Reseller Middle East

ISSUE 181 // JANUARY 2012 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM

PUBLICATIONLICENSED BY IMPZ

Y E A R O F M O B I L I T YFEATURE

DUbAi’s DAncERs bREAk mARAThon REcoRDDuo of dancers enter the Guinness Book gyrating to Microsoft Kinect’s Dance Central II P20

GARTnER’s Top pREDicTions, 2012 AnD bEyonDAs users take more control of the devices they will use, business managers are taking more control of IT budgets. Loss of control echoes through Gartner’s top predictions P42

hoT pRoDUcTsRemote computing with RazrMotoCast previewedP52

Editorial

Tie-ups

Events

Movements

1994-2011 Hewlett-Packard Company. All rights reserved. All product and company names referenced herein are trademarks of their respective owners.4AA3-3955EEE, August 2011

DON’T FALL VICTIM

TO FAKES

ORIGINAL HP SUPPLIES. THEY PAY YOU BACK

1994-2011 Hewlett-Packard Company. All rights reserved. All product and company names referenced herein are trademarks of their respective owners.4AA3-3955EEE, August 2011

www.hp.com/go/anticounterfeit

DON’T FALL VICTIM

TO FAKES

Keep an eye out for counterfeit print cartridges and help to keep your printers safe.

• Checktheholographicsecuritylabel(onselectedsupplies).• Lookforanytampering–thereshouldbenone!• UseHPTonerCartridgeauthenticationsoftware.Todownload

authentication software, visit www.hp.com/go/tonercheck

Ifyoususpectyou’vebeensoldacounterfeit,informHPand we will take the appropriate action.

Don’tputyourbusinessatrisk,alwaysbuyOriginalHPsupplies.

ORIGINAL HP SUPPLIES. THEY PAY YOU BACK

Emitac Distribution LLCPO BOX 8391Dubai, UAE www.emitac.aeemail: [email protected]

UAEDubai: +971 46058200Abu Dhabi: +971 2 641 9219 KSA Riyadh: +966 1 4665451

QatarDoha:+974 44355440 Bahrain & Oman: +973 33 107 088

Kuwait: +965 22612616

www.hp.com/go/anticounterfeit

Keep an eye out for counterfeit print cartridges and help to keep your printers safe.

• Checktheholographicsecuritylabel(onselectedsupplies).• Lookforanytampering–thereshouldbenone!• UseHPTonerCartridgeauthenticationsoftware.Todownload

authentication software, visit www.hp.com/go/tonercheck

Ifyoususpectyou’vebeensoldacounterfeit,informHPand we will take the appropriate action.

Don’tputyourbusinessatrisk,alwaysbuyOriginalHPsupplies.

cover feature

CONTENTSISSUE 181 //JANUARY 2012

23

05 Editorial

07 Tie ups

20 Events

46 Feature

52 Products

58 People

Editorial

Tie-ups

Events

Movements

24 Socially mobile

Patrick Hayati, Managing Director, Emerging Markets, Belkin

25 Nations and networks

Wayne Hull, Director and General Manager, Cisco UAE

26 Government up, corporate down

Noman Qadir, Regional Manager Channels for MENA and Turkey, Citrix

27 Application explosion

John Coulston, Channel Programmes and Operations Director, Dell

28 IT’s biggest transformation

Havier Haddad, Channel and Alliances Manager, TEAM Region, EMC

29 Reading the cards

Serjios EL-Hage, CEO EMW

30 Demand transformation

Amin Mortazavi, General Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middle East

31 Innovation battle

Salim Ziade, General Manager, PSG, HP Middle East

32 Data overload

Amir Sohvabi, Regional Alliance Manager, Middle East and Africa, SAS

33 Bull Run

Mazen Jabri, Head of Ecosystem and Channels, Middle East and North Africa, SAP

34 Hosted services, opportunity or threat

Narendra Talreja, Director IT and Managed Services, Seven Seas Computers

35 Mobility, security, storage

Ramzi Itani, Regional Channel and Alliance Director MENA, Symantec

36 Personal Cloud

Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Director of Sales, Middle East and Africa, Western Digital

38,39 Rest of Outlook 2012

41 Frost & Sullivan’s regional forecast

42 Gartner’s top predictions

feature46 Year of mobility

A late entrant into the fast paced smartphone arena, Microsoft is expected to cover ground with its Mango ecosystem. Motorola’s Razr is also expected to expand into the enterprise market.

ProDuctS52 Remote computing with Razr MotoCast is an impressive remote

computing feature inside Razr, Motorola’s latest smartphone. Other productivity enhancers include SmartAction, Quickoffice and MotoPrint. A hands-on look at these differentiators!

Predictions on the year ahead from industry veterans

Reseller Middle Eastjanuary 2012 3

What a year 2011 was and what a year 2012

promises to be. Captured in this issue are the

opinions of 25 industry stalwarts who were

given free reign to say what they felt about 2012.

Their opinions are vast and diverse, probably as

dispersed as their businesses are, but there are

also some common reverberating themes.

The certainty of dealing with Cloud as a business

enabler has become decisive in 2012, but

there are divergences on how compelling it will

be in this region. Growing and out of control

challenges of managing data driven by the cross

currents of social media exchanges and always-

on connectivity for the employee, will start to find

themselves on board room tables. This will be

especially true when IT and business managers

finally concede they have little clue on what lies

inside their web data repositories.

Demands for storage space will appear never

ending as employees and consumers pile

on pictures, music, videos, flash, PDF, HTML,

Office, files at every moment of their work and

personal lives. And yet data will sit unused and

unprocessed at various locations including

data centres as the world grapples with how to

manage this inundation.

Security concerns will expand from not

just finding the right strategy for corporate

containment but also to independent audits

of security solutions being recommended by

independent consultants. Such scenarios would

arise when Cloud based security or Cloud based

storage alternatives arrive in the market place

and are compelling enough to make IT managers

ask the next question of “What if they fail…?”

The other buzz words that resonate across

pages 23 to 44 are consumerisation of IT, SLAs,

wireless, virtualisation, government, public

sector, managed services, Big Data, Green IT,

ERP, SMB and many more.

And then there is the world of smartphones and

the world of Windows Phone. We address the

smartphone industry dynamics more closely

in our feature on page 46. As Windows Phone

prepares itself for its comeback with the Mango

platform, there are indications that it may have

got the formula right this time around. But

Microsoft it appears is not in a hurry to reach

the masses and wants the checker board set

up properly, learning from its experience across

the last ten years and from benchmarking itself

to the standards of Apple and Google soaring

at growth rates never seen before. Around the

corner is the upcoming launch of Windows 8

with its empowerment of the touch screen and

any intelligent mobile device. A definite game

changer in making is what people say!

Also catch our review of MotoCast on page

52, sitting on Motorola’s Razr, which is a good

preview of how mobility is going to reset the role

of the PC in the workspace.

So significant and contradictory are the currents

of technology in 2012, that IDC believes the year

end will reflect the vendor line up for rest of

the decade. Microsoft, RIM, Apple, SAP, HP and

others are at crossroad moments and so may be

many channel players in the region.

Tread carefully but boldly is probably the best

way forward for the year. Keep going!

EDITORIAL

Currents of 2012 Publisher

Dominic De Sousa

COONadeem Hood

Managing DirectorRichard Judd

[email protected] +971 4 440 9126

EDitOrial

Senior EditorArun Shankar


aDvErtiSing

Commercial DirectorRajashree R Kumar


advertising ExecutiveMerle Carrasco


CirCulatiOn

Database and Circulation ManagerRajeesh M


PrODuCtiOn anD DESign

Production ManagerJames P Tharian


art DirectorKamil Roxas


DesignerAnalou Balbero


PhotographerCris Mejorada


Digitalwww.rwme.net

Digital SErviCES

Digital Services ManagerTristan Troy P Maagma

Web DevelopersJerus King Bation

Erik BrionesJefferson de Joya

Louie Alma

[email protected]+971 4 440 9100

Published by

1013 Centre Road, New Castle County,Wilmington, Delaware, USA

Branch 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.

arun ShankarSenior [email protected]


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IN THE BEGINNINGTie-ups

to help global enterprises capitalise on

the use of social media data, SaP ag and

netBase have announced that SaP will

resell netBase’s solutions.

SAP Social Media Analytics, sold and

supported by SAP as a solution extension

product, delivers marketers real-time analytics

for understanding their markets and customers

through the social Web. It processes billions

of social media posts across millions of sites

globally to extract structured insights and

metrics that enterprises can use to quickly

discover market needs and trends, quantify

perceptions about products, services and

companies, and effectively track their success

in the market.

“The social web provides marketers with

an unprecedented opportunity to transform the

way that we understand our consumers and

go to market,” said Stan Sthanunathan, Vice

President, Marketing Strategy and Insights,

The Coca-Cola Company. “The companies

that can listen carefully to what the market is

saying, understand these perceptions clearly,

and act confidently are the ones that will gain

competitive advantage.”

“SAP customers have recognised that

social media offers them great potential

beyond listening to and engaging with their

customers,” said Sanjay Poonen, President,

Global Solutions, SAP. “We believe that

sophisticated sentiment analysis is at the core

of a variety of business decisions. NetBase

offers scalable, more accurate technology;

tools that are easy to integrate with SAP

solutions; and iterative analysis capabilities

that will allow businesses to take advantage

of social media as a strategic data source.”

According to a report written by Zach

Hofer-Shall, analyst at Forrester: “Too many

companies remain trapped by merely

monitoring or passively collecting social

media. Few actually reach social intelligence:

driving their marketing and business strategy

using the data that social media creates.

Today, companies underutilise social data and

often leave it sitting in its own silo. By keeping

social media in listening silos, companies are

missing the biggest opportunity to connect

social data with other customer data for

deeper social Intelligence.”

NetBase, SAP offer social media analytics

Emitac Distribution has opened its Saudi

operation in riyadh. the

decision to move into

the Saudi market is part

of Emitac’s geographical

expansion plans. Emitac

Distribution is already present

in most countries across the

gCC and parts of africa.

“We are extremely excited

about the Saudi market, and

we expect to establish our

business very quickly, based on

the support we have received

from the channel and our

vendors. The market potential is compelling,

both from a size and growth rate perspective,

and we are making a substantial investment

to develop Emitac’s share of the business,”

said Patrick Mulligan, General Manager of

Emitac Distribution.

Emitac Distribution has entered the

Saudi market with its well established HP

IPG business and will diversify with into other

brands over the next few months. The Saudi

team will be managed by in country manager,

Ziad Meslemani.

“The Saudi Market is one of the largest

growing markets in the region and it is

essential for all vendors and

distributors to strengthen their

presence on ground in order

to grab a profitable share. With

the new Saudi Government

declared IT spending for

this year there will be a

huge business opportunity

for everybody,” said Ziad

Meslemani, Country Manager,

Emitac Distribution Saudi

Arabia. Emitac Distribution’s

office is located in the business

district of Tiyadh.

Emitac Distribution expands into KSA

Patrick Mulligan, General Manager of Emitac Distribution

Ziad Meslemani, Country Manager, Emitac Distribution Saudi Arabia

FVC partners with Prolexic for DOS protectionFvC has signed a partnership agreement

with Prolexic, a vendor in Distributed

Denial of Service protection. this service

fits FvC’s vision to bring emerging Cloud

based applications and information security

services into the MEna region.

KS Parag, Managing Director at FVC,

said, “Information security is one of our key

technology areas. DDoS mitigation as a

service from Prolexic is a valuable addition for

our partners and their enterprise customers.”

As organisations look to increase

their online footprint, the risk of DDoS

attack increases, eating into profitability

for industries like financial services, online

gaming, e-Commerce and many others.

DDoS attacks are constantly evolving so

it’s important for enterprise and network

managers to stay up-to-date on the latest

trends, tools and techniques. Prolexic offers

24 hours, 365 day support and a time to

mitigate SLA.

“DDoS attacks are already originating

from and targeting legitimate businesses in

the Middle East and North Africa,” said Matt

Payne, Vice President EMEA sales at Prolexic.

“Basic mitigation services from ISPs, telcos

and content delivery networks only offer

limited protection against larger, complex

attacks, which is why Prolexic’s services

are becoming essential to protect web site

availability and e-Commerce revenues.”

Prolexic cautions organisations with an

online presence that the magnitude of recent

global DDoS attacks is confirmation that

attacks are escalating in size and complexity.



SIT exclusive distributor for Case Power

Sit Distribution,

a mobility and

accessory

distributor, has

entered into a

partnership to

be exclusive

distributor of

CasePower’s

line of

accessories for

apple products

across the uaE

and Middle East.

