280.indd 1 2011-05-27 11.21
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 45
Help AG, an enterprise security reseller had a growth rate of over
100% in 2010-11 and increased its customer base by 60%. It’s
customer base typically consists of companies or establishment
with over a thousand users. The product portfolio includes
over 15 vendor solutions built around the data centre and new
technologies like web application firewalls and advanced malware
protection.
In 2010, help AG signed on new vendors including Palo Alto,
Sourcefire and Fire Eye. Currently help AG is the only authorised
service partner and training centre in the Middle East for Palo Alto and
in a short span has already received the MENA Partner of the Year
award.
Help AG was also presented Partner of the Year award, based on
their strength in the enterprise security area and professional services,
by Symantec in 2010. Further the vendor recommended these services
to their enterprise customer base. After Symantec’s acquisition of PGP,
help AG is the only master specialised PGP partner in the Middle East.
Revenue from Symantec’s portfolio grew 500% over the previous year.
help AG
Enterprise reseller of the year
Last year revenues grew by 15% for Accent Office Supplies. It is a
reseller for APC, Canon consumables and HP products. It is an
active member of the Dubai Computer Traders Group.
With the group, Accent has actively pitched to initiate a credit
rating system for all trading partners. It has also been active in anti-
counterfeit initiatives in conjunction with vendors like Epson, Canon and
HP.
Its customer portfolio includes Emirates Bank, Emaar, Dubai
Properties, Majid Al Futtaim Group and others. In recognition of its close
business association with vendors and annual sales performance, Accent
has received awards from Canon and various nominations with HP.
In line with growing consumer sales through the retail sector, it has
opened a retail store front in Dubai. It offers a range of laptops through its
retail outlet.
SMB and consumer reseller of the year
Accent Office Supplies Trading
46 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Our solutions + your customers = great business!
Global sourcing - local supportIn a world of technologies, focusing on the ones that deliver benefit is good for your business. That’s why FVC partners with global IT leaders to bring the most effective, most transformative products and technologies to you, our channel. From telepresence to network traffic management, WAN optimisation to information security, we’re the leading VAD in MENA,supporting products with logistics, implementation and training. Let us be your partner of choice for tomorrow.
X-cite by Alghanim has seen its repeat customer visits move to at least
six times per year. Instead of adopting a sell-sell approach inside
its stores, this super retailer has tried to move towards increasing
shopping value as a differentiator.
Some of the differentiators across its stores include running a
Facebook page; in-store, on-the-spot approval of easy instalment pay-backs;
sponsoring popular events like Nancy Ajram concert, Cirque du Soleil and
Moscow Circus with complementary tickets for shoppers; look and touch
product experience across its outlets; monitored check-out delay times for
customers; home consultancy through personal sales visits reducing lead
time for consumer IT purchases.
Other initiatives include pro-active extended warranty programmes
over the full range of smartphones and IT products; setup and configure IT
products after purchase thereby reducing post purchase hitches; flexible
goods return policy; 24 hour, seven days a week, working hours for primary
outlets; phone order booking; multi-lingual trained shop floor staff; and used
goods swap-deals for gaming consoles and smartphones.
X-cite, which is the largest electronics retailer in Kuwait, trades in 4,000
different IT items, and across its entire portfolio 15,000 unique items from 300
brands.
Super retailer of the year
X-cite by Alghanim Electronics
GBM has a long standing relationship with Cisco. It has been
recognised by Cisco for customer satisfaction excellence and
given Gold partner status for eight continuous years. Based on its
consistent implementation performance, Cisco has also awarded
GBM, Public Sector partner and Service Partner of the year awards
for UAE.
However GBM is also moving towards a multi vendor portfolio. It has
relationships with Juniper Networks; Mettoni solutions including Datapulse,
Arc Solutions, Exxcom; Aeroscout; Riverbed; Leviton; iST and others.
It has opened a network operations centre in Dubai to remotely manage
and monitor customers’ IT infrastructure. In addition to the monitoring
function, it has a help desk for network support functions. GBM has a
large number of Cisco certified engineers across various specialisations
including Cisco Certified Internet, Advanced Security, Advanced Unified
Communications, Advanced Wireless LAN, Advanced Routing and Switching,
Advanced Data Centre Networking Infrastructure, Cisco Advanced
Technology Provider in Telepresence, Outdoor Wireless Mesh and Video
Surveillance.
Systems integrator of the year
Gulf Business Machines, GBM
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 49
In late 2010, Microsoft reworked its partner network programme
removing the previous Gold, Certified and Registered levels of
membership to just two including Gold and Silver competency. It also
created specialisations with regard to user maturity levels and its own
technology delivery platforms.
The user specialisations include Application Integration, Business
Intelligence, Customer Relationship Management, Data Platform,
Enterprise Resource Planning, Independent Software Vendor, OEM
Hardware and Unified Communications. Microsoft customer facing
platforms include cloud computing, Office 2010, servers, Office 365 and
Windows Intune.
However the main reasons for the restructuring was they were
aligned by Microsoft’s technology deliveries and not end-user approach
to the market. That has now been reworked and partners have till
October 2011 to complete their migration.
The qualification for Silver competency partner network programme
includes the following: two Microsoft Certified Professionals, one
individual with Microsoft Licensing overview assessment, one individual
with online Sales and Marketing competency assessment, three customer
references and payment of annual membership fees.
Microsoft Gulf
Best partner excellence, vendor
Redington Gulf achieved revenue of $1.31 billion in 2009-10 and has
4,900 channel partners across the region. It operates out of 23
offices and employees 800 people. It is an offshoot of its Indian
parent Redington India Ltd.
It has 40 service centres across the region and supports 35
brands including Aastra, Acer, APC, Ascom, Asus, Avaya, Canon, Cisco,
Check Point, Coral Telecom, Dell, Epson, Fujitsu, HP, Juniper, Imation,
Lenovo, Molex, NComputing, Nokia, Packard bell, RedHat, Samsung,
Sandisk, Seagate, Sonicwall, Sony, Symantec, Toshiba, Trend Micro,
Tripplite, Western Digital.
It is a preferred partner for all of its vendors and resellers and has an
average relationship of ten years with them. To ride out the recession,
Redington increased interactions with its partners as well as the service
standard across its centres. Redington believes after-sales support is a
key factor in driving sales in depressed market conditions and creates a
win-win scenario for its partners.
The distributor also increased its inventory levels across 2010,
leading to quicker supply chain movement. Typically this was less than
24 hours for retail customers in the UAE; and less than 72 hours for retail
customers in the GCC.
