Reseller Middle East

ISSUE 182 // FEBRUARY 2012 // WWW.RESELLERME.COM

PUBLICATIONLICENSED BY IMPZ

W H AT M A K E S A N I D E A L V A DFEATURE

EMBARGO COUNTRIESWith increasing pressure on compliance of IT goods to not reach into embargo countries we look at how channel partners are tightening up P25

INTERVIEW“I do not believe a regional broad line distributor can become a true VAD”Dr Ali Baghdadi, CEO and President of Aptec Group P40

MULTIPLE BUYERS, MULTIPLE MESSAGESWhy a role-based sales approach is required for complex IT sales, Neil McMurchy, Research Vice President, Gartner P49

!"#$%&'()*&++(,!

KHALID MUASHER, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, BITDEFENDERMAZEN JABRI, HEAD OF ECOSYSTEMAND CHANNELS, SAP

NOMAN QADIR, REGIONAL MANAGER CHANNELS, CITRIXAJI JOSEPH, GENERAL MANAGER, ESET

ANISH KANARAN, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, EPICORALI HYDER, CEO, FOCUS SOFTNET

AMER ATTAR, SENIOR DIRECTOR PARTNER SALES, MISYS

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

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TO FAKES

ORIGINAL HP SUPPLIES. THEY PAY YOU BACK

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

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

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we will take the appropriate action.

COVER FEATURE

CONTENTSISSUE 182 // FEBRUARY 2012

31

05 Editorial

09 Announcements

19 Awards

50 People

53 Movements

54 Profile

32 New entrant

Bitdefender has chosen to enter the region through the consumer segment and is expected to move further into the business space

Khalid Muasher, Business Development Manager Middle East, Bitdefender

33 Desktop is king

Now the preferred vendor for desktop virtualisation projects, Citrix’s challenge is to secure as much business through local partners

Noman Qadir, Regional Manager Channels MENA and Turkey, Citrix

34 Next Gen ERP

Epicor’s version 9 is an ERP reseller’s wish list come true. The snappy ramp up of partners reflects the bullish sentiment

Anish Kanaran, Regional Director, Epicor

35 Hybrid distribution

With 30% of revenue from retail, ESET is looking at both broadliners and VADs to boost sales

Aji Joseph, General Manager, ESET

36 SMEs and ERP

Repeat business from its SME customer base and demand for ERP are primary drivers for Focus Softnet

Ali Hyder, CEO Focus Softnet

37 Partner’s bank

The Middle East and Africa has the highest contribution of partner deals for Misys’ products

Amer Attar, Partner Sales, Senior Director MEA, Global Partners Group, Misys

38 Partner Edge 2.0

SAP uses an innovative document framework to govern and manage its partner relationships

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

SPEAK OUT07 Leaders and CIOs Channel partners are used

to being part of formal vendor programmes. But CIOs today also face informal career and skill qualification hurdles as

they wrestle with challenges faced by their business. Gartner’s Mark McDonald explains the mindset of today’s CIO and a forum helping peer to peer networking.

FEATURE40 “I do not believe

a regional broad line distributor can become a true VAD”

Dr Ali Baghdadi, CEO and President of Aptec Group

43 Ideal VAD

What are the factors that make VADs indispensable for vendors and what do VADs need to do to reach such heights

47 Rewarding a VAD

A look at Wafa, Optimus’ innovative partner loyalty programme

48 FAQ: deal and value based engagements

49 Multiple buyers, multiple messages

Why a role-based sales approach is required for complex IT sales

A look at various channel partner strategies adopted by ERP, banking, security, enterprise application vendors in the region

Software channels

IN FOCUS25 No entry With the increasing

pressure on compliance of IT goods to not reach into embargo countries

we look at how channel partners are tightening up

Reseller Middle EastFEBRUARY 2012 3

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The first month of 2012 is over and all appears quite on the

technology front. Or is it? A slow and steady transformation appears

to be underway in the business of technology reselling.

The software channel story and our focus on what makes an ideal

value added distributor were supposed to be independent stories

in this issue. However once we concluded both the stories, there

are compelling interconnects of one with other. In the software

channel story, Citrix’s Noman Qadir tells us about his satisfaction of

working with Mindware as a value added distributor. And in the ideal

VAD story, EMC’s Havier Haddad explains the close engagement

with value added distributor Computerlinks. Across the same story,

Westcon’s Steve Lockie throws clarity on why certain distribution

models become an imperative at certain times of the product life

cycle. And why it is not a question of following the herd but rather on

following the requirements of the end user and the product life cycle.

This issue of Reseller therefore almost runs like a continuous special

on the value added distribution model. Close to twenty pages of the

most relevant information available in the market on the subject, and

we hope immensely useful for the respected reader. Turn to page 31

for software vendor snapshots and to page 40 to enter the realm of

value added distribution.

Moving on, we approach the subject of spurious technology

trade into embargo countries. We review the various preventive

approaches being incorporated at distribution companies. More

about this on page 25.

In the January issue of this year we presented some powerful

forward looking statements from Gartner. Around the subject of

Cloud they stated the following: By 2016, more than 50% of Global

1000 companies will have stored data in the public Cloud; by 2016,

40% of enterprises will make proof of security testing precondition

for using Cloud services; by 2015, low-cost Cloud services will

cannibalise 15% of outsourcing revenue; and by 2015, the prices for

80% of Cloud services will include an energy surcharge.

Our March issue addresses the subject of sales and delivery of

Cloud services in the region. We also open up our partner parley

evenings on the same subject in the month of March.

Look forward to seeing you there !

EDITORIAL

Transforming partners Publisher

Dominic De Sousa

Group COONadeem Hood

Managing DirectorRichard Judd

[email protected] +971 4 440 9126

EDITORIAL

Senior EditorArun Shankar


ADVERTISING

Commercial DirectorRajashree R Kumar


Advertising ExecutiveMerle Carrasco


CIRCULATION

Database and Circulation ManagerRajeesh M


PRODUCTION AND DESIGN

Production ManagerJames P Tharian


Art DirectorKamil Roxas


DesignerAnalou Balbero


PhotographerCris Mejorada


DIGITALwww.rwme.net

DIGITAL SERVICES

Digital Services ManagerTristan Troy P Maagma

Web DevelopersJerus King Bation

Erik BrionesJefferson de Joya

Louie Alma

[email protected]+971 4 440 9100

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© Copyright 2012 CPIAll rights reserved

While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all

information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

Arun ShankarSenior [email protected]


Leaders and CIOsChannel partners are used to being part of formal vendor programmes. But CIOs today also face informal career and skill qualification hurdles as they wrestle with challenges faced by their business. Gartner’s Mark McDonald explains the mindset of today’s CIO and a forum helping peer to peer networking.

A CIO is a leader when they are

able to not only deliver current

results, with today’s resources

and priorities, but also make

decisions that keep existing options open

and create new opportunities for their

enterprise.

This requires a CIO leader to understand

both technology, but more importantly the

application of technology to people, the

way they work, the company’s culture and

its capabilities. !A leader finds ways to make

the organisation better by removing issues

today and amplifying the organisation’s

strengths and ambitions. Today CIOs face

challenges across three fronts: organisational,

technology and business. !

Organisationally, CIOs face a major skills

challenge. !Getting the right people with the

right skills into IT is a persistent issue for

CIOs. !Traditionally this has been thought of

as a sourcing issue — in other words I can

buy the skills I need either by hiring people

away from other companies or hiring an IT

outsourcing firm. That approach was su"cient

in an environment of relatively stable skills

and workforce requirements. !Unfortunately

new technologies are raising demand for new

skills that simply do not exist in the market.

CIOs need to face this challenge by leading

their organisation in developing those critical

skills in house, rather than waiting for a

market to emerge. !

Technology and the pace of technological

change is another challenge. The pace of

technological change has always been rapid,

but it is getting even faster as the number

of people inventing new applications and

technologies has exploded. !Social media,

mobile applications, analytics and the internet

have dramatically accelerated the pace of

technology innovation. !Cloud services have

reduced the barriers to bringing these services

to a global market creating new sources of

competition for CIOs and IT. CIOs need to

understand both the nature and source of

new technologies and technical innovations

to provide the leadership and guide the

organisation to apply the solutions that make

the most sense today and in the future. !

Business challenges set the context

for the CIO as they reflect the resources,

priorities and requirements for agility. !Clearly

business challenges both economically,

geo-politically and industry wise require CIOs

Mark McDonald

SPEAKOUT

Organisationally, CIOs face a major skills challenge. Getting the

right people with the right skills into IT is a persistent issue for CIOs

to have a degree of certainty in executing

current plans but ever increasing levels of

flexibility to response to changes in business.

Many of these changes can be positive, for

example growth, an acquisition opportunity,

new products or services. !Here CIOs

cannot say, wait until I finish this and then

we can take advantage of those business

changes. !Rather they need to flow their

priorities, their people and their attention to

finish what is needed and fulfil the promise

associated with change. !