CasePower products are innovative

rechargeable cases with a built-in battery

for iPhones and iPads. These cases power

up the iPhone and iPad through light-

weight, ultra-thin rechargeable battery case

which is seamlessly integrated into the

protective case. All CasePower products

are “MFI certified by Apple” for iPods,

iPhones and iPads and are available in

attractive colors.

CasePower newly offers innovative

bumper case-battery for iPhone users plus

many other accessories. CasePower is the

permanent power source that doubles the

battery time and all the battery devices are

made in acordance with Apple Standards.

“SIT is the ideal partner to increase

our presence in the UAE and the Middle

East,” said Parlan Fritz, Sales Manager of

CasePower.”

“CasePower is the power and

protection iPhone, iPad and iPod users

desire in the Middle East market. SITD’s

partnership with CasePower is in line

with our strategy to align with vendors

and introduce innovative products to our

network of retailers,” said Cyrus Roche,

Marketing Manager of SIT Distribution.”

SIT Distribution has offices in UAE,

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and walk-in

service centres located in Dubai, Manama,

Kuwait City, Jeddah, Riyadh and Al Khobar.

CasePower is a Sweden based brand for

Apple accessories.

Cyrus Roche, Marketing Manager of SIT Distribution

informatica Qatar has entered into an

agreement with Safari group and Sky net

group, two of its major channel partners, to

boost sales of devices it distributes locally

for Huawei.

Huawei recently signed up Informatica

Qatar to be exclusive distributor and after-

sales service provider of its Ideos, Ideos X5

and other mobiles it will introduce into the

Qatar market. The Android OS 2.2 powered

is ideal for heavy users of multimedia,

social networking sites, instant messaging

and email, while the higher-end Huawei

X5 runs on Android

OS 2.2 (with 3D user

interface capability

and is intended

for professionals

and technology

enthusiasts.

Safari and Sky

Net offer visibility and

sales platforms for

Huawei’s products.

Safari conducts its

hypermarket business

via four local outlets

in Abu Hamour, Salwa

Road, Umm Salal and Al

Saad, while Sky Net, a mobile phone retailer

with 25 outlets, has branches in Najada Souq,

Industrial Area, Barwa Village, Salwa Road,

and City Centre.

“Safari Group and Sky Net both have

strategic locations in Qatar that will enable

us to strongly position the Huawei brand

and ensure good local accessibility to its

products. Our agreement with them reflects

the strong partnerships we have, which

enable us to extend the reach of our services

and solutions,” said Wisam Costandi, General

Manager, Informatica Qatar.

Informatica Qatar signs up Safari Group, Sky Net to boost Huawei phone sales

8 Reseller Middle East january 2012

Cisco and Etisalat have signed a

memorandum of understanding to map all

strategic mutual objectives and a global

Frame agreement to cover all of Etisalat’s

affiliates for buying Cisco products and

services across Etisalat’s 18 footprint

countries.

The signing ceremony was held at

Etisalat headquarters in Abu Dhabi and was

attended by HE Ahmad Abdul Karim Julfar,

Etisalat Group Chief Executive Officer and

Duncan Mitchell, Senior Vice President,

Cisco Emerging Markets. The delegation also

included Wayne Hull, Director and General

Manager, Cisco UAE and Mohammed Tantawi,

Regional Manager, Cisco UAE.

As part of the agreement Etisalat and

Cisco intend to work towards extending

Etisalat’s business including wireline, mobile,

managed services and data centre technology.

The agreement will also aim to improve

Etisalat’s customer experience and satisfaction

by collaborating with Cisco to bring thought

leadership from worldwide service providers.

Cisco will collaborate with Etisalat to help

build a high level strategic articulation and a

comprehensive framework for Cloud services

based on the specific countries of presence

for Etisalat. Cisco will help provide Etisalat

with products and services to build their Next

Generation IP Network.

Through this agreement, Etisalat will

explore utilising Cisco’s services to lower total

cost of network ownership, increase network

availability, improve business agility and

facilitate faster time to market. This includes

exploring the group’s wide deployment and

utilisation of Cisco’s Network Optimisation

Services.

The agreement will help Etisalat and its

affiliates to identify optimal ways to acquire

Cisco equipment and services capitalising on

Cisco Capital, the financing arm of Cisco which

provides flexible and innovative financing

across the region.

Etisalat has operations and investments in

the Middle East, Asia and Africa including UAE,

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Tanzania,

Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Niger, Togo,

Republic of Central Africa, Ivory Coast, Nigeria,

Afghanistan, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Cisco and Etisalat sign strategic MOU

(Left to Right) Etisalat Group CEO, HE Ahmad Abdul Karim Julfar and Cisco’s Senior Vice President for Emerging Markets, Duncan Mitchell.

golden Systems Middle East announced

they have signed a distribution agreement

with PnY technologies for the Middle

East region. according to the agreement,

golden Systems will promote and

distribute PnY’s full range of nvidia-based

professional Quadro graphics solutions

through its network of channel partners

across the region.

“We are happy to distribute PNY’s Nvidia

Quadro Graphics cards as it complements

our existing product portfolio and adds value

to our channel. PNY is known for its ability

to understand the needs of the professional

graphics arts industry segment and is

innovating its technology to meet these

needs. We plan to work closely with our

channel partners and systems integrators in

different market segments to increase PNY’s

visibility and market share in the Middle

East,” said Iman Mozaffari, Sales and Product

Director of Golden Systems Middle East.

PNY’s Nvidia Quadro solutions deliver

the fastest 3D application performance,

quality workstation graphics and are certified

on industry professional applications. PNY’s

Nvidia Quadro professional solutions takes

computer-aided design, digital content

creation and visualisation applications to a

level of interactivity by enabling capabilities in

performance, programmability and precision.

“Our aim is to build long-term

partnerships with our customers by

providing them with the best possible

technology, products and support. We

are confident our partnership with Golden

Systems will not only help us increase our

geographical footprint and market share

in the region but will also help us establish

our position as the leader in professional

graphics solutions in the Middle East,” said

Raphaël Berthelot, Sales Manager, South

Europe and Middle-East Professional

Solutions, PNY Technologies.

Golden

Systems will

promote

PNY’s

range of

professional

graphic

solutions to

professional

users like

architects,

game

creators,

video,

cinema,

animation designers and industry designers.

Golden Systems distributes Gigabyte,

Intel, Nvidia, CoolerMaster, ZOTAC, AMD,

Epson, Kingmax, Axtrom, Bitdefender,

Choiix, Creative, GDATA, Hitachi, Kaspersky,

Leadtek, Logitech and ViewSonic brands

amongst others.

Golden Systems in partnership with PNY

Iman Mozaffari, Sales and Product Director of Golden Systems Middle East.



the agreement between Bulwark

technologies and Comendo is a strategic

step in Comendo’s commitment to expand

in the Middle East market and gain visibility

among end-users and businesses across

the region. Bulwark’s extensive network of

resellers along with Comendo’s advanced

technology makes this a strong partnership

covering uaE and other gCC countries.

Comendo, an email security provider,

announced the signing of distributor

agreement with Bulwark Technologies,

a value added distributor for information

security products and solutions in the region.

Comendo’s hosted email security

provides virus and spam filtering service

along with live unlimited email backup. The

solution protects at an Internet level which

ensures that all emails are filtered before

they arrive at the customer’s network. The

result is removing 95% or more of email traffic

blocked due to spam and virus, freeing up

bandwidth for the customer while saving

money on internet traffic costs. Since it

is a hosted managed solution there is no

maintenance or change in email behaviour for

the customer.

“We are excited about this partnership

with Comendo. We have been looking for an

established email security provider who has

the right mix of products and local business

understanding capabilities to complete

our security portfolio offerings. We chose

Comendo because they provide competitive,

scalable and cost effective hosted email

security service along with proven technology

and expertise. Besides, Comendo has

multiple data centres worldwide including

one in the Middle East operated out of Dubai,

benefitting customers in this region with

easier accessibility to their services,” explains

Jose Thomas, Managing Director of Bulwark.

“Since the launch of our Middle East

regional office in 2010, we have been looking

for capable, relevant partners to work with

and we are honoured to begin this partnership

with Bulwark,” says Managing Partner, Houda

Naji from the Comendo office in Dubai. “The

agreement further extends our reach in the

Middle East region, as a provider of email

Security.” Bulwark commenced its operation in

United Arab Emirates in the year 1999.

Comendo signs distributor agreement with Bulwark Technologies

(Left to right) Jose Thomas, Managing Director Bulwark Technologies; Houda Naji, Managing Director, Comendo and Chris Oestergaard, Product Director and Co founder, Comendo


Avnet brings HP academy to Iraqavnet technology Solutions will be

conducting a special training programme

“HP networking academy” in association

with HP networking division.

Fadi Bawab, Channel Manager Iraq,

Avnet Technology Solutions, said, “Most of

the existing channel trainings are held outside

of Iraq. Due to high travel cost and existing

visa issues this means that majority of local

channel partners and customers from Iraq

miss out opportunities to update themselves

with the latest technology. We believe that

this academy will provide a great platform for

many more local partners and end users to be

on a par with rest of the region.”

The two-day academy will be

held in December at Erbil, Iraq. The

first day of the academy will host

end users and customers along with

key partners, while the second day is

exclusively for local channel partners

coming from all parts of Iraq.

Experts from both Avnet and HP

will give an overview and technical

training on HP Networking products,

including the latest developments

and offerings, especially tailored

for partners in Iraq. For channel partners,

the training includes the HP Networking

certification as a special benefit. HP will

offer this certification free of cost as

certification enables channel partners to

win more projects.

(Left to right) Fadi Bawab, Channel Manager Iraq, with Osama AbdElHai, Channel Manager HPN of Avnet Technology Solutions


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1080P (1920 x 1080 pixel ) Full HD 10X Optical Zoom / 120X Digital Zoom Dual Camcorder with 3.5” 16:9 Wide Touch Display for simple use.

120o HD 5MP Digital VehicleRecorder (In-Car Video Camera

12MP with Software Interpolation)

imaging products

Access the Internet from AnywhereThe D-Link Le Petit 3.75G Router combines a 3.75G modem and a Wi-Fi router in a

single USB dongle. The slim size and the retractable USB connector offer portable

convenience wherever you are. The DWR-510 enables you to enjoy 3G connectivity

anytime and anywhere – at up to 7.2 Mbps when connecting via HSUPA.

Practical PortabilityExperience smooth, fast connection

Share your internet connection with friends

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Supports the latest 3.75G High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technology, which enables you

to experience smooth, fast connection to the websites and services you love. It is backwards

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Qtel Group provides support for Arab Games 2011

in its role as Diamond Sponsor for the

12th arab games, Qtel has offered a

sustained support campaign. as well as

Qtel providing Diamond Sponsorship,

other companies within the Qtel group

have acted as associate sponsors.

Support was provided by Nawras

(Oman), Wataniya (Kuwait), Asiacell (Iraq),

Nedjma (Algeria), Tunisiana (Tunisia),

Bravo (Saudi Arabia), Wataniya Palestine

(Palestine) and wi-tribe (Jordan).

In addition, Qtel has worked with the

Qatar University Wireless Innovations

Centre to build a new mobile application

that enabled sports fans to follow the

progress of every sport and venue during

the games. The application works on

BlackBerry and Apple smartphones, as

well as other phones using a mobile web

browser such as Opera.

GSMA partners with Qtel, Qualcomm to launch mobile health university challenge

gSMa in partnership with Qtel group

and Qualcomm, launched the gSMa

Mobile Health university Challenge, a

global competition that highlights key

mobile health initiatives taking place

within the university community.

“Pressures on the health services

around the world are growing and mobile

is seen as a channel to deliver innovative

healthcare solutions,” said Dr Craig

Fridericks, Director of Health, GSMA.

“Many new developments in this area are

coming out of the academic community

and the GSMA with its partners wants to

foster and stimulate this fresh thinking.”

During the challenge, teams of

university students will be asked to

develop a mobile health concept that

will address a specific healthcare need.

These concepts could take the form

of a business concept or a technology

development. The teams will compete to

reach the challenge finals, which will be

hosted at Cape Town in May 2012.

Two members of the top ten teams

will be invited, expenses paid, to attend

the Summit and present their entries to

a judging panel comprised of venture

capitalists, major industry players and

thought leaders in the mobile and heath

ecosystem. The winning team will be

awarded up to $5,000 worth of training

and mentoring towards the future

development of their innovation.

“The Qtel Group is proud to sponsor

the GSMA Mobile Health University

Challenge and as a supporter of the

development of m-Health eco systems

for the regions of the Middle East, North

Africa and Asia, this competition is in-line

with our overall mHealth strategy,” said

Dr Nasser Marafih, CEO, Qtel Group.