Redington Gulf
Best partner excellence, distributor
50 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Microsoft Partner of the Year
For the second consecutive year, ALMOAYYED Computers has won the Microsoft Partner of the Year
Award.
This reaffirms our position as a market leader and is confirmation of our excellence in innovation and
implementation of Microsoft based technology.
For over three decades, we have been the partner of choice for the region's government organizations and MNC's. We're proud to continue to serve them with a spirit of
excellence.
First Bahraini ICT Companyto win Channel Middle East Award
Ranked among ACN's Top System Integrators in the Middle East
Lee Reynolds calls himself a “get the job done”, hard working guy,
with ambition and drive to succeed. His experience has taken him to
over 35 countries and most parts of the world. His forte is consulting
on IPO’s; worldwide channel strategies for IT vendors; starting a new
venture from scratch; running and developing business from the top.
Give him any of these assignments and Reynolds with his drive and
enthusiasm is going to make a difference. He works best in organisations
that are dynamic, challenging and most of all rewarding. His business
qualities: creating, managing, leading and selling.
He set up Fusion Distribution a value added distributor operating in the
Middle East market which was subsequently acquired by Computerlinks
Group in 2007. Today as Managing Director he looks after Computerlinks
MEA and APAC based out of Dubai.
His main activity is group expansion and has set up offices in
Johannesburg, Singapore and Sydney. Prior to that Reynolds worked at
IT ConX marketing. He has engineering honours from Sheffield Hallam
University.
Lee Reynolds
outstanding executive, IT channel
Madhav Narayan is currently working at Samsung Electronics as
Regional Director, Enterprise Business. As part of the senior
management team, he developed and implemented the distribution
strategy to drive growth of IT products within the ME markets.
This included market analysis, strategic planning, sales
forecasting, distribution channel development, solution selling, and new
product roll-out. He also recruited, built and today manages the high-
performance team to run this operation.
Samsung notebooks, is now the fastest growing brand in the consumer
IT segment reaching the top positions in Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Narayan
expects the overall product performance to be three times better than the
previous year.
Narayan also launched other product categories including laser
printers, large format display and external storage and brought them to
the top positions in the Middle East consumer markets. In order to achieve
this he established and developed operations in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and
Jordan.
Prior to joining Samsung, Narayan worked at Dell UAE from 2003 as
regional manager, for the dynamic home and small business segment. He
drove the business from scratch to reach the $250 million figure in a period
of three years and led Dell to the top position in Saudi Arabia. Narayan
also displayed fast-track performance at Redington Gulf from 1994 to 2003
bringing it amongst the top three players of the region.
Madhav Narayan
outstanding executive, IT channel
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 53
Asbis operates across Europe, Middle East and Africa as a “one-stop-
shop" for a wide range of hardware and software products. While it
claims to be a specialist in emerging markets, a key geographical
focus is UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the other Gulf countries.
Asbis’ range of products includes IT components meant for
local and export assemblers, system integrators and retailers, as well as
Level-I vendor products like desktop, laptops, servers and networking
products.
The hardware product portfolio includes Intel, AMD, Seagate, Toshiba,
Dell, Lenovo, Sapphire, AOC, Gainward, Lexmark, Foxconn. The software
product portfolio includes AVG, ESET, Symantec, Acronis, Promise and
Ability Software. For accessories, Asbis owns brands Prestigio and
Canyon, which it distributes through its retail network.
At the EMEA Channel Awards at Monaco in the first quarter of 2011,
Asbis won the best distributor award for North Arica and Middle East with
41% of the live votes.
Asbis Middle East
Reader’s choice, distributor
AMD follows “customer-centric innovation,” and it represents the
guiding principle. AMD does not underestimate the value of partner
collaboration. Close relationships with distributors and resellers are
its top priorities
In 2009, AMD introduced the Fusion partner programme, with
the aim to provide channel partners with tailored tools and resources to
help support sales. AMD’s product portfolio includes GPUs, CPUs, chipsets
and AMD Fusion family of APUs.
The AMD Fusion partner programme has various areas of benefits
including training through AMD academy, support for partner events and
demand generation marketing campaigns. Partner programmes include
Elite, Premier and Select.
Examples of the training programmes include: AMD Opteron Processor
Architecture and its components; AMD64 Software Architecture Course;
x86 Online Training Course; Intro x86 Architecture eLearning Course; x86
Instruction Set Architecture book; Book and Video about HyperTransport 3.
By combing its four existing partner programmes into one, AMD aims to
effectively focus on supporting the sales process for all AMD solutions.
AMD also has an innovation competition amongst its developers. The
OpenCL innovation challenge is to encourage development of applications
requiring massive vector operations like game physics, facial recognition,
voice recognition, video searching, video stabilisation and others. Prize
money starts at $20,000.
Reader’s choice, vendor
Advanced Micro Devices, AMD
54 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 55
WATCH OVER YOUR DATA
STORE. SHARE. PROTECT.
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
Netgear readynas EYE ad copy.pdf 1 6/27/2011 6:40:54 PM
56 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
An independent four-member jury panel sorted
through close to 200 nominations to select 25
award winners
guy Whitcroft, NED SolutionsWhitcroft has previously been principal consultant
with CapitalSteps, Group COO of Aptec, and
held a C-level role at MB Technologies. He has a
unique understanding of the IT channel industry
with four decades of experience. He has played a
role as vendor, distributor, reseller and end-user.
Credited with the growth of Tarsus Technologies-
MB Technologies from a small niche distributor to
South Africa's largest distribution group, Guy has a
strong focus on the top and bottom line and what's
required to achieve success.
vasudevan KS, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Satvik IncThis is a new age research and analytics solutions
provider, with capabilities in consulting oriented
solutions in research and business analytics,
marketing intelligence and mobility solutions.
Vasudevan comes with multi-functional and multi-
industry experience by virtue of working in strategic
roles with Samsung and Sanyo focusing major part
of his career in the Middle East.
During his 17 years of executive stint in UAE,
Vasudevan has played various management
roles including sales, marketing, HR, commercial
finance, logistics, PR, legal, corporate and strategic
management issues. He has extensively travelled in
the Middle East, African continent and CIS countries.
Khaled Kamel, Partner at Maham Management Consulting Prior to Maham, Kamel has worked for two years
as the Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan Regional
Managing Director at Lenovo. Before that Khaled
was Country Manager for HP in Saudi Arabia, HP
business development manager for large format
printers in the Middle-East, and sales manager for all
IPG products in the Middle-East. Prior to joining HP
he worked for distributors and resellers of software
and hardware vendors including AutoDesk HP
and IBM. Khaled currently lives in the United Arab
Emirates and offers consultancy and senior level
coaching and training all over the Middle East and
Africa region.