The CIO Leadership forum is unique in

the sense that it enables CIOs to address

the challenges mentioned above in their

unique but interrelated ways. !First, the

leadership forum gives CIOs and IT leaders

the ability to hear from Gartner analysts on

the business and technology issues shaping

the future. !Gartner speaks from a global

perspective to bring the technology insights

to CIOs. !Second, the CIO Leadership forum

recognises the importance of peer-to-peer

interaction as it contains interactive sessions

around issues that matter to IT today and the

business in the future. !Finally, the opportunity

to work one-on-one with a Gartner analyst on

your specific issues in your context provides

valuable insight and acceleration to your

ideas and plans.

Mark McDonald, PhD is Group Vice President, Head of Research for Gartner Executive Programmes and a Gartner Fellow.

The pace of technological change has always been

rapid, but it is getting even faster as the number of people inventing new applications and technologies has exploded


Technology is short term, but partnership is long term

Global sourcing - local supportIn a world of technologies, focusing on the ones that deliver benefit is good for your business. That’s why FVC partners with global IT leaders to bring the most effective, most transformative products and technologies to you, our channel. From telepresence to network traffic management, security to WAN optimisation, we are the leading VAD in MENA, supporting products with logistics, implementation and training. Let us be your partner of choice for tomorrow.

HP announced

changes to its

Partnerone

and Expertone

programs

that enable

networking

channel partners

to increase market

competitiveness

and revenue

opportunities. HP

has streamlined

specialisations of its former Preferred

Partner networking channel programme in

Europe, Middle East and Africa region. All

channel partners are now in the Partnerone

programme. The Partnerone programme

enables networking partners to substantially

increase margin potential through programme

discounts, growth accelerators and rebates.

“HP o#ers a range of opportunities for

its partners, across the entire IT converged

infrastructure portfolio. Access to HP

education and training programmes, the

network design centre, and many other

partner incentives, makes doing business

with HP partners easier and more profitable,”

said Ayman Dwidar Enterprise Storage,

Servers and Networking Channel Manager,

HP Middle East.

HP meets the needs of partners of all

sizes through three new certifications for

networking:

Partners focus primarily on selling solutions to

the SMB market and o#er customers a choice

of secure, a#ordable and scalable network

solutions.

Partners sell, deliver, manage and support

secure, wired and wireless networking

infrastructure solutions.

Partners sell, deliver, manage and support

complex, end-to-end secure networking and

data centre solutions and have the expertise

and skills in designing, deploying solutions

and services spanning the networking

lifecycle. They typically have deep knowledge

of corporate networks and requirements.

HP Partnerone and HP Expertone

programmes enable channel partners to

use the HP FlexNetwork architecture to

strengthen consultative, long-term customer

relationships and create new revenue

opportunities. By o#ering open and scalable

networking solutions, partners can address

customer requirements without locking them

in to vendors and technology.

The HP Expertone programme o#ers

partners the training and education needed

to transform their customers’ proprietary

environments into open, agile networks

based on an HP Converged Infrastructure.

Professionals gain skills needed to

architect, implement and manage technology

across the enterprise. The HP Expertone

Fast Track programme accounts for existing

certifications – even those gained through

a competitor – to speed the HP networking

certification process.

HP Expertone programme provides

partners with:

Hands on technical and certification

training delivered through newly announced

HP Expertone Learning Solution Partners.

O#erings include customised courses, access

to remote labs and web-based learning

applications, with initial courses focusing on

HP Networking.

Access to easy-reference training

materials and study guides through HP Press,

in the form of traditional books, e-books and

mobile applications. The first five technical

certification exam study guides focus on

networking certifications.

Certifications through HP Institute, a

global academic programme to be available in

several thousand institutions by 2014. Students

can earn architect-level HP certifications

through integrated hands-on experience with

remote labs in a classroom environment.

HP revamps networking channel programme

HP first to enable thin clients with Microsoft device managerHP announced it is the first company

to enable customers to unify device

management across their businesses by

o#ering select thin clients with preinstalled

Microsoft Windows Embedded Device

Manager 2011. HP is helping enterprises

extend Microsoft System Centre

Configuration Manager 2007 from PCs

and servers to the Windows Embedded

Standard-based HP t5740e and t5570e

thin clients through a single management

console.

“HP thin clients built on the Windows

Embedded platforms are ideal for IT

management and growing in popularity,”

said Kobi Elbaz, Director, Client Solutions,

HP Personal Systems Group EMEA.

“Our thin clients will enable customers

to broaden the reach of their existing

investments in Microsoft System Centre

Configuration Manager 2007 to encompass

PCs, servers and thin clients.”

HP thin clients running Windows

Embedded Device Manager 2011 o#er

enhanced inventory management and

deeper visibility of the components on each

thin client. The

preinstalled

agent also

facilitates

easier software

upgrades

and provides

full life cycle

management.

In addition,

Windows

Embedded

Device

Manager 2011 enables updates to be sent

to a thin client via a management tool to

automatically adjust the state of the write

filter, allowing easy and successful updates.

IN THE BEGINNINGAnnouncements

Ayman Dwidar Enterprise Storage, Servers and Networking Channel Manager, HP Middle East.

Kobi Elbaz, Director, Client Solutions, HP Personal Systems Group EMEA



Huawei, a global networking and

communication solutions provider, has

become the world’s largest contributor

to LTE standards and patents in the

telecommunications industry. Huawei’s

dedication to sharing its technological and

intellectual property has benefitted a diversity

of partners in the LTE value chain as the

company continues to play a fundamental

role in the development of the global market.

As of October 2011, Huawei also submitted

more than 7,900 LTE, EPC contributions to

the 3G Partnership Project —- a global mobile

broadband standards initiative, including more

than 230 approved contributions of LTE Core

Specifications.

Huawei’s contribution to LTE standards

and patents has been pivotal in the

company gaining the lead in global LTE

commercialisation as the top ranked brand

worldwide with more than 50% market share.

According to the Global Mobile Suppliers

Association report, Evolution to LTE, released

in October 2011, out of the 35 commercial

LTE networks launched globally to date, 18 of

them use Huawei’s end-to-end SingleRAN LTE

solution.

“Based on customer centric innovation,

sharing intellectual property rights with the

industry and complying with international

IPR rules, Huawei has become a leading

LTE industry player and contributor to LTE

standards and patents,” noted Leo Xu,

President of Solutions and Marketing, Middle

East, Huawei. “We have established more

than 20 joint innovation centres with global

Huawei leads as global contributor to LTE standards

operators and now

lead the strong

development of

the LTE industry.”

As a pioneer

in the field of

mobile broadband

and LTE

technologies in

particular, Huawei

has been involved

in a number of

landmark projects

in the region during 2011, including the

deployment of the region’s widest LTE network

in the UAE as well as the recent launch of LTE

TDD services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this month, Huawei also successfully

deployed and verified the capabilities of its

new E-Band microwave equipment during

a comprehensive LTE test network, marking

a crucial step in helping global operators

accommodate large-bandwidth LTE services.

Smart grids key to urban sustainability, says SAPWith cities emitting close

to 80% of all global carbon

dioxide emissions, the way

people plan, build and interact

with the urban environment is

irrevocably trending towards

sustainable solutions. “ICT

holds the key to reaping

the benefits of a connected

world of cities and a socially

empowered population,”

said Dr Maher Chebbo, VP

EMEA, Utilities and Services

Industries, SAP, speaking at the Eye on

Earth Summit in Abu Dhabi.

“Smart grids will take us to a place

where utilities, service providers, devices

and consumers are connected in an

e-marketplace – a place where powerful

data analysis can lower ecological

footprints, reduce increased energy

demand and help manage resources in

closed loop systems.”

Smart grids are already proving

increasingly influential in Europe, with 211

projects up and running and

investment totalling $6.7 billion to

date. According to a study by Pike

Research, worldwide investments

in smart grid infrastructure

could amount to around $200

billion between 2008 and 2015.

Digital and eminently adaptable,

smart grids are bidirectional and

capable of meeting growing user

demand to become proactive

consumers that manage and

produce energy more e"ciently,

as well as reduce CO2 emissions. They also

obviate the need for electricity to flow from

large central plants by integrating scattered

renewable energy production to the grid.

“At SAP, we are deeply committed to

a leadership role in the development and

application of ICT tools and technologies

able to turn the smart grid vision into reality,

building on our long-standing partnership

with SAP energy actors on both the supply

and demand sides of energy markets,”

explained Chebbo.

SAP’s progressive stance on such

technologies recently yielded SAP Smart

Meter Analytics, which leverages SAP’s

in-memory computing to take the mass

of data hailing from meters, supervisory

control and data acquisition and other

sources and process it in real time.

Regarded as a vital cog in the smart grid

arena, SAP’s revolutionary In-Memory

computing technology, better known as

HANA, has the astonishing potential to

report 3,600x faster than existing systems

and analyse 460 billion data records in less

than a second.

“Through ICT and smart grid

innovation we will ensure that energy is

no longer a commodity once it becomes

optimised” Chebbo concluded.

More than 2,000 utilities in 70

countries around the globe use SAP for

Utilities solutions, representing a 65%

market share. Recently, SAP was named

the 2010 Smart Grid Integrator of the Year

by the readers of the New Economy, World

News Media.