“We aim to support innovative best

practices for deploying and implementing

wireless technologies and communication

systems to enable access to healthcare

and health-related applications and

information.”

“Qualcomm is breaking new ground

yet again, helping companies in the

medical device, pharmaceutical and life

services industries develop connected

health solutions,” said Rick Valencia, VP

and GM of Qualcomm Wireless Health.”



tECOM investments, a diversified

conglomerate and a member of Dubai

Holding and EMC Corporation, announced

signing of a Memorandum of understanding,

with the intent to work together on joint

initiatives through the EMC academic

alliance programme.

This programme is designed to help

prepare future IT professionals for successful

careers in the ICT industry. The EMC Academic

Alliance programme is collaboration with

colleges and universities around the globe to

address the widening knowledge gap resulting

from explosive data growth. Additionally, as part

of EMC’s Fresh Graduates hire programme, the

joint effort will help provide job opportunities to

the top talented students upon graduation.

The MoU was signed at a press conference

by Dr Ayoub Kazim, Managing Director, TECOM

Investments’ Education Cluster and Joe Tucci,

Chairman and CEO of EMC. The event was also

attended by members of EMC’s local senior

management team including Mohammed

Amin, EMC Senior Vice President and Regional

Manager for Turkey, Emerging Africa and

Middle East Region, and other officials from

Tecom Investments.

Dr Ayoub Kazim, Managing Director,

TECOM Investments’ Education Cluster, said:

“The important role played by the ICT sector

TECOM and EMC sign MoU to prepare IT professionals

(Left to right) Mohammed Amin, EMC Senior Vice President and Regional Manager for Turkey, Emerging Africa and Middle East Region; Joe Tucci, Chairman and CEO of EMC; and Dr Ayoub Kazim, Managing Director, TECOM Investments’ Education Cluster

is well acknowledged, both as a driver of

economic activity and a contributor to almost

every other industry. In this scenario, the

demand for human resources that meet the

needs of the ICT industry is continually growing.

We look forward to supporting EMC’s Academic

Alliance programme through collaborations with

our academic partners at Dubai International

Academic City to offer programmes that

respond to industry requirements.”

EMC’s Joe Tucci said, “The explosive

growth of digital information is a major

challenge facing the IT industry. It is a call

to action, to fundamentally change the way

we build, operate, and consume IT. TECOM

and EMC understand that it’s imperative that

graduates entering this rapidly transforming

industry be able to fully leverage enhanced

and emerging technologies. EMC is committed

to technology enablement in the markets in

which we operate, and develop education

programmes with companies like TECOM will

play an important role.”

The EMC Academic Alliance programme

focuses on the principles, best practices and

underlying technology most prevalent in the

industry, rather than specific vendors’ products.

With more than 750 colleges and universities,

in over 50 countries participating, the EMC

Academic Alliance programme has educated

more than 80,000 students since its inception

in 2006.

Awal signs agreement with NAQA

awal, a cloud and business continuity

services provider in Saudi arabia, has

entered into a cooperative agreement

with naQa, a charitable association, to

provide it and logistic services to support

the association’s anti-smoking campaigns

across Saudi arabia. the agreement was

signed by Suleiman Bin abdul rahman al

Sabi, Purity Secretary general and abdul

rahman Obeid, Marketing Executive

Manager at awal.

Commenting on the agreement, Abdul

Rahman Obeid said, “This partnership is

part of our CSR programme and reflects

our commitment to helping the Saudi

community address the smoking habit.

Recent studies show that more than 30%

of the Saudi population are smokers. Over

SAR 1 billion is spent annually on smoking,

which has become a bad habit among

students and fuelled by various social and

work-related problems.”

NAQA establishes specialty clinics

that help smokers quit the habit, develops

awareness programmes on the harmful

effects of smoking and coordinates with

local and foreign government and private

organisations to share its anti-smoking

expertise and initiatives.



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general Electric Company through its

healthcare it business and Microsoft

announced plans to create a joint venture

aimed at helping healthcare organisations

and professionals use real-time, system-

wide intelligence to improve healthcare

quality and the patient experience. upon

formation, the new company will develop

and market an open, interoperable

technology platform and clinical

applications focused on enabling better

health management.

As healthcare providers and payers

around the globe shift from episodic

single-patient care to continuous population

management, new requirements have

emerged for integrated care processes,

greater insight and engaging patient

experiences. These delivery system reforms,

including a shift toward new payment

models, require healthcare providers to

address gaps and integrate data across silos

of care delivery to help enable better care

coordination and performance improvement.

This new venture will combine

Microsoft’s expertise in building platforms

and ecosystems with GE Healthcare’s

experience in clinical and administrative

workflow solutions, empowering healthcare

professionals and organisations with the

intelligence and capabilities to respond to

the rapidly evolving and complex healthcare

landscape.

“High quality affordable healthcare is one

of the biggest challenges facing every nation,

but it’s also an area where technology can

make a huge difference,” said Steve Ballmer,

CEO of Microsoft. “Combining Microsoft’s

open, interoperable health platforms and

software expertise with GE’s experience

and healthcare solutions will create exciting

opportunities for patients and healthcare

providers alike. Working together, GE and

Microsoft can help make healthcare systems

more intelligent and cost efficient while

improving patient care.”

The new company will deliver a

distinctive, open platform that will give

healthcare providers and independent

software vendors the ability to develop a

new generation of clinical applications. The

venture will develop healthcare applications

on the platform using in-house developers

and the platform will connect with a wide

range of healthcare IT products.

The new venture complements

the existing offerings from both parent

companies and is expected to yield job

growth in its first five years of existence. It

will operate globally, offering interoperability

platforms and application solutions targeting

both healthcare providers and payers.

techaccess recently

hosted a gathering to

announce the winner of

its Mercedes promotion

which was launched

at the beginning of

year in January 2011.

International Turnkey

Systems was announced

as the winner of the

promotion. Khalid Al

Amiri, Assistant General

Manager was present

along with key members

of the International

Turnkey Systems team at the event to

receive the grand prize. The event reflected

Techaccess commitment to being a VAD

champion in the region. This promotion was

the first of its kind focusing on developing and

incentivising its partner community in MENA.

Chris Corneliues, Vice President Sales

& Support, Techaccess presented the keys

and plaque to Al Amiri. Upon receiving the

keys, Al Amiri expressed his gratitude and

thanked Techaccess for the excellent services

it provides to its partners. He said, “We are

proud to be associated

with Techaccess, as it has

great people and a wide

range of value-added

services which it provides

to its partners”.

To mark the

ceremony, Al Amiri

presented Techaccess

with a beautiful souvenir

representing the rich

cultural heritage of Kuwait.

Shomail Ghalib, President

and CEO Techaccess

thanked International

Turnkey Systems and reiterated the

importance of the excellent relationship that

Techaccess enjoys with International Turnkey

Systems. Techaccess aims to continue

developing its partner base and plans to offer

similar promotions in the future.

International Turnkey Systems winner of Techaccess promotion


GE, Microsoft launch JV aimed at healthcare system transformation




Dubai’s dancers break marathon record A duo of dancers broke the standing record of non-stop video game marathon dancing using Microsoft Kinect’s Dance Central 2the Mall of Emirates in Dubai, uaE has

amongst the highest tourist and resident

consumer foot falls in the region. So it

was no surprise when Microsoft’s Kinect

team decided to set up shop in front of

the cinema multiplex, the heaviest footfall

area within the Mall itself. The reason:

to get two of UAE’s best professional

dancers to break the existing Guinness

world record for non-stop video game

marathon dancing set at 15 hours and 18

minutes approximately. Then two dancers

Christopher Lawrence, aka CL and Christian

Ortega, aka Ian started the record breaking

feat at 6AM on 15 December gyrating to

Kinect’s Dance Central 2 interactive music

and dance video. The pair was allowed

intermittent breaks of ten minutes every

hour if they required it, keeping the time

counter running and by the 13th hour were

developing cramps and fatigue. However

the team of physiotherapists, partners,

supporters and fans kept cheering on the

duo and they went onto establishing a new

record at 16 hours and 21 minutes, ending

at 10:30PM.

Microsoft’s Kinect device, sold as part

of the Xbox 360 gaming solution, tracks

hand and body movements and rates the

ability of participants to move in sync with

the video and audio lead tracks. “Having

already been recognized by the Guinness

World Records as the fastest selling

consumer electronics device, Kinect is

no stranger to breaking records. But this

new record is even more special as it has

been set in our local market Dubai. It is

also a testament to the passion and magic

that Kinect for Xbox 360 has been able

to ignite,” said Aman Sangar, Interactive

Entertainment Business Category Lead

MEA at Microsoft, after the event.


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In the following pages, over two dozen veterans of the industry express their opinions on what lies ahead in 2012. There is good deal of optimism and bullishness on the prospects of technologies converging into the personal

and professional workspace. Despite the gloom emanating from the European markets and the smouldering fires of the Arab spring, the mood is upbeat on

getting 2012’s products and solutions into the market place. Vendors, channel partners and end users all seem keen to play this out. Read on!


the surge in sales of smartphones and tablets is driving

demand for accessories as well as wireless routers. From

vendors of these products we expect to see more activity

than what we have seen in the past two years including

more offers, more product introductions and more aggressive pricing.

vendors are expected to take advantage of what looks like a

promising year ahead.

With new emerging product categories as well as expansion of

product portfolios, a more unique channel strategy and go to market

approach is required. Specialist retailers, first to market and category

management will be much more relevant in 2012 and there will be more

demand on resources and investment in the channel.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Africa and UAE are expected to be

high growth countries in the next year. Amongst products, mobility

accessories, wireless routers, surge, power and AV cables will be the

categories with primary focus. The launch of iPhone 4S in December

2011, iPad 2 and Samsung’s range of tablets is expected to drive

demand for related accessories into 2012.

Socially mobile

Patrick Hayati, Managing Director, Emerging Markets, Belkin


gulf markets are leapfrogging developed economies by

embracing new business models and technologies to

achieve their social and economic goals. Over the past

years we have been witnessing governments making

significant investments in creating and upgrading their respective

national technology infrastructures and investing in new collaborative

technology infrastructure, helping innovation touch every citizen. the

network is today the platform for creating intelligent, sustainable

solutions for public safety and security, transportation, buildings,

utilities, healthcare and education. this network platform will be

crucial for driving growth, innovation, efficiency and productivity for

the nation and its people.

The Middle East is on the brink of revolutionising its use of technology.

At the centre of this will be the prolific uptake of the use of video across

business, government and consumers. Given the explosive growth of

information and applications to access that information anywhere, anytime,

the Middle East has also become an emerging hotspot for technologies

such as Cloud computing, virtualisation, unified communications and internet

based voice and video.

More and more data is moving to the Cloud. Cloud is becoming a

critical element for the future of information technology and delivery of

video and content. The Cisco Global Cloud Index 2010–2015, forecasts

how dramatically Clouds are changing business IT and consumer

services. The study predicts that over 50% of computing workloads in

data centres will be cloud-based by 2014, and that global Cloud traffic

will grow over 12 times by 2015.

Cloud is the fastest growing component of data centre traffic,

which itself will grow four-fold at 33% CAGR annually till 2015. Cloud

is estimated today to be 11% of data centre traffic, growing to more

than 33% of the total by 2015. The vast majority of the data centre

traffic is not caused by end users but by the data centres and Clouds

themselves undertaking activities that are largely transparent to end

users, like backup and replication. By 2015, 76% of data centre traffic

will remain within the data centre itself as workloads migrate to virtual

machines and background tasks.

Another major technology growing exponentially is video. Four

years from now video will be the leading way to communicate and the

primary form of IT. In 2010, video accounted for 51% of internet traffic

and by 2014 this will skyrocket to 91%. According to Cisco’s Visual

Networking Index, Middle East and Africa will be the fastest growing

region in Internet traffic between 2010 and 2015.

Nations and networks

Wayne Hull, Director and General Manager, Cisco UAE


Desktop virtualisation and cloud technologies will

further penetrate into all sizes of enterprise and into

new industry sectors. We will see a push towards

building private clouds in larger enterprises that enable

workforce mobility, flexibility and drive down overall operational

costs of managing it assets. Service delivery from it to end users

will come to the fore, and availability of these services on any

device and access from any location will be the key to success.

More priority will be given to value added distributors and value

added resellers as enterprises continue to expect more from their

investments. Channel players who work around price will find it

increasingly difficult to survive in a value-orientated marketplace.

