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NETWORKSECURITY

SECUREREMOTE ACCESS

WEB AND E-MAILSECURITY

POLICY AND MANAGEMENT

BACKUP ANDRECOVERY

© 2010 SonicWALL, Inc. SonicWALL and the SonicWALL logo are registered trademarks of SonicWALL, Inc.

IS YOUR TRADITIONAL NETWORK AND DATA PROTECTION PROVIDER STUCK IN THE PAST?

Call +97146091753 Email: [email protected] toll free: 8000 4411869

MEA DISTIES GO BACK TO BASICSUnpredictable trading environment and relentless pressure on costs force IT distributors to take a systematic approach to business as they attempt to ride out the market storm

The region’s largest IT

distributors are taking a back-to-basics approach to business as they attempt to climb clear of the difficult trading conditions that have disrupted the market throughout the past year.

Faced with stalling demand and a highly

constrained credit environment, distributors are scrutinising every aspect of their operations in a bid to keep costs under control and ensure they do not leave themselves financially over-exposed.

For most distributors that has meant an enhanced focus on

controlling working capital and cash, as well as a closer analysis of operational efficiency.

“It is important to manage your business at a micro-level by going into more detail instead of just delegating,” said Mario Gay, general manager at components and enterprise distributor Mindware. “Today I think you need to look at things through a magnifying glass.”

Research carried out ahead of the publication of this year’s distribution Power List (which you can read on page 24) reveals that the combined annual revenues of the 15 largest Dubai-based

distributors operating in the market increased just 2.7% last year.

That figure compares with 24% the previous year, indicating the extent to which the distribution sector has felt the force of the economic downturn.

Amer Khreino, CEO at Emitac Distribution, says the financial crisis has taught the distribution channel some harsh lessons: “Today it is very difficult to claim that distribution is not about credit facilitation, financing the business and logistics services, but these are the classic deliverables. No distributor can sustain business without

The days of soaring double-digit sales growth

in the Saudi retail channel could be over

after audited financial statements released by

market powerhouse Jarir revealed the company only

saw a minimal increase in revenues last year.

The retailer posted sales of SAR2.55 billion

(US$681m) for 2009, which marked an increase

of just 1.5% on the SAR2.52 billion (US$671m) it

recorded during the previous 12 months. Analysts

have said the Saudi market was the least

JARIR FEELS RETAIL PINCH

KSA ace sees slowdown in sales growth

>>

>>

- - - > (7)

METRA “RAISES ITS GAME”Distributor claims new logistics hub will strengthen its Gulf operations

IT distribution powerhouse Metra is preparing to open a new logistics facility that will serve as an integrated hub for its operations across the Gulf.

Metra, which is one of the main regional distributors for brands such as HP, Acer and Samsung, will call time on the outsourced logistics model it currently uses and switch to its own self-operated 70,000 square foot facility instead.

The company said it was likely that the facility would begin receiving consignments and dispatching orders from as early as this month. Metra has not revealed the total value of its investment in the project, but said the hub would be supported by new ERP and warehouse management systems that should make its logistics processes slicker.

>>

- - - > (9)

The countdown to the 2010

Channel Awards has now

begun, with the focus instantly

turning to the two ‘Readers’

Best’ awards which are voted for

online by you — our readers.

The ‘Best Vendor Channel

Partner Programme’ and

‘Best Growth Initiative by a

Distributor’ are the only two

categories that are decided by

the readers of the magazine.

You therefore have until the

middle of this month to make

your vote count by visiting the

link at the bottom of this page

and selecting the vendor and

distributor that you believe

deserves to honoured in their

respective categories.

The winners will be revealed

during the Channel Awards in

Dubai on Monday 22nd March.

There is a strong line-up of

candidates for this year’s reader-

voted categories, with all of the

shortlisted companies keen to

emulate Microsoft and Westcon,

who took the glory at last year’s

Channel Middle East Awards.

To view a summary of each

finalist’s submission and cast

your vote, just visit the Channel

Middle East Awards website and

follow the reader-voted link.

::WHO WILL YOU PICK?

DATA LIST// HEADLINE NEWS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST IT CHANNEL

(1)

_www.itp.net_

- - - > (4)

www.itp.net/events/channelmeawards

_www.itp.net_

20_BULLISH ABOUT BUSINESSMiguel El-Khoury, director of Gulf Business Machines’ (GBM) 150-strong integrated networking and site services unit, explains why changes in the Middle East market are calling for some strategic thinking among systems integrators.

53_CISCO SHUTS DOOR ON HPVendor confirms it will not renew HP’s reseller accreditation due to their increasing competition53_SOURCEFIRE ON SONGSecurity vendor puts emphasis on new partner programme to drive greater percentage of its business53_CA VARS HOPE TO RECOVERTwo thirds of EMEA resellers polled by management software ace believe the worst of the recession is over

59_JOINING THE ELITEHP claims its Compaq 8000 Elite laptop offers reliability and security59_TAKE A TABLETFujitsu introduces an alternative version of its Lifebook T5010 PC59_KEY TO SUCCESSNew Microsoft keyboard aims to give gamers more control of their actions59_ROAD WARRIORSony Gulf launches latest range of VAIO notebooks in the Middle East

CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010

GET TO KNOW(62)COMMENT(64)

Industry talking points

FACT FILE(49)

Global smartphone market emerges from

the fourth quarter in rude health

Shahnawaz Sheikh, SonicWall MEA

Data confirming how the EMEA PC market stood up to the economic downturn last year has just been released, but it won’t please everyone.

(15)FEELING THE STRAIN

04_New roles for channel stalwarts

04_Jumbo hints at accessories move

07_Astaro changes sales model

07_Sony and Trigon in storage pact

09_3Com hails MEA prospects

09_Sales perks for Symantec VARs

09_Netgear targets SMB market

09_eSense gets serious in Saudi

09_Dell test centre launched in KSA

11_BTC agrees to Alcatel-Lucent tie-up

11_Master status for Trade Links

11_Aptec wades into KSA battle

FRONTLINE // CONTENTS// INSIDE THIS ISSUE

>>

>>{}

.........

Mastering the art of inventory management can mean the difference between profit and loss for any distie selling fast-moving products.

(23)TAKING STOCK

Hold on tight as we bring you a comprehensive rundown of the largest IT distributors operating in the Middle East today.

(26)2010 POWER LIST

Emerging technologies distributor FVC reveals why it is listening carefully to its reseller customer as it looks to drive the VAD model.

(44)YEAR OF THE VAD

INSIDE INFORMATION>] PRODUCTS[]

(115)

BUSINESS INSIGHToo

(15)

IT’S SHOW TIME!(60)

Your guide to the key IT events taking place this quarter>>

EXPERT’S VIEW(19)

Kingston’s John Tu on the future of the memory market >>

EDITOR’S NOTES(17)

Why cash is the currency of choice on Computer Street>>

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// CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010_www.itp.net_

(4)

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Two of the channel’s most recognised faces

have taken up new vendor roles in the Middle East region after recently leaving their existing companies.

Ahmad Qasem, the former boss of hardware distributor Al Yousuf Digital, has joined Epson, while Feras Zeidan, who formerly ran Trapeze Networks’ MEA business has joined Avaya.

Qasem has become the channel manager for printers, projectors and scanners in the Middle East. He is already well familiar with the Epson business as Al Yousuf is one of the vendor’s primary distribution partners. But Qasem insists his long

association with Al Yousuf will not prevent him from treating all partners fairly.

“I will try my best to make sure everybody is happy and achieve that with high morale and honesty to everyone in order to help them grow,” he explained. “And that includes growing distribution partners’ business everywhere — this is what the Epson team is aiming for, not just me.”

Zeidan, meanwhile, has joined Avaya as channel manager for Saudi Arabia, reporting into country manager Fadi Hani.

His role will be to expand Avaya’s channel in the kingdom and overseeing the integration of the IP

telephony vendor’s partner base there following its takeover of Nortel’s enterprise business.

“We will make sure that this partner base will offer the required set of skills and get the training needed to gain more accounts and service current customers,” promised Zeidan, who met with partners for the first time at Avaya’s regional partner summit last month.

Avaya is shortly expected to reveal the identity of its new Middle East channel director, who will take on the role formerly handled by GCC boss Roger El Tawil.

Jumbo IT Distribution is weighing up the possibility of creating

a dedicated business unit focused on IT accessories, which would supplement the volume products it sells to the retail channel.

The move, if it happens, would see the company push PC peripherals and devices alongside the core HP, Acer and LG hardware products that it distributes.

Jumbo already sells some IT accessories, but these tend to be given away as part of bundles, which is “not a business model”, according to the company’s general manager, Bikas Biswas.

He believes there could be value in developing a specialised accessories unit now that the firm does such a large portion of its business with the retail market.

“Since we have become a retail-focused distributor it would give us a huge amount of alignment with all the retailers and possibly help us because it is a high margin, low volume business,” he explained.

Jumbo hasn’t yet opened talks with any potential accessories vendors, but the type of products it is thinking about include flash drives, keyboards, mice and high value carry cases.

Biswas says the idea is being assessed by group management, but he does not expect any decision to be taken before April at least.

Feras Zeidan is now heading up Avaya’s channel in Saudi Arabia

CHANNEL STALWARTS TAKE ON NEW REGIONAL ROLESAhmad Qasem back in the channel at Epson, while Feras Zeidan begins Avaya assignment

them. But during the crisis we learned that these principles could only get you so far. To retain customers requires a good rapport, market recognition, commitment and loyalty, as well as the right product mix.”

Nicholas Argyrides, general manager at HP and Cisco distributor Logicom, agrees that keeping sight of what customers need is crucial to prevailing in a market where new challenges are coming from multiple directions.

He believes relationships and pre-post sales capabilities have emerged as the fundamental principles of distribution. “If you are able to make customers look at you in a way other than as a discount shop then it is the best way to work, especially in today’s

climate,” he commented. “Pre- and post-sales support, whether it’s education, timely deliveries, RMA or something else, are the things that make a customer loyal to you, even if your prices are a couple of dollars higher.”

Without doubt, distributors have also had to quickly adapt to an uncertain credit environment. The withdrawal of cover by many credit insurers has forced distributors to either take additional risks themselves or walk away from accounts they suspect may not be able to meet their obligations.

Raj Shankar, CEO at Redington Gulf, puts credit management up there with logistics and working capital management as aspects of the distribution business which need to handled carefully

during the present climate. “Credit management is especially important in the Middle East and Africa, where you have to give credit,” he said. “But credit management isn’t about refusing credit — it is about giving credit but collecting your money.”

Faisal Jamal, COO at Despec, also says disties have to become experts in credit and finance.

“Credit insurance companies are not giving the kind of insurance coverage they used to — or if they are the prices are expensive — so you have to have effective and structured credit control,” he warned. “Customer reach is important too. If you don’t analyse your customers properly you may become over-centric on a certain type or a certain region,” he said.

< - - - (1) JUMBO HINTS AT MOVE INTO ACCESSORIESHardware distributor could add peripherals to portfolio

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S ony Gulf has appointed

Trigon as a distributor

for its storage business in the

MEA region and is hoping to

capitalise on the wholesaler’s

reach into both the consumer

and corporate channels.

The move is part of plans

to ramp up sales in the MEA

region and comes after it

shifted its storage media

business from Singapore to

Dubai. Trigon will carry Sony’s

range of LTO media, AIT, MO

disk and SDLT products.

Makiyama Kazuteru,

divisional head at Sony, says

the vendor intends to make

its presence felt in the market

by supplementing the Trigon

appointment with some

powerful sales activities.

“Sony plans to aggressively

market storage media products

through reseller programmes

and awareness campaigns for

end-users,” he said.

Arun Chawla, COO at

the distributor, believes its

experience of the market

will allow it to build strong

channels for Sony’s products.

“Trigon is an IT distribution

company well known for its

extremely strong relationship

with the channel, integrators,

VARs and retail,” he said.

::SONY AND TRIGON IN STORAGE PACT

affected by last year’s global recession, but Jarir’s performance suggests that consumer caution still left its mark on the local IT retail channel. In the previous two years, the company had grown its turnover by 45% and 16% year-on-year.

Despite seeing its top-line growth squeezed, Jarir remained highly profitable, growing its overall net income by more than 3% to SAR373m (US$99m). Some market commentators suggest Jarir is among the more profitable Saudi IT retailers, with others struggling to break even due to constraints they face.

The Riyadh-based outfit didn’t provide any comment around the consolidated financial statements, but it did confirm that its retail business in Saudi

Arabia — which sells books, office supplies, education equipment and IT — once again represented the bulk of its operations. Jarir also has a retail presence in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE.

Data showing its expenses, meanwhile, revealed that computers and related suppliers was top of its net inventories by some distance, costing SAR173m (US$46m) last year.

One senior Saudi channel source claims the slowdown in Jarir’s growth is unsurprising given the sales tactics implemented by some vendors in the market.

“Many vendors have been dumping their products without much control and support from their side to make sure that the retailers’ margin is healthy enough to make profit. The main concern of some vendors is

to close their Saudi quota,” said the source, adding that disties have been pressured into carrying more stock than the market demands.

“The slow retail demand has created a big problem of high stock availability at both the distributor as well as the power retailer. To liquidate the high stocks, retailers have been forced to lower their margins and make extra marketing campaigns promoting special offers. That has created low to no profit for many power retailers.”

Unified threat management (UTM) provider Astaro has

overhauled its licensing model, claiming the move will lead to better prospects for its partners.

The US-based outfit insists the approach reflects the desire of end-user customers to meet their security objectives without having to make expensive up-front investments in technology.

“This new strategy not only goes in line with the modern market’s preference for investing in services rather than buying infrastructure hardware components, it will also help our partner community better solve their customers’

needs,” stated Jan Hichert, CEO at Astaro. “By providing partners with a business model that meets the market’s preferences we are setting up our partners for success today as well as in the future.”

The company will now provide its basic software and virtual base appliance for free while slashing the price of hardware by 50% to make it more compelling for the market. Customers then have the option of purchasing additional security applications on a subscription basis.

Astaro insists that the revised model lowers entry prices for UTM by up to half and will enable

partners to be successful in a “more service-oriented market”.

The vendor is confident that customers will embrace the subscription model and invest in attaching additional security applications to the base platform.

At the moment, it offers applications for networking security, web security and e-mail security, but it intends to release mail archiving and wireless security management applications during the middle of this year.

In the Middle East, Astaro boasts an established reseller and VAR network across a number of countries. In the UAE it works with Delta Line International, Entelyst, AcreFence IT and MindZen, while in Saudi Arabia its partners include Global Security Solutions, Echoserve and IT-Trust.

ASTARO CHANGES SALES MODELSecurity vendor to give standard software away for free and reduce cost of hardware as part of switch to licensing model

< - - - (1)

Jarir is one of the largest retailers of PCs and laptops but its sales growth slowed last year

Sales Department: [email protected]

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Anew incentive scheme

from Symantec will allow

partners to earn and redeem

points when they complete

selected sales enablement and

marketing activities in future.

The Symplus programme,

which is being introduced in

the Middle East and Africa,

as well as Europe, is designed

to provide resellers with extra

incentives to grow their revenue

with the security software firm.

Symplus will operate on

three different levels and allow

partners to ‘spend’ the points

they have earned on various

online or in-store purchases,

according to Symantec.