Leo Xu, President of Solutions and Marketing Middle East, Huawei

Dr Maher Chebbo, VP EMEA, Utilities and Services Industries, SAP

10 Reseller Middle East FEBRUARY 2012


The next major version of Interactive

Intelligence’s IP communications software

suite, Customer Interaction Centre is now

available in the Middle East. “The latest

version of CIC gives contact centres and

enterprises significantly increased scalability

and reliability, an enhanced user experience

and improved management insight. Version

4.0 gives customers an easier to deploy

and more cost e#ective alternative to what

is currently on the market,” says Shaheen

Haque, Territory Manager, Middle East and

Turkey at Interactive Intelligence.

CIC 4.0’s new real-time speech analytics

application, Interaction Analyzer, provides

real time keyword and phrase spotting

on either the customer side or agent side

or both sides of a voice conversation.

This real time capability enables contact

centre managers to be alerted to problem

interactions, monitor, coach, or intervene to

better satisfy customers and improve agent

performance.

Architectural improvements in CIC 4.0

provide significant scalability increases.

Metrics associated with these improvements

include a more than double increase in the

number of automatic call distribution, a five-

time increase in the number of simultaneous

interactive voice response sessions

supported, and a seven-time increase in the

number of calls that can be recorded per

hour. The company’s increase in product

scalability is part of its continued move up-

market to make CIC a competitive o#ering

for the largest global contact centres.

Another architectural improvement is

the elimination of third party call processing

software and moving all media processing

to the company’s Interaction Media Server.

With these enhancements, CIC 4.0 becomes

a pure application server that can be located

at a central data centre with media servers

at branch o"ces, thus creating a private

Cloud deployment model.

CIC 4.0 continues the focus of providing

a better

customer service

experience

by providing

improved tools

and features.

This includes

the addition

of Interaction

Web Portal, a

new application

that monitors,

records, reports

and tracks agent

and queue activity in a single web portal

environment for executives as well as

supervisors. Further enhancements in CIC

4.0 include a new Web client for agent and

business users, upgraded threaded email

queuing and handling, more e"cient queries

of call, email, web chat, fax recordings, and

expanded and improved reporting along

with Interaction Reporter.

Interactive Intelligence releases CIC ver 4.0 in ME

Shaheen Haque, Territory Manager, Middle East and Turkey, Interactive Intelligence

Trend Micro leads in global end point security market

Trend Micro, a

global Cloud

security

solutions

vendor,

maintained

its lead in the

corporate

endpoint

server security

market with

an estimated

23.7% market share, according to IDC’s

“Worldwide Endpoint Security 2011-2015

Forecast and 2010 Vendor Shares” report.

IDC’s overall estimate for the server

security market size is $439.2 million, with

a growth rate of 6.1% and expected to

reach $694.4 million by 2015. IDC noted

in the report that the growth of mobile

devices within the workplace and the

intersection of mobile and virtualisation

helped fuel the need in server security.

Cloud adoption is also driving the upward

trajectory of the server security market

as enterprises seek to secure their Cloud

environments.

“Server security is an important

market, distinct from the endpoint and

network security markets and one that

continues to grow alongside Cloud

computing. With more companies moving

toward data centre consolidation,

virtualisation and Cloud applications, a

data-centric focus is essential. Server

security needs to increase -- this is where

security needs to be, and this is where

Trend Micro stands out,” added Charles

Kolodgy, Research Vice President, Secure

Products, IDC.

“This is further validation that

worldwide, enterprises are looking to

Trend Micro for their server security

needs,” said Eva Chen, CEO.

For comprehensive server

protection, Trend Micro o#ers Deep

Security, which is designed to provide

system and application security across

physical, virtual and Cloud environments.

Deep Security meets the challenging

operational security and compliance

needs of today’s dynamic data centre.

It combines intrusion detection and

prevention, web application protection,

firewall, integrity monitoring, log

inspection and anti-malware capabilities

in a single, centrally managed enterprise

software solution. Deep Security also

provides the industry’s first and only

agent less security suite for VMware

environments, enabling enterprises to

attain even higher consolidation rates,

faster performance, better manageability

and stronger security.

Eva Chen, CEO, Trend Micro


Spectrami

announced it

has signed a

distribution

agreement

with Varonis

Systems, a

global vendor

for unstructured

data

governance

solutions for

the Middle East

region. Spectrami will play a fundamental

role in its go to market strategy for the

Middle East region. Varonis delivers its

solutions exclusively through channel

partners and treats them as an extension

of its sales team.

“We are glad to partner with Varonis

and bring unique unstructured data

governance solutions to the region,” said

Anand Choudha, Managing Director,

Spectrami. “Spectrami will o#er Varonis

solutions, training, marketing and sales

tools to its channel partners in order to

accelerate growth in this fast growing

data governance market segment in

our region.” Spectrami is authorised to

distribute data governance solutions from

Varonis across the Middle East region

including Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and

Oman among others.

“Varonis is very pleased to have

Spectrami as a distributor in the Middle

East,” said Jim O’Boyle, Senior Vice

President of Sales at Varonis. “The

Spectrami and Varonis

partnership will

HP announced

Odyssey, a

project to redefine

the future of

mission-critical

computing with

a development

roadmap that

will unify Unix

and x86 server

architectures to

bring industry

grade availability,

increased performance and client choice to a

single platform.

Using advanced technology across

a common modular HP Bladesystem

architecture, HP is developing platforms to

enable clients to choose the best environment

aligned to their organisations’ needs without

compromise, helping ensure investment

protection for the long term.

HP’s new development roadmap includes

ongoing innovations to HP Integrity servers, HP

Nonstop solutions and the HP-UX and OpenVMS

operating systems. The roadmap also includes

delivering blades with Intel Xeon processors for

the HP Superdome 2 enclosure and the scalable

c-Class blade enclosures, while fortifying

Windows, Linux, HP-UX environments with

innovations within the next two years.

“Clients have been asking us to expand

the mission-critical experience that is delivered

with HP-UX on Integrity to an x86-based

infrastructure,” said Alaa Al Shimy, Enterprise

Storage, Servers and Networking Director, HP

Middle East. “HP plans to transform the server

landscape for mission-critical computing by

using the flexibility of HP BladeSystem and

bringing key HP technology innovations from

Integrity and HP-UX to the x86 ecosystem.

Unlike the competition, HP o#ers an open,

integrated, single platform approach.”

By expanding mission-critical HP

Converged Infrastructure and bringing select

proven innovations to x86 systems, HP will

enable clients running Linux, such as Red Hat

Enterprise Linux, or Windows to:

DragonHawk symmetrical multiprocessing x86

systems that will scale to hundreds of cores

and support large, complex workloads.

four and eight socket HydraLynx scalable x86

server blades with mission-critical virtualisation

and availability, all packaged in the robust

C-Class enclosures of HP BladeSystem.

applications with the HP Serviceguard solution,

which automatically moves application

HP to converge X86 and HP-UX mission critical platforms

Varonis Systems ties up with regional VAD Spectrami

Alaa Al Shimy, Enterprise Storage, Servers and Networking Director, HP Middle East

Continue on page 154

Anand Choudha, Managing Director, Spectrami

workloads between servers in the event of a

failure or on-demand request.

systems with HP nPartitions technology,

which provides precise partitioning of system

resources across multiple or variable workloads.

Analysis Engine for x86 embedded into the

system firmware.

systems with fault-tolerant HP Crossbar Fabric

that intelligently routes data within the system

for redundancy and high availability.

HP Mission Critical Services, which identify and

resolve possible sources of downtime.

“By continuing to extend the mission-

critical capabilities of the Itanium environment

while fortifying the mission-critical ecosystem

for x86, HP and Intel are providing greater

flexibility and choice – putting the customer

back in the driver’s seat for their future

mission-critical needs,” said Kirk Skaugen,

General Manager, Data Centre Group, Intel.

“Customers trust Microsoft and HP with

their enterprise computing needs,” said

Eduardo Rosini, Corporate Vice President, SQL

Server Marketing, Microsoft. “By furthering

our partnership, Microsoft and HP will bring

together the world’s leading server and

software solutions to let customers harness the

flexibility and scalability of Microsoft Windows

Server and SQL Server on HP Converged

Infrastructure for their broad mission-critical

computing needs of tomorrow.”

IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups


Dafnia Electronics, a part of the Dafnia Group provides advanced offering of high end products and services, system integration and site solutions. We are geared towards offering innovative and honest technical consultancy, services and solutions ranging from planning to implementation in the Information Technology and Telecommunication field.

www.dafnia.ae

Datacenters

Environmental Monitoring System

IT racks and System Accessories

Technical and Lab furniture

Copper Tools and Test Instruments

Fiber Tools and Test Instruments

Cables

Outside Plant Products

Data Products

Voice Products

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

a

Dafnia Technologies LLC

Abu Dhabi

Tel: +971 2 6322437

Fax: +971 2 6322437

Email: [email protected]

SKT LLC

Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman

Tel: +968 24 750205

Fax: +968 24 789375


Dafnia Electronics LLC

Dubai, UAE

Tel: +971 4 3352995

Fax: +971 4 3349951


Dafnia COM-TEC, FZCO

JAFZA

Tel: +971 4 8831401

Fax: +971 4 8831402


Dafnia Solutions

ME FZ LLC

Tecom (DIC)

Dubai, UAE


give Middle East customers access to

advanced data governance automation and

metadata framework technology, enabling

organisations to easily identify excessive

permissions and abnormal access activity

on their file systems, NAS devices,

SharePoint sites and Exchange by showing

who has access to data, who is using their

access, who shouldn’t have access, who

owns the data, and what data is sensitive.”