Samer Karawi, Managing Partner G&KThis is a consulting firm focusing on providing
American and European ICT companies with
business development services in the Middle East.
This also includes selection of appropriate channel
partners, recruitment, training, enablement and
sales and marketing support. Prior to this, Samer
worked for over 25 years in major multinational IT
companies in various capacities and has experience
in both European and Middle East markets. Samer
holds a bachelor degree in Computer Science and a
master degree in marketing from France. //
JURY PANEL, RESELLER awards 2011
In its 2010 global report on security software Gartner has ranked
Kasperksy Lab as one of the fastest growing vendors. In terms of
revenue it is now amongst the top ten globally. The top five positions
are occupied by Symantec, Mcafee, Trend Micro, IBM and EMC.
In terms of Euro revenue growth, Kaspersky Lab grew by 49% in
the consumer segment, and 37% in the enterprise segment - an indication
of the demand for its solutions across these segments. EMEA is the
vendor’s largest market globally, with Asia Pacific and North America
following next.
Products within the security market are undergoing rapid evolution, in
terms of both new delivery models — with security as a service showing
increasing popularity — and new technologies being introduced, often by
start up companies.
The products for the retail and small office segment include,
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011, Kaspersky Internet Security 2011, Kaspersky
Pure and Kaspersky Small Office Security 2. The products for the
corporate segment include Kaspersky Open Space Security and
Kaspersky Administration Kit 8.0.
Kasperky operates through a 100% indirect sales model. The channel
programme has three kinds of direct partners, consumer republishing,
value added distribution and enterprise partner. It has five types of indirect
partners: sub-distributor, premier retail reseller, premier business reseller,
trusted reseller and authorised reseller. A premier retail reseller is the
most trusted and valued type of partner.
Editor’s choice
Kaspersky Lab
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 57
FEATURESupplies and consumables
Lexmark now has a universal ink jet cartridge which fits all models in operation. Medmark and its resellers only need to stock the Vizix 100, multi-color box cartridge for the ink jet printer range.
58 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Pay as you goAfter sales contracts based on printed pages are an important source of recurring revenue
Sometime back george Saliba, Sales
Manager of lexmark’s distribution partner-
Medmark, carried around a circular
handy-guide to figure out, which cartridge
fitted into which ink jet printer. inventory
management was complicated and
Medmark and its resellers were required to
carry stocks of all ink cartridges that were in
demand, along with the handy guide.
Since 2010 Lexmark has downsized the
number of ink jet printer models. In parallel it
reengineered it’s versatile ink cartridges and
brought the number of variations downs to
the smallest possible number, that is “one”.
Lexmark now has a universal ink jet
cartridge which fits all models in operation.
Medmark and its resellers only need to stock
the Vizix 100, multi-color box cartridge for the
ink jet printer range. The Vizix cartridge has
four box slots for four inks and each can be
replaced based on the consumption cycle.
While Lexmark has been able to
reengineer its ink cartridges, HP still
maintains it’s range of multiple cartridge
options. Says HP’s Ernest Azzam, Business
Manager, Laserjet and Enterprise solutions:
“It’s easy to do that when you have a small
portfolio of products. But when you have a
huge portfolio of products you cannot limit
yourself to one model of cartridge.”
Another reason why HP has not adopted
the cartridge optimisation route is because
part of the inkjet printing mechanism is
maintained inside its cartridge. Lexmark on
the other hand has moved the entire printing
head into its printers thereby reducing the
footprint of the cartridge.
However Azzam points out that a family
of ink jet printers uses the same cartridge
and the cartridges only vary based on the
family of printers. The other variation HP has
brought into its inkjet supplies is a volume
based size variation. Cartridges are available
based on duty cycles for light and heavy
users.
Another initiative taken by Lexmark was
to get out of the single function, low end ink
jet market space. “Beginning 2010, Lexmark
decided to stop single function inkjet printers
and focus on multi-function printers,” says
Medmark’s Saliba.
However the most innovative ink
cartridge in the market is Xerox’s Cartridge-
free solid ink. This is a wax based, ink block
that has four different shapes to match four
different colour slots in its range of solid ink
printers. The ink block has no exterior frame,
fits into one of the slots in the printer even
during running operations, is bio degradable
and has little waste residue after usage.
On the super retail store front, ink jet and
laser printer cartridges, play another role.
Supplies are stocked next to printers and
take up shelf space. “A lot of this is to create
brand awareness,’ says Jacky’s CEO Ashish
Panjabi. The right display of supplies can
improve the appeal of the shelved products.
Availability of supplies helps to bring the
customer to the store, keeps the cycle
running, does not take up a huge space and
gives a fair return.
“If you don’t have it, you lose the
customer to somebody else,” points out
Panjabi and he would much rather continue
shelving supplies rather than discontinue
them.
For HP, its print hardware distributors in
the Gulf, excluding Saudi Arabia, are Jumbo
Electronics, Emitac, Redington, Metra, while
Despec does only supply distribution. From
a distributor point of view, the business of
print supplies is about keeping availability
of stocks. If resellers have to use multiple
distributors to complete sourcing supplies,
they will not return. Says Azzam: “Supplies is
a different ball game from hardware.”
the annuity game plan
When inkjet printers were initially launched,
printing vendors dropped the cost of
hardware and proportionately increased
the cost of supplies. The idea was to obtain
a profitable return from the total cost of
ownership, across the life of the printer, while
reducing the barriers of an initial higher
product price.
However the casualty of this novel
Support services are proactive based on network alerts from contracted equipment. The billing pattern is similar to utility consumption, “pay as you go.”
LEfT PAGE: Optimised inventory for supplies and consumables, George Saliba, Sales Manager, Medmark
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 59
approach was the single function inkjet
printer, usually with a price point equal to
a single cartridge, which did not have the
robustness to live out its calculated life span
and hence was not a viable product.
In today’s SME and enterprise world
of multifunction printer models, the idea of
continuing returns from the sale of supplies
and service maintenance still has a strong
win-win appeal.
“For a customer it is not necessarily
the initial purchase of the box, but ongoing
support and services and security of
knowing somebody has the spares to fix it
in a timely manner, that is most important,”,
says Andrew Hurt, General Manager, Xerox
Emirates.