The scheme is supported by

the launch of a multi-lingual

website that will provide

Symantec partners with access

to a number of features,

including 24/7 programme

support, sales resources,

detailed individual account

overviews and access to the

Symplus online community.

“By providing financial

incentives for best practice

and successful performance,

we hope to show our partners

that we value their loyalty and

relationship with Symantec,”

said Jason Ellis, EMEA channel

VP at Symantec (below).

::SALES PERKS FOR SYMANTEC VARS

(1) NY Prasad, managing director at Metra, believes resellers will see immediate benefits.

“Today, for example, [customers] could have to go to three different locations to pick one order up, but with the consolidated logistics warehouse there will only be one location to go to,” he said. “We will also have the ability to handle multiple outbound orders, as well as inbound and outbound at the same time, so it gives us multi-faceted capabilities,” he added.

Mohamed Eissa, VP at Metra, insists the company is “raising the game” with the warehouse investment, particularly as it will allow the distributor to explore the possibility of developing its own third-party logistics services offering. Eissa says the warehouse stands 40

metres high, which opens up a number of wider logistics opportunities.

Prasad endorses that view, explaining that Metra will aim to maximise the logistics resources it will have. “We are looking at making it more of a 3PL set-up, so it wouldn’t just be limited to Metra’s logistics — we hope to have a fully-fledged logistics service for vendors and customers too,” he said.

“With a logistics service we would not be buying and selling the product, we would be fulfilling orders, so Metra Distribution could, for instance, become a customer of ‘Metra Logistics’,” he said.

Metra intends to use the Jebel Ali facility as a hub to supply products to local customers and feed its smaller in-country warehouses in the Gulf.

Its flagship Egyptian operation, however, is not affected by the move as it will continue to manage its own logistics domestically.

Metra’s move to enhance its logistics set-up reflects a broader trend among distributors to make their warehouse and inventory management infrastructure as efficient as possible.

Redington Gulf expects its automated distribution centre in Jebel Ali to go live this year, while Almasa is also preparing to formally open a new warehouse.

The prospect of partners switching allegiance to

alternative brands in the wake of its impending take-over by HP is not something that 3Com is willing to entertain lightly, with the networking vendor insisting it continues to “work closely” with Middle East allies to bring the price performance benefits of its solutions to market.

Ownership changes at vendor level can lead channel players to reconsider the brands they work with, but Chris Huggett, VP sales for the UK and East EMEA at 3Com, suggests any partners that might be having second thoughts

about their partnership with the company should think again. “No other networking vendor offers a comparable range of high performance, innovative solutions with TCO,” he said.

Huggett, who was in the region last month, said he was “excited” about the HP acquisition, but was not the appropriate person to comment on the deal.

However, he had this message for the company’s Middle East partners: “What I can say is until the deal closes we are operating as two separate companies and right now we are focused on achieving our business objectives

and supporting our customers and partners. At this point, deal closure is expected in the first half of 2010. During the integration process, go-to-market and product strategy will be determined, among many other things. We will provide more details on this when we can,” he promised.

3Com claims to be seeing an upturn in regional IT spending among enterprises that are looking to take advantage of energy efficiency, unified communications, 10Gb and 40Gb.

Huggett insists 3Com has the technology customers need. “The exploding demands of data centres in the region present a major opportunity for us, since the H3C S12500 and 5800 switches provide the core foundation for tomorrow’s data centres,” he said.

3COM HAILS MEA PROSPECTSVendor claims Middle East business is on the up and has a message for partners anxious about imminent HP deal

< - - -

Mohamed Eissa says Metra may offer its own third-party logistics services

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S audi Arabian reseller Total

Technical Triangle (3T)

has opened a proof-of-concept

centre that will showcase Dell

solutions in the Kingdom.

The Riyadh-based centre

will provide commercial

customers with facilities to

test Dell’s server and storage

infrastructure solutions. It

says the centre will allow them

to configure and benchmark

solutions in a stable

environment without disrupting

their own operations.

Dave Brooke, general

manager of Dell’s Middle East

operation (below), insists the

test facilities are much needed

as enterprise customers want

to ensure they are making the

right investments.

“Customers have been

asking for proof of concept

facilities to help them

understand the benefits of

deploying Dell technology in

the data centre and in mission

critical environments and we

are pleased that 3T has now

answered that need,” he said.

“This is a great opportunity

for customers to experience

Dell technology firsthand to

understand how they can fulfill

their requirements in a secure

environment,” added Brooke.

DELL TEST CENTRE LAUNCHED IN KSA

Netgear has unveiled a new channel sales

programme and made the latest addition to its partner network in the UAE as it sets about getting its claws into the SMB market.

The networking and storage ace has tied up with Dubai-based Fujisoft Technology as part of an agreement that will see the reseller offer a unique VoIP solution that includes the vendor’s ProSafe switches.

Fujisoft will also focus on Netgear’s corporate product line by providing pre-sales support to SMBs throughout the Middle East region.

“We have been continuously forging strategic partnerships with powerful channel partners to further our reach and boost our presence in the UAE and the rest of the region, and we believe that

our recent collaboration with Fujisoft Technology will have significant contribution to our overall growth,” said Omar Lutfi Azzawi, SMB channel manager at Netgear Middle East.

In a bid to propel its SMB aspirations further, Netgear has also launched its ‘2010 Value Added Programme’, which it claims sets “a new bar” for price, performance and wireless networking support for SMB customers.

The scheme will focus on VARs serving the small business market by providing incentives such as sales and technical support, training, customer site visits, special tender prices and product demos.

“The SMB market is the most potential-laden segment in the Middle East as far as technology

adoption is concerned,” said Lutfi Azzawi. “This drives us towards helping the region’s small and medium-sized businesses increase their productivity, efficiency and security by maximising the latest innovations in information technology,” he added.

Netgear’s move to widen its partner network follows on from last year’s appointment of distributor Redington Gulf to develop the SMB channels in both the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

NETGEAR OUT TO GET ITS HANDS ON A LARGER SHARE OF SMB MARKET WITH FUJISOFT TIE-UPNetworking and storage provider looking to expand its coverage of the SMB landscape by forming new partnership and launching programme containing sales and support incentives

Netgear’s Omar Lutfi Azzawi (left) with Albert Raj from its latest UAE partner Fujisoft

J ordanian business solutions provider eSense is vowing to

ramp up its business in the Saudi market after opening an office in Riyadh that will oversee all of its activities in the country.

The company claims it will be able to offer local customers its full line-up of products and services, including pre-sales consultation and post-sales support. eSense lists the government, financial, industrial

and commercial sectors as its top targets, and will put a team in place to go after those markets.

The office will also act as a regional front for Appain, a business process software provider that remains one of the company’s primary vendor partners.

“We are thrilled to announce the official launch of our Saudi-based offices as we are now able to further expand our network of clients by providing the Saudi

market with a constantly updated line-up of web-based solutions,” declared Mohannad Itayem, general manager of the operation.

eSense provides solutions based on technologies from a number of vendors, including Microsoft, VeriSign, BIO-key and Fujitsu. Its portfolio of services ranges from software development and hardware integration to the design of customised IT solutions.

In addition to Jordan and Saudi Arabia, eSense operates auxiliary branches in Kuwait and Qatar. The company, which has been in the market for almost a decade, employs 200 software engineers.

ESENSE GETS SERIOUS IN SAUDIMicrosoft solutions provider to offer local services and support through dedicated branch office in KSA market

::

SECURE • SCALABLE • RELIABLESECURE • SCALABLE • RELIABLE

Antivirus & Content Security

TM

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Aptec has officially

kicked off the Cisco

distributorship it recently

gained in Saudi Arabia by

hosting three separate local

roadshows for resellers.

Under the banner of its Track

Distribution subsidiary, which

handles the Cisco business,

Aptec held ‘launch events’ in

Jeddah, Riyadh and Al Khobar,

where it operates local offices.

As revealed by Channel

Middle East back in December,

Aptec gained Cisco distribution

rights in Saudi Arabia after

proving its worth to the

networking vendor in the other

Gulf markets as well as Yemen,

Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The move is expected to

create extra competition for

Cisco’s existing distribution

partners in Saudi Arabia, Al

Jammaz and Logicom.

Shailendra Sainani, deputy

general manager at Track

(below), believes its experience

of distributing Cisco products

elsewhere in the Middle East

region stands it in good stead.

“Track plans to invest in

quality resources in order

to recruit, enable and grow

the channel and make this

business profitable for both

Track and the partner,” he said.

APTEC WADES INTO CISCO KSA BATTLE

Alcatel-Lucent has pulled off a coup in

Saudi Arabia by getting prominent Nortel integrator BTC Networks on its side.

BTC will become a ‘strategic business partner’ for Alcatel-Lucent in the kingdom and offer its full suite of enterprise communications solutions to businesses of all sizes.

According to the vendor, it has already sat down with its new ally to collectively develop a plan for approaching the market. Alcatel-Lucent says it will be a “combined strategy” to differentiate itself in a Saudi communications market where it faces strong opposition from companies such as Avaya and Cisco.

“Such strong partnership provides great opportunity for more market penetration for both our organisations,”

insisted Alain Penel, VP sales and support for Alcatel-Lucent’s enterprise activities in the MEA region.

Penel claims Alcatel-Lucent’s broad portfolio of enterprise solutions, combined with BTC’s experience in integration, implementation and maintenance of voice and data networks, will create a compelling offering.

Jeddah-based BTC is one of the most influential telecoms integrators in Saudi Arabia, where it has operated for more than three decades. It also has offices in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq.

Alawi Baroum, executive director at BTC, insists the tie-up comes at a time when businesses in Saudi Arabia are increasingly demanding innovative and advanced telecoms

services. “We believe that our understanding of the local market coupled with the solutions developed by Alcatel-Lucent will enable us to meet that need and advance business communications throughout Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“Our customers have asked us to stretch to meet their requirements and today Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end portfolio will further enhance our ability to support our ever-growing list of clients,” added Baroum.

COMMS INTEGRATOR BTC NETWORKS AGREES TO KSA RELATIONSHIP WITH ALCATEL-LUCENTPowerful voice and data reseller to offer full suite of Alcatel-Lucent enterprise products in Saudi Arabia as vendor vows tie-up will help both companies increase market penetration

Alcatel-Lucentwill boost its coverage of the Saudi market by tying up with BTC Networks

Enterprise printing solutions vendor Dascom GB has made

Kuwait-based Trade Links its master distributor for the Gulf.

Dascom hopes it can capitalise on Trade Links’ understanding of the print space, where it has specialised for more than a decade. The company has been instrumental in the development of Arabised printer solutions for sectors such as banking, healthcare and government.

Germany-based Dascom set up its EMEA operations last May after acquiring key assets from TallyGenicom. The company insists its focus is on providing robust printing solutions for business-critical applications.

Dascom GB was established to support multiple European and MEA markets with its portfolio of serial, passbook, mobile, thermal and matrix printers. Existing serial dot matrix printers are branded

‘Tally’ and the new matrix models and thermal printer range are sold under the ‘TallyDascom’ brand.

Deepak Sharma, general manager at Trade Links — a long-term TallyGenicom partner — believes the combination of Dascom’s products and its own technical knowledge will enable it to expand the printer market in the Middle East.

He said: “Our goal is to become the leading supplier of printer solutions for a wide range of businesses and utilities companies. In doing so, we will build on our legacy of answering our customers’ greatest needs.”

NEW DUTIES FOR TRADE LINKS Kuwaiti printing specialist cements agreement with Dascom to become master distributor for the Gulf

::

NEWS ANALYSIS//EXTENDED COVERAGE OF THE TOP STORIES


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xxxxxxx

Data confirming how the EMEA PC market stood up to the economic downturn last year has just been released, but if you belong to one of the leading PC and notebook producers it might just make for uncomfortable viewing.

IN THE DOLDRUMS: YEAR OF GLOOM FOR PC SECTOR

//EXTENDED COVERAGE OF THE TOP STORIES

By the end of last year, an EMEA PC market that

was worth more than 102 million units just 12 months before had shrunk by 5% to around 96.5 million units as the onslaught of the global economic downturn took its toll on computer sales.The scale of the drop might not seem substantial in the grand scheme of things, but for an industry that has consistently risen to the challenge of exceeding the previous year’s performance, it still remains a painful blow to take.Some vendors felt the pain more than others, with those exposed to the commercial sector finding the going particularly tough. Preliminary data just made public by IDC reveals that out of the top five PC vendors in EMEA, Dell recorded the biggest slump in unit sales as volumes plummeted 15% — three times that of the overall rate of the market — to 9.2 million units. A 2% rise in sales during the fourth quarter indicates the US-based vendor might be returning to better form, although the results did little to put a shine on the full-year numbers.Back in 2008, Dell trailed second-place Acer by less than six percentage points — 10.7% to 16.4% to be precise — but that gap was widened massively last year and will take a real turnaround in fortunes to close.

Dell’s market share for 2009 stood at 9.6%. Acer’s, in contrast, was twice as much.To understand why you only have to look at how the Taiwanese mobile PC vendor managed to attain growth in a declining market. Aggressive promotions in the low-end and SMB segments saw its sales rocket by 16%, sending out a message that its ambition of reaching the number one spot may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. Indeed, Acer is unlikely to be as concerned about putting daylight between itself and Dell as it is with narrowing the gap on fierce rival HP, the market’s long-term leader. What was a four point deficit between the pair in 2008 has now been reduced to less than one percentage point. The fact that HP didn’t actually perform that badly — volumes only fell 3% in 2009 — is a further endorsement of Acer’s tactics to win market share.

If anything, it seems like Acer’s strategy is more suited to a depressed market than one where growth is more forthcoming. The question, then, will be whether it can keep up the same pace when conditions generally improve for its main competitors. Karine Paoli, associate vice president at IDC, forecasts a more even playing field for all PC manufacturers in 2010. She expects the sector to benefit from a rebound in business renewal cycles, while Windows 7 and cheaper ultra portable models should stimulate purchases in the consumer space. “Market conditions will remain tough as competition will maintain pricing pressure, but market expansion in both mature and emerging countries will offer vendors continued growth opportunities,” she added. With growth returning to much stronger levels in Q4, including a 17% spike in the Middle East

and Africa, it looks distinctly like the market is starting to recover, if only modestly. Market contenders, such as Asus and Toshiba, which saw EMEA sales fall 4% and 7% respectively last year, will feel just as optimistic as big-hitting rivals such as HP. “Mini notebooks will remain hot in 2010, but growth is likely to display slightly lower double-digit rates as the renewal of mainstream notebooks gains pace,” said Eszter Morvay, research manager at IDC. “In addition, there will be new contenders like thin and light portables, smartbooks and tablet-based devices to steal the limelight from mini-notebooks and stir up the competition in the coming quarters.”Whatever the outcome, it seems the next 12 months will turn out to be completely different to those that have just gone before us. The majority of PC brands will be hoping so anyway.