Varonis Systems provide solutions

that manage and protect unstructured

data that is exploding and out of control

within every organisation. The number of

documents, spreadsheets, presentations,

media files and other business data sitting

on file servers, NAS devices and semi-

structured repositories like SharePoint

and Exchange is massive and growing

fast. Data protection is necessary to

safeguard an organisation’s customers,

employees, business partners, and

investors. It is fundamental in securing an

organisation’s intellectual property and

Varonis Systems ties up with regional VAD SpectramiContinuation from page 12 4

Diabetics in Kuwait, Iraq and Palestine

can now use their mobile phones to receive

personalised alerts and information on

exercise and diet, thanks to a new mHealth

service being o#ered by Qtel Group

companies. Representatives from the Qtel

Group and from some of the world’s most

innovative companies recently met in Qatar to

discuss such innovations to mobile healthcare

as well as how mobile phone technology

can be used to support key healthcare goals

across the region.

Global studies have shown that involving

mobile devices in the practice of healthcare

can have an immediate and significant

impact. In remote locations and for rural

communities, it can provide a vital link to

physicians and healthcare advisors. In major

cities, it can deliver incredible savings. US

operator Verizon estimates, according to

reports, that mobile broadband can improve

health care productivity in the US to the tune

of US$6.9 billion, which could increase nearly

eight-fold by 2016.

Representatives from Qtel’s Group of

companies gathered together to gain a

greater understanding on the dynamics of the

health industry and how operators can make

a di#erence to both patients and societies

worldwide. The workshop also explored

how specific OpCos in the Qtel Group could

take advantage of key opportunities in this

sector within their own markets and help

to build sustainable mHealth eco-systems.

Representatives at the event included

delegates from Qtel Qatar, Indosat, Wataniya

Kuwait, Nawras, Asiacell, Nedjma, Tunisiana,

Bravo, Wataniya Maldives, Wataniya Palestine,

which between them cover mobile markets

across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

“We are really pleased to be working

with the Qtel Group to bring this workshop

series here to Doha. Mobile is increasingly

playing a significant role within healthcare

and is supporting healthcare services across

the globe,” said Dr Craig Fridericks, Director

of Health, GSMA. We are working with mobile

network operators worldwide to highlight how

they can implement mHealth initiatives into

the market that will o#er significant health

and lifestyle benefits to end users.”

Qtel Group collaborates with GSMA on mHealth services

competitive edge, and for maintaining

the organisational trust required for it to

properly function.

According to IDC, 80% of

organisational data is unstructured

and will grow by 650% in the next

five years. The Varonis Metadata

Framework is designed to handle ever

increasing volume and complexity for

ongoing, scalable data protection and

management and enables secure, digital

collaboration.

IN THE BEGINNINGTie ups



Software AG integrates Terracotta technology in five months

Empower launches world-class call centre for 16,000 customers

ACT secures off-site disaster recovery With HP converged infrastructure

Emirates Central Cooling Corporation

launched a world-class call centre at its

headquarters in Dubai Healthcare City to

enhance ways to interact with customers.

Ahmed Bin Shafar, CEO, Empower, expressed

his satisfaction over the newly launched centre

that is equipped with advanced communications

solutions. The centre forms part of the

company’s strategy to move its customers to

digital channels and thus save their time and

e#ort when dealing with Empower.

Empower’s 16,000-strong customer

base includes individual customers as well

as large businesses, including projects in

Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai

Healthcare City, Jumeirah Beach Residence

and Business Bay. The new call centre reflects

the core values of Empower and reinforces its

position on the global front as an organisation

that delivers e"cient service. The system

is designed to manage customers’ queries

through increased e"ciency and productivity.

The centre is designed to receive multi

queries at the same time, with a capacity

of 1,000 calls per day to enhance customer

satisfaction as well as employee productivity.

The Dubai based company believes that district

cooling technology achieves optimal results not

only to customers but also to the society at a

socio-economic level by reducing the electricity

and water consumption, thus conserving the

environmental resources in the UAE.

Software AG announced successful integration

of Terracotta technology into its product stack

in only five months. The integrated technology

o#ers customers a new clustering solution

– Terracotta Server Array – which enables

webMethods to take full advantage of Cloud-

based deployment environments. In addition,

Terracotta’s Ehcache caching technology

dramatically improves product performance for

CentraSite by up to 50%. This release is the first

step in ensuring that customers can fully benefit

from the convergence of Cloud computing.

“We worked quickly to incorporate

Terracotta’s technology into our product suite

so that our customers could take full advantage

of cost savings and performance improvements

from Cloud and in-memory based solutions,”

said Dr Wolfram Jost, Chief Technology O"cer

and member of the Executive Board, Software

AG. “We want to deliver the tools that will help

enterprises gain greater control over their

business processes in the most scalable manner

possible.”

Software AG acquired Terracotta for its

in-memory technology. Terracotta’s in-memory

processing will provide the foundation for

Software AG’s Cloud o#erings. With in-memory

data access up to 1,000 times faster than

database access, Software AG can support

existing and new customers with significantly

larger business process excellence projects. As

Software AG looks to the future, Terracotta will

deliver the in-memory data management layer

that powers the enterprise Cloud.

HP announced that Aqaba Container

Terminal, part of APM Terminals’ global

terminal network, has virtualised its

main data centre with HP Converged

Infrastructure to guard against loss

of critical data and keep services

available. The highly available new

IT environment with o#-site disaster

recovery has quadrupled Aqaba’s

system performance while reducing

costs, and is considered the ideal

model for virtualisation.

“Aqaba Container Terminal is

always looking to update its secure,

reliable IT environment to ensure

the highest levels of service,” says

Munther Dweik, IT Manager. “The

new HP infrastructure automates

previously manual tasks and simplifies

management, which means we spend

less time on maintenance.”

Aqaba Container Terminal IT team

replaced 42 outdated rack-mounted

servers running communications and

applications for terminal operations

with just one HP ProLiant BladeSystem

c7000 enclosure containing 10 HP

ProLiant BL465c G5 and G6 server

blades running VMware. Customer-

defined factory configuration and

onsite installation by HP Factory

Express ensured that the new HP

servers were deployed in minutes,

speeding time to value and freeing IT

sta# for more valuable tasks.

Aqaba Container Terminal is a joint

venture between Aqaba Development

Corporation which is the Jordanian

Government’s central development

vehicle for the Aqaba Special

Economic Zone and APM Terminals, a

leading container terminal operator.


IN THE BEGINNINGAwards

In the presence of HH Sheikh Majid Bin

Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and others,

Jawad Al Redha, Microsoft Gulf’s Head of

Government Interface for Intellectual Property

Rights was awarded a Gold Medal of Merit

in outstanding accomplishments by Tatweej

Academy in recognition of his e#orts towards

IPR protection.

Microsoft’s Redha recognised by Tatweej for IPR efforts

Cisco awarded best partner by Dubai Women’s College

Cisco announced it is has been awarded

Best CSR Partner at Dubai Women’s College

awards ceremony. The annual ceremony,

held under the patronage of HE Sheikh

Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE

Minister for Higher Education and Chancellor

of the Higher Colleges of Technology, took

place at Dubai Women’s College.

Omar Shaban, Director, Global

Operations, Cisco, commented: “We are

delighted to receive the Best CSR Partner

award from Dubai Women’s College.

Through the Cisco Networking Academy

Programme, we aim to develop the

right technical expertise, particularly a

highly skilled workforce that support the

demands of the ICT industry and serve as

a catalyst for socio-economic development

in the region.”

Cisco’s award was in recognition

of its long-term partnership with Higher

Colleges of Technology and the launch

of Cisco Networking Academy courses

throughout campuses of Higher Colleges

of Technology including Dubai Women’s

College. The courses include Cisco-ITE,

Cisco Certified Network Associate and

Cisco Certified Network Professional

as well as seminars conducted by

Cisco specialists and field visits. Cisco

Networking Academy is a global education

programme that teaches students how

to design, build, troubleshoot and secure

computer networks for increased access

to career and economic opportunities in

communities around the world.

Al Redha has been an integral part

of Microsoft Gulf’s region-wide e#orts to

protecting intellectual property rights. He

has over 12 years of extensive experience

in promoting IPR and working in close

coordination with various Arab governments

in the region. In recent months Al Redha has

been involved in a series of IPR protection

related initiatives, including joint e#orts with

the UAE Ministry of Justice, UAE Ministry

of Foreign A#airs and the Emirates IPR

Association. He has also been working

closely with the Government of Sharjah to

promote IPR protection among the emirate’s

business sector.

Commenting on the award, Jawad Al

Redha said, “I am honoured by this recognition

from Tatweej. This award inspires me to

strive even harder to tackle software piracy

and violation of intellectual property rights.

Our commitment within Microsoft remains

strong and we are dedicated to working with

government o"cials to support the use of

original content.”