Smaller scale value added resellers will begin to undertake larger

projects and hence will become more dominant in the market.

Channel partners who realise this shift early will succeed over the

medium to long term and will reshape the current mix of resellers

and solution providers.

End user demands are predicted to vary as the market that

followed the economic crisis demands more service for a lower

price, creating a competitive market situation where the end user

has chance to set the rules. This situation is likely to lead channel

communities to explore alternative means of generating income in

order to survive price challenges of the market.

Overall regional growth will most likely be flat or small positive.

UAE as an IT market will continue to grow because of large

infrastructure advancement in Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia will continue

to follow its upward trajectory especially in sectors relating to

government, education and healthcare. Egypt’s political volatility will

affect businesses for the next 12 months making it a difficult market to

predict, though it continues to retain its status as an important regional

market along with Kuwait and Qatar.

Technology investment by government will balance reluctance

of corporate to spend. Overall, governments will continue to spend

on building the infrastructure to better service their citizens, while

corporate will focus on reducing their overall costs and working on

new initiatives that have a clear business benefit.

Government up, corporate down

Noman Qadir, Regional Manager Channels for MENA and Turkey, Citrix


it environments in the Middle East are becoming

increasingly complicated and the number of applications to

manage is exploding. virtualisation, mobility, Cloud

computing, data storage requirements, digital home,

personalisation, ubiquitous data access and ever-present security

concerns are fundamentally changing the way people use technology

and fundamentally changing what customers want from their

technology providers. For channel partners, profitability lies in

specialisation and having both the right specialists and the right

vendor certifications to meet your customers’ needs.

Cloud is the trend to have the most impact on channel partners

in the years to come. Businesses in the Middle East are increasingly

seeking providers, which can help them navigate to the Cloud, while

also addressing uncertainties such as security and agility. Channel

partners and vendors should make investments in this space to help

customers embrace the technology and for evolving from on premise

to Cloud enabled. Corporate data migration may not be overwhelming

during 2012, but this will be an important time for businesses to prepare

for the benefits of Cloud computing.

It is estimated that data in the digital universe will double every 18

months. Approximately 95% of that data is unstructured, as it is difficult

to control and manage coming from several locations, in many different

formats, sometimes incompatible amongst themselves. Even more, 90%

of the data is never used after it is created, causing organisations to pay

for storage they never actually use. Virtualisation offers organisational

control for least cost and has emerged as a credible alternative to

traditional computing.

With consumerisation of IT and evolving workforce, the need to access

data anytime and anywhere will continue to increase. Security and control

systems become important in the mobile universe and channel partners

that can help customers ensure corporate data is not compromised can

claim the hyped status of trusted advisor.

Green IT is a topic that customers and partners will wrestle with

in 2012. Channel partners will be looking at ways they can help their

customers in the Middle East get on the path of green IT and enhanced

data centre efficiency. As an example, partners could evaluate customer’s

energy use by conducting an energy audit. Intelligent data management is

another relevant topic in the world of storage and is increasingly appearing

on the channel radar. In 2012, the channel will be able to make margins

through solutions. Partners need to select right vendors, not necessarily

supporting those they have been historically tied down to.

Application explosion

John Coulston, Channel Programmes and Operations Director, Dell


We are now experiencing one of the biggest waves

of it transformation in history. Cloud is part of it and

Big Data is another part of it. Cloud is becoming

more and more into a reality. it is changing from

“nice to have”, into a “must have” it's asset. Cloud is

transforming it into a service and this is becoming into a

reality today. On the other hand data is growing at an

enormous rate and in an exponential manner – you cannot

control or manage it anymore. this is happening in certain

market segments like media, healthcare, Ctv, oil and gas,

research and development.

Vendors today have a choice to provide Cloud services

themselves as a service provider or to provide technologies,

products and solutions for partners to transform themselves into

service providers. These are mutually exclusive choices! Vendors

cannot be a service provider themselves and also compete

with partner service providers. Wherever Cloud meets Big

Data, vendors need to be able to provide a complete portfolio

IT's biggest transformation

Havier Haddad, Channel and Alliances Manager, TEAM Region, EMC

of solutions that cover data availability, data reliability, data

security, data virtualisation and data leveraging.

Vendors that provide such a range of solutions can actively

help their partners go though the IT transformation process. In

fact for partners to sell Cloud services, vendors need to have

special channel programmes to make this happen. Typically

vendors would find themselves in build, operate and transfer

mode with their partners. They would help partners to build

their business, operate the solutions for them and then transfer

the knowledge and know how to their partners – an end to end

enablement and activation.

Cloud channel programmes also need to have extra rebates,

extra margins and incentives to boost the bottom line margins of

partners as they develop and scale their business. Vendors also

need to develop Cloud solutions and products that are optimised

for sell through the channel and not necessarily through high

touch.


looking into 2012, here is a list of high probability events.

Microsoft will begin to dominate new networking

and technology areas by increasing its share of unified

communication and voice over IP solutions. It is also

expected to acquire online major Yahoo and increase its share of

search engine traffic and online advertising.

Mobile devices and specifically smart phones will continue to play

a larger part of consumer daily activity and are expected to become a

major device category by 2015. Mobility solutions and applications will

mature quickly and evolve to dominate our professional and personal

life. Major services providers; customer facing organisations like

banks, public sector, airlines, transportation; others will start rolling out

their mobile applications. Mobile application developers will see an

increasing demand in 2012.

Apple will become the world’s top PC vendor in 2012 due to its

continuing success of the iPhone and iPad devices. The Android

operating system will continue to dominate global mobile market

share and will increase its penetration in the Middle East and Africa

region. While social media is driving adoption and evolution of every

possible intelligent device it will also be responsible for evolving

contact centres into context based operations.

The adoption of mobile devices will increase exponentially in

the enterprise segment. Mobile device management and mobile

device security will be a major new technology to be rolled out in

the enterprise and will witness a high rate of adoption. Investment

in mobile device management and mobile security management is

expected to grow by 46% globally and 200% across Middle East

and Africa.

The ubiquitous Cloud computing will continue to gain attention

throughout 2012 but adoption will be slow due to enterprise security

concerns. However expansion of Cloud services will drive demand for

data centre infrastructure and data centres will represent the biggest

IT spending projects in 2012.

For the first time Smart TVs will begin to start growing in 2012,

largely due to content providers beginning to start rolling out their

services including online pay per view and on demand streaming

services. As tablets improve their performance and form factors, market

share of Netbooks will be cannibalised and will be eroded further.

Reading the cards

Serjios EL-Hage, CEO, EMW


2011 was a year to reckon with for the Middle East it

industry, because of the impact of the worldwide economic

situation coupled with the political unrest in the region.

these pressures are changing the behaviour of customers

both in the consumer space and in the corporate and SMB segments.

there will be less focus on device specifications and price and a

move towards interest in features, services and total cost of

ownership. With the economic and political situation in the region

impacting investment decisions, customers will look for reliable,

trusted and innovative solutions and technologies to help them cut

costs while boosting productivity and effectiveness.

In the consumer space, mobility will continue to be the main driver

in 2012. Vendors that lead their industries with innovations in portable

and mobile devices, cloud services, mobile printing and connectivity will

win attention of customers. Consumers will look for technologies that

allow them to be on the move, remain connected to the web and the

cloud, while helping them to save on total cost of ownership.

The SMB, corporate and government sector customers will realise

even further the importance of total cost of ownership, which includes

running costs, manageability, integration, maintenance and more.

Corporate companies and government entities will look at new ways

of running their IT infrastructure. An example of this is managed print

services, which allows customers low cost of ownership and initial

investment, while providing them with the latest technologies for their

printing requirements.

From a channel perspective, markets are becoming more

competitive and aggressive. Channel partners will look to vendors to

provide them with tools to be able to compete profitably. Tools should

include differentiating technologies and solutions, support programs

tailored to their requirements and necessary knowledge transfer and

expertise. Channel partners need to use these tools to create offerings,

services and solutions tailored to their customers that are unique and

differentiating.

So in 2012, we expect customers to be more attentive to purchasing

decisions looking at innovation and total cost of ownership rather than

specifications and price. The IT industry is driven by innovation and

providers that invest in introducing leading technologies that drive

change in their markets will help customers and partners cut costs, be

more effective and more competitive.

Demand transformation

Amin Mortazavi, General Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middle East


2011 has been a year of transformation for the

technology sector and we have witnessed new trends

and significant product and service innovation. the

market has evolved and stabilised over the last two

years. as consumers demand more lifestyle innovations and

integration with the PC we have also seen the rise in demand for

gaming, design and music functionality.

Innovation and research and development are vital for an IT

business. However, to do this we need to understand the consumer

and commercial needs and expectations. Customers, at home and

work are increasingly looking for simple, more secure and more

reliable machines. It is no longer just about a high performance PC, but

the additional functions and supporting products that come with it.

This is not just a challenge for HP but for all technology

businesses globally, whether it is integrating new software such as

Microsoft with Windows 8 or Intel with its new processor for ultra

books. Due to all these factors competition will continue to be fierce.

So what lies ahead? The introduction of software such as

Innovation battle

Salim Ziade, General Manager, PSG, HP Middle East

Microsoft Windows 8 is an important and innovative step forward

with its touch functionality, and this will transform the way

consumers utilise and interact with their PC. This trend will also

further accelerate the demand for tablets, and also the use of

cloud computing, a term that many consumers are still unsure

of. A crucial link in the channel chain is our retailers and the

relationships we hold with them. Based on these new innovations

we expect to see significant market growth in the second half of

2012.

From a sector perspective we expect demand and growth in

education, healthcare and financial segments. There has already

been an increase in investment in education with universities

and schools looking for more effective technologies to support

the learning and teaching process. The introduction of proof

of concept in universities in Egypt, for example, ensures that

technology platforms are affordable, scalable and sustainable.

This ensures educators have more time preparing students for

the 21st century workforce.


the year 2012 promises to continue the fast pace of

technology evolution and convergence and this means

it will continue to grow and expand across a range of

industries. the key to success will be to stay focused

on what matters and what can make the biggest impact on your

business. the it business will continue to grow and expand

across a range of industries at a faster pace than we have seen

before.

Information management is not a product, but rather a strategy

or approach for organizations to leverage information as a

compelling asset, regardless of type or source. It can be defined as

the integration of unstructured and semi-structured data into the

established discipline of business intelligence, as well as extraction

and analysis of structured data to maximize business value of

information.

The convergence of Big Data and analytics is an area of

rapidly growing diversity. Some of the characteristics include

the notion that customary data warehousing solutions are slow,

limited in scalability, and expensive to integrate both structured

and unstructured data from multiple data sources on the fly. Swift

expansion of social media is increasing the flow of data from these

sites, which if harnessed appropriately will enable organisations to

better serve their clients.

New and advanced skills will be required to harness the values

of information management, Big Data and social media. Obtaining,

enabling and keeping these skills require a vibrant workforce and

a robust compensation strategy that emphasizes hiring, training,

retaining, or outsourcing to the best talent available. This will drive

many firms to collaborate and create consortiums based on their

talent pool.

Growing market pressures and scrutiny from regulators, senior

management and boards of directors have made organisations

anxious to promote sound policies and procedures that foster

business practices that are trustworthy, reliable and effective.

Data overload

Amir Sohrabi, Regional Alliance Manager, Middle East and Africa, SAS


notwithstanding the turmoil in the region, the outlook

for ErP solutions across the region remains bullish

from 2012 into 2015. Driving this growth are market

segments like oil and gas, public sector and family run

conglomerates. the latter segment is very important and unique

to the MEna region where about a hundred family run diversified

businesses control about 60% of the region’s turnover. the

conglomerates remain entrenched in trading, manufacturing and

retail, amongst others.

Another key market segment to support growth is the small and

medium businesses. A Cloud based solution is favourable for this

market segment. However there are still regulatory issues that are

limiting the roll out of Cloud based solutions in this region. While

best practices from other parts of the globe can be adopted for

the region, the legal framework that defines ownership of a Cloud

based license, the title of the license, book keeping for the revenue

transfer, amongst others do not match the global best practices.

Since the legal framework of the region cannot be modified, the

Bull Run

Mazen Jabri, Head of Ecosystem and Channels, Middle East and North Africa, SAP

Cloud based licensing model needs to be modified to match the

regional legal framework. “The book needs to be written from

scratch”. The time to market for the Cloud based solution for the

small and medium business is dependent on this process.