EMEA PC SHIPMENTS 2009 (000 UNITS) SOURCE: IDC

VENDOR FY 2008 FY 2009 SHARE FY08 SHARE FY09 2009/2008 GROWTH

HP 20,620 19,996 20.2% 20.7% -3.0%

ACER 16,756 19,512 16.4% 20.2% 16.4%

DELL 10,935 9,256 10.7% 9.6% -15.4%

ASUS 6,465 6,194 6.3% 6.4% -4.2%

TOSHIBA 6,087 5,662 6.0% 5.9% -7.0%

OTHERS 41,157 35,949 40.3% 37.2% -12.7%

TOTAL 102,019 96,570 100% 100% -5.3%

>>

:

:::

:

EDITOR’S NOTES(17)


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The very foundations of the regional IT

market might have been built on credit, but it is clear that times are changing, especially in the Dubai channel.As dealers contend with a lack of transparency over the financial strength of their customers and battle to overcome the pressures they face each day, many are reasoning that there is really only one option left to take if they want to ensure they get paid in full.Just recently the Dubai Computer Group issued a circular to all its reseller members reiterating the basic financial procedures they should carry out to avoid falling foul of the hazards that lurk in the market.Supplying against LPOs when selling on credit, ensuring that security cheques can’t be misused; such practices are commonplace but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded it seems.Yet a growing number of traders are said to have already decided that for pure dealer-to-dealer business — which it is suggested could account for more than 40% of business in the Dubai channel — the only transactions they’ll agree to are the ones where they see the currency upfront.

Whether it’s an immediate bank transfer, current dated cheque (CDC) or merely hard cash (and, yes, connotations of traders striding up and down Computer Street with briefcases full of bank notes aren’t as wide of the mark as they might seem!) the only guarantee of avoiding financial despair is to collect the payment before the goods are dispatched.Sources say some of the most influential names on Computer Street have resorted to this policy for a number of months now.One big hardware re-exporter, which has been in the Dubai market for more than two decades, now does 90% of its sales on delivery-upon-payment terms, for instance. The only credit it extends is to customers with which it either has a long-term trading relationship or considers an exception for other reasons.The belief is that more traders will go down this route as they weigh up the amount of exposure they have to potential bad debts.While a propensity for cash sales does mitigate the risks of dealing in a highly volatile market place, it is also a sorry indictment of how fragile the situation in the regional channel has become.

Of more concern is the prospect that if credit isn’t allowed to flow freely, servicing day-to-day trade and winning new business opportunities becomes considerably more difficult. And that’s an issue that has implications for other tiers of the supply chain — vendors and distributors most notably.For now though, traders will quite rightly argue that their options are limited. Some even think that a greater degree of prudence is not actually a bad attribute for the channel to exhibit in light of an economic climate that still harbours uncertainty.“Distributors are still giving credit, but it is subject to insurance coverage because they are not as liberal as they were before when they’d give you any amount you wanted,” said one Dubai dealer this week. “That has certainly contributed to this situation. Things have been tightened up and dealer-to-dealer everybody is very careful. It is a good sign for the market.”That may well be true, but the question of whether the need for protection outweighs the natural tendency to secure new business at any cost is yet to be conclusively answered. We’ll have to wait a little longer for that.

Bearing in mind the consequences of the economic downturn on the IT market, it was only going to be a matter of time before talk of IT traders switching to cash sales grew louder.

CASH ONLY, PLEASE

>> Seagate hopes the decision to slash distribution numbers will improve profitability for its remaining wholesale partners in the region.

//by Andrew Seymour

EXPERT’S VIEW


(18)

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//TOP TIPS FROM MASTERS OF THE CHANNEL

1. SSD to go mainstreamGreater production of NAND and the wide adoption of Windows 7, which includes a number of SSD-specific performance-enhancing features, will make this technology a mainstream part of the PC storage portfolio for corporate and personal users in 2010. Kingston will continue to educate end-users on the real price to performance ratio that SSDs have over traditional HDDs.

2. Prepare for the price crashWith pricing getting closer to the US$100 barrier, Kingston expects that prices for SSDs in 2010 will continue to decline as vendors refine production processes and NAND die shrinks continue. The lower pricing will directly result in capacity increases as costs come down. Thus, capacities of SSDs will continue to soar, with one 1TB drives on the horizon already.

3. Continued consolidation As predicted last year, consolidation in the DRAM market has taken its toll in 2009, helping the industry’s recovery. The continued increase in prices and the recent narrowing of

The memory market might be known for its volatility, but one man with a clearer view than most is John Tu, president and co-founder of Kingston Technology. He predicts the major developments that will shape the memory industry during the course of this year.

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

chipmakers’ losses come as an indicator of the upturn in the industry. Yet, with consolidation expected to continue in 2010, caution will be a top priority for manufacturers. DRAM supply and demand is projected to improve in 2010 in conjunction with the global economic resurgence.

4. Prolonging the life-cycleThe uptake of lower energy IT equipment, such as SSD drives, and higher capacity memory modules have proved that organisations are definitely looking further into the future by investing to reap cost-saving benefits over the next years. During 2010, we will see more organisations upgrading and extending the use of their server and client systems, as well as implementing solutions to reduce overall costs and become much more efficient.

5. The rise of DDR3 JEDEC-based DDR3 memory modules were launched by most manufacturers in the summer of 2007. However, as with most new technologies, implementation has taken some time. It is predicted that DDR3 shipments will rise

to account for more than half of the global DRAM market by the second quarter of next year. What is more, according to DRAMeXchange, DDR3-based platforms are expected to account for 90% of new systems sales by the end of 2010, leading the PC memory technology.

6. USB 3.0 breaks through USB 3.0 technology has been in the news for quite some time already, however we are yet to see a move from major vendors seeking to push USB 3.0-compatible motherboards. With specifications confirmed to support data transfer rates of up to 4.8GB/s — more than three times faster than a USB 2.0 — this new interface will truly set a new standard and also push demand for high capacity USBs as data transfer times are reduced. The first boards supporting USB 3.0 have begun shipping, with compatible USB drives expected in 2010. How quickly this new interface will find its way into the market is yet to be seen. USB 2.0 will remain the major standard throughout 2010, with USB 3.0 becoming stronger in 2011.

Kingston’s John Tu expects solid state drives and DDR3 technology to make all the headlines this year

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INSIDE INFORMATION//EXPERTS IN THEIR OWN WORDS


(20)

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CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST: The past year has been tough for the enterprise channel. What are your plans to drive the business this year?MIGUEL EL-KHOURY: One of the focus areas for 2010 is profitability, which is important for every systems integrator now. If you take the infrastructure business it is always low margin business, so profitability is key. Gaining market share is the other story. There are a few countries where we are number one in terms of revenue to Cisco because Cisco contributes to 70% of our business. We need to grow more market share and become the number one in the other countries. So profitability and market share are key objectives for us, as well as the arising issue these days which is accounts receivables. CME: The economic situation has changed dramatically in the past year. Does that mean you will have to do things differently to ensure profitability in the future?ME: Yes, we need to do things differently and we need to be careful about being more aggressive. We used to be better in terms of bottom line, even if the margins were thin, but we were always betting on over-achievement and over-revenue. However, it is now very difficult to over-achieve the revenue by a lot so you need to make sure that your operational cost is in sync with your anticipated revenue. We cannot be as aggressive as we used to be and secondly we need to be more services-oriented, rather than products-oriented. CME: Isn’t that easier said than done, particularly in this region?

ME: I know it is difficult in this market, but the good news about this situation is that we were always services-driven and we were always careful about how we priced projects. Others were not and that is why I see a lot of these local or even multinational integrators suffering financially and thankfully we are not. We are not in our golden ages, but we are not suffering. CME: Is there anything more that vendors can do when it comes to helping channel profitability? And are vendors even paying enough attention to the subject?ME: To be honest with you, vendors always talk about partner profitability. How serious they are is another question. It is something I have spoken about for the last three years. I have been saying, mainly to Cisco — even before the crisis — that you have to be careful, you have to know the issues and concerns of your partners, and you have to think with us.CME: And do they take it seriously?ME: Yes, they do. But is it getting to the ground [level] and being implemented? Really honestly, I doubt it. But at least they have started to think, see and understand the challenges of their partners. I think that with a little bit of maturity things will get better over time.CME: If there is one particular thing you could improve from the vendor side, what would it be?ME: More than 90% of customers would always like to talk to and initially start the conversation with the vendors. Systems integrators come next. So a preferred partner

model is key. For any vendor working with multiple partners, I believe that 80% of its business should be driven and supported through a specific partner, rather than sending the customer a kind of BOQ or shopping list. If you give this advantage to a specific preferred partner and then you really differentiate that partner — and the criteria of defining this partner could be manifold — then you give this partner a price advantage which is good enough for them to keep their volumes healthy and keep their services healthy, and a lot of the problems would be resolved. CME: What sort of percentage do services contribute to your networking business these days? ME: For me it is healthy to be in the range of 10%. We are always in that range and this year I am going to be very aggressive on the team to make sure we are above 10%.CME: Finally, there continues to be speculation that some large systems integrators, especially in the UAE, are struggling financially. What impact will the outcome of this have on the competitive landscape?ME: I believe these guys [which are struggling] will need some time, but I don’t believe they will disappear. These guys have matured, been there for a long time and they have strong sponsorships behind them. But I think that once they wake up from the sudden shock they will be careful about their margins, who they work with and the commitments they put in front of the customer. And that will drive a healthier market situation for systems integrators.

GOLDEN DAYS ARE GONE, BUT GBM

REMAINS BULLISH Systems integrators

have really felt the force of the economic downturn in the past

year, but Gulf Business Machines (GBM) is one

player that believes it is in better shape than

most. Miguel El-Khoury, director of the

company’s 150-strong integrated networking and site services unit, explains why changes

in the market place are calling for some

strategic thinking.

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and peripheral market that is much too long because the product life-cycles are so short. You need to look at weekly cycles — those are where you will see the trend lines occurring.

Would you say it is better to be conservative, rather than aggressive, when ordering new products?

GUY WHITCROFT: Yes, people fall in love with their products and they over-order; they believe that the new model will immediately result in huge sales. No matter how popular the new product becomes, there is a ramp-up period so build that into your orders and your forecasting. Don’t anticipate that you will go from zero to a zillion units in two weeks, it just never happens. The other thing on that is taking out the buffer. Most people order a buffer stock, just in case they get more sales.

Take those out, be accurate in your forecasting and you don’t need the buffer. The buffer is there for lazy stock management.

What is potentially more damaging to a distie — over-forecasting or under-forecasting on inventory?

GUY WHITCROFT: It depends on the scale, quite honestly, because both can be damaging. If you are known as constantly being out of stock then customers are only going to come to you as a last resort, so you will order less because fewer customers are coming to you and then get into a downward spiral. But if you are constantly over-stocked you are going to run out of money very quickly. So, in fact, both are equally bad for different reasons, but I would rather occasionally be under-stocked than occasionally be severely over-stocked.

Has the downturn led to the rules of inventory management changing?

GUY WHITCROFT: In general, the rules of inventory management haven’t changed — you just need to be more focused on all of your areas of capital utilisation. When cash is tight you have got to manage it more accurately and carefully. I see four pillars of inventory management — you can call it ‘ABCD’. A is accurate forecasting, B is for being dispassionate, C is for clear ageing inventory and D is for direct link to pay.

Let’s talk about forecasting first. How often should distributors be looking at purchasing and sell-out trends?

GUY WHITCROFT: Many people look at monthly patterns for inventory but in the PC

TAKING STOCKMastering the art of inventory management can mean the difference between profit and loss for any distributor handling fast-moving IT products. Fresh from leading a workshop on the subject at last month’s DISTREE XXL event, distribution guru and principal consultant at CapitalSteps, Guy Whitcroft, sat down with Channel Middle East to reveal the secrets of good stock management.

_www.itp.net_ //CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_DECEMBER 2009(23)

//CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010BY ANDREW SEYMOUR _www.itp.net_

Apart from the monetary issues, the problem with occasional over-stocking is where do you store the stuff? It creates physical constraints.

What are the hidden costs associated with bad stock management?

GUY WHITCROFT: Too much inventory costs you money, that’s clear. It costs you money in terms of both tying up more working capital and space to store it. Your insurance costs go up and your staff costs go up because you need more people to manage this inventory. Your opportunity costs are in there as well, which people often forget about. Your opportunity cost is the cost that you lose or gain turning inventory back into cash to buy more inventory to make a profit on that. The quicker you do that, the better.

Let’s return to your ‘ABCD’ pillars and the part about being dispassionate. What is that about?

GUY WHITCROFT: It is really about standing back from your brand or your product and saying, ‘am I making money out of it?’ Don’t be afraid to cut products where you don’t make money, no matter how big the brand. The only caveat is if it is a very big traffic generator you could afford to have a much lower level of profitability or perhaps even break-even level by viewing it as a marketing cost. But never allow a product to lose money. Don’t do the ‘help a friend’ thing just because your vendor sales rep suddenly needs help making that quarter’s numbers. You cannot afford to do that because just as that person is your friend when they need help, when it comes round to the next quarter and you need their help in clearing all this stuff, suddenly that friendship is forgotten.

Speaking of which, how much of an issue is channel stuffing these days?

GUY WHITCROFT: From speaking to distributors at DISTREE XXL, I have to say that the level of channel stuffing last year was probably at an all-time high in terms of percentage of sales because few of the vendors made appropriate adjustments to their targets. One or two did, but most didn’t. And so they just said to their sales people, ‘we don’t care that the forecast is for 10% lower

sales, you are going to make the number or else.’ As a result, there was serious channel stuffing. There is probably a lot of inventory buried in the channel that still needs to flush through so I think the first two quarters of this year could see some of that flushing out. I certainly hope they can flush it out otherwise you are going to see some disties in trouble.

What about the ‘C’ — clearing ageing inventory. How important is that?

GUY WHITCROFT: PCs have a very short shelf life and you have got to keep them moving through. Your values are not going to increase as you hold the stock longer because of the life-cycle of the models. If any of your PCs are more than 60 days old you should be clearing them out very quickly. And if you have to clear them below cost, do it, because it is going to be cheaper than holding them.

And finally, the ‘D’ — direct link to pay. Tell us how that works.

GUY WHITCROFT: Provisions must be linked to the gross profit of the division so the product managers feel it, the general managers feel it and even the executive managers feel it. That keeps everybody focused on getting the inventory moving at all times. Also, you should link total inventory levels to pay in the same way by giving people a maximum level to operate within. Anything over that, they feel the cost of money and any other costs that are appropriate against the profitability of their business.

How rigorously should that policy be enforced by distributors?

GUY WHITCROFT: I am not saying that you necessarily penalise people from dollar one of the provisions. You will always have some stocks over because you may have bought products in specifically for a project that has been delayed but you know the customer is going to take them. So do allow some leeway before the penalisation kicks in, but ensure the provisions are clear, unambiguous and fixed — a couple of percent of the ‘allowable’ maximum stock value. Don’t tie it to the ‘actual’ stock value because people will just over-order to reduce the apparent level of provisions in percentage terms.

Don’t be afraid to cut products where you don’t

make money — no matter how big the brand

(24)//CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_DECEMBER 2009_www.itp.net_ //CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010 _www.itp.net_

Make sure you are sitting comfortably because we are about to bring you a comprehensive rundown of the largest IT distribution companies operating in the Middle East today. Ladies and gentlemen, after

extensive research and countless interviews, here is The 2010 Power List…

(26)// CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010 _www.itp.net_

T here is no denying it, the foundations of the Middle East distribution sector were rocked last year. Demand for IT

products slowed considerably — particularly in the commercial sector — nervous credit insurers pulled cover left, right and centre, and banks reduced their exposure to the IT channel more dramatically than ever before.

To top it all off, many vendors in the region panicked, leaving the distribution sector firmly in the middle with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Yet, for all the adversity that the distribution channel faced last year, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that matters the most: all of the major IT distributors are still standing in the market today. And while they may feel a little bruised, they are all a lot wiser from their encounters of the past year.