Jawad Al Redha, Microsoft Gulf’s Head of Government Interface for Intellectual Property Rights was awarded a Gold Medal of Merit for outstanding accomplishments by Tatweej Academy



Canon Middle East, honoured performing

partners during the 2011 Awards, at the

recently concluded Canon Partners

Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Organised

under the power of partnership theme,

the awards recognised the contributions

of Middle East partners in Canon’s growth

performance in the region.

Over 100 partners from 45 countries

in the Middle East, North and East Africa

attended the partner conference, which

was organised in line with Canon Middle

East’s 10th anniversary celebrations. The

company presented its business strategies

and objectives for 2012 during the event and

conducted discussions about the important

role of its partners in achieving its mission

to be closer to its customers. Canon also

discussed various product segments and

outlined its strategy of breaking down the

market further into segments, which will

enable its partners to deliver to the right

product segments.

Anurag Agrawal, Managing Director,

Canon Middle East, said: “Canon’s ability to

maintain a healthy, constructive and dynamic

relationship with its partners serves as the

strong foundation that allows us to maintain

our market stronghold in the region.”

The winners of the B2B Awards were

Di#azur Sarl, Morocco in the corporate

o"ce black and white category; El Ajou

Group Trading Company, Saudi Arabia in the

corporate o"ce colour category; Al Badri

Information Technology, Iraq in the digital image

management system category; Neolt Graf,

Morocco in the large format printers category;

and Salam Technical Services, Qatar in the

professional print category.

Di#azur Sarl, El Ajou Group Trading

Company, Al Badri Information Technology

and Neolt Graf were recognised for their

excellent performance in increasing market

share in their respective product categories

through market coverage. Salam Technical

Services received the award in recognition

of its outstanding sales achievement and

performance in professional print.

In the B2C Awards, Salam Studio and

Stores topped the digital SLR category for

its performance in increasing market share

for DSLR; Ali Zaid Al Quraishi and Bros won

the DSC and Selphy category in recognition

of both unit and

revenue growth in

DSC; Advanced Digital

Imaging Sal won in

the HD video category

in recognition of its

focus on promoting

the video category;

General Electric and

Trading was winner

in the inkjet products

category in recognition

of its performance

in increasing market

share for inkjets;

and Sabi Systems won the award in the

laser products category in recognition of its

performance in laser through the successful

launch of Sabi System Canon Club.

Canon Middle East gave away a special

10th anniversary recognition award to

National Store, the flagship company of JK

Sons Group in recognition of its long-standing

Canon partnership and for achieving year-

on-year sales and market share growth in

the photo-video category. The President

Award winner went to Ali Zaid Al Quraishi and

Bros, which was recognised for its all-round

performance for sales and market share gain

in the photo video product category.

Canon Middle East is a subsidiary of

Canon Europe. In 1998, Canon set up a

representative o"ce in Dubai to help partners

deliver with additional support. By 2001,

Canon had transformed into a full subsidiary

with logistics facilities, and in 2002 moved

into its Dubai Internet City o"ce. In 2005,

Canon North Africa based in Paris became

a 100% subsidiary of Canon Middle East.

Canon Middle East further expanded its

area of responsibility to include East African

markets in June 2011. Today this Canon o"ce

manages sales, marketing and technical

support activities across 45 countries in

the Middle East as well as East African and

French-speaking African countries.

Top partners recognised at Canon 2011 awards


Software AG wins European business award for growth strategy

RIM recognises best Blackberry EMEA application developers

Software AG, a global vendor of

business process excellence solutions,

was confirmed as winner of the HSBC

International Growth Strategy of the

Year at the European Business Awards

2011 in Barcelona. The accolade

reflected Software AG’s growth over the

past 18 months following the launch of

its product portfolio.

The award recognised the

company’s shift in focus from product to

process had led to significant growth.

For Phil Forrest, chairman of judges,

“Software AG’s 40 years of innovation

in o#ering customers a portfolio of end

to end business process management

solutions is proof that in the highly

competitive world of software supply,

specialisation and focus on a key

performance improvement can deliver

e#ective growth.”

Karl-Heinz Streibich, CEO, Software

AG said: “This prestigious award is proof

that focus combined with agility creates

competitiveness. We are a European

software company competing in a world

of IT giants and it is testament to our

people to have been acknowledged in

this way.”

“Business process excellence

allows companies to continuously

monitor, manage and optimise their

business processes in order to

increase productivity and competitive

advantage while simultaneously

reducing costs,” added Darren Roos,

COO EMEA and member of the Group

Executive Board of Software AG.

Since 2007, the European Business

Awards have recognised excellence,

innovation and best practice in all

disciplines of business.

Research In Motion announced winners of the

BlackBerry EMEA Innovation Awards 2011. Now

in their fourth year, the awards are the highlight

of the annual BlackBerry EMEA Alliance Summit,

recognising and rewarding organisations

from within BlackBerry Alliance Programme

in Europe, Middle East and Africa that have

delivered value-added applications and services

to customers using the BlackBerry platform.

Each of the seven category winners has

demonstrated excellence by creating innovative

applications that provide tangible benefits to

public or private sector organisations, SMEs

or consumers. This year saw introduction of a

new category specifically to recognise solutions

for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, as well as

a People’s Choice award. Voted for by fans

and followers via the BlackBerry Facebook

and Twitter channels across Europe, Middle

East and Africa, the People’s Choice award

recognises the most popular free application

available on BlackBerry App World.

“In developing the tools that help our

customers drive more value out of their

investment in BlackBerry devices and services,

our partners play a vital role in the continuing

development of the BlackBerry ecosystem,” said

Alec Saunders, VP Developer Relations at RIM.

Winners

sector: TechMobile Srl

Qualteh Jr

Systemhaus GmbH

Limited

Wikitude

Digital SAS

Solutions

Brother Gulf, a vendor for home

and business IT peripherals, was

presented with the Corporate

Social Responsibility Award

by ICDL GCC Foundation,

the governing body and the

certification authority of the

International Computer Driving

License programme in the Gulf

States and Iraq.

The award was given for

Brother’s support for the recent

ICDL Computer Summer Camp

2011 and also in recognition of the

company’s continuing initiatives towards the

improvement and development of computer

skills of students coming from across the

Middle East.

Thousands of students from around the

Arabian Gulf region have benefited from the

annual ICDL Computer Summer Camp, gaining

computer skills that drive them to

achieve academic excellence and

integrate in today’s digital society.

“It is an honor to receive

this distinction from the ICDL,

which stands as a testament

to our dedication towards the

development of computer skills for

today’s generation,” said Ranjit S

Gurkar, General Manager, Printing

and Solutions Division MENA

Brother International.

Brother International Gulf is a

subsidiary of Brother Group, Japan,

and maintains headquarters for the Middle

East, Africa and Turkey, at the Jebel Ali Free

Zone in Dubai. ICDL is an integrated digital

literacy programme recognised worldwide.

The programme empowers individuals with the

essential skills and knowledge of computer and

practical use of common desktop applications.

Brother awarded for International Computer Driving License camp

Ranjit S Gurkar, General Manager, Printing and Solutions Division MENA Brother International



Schneider recognised for Smart World, Al Ain university implementationAvaya gets

product innovation award from Frost & Sullivan

Schneider Electric, a specialist in energy

management, received two distinctions at

the recently held Data Centre Middle East

Awards. Schneider Electric was named

Best Data Centre Middle East for the facility

installed for Smartworld, an airport systems

integration and aviation infrastructure

services provider. The implementation

comprised two Tier 3 data centres at Dubai

World Central, an urban aviation community

located around Al Maktoum International

Airport, Dubai, UAE. The in-row cooling

architecture reduced energy costs by 30%

while the installation o#ered support to

critical applications and the IT infrastructure

for clients of Smartworld.

Commenting on the award, Mustafa

Kaddoura, CEO of Smartworld, said: “We

have been associated with Schneider

Electric for four years, and the facility

installed at Dubai World Central is award-

winning.”

The Green Award for Sustainability

was associated for the UAE University

Data Centre project at Al Ain. Visionanire,

a solutions and services provider in the

intelligent building management domain,

designed and built the data centre that has

Schneider Electric’s APC Infrastruxure line

of products.

The new data centre was built in

response to the university’s increased

requirement for a student-base of more

than 12,000 enrolments at the new campus.

The new UAE University campus houses

one of the largest academic networks in the

region with more than 350 wiring closets

connected to over 25,000 IP ports that

o#er a link to the UAEU Data Centre via

redundant fibre. At the commencement of

the project, the University had established

a green ICT mandate to follow the

environmental sustainable philosophy of

3R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle.

Paul-Francois Cattier, Global Vice-

President Data Centre, Schneider Electric,

said: “It is always good to be recognised for

the successful implementation of solutions.

Even more encouraging is the categories

in which we have been awarded, reflecting

our commitment towards sustainable

development while providing technologies

that meet individual client needs.”Mustafa Kaddoura, CEO of Smartworld

Olivier Delepine, Vice President, UAE and Gulf countries, Schneider Electric, received the award

Avaya, a vendor of business

communications and collaboration

systems and services, announced it

has received the 2011 New Product

Innovation Award for Global Desktop

Videoconferencing Endpoints from Frost

& Sullivan for the Avaya Desktop Video

Device.