Xerox which has been in Gulf operations
since 1985 has classically followed a 100%
direct sales model. It is only with the recent
expansion of the market, it has started
developing indirect channels in the Gulf.
Xerox’s game plan: channel partners who sell
the equipment should also sell out annuity
services including supplies and uptime of the
equipment.
“If we sell a machine, we want to ensure
that we protect the service of the machine
and revenue by providing a comprehensive
service contract,” explains Hurt. The only
minor difference, Hurt calls it page-packs
and likens it to the recharge vouchers for
air time.
Based on the customer’s machine and
the type of printing volume, page packs
gets the customer a pre-determined number
of print impressions. In other words the
customer is covered for a number of print
impressions inclusive of supplies and uptime
of the equipment. Once the page-pack is
complete, they call the supplier for a fresh
purchase.
This cycle allows the channel partner
to keep engaging with a customer after the
purchase of the equipment, through page
packs or annuity contracts.
For the annuity contracts, the support
services are provided by Xerox’s team by
default. More than one third of Xerox’s staff
work at customer sites providing support. The
channel partner after obtaining the contracts
would sub-contract the support requirement
back to Xerox. All prices for such vendor sub-
contracting are given to the channel partner
before-hand.
However, the channel partner has the
flexibility to decide whether to adopt the sub-
contracting route and depend on the parent
vendor while keeping a light shop or retain
the customer fees in full and reinvest it into
their own support services.
In light of the second approach, Hurt has
invested in training rooms and instructors at
Xerox’s Dubai hub. “While Xerox is a world
recognised brand, it does require us to train
the partners on the value proposition, and it
requires a continuum in order to maintain the
standards of your partner.”
Hurt is also working out more customer-
friendly post-sales contracts to ensure there
is no slow down in services revenue from
channel partners. As per global averages, the
ratio of supplies and service revenue across
the five year life span of a printer, versus the
hardware cost of the printer is 2:1. Hence the
annuity income is a significant part of Xerox’s
total global revenue.
From a Lexmark point of view, “the ink
cartridge helps to recover the cost of the
printer. Profit is coming from consumables
and supplies. Even with the new range of
multifunction inkjet printers, cost of supplies
covers the cost of hardware,” says Saliba.
Managed print services
A standard annuity contract is reactive —
service responses are as per SLA in the
annuity contract. However there is a more
innovative variation of this support service
called managed print services. Equipment is
pre-selected, optimised and deployed after
a business processes audit is completed.
Support services are proactive based on
network alerts from contracted equipment.
FEATURESupplies and consumables
Encouraging corporate policy against counterfeits, Ernest Azzam, Business Manager, LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions, HP
Based on the customer’s machine and the type of printing volume, page packs gets the customer a pre-determined number of print impressions.
Multiple competing printers; mismatched work cycles and functionality; security concerns; inter-dependability of fax, email and scanning means there is an opportunity to streamline business processes and document management.
60 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
The billing pattern is similar to utility
consumption, “pay as you go.”
While not directly linked to consumables
and supplies, the opportunity of print
management allows vendors to enter
the enterprise workflow space. Multiple
competing printers; mismatched work
cycles and functionality; security concerns;
inter-dependability of fax, email and
scanning means there is an opportunity to
streamline business processes and document
management.
However the minimum success
factors are good understanding of the
customer’s vertical markets, understanding
of the customer’s business processes and
competency in vendor solutions.
Says HP’s Azzam: “We have software
solutions which range from security to print
feed to document management, which
require certain expertise to sell these
specific solutions. Managed print service is
not about the product anymore, it’s about
the prints.”
Says Hurt: “IT spending is under control,
payroll is under control, marketing is under
control, but an area of business that is not
under control is document production.”
For such an out of control customer
situation, Xerox will send a dedicated
business process outsourcing team to
look at the document life cycle within an
organisation. The initial discussions do not
start with equipment specifications. They start
with the portfolio of Xerox’s managed print
services and how they fit in with customer’s
business processes.
Xerox uses Lean Six Sigma and green or
black belt certified consultants to complete
this audit followed by its recommendations.
Traditionally key market segments for
Xerox across the region include healthcare,
education, financial services, graphic arts and
construction.
grey markets and counterfeit
An ink or laser toner cartridge built as per
vendor specifications follows strict quality
compliances. You take into consideration
toner materials, safety of the user, safety of
the printer and safety of the environment. All
these add up to a minimum defined cost for
FEATURESupplies and consumables
Contribution of print supplies, services towards total revenue
vendor global revenue 2010 ($ billion) % remark
Total Annuity, suppliesservices
HP 25.8 Not listed x IPG, net profit 17.1%
Canon 24.5 Not listed xOffice business unit,
operating profit 14.8%
Xerox 21.6 17.1 79%Consolidated, operating
profit 34.4%
Ricoh 19.3 Not listed xImaging and Solutions,operating profit 9.2%
Lexmark 4.0 2.9 73%Consolidated, operating
profit 36.2%
Source: Annual reports 2010
With declining profit margins on hardware all vendors are moving towards enhanced
services to beef up both top-line and bottom-line margins. As per 2010 balance
sheet figures, supplies and print services are already an important component of revenue
for Xerox and Lexmark.
For Xerox which is dominantly a direct services company, pulling in channel partners,
as it moves from a direct sales model towards more of an indirect sales model, to drive its
annuity and managed services business is the current challenge.
For HP which uses a 100% indirect sales model, mobilising its channel partners to sell
more annuity and managed services as a value add, while managing support services from
within the channel itself, is the current challenge.
Note: Graphics are meant to be representative only.
62 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Services led technology company, Andrew Hurt, General Manager, Xerox Emirates
Xerox’s game plan: channel partners who sell the equipment should also sell out annuity services including supplies and uptime of the equipment.
n HP recycled 120,000 tons of electronic
products and supplies in 2008. In 2011 it
wants to triple the figure based on 2007
volume. To date, HP has recycled more
than 2 billion pounds of hardware and print
cartridges globally.
n HP’s Planet Partners recycling programme
began in 1991 for Laserjet toner cartridges.