For some distribution companies it is going to take time to return to the sort of scale they enjoyed when the market peaked in 2008 — should that even remain an objective for them of course — because 2009 was a year when most players either failed to grow their top line altogether or grew at a much slower rate than they were previously accustomed to.

Indeed, the 15 Dubai-based distributors featured over the coming pages collectively made sales of US$4.877 billion last year, an increase of 2.7% on the previous year. That is a remarkable achievement given the challenges facing the market, but when you compare it with growth of 24.3% during the 2007-2008 period it is patently clear how heavily the downturn affected the market.

So why have some distributors seen sales decrease and others posted apparently strong growth when the trend up to now had been for distributors to expand at roughly the same rate? Well, there are numerous reasons.

Some distributors were more heavily exposed to markets or product lines more impacted by the downturn. Others deliberately sacrificed risky business to ensure bottom line growth instead. Changes in the vendor landscape played a part too.

For instance, HP hired two additional distributors in the Middle East, which carved the market into more slices. Some existing HP distributors compensated for that by bringing new brands on board, which also made up for the slower organic growth they experienced.

Those who chose not to expand their portfolios, meanwhile, naturally lost revenue due to the increased competition they faced.

We’ve made a point of emphasising that revenue is merely one measurement of performance and certainly does not suggest that one distributor is ‘better’ than another just because its sales figure is higher. After

all, The Power List generally excludes many prominent value distributors because the very nature of their business means they simply don’t do the volumes needed to

warrant a place on the list. However, what revenue does give us is a

snapshot of market demand and an indication of the size and scale of the IT distributors involved in the majority of transactions that take place in the Middle East market today.

Aside from that, this year’s Power List gives you a valuable insight into the plans and strategies of each distributor through an exclusive Q&A with a senior executive.

As you’d expect, the answers they give reflect the diversity of the distributors themselves, but there are some common themes that emerge. Many stress the importance of putting profitability at the centre of every decision they make nowadays, while there is also a firm emphasis on the steps that need to be taken to drive customer loyalty.

In addition to the contact and ownership details of each distributor, we reveal the number of staff they employ, the in-country coverage they have and the brands they are authorised to carry. Each profile also includes the number of active accounts they serve. Most distributors have thousands of customer names in their databases, but the number of active accounts specifically refers to the ones they transact with on a quarterly basis.

It goes without saying that a dose of reality has been injected into the distribution sector during the past year. The leading players have all had to make some extremely difficult decisions to ensure their survival, but it appears they have emerged from this tough period with a better understanding of their business and with their prospects still intact.

For some IT distribution companies it is going to take

time to return to the sort of scale they enjoyed when the market was at its peak

As The Power List seeks to indicate the largest Dubai-based distributors by scale we have a responsibility to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of any fi gures we publish. Once again, we have taken measures to verify the revenues by requesting distributors to provide evidence of the sales fi gure they state.

Due to the publication date of this article, most distributors do not yet have copies of independently-audited fi nancial accounts for the most recent calendar year. However, all distributors in this year’s Power List have either shown us a copy of pre-audited results or provided a fi gure they claim to be accurate.

To build in an extra layer of verifi cation, we have also asked each distributor to show us a copy of their audited accounts for 2008.You will therefore see a ‘VERIFIED’ stamp next to fi gures we are

satisfi ed are genuine based on viewing independently-audited statements.

This is a policy we began last year when we asked companies to show us their audited 2007 sales and supply a preliminary fi gure for 2008. Having now viewed the audited 2008 fi gure this time around, we are pleased to say that all disties provided a number that either matched what they stated last year or was close enough to be deemed satisfactory.

We intend to adopt the same policy going forward, so next year we will request evidence of the 2010 fi gure as well as independently-audited accounts showing the confi rmed 2009 revenue. If for any reason the 2009 fi gure confl icts with the number provided to us this year by what we consider to be an unacceptable margin then we

reserve the right to exclude the company from The Power List.

It goes without saying that revenue is only one indicator of a company’s size and should not be regarded as a statement that one company is better or more signifi cant than another.

However, we believe it is imperative that all data published in these pages is verifi ed to the best of our ability. We hope the measures outlined above will contribute towards building a more accurate and transparent picture of the Middle East market, as well as creating a level playing fi eld for each distributor included in the list.

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BY ANDREW SEYMOUR // CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010

REVENUE VERIFICATION

What measures have you taken to ensure your company remains competitive?

Inventory and cash-fl ow management were the two most important measures that we took. In terms of inventory management, we tied up with some good logistics companies to save on the transit time of the goods. For instance, if some goods took three weeks from Hong Kong or China to ship to Dubai, we got it down to two weeks or 12 days. So by that we were able to substantially reduce our inventory as well as the capital that is invested in inventory. That has also had positive implications on our cash fl ow as it meant we had less in-transit stock and were able to reduce our liabilities to the banks. The brands that we represent are mostly quality brands and we are also able to offer very good after-sales support.

What are your main strategic plans when it comes to developing the business in 2010?

There are many new opportunities that have become available to us due to the downsizing and disappearance of many players in the market. We have seen some players move out or some players get pretty weak and that has left some room for us to grow. We will continue to concentrate on existing markets and reward our channels, as well as dedicate a certain amount of our resources to exploring emerging markets. There are certain under-developed markets that present strong potential, such as Iraq or those in North Africa and even Central Africa.

2009 SALES

US$109m

2008 SALES

US$95m

Contact: +971 4 886 3300

Website: www.gse.ae

Headcount: 100

Active Accounts: 500

Regional Offi ces: UAE

Key Brands: AMD, Gigabyte, Kaspersky, Kingmax, Logitech

Ownership: Golden Systems Middle East is privately owned by a group of Middle East investors

COMPANY FOCUS

Golden Systems is best known as the exclusive distributor for motherboard maker Gigabyte and even launched the vendor’s new notebook range in the region last year, but the company has also worked hard to expand its product offering. Contracts with the likes of Kaspersky and Logitech have given GSME’s portfolio a broader IT fl avour. Its sales capabilities have also been supported by investments in after-sales resources to keep its ever-expanding dealer base satisfi ed.

GOLDEN SYSTEMS MIDDLE EAST FZCO

VERDICT

Relocating to a new offi ce and warehousing facility in Jebel Ali last year appears to have given Golden Systems a platform to move its business forward at a time when the components sector has been under intense pressure. The company even houses Gigabyte’s regional support functions at the all-purpose location. Aside from that, the distributor continues to be a strong re-export player from its centralised offi ce in the UAE, reaching out into markets that others have struggled to penetrate.

COO: EHSAN HASHEMI


We are a company that believes in GP and bottom-line basics and this has been the focus which has refl ected how serious we are about the long-term ambitions of continuing to grow and exist in the market. We have no desire to trade in a way that overshadows the need to make a profi t. Today, distribution has become mere fulfi lment - logistics and box-shifting remain part and parcel of the channel’s role. Support and services is often an overlooked area of channel development because it gets forgotten that high quality support and services are vital to differentiate yourself from competitors in this cut-throat competitive environment. That is where Trigon has continued to capitalise.


We will continue to support and remain loyal to all our partners so that we build quality business. That means continuing peer-to-peer relationships with dealers, resellers and retailers to better understand their business requirements and business models. We intend to put more focus on the retail business and expand the retail-related product line, and do the same thing for the SME segment. Another priority will be to add more value with the expansion of our service centre and the addition of vendors and products that provide services-related value add.

2009 SALES

US$128m

2008 SALES

US$115m

Contact: +971 4 393 6247

Website: www.trigononline.com

Headcount: 95


Regional Offi ces: Bahrain, UAE

Key Brands: BenQ, D-Link, Creative, Elo Touch, Ergotron, LG, Samsung, ViewSonic

Ownership: Trigon is a division of the privately-held Al Ghurair Business Group

COMPANY FOCUS

Trigon has strategic alliances with many prominent IT peripherals and electronics suppliers, rendering it an infl uential distributor in both the consumer and commercial channels, particularly in the UAE. Under the stewardship of Arun Chawla, Trigon has evolved into a fi nancially-strong and stable outfi t with one of the most impressive staff retention rates in the industry and a loyal customer base to match – factors that have helped it forge relationships with some of the market’s biggest names.

TRIGON LLC

VERDICT

The strategy of dividing its business into four pillars – channel, retail, corporate and exports – appears to have served Trigon well in 2009 by ensuring it was not overly exposed to one particular sector of the market. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Dubai-based distribution house add to the 18 core brands it already works with, especially if there is no danger of it cannibalising existing sales. Tie-ups with Sony for data storage and Packard Bell for PCs and monitors are recent evidence of that.

COO: ARUN CHAWLA



We work on ROI and so we have focused on products that are profi table and on markets that can give us better margins. There has been more focus on the in-country and retail businesses. Retail has really helped us because today our credit line in channel is being squeezed, but for retail we don’t have any issues. If Carrefour requests US$4m then it’s going to be fi ne with the insurance company. The insurance factor has pushed us to focus on retail, but because we have a separate division with expertise in that we have managed to grow this share of the business.


Our plan is to go in-country in Kuwait and Jordan by the second quarter and continue focuing on our in-country business in Saudi Arabia. We will also look to focus on power retail and add new brands, mainly where we can get a higher profi t percentage. We are looking more at the PC and networking segments because our components portfolio is full. Stock availability and people expertise are very important to us, as is being close to the customer. A lot of the time our competition probably thinks Empa will have offered a lower price and got the deal, but that is not the case. It is about relationships and being close to the customer base. MNCs would not understand this, but in our region relationships drive a lot of business.

2009 SALES

US$131m

2008 SALES

US$123m

Contact: +971 4 803 9500

Website: www.empa-me.com

Headcount: 85


Regional Offi ces: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Key Brands: Fujitsu, Intel, Iomega, Kingston, Lite-On, Netgear, Philips, Toshiba

Ownership: Empa Middle East is owned by private investors who purchased the company from the Turkish Empa Group more than eight years ago

COMPANY FOCUS

As reliable and consistent as they come, Intel specialist Empa is one of the names that automatically springs to mind when you think of components distribution. That said, the company has cultivated a strong consumer-based portfolio that has given its business real balance and seen it gain access to some of the biggest retailers in the region during a challenging market environment. Investments that Empa is making in a new ERP system should lead to it packing an even greater punch in future.

EMPA MIDDLE EAST FZCO

VERDICT

Empa can be pleased with its performance last year, especially when you consider that ASPs on many of its core product lines encountered some serious declines. Its in-country Saudi business and E-retail distribution arm are gaining increasing signifi cance in the company’s wider operations and that is only likely to continue in 2010 and beyond. If Empa has plans to scale the business any further then bringing more fi nished goods vendors on board looks as though it will be a necessary move.

SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR: SHAHOOD KHAN


We did a lot of analysis on which brands were bringing us profi tability or opening up market share, for example. We also did a lot of analysis in-country to see which operations made sense in terms of margin and everything else. That is why we decided to go into Lebanon and put more investment in Jordan, because margins were a little bit better. The same goes for East Africa. And we did a lot of optimisation by restructuring the whole company too. We used to have a sales force with customer service and co-ordination integrated into one. Now that the volume has grown we have created a new structure with separate marketing, sales and customer service teams.


We are looking at more product lines and product groups that can add value to our company, so we’ll start by looking at extending product lines which are compatible with what we are doing right now. Maybe we’ll look at hardware in certain regions because it matches with supplies, but we wouldn’t do that everywhere. We won’t make the mistake of taking on a product range just to satisfy a vendor and carry everything. Other plans include focusing on logistics and in-country. There are more value added services that we want to offer, whether it be drop shipments, more delivery duty paid services or e-commerce.

2009 SALES

US$155m

2008 SALES

US$144m

Contact: +971 4 881 1191

Website: www.despec.ae

Headcount: 70


Regional Offi ces: Iran, Kenya, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, UAE

Key Brands: Canon, Double A Paper, Epson, HP, Imation, Lexmark, Samsung, Wacom

Ownership: Despec MERA is a division of Despec International, which is 70% owned by Dubai International Financial Centre

COMPANY FOCUS

Supplies specialist Despec has always been a distributor that knows exactly what its market is and focuses on serving it effectively. This has led it to develop business with many of the region’s top retailers and corporate resellers, as well as establish in-country operations in a host of new geographic territories. The forward-thinking distributor remains an advocate of expanding its range of delivery options and harnessing online sales tools in a bid to improve customer service.

DESPEC MERA LTD

VERDICT

Customers might have stopped buying hardware last year but they still needed supplies to maintain their existing printer infrastructures and that factor clearly served Despec well. But the company’s good form isn’t just simply down to the fortune of specialising in the after-sales market. It seized the initiative last year by launching new sales offi ces in the Middle East, adding more product lines and fi ne-tuning its internal processes to achieve greater cost alignment with its European business.

COO: FAISAL JAMAL

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// CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010


We reorganised the back offi ce and deployed resources in the frontline - that was one of the fi rst points. The second thing is that we looked at the total working capital of each franchise and managed the cash fl ow precisely. You can show all the revenue you want, but at the end of the day, if you don’t have the cash and you don’t have the profi t, you cannot pay the salaries to the employees. Cash fl ow is very important for the survival of companies and so is working capital and risk management. We kept a very stable approach with our customers and with our credit limits, and spoke extensively with our insurers to counter-balance the effect of the credit crunch. All in all, it paid off because our cash and profi t were the same as 2008.


We have stabilised, and with the CRM we have in place we now really want to expand in terms of cross-selling, work on providing better customer service and enhance the rapidity and precision of the response. I think today we have reached the objective of building equilibrium between the volume and value business, so we now need to realise how we can benefi t from our structure and our people to become better. We also have a couple of new products that we really need to invest in, such as Huawei Symantec and Brocade, because they can be the next future opportunities.

2009 SALES

US$189m

2008 SALES

US$210m

Contact: +971 4 391 3333

Website: www.mindware.ae

Headcount: 135

Active Accounts: 1,000

Regional Offi ces: Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Key Brands: Alcatel-Lucent, Brocade, CA, Citrix, Dell, Huawei Symantec, Intel, Juniper, McAfee, Microsoft

Ownership: Mindware is an affi liate of the US$1 billion-a-year IT group MDS Holdings COMPANY FOCUS

Mindware is a name that remains synonymous with the Middle East distribution market through its partnerships with major brands such as Intel, Dell and Microsoft. The company also has one of the widest enterprise value offerings in the region, underpinned by a portfolio of pre-sales consultancy, service implementation and after-sales support. Given the challenges facing the UAE IT market, Mindware’s operations in countries such as Egypt and KSA continue to gain added signifi cance.

MINDWARE FZ LLC

VERDICT

Boosted by investments it has made in consolidating its back-offi ce functions and improving its IT systems, Mindware has been able to run a strong and steady ship under the stewardship of Jacques Chammas and Mario Gay. As a company with a dual volume and value distribution model it naturally suffered some pain from the general decline in the components and hardware market last year, but it was able to offset that with the continued expansion of its storage, networking and software portfolio.

GENERAL MANAGER: MARIO GAY


We have been enlarging our product portfolio to fi ll the gaps because historically we came from the components side. We have jumped on the mobility and notebook business and we have been successful at getting some franchises in Saudi Arabia and other countries. I think that we will start with Dell in the UAE this quarter as well. Another step we took last year was to build ourselves and the staff up to move towards software distribution. We have already signed with Symantec for retail products in Egypt and North Africa. We also expanded our reach into retail, signing with most of the retailers from the region.