In determining the award, Frost &

Sullivan benchmarked the device in five

categories: product innovation, use of

leading-edge technologies, value-added

features and benefits, customer ROI

and customer penetration potential.

In particular, Frost & Sullivan noted: “A

key aspect of the Avaya Desktop Video

Device and the Avaya Flare Experience

is that it provides unified, people-centric

view for relevant communications in

an easy to use and intuitive way. As a

result, placing a video call is as easy as

making a phone call.” “Based on Frost

& Sullivan’s independent analysis of the

Global Videoconferencing Endpoints

market, Avaya is being recognised

with the 2011 New Product Innovation

Award,” said Roopam Jain, Industry

Director, UC and Collaboration, Frost &

Sullivan

The Avaya Desktop Video Device

is a wireless enabled desktop video

device that has an 11.6 inch multi touch

screen with an integrated high definition

video camera. The multi modal device

supports the Avaya Flare Experience

and is an integrated solution that

brings together multiple interactions

into a single communications interface.

Avaya’s Desktop Video Device supports

the entire Avaya Aura applications

portfolio and enables a user to

consolidate tools such as a desk phone,

speakerphone and video endpoint in a

single easy to use device.


ESET secures fourth consecutive Advanced+ Award in performance test from AV-ComparativesESET announced its fourth Advanced+

award in performance testing from AV-

Comparatives, an independent research

organisation. The latest test measured the

impact on system performance of 20 antivirus

products. In addition to receiving the highest

possible number of Advanced+ awards in

performance testing, ESET has received more

Advanced+ awards in retrospective tests than

any other vendor, given to products that have

excellent heuristic detection rates and low

false positives.

AV-Comparatives provide a three-level

ranking system of standard, advanced and

advanced+ awards. To receive an Advanced+

award, products in this particular test were

compared based on how much impact the

product has on a system. ESET tops the

list as the product with the least amount of

system impact.

“Over the years and throughout di#erent

tests, we have seen that ESET develops high-

performing security solutions that have a small

impact on system performance. Receiving

Winners of Canon’s Power Image photo contest

once again the Advanced+ award in our most

recent performance test is further validation,”

said Andreas Clementi, founder and chairman

for AV-Comparatives. “Additionally, ESET has

always understood the importance of strong

heuristics in fighting malware and continues

to be the vendor with the highest number

of Advanced+ awards in AV-Comparatives

heuristic detection tests.”

Speaking on the occasion, Aji Joseph,

General Manager, ESET Middle East said: “For

a long time now, ESET has been developing

and delivering security solutions that keep us

ahead in the game and will continue to do so

in the future too.”

First prize winner, Lobna Tarek of Al

Shorouk newspaper, Egypt with her

entry “beyond the divide”

Second prize winner, Emad Alaa Aldin

of Al Bayan newspaper, UAE with his

entry “intimacy”

Third prize winner, Tania Rudenskykh

of Kul Al’Usra magazine with her entry

“bridging generations”

1

1

23

2

3


Creativity and performance on the move:Dell Precision Intel® Xeon® processor workstations

For purchase or more information contact

Dubai: (04) 398 9999 Ext. 777, (04) 314 1484

Also available:DellTM LatitudeTM NotebooksDellTM OptiPlexTM PCsDellTM PowerEdgeTM ServersDellTM EqualLogicTM StorageDell Compellent StorageDell Power Conntect

Celeron, Celeron Inside, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Atom, Intel Atom Inside, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Performance and peace of mind with exceptional value

Impressive power to fit space constraints

Flagship with breakthrough performance

Balanced performance scalability and a!ordability

No entry With increasing pressure on compliance of IT goods to not reach into embargo countries we look at how channel partners are tightening up

In the month of December 2011,

the controversial site Wikileaks

posted documents indicating a

group of 150 plus IT companies

were globally marketing and selling

surveillance and IP monitoring equipment.

Included in those names were Alcatel-

Lucent, Northrop Grumman, Siemens,

VASTech, Trovicor and Sophos to name a

few.

The post immediately triggered a wave

of debate on whether IT companies and the

western governments were doing enough

to prevent export of this equipment into

the hands of repressive regimes across

the world. In the same post, a number of IT

companies were named whose equipment

had been used in select Middle Eastern

countries to control and suppress dissent in

those countries. These facts have led to a

new wave of diligence in export compliance

procedures across the regional channel

players.

“Dubai is traders central”, says Steve

Lockie, Group Managing Director MENA,

Westcon, indicating there are very few

Embargo countries

IN FOCUS

We have a record of the location and contact of every

single end user where the appliance sits and we know who the reseller and distributor was

unambiguously verify the final destination

of the shipment.

“Whenever Sourcefire takes an order

from a distributor we ask for end user

details. We have a record of the location

and contact of every single end user where

the appliance sits and we know who the

reseller and distributor was. The location is

important for us,” continues Perridge.

Adds Meera Kaul, Managing Director,

Optimus Technology and Telecom, a key

distributor for Avaya unified communication

solutions and end point products: “We do

not give a quotation unless the partner tells

us who the end customer is. A project for us

is identified by both the partner and the end

customer.”

After delivery of the product or the

solution at the final destination, the

activation process is equally stringent.

“The software licenses do not get activated

till the project is completed and the

partner ask for activation. The licenses

shipments that take place across the region

that either do not originate from Dubai

as re-exports or that do not pass through

Dubai in a more indirect fashion. While the

relevance of Dubai as a regional re-export

hub has reduced over the last four years,

the shipping and procurements hubs of

all major IT vendors continue to reside in

Dubai, making it necessary to implement

any due diligence process at this central

location.

Shipments to US or European

embargoed countries are not allowed

in any distributor contracts across the

region. While embargoed countries are

categorically blacklisted, shipments to

countries outside a distributors channel

influence are also not allowed, thereby

making the accountability of goods being

repackaged for onward shipments equally

prohibitive.

“Every partner that we have has an

assigned territory by their contract. They

are not allowed to sell out of their territory

into another distributor’s territory. When we

sign a contract with our distributor we list

the countries in which they are authorised

to operate and we have the right to audit

our partners and our distributors,” explains

Anthony Perridge, Channel Director

EMEA, Sourcefire, an open source vendor

supplying cyber security solutions to global

top 2000 companies.

While vendor and distributor partner

contracts may exclude embargoed

countries, since there is chain of partners

involved in the product and solution sell

through process it becomes imperative to

Right to audit partners and distributors, Anthony Perridge, Channel Director EMEA, Sourcefire

Creativity and performance on the move:Dell Precision Intel® Xeon® processor workstations

For purchase or more information contact

Dubai: (04) 398 9999 Ext. 777, (04) 314 1484

Also available:DellTM LatitudeTM NotebooksDellTM OptiPlexTM PCsDellTM PowerEdgeTM ServersDellTM EqualLogicTM StorageDell Compellent StorageDell Power Conntect

Celeron, Celeron Inside, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Atom, Intel Atom Inside, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Performance and peace of mind with exceptional value

Impressive power to fit space constraints

Flagship with breakthrough performance

Balanced performance scalability and a!ordability


Embargo countries

IN FOCUS

get activated with an ID that you can trace

to the end customer. That is how legal

business is done,” continues Kaul.

If the country of activation for a product

is part of the embargoed list of countries,

the vendor can deactivate online support

and upgrade services for the end user. Not

getting access to the latest support renders

the product vulnerable and therefore of

limited capability for the end user operating

from an embargoed country.

“Our product is a live product and we

need to upgrade and update the product

continuously with the latest version

and detection signatures. If you are not

upgrading and updating all the time you

are losing your protection. The day it goes

out of date it starts to lose value,” explains

Perridge.

Hence when the product is activated

and registered with a vendor, the country

of activation and the country registered

through the channel partner can be

compared and verified. But industry sources

point out, loop holes arise where parts of

a large project are diverted enroute from

the declared country of final destination

and find their way to un-declared and

often embargoed countries as the final

destination. This is more feasible in project

type orders with a large bill of quantities.

Diversion of stocks is also especially

feasible where resellers have chosen to

keep inventory at their side of the sell

through process. Resellers usually keep

We do not want any run rate business we are not aware off


run rate and fast moving items within their

inventory to ensure they capture deals at

any particular time, especially those that

require immediate availability of product.

It is these stocks that often get sold o#

without the final destination of shipment

and the end customer getting properly

verified. “Partners at times are stocking

themselves. We want closer visibility into

where the stock is going,” says KS Parag,

Managing Director, FVC, a value added

distributor for Polycom, Riverbed and Citrix.

“Some of our solutions are run rate and

some are projects. Where stock is being

sold for a particular customer it is very clear

and it is much more foolproof when you are

looking at projects. But we do not want any

run rate business we are not aware o#,” he

continues.

A strong influence that can make

channel partners go astray and look into

neighbouring territories is the carrot

that always dangles in their direction.

For the low end of the channel supply

chain, smaller resellers can get easily

influenced by the strong demand for IT

goods into these embargoed countries.

For such channel players, “the demand of

these markets quite surpasses the risks

associated,” says Kaul.