In 1997 it was expanded to include inkjet
cartridges and today it includes any brand
of IT equipment. To date it has received and
recycled 319 million laser and inkjet
cartridges.
n HP has recycling solutions available in more
than 50 countries and regions. 75 Laserjet
toner cartridges or 1,000 Inkjet cartridges
can be packed per air freight pallet. It has
manufactured 555 million inkjet cartridges
from the recycling programme.
n HP reduced the weight of inkjet cartridge
packing by more than 40% in 2009. This
allows 100% more units to be packed in the
same truckload and reduces carbon dioxide
units by 1.7 million pounds.
n Xerox began supporting recycled paper
in 1973 and educating customers on proper
paper use and energy-saving tips.
n Xerox remanufacturing has given new life
to the equivalent of more than 2.6 million
copiers, printers, and multifunction systems,
while diverting hundreds of millions of
kilograms of potential waste from landfills.
n Xerox operations worldwide conform to the
Xerox Ozone Depleting Substances Policy
established in 1992 that prohibits ODS from
all Xerox processes, products, and services.
n Xerox has reduced air emission from
facilities 93% from 1991 levels.
n Winter temperatures in Xerox manufacturing
facilities cool production processes rather
than using massive air conditioners.
n Xerox creates products with increased
reliability reducing the kilometres service
technicians have to drive each day to
customer sites.
The green printers
an original supplies product.
A counterfeit product by nature is meant
to be well below such a defined price and
therefore violates many of the safety criteria
in an original product. Usage of such a
product will annul the warranty of the printer.
Printers and cartridges are smart devices
today and link up with each other through
unique IDs, creating an audit trail.
An original ink or toner cartridge, selling
well below the recommended price in a
market, which has been brought in through a
non-regulated inbound route, is another type
of challenge. If a reseller chooses to trade
in such a grey market product and dumps
the official distributor quota in favour of
such a deal, there will be a shortfall of target
volumes as well as reduced rebates and
discounts. The reseller will find themselves
with reduced margins and higher costs.
Finally a corporate counterfeit policy is
a policy of actively avoiding any possible
purchase of such products. The policy
should give guidelines on where to buy, how
to inspect, how to monitor products within
the company and finally safe disposal of
the cartridge. According to Azzam, 72% of
companies in the region have no such policy
in place. //
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 63
Dimensions 270x150x12 mm; Weight 480gm; Display Size 10.1”; resolution
1024 x 600 pixels; Display technology t Ft lCD capacitive multi touch
screen; Screen rotation 4 way g-sensor; CPu ArM Cortex A8 1 gHz by texas
instruments; Power lithium Polymer Battery; Battery life Audio up to 36h,
video 7h, web 10h; OS Android 2.2 Froyo; Keyboard Android 2.2 soft; WiFi
802.11b/g/n; Bluetooth 2.1 EDr; Memory 256MB DDr; internal Flash 8gB;
Expansion Slots microSD Card; Other interfaces uSB2.0 highspeed port, uSB
host; HDMi output, 3.5mm Earphone; Audio Speakers & microphone built-in;
Camera Front, vgA, inCluDES High quality earphones; uSB cable; Quick
Start guide; legal and safety notice; Power charger; Warranty card
Dimensions 161x213x11mm;
Weight 490gm; Display
Size 8.4”; resolution
800 X 600 pixels;
Display technology
tFt lCD resistive touch
screen, Screen rotation
4 way g-sensor; CPu ArM
11 660MHz CPu with hardware
video acceleration DSP; Power lithium
Polymer Battery; Battery life 4000mAh; OS
Android 2.1 Eclair; Keyboard Android soft; WiFi
802.11b/g; Memory 256MB DDr, nAnD Flash 4gB;
Expansion Slots SD Card (up to 16gB); Other interfaces
uSB2.0 high speed port; 3.5mm Earphone, Speakers Stereo,
built-in; inCluDES uSB cable and power adapter, Stylish
leather pouch, Quick guide, Warranty card
PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
the integral Xpression
uSB range is available in
a variety of fun designs
that stand out from
multitude of plain black,
blue and silver uSBs
in use. new ‘music’
and ‘animal’ Xpression
collections join the
popular Xpression
“pattern collection” that
have had success with
fashion conscious users.
XPRESSION FLASh dRIVE
News
PRESTIgIO MULTIPAd PMP3084B
PRESTIgIO MULTIPAd PMP7100C
64 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
the geForce gtX 560M graphics
processor hits the “sweet spot” for
gaming notebooks by delivering gaming
experience at full 1080p resolution. OEMs
will also be offering geForce gtX gaming
gPus with nvidia Optimus technology.
The GeForce GTX 560M and Nvidia
Optimus mean gamers get 50 frames per
second in Duke Nukem Forever and five
hours of battery life in Microsoft Office.
Available only with Nvidia GPUs, Nvidia
Optimus technology enables extra-long
battery life by automatically switching on
and off the GPU so that it runs only when
needed.
The convenience of Nvidia Optimus
technology is designed into over 80 percent
of GeForce 500M Series notebooks and is
used by major notebook OEMs.
For thin-and-light notebooks, Nvidia
also refreshed its entry-level GeForce
GT 500M GPUs with the arrival of the
new GeForce GT 520MX GPU. Alienware
and Toshiba will be offering notebooks
featuring GeForce GTX 560M and Optimus
technology. ASUS, Clevo, MSI, Medion and
others will be offering notebooks featuring
GeForce GTX 560M. ASUS, Samsung and
others will be offering notebooks featuring
GeForce GT 520MX.
NVIdIA gEFORCE gTX 560M FOR NOTEBOOk gAMERS
the integral Crypto Dual is a 256-bit AES hardware
encryption uSB flash drive that fulfils the need for
sensitive data to be securely stored on a uSB and
protected from loss or theft.
Crypto Dual features a dual password option so that an
IT administrator can override a user’s password and recover
data if they forget their password or leave the company. The
drive also has dual operating system compatibility, running on both
Windows PCs and Mac.
The Crypto Dual has been independently tested for data encryption by the Federal
Information Processing Standards (FIPS) committee and validated to FIPS 197. The USB
provides mandatory encryption of all files, unprotected files cannot be saved to the Crypto
Dual. The Integral Crypto Dual operates comfortably with endpoint security solutions by
using an embedded unique ID.
Specifications
AES 256-bit hardware encryption; FIPS 197 Validated-Certificate No. 1137; Secure Entry-
data cannot be accessed without the correct high strength alphanumeric 8-16 character
password; Brute-Force Password Attack Protection-data is automatically erased after 6
failed access attempts; Unique number-the USB pin on each drive is etched with a unique
and random 7-digit code; Rugged triple-layer waterproof design-protects the Crypto Dual
against knocks, drops, break-in and submerging in water; Multi-lingual interface.
CRyPTO dUAL dRIVE
hARd dRIVE COPy STATIONthe integral hard drive copy station allows
an identical copy of a computer hard drive to
be made easily, at the touch of a button. it is
a standalone solution with no PC required.
the copy station allows the user to backup
and upgrade a hard drive or switch to a solid
state drive without any fuss.