To ride the expected regional Bull Run, ERP channel partners

need to be enabled, less in terms of numbers but more in terms

of skills and capability. Once a partner has been identified and

has been accepted in terms of both their business model and

vendor fit, skills development becomes the next most important

stage of the transition process. And after skills enablement, the

partner works with the vendor on business development and lead

generation. Hence in order to scale effectively with the regional

ERP business opportunity, the focus shifts from recruitment of

channel partners, to enablement, then demand generation from

small and medium business segments and finally to fulfilment and

continuing support.

For SAP, the MENA region is the second most important

investment region globally after Russia and CIS countries.


the economic downturn had stalled all evolutions

except on the technology front, where vendors and

service providers moved their focus on enabling

technologies as opposed to being product centric.

virtualisation, consolidation, private and public Cloud, mobility

solutions, SaaS, PaaS, iaaS and managed services are few of the

technologies being aggressively positioned via the channel

community to the end customer. the deterrents in this area are

availability, pricing, contractual fulfilment and compliance.

Consumerisation of IT would become a trend across the region

by means of the above enabling technologies. IT infrastructure

would be available as subscription and on demand based on

consumption. Challenges would still haunt in terms of pricing,

technical support, SLAs and data integrity due to vagueness of

cyber laws, compliance and regulation in the region. Conventional

partner or system integrator model will be restricted or limited to

only delivering on-premise solutions or private cloud offerings.

Acceptance of consumerisation of IT and performance will remain a

big question mark until bandwidth is available and cheap.

Changing business models like collocation, hosting services,

application service providers, IT resource augmentation by system

integrators and conglomerate companies would soon become a

trend. International providers would seek local partnerships and

models to provide the same services with regional telecos getting

more competitive in price and technologies.

A deterrent here would be localisation of data and services

being provided. Regional balances would definitely aid UAE in

particular considering the focus of the vendors and providers

being present in emerging markets in the Gulf and Middle East.

Though the above pointers are well accepted in the IT fraternity,

the deterrents mentioned above would still need to be managed in

the near future.

Hosted services, opportunity or threat

Narendra Talreja, Director IT and Managed Services, Seven Seas Computers


various megatrends will shape the it industry in 2012.

the channel can derive significant benefit if they adjust

their business model to match these trends.

The line between personal and corporate devices is

slowly fading. Employees are bringing new devices into the corporate

network and IT departments are challenged with ensuring company

data remains safe and secure on these devices. Productivity levels

can be hindered if organisations do not allow employees to be mobile

and have access to the data they need, anytime, anywhere. This

means IT departments need to have the ability to encrypt the device,

authenticate the user, protect the data and finally manage the device.

According to IDC, there is huge growth in server virtualization

across 2012. However, visibility is important because you cannot

protect what you cannot see. While virtualisation brings flexibility and

efficiency, it also brings real challenges if new business drivers are not

addressed. Being able to see exactly what is happening in your virtual

environments is necessary to ensure they are secure, backed up and

available.

The explosive growth of data is one of the top challenges

every data centre faces today. It is estimated that over 80%

of enterprise content now consists of email, documents,

presentations and other types of unstructured information. This

explosion of information has a significant impact on storage

spending.

75% of attacks hit less than 50 computers, implying every

business faces customised threats. The security threat landscape

is becoming more complex and more dynamic every year and

is now not only a concern for the IT department, but also at the

board level. Companies are learning through experience that an

anti-virus and a firewall are not sufficient to keep them protected.

There is a distinct move away from securing infrastructure and

appliances, toward securing information and interactions.

Finally, Cloud is and will continue to be the biggest change

that has happened to IT in the last 30 years. The question is what

role will channel partners play in the Cloud delivery business and

other unfolding opportunities.

Mobility, security, storage

Ramzi Itani, Regional Channel and Alliance Director MENA, Symantec


the main trends in 2012 will circle around mobility and

the Cloud. the idea of being permanently online in

every situation and place will prevail more and more. it

is not just our homes which will be connected but our

whole lives. Due to the rapidly growing amounts of data being

produced not only storage and backup but also management and

easy accessibility of this data from anywhere, will become crucial

for consumer and business users.

The demand for safe and uncomplicated storage solutions

will grow, within the public, private and hybrid Clouds. Network

attached storage solutions are still very abstract and technical in

the minds of most consumers. As trust in public Cloud solutions and

their commitment to data security has been decreasing, consumers

will begin to be interested in personal Cloud solutions. Looking at

huge data volumes, transfer speed will become an important topic

with innovations such as the Thunderbolt interface, which has not

really established itself in the market due to high costs, gaining

momentum in 2012.

2012 will be a challenging year for the European economy due to

the Euro crisis. But it will not be a bleak time for the IT market and there

will be great opportunities emerging from the crisis. IT productivity will

become even more important for companies and they might rather

invest in upgrades rather than buying new solutions. If the IT industry

succeeds in meeting these requirements some companies may be able

to excel. Also certain segments will boom despite the crises especially

tablets and smartphones.

2012 will also be a very busy year for Western Digital. The flood

in Thailand in October last year posed enormous challenges for the

company and its aftermath continues into 2012. To bring normalcy it

will work closely with its component suppliers to rebuild the complete

supply chain. It is also expected to close the acquisition of Hitachi

Global Storage Technologies in the near future. With the need for

storage space growing rapidly there is little risk of overcapacity or

decrease in demand levels. Without exception, wherever data is stored,

in the public cloud, the corporate or private cloud, hard disk drives will

continue to be the best mass storage medium for a long time.

Personal Cloud

Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Director of Sales, Middle East and Africa, Western Digital


WHY US >>>

PARTNERS For

CommscopeThe UAE market will shrink in 2011 but has sufficient

opportunities to maintain business levels. Saudi

Arabia is now firmly the largest single IT market and

will continue to maintain current levels, which are

impressive compared to other Middle East and African

markets. Further, normalisation and increased business

is expected from emerging markets within this region

like Iraq and Afghanistan. Cloud computing will still

be the talk in the industry but commercial enterprises

will not flip for this architecture for another two to three years. 4G GSM

trials will be in place by most mobile operators. This will trigger activity for

superior in-building wireless technology, which can cater for large buildings

and allow multiple operators to use a single infrastructure effectively.

Corporate enterprise will see a greater move to technologies that yield

green dividends and to smart or intelligent networks and systems.

FVCThe year 2012 will see activity in many areas.

End users will ask for more, but will be ready

to pay less and channel partners need to be

ready to meet this expectation. Compliance

on security standards, transition to opex from

capex as a payment mode, higher demand

for unified communication solutions, gradual

acceptance and trial of Cloud based solutions and movement

away from traditional email to more of instant messaging type of

communication, will be amongst the leading trends in 2012. For

channel partners, Cloud will create an opportunity for migration of

data platforms and for consulting services to manage the change

process. End customers are approaching the Cloud in a stepwise

fashion and there are opportunities for solution providers to take

them to the next level of adoption.

GBMCustomers’ expectation will continue to increase in

making effective use of technologies as more smart

devices are sold. The sale of these devices will be

higher than laptops and PCs combined. Employees

are demanding to use these devices in the work

place. This creates a major opportunity for improved

connectivity of applications, systems and networks,

increased demand on data networks, increased

expectation for higher level of service levels and

increased access and data security risk. This will increase the demand for

products and services to improve security and reduce vulnerability. The

journey towards smart computing will also accelerate. In 2011, we have

already seen the drive to get more for less from operational expenses. In

2012, we can expect consolidation, virtualisation and automation to gain

full speed in order reduce the operational costs.

BrocadeThe company PC is becoming a thing of the past,

as businesses allow and encourage employees to

bring their consumer devices into the workplace

and access corporate applications. This will allow

application availability anytime, anywhere and

will help business slash procurement costs. Next

year we will see at least one high profile security

disaster as a result of this trend. In the current

economy, businesses look to sweat every asset

at their disposal and more and more will look to

leverage their data centre environments to offer cloud services as

an additional revenue stream. The maturity of server virtualisation

means that hardware is less important. And finally, the year of

FABRIC, holistic data centre fabrics, from storage environments to

Ethernet networks, are going to be the big trend in 2012.

CommvaultData management is becoming a business critical

issue for CIOs and this will be a key focus in 2012.

Significant strides and investments in infrastructure

and connectivity have meant easier and faster

access to data. We are all storing and copying two

times, three times or even ten times more data,

and in so many different forms, than we were two

or three years ago. We must also consider this

increase is neither stopping nor slowing down. The key question

is: “How can I more effectively manage the growth of data, without

increasing costs and within my budget constraints?” For the channel, it

makes sense to consider adding data management solutions to their

specialisations. Since CIOs also have the challenge of weighing up

capital costs versus operational costs, channel partners need to be

able to offer an array of different financing options.

ESETWe have a positive outlook for the coming year

as we expect the regional market to do well in

2012 once countries like Egypt, Bahrain and Libya

stabilise. The channel will face more competition

on margins and providing better support to clients

will be the key differentiator for them. We will

also see distributors focusing more on their value

added business in the coming year. As far as

the threat space is concerned we expect mobile devices including

smart phones and tablets to be a major target for cyber criminals in

the coming year. We will also see a rise in attacks on Java, PDF and

Flash file types. Signing of malware with stolen digital certificates

will be major issue in 2012. Social media will continue to be a major

target for cyber criminals as more people have started using the

applications.

Colin Summers, Regional Director, CommVault

Aji Joseph, General Manager, ESET

KS Parag, Managing Director, FVC

Soubhi Chebib, Director IBM Systems Brand, Gulf Business Machines

Manu Bonnassie, Regional Sales Director Central Europe, Middle East and Africa, Brocade Communications

Ciaran Forde, Vice President Enterprise, Middle East and Africa, CommScope


Ruckus WirelessThe Middle East is full of opportunity in 2012. WiFi

is a fast moving technology. All the industry players

use the same chipsets and they are going to be

updated in 2012. Additionally 2012 is the year that

Smartphones are expected to outpace PC sales

worldwide. In the next year we expect employees,

customers and partners to bring smartphones,

tablets and other devices to the office and

expect network connections. Gone are the days

of the IT department controlled desktop PC. We need to adapt the

technology to deal with hundreds of additional devices all connecting

simultaneously. The Middle East is a huge market for smartphones

and tablets, so the need for WiFi is increasing rapidly. Thousands of

visitors are travelling for business reasons in the region and carry

several connected devices. Iraq has a huge potential.

SafenetPredictions for 2012 in the Middle East show

the share of security spending within the overall

IT budget will keep increasing for both private

and public sector. The drivers are threats of

data breach, compliance, regulation, mobility,

virtualisation or Cloud computing. In parallel

most major IT vendors have actively continued

developing their security offerings organically

and through a number of significant acquisitions

in 2011, within existing applications as well as through new security

solutions. In 2012 the established security distributor and reseller

channels should keep growing, while in parallel broadline distributors

and resellers are expected to accelerate the integration of security

components into their overall portfolio. On top of that the channel is

also actively developing its overall value added services offering.

OptimusCloud has moved out of the blueprint into the

technology bill of materials for the enterprise

community. What are they doing with Cloud:

Infrastructure, customization, integration, cross

pollination and brokering. However, barriers for

adopting Cloud solutions are huge and biggest

amongst them is to find a place in the existing

enterprise technology blueprint. Another looming

concern is security: even the largest public Clouds

have failed to address this completely. Solutions and business models

that promote Cloud adoption with lower TCO of technology will rule

the market. Technology infrastructure on virtualisation, mobility and

security will seemingly make the trend. Usage of legacy networks

and storage in a highly virtualised environment is already leading to

performance issues. There will be growth in mobility and security.

Red HatYear 2012 looks like an interesting year in the

region. The Arab Spring will have lingering effect

in some countries and will create opportunities in

other countries. From the middle of 2012, we will

see recovery in countries like Libya and Egypt.

Other powerhouses like Saudi Arabia and UAE

will continue to be key markets, but one or two

countries will start to fight for a greater share of

global awareness and investment. The impact

caused by current situations in Europe and US will be marginalised

to certain sectors like banking and finance. In all probability, we will

start to see Middle East as a key player in global recovery. We see a

maturing of offerings in areas such as Cloud driven by users coming

to grips with what Cloud actually is - a service delivery platform.

MSIAlthough Android now has a high market share in

tablets and smart phones, the total shipments are

not as good as expected. The launch of Windows 8

in the second half of 2012 may be a game changer.

Windows 8 highlights a lot on touch functions and

will support multiple platforms including tablets and

smart phones. Saudi Arabia is still one of the biggest

markets in the Middle East. The penetration rate for

laptops has already reached 80% of the total PC market and we see

this number still growing. For high-end products, UAE and Kuwait are

good markets. Retailers are growing and many of them are opening

more branches in different cities and even other countries. We see the

channel landscape becoming more like a pan-Middle East business.