But the size of the carrot has to be

viewed on a relative scale. For resellers

with a top line figure of a few million dollars,

the benefits of doing a few deals into the

embargoed countries may be significant.

But as you ascend the supply chain and

with increasing revenue turnover, the

benefits become less and less significant

for channel partners operating with a wider

span of operations.

“As a corporate it is a fraction of our

business globally. Why on earth would you

want to put all that at risk for one deal? It is

a matter of the relative size of the carrot,”

explains Lockie.

Another reason that drives diversion of

shipments to embargoed territories in the

Middle East can be the lack of adherence

to established processes by regional and

local o"ces of vendors. Often sales quotas

for channel partners are unrealistic and are

based on possible opportunity deals arising

from embargoed territories. Under pressure

from their principals, channel partners

accept these unrealistic targets and start to

go astray.

“If you have set unrealistic quotas that

lead channel partners to do a little bit of

this and a little bit of that, you have broken

multiple laws. Give people reasonable

quotas in the first place,” says Westcon’s

Lockie, a value added distributor for Juniper

Networks and Avaya. His advice to channel

partners: “You have to be strong enough to

say No!” to such practices.

An important step in this process is to

disregard any possible opportunity deals

arising out of embargoed countries right

from the onset. Incremental business that

stems out of embargoed countries needs

to be discounted in every possible market

sizing and growth estimate right from the

regional vendor’s o"ce downwards to

distributors and finally to reseller partners.

“We do not want to recognise any

revenue coming from these countries within

ourselves as a team. Second we do not

want to recognise any business coming

from channels. Channels will adhere to and

not do any business into these embargo

countries. We will not recognise the sale

and cancel the order and opportunity,”

As a practice we will not do any business without

the end customer being completely recognised and confirmed by the channel partner in writing

Bureau of Industry and

Commerce, US Department of

Commerce

http://www.bis.doc.gov/dpl/default.shtm

http://www.bis.doc.gov/enforcement/

unverifiedlist/unverified_parties.html

http://www.bis.doc.gov/entities/default.

htm

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-

center/sanctions/SDN-List/Pages/

default.aspx

http://www.pmddtc.state.gov/

compliance/debar.html

http://www.state.gov/t/isn/c15231.htm

US WATCH LIST

Closer monitoring of reseller stocks, KS Parag, Managing Director, FVC


explains FVC’s Parag. “As a practice we

will not do any business without the end

customer being completely recognised and

confirmed by the channel partner in writing.

These challenges came into question when

the end user was never known or had never

been discussed by the channel partner.

But now without the end user name we

will not do any business or recognise any

business.”

One of the strictest such compliance

measures is practised by value added

distributor Westcon across the region and

according to Lockie, it all boils down to,

“What are the ethics and values of the

organisation you are working for.” In 1993

when Westcon first set up shop in the

region it chose to concentrate on a very

small part of the market opportunity, where

it could say with as much confidence as

possible that the goods were staying within

the country, that they were not moving to

other countries as part of the grey market,

and were not being re-exported to end

users in embargoed countries. “That is a

very conscious decision,” points out Lockie.

Westcon along with its vendor partners

follow a due diligence process called “2

removed.” Internally it raises questions

such as how well do you know the reseller

partner bringing business to the table?

Does Westcon know its directors, are

any of them on a denied party list; and

in which country is the head o"ce of

the reseller. Moving to the next removed

end user are immaculately verified, then

procedures for application of the export

license need to be initiated at the earliest

and in parallel with end user discussions.

Westcon places a huge amount of

importance on internal acceptance and

incorporation of this process. The export

compliance decision making tree is part

of the sales and reseller partner induction

process at the local level and is repeated

every quarter. “If this is not done, you do

not have e#ective control.”

There is also the danger of creating an

excess paper trail as a cover for bypassing

such export compliance systems. “When

authorities investigate such cases more

than anything else, you need to show what

your intent was. Unless you can show you

have denied supply to companies in the last

month for example, you are not really living

the system and the intent is to get around

the process. That to me is what an e#ective

export compliance programme looks like,

where the intent is to make sure you have

every possible step in place for export

compliance,” says Lockie.

“This is all about business ethics. Every

single business owner is responsible for

adhering to these agreements. But can

you enforce 100% legislation either in

business or private life? There will always

be cases where organisations or individuals

are breaching these kinds of contracts for

the sake of extra money and not caring

about the system,” says Stephan Berner,

Managing Director, help AG Middle East.

Finally in the event, if there is a breach

into an embargoed country, the complete

supply chain is collectively responsible.

“But ultimately the person with the most

visibility is the reseller, to know where it is

going,” says Lockie.

In summary, for any regional channel

partner, if it can evidence it has e#ective

controls in place such as a “2 removed

strategy”, which are a part of its day to day

business operations, and the breach has

happened through no fault of its own, it is

unlikely to face legal action. //

Embargo countries

IN FOCUS

Compliance is a matter of business ethics, Stephan Berner, Managing Director, help AG Middle East

level – are there any red flags in dealing

with this reseller such as emphasis on

cash payments, incomplete end user

documentation and purchase orders and

so on. And the next removed level of

due diligence, which may include has the

reseller personally given undertakings that

it is following export compliance controls;

that it is screening and monitoring denied

party lists and so on.

Westcon has also put in place a

decision making tree to be followed by its

sales team and reseller partners for export

compliance procedures. The decision

making tree raises a number of red flags

every day and each one of them has to be

investigated whether it is a false positive or

true positive. If it is a true positive and an

embargoed country has been named, the

request for quotation is immediately denied.

On the other hand if it is a false positive

and the deal can go through along with an

export license to countries such as Pakistan

for example, after the antecedents of the

This is all about business ethics. Every single business owner

is responsible for adhering to these agreements. But can you enforce 100% legislation either in business or private life?


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COVER FEATURESoftware

Just five years ago, the software channel would have been cluttered with resellers whose only objective was to sell licenses and boxed software. Even for enterprise grade sales, resellers would be responsible for selling

the licenses and would muster up some level of implementation skills. Today that landscape has changed completely. Almost all vendors have adopted or adapted value added distribution with enablement and skills development of partners regarded as a critical success factor. For desktop virtualisation vendor Citrix, scaling

up its resources at incountry locations along with its distributor partners is its key requirement. For ERP vendor Epicor, leveraging on its resellers industry specific skills and their ability to leverage on its next generation technology platform is a key requirement. For ESET, end point security solutions vendor, it has chosen to work with broadline distributors across its consumer products portfolio. And help them grow their value

added business to support its penetration into the enterprise segment. For banking vendor Mysis, its partner advisory group is a key component of its regional penetration strategy. For SME ERP vendor Focus Softnet, it is aggressively setting up fully enabled regional partners. And finally for ERP major SAP, its all encompassing

Partner Edge 2.0 business plan, formally maps out the road map for partner progress and delivery. Read on for a compelling snapshot on the transformation underway in this technology sector.


Bitdefender’s portfolio for the Middle East consists

of consumer, mobile and business products.

However consumer products are in higher

demand because of the current focus on brand

awareness in the region. The consumer products portfolio

includes Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Internet Security and

Total Security. Bitdefender Mobile Security provides smart

antivirus and web security for devices running Android.

In the last two years the vendor has made major resource

investments in developing and consolidating its presence in

the Middle East. In the retail sector across 2011, it claims to have

overtaken its direct competitors. In the business sector, it has

introduced Bitdefender Security for Virtualised Environments and

Bitdefender Cloud Security. These products cover new client

segments, which are shifting from on-premise business solutions

to virtualisation and Cloud Security and can address demand from

SMB’s to very large enterprises.

The business solutions portfolio allows companies to

implement a unified management platform for remote installation,

configuration and reporting of all Bitdefender clients, server

and gateway products deployed throughout the network. They

proactively audit hardware and software assets within the network,

remotely configure and manage client and server system settings

and report on malware-related incidents to identify infection rates

and trends.

In 2012, Bitdefender will focus on consolidating partnerships

in the Middle East. Its Dubai o!ce will cover the Middle East and

North African region. The opening of the o!ce in the Middle East

will bring channel partners a variety of new business programmes

designed and adapted especially for Middle East and North Africa.

Bitdefender’s partner portal serves as a central navigation

point for access to tools and resources including detailed

partner programme information, marketing materials, technical

support, product information and online sales and technical

training. Bitdefender’s resellers maintain direct relationship with

end customers, while the vendor maintains relationships with

distributors and value added resellers.

With Bitdefender`s partner programme, each partner benefits

from the relationship. We mould the benefits and requirements

of the partner programme to suit the company’s size, skill set and

business goals. Some of the benefits of being a member are:

access to marketing, visibility to customers and other partners,

security solutions to increase profitability, sales and technical tools

that allow partners to approach prospective customers.

New entrant

Khalid Muasher, Business Development Manager Middle East, Bitdefender



From an end user perspective the technology

landscape where Citrix is present has transformed

dramatically in the last three to four years. In the

field of Cloud computing and desktop virtualisation,

global vendors who were once cautious of aligning with Citrix

have started to migrate to its side. The other significant change

is the large end user activity around desktop virtualisation

driven by system integrator type of projects. “End users are

asking for system integrators to come and take ownership,”

points out Qadir.