The main priorities are to continue to increase both the number of active customers and our portfolio. We aim to have more involvement in software and solutions because we need to be a one-stop shop for retailers and IT solution providers. Geographically, we are going to continue improving the Saudi operations. We are one of the few distributors right now that owns three offi ces in Saudi - Jeddah, Khobar and Riyadh - with logistics. We also plan to reconsider opening our offi ce in Qatar once again. A distributor has to be a service company. It has to enhance its logistics capabilities and product lines in addition to working hand-in-hand with partners to ensure profi tability.

2009 SALES

US$183m

2008 SALES

US$169m

Contact: +971 4 886 3850

Website: www.asbisme.ae

Headcount: 90


Regional Offi ces: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE

Key Brands: AMD, Dell, ECS, Hitachi, Intel, Lenovo, Sapphire, Seagate, Sony Optiarc, Toshiba, VTX3D

Ownership: Asbis Middle East is a subsidiary of Asbis Enterprises Plc, which is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange

COMPANY FOCUS

The once components-only distribution house continues to prosper in the Middle East and North Africa, broadening its customer base to include a signifi cant number of major power retailers and strengthening its in-country coverage outside of the UAE. With its own Canyon and Prestigio products adding another string to its bow, Asbis’ aspirations to become a single source of IT goods for resellers are nearer to becoming realised with each quarter that passes.

ASBIS MIDDLE EAST FZCO

VERDICT

Asbis’ MEA business was a shining light for the group’s operations as the Russian and Eastern European markets faltered last year. The distributor’s efforts to diversify from components by partnering with vendors such as Toshiba, Lenovo and Dell have undoubtedly provided protection from the downturn in local components sales. Although Asbis saw the rate of its growth slow down in the Middle East, we wouldn’t bet against it exceeding the US$200m mark by the time next year’s Power List is published.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEA: HESHAM TANTAWI

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The fi rst major one is credit discipline - collections and exposure. There are two parts to it: how much you have to give to the customer and how you are going to ensure the credit terms are followed. Discipline in stock and inventory management is also important and the whole organisation is very focused on ensuring bad inventory doesn’t get stuck with us. The recession has also given us some opportunity to clean up the fat internally and improve the quality of the people, which means we are a much more robust organisation than in the past.


We don’t plan to do anything extraordinary because it is not a time for experimentation, I am very clear about that. But strategically we have shifted our business from the high street and the plazas to the retailing space - companies like Carrefour, Plug-Ins, Jacky’s, CompuMe, Alghanim and Eureka. Business is more sustainable there, the credit is safer and it is also more predictable. We are also aligning ourselves with the vendors so that the products we buy are more suitable for the retail segment than the SMB segment. The prinicples of distribution are effi cient logistics, effi cient credit management, strong alignment with vendors and being a thinking organisation, because what is good for today may not be good for tomorrow.

2009 SALES

US$269m

2008 SALES

US$324m

Contact: +971 4 336 7999

Website: www.jumbocorp.com

Headcount: 65


Regional Offi ces: Kuwait, Oman, UAE

Key Brands: Acer, HP, LG Electronics

Ownership: Jumbo IT Distribution is an independent division of privately-held Jumbo Electronics Company COMPANY FOCUS

Jumbo IT Distribution is one of the few distribution houses to manage just a handful of brands, namely Acer, HP and LG. This means its business is heavily shaped by the behaviour of those vendors in the Middle East market and the sales strategies they implement. At the same time though, its decision to resist brand expansion and focus so narrowly has allowed it to concentrate on the job in hand and develop business with some of the most prominent IT and electronics retailers in the Gulf market.

JUMBO IT DISTRIBUTION

VERDICT

HP’s decision to appoint more PSG distributors at a time when the market was contracting was always going to impact Jumbo’s top line performance in 2009, particularly as the distributor chose not to widen its brand portfolio in response. However, a renewed focus on the power retail space, which could even see the company launch a dedicated accessories unit in the coming months, should put Jumbo back on track this year and reduce its exposure to potential bad debts in the channel dealer community.

GENERAL MANAGER: BIKAS BISWAS


In such a challenging business environment we had to revisit all our partner accounts as we were obliged to follow credit insurance decisions based on the policy of the board of directors. We focused on accounts that we felt comfortable with, both in terms of fi nancial fairness and project-execution capability. Close links with key customers, early engagement in projects, timely response, effective stocking and taking up particular opportunities, such as our partnership with HP, all helped us remain on top of our game. There is always an opportunity behind every challenge so we made sure we tried to grab those opportunities.


On a general level it is about prudence, focusing on key brands and cross-selling, maintaining a healthy cash fl ow and controlling expenditure, which we will be even stricter on this year. Improving systems, through enhanced CRM and e-commerce capabilities, is another way of reducing costs and improving the bottom line because we are not in a market where you can really increase prices. Our focus will remain on the SMB and midmarket segments - which are still going strong - so that we are not directly affected by shrinking IT budgets in the government and large enterprise sectors. Focusing on plentiful, smaller accounts reduces risk and gives us customer breadth.

2009 SALES

US$280m

2008 SALES

US$271m

Contact: +971 4 507 8888

Website: www.logicom.ae

Headcount: 170


Regional Offi ces: Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Key Brands: APC, Cisco, HP, Intel, Kingston, Linksys, Microsoft, Symantec, Trend Micro

Ownership: Logicom Dubai is the UAE-based subsidiary of the Cyprus-listed Logicom Group COMPANY FOCUS

Logicom remains one of the most prominent names in Middle East distribution, with a brand portfolio balanced largely between HP, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft – a marked change from just a few years ago when the company was largely perceived as an Intel-dependent outfi t. With offi ces throughout the Gulf and Levant region, the publicly-listed outfi t continues to focus its efforts on exploiting the customer breadth that it has developed in both the SME and midmarket sectors.

LOGICOM DUBAI LLC

VERDICT

Its exposure to elements of the components and corporate markets meant 2009 ranked as the toughest year yet for a distributor that now makes half of its annual group business from the Middle East. That said, the timely addition of an HP contract in several countries more than made up for any drop-off in business that it may have experienced elsewhere. Aside from that, Logicom’s conservative - but ultimately diligent - approach to credit management has kept the company on a stable footing.

GENERAL MANAGER: NICHOLAS ARGYRIDES



We focused a lot on partners who were addressing the hypermarkets and retail superstores. In addition, our company’s balanced fi nancial performance allowed us to benefi t from extended fi nancial facilities and helped us grow in a calculated way. Through the internal credit unit established within the company, we were able to control and monitor credit facilities and we took into consideration the recommendations of banks and insurance companies to continue our balanced growth. During those tough times we also followed the realistic expectations of the market to avoid facing excess stock or losing any sales opportunities due to unavailability of stock.


The main aims are to achieve sales of more than US$380m and, most importantly, run a profi table business. Protecting our customer base and helping them increase profi tability - in addition to helping them manage their business effectively and professionally - will allow us to achieve that. We aim to increase our market share, especially in the Gulf markets, by increasing our business with current partners and looking for new opportunities that would contribute to us achieving our goals. An example of that is the recent step of adding Acer to our portfolio, which will add volume to the business.

2009 SALES

US$320m

2008 SALES

US$285m

Contact: +971 4 352 8377

Website: www.bdlgulf.com

Headcount: 250


Regional Offi ces: Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Key Brands: Acer, Asus, Creative, Dell, LG, MSI

Ownership: BDL Gulf is a subsidiary of privately-held BDL in Saudi Arabia

COMPANY FOCUS

BDL has transformed itself from a Saudi-only distributor into a pan-GCC player during the last two years, reinforcing its position as one of the most infl uential distributors in the MENA region. An internal restructuring midway through last year saw the long-serving Tamer Ismail installed as CEO for the entire Gulf business, with Hani Abdul Moneim taking charge of the Dubai offi ce. They aim to expand BDL’s product basket in the quest to drive sales closer to the US$400m mark.

BDL GULF FZCO

VERDICT

It is not surprising that BDL has managed to scale up its business during the past year given the bulk of its revenues are generated from Saudi Arabia, where it has a formidable presence in all of the main provinces. That said, markets such as Egypt are also becoming increasingly important to the LG and Microsoft distributor’s balance sheet, while the imminent launch of a sales offi ce in Qatar will support a GCC business that already boasts local operations in Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE.

CEO: TAMER ISMAIL


Managing the cash was absolutely essential – it is an important issue particularly if you want to grow. Secondly, when it came to expenses, fortunately we managed to retain all our staff. We didn’t make any cuts, but we did introduce a number of measures including the expansion of our outsource centre in Cairo. That has taken some of the pressure off the more expensive recruits in the GCC countries.


Our key objective this year is to focus on the countries that have shown us growth in 2009 and that tends to be the GCC plus Egypt and Levant. We are watching the Turkish market closely to see how we can take advantage of that when it turns around and starts to pick up, not forgetting some of the new countries that we have entered like Pakistan, where the growth is potentially very high. We are very fortunate to be in the middle of probably one of the highest growth regions in the world today, so in addition to that you’ll just see more effi ciency and more automation from our side, as well as more investments in value added services. Some people regard the Middle East as high risk - we don’t. You just need to understand it. You can’t sit in Jebel Ali and think that you are doing the Middle East. You have got to go where the business is and be there through a physical presence.

2009 SALES

US$336m

2008 SALES

US$306m

Contact: +971 4 369 7111

Website: www.aptecme.com

Headcount: 300


Regional Offi ces: Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Key Brands: 3Com, 3M, Acer, Adobe, APC, Avaya, Belkin, BenQ, BO, CA, Cisco, Dell, D-Link, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, ISS, Lexmark, McAfee, Microsoft, NetApp, Oracle, Sun, Symantec, VMware

Ownership: Privately-held Aptec Holdings is majority owned by DIFC Investments

COMPANY FOCUS

Aptec is one of the longest-serving distributors on the circuit and will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year. Reaching such a milestone is proof of the company’s ability to adapt to a rapidly-changing distribution market and reinforces its philosophy that you must be able to offer local sales and support to prevail in the Middle East. Aptec also owns Track Distribution, a supplier of Cisco and other enterprise kit, borne out of the acquisition of Tech Data Middle East three years ago.

APTEC HOLDINGS LIMITED

VERDICT

It wasn’t long ago that Aptec was regarded as a broadline player but radical changes to its vendor portfolio and services infrastructure have seen it become fi rmly ensconced in the value space with brands such as Cisco, Oracle and APC. Expect its ongoing geographic expansion to be supported by moves to extend its infrastructure services for data centres this year. The company is also in talks with Microsoft to see how it can support the software vendor’s regional plans from a services perspective.

CEO & PRESIDENT: ALI BAGHDADI

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We have made a lot of investment from an in-country perspective, which has ensured that we have been able to control the market better. If you sell everything from Dubai you cannot do that – you have to ship inside the countries, collect in local currencies and provide local RMA. We opened a service centre in Iraq, for example, while in markets such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt we focused on warehousing and developing more in-country infrastructure. We also did more channel education, such as roadshows, to help partners sell the technology, particularly the high-end products so that business is more profi table for them, for us and for the manufacturers.


We have made a strategic decision to focus on Saudi business expansion and increase the brand portfolio. Currently we are selling hard drives there and that is the biggest share of the products, but now we would also like to focus on Lenovo for Saudi and Asus for Saudi, as well as more of the components brands. So we want to do more with our existing businesses and add more vendors to the portfolio. We will also focus on developing a stronger infrastructure internally. We have a 10,000 square metre building in Jebel Ali to manage parts of the group like logistics and that will help us to control the effi ciency of the company.

2009 SALES

US$344m

2008 SALES

US$282m

Contact: +971 4 397 8035

Website:www.fdcinternational.com

Headcount: 200


Regional Offi ces: Algeria, CIS, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Key Brands: Acer, Apacer, ASRock, Asus, EliteGroup, Intel, Kingston, Lenovo, Lite-On, Seagate, Sony, WD, XFX

Ownership: FDC International is privately owned by a small group of independent investors

COMPANY FOCUS

FDC is a well-known face on the distribution scene with a track record of penetrating some of the region’s toughest markets. It also continues to operate a desktop PC manufacturing arm that accounts for 10% of its annual sales. Add that to its distribution business and you have a company with revenues of US$382m last year – enough to move it up three places in the rankings and make it the third largest Dubai-based IT distribution group behind Redington and Metra Computer.

FDC INTERNATIONAL FZE

VERDICT

Presiding over one of the largest components portfolios in the market might have hurt FDC last year had it not been for the fact that the company has been aggressively ramping up its fi nished goods business and building a retail division that now boasts 40 promoters and accounts for a signifi cant chunk of its turnover. An increasing emphasis on in-country sales, coupled with its re-export capabilities, also contributed to FDC growing at the impressive rate it claims to have done last year.

COO & VICE-PRESIDENT: MARISSA SAFE


Cost control has been a major focus for us and will continue to be this year. I think distributors have to keep looking at how they can deliver the same quality with less cost and more effi cient processes. Every aspect from your inventory days and receivables to the way you manage your location points has a direct impact on your bottom line. The other thing is credit management and being closer to customers so you can provide competitive propositions to them while managing your credit risk. We were much tougher in terms of our credit policy and credit-giving in the market place and I think that was a good decision.


2010 will be very much about focusing on the retail and value side of the business. We’ll become closer with HP ProCurve, Avaya, Extreme and Blue Coat and we’ll even try to look at new vendors within the value side of the business. On the volume side we’ll get more into fi nished goods than we used to. Two months ago we started the monitor business with Acer across the region and that is going very well. Potentially we may add more vendors in the display and LCD area, as well as on the notebook side. With our big warehouse in Jebel Ali now open we are also revisiting our warehousing strategy; trying to centralise more and having logistics solutions to reach customers faster.

2009 SALES

US$355m

2008 SALES

US$440m

Contact: +971 4 306 3100

Website: www.almasa.com

Headcount: 200


Regional Offi ces: Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Key Brands: Acer, Asus, Avaya, Belkin, Blue Coat, Extreme Networks, Hitachi, HP ProCurve, Imation, Microsoft, Seagate

Ownership: Almasa IT Distribution belongs to the privately-held Almasa-Omniyat group of companies

COMPANY FOCUS

Almasa’s business stands on three core pillars - retail, networking and channel - and recent vendor partnerships refl ect this focus. WatchGuard and Ericom have both been signed this year, signalling Almasa’s desire to capture brands that can enhance the profi le of its value division. Having gained a solid retail-focused venture in the form of Delta Business Products, Almasa is also emerging as a serious contender in the retail space where it now distributes many infl uential consumer brands.

ALMASA IT DISTRIBUTION FZCO

VERDICT

Almasa still retains a strong market position following a year that saw it both lose and gain major vendor franchises, as well as complete the acquisition of Delta Business Products. The reduction in its sales is largely due to the termination of its relationship with HP, which had previously accounted for a whopping 45% of its business — some US$200m a year. Take that out of the equation and Almasa clearly managed to grow many of its other vendor lines, while also reducing its cost base.