Specifications
Compatible with 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives;
copy HDD and SSD drives; works as an
external storage device with USB or eSATA
connections; Windows
2000/XP/Vista/7
and Mac OS X
10.1+ compatible
for use as an
external
storage device
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 65
nvidia’s advanced active-shutter technology allows gamers and 3D enthusiasts to access 3D
content including more than 525 full-HD 3D games, Blu-ray 3D movies, and streaming 3D video
from Youtube and 3Dvisionlive.com.
Nvidia’s 3D Vision wired glasses also support more than 65 different 3D Vision monitors,
notebooks, and projectors, giving user flexibility in configuring their 3D Vision PCs.
Nvidia’s 3D Vision wired glasses include a 10-foot USB 2.0 cable for direct, easy connection
to a 3D Vision PC or notebook. This makes it suitable for LAN gaming events and iCafe gaming
centres, as it does not require batteries. The new glasses are at an affordable price of AED 364.
Battery runtimes of up to 18 hours using intel
chipset technology and ultra low-voltage
processors; optional solid state hard drive;
optional second battery fitted in the modular
bay; removable DvD drive; advanced theft
protection; optional fingerprint sensor;
data protection from the optional trusted
platform module; lid made from lightweight
magnesium; shock
sensor that
automatically
disengages
the
mechanical
heads; spill-
resistant
keyboard.
FUjITSU LIFEBOOk P771
NVIdIA 3d VISION wIREd gLASSES
dESkTOP VISUALISER FROM EPSONthe device, essentially a high-
quality 5 megapixel camera
on a rugged, hinged arm, is
designed to help teachers at
primary and secondary schools
effortlessly share 3D objects,
books, experiments and even
living things with classes and also
create multimedia lesson notes.
The large A3 shooting area
means objects don’t need to be
precisely positioned or continually
readjusted, while the buttons
are intuitive. Use the dedicated
buttons to: auto focus;
switch between inputs, PC
or visualiser’s camera; zoom
in and out; take photos; or
record video. Rotating the head of the
arm through 90 degrees to adjust the
camera’s viewpoint is simple too. And
science teachers can easily attach a
microscope to share a close-up view
via the included attachment.
The advanced application
software manages the interactive
functions and multimedia options.
Take still images and record videos or
even watch ice-cream melt at speed
with the time-lapse feature which
captures up to 72 hours.
PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGYNews
66 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
CYQUENT TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANTS launch their �rst Niche Line of business application (BIRetail) on the Cloud Computing platform for the Middle East.
“ With overarching pressures on price & cut throat competition, RETAIL players are beginning to like this RETAIL ready Business Intelligence tool which Cyquent is making available at hardly any cost compared to the savings in terms of predictable
& spot-on decisionmaking. Its RETAIL ready, it’s easy to start (no proof of concepts, no pilots) as it is available on the Cloud i.e. “Software as a Service”, it is business user friendly and is priced very conveniently ” says Praveen Thawani, Director, Cyquent Technology Consultants.
Built for retail: As a Business Intelligence solution that is designed exclusively for retailers‚ BIRetail transforms your data driven decision-making environment. BIRetail analytics covers retail functions across your enterprise – Sales, Inventory, Suppliers, and Customers etc. We are committed to ensuring that at every stage‚ from your supply chain to your stores‚ you bene�t from the approach that comes with BIRetail Solution. It incorporates a wide range of features including reporting‚ analysis‚ dashboards, alerting‚ and monitoring.
Best of Breed Business Intelligence BIRetail is an a�ordable, easy-to-use intuitive Business Intelligence (BI) solution designed from the “ground up” for retailers. It is a complete “BI in a Box” solution – it delivers all the components that make up a Business Intelligence solution including data warehouse, ETL, OLAP, reports, dashboards, KPIs, etc.
Actionable Intelligence
Our innovative solution drives “Pro�t” by providing “Actionable Intelligence” in at least three areas:
Operational intelligence- automated data collection and translation, resource planning, supplier analysis and inventory optimization
Customer intelligence- marketing automation, marketing optimization, and market basket analysis
Inventory intelligence- inventory planning, assortment, size, space, price, promotion, and markdown optimization.
For a free presentation or Demo of BIRETIAL please send your queries to info@cyquent.ae
DECISIONS. POWERED BY INTELLIGENCE
Easy to use Retail Ready Business Intelligence Suite (Cloud Computing Based)
Made for Retail
Single Platform for analysis and Reporting
Pre-Built retail KPI’s
Precon�gured reports
Highly optimized retail algorithms and Standards
Best of Breed BI
Web-Based Environment
Built on SaaS Technology
Full Stack BI Suite
the ZiiSound Dx series of pure wireless
modular speakers includes the flagship
ZiiSound D5x wireless one-piece speaker,
the affordable room-suitable ZiiSound
D3x wireless one-piece speaker and the
extended deep bass ZiiSound DSx wireless
subwoofer.
The speakers can connect
independently to stereo Bluetooth devices
such as iPhone and Blackberry mobiles and
iPad and Creative ZiiO tablets. They can be
connected wirelessly to form a multi-channel
home audio system and feature apt-X audio
technology for sound quality.
Creative’s WP-450, WP-350 and WP-
250 Bluetooth music listening and voice
communication headphones are wireless
companions for smart communication
devices such as iPhone and Android
CREATIVE’S NEw AUdIO wIRELESS RANgE
mobiles. All models come with in-call voice
quality, wireless connectivity and ‘invisible
mic’ built into the earpiece.
Creative ZiiSound D5x wireless modular
speaker AED 1,099; Creative ZiiSound DSx
wireless modular subwoofer AED 499. The
Creative ZiiSound D3x wireless modular
speaker available from September 2011 at
AED 499; Creative D80 wireless speaker
available from June 2011 at AED 169.
The Creative ZEN Style M100 (4GB),
Creative ZEN Style M300 (4GB) and Creative
ZEN Style M300 (8GB) portable media
players available from mid June 2011 at AED
179, AED 219 and AED 269 respectively;
Creative WP-350 headphones available from
June 2011 at AED 349; Creative WP-450
and WP-250 headphones available from
September 2011 AT AED 449 and AED 229
respectively.
