Lexmark raises the bar

60 MinsShow dates: 14-18 October 2012, Dubai World Trade Centre | AT GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK | Exhibition hours: 11am -7pm

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What technologies are most in demand from your customers?As a leader in the imaging solutions business, we have seen our customers increasingly shifting away from basic imaging solutions such as printing, scanning and copying to a more integrated system that features increasing use of electronic content management. Customers, both large corporate and SMEs are increasingly looking for solutions that will enable them to efficiently manage their document flow, minimise the costs of unchecked printing, while at the same time enhancing their work processes. This has led to the development of dedicated software and print service management systems designed to fit individual needs. Lexmark offers a wide range of managed print services, industrial solutions and dedicated software applications to meet these needs, the market for which is expected to grow at a healthy pace.

What do you think is the most important technology for users to understand at present? Looking at things from our perspective, we find that the increasing interplay and integration of software systems that streamline business processes

is set to change the way the world works. Innovative new systems that promote higher efficiency, cuts down waste and duplication and reduces costs are increasingly being integrated into many aspects of our everyday lives. it is important to be able to take advantage of the potential benefits offered by harnessing the power of purpose-built interactive software packages being developed today.

For visitors to Gitex, what ICT messages should they take away with them? What issues do they need to discuss with vendors? And what products or technologies should they make sure of seeing?

Trade visitors to a mega event such as GITEX will of course be primarily concerned with what they themselves are interested in. However the event also provides great opportunity to re-connect and interact with the regional and international ICT community as well as learn about and examine at first hand the new trends and developments that are impacting the world of technology and communications. Vendors are on the spot to address individual needs and concerns and discussing issues with them can be extremely positive. GITEX is today a must-attend event for those involved or interested in the ICT industry in the region.

Mathias Militzer, GM, Lexmark International, Middle East

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Epson launches new projectors Epson has launched its new business projector series - EB-1410Wi and EB-1400Wi – at GITEX. The new projectors combine the benefits of projectors, interactive whiteboards, flipcharts and other presentation equipment in one easy-to-use device. Delivering a 100-inch interactive projected image, and providing a wide variety of input sources, these models help businesses increase productivity and cut installation costs, by eliminating the need for multiple pieces of meeting room equipment.

The advanced features of these models allow users to turn any surface into a 100-inch interactive screen and annotate on any projected image from a variety of input sources: computers, office networks, USB memory sticks, visualisers and many other smart devices. With the interactive pens provided, users can fully interact with computer software – in the same

way they would with a mouse – and also annotate meeting notes. Once meetings have finished, notes can be saved and shared to office networks and USB memory sticks, in addition to being sent to other users by email.

These projectors can also be connected to Epson all-in-one business inkjet printers, such as the WorkForcePro 4500 Series. Users can scan documents directly to the projector and print out meeting

notes. The majority of businesses’ existing printer fleets can also be connected for note printing.

The EB-1410Wi and EB-1400Wi also feature a multi-location function. This allows up to four separate projection systems to be connected remotely, so users can share images and presentations, and also annotate the same image remotely.

Khalil El-Dalu, General Manager, Epson Middle East, says: “These new 100-inch interactive projection systems are much more than just interactive projectors, as they offer a complete digital solution for many business meetings. With one piece of equipment doing the job of three or four, businesses are able to reduce investment costs on additional equipment and streamline meetings more efficiently. Moreover, by launching this series at GITEX Technology Week we look to gain additional mileage given the excellent platform presented by this event.”

“Focus Softnet has grown tremendously in the last two decades. This year is a key turning point for our company as we expand into a new direction in business, which we will announce during GITEX. We have built Focus Softnet into a company that connects closely with our customers”

Ali Hyder, CEO of Focus Softnet

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Khalil El-Dalu, General Manager, Epson Middle East

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CommVault demos data management innovations

ZOTAC to showcase latest products at GITEX

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CommVault Systems is showcasing the latest version of its data management software, Simpana 9 that was unveiled during the early part of this year.

Colin Summers, Regional Director at CommVault says, “GITEX is the largest IT event in this region, and as such is a great platform for CommVault to meet and cement relationships with current customers and partners as well as explore opportunities with new ones. The company continues to invest heavily in this region and the exhibition synergizes with our own growth plans”.

CommVault’s multi-award winning Simpana software transcends traditional backup. Traditional data backup methods are being replaced as customers demand better ways to protect, manage and access data

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ZOTAC International, the world’s largest channel manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today announced that it plans to promote its latest range of graphics cards and mini PCs at GITEX.

Senior global executives from ZOTAC will meet with customers and partners as well as hold demonstrations of its latest products for visitors at the event.

“GITEX is the most important IT event in the MENA region and a very important one for us. It is an ideal platform for us to showcase our best-in-class products and meet customers and partners from across the region at a single venue. Participating in these world class IT exhibitions is a part of our annual marketing effort that helps us to communicate new key concepts and innovations to the tech-savvy audience,” says Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International.

“Our aim is to throw the spotlight on our high quality product range and give customers a hands-on experience of our latest technological innovations. GITEX is a perfect forum for us to strengthen our brand visibility amongst our customers and gamers and increase our market share in the Middle East region,” he added.