CHAIRMAN & CEO: MEHDI AMJAD

(Distribution revenues only. Figures do not include PC assembly sales)

_www.itp.net_ (38)



We looked at our business with certain key objectives as the main drivers, the most important of which was liquidity. With the pressure of placing higher orders, investing in new products and facilitating new customers you could have landed yourself in real trouble given the market dynamics, so we focused very strongly on liquidity. Retention of valuable talent was also key, and we continued to look at sizing our working capital to prevent unnecessary exposure, which resulted in us seeing almost the same effi ciencies as we did in 2008.


We defi nitely want to develop more added value services in terms of pre-sales and specifi c go-to-market areas. We also have to consider the recovery of profi tability to pre-crisis levels - it will be very diffi cult to continue driving loss-generators because they won’t take you anywhere and you will not be able to scale your capabilities and resources to cope with the new initiatives. You expand and invest when there is a good return to the shareholders and in the absence of very solid returns the management’s responsibility is to fi nd new areas of excellence. We have already demonstrated that in areas of support services, logistics services and added value distribution, especially at an enterprise level.

2009 SALES

US$358m

2008 SALES

US$383m

Contact: +971 4 605 8200

Website: www.emitac.ae

Headcount: 200


Regional Offi ces: Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon (strategic alliance) Qatar, UAE

Key Brands: 3M, Acer, Eaton MGE, HP, Logitech, Microsoft

Ownership: Emitac Distribution is one of several business units owned by the Bukhatir Group COMPANY FOCUS

After inking a strategic alliance in Lebanon last year and recently opening a new offi ce in Kuwait, Emitac should profi t from its extended geographic coverage as the market begins to blossom again. Its strong HP heritage leaves it heavily pegged to the PC vendor’s strategy, although the other brands in its portfolio have a growing part to play in its future endeavours. Acer, for instance, has just awarded Emitac a consumer contract to go with the commercial rights it already held.

EMITAC DISTRIBUTION LLC

VERDICT

In 2009, Emitac succeeded in doing 90% of the revenues it managed the year before – a remarkable achievement when you consider that its brand basket remained unchanged and its largest partner, HP, appointed two new volume distributors even though the market was slowing. With conditions in the hardware market showing signs of improvement, a concerted focus on both top and bottom line growth should ensure 2010 proves to be a year that Emitac will look back on fondly.

CEO: AMER KHREINO


We have looked at increasing speed to market and operational effi ciencies - taking as much cost out of the system as possible in terms of the supply chain. We have been as lean as possible in terms of our inventory management and tried to have a little more control over our receivables in the market. While we have tried to increase our leverage in terms of the revenue, we have also tried to take some cost out of the system when it comes to OPEX as a percentage of revenue. The fundamentals of distribution are largely about scale of operation, effi ciency and how to control working capital and cash. I think operational effi ciency is the key to riding out this slowdown period in the Middle East before things come back.


Consolidate on what we started last year. 2010 will be the fi rst full year of having the complete portfolio of products that we brought on board in 2009, so that’s a key initiative for us. Another key objective for us is to maintain profi table growth and we are defi nitely looking at opportunities in and outside of the UAE to maintain our momentum. One of the strategic things we are working on is the value business. Right now we only have a value branded portfolio in Egypt, but we are going to look at taking that into select markets and expanding the value portfolio across the region.

2009 SALES

US$530m

2008 SALES

US$471m

Contact: +971 4 317 0800

Website:www.metracomputer.com

Headcount: 900


Regional Offi ces: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Key Brands: Acer, Cisco, Dell, D-Link, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, Western Digital

Ownership: Metra Computer Group is a privately-owned company founded in Egypt

COMPANY FOCUS

The experienced NY Prasad has been overseeing Metra’s Gulf business for more than a year now and his tenure has coincided with the company reinforcing its position as a true one-stop-shop for the retail and reseller channels. The dominance that Metra enjoys in its native Egypt, where it is a partner of brands such as HP and Cisco, coupled with the strength of its in-country operations in the GCC, has ensured the company has been able to post top line growth in a largely depressed market.

METRA COMPUTER GROUP FZCO

VERDICT

Metra is among the fastest growing distributors in this year’s Power List and when you look back at the raft of agreements it has either signed or extended in the past year it is not diffi cult to understand why. The addition of regional contracts with HP IPG and Acer, plus Samsung monitors and HP PSG in selected countries, has given further weight to an already impressive A-brand portfolio. The big question is whether the broadliner can maintain the sort of lofty growth rates it has now become used to.

MANAGING DIRECTOR: NY PRASAD

(Distribution revenues only. Figures do not include PC assembly sales)

_www.itp.net_ (39)


Tel: 971 4 31 70800, Fax: 971 4 39 61987

THE 2010 POWER LIST

Distributor 2009 2008 2008 Auditor Staff Active Accounts Product Focus

Redington Gulf $1.19bn $1.13bn $1bn Deloitte Haskins & Sells 400 3,520 PC Hardware, Networking, Storage

Metra Computer Group $530m $471m $465m Ernst & Young 900 3,000 PC Hardware, Networking, Storage

Emitac Distribution $358m $383m $401m KPMG 200 1,300 PC Hardware

Almasa IT Distribution $355m $440m $433m Deloitte 200 1,200 Retail, Networking, Security

FDC International $344m $282m - Puthran Chartered Acc. 200 600 PC Hardware & Components

Aptec Holdings $336m $306m - Ernst & Young 300 3,000 Networking, Storage, Software

BDL Gulf $320m $285m $285m Usamah Ali Tabbarah & Co 250 2,700 PC Hardware & Retail

Logicom Dubai $280m $271m $250m KPMG 170 2,000 Networking, Software, Components

Jumbo IT Distribution $269m $324m $324m Grant Thornton 65 250 PC Hardware & Retail

Mindware $189m $210m $210m Deloitte & Touche 135 1,000 Networking, Software, Components

Asbis Middle East $183m $169m $169m Deloitte Limited 90 900 PC Hardware & Components

Despec MERA $155m $144m $145m KPMG 70 700 Supplies & Consumables

Empa Middle East $131m $123m $123m BDO Patel & Al Saleh 85 740 Components & Retail

Trigon $128m $115m $118m El Syed El Ayouty & Co. 95 325 PC Peripherals & Retail

Golden Systems Middle East $109m $95m $95m Salim Rajkotwala 100 500 Components & PC Peripherals

and US$170m based on the performance of distributors with similar portfolios. However, Al Yousuf Digital recently underwent a change of management and unfortunately had not got back to us ahead of publication.

We should also point out that Westcon Middle East Group, which was part of the 2009

Power List, only just missed out on making it into this year’s edition due to the addition of volume distributors that were not included last year. Westcon’s sales rose from US$94m to US$107m last year, leaving it fractionally behind Golden Systems Middle East, which occupied the final place on this year’s list.

EDITOR’S NOTE: It is probable that Al Yousuf Digital would merit a place on this year’s list. In 2008, the Epson and ViewSonic distributor claimed it made sales of US$160m. We would expect the 2009 figure to be between US$140m

VERDICT

It is not surprising that BDL has managed to scale up its business during the past year given the bulk of its revenues are generated from Saudi Arabia, where it has a formidable presence in all of the main provinces. That said, markets such as Egypt are also becoming increasingly important to the LG and Microsoft distributor’s balance sheet, while the imminent launch of a sales offi ce in Qatar will support a GCC business that already boasts local operations in Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE.


When the economic challenges came to the fore we said we would take care of fi ve things and we called it the ‘CC’ approach - cut costs, control credit, customer care, cautious capital and collect cash. In terms of ‘cautious capital’, the single most important performance parameter in our business is return on working capital and we continuously raised that capital wherever possible with enough funding, bank lines and facilities with different institutions. You may be surprised to know that we probably used no more than 60% of our total bank lines at any point in time because you never know which bank could just collapse or suddenly stop giving credit.


We will continue to add brands to our portfolio and, more importantly, grow the value added distribution business. That did reasonably well for us last year in spite of the challenges during 2009 and the fact that the corporate sector was the most impacted in my opinion. We’ll also make our automated distribution centre operational this year and that will be a clear differentiator. Considering we have about 29 brands and several thousand SKUs across so many locations it is important to have an effi cient logistics centre. Finally, we will continue to expand into more markets in Africa, which for us is the next growth engine.

2009 SALES

US$1.19bn

2008 SALES

US$1.13bn

Contact: +971 4 359 0555

Website: www.redingtongulf.com

Headcount: 400


Regional Offi ces: Egypt, Kenya, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, UAE, Uganda

Key Brands: Acer, Cisco, Dell, HP, Samsung

Ownership: Redington Gulf is a subsidiary of Bombay-listed Redington (India) Limited COMPANY FOCUS

Its top line growth might have slowed last year but Redington is still the only distributor in the Middle East and Affrica region to cross the US$1bn revenue mark due to its extensive geographic presence and relationships with all of the largest international IT hardware providers. Its African business also continues to come on in leaps and bounds – last year it contributed around US$250m to its MEA revenues and we wouldn’t bet against that fi gure increasing even further in the future.

REDINGTON GULF FZE CEO: RAJ SHANKAR

Audited Stated

VERDICT

Some might have expected Redington to bow to the pressures of a dwindling market, but several factors ensured it maintained its scale. The fi rst was the addition of new brands, notably Dell, to its portfolio, which helped it offset the extra competition it gained in the HP space. Redington also expanded the work it did in key geographies such as Egypt and picked up the pace in Saudi Arabia, especially in the printing and supplies arena where ASPs generally saw more stability than the PC market.

_www.itp.net_ (41)


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Emerging technologies distributor FVC is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. Channel Middle East sat down with managing director, KS Parag, to discuss the future of the value added distribution model and hear why the company is listening carefully to what resellers have to say.

How many vendors are you working with in total today and is there scope to bring more brands on board or are you satisfied with your coverage?

KS PARAG: We have about 23 vendor partnerships, but I would say the focus has been more around 10. I believe the portfolio does give us the coverage we want but we do have some areas we would like to expand into, especially on the security side and authentication to ensure that we could give the complete security offering, including a

unified threat management. There are areas where we are looking at new vendor partnerships, especially in the identity management space, and we are going to be tying up with a new company in that area.

What is your take on the value added distribution landscape in the Middle East at the moment? Has it evolved in the way you expected?

KS PARAG: I believe there has been a strong requirement for companies like FVC

to show their value, both to end-users and partners, in bringing greenfield technologies to the market and ensuring they evolve and are successful in their respective regions. I think we have seen this happen, not only with us but also with others who have done it in the same landscape. Distribution is definitely evolving, but it changes every day because acquisitions narrow down the market in terms of the new technologies. We are seeing more and more new companies acquiring and getting acquired — like TippingPoint (3Com), which is now part of HP.

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(44)//CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010 _www.itp.net_

The vendors you deal with generally provide specialised technology in niche areas, which tends to make them attractive acquisition targets. Do you make provisions for companies changing ownership when you partner with them? Or do you just accept that it is something that might happen?

KS PARAG: Earlier we actually accepted it, but as we speak the strategy for 2010 is to look more closely at the business in terms of how resilient it is to takeovers and partnerships. We’ve been able to offer more services so that we are more resilient to it.

Is it part of your strategy to work with vendors on an exclusive basis?

KS PARAG: We have typically always tried to work on a sole distribution strategy. The value add generally comes both for the vendor and the VAR when they synchronise fully within themselves. I don’t believe it is a question of exclusivity, but a question of how much trust and faith both of the organisations have in each other’s ability. As long as those abilities are matched — whether it is done by one partner or more — can only be determined by the market, but as long as one distributor can cover it I strongly believe it is fruitful for the vendor and the VAD. The volume of business is not as quantified as the PC or components business, where the volume justifies the margin. Here the volume is not as high so the margins have to justify the business.

Is there any possibility that you would attempt to work with some of the more mainstream networking and security vendors in the future, rather than the emerging technology vendors you’re typically associated with?

KS PARAG: The strategy is still focused on the cutting-edge technology vendors; I don’t see us doing mainstream, but you’ll definitely see us evolving more into services. We will be more involved in things like professional services and consultancy in terms of post-sales. I could see us offering more in the way of product scope and services so that we are not only offering a higher level of service to our customers, but also to our partners.

So these would be services that resellers sub-contract from you?

KS PARAG: Yes, or we would basically be the level two or level three escalation for the vendors in the region. We are looking at being the level two, minimum, for escalation of everything. We are working towards ensuring that we even have a hotline in most of the regions and we should be kick-starting something like that in the UAE.

What else is on the agenda for FVC in 2010?

KS PARAG: We are optimistic in terms of market growth. I think for most of us 2009

Distribution is definitely evolving, but it changes every

day because acquisitions narrow down the market in terms of the new technologies

saw flat growth, if not marginal growth, so most companies, including vendors, will be looking for a solid performance this year. What we would like to do is look at being a more solid and unified team to ensure that we take a bigger chunk of the leading-edge technologies business in the region. We will be focusing on ensuring we can offer a complete portfolio of security services and solutions and also explore potential partnerships in areas such as virtualisation.

How do you view the competitive landscape these days?

KS PARAG: The market has been competitive, but I think our unique value proposition to any vendor or partner has been our ability to be present across the Gulf at a local level. There is practically nobody who can say that they are in the same number of locations that FVC is present. We believe we have to act locally, work locally and think globally. It is very important that we work at a local level to drive the different technologies

FVC has created a new unit dedicated to channel development activities and strategic alliances, which is being led by Guru Prasad, the former head of its networking business.

FVC boss, KS Parag, says the move reflects the increasingly important role of channel development and empowerment in the value added distribution business today.

“This unit is the key driver to make sure that we develop a high-powered partner network, which is certified, trained and qualified — not only to sell the different technologies but to actually take care of the first-line support and provide the consultative

PLAYING THE CONSULTANTrole that is required,” he explained. “Whenever you promote a leading-edge technology you need this consultative approach of actually positioning a product. We are very keen in terms of channel development and see it as one of the main areas we would like to improve upon in 2010,” revealed Parag.

Although FVC has been providing channel development services up to now, the establishment of a dedicated division is designed to make the function more formal. The unit will address both vendor and reseller relationships, said Parag.

“It will map the vendor’s channel strategy and make sure that is executed through FVC. Given the requirement to grow it is very important that we have the right partnerships at a channel level to drive it,” he added.

The channel development team will initially contain three members. Meanwhile, the networking unit that Prasad (pictured) was previously in charge of has been combined with FVC’s UC business under the management of Prakash Krishnamurthy.

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(45)BY ANDREW SEYMOUR //CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010 _www.itp.net_

in their respective areas. Having 10 office locations is something that any vendor partnering with FVC has been happy about.

That must be an expensive business model to run…

KS PARAG: It is a very expensive business model — very expensive!

Some IT companies, especially in distribution, have closed offices in the past year to cut costs amid the downturn. Do you find yourselves under similar pressure?

KS PARAG: We are always being challenged, but as a company we have always looked at a long-term strategy rather than a short-term strategy. We have actually got a business plan for the next three years, so if today a region has not been performing or not been scaling up to the same level as the overall company’s performance then obviously we do our best in terms of taking the required measures to ensure we improve it and enhance it. But I believe closing operations is not currently in the best of our interests.

Are VARs’ expectations of you as a VAD changing?