TwINMOS X3, A3 USB3.0 FLASh dRIVES
hUAwEI MEdIAPAd
Compared to uSB2.0’s
480Mbps transfer rate,
uSB3.0’s transfer rate
reaches as high as
5gbps. transferring a
20gB high-resolution
video will take less
than 7 minutes.
twinmos drives have
capacity from 8gB to
32gB with energy-
saving modes.
this is a 7-inch Android
3.2 Honeycomb tablet
with Qualcommís dual-core
1.2gHz processor, supported
by Huawei Deviceís Hi-Space
cloud solution and google
Android Market.
The MediaPad supports
HSPA+ data services, Flash 10.3
videos and comes preinstalled
with Facebook, Twitter, Let's Golf and Documents to Go.
With the 7-inch IPS touch screen, the MediaPad offers
visual experience for photos, movies and applications.
Entertainment and gaming features are accessory enabled
through HD playback and HDMI port.
PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGYNews
68 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 69
Excellence in distribution
By o�ering thousands of products from leading IT and Telecommunications manufacturers and a wide range of solutions and services to more than 10,000 resellers in the region, we are the leading and largest Value-Added Distributor in the Middle East, Turkey & Africa.
From o�ces and warehouses in 11 countries, including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, and with more than 650 specialized sta�, Aptec serves over 25 countries. With our regional geographical coverage, extensive customer base and our value added services, we have become the fastest growing distributor in the region. Having been in business for 30 years, when it comes to value added distribution in the region...
we clearly have no competition.
Aptec Distribution FZE LLC P.O.Box 33550, Dubai Internet City, Dubai, UAE Tel: (+971 4) 3697111 Fax: (+971 4) 3697110, email : info@aptecme.com, www.apteconline.com
Aptec Egypt: Tel: (+202) 6444264 / 6355030, Aptec Kuwait-KFTZ: Tel: (+965) 4610280 Ext. 215, Aptec Pakistan: Tel: +9221 2788736, Aptec Lebanon: Tel: (+961) 4718891, Aptec Saudi: Tel: (+966 1) 4601950, Aptec Turkey: Tel: (+90 212) 259 0064.
NetApp123 alte
rego
.ae
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
AptecAD_Review230x275_03JULY11.pdf 1 7/3/11 11:50 AM
Dr nasser Marafih,
who was CEO of Qtel
Qatar, is now CEO of
the Qtel Group, with
responsibility for
driving efficiencies
and growth across all
the group companies.
The role marks
another significant
responsibility for Dr Nasser, who began his
career at Qtel in 1992 as Expert Advisor from
the University of Qatar, and later Strategic
Planning and Development Manager in 1994.
Since becoming CEO in 2002, Dr Nasser
has led Qtel successfully guiding it through
its transformation program and restructuring
of the company in Qatar and across the
region. During Qtel’s international expansion,
Dr Nasser has held the dual roles of Qtel
Qatar CEO and Qtel Group CEO
Sheikh Saud Bin
nasser Al thani, who
was previously
Executive Director of
HR and General
Services, will be CEO
of Qtel Qatar. Sheikh
Saud Bin Nasser Al
Thani joined Qtel in
1990, and, over the
course of 21 years at the company, has gained
a wide range of experience and knowledge
across the business. In his new role, he will
direct operations throughout Qatar.
Sheikh Saud has handled key projects
like the restructuring of the organisation in
1998, the structure review in 2000 and the
job evaluation and compensation review
with Qtel’s auditors KPMG.
Sheikh Saud also sits on the board of
Nawras in Oman, which is part of the Qtel
Group. Through his dual portfolio of HR
and General Services, Sheikh Saud has
developed an understanding of the Qtel
business in Qatar, and has played a key role
in developing new processes for growth,
Qatarisation and human development.
Waleed Al-Sayed, formerly Executive Director
of Customer Services, was named as the new
COO of Qtel Qatar. Joining the company in
1987, Waleed Al-Sayed has held senior roles
across sales, marketing, project management,
business solutions, communication and
customer services within Qtel.
In 2006, he was appointed as Executive
Director, customer services to establish
a superior customer experience, where
he led an exercise to transform the retail
environment to better engage customers. In
2010, Waleed led the Qtel team to win the
highest tally of honours at Contact Centre
World Awards in the UK and the Contact
Centre World Awards in US.
Nick Dent, formerly COO of Qtel Qatar,
will work with Waleed Al-Sayed on the
transfer process, before moving to a new
role within the Qtel Group.
Qtel reshuffles
Alaa Al Shimy has
been appointed to
the position of HP
Enterprise,
Storage, Servers
and Networking
Director for the
Middle East.
In his new
role, AlSimy is
responsible for managing growth and
cost control for revenue streams in
Middle East focusing on the end to end
business and operational management
in the region.
Prior to this role, AlSimy was the
Regional Director for HP Networking
for the Middle East, Mediterranean and
Africa (MEMA) region. He has more than
22 years of experience in the IT industry
and joined HP 11 years ago. He holds an
MBA from the London Business School.
Has taken over from
Fawwaz Qadan who
has been appointed
as the Director of
HP Networking for
Mediterranean, Middle
East and Africa.
tom Eggemeier has been
appointed global sales
leader for Alcatel-Lucent
Enterprise. He will be
responsible for driving sales
of Genesys,
Communications and
Networks products and
solutions worldwide
through global accounts,
channels and strategic alliances that currently
include HP and IBM.
Previously Eggemeier served as EMEA sales
leader for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. Prior to this,
Tom held a variety of management roles in both
the carrier and enterprise markets at Alcatel-
Lucent, Enterasys Networks, and Compaq.
Eggemeier is a frequent speaker and advocate
of the power of social media and the role it plays
in connecting employees to the enterprise, and
new engagement opportunities for customers with
brands. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the
University of Chicago Law School and a Bachelor
of Arts degree from the University of Dayton.
Adrian Pickering has
been appointed area Vice
President, Middle East and
Africa for Juniper
Networks. Pickering will
be responsible for driving
sales and operations
across the Middle East
and Africa region and will
be reporting to Sean
Dolan, Senior Vice President, EMEA.
Pickering joins Juniper from Cisco Systems
where he worked most recently as a senior director
in the emerging markets East team.
PEOPLEMovements
70 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Local directors on Huawei Australia’s board
Blue Coat revamps regional sales heads
John Brumby, Alexander
Downer and John lord have
been announced as independent
Directors to sit on Huawei
Australia’s newly established
board of directors.
As part of Huawei’s
localisation strategy, the
announcement marks the first time
Huawei has created a local board
with three independent directors
anywhere in the world. The board will be
charged with overseeing Huawei’s local
strategy and developing further inroads into
the Australian market.