The gaming market is booming in the Middle East and this is a good

time to bring high-performance desktops to the market.

HelpAGCloud is a technology that is going to change all of

our business in the coming years. But end users are

still to come to terms with the security concerns of

the Cloud, especially when it involves confidential

data. For such data, who is going to decide what is

confidential or not for an organisation and this will

decide the nature of SLAs. If you look at security

concerns, more than 70% of the incidents are

from within an organisation. How will you control people? Overall the

information security market will be much better in 2012. Even in 2011,

market segments like banking and finance, healthcare, educational

institutions invested in information security solutions and this is

expected into 2012. In 2011, government departments went through

budget restructuring and this has now been completed. They are also

expected to invest in information security in 2012.

Arnaud Lehung, EMEA Marketing Director, Ruckus Wireless

Sebastien Pavie, Regional Sales Director MEA, Safenet

Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecom

George DeBono, General Manager Middle East and Africa, Red Hat

Green Lin, NB Channel Marketing, Micro-Star International

Stephen Berner, Managing Director, help AG


Across Saudi Arabia, ERP and CRM

form a significant portion of the total

enterprise application market in the

region. The need to automate and

integrate enterprise-wide resources has led

to higher adoption of ERP in Saudi Arabia.

For 2010, the ERP market was primarily

driven by government, manufacturing, retail

and distribution and telecom sectors signing

in for large scale implementations, which

contributed to over 60% of the total ERP

revenue. The ERP market in Saudi Arabia is

expected to grow at a CAGR of about 18%.

The research firm expects to see

continuing merger and acquisition activities

in the MENA telecommunications region

during 2012. The Middle East and North

African market is dominated by major global

tier one telecom service providers, followed

by a host of smaller regional and locally

owned companies. Outsourcing service

providers conduct customer care operations

with onshore, near shore and offshore

operations. Due to geographical issues,

multiple languages and cultures, the MENA

market is very fragmented. Financial services,

high technology, credit card, insurance and

communications continue to represent the

most prominent vertical markets. Help desk

services around information technology, high

technology and general customer servicing

continues to be one of the fastest growing

segments within contact centre outsourcing.

Content generation is likely to be

another area of increased activity in 2012

on all sorts of media platforms. There is an

active participation by various stakeholders

such as content and media companies

to promote activity in this segment.

The development of mobile and web

applications is likely to be the greatest area

of focus in this regard.

With a parallel launch of LTE services in

Saudi Arabia, by Mobily and STC, the intense

data race has become even more evident

with a clear agenda to maximise market

share and gain early leadership. Seamless

connectivity, geographic reach, quality of

service and content are amongst the other

likely contributors. Social networking, video

sharing and online gaming is increasing

in popularity and thus mobile customers

in Saudi Arabia now record higher mobile

data usage levels. The initial launch of LTE

services will be limited to only major cities,

with operators expected to increase service

coverage gradually in 2012-2013.

Regional operators Etisalat and du,

are competing on technology and gearing

up towards launching 4G networks.

The operators have announced their

commitment towards LTE and are working

with infrastructure vendors in trials and

deployment of LTE networks. Other

technologies being utilised for wireless

broadband are 3G, HSPA+ and WiMAX.

However, these services are limited to

a few cities and therefore there is huge

scope of expansion in the broadband

market with the introduction of LTE

technology in Saudi Arabia.

Fixed-Line infrastructure sharing is

a key part of the TRA’s plan to increase

competition in the fixed-line voice and

data sector. Infrastructure sharing will now

allow residents from any part of the UAE

to choose their fixed line provider. Efforts

and investments are expected to be seen

in the area of broadband technologies

(4G), satellite communications, wireless

technologies, security and encryption and

sensor area networks.

The historic growth levels of the MENA

mobile market are unlikely to continue as

most countries in the region are nearing

maturity, but the region’s fixed line market

is expected to show high levels of growth

as operators make increased investments

in fibre to the home. The UAE is expected

to be the first country in the world to have

100% broadband internet penetration

through FTTH technology.

With economic growth seemingly back

on track, 2012 should be a year in which

telcos within the MENA region can reinstate

their growing trends and is expected to

feature as one of the most dynamic and

fast growing telecommunications sector in

the world. //

Frost & Sullivan’s regional forecastTechnology adoption including the role of 3G and 4G data services dominate the regional forecast from this global research firm. Geographical fragmentation, multiple languages, cultural differences limit the ability of African markets to scale at pace with the Middle East.

Financial services, high technology, credit card, insurance and

communications continue to represent the most prominent vertical markets.


of Google Gmail, which is optimised for

browser access, as an enterprise email

supplier will accelerate email browser

dependency, as will the uptake of HTML5.

Migration away from local email archives

to very large, centralised mailboxes,

particularly in the cloud, will decrease the

need for a desktop email client. Lifestyle

changes will also accelerate the trend. There

is a growing expectation on the part of

businesses that employees will be available

during non work hours, and that location

should not be a barrier to communication.

Gartner expects the impending

Windows 8 by year end 2012 from

Microsoft to contribute to the trend. This OS

will run on ARM processers, in addition to

Intel processors, and will be touch-enabled

for deployment on tablets, accelerating

the uptake of Outlook running on tablets

and smartphones. Gartner believes it

is inevitable that Microsoft will release

versions of Outlook running on Android.

By 2016, 40% of enterprises will

make proof of independent security

testing a precondition for using any

type of cloud service.

Cloud providers of all kinds, including

providers of application operations, data

management, infrastructure management

and security, will become top targets for

hackers from all over the world. This is

because cloud providers store critical

data from a large number of cloud clients,

which from the hackers’ viewpoint is worth

stealing, and run applications that are worth

abusing. For this reason, while enterprises

are evaluating the potential cloud benefits

in terms of management simplicity,

economies of scale and workforce

optimisation, it is equally critical they

carefully evaluate cloud services for their

ability to resist security threats and attacks.

Enterprises will be unable to test

cloud providers’ systems themselves for a

number of reasons. The applications the

cloud provider uses to service its clients

are its most valuable intellectual property,

and the provider will be reluctant to grant

access for inspection purposes. Moreover,

even when inspection is authorised, most

enterprises do not have necessary skills

or resources to conduct such security

testing. For this reason, many enterprises

will use cloud services brokerages as the

inspecting agency.

Vendors of application security testing

technologies, both static application

security testing and dynamic application

security testing, will play a critical role in

the third party independent testing and

compliance verification of outsourced,

packaged and cloud applications. Most

of these vendors have already begun

to deliver their capabilities as services,

offering them alongside their application

security products.

Gartner’s top predictions

As users take more control of the devices they will use, business managers are taking more control of IT budgets. Loss of control echoes through Gartner’s top predictions presented below. This comes along with relentless attention to security in a changing world. As the world of IT moves forward, it is finding it must coordinate activities in a much wider scope than it once controlled.

By 2016, at least 50% of enterprise

email users will rely primarily on a

browser, tablet or mobile client,

instead of a desktop client.

While the rise in popularity of mobile

devices and the growing comfort with

browser use for enterprise applications

preordains a richer mix of email clients and

access mechanisms, Gartner believes the

pace of change over the next four years will

be breathtaking. The growing popularity

IT budgets are moving out of the

control of IT departments, which means

IT must reach out to the business

Cloud models are forcing changes

onto internal IT departments and

onto traditional outsourcers, but

security assertions and certifications

for cloud providers are still lacking in

completeness and availability

Mobile devices continue to outgrow

PCs as preferred primary computing

devices

The availability of large amounts of data

will overwhelm most companies’ ability

to understand that data

HIGHlIGHTS


Technology is short term, but partnership is long term

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, security to WAN optimisation, we are the leading VAD in MENA, supporting products with logistics, implementation and training. Let us be your partner of choice for tomorrow.

By 2014, 20% of asia-sourced finished

goods and assemblies consumed in

the uS will shift to the americas.

Political, environmental, economic and supply

chain risks are causing many companies

serving the US market to shift sources of

supply, from Asia to the Americas, including

Latin America, Canada and the US. Except in

cases where there is a unique manufacturing

process or product intellectual property, most

products are candidates to be relocated.

North American enterprises

underestimate the total supply chain costs

of offshoring the supply network to Asia.

Escalating oil prices globally and rising wages

in many offshore markets, plus the hidden

costs associated with offshore outsourcing,

erode the cost savings that did not account

for critical supply chain factors, such as

inventory carrying costs, lead times, demand

variability and product quality.

Double-digit economic growth in many

offshore markets means a larger portion

of output generated in those markets will

be consumed within those markets instead

of being exported to developed markets.

Locating manufacturing or sourcing from

suppliers that are closer to customer

demand enables enterprises to respond

faster, thereby reducing risks, lead times and

costs, including transportation and inventory

carrying costs.

Enterprises must analyse their supply

chain networks. Supply chain realignments

will become a public relations challenge.

Decisions that involve repatriating operations

will be lauded, while those that involve

outsourcing will be criticised. The net result

is enterprises will need help in assessing,

redesigning and transforming internally

oriented supply chains into market-focused,

demand-driven value networks. Supply chain

service providers, including consulting and

advisory firms, will need to deliver more

sophisticated and comprehensive supply

chain assessments.

By 2015, 35% of enterprise it

expenditures for most organisations

will be managed outside the it

department’s budget.

Next generation digital enterprises are being

driven by a new wave of business managers

and individual employees who no longer

need technology to be contextualised for

them by an IT department. These people are

demanding control over the IT expenditure

required to evolve the organisation within the

confines of their roles and responsibilities.

Global spending on media tablets is

forecast to increase at an annual average

rate of 52% through 2015. That is set against

a backdrop of weakening demand for

traditional PCs in developed economies.

These devices will have an increased impact

on the enterprise and yet it is users who are

driving both purchases and platform support

decisions.

A constant refrain from CIOs has

been the desire to drive greater alignment

between the IT organisation and the

rest of the business. That wish is rapidly

coming true, but not necessarily in the way

imagined. Rather than seeking help to apply

established IT products within established IT

practices, non-IT professionals understand

the potential of digitisation and are applying

ideas in their own way.

CIOs will see some of their current

budget simply reallocated to other areas of

the business. In other cases, IT projects will

be redefined as business projects, with line of

business managers in control.

By year end 2016, more than 50% of

global 1000 companies will have

stored customer sensitive data in the

public cloud.

With the current global economy facing

ongoing financial pressure, organisations are

compelled to reduce operational costs and

streamline their efficiency. Responding to this

imperative, it is estimated that more than 20%

of organisations in 2011 have already begun

to selectively store their customer sensitive

data in hybrid architecture that is a combined

deployment of on premise solutions with a

private or public cloud provider.

Many CIOs rank the improvement of

their agility very high, but fear the trade-

off in introducing greater risk. Leaders of

organisations must realise that by going

to hybrid architectures, not only will they

add significant complexity, but they will

also continue to bear both the tangible

and intangible costs of running multiple

environments.

This journey to the public cloud will take

organisations to the next level. However it will

inevitably prove to be one with its fair set of

challenges. Organisations will recognise the

need to reengineer their business processes

and governance policies as they embark on

the public cloud. The growth of organisational

roles such as legal counsel, infrastructure

planning engineers and network and security

specialists will be in much greater demand.

through 2015, more than 85% of

Fortune 500 organisations will fail to

effectively exploit big data for

competitive advantage.

Current trends in smart devices and growing

Internet connectivity are creating significant

increases in the volume of data available, but

the complexity, variety and velocity with which

it is delivered combine to amplify the problem

beyond the simple issues of volume. As the

number and diversity of smart devices grows,

so does the volume of data they generate.

While volume of data is an issue, the

complementary aspects of velocity: the

speed with which data is being presented,

variety: the broad range of data types being

presented and complexity: around growing

volume of unstructured data from social

networks, are equally challenging.

The combination of challenges and

the relentless increase in accessible data

available and being presented leads us to the

conclusion that the majority of organisations

will fail at one or more of these steps,

effectively reducing their ability to gain a

competitive advantage from big data through

at least 2015.

Excerpted with permission from Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organisations and Users, 2012 and Beyond. Analysts: Daryl C Plummer, Stephen Prentice, Claudio Da Rold, Joseph Feiman, John Pescatore, William Clark, Matthew W Cain, Brian Prentice, Sandra Notardonato, Michael Dominy, Gavin Tay, Michael Gartenberg, Peter Middleton, Jorge Lopez.


Year of mobilityA late entrant into the fast paced smartphone arena, Microsoft is expected to cover ground with its Mango ecosystem. Motorola’s Razr is also expected to expand into the enterprise market.

volume growth surging close to 300%, year

on year. The loyal iPhone community has also

secured iOS firmly in the landscape and this

is growing at more than 50%.