KS PARAG: Their needs are definitely changing. For instance, earlier we would do training for most of our vendors centrally in Dubai, but more partners are requesting training locally, whether it is in Saudi

Arabia, Egypt or Lebanon. The second thing is the demand for ensuring that we have more logistics on the ground, including support and spares. We have done that as much as possible and we are actually working towards making sure our support spares are available in most of the other locations, not just centrally in Dubai. Thirdly, we see that partners want to do more marketing events together locally. From 2008 to 2009, I believe the number of marketing exercises almost doubled. And last but not the least, there is a demand for having more core expertise in the required domain locally present.

(46)//CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_SEPTEMBER 2009 _www.itp.net_ _www.itp.net_ //CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST_MARCH 2010

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P.O. Box: 32610, Dubai, UAE. Tel: +971-4-3936247, Fax: +971-4-3936251, E-mail: [email protected] www.trigononline.com

FACT FILE// THE MARKET BY NUMBERS

(49)


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NOKIA STRATEGY PAYS DIVIDENDSExpansion of touchscreen range bolsters vendor’s sales

The global smartphone market emerged from the fourth quarter in better shape than ever, registering an impressive 39% spike in units

compared with the previous year to defy fears that the economic downturn could stifle volumes.

Vendors shipped 54.5 million converged mobile devices during Q4 — around 31% of the overall total for the year and the record for a single quarter. The surge in sales ensured shipments for the entire year grew 15%, according to data from IDC.

Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst for IDC’s mobile devices technology team, says four of the top five vendors established new shipment records for a single quarter, indicating strong demand in the market.

“Increasingly, mobile phone users are seeking greater utility from their devices beyond telephony and messaging, and converged mobile devices fulfill that need,” he said. “To help address demand, carriers took advantage of lower prices on many older devices, ordering additional units and, in turn, offering reduced prices to end-users. It was the perfect set of conditions to push shipments to a record level.”

Market champion Nokia retained its lead at the top — an endorsement of its strategy to expand its range of touchscreen-enabled smartphones. Its nearest competitor RIM also had plenty to cheer about after exceeding the 10 million unit mark for the first time in its history. New device launches deepened the company’s product portfolio, while lower prices on its Curve and Pearl models propelled shipments further.

Apple was the big winner though as iPhone shipments doubled to give the vendor 16% of the market during Q4 and help it close the gap on RIM to less than four percentage points. Elsewhere, Motorola jumped ahead of HTC into fourth place.

IDC believes that the worldwide converged mobile device market will see even stronger sales in 2010, particularly as Google’s Android operating system and Palm’s webOS have revealed new ways to surround users with increased functionality.

Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst at IDC, suggests more advances are in store given Symbian and Windows are expected to unveil new versions of their respective operating systems. “These and other operating systems will compete with attention-grabbing intuitiveness and seamlessness, a thriving mobile application library and a compelling user experience that tightly holds onto the user,” he predicted.

.........

SOURCE: IDC

SOURCE: IDC

APPLE MAKES STATEMENT OF INTENTGlobal iPhone shipments double during buoyant fourth quarter

MAGIC MOBILESRecord shipments of converged devices

_WORLDWIDE CONVERGED MOBILE DEVICE SHIPMENT GROWTH BY VENDOR DURING Q4 2009

_WORLDWIDE CONVERGED MOBILE DEVICE SHIPMENTS BY VENDOR DURING Q4 2009

Nokia 38%

RIM 41%

Nokia 38%

HTC 4%

Apple 16%

Motorola 5%

Motorola 56%

Apple 98%

RIM 20%

Others 17%

HTC 9%Others 13%

www.bdlgroup.com

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS//RETAIL CHANNEL NEWS

(51)


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Consumer electronics heavyweight Sony

has declared its intent to dive headfirst in the 3D entertainment battle by announcing plans to “accelerate initiatives” around the technology.

The company insists it is aiming to deliver an array of 3D entertainment to the home in 2010 in a bid to create a 3D world encompassing electronics, games and movie content.

Last month in Dubai, Sony showcased its first line-up of 3D entertainment products for the home, with Hiroyasu Sugiyama, boss of Sony’s 3D strategy office, outlining why the vendor believes its overall offering will be among the most compelling in the market.

“For Sony, 3D is strategically very important, and we are committed to lead the 3D industry,” he explained. “In the 3D space, Sony is very uniquely positioned compared to other consumer electronics makers because we are not only going to sell 3D-compatible consumer hardware but also ensure there is affluent variety of 3D content that consumers can enjoy,” said Sugiyama.

Over the course of the next 12 months, Sony plans to introduce a series of 3D-compatible consumer electronics products, including Bravia LCD TVs, Blu-ray Disc players, home theatre systems, VAIO PCs and digital still cameras. It will also

provide firmware updates to make PlayStation3 units compatible with 3D stereoscopic games.

Sony claims there is an installed base of more than 500,000 units for PlayStation 3 in the Middle East and Africa alone.

Sony Gulf’s managing director, Osamu Miura, insists 3D technology has already captured the imagination of content creators and broadcasters, adding that Sony is well-positioned to introduce such technical innovations through the retail channel.

“Today, 3D is the next generation of home entertainment and, with our technological leadership, we stand at the forefront of 3D technology,” he commented.

The race to win over consumers in the 3D TV space has intensified since many of the top electronics companies showcased their wares at the recent CES exhibition in the US.

The likes of Samsung, Pansonic, Philips and LG have all announced plans to roll out new 3D TV models over the coming months. Some analysts believe market adoption could be so strong that half of all households will own a 3D TV in the next five years.

Osamu Miura believes Sony stands “at the forefront” of 3D technology

SONY MAKES ITS CASE FOR REIGNING SUPREME IN 3D Consumer electronics manufacturer claims it has the edge over its rivals as it is “uniquely positioned” to sell both hardware and content

Industry giant LG Electronics has revamped its channel

structure in the Lebanese market by appointing a new

distribution partner for all its consumer electronics products.

Shaker Electronics & Appliances — better known as SEALCO

— will now serve as LG’s official distributor in the country

with a brief to drive the company’s business forward. News

of the tie-up was announced by LG’s Middle East boss,

Kiwan Kim, at a special launch ceremony in Beirut.

SEALCO chairman, Hassan Shaker, says he is confident

that the distributor will be able to capitalise on the strong

demand that already exists for LG products in the Lebanese

market. “Our efforts together will strengthen our operations

in the country and will promote LG’s brand to better face the

competition in order to take its fair share of the market.”

LG CONFIRMS NEW DISTIE IN LEBANONSEALCO to manage CE business

(53)BUSINESS INSIGHT


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// INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS

Cisco has announced that it will part ways

with long-term partner HP.In a statement, Cisco

said that it will not renew HP’s reseller contract when it ends in April, citing increased competition between the two in the data centre sector.

HP had been a strong partner for Cisco, but with the announcement of Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) data centre offerings in November, and HP’s purchase of 3Com, Cisco has decided to terminate the relationship.

Keith Goodwin, senior VP of Cisco’s worldwide partner organisation, said: “Being a Cisco Certified Channel Partner has numerous benefits including access to proprietary information (such as product roadmaps) and partner profitability

initiatives. Given the evolution of our relationship it simply no longer makes sense to provide these benefits to HP.”

The two companies have said they will continue to support existing customers.

Ovum analyst Adam Jura said that the major winners will be Cisco’s other major partners. “In the cold light of day, it appears that HP needs Cisco more than Cisco needs HP, with the 3Com acquisition expected to still take some time to be completely integrated. In addition, the QLogic partnership expansion (which will see HP sell its switches) will also demand substantial time and effort to fully cascade through and convert into real business opportunity,” he said.

News of the pair’s split came just days after HP

raised hopes that the IT industry is returning to a more solid financial footing by posting sales and revenue growth for its November-January quarter.

Fiscal Q1 net revenue picked up 8% year-on-year to $31 billion as both consumers and commercial customers began to buy new hardware again.

However, it still appears that HP has work to do in EMEA, where the business grew rose just 1% compared with the year before.

CISCO SHUTS THE DOOR ON HP TO PREVENT IT GAINING INFO ON COMPETING PRODUCTS Vendor confirms it will not renew HP’s reseller accreditation when it expires in April as increased competition between the pair in the data centre space has created conflict

Keith Goodwin says it no longer makes sense for Cisco to work with HP on a reseller basis

Network security products firm Sourcefire has whipped

the covers off a new multi-tiered marketing and training programme for resellers and distributors.

The Global Security Alliance Channel Programme is designed to strengthen Sourcefire’s relationship with partners and create higher margin sales training and marketing activities so that a greater percentage of business is transacted through the channel.

NASDAQ-listed Sourcefire, which made a net profit of US$2.7m on sales of US$27m during the last full quarter for which it published financial results, claims the scheme is being supported by a closer alignment of its field sales team and marketing programmes.

“Over the past six months, we have collaborated with resellers and distributors around the globe to build this programme, designed

for our partners, by our partners,” stated Chris Peterson, VP of worldwide channels at Sourcefire. “As a result, the Global Security Alliance Channel Programme aligns with their goals.”

Benefits of the initiative include a deal protection scheme and rewards programmes that will offer sales reps additional incentives as they grow their pipelines.

The vendor, which has a Middle East office in Dubai and works with UAE distributor Secureway, is also promising to provide partners with various training options, including two new professional services certifications.

SOURCEFIRE EYES CHANNELSecurity vendor puts emphasis on new partner programme to drive greater percentage of its business through the channel

Two thirds of EMEA resellers

polled by software vendor

CA believe the worst of the

recession is over and are

preparing themselves for an

upturn in fortunes during 2010.

The software company’s

annual channel index paints an

improving picture of the EMEA

landscape, with CA resellers

generally feeling more buoyant

about their prospects this year.

According to CA, 66% of

respondents predict that the

economic situation will get

better this year, while 43%

anticipate a “surge” in IT

budgets. The vendor insists its

index tells a more positive story

than in 2009, when it claims

64% of budgets were lower than

the year before.

“2009 was a tough period for

our partners. This year there is

a marked difference — with the

index showing that our partners

across EMEA are positive about

the outlook for the upcoming

year,” said Jose Carvalho, VP for

EMEA channel sales at CA.

Asked about the topic areas

that they expect to drive the

market this year, 74% of CA

partners said virtualisation would

provide the largest opportunity,

followed by cloud computing.

::CA VARS HOPING TO BOUNCE BACK

PEOPLE


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//APPOINTMENTS AND AWARDS

Not content with bringing all its

distributors together for a one-off UAE cricket tournament last quarter, power supply devices vendor APC recently whisked its top partners off to South Africa for its annual distributors’ conference.

Around 30 of the vendor’s key distributors from the Middle East and Africa took part in the four-day event, which ran under the umbrella of ‘Back to Growth’ — APC’s corporate motto for 2010.

APC works with a number of major distributors in the Middle East including Aptec, Logicom, Redington Gulf and Westcon.

Thierry Chamayou, business development manager for the Middle East and Turkey at APC, says the event gave the vendor

an opportunity to get in front of its partners and communicate its strategy for the year ahead.

“‘Back to Growth’ is what we all want to achieve in this coming year and we encouraged dialogue with our partners to understand how we can accomplish this in the different markets in 2010,” he explained.

“This event allowed us to empower our partners and to give them the tools they need to offer comprehensive solutions to their markets. We introduced new team members, deployed product info and aids to reinforce our strategy, our leadership and the direction to drive long-term sustainable business development in the region,” said Chamayou.

As well as outlining the company’s channel and business development

strategies, distributors participated in training sessions and workshops.

However, it wasn’t all work and no play. According to regional marketing manager, Tushar Choudhury, distributors also got the chance to “let off some steam” during their time in South Africa.

The trip comes two months after APC organised a cricket tournament for all its UAE distributors, with the Track Distribution team triumphing over parent group Aptec in the final.

Security services integrator Paramount Computer Systems

has picked up the ‘Reseller of the Year’ award for the Middle East and Africa from firewall appliances specialist Palo Alto Networks.

Karl Driesen, VP sales EMEA at Palo Alto, insists the Middle East is a “vitally important” market for the company, adding that it aims to work with partners such as Paramount to address the complex

network security requirements of customers in the region. “Although we have been working together for less than a year, Paramount has quickly demonstrated unmatched expertise and commitment, resulting in excellent success thus far,” commented Driesen.

Palo Alto claims that its next-generation firewalls are the industry’s most powerful firewall products, enabling enterprises to

see and control applications, users and content, rather than just ports, IP addresses and packets.

Paramount COO, Ramaswamy G, says the reseller has profited from its partnership with the vendor due to customer demand for new security infrastructure.

“A combination of improved security, better visibility and control and cost reduction is a common need that we see and Palo Alto’s proven technology addresses all these parameters very well, resulting in a very strong uptake by our customers,” he said.

PROGRESS FOR PALO ALTOFirewall appliances vendor names Paramount ‘Reseller of the Year’ following fruitful partnership launched in 2009

ThierryChamayou says APC is working with distributors to find new opportunities in the market

::APC BRIEFS KEY DISTRIBUTORS ON MIDDLE EAST CHANNEL STRATEGYCritical power and cooling services vendor flies leading wholesalers to South Africa to participate in product workshops and discuss regional business development plans The former global channel

chief for Autodesk has

swapped the CAD sector for the

security sector by taking up a

post heading McAfee’s channel

in the EMEA region.

Georges Millet, who also

served as EMEA channel and

licence compliance director at

McAfee, has worked in the IT

industry for more than 25 years.

In his new role, he will be

responsible for overseeing

McAfee’s EMEA channel strategy

and operations. His duties will

also involve aligning McAfee’s

EMEA channel business with

its global strategy and driving

channel enablement.

“McAfee’s singular focus on

security and its strong product

portfolio creates a proven and

unique opportunity for our

partners,” stated Millet (below).

Meanwhile, mobile phone

manufacturer HTC has hired

Vladimir Malugin as its new

EMEA marketing director.

Malugin, who was previously

head of products and marketing

at Polaroid Consumer

Electronics, will be responsible

for HTC’s overall brand,

marketing and communications

across the EMEA region.

::MCAFEE MAKES ITS SELECTION

We at Mindware are proud to be the leading distributor of quality IT products across the MENA region – anticipating and servicing the complex needs of our customers.

DELIVERING ITACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST

Mindware FZ LLCOffice 205, Building 2, Dubai Internet City PO Box 55609, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Tel: +971 4 391 3333, Fax: +971 4 391 3334

www.mindware.ae

SOLUTIONS//SUCCESS STORIES FROM THE CHANNEL

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Systems integrator Itqan Al-Bawardi Computers

has carried out a Microsoft-based enterprise solution project at Sharjah Museum.

According to Sofiane Benna, IT manager at Sharjah Museum, the organisation had a need to bring more automation to its internal processes.

“The main objective of this requirement was to facilitate Sharjah Museum’s daily operations and allow employees to focus more on the essentials of their jobs and access the required integrated and business applications anywhere, anytime, through a web portal,” said Benna. “This automatically translates to higher quality standards and better productivity.”

The solution delivered by UAE-based Itqan encompassed different platforms that automate daily operations and create what it calls a “paperless, IT-enabled environment.”

Itqan insists the Great Plains solution allows users to streamline, monitor and complete financial transactions with extreme ease and fluidity. It is also designed to provide a single, unified source of consolidated financial information for senior management to keep track of financial performance.

“Itqan is a certified implementer of several business solutions, and from our portfolio of software applications Microsoft Dynamics Great

Plains is the best software fit for Sharjah Museum,” said Feras Al-Jabi, general manager at Itqan. “We have been recognised by Microsoft numerous times for our outstanding expertise and experience in implementing such a solution,” he added.