ZOTAC, over the last few years, has been consistently meeting and exceeding industry benchmarks and raising the bar to provide only the best graphics cards and mini PCs.

The company has several solutions that address various user segments ranging from eco-friendly, noiseless, amplified to over clocked solutions.

The vendor plans to showcase its much-acclaimed recent launches such as the ZBOX nano AD12 series that has been souped-up with AMD Radeon HD 7340 graphics, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti and GeForce GTX 660 TI AMP! edition graphics cards; and the new ZBOX ID84 with NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M graphics capabilities amongst others.

ZOTAC’s mini PCs, better known by the brand name – ZBOX, are full HD 1080p ready, easily customisable and can be TV-optimised with XBMC – FREE Media Centre OS for your ZBOX mini-PC available on ZOTAC.com, Windows Media Centre and Cyberlink PowerDVD. The company will be running demos on various models at GITEX to give customers and partners first-hand experience of the products.

“Gamers and enthusiasts demanded we introduce a graphics card with a custom cooler that brought the latest features such as NVIDIA Surround and NVIDIA GPU Boost to the performance-class price point. We listened and spent the last couple of months coming up with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 660 Ti series with our exclusive Dual Silencer enhanced cooling solution. We are looking forward to meeting the region’s gaming community to demonstrate the power of our high-end graphics cards. We constantly aim to present our customers with the latest technologies and GITEX is a great way of introducing them to this market,“ Mr. Berger explained.

Apart from showcasing its world-class products, ZOTAC will also be looking at strengthening its channel network and reach by signing on reputed resellers and channel partners for newer territories

in order to derive greater value from information.

With functions like backup and recovery, deduplication, replication, virtualization and cloud, archive, indexing and search, Simpana software manages data across the enterprise—from data centers to the edge, and in the cloud. As

a result of these innovations and Simpana software’s Solving Forward architecture, CommVault customers can slash the cost of protecting, managing, analyzing and recovering data by up to 50 percent. Simpana software ensures that data is managed with unparalleled efficiency and can be effortlessly found and

accessed by all users for recovery, reporting, eDiscovery, compliance and data mining.

“CommVault remains focused on outpacing the industry in innovation and delivering solutions that meet and exceed the ever-increasing data protection and information management requirements of our customers and partners. Simpana software is a single, unique platform, built from the ground up for organically integrated data and information management,” says Summers.

In parallel with providing software, CommVault delivers professional services such as project management, training, support and on-site installation and implementation services to augment the Simpana software.

Colin Summers, Regional Director at CommVault

Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International

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Cisco Capital highlights flexible financing solutions

EIDA claims world’s largest biometrics database

Cisco Capital demonstrated the range of financing solutions available to Cisco customers throughout the Middle East at Gitex 2012. Cisco Capital (Dubai) Limted., regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority and based in the Dubai International Financial Centre, is an arranger of financing solutions to enable Cisco customers to acquire the latest Cisco technology. Since 2009, Cisco Capital has been serving customers across the entire Gulf region, North Africa, the Levant and parts of central Africa, providing end user financing, including leases and loans for Cisco

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products and services. Cisco Capital specialises in

providing financing solutions for Cisco’s customers and channel partners worldwide and tailors financing options for specific technologies, markets and geographies for Cisco-based solutions in more than 145 countries. With customized solutions for financing technology investments, organizations can spread the costs of new technology and services over time, maximize cash flow and conserve valuable capital budgets.

Cisco Capital is a world-class

financial services organization specializing in financing networking and communications technology and services for Cisco customers and channel partners worldwide. Cisco Capital is part of Cisco’s total solution, bringing a deeper understanding of Cisco’s products, services and customer business requirements than banks and outside financial institutions.

“In today’s competitive business environment our customers are under pressure to stay ahead of the game by keeping abreast with technology investments. To that end,

the decision they are making is not only what to buy but also how to buy. Cisco Capital financing solutions help our customers to optimise available budgets thereby allowing them stay focused on converting customer needs and growing their business. Offering a total business solution allows us to work more strategically with our customers throughout the Middle East helping to provide a competitive edge that will differentiate their offerings from their competitor,”said Rick Phillips, regional manager, Cisco Capital, Middle East.

Emirates Identity Authority has announced its possession of the world’s largest database of integrated biometrics within the UAE register system.

The database is made up of around 103 million decimal and rounded fingerprints, as well as prints of the palm, hand, hand side and over 15 million facial prints and digital signatures.

On the sidelines of its participation at GITEX Technology

Week 2012, Emirates ID announced it has submitted an official application to the World Record Academy to verify its attempt at achieving first of its kind in the world and subsequently bring an international recognition.

“This achievement is one of the fruits hat gained from the UAE leaders’ prudent decision to create Emirates Identity Authority, which aimed at developing an advanced system to manage the

population register,” according to His Excellency Dr. Ali Mohamed Al Khouri.

“This is contributing to strengthening national and individual security in the State, as well as supporting the comprehensive development programmes in the country,” Dr. Al Khouri said.