Reflects Adnan Al Falah, Chairman,

SIT Distribution, which handles HTC’s

distribution in the GCC: “18 months ago we

had a combination of Android and Windows

Phone from HTC on the shelves. Since then

Microsoft has had to reinvent itself.” From

an HTC point of view, Microsoft was actually

the first smartphone platform in the market

when it launched Windows Phone 7 in 2010.

“But the platform itself was neglected by

Microsoft. They never really pushed it or

encouraged the corporate reseller to adopt

the sales of smart phone devices through the

corporate channels, which was in any case

Microsoft centric. That game was missed by

Microsoft, which meant the gap was open for

others to walk in. Google’s Android changed

the landscape totally and before that Apple

changed the landscape totally.”

Today with Mango, Microsoft is entering

the market with almost a clean slate and

may have a winner in place. Remarks Hannu

Ruoppa, Senior Vice President Middle East

and Africa, Brightpoint, Microsoft’s regional

e-commerce partner: “Windows Phone 7 was

good but I am impressed by the quality of

Windows Phone 7.5. We are pretty optimistic

based on the prospects of Windows Phone.

The smart phone business is growing and we

want to be the front runner of that business.”

“We launched Windows Phone globally

a year ago and we have taken small steps

on making it available in this region”, says

Gustavo Fuchs, Director, Mobility, Microsoft

Middle East and Africa. The dynamics of

consumer go to market in the region are

quite different from the western world and in

this region the retail channel is very important

to get smart phones to the consumer.

However Microsoft’s immediate regional

objective is to get Windows Phone with

any of its associated hardware partners like

Acer, Dell Nokia, HTC, LG, Samsung and

ZTE amongst others, to its early adopters

and enthusiasts as the first launch wave. It

is for the this reason that is has tied up with

global wireless device distributor Brightpoint,

to use its e-commerce capability to set up

a portal targeted at Middle East and Africa

for its Windows Phone devices and related

accessories. The portal will handle orders and

deliveries to 25 countries and will use UAE

and South Africa as the logistics hubs. At this

stage, Fuchs objective is to give any online

consumer in the region, the choice to select

Microsoft is not a new player in the

smartphone landscape. in 2001 Microsoft

announced Windows CE, their first

attempt to bring intelligent devices under

a unified operating systems umbrella.

But as a mobile operating systems

vendor, with limited functionality in their

offering, they made little progress in this

landscape. in late 2010 they launched a

much improved Windows Phone version

7.0 and handset vendors began to pay

attention to Microsoft’s development

team. in September 2011, Microsoft

released a hugely enhanced version 7.5

termed as Mango and the snowball has

been rolling since.

The new Mango interface features Live

Tiles, an interface that allows the complete

matrix of social media application to be

displayed on one layer. The cumbersome

process of navigating through individual

interfaces has been removed. Any updates

to your social media accounts are displayed

on one layer and are easy to spot. You can

move pix, clips and other content from one

application to another using the Live Tiles

layer. Mango also has inbuilt corporate and

enterprise applications including Office and

Link for unified communication.

However, unlike its traditional IT market,

Microsoft is now entering the world of

smartphones as a late entrant with Mango.

Rival Google’s Android operating system,

used by equipment vendors Samsung

and HTC, now dominates the smartphone

landscape. The sheer level of hardware,

touch screen and download capability

innovation by Samsung in its Galaxy II series

of smartphones, sitting on top of the Android

OS platform amongst others, has seen its

fEATuRE

At this stage, Fuchs objective is to give any online consumer

in the region, the choice to select an appropriate Windows Phone device, with its inbuilt configuration and applications, purchase it and have fun

Smartphones


an appropriate Windows Phone device, with

its inbuilt configuration and applications,

purchase it and have fun.

Fuchs plans to reach the mass consumer

somewhere in 2012 when all the components

are in place. The check list and count down

for these components includes tie ups

with telecom operators for partner device

bundling, application payment gateways

linked up with operator billing systems,

operator specific applications developed

or uploaded at the Windows Phone hub,

operator specific applications ported to

hardware vendor devices, sufficient number

of regional applications available at Windows

Phone hub, fully enabled Arabic localisation

and standardisation of device chassis

specifications with OEMs. Most of these

items have already been completed between

Microsoft and its developer partners and the

rest is being shared with OEMs and telecom

operators ramp up towards a mass launch in

2012.

While Microsoft can prepare the

operating system platform and the

applications to support the device vendors,

Fuchs draws the line over there. “Each OEM

makes local decisions in which country it will

be available. Every OEM has their business

decisions and we respect that. We want to

make sure when they decide to come to a

market we are here to support them.” This is

line with Microsoft’s brand objective where

product development is directly linked to

market requirement and opportunity. Hence

an OEM’s readiness to go or not go to market

is not an influencing decision for Microsoft’s

regional launch date.

Another late entrant into the smartphone

arena is Motorola Mobility. It recently

launched its Razr device based on Android

OS in November 2011. The Razr has a strong

feature portfolio built for both the consumer

and business user. But the business side

outweighs the consumer side by far. While

there are 300,000 applications globally built

for the Android platform, Motorola has been

able to differentiate its offering on the Razr

device. “When it comes to differentiation, if it

is a standard platform, it does not mean you

cannot differentiate. We are adding, value

added technology on top of Android. We

get Android from Android like all the other

vendors but we choose not to launch it in

vanilla form. We believe this is the winning

recipe,” explains Raed Hafez, Managing

Director Middle East and Africa, Motorola

Mobility.

Motorola is using three go to market

channels for its latest Razr smartphone

device. “Middle East in general is a very

strong retail market. Retail has to be in the

forefront of any go to market strategy for a

smart phone operator.” The other channel is

through data and air time promotions with

telecom operators across the region and

Motorola has made progress with Etisalat

in UAE and STC in Saudi Arabia. The third

and most important channel is entry into the

enterprise user space.

The IT manager is faced with an

increasing variety and number of active

smartphone devices on the corporate

wireless network. Their top most concern is

to have a centralised way of managing the

devices including real life vulnerability and

security concerns. The enterprise features

on Razr allow an IT manager to enable or

disable the device, wipe clean the micro SD,

disable the USB port and camera and lock

the device in case it is lost or stolen. Razr also

has other enterprise features like Motocast

that allows remote access of files; MotoPrint

that allows remote printing; Polycom for

unified communication including VPN; Citrix

to manage a PC remotely and Quickoffice for

Microsoft Office files.

“Globally people are looking for more

choices for enterprise devices. IT managers

are looking at how to bring in a new breed

of smart phones into their work without

losing control. Since Android is the largest

smartphone platform every IT manager

is looking to see what they need to do to

make the network ready for Android.” Razr

is designed with a complete enterprise

management portfolio and “few other

Android device vendors have this today,”

according to Hafez.

With so many cross currents in the

smartphone landscape it is not surprising

that IDC calls 2012, “the year of mobile

ascendancy.” It will be a year when mobile

device shipments exceed the number of PCs

for the first time in technology history and

the industry shifts to the third platform. This

will force players to make bold and fateful

decisions. “Companies like Apple, Microsoft,

RIM, HP, SAP and others, will face crossroads

moments in 2012,” says Frank Gens, Senior

Vice President and Chief Analyst IDC. “By end

of 2012 we should have a good idea, which

vendors will and which won’t be among the

leaders at the end of the decade.”

GLOBAL SMARTPHONE MARKET

(Millions of units)

Operating system

Q2, Q3 2011

Market share%

rank by share %

Q2, Q3 2010

YOY growth%

rank by growth %

Samsung Android, Bada 40.9 18% 1 10.9 275% 1

HTC Android 24.4 11% 4 10.3 137% 2

Apple iOS 37.4 17% 2 22.5 66% 3

RIM OS propreitary 24.2 11% 5 23.6 3% 4

Nokia Symbian OS 33.5 15% 3 50.5 -34% 5

Others 64.2 29% 29.4 118%

Total shipments 224.6 147.2 53%

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.


Smartphones

fEATuRE

Windows Phone is built on three

pillars of usage: communication,

applications and internet beyond

the browser. the latest version of

Windows Phone operating system 7.5,

nicknamed Mango, has much more powerful

features of social media and contact

integration than the release in 2010.

The idea is that the application developer

community should have enough time to

develop applications and make them available

on the Windows Phone hub before a full

blown launch of the phone takes place in

2012. However due to various factors like

localisation of the Arabic language, sufficient

volume of hardware units in the regional

markets, tieups with telecom operators

amongst others, Windows Phone with the

Mango platform is not yet available in regional

markets. “But Microsoft has a huge ecosystem

of developers in addition to mobility, on PC

Fully loaded

Gustavo Fuchs, Director, Mobility, Microsoft Middle East and Africa

and Cloud. Those developers are on Microsoft

platform and they want to develop applications

for mobility,” explains Fuchs.

Microsoft has therefore encouraged its

mobility application developers to sell their

applications both globally and regionally.

“And developers from this region can make

money from the western world -- that was our

objective.” In the last six months 500 Mango

applications from UAE and 3,000 applications

from the region have been uploaded at the

Windows Phone hub. “It is not about the phone

it is about what developers can do.”

Another requirement for application

developers is to have their applications

security checked before they are made

available to the user community. “We want to

avoid cases that happen in other eco systems,

that is why our market place has these

procedures.”

Other than working with its developer

community on applications, the next most

important link in the chain for Microsoft is to

work with hardware device vendors or OEMs.

While Microsoft can build in checks to monitor

the quality of the applications, the final user

experience while using the phone from any

of its equipment partners is also to be kept

into consideration. Since mobile devices can

range between a good phone and a terrible

phone; an expensive phone and a cheap

one; Microsoft has come up with the idea of a

chassis specification for any partner OEM.

All mobile devices that support Mango

must have a minimum of three buttons

including the phone, lock-unlock and camera

click button; it must have a minimum processor

of 1 Ghz; and must have a 5 mega pixels

inbuilt camera. OEMs can adopt a lot of ways

to differentiate themselves but the minimum

chassis configuration specified by Microsoft

must be adhered to, otherwise the end user

experience will be compromised. “We do

not want that, this is the key aspect. While

competing on price points will be important

in the market place, we do not want to

compromise.”


Brightpoint is a global value added

distributor for mobile wireless

vendors. Other than box moving

Brightpoint provides customised

packaging, software updates, accessory

packing, corporate customisation, reverse

logistics and delivery to end customers in some

parts of the world. in 2010, close to 100 million

mobile devices shipped through its warehouses

in 35 countries, which is 7% of the global

volume. in the Middle East and africa it supports

acer, nokia, lg, ZtE and Samsung in select

countries.

Brightpoint has been supporting e-commerce

sites for telecom operators and retail outlets in the

US and Europe for the last five years. “In these

countries people buy phones over the internet

and not in retail,” says Ruoppa. He also clarifies,

“You will never find an e-commerce site branded

as Brightpoint because we are not a retailer.” The

value added distributor in fact has a high ROI from

Online powerhouse

Hannu Ruoppa, Senior Vice President Middle East and Africa, Brightpoint

this technology knowhow, since with the same

technology backend, backoffice support and

logistics backbone it can support multiple vendor

fulfilment sites. All the vendor e-commerce sites

will have different front ends and completely

different product portfolios, but will have backend

integration. Hence the same investment supports

multiple service offering and relationships.

While online purchases in the Middle East

and Africa have been lagging their western

counterparts, Ruoppa feels the time is now right.

“We have been monitoring the Middle East

market and the trends are now right to get more

active in e-commerce.” A key driver for setting

up an online portal around Windows Phone and

its accessories is the lack of availability of stock

outside the UAE. “People underestimate how

many smart phones are sold in these markets

and many times partners cannot find proper

stock at the right price. Even in UAE a lot of

devices are not available for this market.” Unlike

the west, a key inhibitor for shipments is the fact

that sometimes geographically adjacent markets

are in different growth phases and have different

demand points.

Ruoppa’s immediate concern is to secure

availability of Windows Phone for customers in

Middle East and Africa transacting through the

joint venture portal with Microsoft. By jointly going

to market with this online portal, Ruoppa hopes

to get a different kind of visibility with Microsoft’s

OEM partners. “Being official with Microsoft

makes the value proposition more attractive for

multiple people.” The joint portal also represents a

partnership in which both parties know the other

will do well.