Itqan claims that Sharjah Museum’s HR department has also felt the benefit of its work as daily tasks have been simplified and facilitated through eKawader, a payroll and HR solution developed and configured by Itqan.

The company says eKawader gives users a complete view of recruitment without the need for paperwork and contains a module capable

of defining allowances, benefits and deductions to improve the payroll process.

“The whole solution was implemented successfully despite challenges and complications that were finally overcome until the solution was fully deployed and users began to reap its benefits, which will get even more accentuated in the long run,” reflected the Museum’s Benna. “It delivered what we were looking for and made the job easier in many areas.”

Feras Al-Jabi says Great Plains software streamlines many user processes

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM FOR UAE MICROSOFT SPECIALIST Itqan demonstrates its Microsoft Great Plains and HR solutions expertise by carrying out project to help Sharjah Museum simplify administration

S audi enterprise reseller Al Falak Electronic Equipment

& Supplies Co. is set to incorporate the JD Edwards

EnterpriseOne Collaborative Portal solution into the online

self-service portal of assembly firm Al Rashed Fasteners.

The system, which is based on IBM’s WebSphere portal, will

allow Al Rashed’s online users to manage and track data on

the status of sales orders, shipments and deliveries.

“Today’s tight markets require advantages in terms of

speed, efficiency and information, all of which are supported

by this technology,” stated Ahmed Ali Ashadawi, president

and CEO at Al Falak (pictured). “Al Rashed will definitely

gain an edge in its markets through the use of this solution.”

Al Falak can speak from experience when it comes to

EnterpriseOne as it recently adopted the system itself.

AL FALAK LANDS JD EDWARDS PROJECTSystems integrator to implement solution for Saudi manufacturer

PRODUCTS// MARGIN-MAKING OPPORTUNITIES

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TAKE A TABLETFujitsu strengthens Lifebook PC range

[] TABLET PCS

Sony Gulf has unveiled its latest range of VAIO notebooks, including the CW-series, which boasts a 14-inch display and compact body for enhanced portability. The CW-series integrates wireless LAN and Bluetooth so that users can surf the web while on the move. The hardware vendor says that the product is equipped with a Nvidia GeForce GT 330M GPU and 512 of VRAM, rendering it more than capable of handling 3D games and videos. On top of that, the laptop boasts DDR3 memory and Intel Core i5-520M processors. Sony has made the VAIO CW-series available in five different colours.

_WEBSITE: www.sony-mea.com

[]LA

PTO

PS

Fujitsu has introduced an alternative version of its Lifebook T5010 tablet PC that offers customers the option of a dual digitiser. “The Lifebook 5010 enables intuitive data input by automatically recognising if you have your active pen or finger near the detection-range of the dual digitiser, which is at the front of the display and acts as either an active digitiser or touchscreen,” explained Chandan Mehta, product manager at Fujitsu Technology Solutions.“In addition, the Windows 7 touch technology supporting the dual-digitiser allows multiple touch, recognising two touch points at the same time,” he said.

_WEBSITE: www.fujitsu.com

[] DESKTOPS

ROAD WARRIORNew VAIO model enhances mobile computing

A PC designed for customers demanding business-class security, reliability and stability is what technology giant HP claims its new

Compaq 8000 Elite is able to offer. Built using the latest Intel Q45 Express chipset with GMA 4500 integrated graphics and Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors, the product comes with support for DDR3 SDRAM memory and runs on Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system. To give customers peace of mind, the 8000 Elite is also available with ‘HP ProtectTools’ software suite, which includes a number of embedded security features, such as a single sign-on and authentication tool. “HP is making enterprise-grade technology and energy-efficient PCs more affordable for customers who want energy-saving features as well as improved security and manageability,” stated Salim Ziade, general manager for HP’s Personal Systems Group in the Middle East.

WEBSITE: www.hp.com

JOINING THE ELITE HP believes new PC is ideal for business users

KEY TO SUCCESSHardware device gives gamers better control

[]KEYBOARDS

Microsoft has launched a keyboard that is designed to give gamers more control over their gaming experience. Featuring anti-ghosting technology developed by the Applied Sciences Group, the SideWinder X4 keyboard ensures the most complex key combinations are recognised by the computer to keep the game in action. Gamers can even press up to 26 keys at once, according to Microsoft, which says that the device also offers other advanced features such as macro recording, mode and profile switching and adjustable backlighting. The SideWinder X4 keyboard is available in the market from this month onwards, with a retail price of AED229 (US$62).

_WEBSITE: www.microsoft.com

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_WEBSITE: www.microsoft.com


_www.itp.net_

NEXT MONTH// INSIDE THE NEXT ISSUE

CHANNEL MIDDLE EAST AWARDSFind out who won what at the regional IT channel’s most eagerly-awaited awards ceremony of the year, as we bring you all the coverage from the 2010 Channel Awards.

UNIFIED STRATEGYHow do you sell unified communications (UC) to customers in the Middle East? We go to the key UC vendors in search of all the answers.

BOUND FOR AFRICAVendors and distributors are ramping up their African businesses as they look to tap into the MEA region’s next big growth engine.

COMING UPTHE MONTH OF APRIL

Q2 2010

EVENTS

SAUDI ARABIA25th-29th April 2010: GITEXAll eyes will be focused on the Riyadh Exhibition Centre at the end of April as IT industry leaders congregate in Saudi Arabia for the ninth annual GITEX show. The KSA market is likely to be high on a lot of technology companies’ agenda given IT sales are expected to reach as much as US$6 billion in 2010. This year’s event will be accompanied by a series of workshops and conferences involving IT professionals from around the world. According to the show’s organisers, the conferences will provide an ideal opportunity to mix technical information and promotion, and present the latest developments and applications to an audience of distributors and decision-makers. In addition to showcasing new products and solutions from local and international companies, GITEX will act as a platform for the government sector to promote Middle East ICT initiatives. For more information visit www.recexpo.com

OMAN26th-29th April 2010: COMEXNow in its 20th successive year, COMEX is one of the largest IT, telecom and consumer electronics fairs to take place in the Gulf and gives the industry’s top brands a platform to showcase their state-of-the-art products and services. Aimed at shaping the future of businesses and government, COMEX — which is held at the Oman International Exhibition Centre — offers the user community greater exposure to new ICT products under one roof and provides an opportunity for business-to-business alliances. This year’s attendees are expected to range from government departments and businesses to researchers, entrepreneurs and potential investors. The 2010 COMEX e-Government and e-Business Conference will be held parallel to the main show and promises to provide an insight into the latest solutions for both the government and corporate sectors. For more information visit www.oite.com/comex

Published by and Copyright © 2010 ITP Technology Publishing, a division of ITP Publishing Group Ltd. Registered in the B.V.I. under Company Registration number 1402846.

UAE15th-17th March 2010: Future ICT SummitPresented by the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre, and held in association with Injazat Data Systems and the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority, the Future ICT Summit is a brand new event designed to support the Abu Dhabi government as it explores the latest innovations and best practice use of technology for the planned delivery of a modern and efficient e-government platform. The conference, which will be held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, expects to attract 6,000 delegates to debate and decide the most effective ways to deploy IT and telecommunication systems throughout the UAE’s public service sectors. Some of the world’s top ICT experts have been lined up to share their thoughts on ICT strategy and development, while an exhibition of products from more than 100 companies will run parallel to the show. For more information visit www.futureictsummit.com

Channel Middle East is audited by BPA Worldwide.Average Total Circulation 7,567 (6 month audit Jul to Dec 2008).

Registered at Dubai Media City, PO Box 500024, Dubai, UAETel: +971 4 210 8000; Fax: +971 4 210 8080; Web: www.itp.comOffices in Dubai and London

ITP Technology Publishing CEO Walid AkawiManaging Director Neil DaviesDeputy Managing Director Karam AwadGeneral Manager Peter ConmyPublisher Natasha Pendleton

EDITORIAL

Group Editor Mark SuttonTel: +971 4 210 8225 e-mail: [email protected] Andrew SeymourTel: +971 4 210 8320 e-mail: [email protected]

ADVERTISING

Advertising Manager Rajdeep BasuTel: + 971 4 2108 344 e-mail: [email protected] Manager Kausar [email protected]: +971 4 2108 361 e-mail: [email protected]

STUDIO

Senior Designer Michel Al Asmar

PHOTOGRAPHY

Director of Photography Sevag Davidian

PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION

Group Production Manager Kyle SmithDeputy Production Manager Ali FahmiProduction Co-ordinator Basel Al Kassem Managing Picture Editor Patrick LittlejohnImage Retoucher Emmalyn RobblesDistribution Manager Karima Ashwell

CIRCULATION

Circulation Manager Shadia Basravi

MARKETING

Marketing Executive Martin ChambersEvent Manager Preeta Panicker

ITP DIGITAL

Assistant Editor Vineetha MenonGroup Sales Manager Ahmad BashourTel: +971 4 210 8549 e-mail [email protected] Sales Manager ITP.net Nathalie AklTel: +971 4 210 8520 e-mail [email protected] Development Manager Mohammed AffanContent Manager Asad AziziWeb Advertising Manager Meghna JalnawallaCreative Director Craig Willers

ITP GROUP

Chairman Andrew NeilManaging Director Robert SerafinFinance Director Toby Jay Spencer-DaviesBoard of Directors K.M. Jamieson, Mike Bayman, Walid Akawi, Neil Davies, Rob Corder, Mary Serafin

Circulation Customer ServiceTel: +971 4 286 8559

Printed by Atlas Printing Press Controlled Distribution by Blue Truck Subscribe online at www.itp.com/subscriptions

The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication, which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the readers particular circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers in writing. An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review.

(60)

GET TO KNOW//CHANNEL CHAMPIONS UNCOVERED


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Shahnawaz Sheikh, Regional Sales Manager Middle East & Africa, SonicWall

As Middle East IT channel stalwarts go, Shahnawaz

Sheikh is up there with the best of them. After serving in both the systems integration and distribution channels, he has since made his name as SonicWall’s regional boss...

> What are your top channel tips for the next 12 months?

My tips for the channel for the next 12 months are to stay focused despite the challenging times we are in now, continue to offer quality service, and be unflinching and relentless in supporting the customer.The results of such an approach will be more clearly visible in the long run.

> What do you dislike most about working in the market?

I can’t think of anything that I dislike having worked in the region for 11 years now. Every year I see new developments on the technology front, keeping me focused and excited about the IT market here.

> What is the best deal you have ever closed?

Being in sales I always believe that the best deal is yet to come. In fact that belief keeps me motivated every day. The day I feel I have got my best deal I may perhaps retire!

> What do you enjoy most about working in the Middle East IT market?

There are many things I like about working in the Middle East. Firstly, Dubai, being a very cosmopolitan environment, gives you the opportunity to interact with people from different nationalities, cultures, lifestyles and thinking. Secondly, people in Dubai quickly grasp the language of technology. I am also excited about the ease and speed of doing business in Dubai.

> What is the proudest moment of your career to date?

There are quite a few that come to my mind but the latest one is the success SonicWall has achieved in the Middle East. I was a one-man army when SonicWall started its operations in the region, but now we have a strong team of individuals in the region with a customer-centric approach to the channel and our end-customers.

> What’s your career history in the industry to date?

I started working as a programmer of Cobol and Clipper in 1994 before I got into my first sales job with a systems integrator in Saudi Arabia in 1995. For six years I worked for a couple of integrators in KSA and India, honing my skills in networking, data centre and messaging solutions. I originally moved to the UK from India to pursue some opportunities, but when that didn’t turn out as expected I decided to go back and stopped in Dubai on transit. As fate would have it I ended up with a regional distributor (Westcon ME) in Dubai before moving to SonicWall in 2004.

> How would you describe your management style?

My outlook is simple and practical. Plan, visualise and execute flawlessly — that is my motto. More importantly, I am a customer-oriented person with a helpful attitude and approach.

> How do you relax outside of the work environment?

I couldn’t have asked for a better way to relax than with my sweet little daughters Sobhia and Rabia. One of them is learning to speak and the other is learning to walk — both demanding my attention! Watching them grow relieves me of all the stress of work and frequent travel, and it prepares me for another bright day ahead. I also like to find time for my favourite sports — cricket to be precise!

MONDAY 22nd MARCH 2010

For more information please visit:

www. i tp .net / events / channe lmeawards

RECOGNISING THE MIDDLE EAST'S CHANNEL CHAMPIONS

For sponsorship opportunities at the Channel Middle East Awards 2010, please contact:

Kausar Syed, Advertising Manager

Tel: +971 4 2108 361Email: [email protected]

Rajdeep Basu, Advertising Manager

Tel: +971 4 2108 344Email: [email protected]

SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATIONS

2010

Platinum Sponsor Gold Sponsors Silver Sponsors

COMMENT


(64)//REACTION TO THE BIG TOPICS

>> >] = {"|"} */ [] [o] oo {} ......... -->\

}We bring you a round-up of who’s saying what and why in the global IT channel. {Soundbites from the

world of technology

Intel’s general manager for the GCC, Nassir Nauthoa, is convinced the CPU vendor will have PC users in the UAE talking after introducing its new Core i7, i5 and i3 chips to the market. Ali Al-Amine, regional transactional

business director at Lenovo, explains the vendor’s aspirations to develop a solid in-country distribution network following the recent appointment of Metra in Qatar and the UAE.

Blue Coat’s worldwide channel sales chief, Jim Harold, promises partners that the launch of the company’s first professional services programme will lead to them making money.

Prince Computers boss, Punit Jagada, gives the CPU vendor’s new channel programme the thumbs-up after its recent launch in the UAE market.

ss

l salertn

on

We aligned our strategy and go-to-market on the SMB and consumer side approximately three quarters ago and one of the things that Lenovo did not have was coverage across the region. We had distributors trading from the UAE across the GCC and Middle East area, but our strategy is now to have a distributor on the ground locally in each geography.

With the new Professional ServicesPartner designation, Blue Coat has created an offering that enables partners to increase service attach rates and margins while building more strategic relationships with their customers.

aag

By uniting its rewards, training and marketing support for partners in a single programme, AMD is endeavouring to make the process of working with it much more streamlined and consistent. Having a single point of reference for information and resources should allow us to work together much more effectively, while the incentives and financial rewards offer the opportunity to go above and beyond target.

GCC

This agreement not only reflects our continued focus on enhancing customer value by providing our channel partners with a wider choice of products and solutions, but also contributes to our objective of extending our coverage on new software solutions.

For the first time, there’s a new family of Intel processors with the industry’s most advanced technology available immediately at virtually every PC price point. These smart processors adapt to an individual’s needs, automatically providing a ‘boost’ of performance for everyday applications. They become energy efficient to the point of shutting down processing cores or reducing power consumption to provide performance when people need it, and [being] energy efficient when they don’t.

Almasa’s tie-up with Ericom Software could just be the start of things to come, suggests the distributor’s software unit chief, Ilyas Mohammed.

The boss of Redington Gulf’s value division, Ramkumar B, insists the distributor’s investments in the KSA market are there for all to see.

alue

Given the extensive ICT developments in Saudi, our goal is to maximise the opportunities available in this market through more intensive awareness drives for the brands we carry. In addition to road shows such as the ones we have recently staged, we have strengthened our presence in KSA by adding more sales and technical talent on the ground.

Channel Middle East - March 2010

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Transcript of Channel Middle East - March 2010