Gary Olson has been named Vice
President of sales for the Americas, Steve
Rowland Vice President of sales for APAC
and Marc Andrews as Vice President of
sales for EMEA, at Blue Coat. The new
regional sales leaders are responsible
for developing and executing regional
go-to-market strategy, market penetration
and partner relationships. All three report
to Kevin Biggs, Senior Vice President of
worldwide sales and field operations.
Prior to joining
Blue Coat, gary
Olson was Vice
President of
worldwide sales at
Mu Dynamics. He
graduated with
honors from Troy
State University,
and has a BS in
Engineering and Political Science from
the United States Air Force Academy.
He served as an officer in the United
States Air Force and is a veteran of
Desert Storm.
The full board will be comprised of the
three independent Australian directors,
alongside Huawei Australia CEO Guo Fulin,
Huawei South Pacific President Jeff Liu, and
two members from Huawei’s
global Board: global director Ms
Chen Lifang, and global Executive
Director Li Jie. John Lord will act
as Chairman of the Board. The
Board will meet in Australia and at
Huawei’s global headquarters in
Shenzhen, China.
Huawei’s Australian business
has grown substantially since the
company opened its first office in
Chatswood with just 20 staff in 2004. Most
of Huawei staff are now locals, with staff
numbers set to double from 300 at the end of
2010 to more than 600 by the end of 2011.
Prior to this
appointment, Steve
rowland led sales
in the Americas for
three years. Before
joining Blue Coat,
he was Senior Vice
President of sales at
Workbrain
Corporation and
Vice President of sales at BMC Software.
He holds a BS in Engineering from Texas
A&M University.
Prior to joining Blue
Coat, Marc Andrews
was President of
Micro Focus
International.
Previously, he was
President of
international
operations for Saba
Software and CEO at
NETIQ. He also led sales and marketing for
EMEA at BMC Software.
Yakob Kafina has been
appointed as General
Manager for FVC’s
operations in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Before joining FVC,
Kafina worked as Director
with Jeraisy Computer
Services, a system
integrator in KSA. During his 25-year career, he
has worked with leading vendors in emerging
technologies including unified communications,
security and networking. Yakob has plans to
expand FVC’s presence in the Kingdom across
education, finance, telcos and energy.
george DeBono has
been appointed as
General Manager for
Red Hat in the Middle
East and Africa region.
DeBono, who previously
held a senior global
operations role within
Red Hat, will now lead
the company’s business in the region. Prior to
joining Red Hat, DeBono held management roles
at Sun and Computer Associates.
John Brumby Alexander Downer John Lord
PEOPLEMovements
72 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
Madhav Narayan
PROFILE
Madhav narayan, regional Director of Enterprise
Business, Samsung Electronics, describes himself
as “impatiently aggressive.” And with a trail blazing
record through Samsung, Dell and redington, it’s
only part of the story.
Narayan adds further ingredients to his success recipe.
“Passion accompanied by discipline, dedication and
determination”, are the remaining parts.
At Samsung Electronics since 2007, he has set up the Gulf
distribution network for IT products from scratch. Notebooks,
laser printers, storage and large format displays now move
across the region. And in a few countries they are also leading
brands. At Dell since 2003, he built the small business and
consumer channel also from scratch when it was unknown in the
region, and left them at the $250 million mark three years later.
At Redington, he had the longest Gulf stint from 1994 to
2003, and brought the conglomerate into the top three club.
Narayan qualifies this stint as most memorable since it also gave
him the best learning experience.
Looking back at his span of 25 years corporate experience,
Narayan considers himself lucky to have worked with an Indian,
Japanese, Singapore, American and finally a Korean employer.
Every organisation he has worked for helped him to acquire new
skills, while he added value to their operations.
At every stage, “the challenge of building a solid
organisation with key industry talent and efficient processes
following a global directive”, is what he has enjoyed the most.
And most trying has been to change an organisation from a
product centric mindset to customer centric one.
With a bachelor of engineering in electronics and master of
business administration degree, is continuous learning still an
integral part of himself? Absolutely!
Narayan unwinds by travelling with his family and a
smattering of culture, reading, music and sports thrown in.
Reseller Awards 2011Outstanding executive, IT channel
Tower builder
Reseller Middle EastJULY 2011 73
Hemayun Bazaz is HP networking’s channel manager
for uAE. the challenge of building working teams
across the region with its cultures, local politics and
dynamics is what enriches Bazaz’s professional life the
most.
Bazaz is a people’s manager and believes in transferring
knowledge, skills and understanding to his partners - all towards
mutual business goals. “The challenge to get the best out of each
individual has been satisfying”, he reflects. “I like to drive people
and keep them motivated”.
After putting in the hard work, getting to the corners of the
region, motivating the channel teams to work together, and then
seeing customer demand pull products across the full cycle, gives
Bezaz satisfaction of a good job done.
Reflecting on his career progression, he believes each step
did something to enrich his life. In his first job at Philips India, he
learnt from the breadth of experienced managers in the company.
At Techdata and later at 3Com, as part of the HP facing team, he
began to understand the Middle East market and dynamics of HP
technologies and customer demand.
This brought him to a lead role in the relationship with HP,
qualifying him to keep it during the later acquisition of 3Com by HP
in 2005. Today, Bazaz keeps his work life transparent, is honest in
his engagements and feels this is key to success he has achieved.
Bazaz unwinds with a good game of cricket, bit more of sport
whenever possible and his family. Facebook keeps him connected
with his friends but Bazaz doesn’t find social media to be a value-
add for him in his worklife. He is a science graduate and master of
business administration from the University of Pune.
HP’s channel champion
The motivator
PROFILEHemayum Bazaz
74 Reseller Middle East JULY 2011
HP is changing networking.
Gone are the days of networks that are hard to manage, vulnerable to attacks, and expensive to maintain. With HP game-changing solutions, the status quo is history.
The New Rules of Networking
#1 Simplified network designs that are twice as secure1
#2 Up to 2x better performance for greater flexibility2
#3 Up to 65% lower cost of ownership3
Put the new rules to work for you. hp.com/networking/change
Outcomes that matter.
Copyright © 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.1. Respondents from Infonetics September 2008 survey report
that Tipping Point blocks 2.3x more threats compared to next-closest competitor
2. Based on line rate comparison between HP 12518 128x 10G (2.2 Bpps) and Cisco Nexus 7000 Series 18 (960mpps)
3. IDC white paper sponsored by HP, ROI of Switched Ethernet Networking Solutions for the Midmarket, #219843, August 2009
the rules of networking.
Recommended