While the partnership was announced in

October 2011’s Gitex, the actual project has been

underway for some time now. From Brightpoint’s

side of things the portal is ready and the value

chain from local payment gateways through to

shipments has been tested. “We can do many

things but we cannot influence when the vendor

makes the product available to us,” is the reason

why Ruoppa is waiting to go live into 2012.


fEATuRE

Motorola Mobility, recently

acquired by google, has been

operating in the region for some

time and has an established

channel structure. it uses in-country

distributors and in the uaE, axiom telecom

and globalnet are its distributor partners.

With regard to its latest smartphone product

Razr, while it has both consumer and business

focussed features, an objective assessment will

reveal Razr to be overloaded for the enterprise

user. Amongst its most impressive features is

Motocast that enables remote access to files

that have been published through the Motocast

Cloud portal. Motocast therefore can be used

to access personal files like pictures, clips and

Microsoft office files and can also be accessed

by the mobile worker accessing their office

laptop from a remote offsite location.

“Motocast is the crown jewel when it comes

to software functionality and there is a consumer

side and professional side of its functionality,”

says Hafez. Motorola’s established channel

Styled for business

Raed Hafez, Managing Director Middle East and Africa,

Motorola Mobility

structure will take the product to retail outlets.

On the corporate side, with regard to the IT

manager, Motorola is trying to engage with them

through all possible touch points including value

added resellers and telecom operators.

However Hafez still believes the retail

channel in the region is key to penetrating the

corporate segment. “What we have seen work is

to build the consumer interest in the device. As

long as you get the consumer to the retail outlet

and they ask for the device, that same consumer

is going to ask for the device to be enabled on

the work network.” Since the Razr smartphone is

optimised for the work environment with its level

of security control features, Hafez believes that

once on the corporate network the IT manager

will be convinced of its suitability for rest of the

workforce. “We are not looking to push it into

people. We are more at driving the demand and

pull from the consumer side,” he clarifies.

A key factor that has helped Motorola’s

Razr jump the innovation curve versus other

hardware devices was the acquisition of

3LM by Motorola Mobility in 2010. Razr now

incorporates critical device policies commonly

requested by businesses and governmental

entities and is designed to enable adoption of

Android devices among enterprise users by

addressing ease, cost-of-management and

security concerns of IT managers. However

in line with Google’s open software policy the

same standards are also available to other

device vendors including HTC, Sony Ericsson,

Pantech, Sharp and others.

One of the primary drivers for 3LM to

develop the solution was to enable next

generation mobile devices like tablets and

phones to become the primary computing

devices at enterprises, replacing laptops but

without sacrificing security or functionality.

“Every vendor that is a leading smart

phone vendor has made sure there is

differentiation on the software side in addition

to the hardware side, when they are launching

their smart phones,” points out Hafez. “Since

consumers want to be associated with a

brand, just providing any vanilla software and

vanilla hardware will not give your brand any

differentiation.”

Smartphones


in 2006, HtC which manufactured

mobile devices for imate decided to

discontinue the arrangement and

enter the Middle East with its own

brand. at the time of taking the decision, the

HtC brand was not well known in the region

since they manufactured mobile PC’s as an

OEM and had not established themselves in

the region.

Today SIT is its regional distributor and

operates in six GCC countries. HTC’s mobile

devices are sold primarily through the retail

channel. While in UAE, the super retail is the

dominant channel, in other countries like

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the independent

reseller is also important. SIT delivers to

retailers through its own logistic resources as

well as through Aramex.

Over the years, even though HTC’s mobile

phones have changed from standard devices to

the current range of Android OS smart phones

and even Windows Phones in 2010, there has

been no change in the distribution strategy

Brand building

Adnan Al-Falah, Chairman, SIT Distribution

according to Al-Falah. “It is about how we

work with our existing partners to enable them

to leverage on this growth. What Apple and

Android have done is to make this device more

of a consumer centric device.”

While SIT does negotiate with retailers for

shelf space, there are other equally important

parameters that it needs to consider with them.

“You need to create a unique selling proposition

for the product that you are taking, so the

retailer can say I will take this product against

this product. You have to generate that brand

awareness.” Both HTC and SIT, work jointly to

build this brand awareness at the retail end.

However with Microsoft pitched to aggressively

join the regional smartphone landscape in 2012,

Al-Falah believes that HTC will have to set up

direct operations in the region. “HTC will have

to take a more direct role with the number of

vendors involved in the product segment, the

attention the segment is getting, the number

of products coming to the market and the

frequency of the launches.”

Al-Falah also looks at it from the retailer’s

perspective. “At the end of the day it really does

not matter who makes it. It is really about what

is going out of the door. If it does not leave the

shelf the retailer will not stock it,” indicating

the importance of HTC’s direct role in regional

brand building. Another key role that HTC

could play with retailers in the region is to keep

them abreast of the product road map and the

schedule of launches.

Another challenge is the rapidly changing

business model for channel partners. With

doubling and tripling of growth rates for Android

phones and the expected Windows Phone

launch, the product segment is fast approaching

a volume business. While smartphone product

launches are still with price points at the top of

the curve, Al-Falah believes that even in such a

scenario price alignment for channel partners

starts within six weeks of the launch. Margins

start reducing and pressure to do more volume

starts increasing. “This is the same cycle that

IT business went through. When people are

expecting volume to increase substantially and

demand is not catching up, you are going to have

pressure. And I think the pressure will come.” //


PRODuCTS & TECHNOLOGYMotorola

remote comPuting with razr

MotoCast is an impressive remote computing feature inside Razr, Motorola’s latest smartphone. Other productivity enhancers include SmartAction, Quickoffice and MotoPrint. A hands-on look at these differentiators!

The MotoCast application is first installed on a PC and the account registered by the user. The MotoCast application can be downloaded from mymotocast.com

The first time user can verify accessibility of devices or folders or files through MotoCast by logging into their newly created MotoCast account before actually using their smartphone or any other remotely connected device.

After logging into their MotoCast account the devices, folders and files that have been made accessible will be displayed. If the selection is not suitable at this stage the user can make modifications as required.

After the application is installed it detects folders in the PC based on file types that can be accessed through the MotoCast application. This typically includes picture, music, video and MS Office file types.


After verifying that the folders and files are accessible as required through MotoCast, the user can remotely access their newly created account using a Razr smartphone.

Once the user has logged into their MotoCast account via Razr smartphone, various applications that can access the files remotely are displayed including MotoPrint for remote printing and Quickoffice for MS Office files.

Razr’s file manager will display devices that are accessible through MotoCast. Devices are accessible in the MotoCast Computers folder.

Multiple devices that are accessible are visible under the MotoCast Computers folder.

The required file can be downloaded to the Razr phone in case changes need to be made.

Clicking on any of the accessible devices will show folders available in the devices.

Quickoffice suite includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF convertors in the form of Quickword, Quicksheet, Quickpoint, and QuickPDF.

Further drill down into the folders will show files that can be accessed.

An MS Office Excel file opened with Quicksheet.


Golf ad 207x270mm.ai 1 6/2/11 3:02 PM

An MS Office Word file opened with Quickword.

An MS Office Powerpoint file opened with Quickpoint.

Motocast displays music and video clips that are remotely accessible and files that have been saved on the Razr smartphone have an icon displayed in front of them.

Music and video clips can be streamed remotely via MotoCast or saved on the Razr smartphone.

The integrated social media interface on the Razr smartphone.

Songs and video clips that are saved on the Razr phone are displayed on a calendar month graphic.

A powerful personal productivity feature is the Smart Action utility. Every Smart Action setup inside the Razr smartphone has two components. The first is the trigger and the second is the set of actions to be completed by Razr smartphone.

Managing a Facebook account on the Razr smartphone.

A list of triggers that can be selected and sensed by the Razr smartphone.

Motorola

PRODuCTS & TECHNOLOGY


SPecificationSMULTIPLE NETWORKS: WCDMA 850,2100,1900,900; GSM 900,850,1900,1800; HSDPA 14.4 Mbps (Category 10), EDGE Class 12OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread)MEMORY: 16 GB internalACCELEROMETER: YesPROCESSOR SPEED: 1.2GHz Dual-Core, Dual-Channel RAM ProcessorREMOVABLE MEMORY: Supports up to 32 GB microSDSENSORS: Proximity, ambient light, eCompass, battery temp, AccelerometerWEIGHT: 127 gramsSIZE: 130.7 x 68.9 x 7.1 mmDISPLAY SIZE: 4.3-in Super Amoled Advanced qHD (540 x 960)MATERIALS AND FINISH: Made

with laser-cut Kevlar fibre and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla GlassANTENNA TYPE: Internal quad bandFORM FACTOR: Touch TabletSYNCHRONISATION: FOTA, PC Sync, Corporate Sync, Google SyncWIFI: 802.11 b,g,n (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz)DATA ACCESS: Yes3G MOBILE HOTSPOT: Be a mobile hot spot for up to 8 other devicesCONNECTOR TYPE: Micro USB, HDMI Micro Connector cableGPS AND LOCATION SERVICES5: aGPS(assisted), eCompass, sGPS (simultaneous), GLONASSHEADSET JACK: 3.5 mmWEB BROWSER: Android HTML Webkit, Adobe Flash Player 10; Firefox browser via webtop

EMAIL: Corporate Sync, Google Mail, Push Email, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AOLIMAGE FILE FORMATS: GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMPINSTANT MESSAGING: Google TalkCAMERA TYPE: HD P2P VideoDIGITAL ZOOM: 8xFOCUS: AutomaticIMAGE EDITING TOOLS: Cropping, rotating, Geo Tagging, brightness, color, enhance, flip, resizing, and effectsMEGAPIXELS: 8 MPMUSIC ENABLED: Bass enhanced music playbackMUSIC PLAYER: YesVIDEO CAPTURE: 1080p HD, audio scene selectionPLAYABLE FORMATS: H.263, AAC+, H.264, eAAC+, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV, AAC, WMA9, WMA10, AMR WB, AMR NB,

WMA v9, MIDISTREAMING MEDIA: Audio, Video, Internet RadioVIDEO CAPTURE RATE: HD 1080p quality, 1920X1080 resolution, up to 30fps capture and playback //

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UAE Axiom TelecomGlobalnet

A list of actions that the Razr smartphone will complete when any of the programmed triggers is encountered.

An example of Smart Action using multiple missed calls as trigger and a set of linked actions.

An example of Smart Action using GPS aided location trigger and a set of linked actions.

An example of Smart Action using battery charging as trigger and a set of linked actions.

An example of Smart Action using low battery level as trigger and a set of linked actions.

Another impressive feature is MotoPrint which allows a user to print a file from the Razr smartphone direct to a printer on the wireless network.

PRODuCTS & TECHNOLOGYMotorola

DiStriButorS


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PEOPLEJosef Miskulnig

Josef Miskulnig worked with iBM and its partners for almost twenty

years before deciding to set up Fast lane for technical

training services. By temperament a hardware and systems

specialist, Miskulnig has built Fast lane around Cisco’s

networking technologies. although he graduated with

Electrical and Electronics engineering from austria, the first year of

Fast lane in 1996-97 was the toughest challenge of his life. “i had a

good reputation with iBM and the customers, however nobody knew

Fast lane. i had to prove personally prove its value.”

Today as its CEO and President, Miskulnig can look back at the

rich experience he has gained from growing Fast Lane from a one man

organisation to an international company. The best part of his current

role is when he looks across his international offices, with employees

from different cultures and different working environments, all focussed

on maintaining the quality standards of Fast Lane. At the UAE office,

there are more than ten nationalities working together and Miskulnig

rates this as one of his strengths. “I am a big fan of understanding

different cultures and environments.”

Working in the fast paced IT industry and staying ahead of the

pack is his biggest challenge. Surviving in this industry and the

region however is a differentiator and Miskulnig has seen many

competitors come and go. Having completed years of training during

his extended work span with IBM, Miskulnig has learnt rest of the

tricks of managing business and people on the go and also learnt

from goof ups. He sets high standards for himself and whatever he

does himself he does well. He believes in leaving space for other

talented people to fill up.

Miskulnig unwinds by spending quality time with his family

including three daughters and grand children and relatives and

friends over dinner or at the beach. He is fascinated by car,

motorbike and boat engines and the faster they are the better. He

also rates himself as an early adopter for gadgets and devices and

his current favourites include an IBM Thinkpad, dual SIM mobile

phone and iPod for music in the car. He is a casual user of social

media and his favourite daydream: no emails and no mobile phone

calls. Greed and ruthlessness are strong turnoffs. //

Fast Lane’s engineer entrepreneur

Into the wind


MERA

Authorized Distribtuor Middle East

DESPEC MERA LTD. P.o. Box 61050, Jebel Ali Free ZoneUnited Arab Emirates

Tel: +971 4 8811191Fax:+971 4 8811190 [email protected]

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