He added that the new record confirms the vision of the country’s leadership and that the project

contributes to developing and facilitating government services, and providing information about the demographics that support decision making and strategic planning.

The population register system provides unique identification and secured verification for every citizen or resident in the UAE by giving them a unique personal number linked to their biometric characteristics.

IT: First port of call

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After it was decided that its current IT infrastructure was out dated and upgrades weren’t possible, the Port of Fujairah took on a massive implementation to transform its entire IT system with Oracle at the helm of the project.

The port invested in a rather large and rather impressive makeover of its IT infrastructure by implementing Oracle E-Business Suite R12 and Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition. The multi-purpose port is the only one of its kind on the Eastern Seaboard in the UAE and specialises in a vast range of services including general cargo projects, bulk cargo projects, wet bulk cargo projects, port facilities for small supply craft users and agents and container activity.

With the port dedicated to fast growth and enhancing its range of facilities, it had to replace its ageing IT system and look to Oracle in order to support the integration of its financial processes and lay down secure IT foundations for the future.

“We had been using Prophecy since 1997, an SME ERP by a company based in Australia, which was running on an Ingres database, but we couldn’t upgrade this system due to a lack of local support,” says Madhusudhan Sarangi, IT Manager, Port of Fujairah.

“It was unfortunate because we had a good relationship with this company and an update was planned but they couldn’t find the market presence here, so we were forced to discontinue our business with them,” he adds.

Sarangi, who has been with the Port of Fujairah since 1993, says the decision to employ Oracle as the vendor for its new solutions was done by default. The port needed to create solid foundations for growth and enable transparent business-wide reporting and planning, seen as vital for business success in the competitive travel and transportation sector.

“We didn’t want to make the same mistake as we did before and choose a vendor which may not be there in

a few years. Oracle has the market presence, it has the implementers in place – it was the only vendor we tried,” he says.

The Oracle solution comprised integrated, global business applications in order to tighten in-house controls for payroll, bank reconciliation and HR .

A smooth sailingThe implementation was done in a speedy seven months by long-term partners Computer Network Systems and Fujitsu. Once the implementation was complete, the port upgraded to the latest releases (12.1) using its own in-house staff.

“We started in May 2008, once the software was in place Financials and Distribution went live in December 2008, whilst HR and Payroll when through two months of parallel runs before going live. It was all per schedule,” says Sarangi.

He adds that the port ran into some issues with the Oracle reports upon implementation. It added newHP Unix Itanium server hardware to run the ERP but didn’t want too much customisation as it didn’t want to encounter too many difficulties in the future.

“The implementers gave our users training on the modules, prepared detailed user manuals and did hand holding in the first three to four months after the system went live. The reports were the most difficult part for us and our finance insisted on a parallel run. We started then to upload master files

before going live,” he says.“This run was really helpful for us – it

helped us discover any reconciliation that needed to be done. You can’t sit back worrying about if you have the right tool or not, the real question needs to be, can our team use the tool?” he adds.

Sarangi’s IT team is made up of six developers, one DBA, one Oracle technical specialist, three data centre and network support members and five system operators – a team he claims has a good relationship with Oracle, which has stepped in at pivotal times for the port.

“Our team took on the entire upgrade in 2011 with the knowledge that Oracle would help us out if we stumbled upon any issues. They provided all the solutions we needed and now we are successfully upgraded to the 12.1 model,” Sarangi says.

Oracle’s input and solutions have helped the Port of Fujairah not only to upgrade from the infrastructure it had, but also to provide a blueprint for the future expansion of the port’s IT capabilities. The new and updated system will now support the capabilities to extend and provide more information on its dashboard.

“There isn’t a limit to how much we can expand now thanks to this model, however, we haven’t moved into this area yet because we are a medium sized port and we haven’t needed to,” Sarangi says.

“Once these new technologies are inserted and our corporate people are

trained in the usage of them, we can be confident that these systems will be good for 15 to 20 years. We won’t make the same mistake as we did last time by adopting processing which can quickly become redundant,” he adds.

Such upgrades and implementations do not of course come without their costs and Capex budgets with full details and justification is due by the Port’s IT team this month.

“This is submitted to finance for review. After that it goes to higher management for final approval. There has been a significant increase in the budget due to the upgrade of our infrastructure, as well as replacement of the legacy systems and introduction of disaster recovery (DR) systems,” Sarangi says.

Gaining recognitionSarangi appears very upbeat and positive about the changes and implementations made over the past few years and is very satisfied with the partnership with Oracle, Fujitsu and Computer Network Systems. The importance of IT departments in today’s world is slowly being recognised on a grand scale, he says.

“We’re not the apple of the management’s eye, but the operating systems are big sections now. Today people are very dependent on IT and are able to give them new solutions in order to improve productivity,” Sarangi says.

“It is becoming more difficult to find the properly qualified people in IT and they’re becoming increasingly expensive to hire, this shows the level of quality and skill needed is much higher now than ever,” he adds.

Whilst the Port’s IT department does have to fight hard to have its budgets approved, Sarangi says the management is beginning to recognise the strategic importance IT to the port’s success. The Oracle E-Business Suite, complete with all its upgrades, should see the Port of Fujairah through the next couple of decades.

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