“Globally our system integration business has grown

phenomenally in the last one to two years. We are seeing top line

business of our very large projects going to system integrators.”

However across the region, the demand for Citrix products is still

commoditised and it may still be early in the game. However the

pipeline of projects that is likely to go live in 2012 around desktop

virtualisation driven by local system integrators and resellers is

significant.

Citrix route to market has always been through value added

distributors and the model was brought in seven to eight years ago.

By bringing in this model at an early stage, Citrix has been able to

weather the economic upheavals across the regional markets. “The

beauty of this model is if a distributor can provide value, most of the

vendors have a safeguard where they do not have to make sporadic

changes to their headcount or business model. Somehow the value

added distributor creates a bu"er while taking a significant financial

risk on behalf of the vendor,” says Qadir. In comparison to other

vendors Citrix has been hiring resources, has not had an issue on bad

debts and collections and has not been impacted by tier one partners

dropping out of the market in the last one to two years.

Across the region, Citrix works closely with value added

distributors Mindware and FVC. “We have a dedicated team sitting

in the Mindware o!ces in UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Any new

headcounts for Citrix will now be in outpost countries including Qatar

and Egypt.” For a value added distributor the most critical success

factor is investment in technical resources and this has not been

an issue with Mindware. Qadir rates the competency of the Citrix

Mindware team to be at par with Citrix in house engineers. Another

reason for consistent revenue growth of partners is the presence of

a “strong Citrix believer within the partner.” “If we look at the partners

who bring in most of the money, 80% of the revenue usually comes

in from partners where a guy really believes in Citrix technology,”

says Qadir. Overall Citrix channel strategy is to grow its global system

integration business and secure its regional business through local

value added resellers. It has over 50 reseller partners across the

region.

While the performance of value added resellers may be in

sync with the demand requirements of the end customer, Qadir has

concerns about the slower movement across enterprise resellers.

Desktop is king

Noman Qadir, Regional Manager Channels MENA and Turkey, Citrix


Epicor calls its ERP solution as the next generation ERP,

future proofed for its customers for the next 10-15 years.

“One of the di!erentiating factors is that traditional ERP

vendors have never rewritten their product,” says

Kanaran. In the case of Epicor 9, Kanaran claims that the product

has been rewritten with a true service oriented architecture using

embedded business process management and incorporates Web

2.0 bringing in social media look and feel. “With this architecture,

as an organisation you have the agility and flexibility to change.”

Epicor has converged di!erent modules into a single ERP core as

well brought in industry solutions and best practices.

Currently it has enrolled 20 value added reseller partners

across the Middle East and Africa and is looking at tripling the

number in the next three years. Amongst them Jumbo Enterprise,

the enterprise solutions division of consumer electronics distributor

Jumbo Electronics was appointed as a reseller in middle of 2011.

Epicor is looking at value added resellers who can work across the

full span of services ranging from presales with domain knowledge,

implementation with country specific functionalities and post sales

support. “We are looking at value added resellers who can build their

business around Epicor. Sometimes they take our product and build

a specific functionality over the product. They might look at micro-

verticalisation. When a customer looks at our product, they should

be able to see their business in it.” But this depends a lot on the

reseller’s ability to take the product to the customer.

Resellers who have already been selling ERP solutions, may

recognise the inside-out technology restructuring that has taken

place and may see it as a business opportunity to work with Epicor.

Value added resellers earn 30% to 40% of the license selling price as

their profit margin. With Epicor’s flexible architecture, implementation

times are shorter than traditional ERPs and lead to lower TCO costs,

one of the factors demanded by end users today. With these plus

factors, value added resellers can also earn from implementation and

other post implementation support services.

End users can also evaluate Epicor’s ERP across the following

five parameters: (i) Is the product ready for the Cloud: whether

the product is run on-premises or remotely there is no di"erence

in the source code (ii) Can the customer see their business in the

product: with best practices embedded in the product, customisation

requirements and implementation time is reduced (iii) Is there

embedded business intelligence: unstructured data can be managed

by the ERP and does not require a third party add on module (iv)

Is there integration with social media: Web 2.0 is integrated in the

ERP (v) Is it built for mobility: unlike some of the other ERP products,

Epicor 9 can run on any smart mobile device.

Today competition in increasing for Epicor as SAP and Oracle

begin to move away from large enterprises into the medium

segment.

Next Gen ERP

Anish Kanaran, Regional Director, Epicor



When ESET entered the UAE market six years ago, it

chose to build its reseller partners directly. The

concept of value added distributor was still new and

the end point security solution vendor could not find

a good fit with any of the existing distributors. “Distributors

were reluctant to push the product because of lack of brand

awareness and they were looking at sheer numbers,” recollects

Joseph. Today, ESET has segmented its products into three

separate categories: consumer, SMB and enterprise. In terms of

revenue, 30% comes from the consumer segment and the

balance from business products.

For the consumer segment, ESET is looking at distributors

who are strong in the retail segment and has recently appointed

FDC to manage this segment. For the SMB and enterprise

segments, ESET is looking at working closely with value added

distributors. However in some countries distributors are playing

both the roles.

For ESET every product-customer engagement involves

three aspects: sales, installation and support. For the consumer

segment and small o!ce, the support is provided by ESET. But

for the business segment with larger number of users, both

installation and support are important. It is for this reason that

ESET has created a partner structure that needs to be driven by

value added distributors. The three types of ESET reseller partners

are premier, preferred and normal. Premier partners work closely

with ESET, are supported by lead generation and have access to

the maximum discount structure. However, most partners fall into

the preferred partner category, which also have access to lead

generation but a lower discount structure than premier partners.

Both premier and preferred partners are required to have trained

engineers on board for installation and a dedicated sales team to

promote the product. Any other resellers who sign up to promote

ESET products fall into the normal partner category.

“What matters the most is the e"ort partners put in and less

the volumes they generate. We look at two factors: how good is

the partner in promoting the product as well as supporting the

product,” explains Joseph. The role of the value added distributor

is to make sure that both sales and technical sta" employed by

partners are provided adequate training. While ESET maintains

it own support teams for customers, distributors and partners,

the value added distributors team is the second tier of support,

thereby adding additional breadth to training and support

resources.

Other than software licenses, ESET also extends its revenue

sharing arrangement to service delivery. Since only value added

distributors maintain technical resources, for SMB and the

enterprise market segments, only value added distributors can

provide suitable installation and support services.

Hybrid distribution

Aji Joseph, General Manager, ESET


Software

COVER FEATURE

Today, the primary application suite for Focus Softnet

is its ERP o!ering followed by academic records

management and its inventory management solution.

Initially started as an accounting management

solutions vendor, it quickly progressed towards o!ering ERP,

CRM, warehousing for logistics suppliers and academic records

management for universities and schools.

Its base in the UAE alone is close to 4,000 customers and

it has 20,000 customers across the GCC. The main driver for its

business in the past and the present is its installed SME customer

base. Many of its products today were started as projects based on

specific customer requirements. Since the projects have now been

converted into products, the customer is assured of continuous

support and upgrade. Close to 60% of its revenue is from its

installed base and includes maintenance services, upgrades and

expansion of licenses, amongst others.

Focus Softnet has set up regional partnerships in selected

countries including Egypt, Libya, Syria, Lebanon and India. The

regional partners are meant to be fully self su!cient in terms of

presales, installation and after sales support. Only for external

module development and customisation of the application does

Focus Softnet provide its own resources and support for the

regional partners.

Software licenses are perpetual licenses and are shared at

60:40 ratios between the regional partners and Focus Softnet.

Other services revenue including installation, maintenance and

after sales support are retained by the regional partner. At these

locations, “We are not doing anything directly with the customer,”

says Hyder. However, Focus Softnet is available to assist in closing

deals.

“The majority of product sales are around the ERP product.

It is a push product and sells everywhere.” For any upgrades to

the existing customer base it qualifies as a fresh sale and comes

again with a perpetual license. The regional partners also work as

exclusive regional value added distributors. If there are any leads in

the region they are passed onto the regional partners to develop.

And if there are any resellers the partners are expected to support

them as well.

In India, Focus Softnet has set up five o!ces and is working

through Franchise India to set up additional partner o!ces around

the country. The primary requirement is to set up o!ces in class

B and C, smaller cities towns around the country, which are less

accessible from the five primary o!ces. Franchise India is helping

them set up both regional distributor partners and unit partners.

SMEs and ERP

Ali Hyder, CEO Focus Softnet


Seven years ago, global banking vendor Misys made a

strategic decision to bring in a partner led culture

across the software organisation. Two years after this

decision, the partner organisation was created. Today

Misys recognises three types of partners: sales partners, who are

involved across the complete sales cycles, influence the decision

and connect to the right people in an account; delivery partners

who assist in implementation, consultancy, subject matter experts

and technical resources; and strategic partners who work on a

global delivery scale.

Across the region Misys uses partners as eyes and ears in

the market. “Globally, the highest participation of partners in

deals is from Middle East and Africa,” says Attar. And that change

has happened over the last four years, according to him. The

membership of the regional partner advisory council has reached

35 from the initial number of 12 three years ago. And between Africa

and Middle East, Misys relies on partners the most from Africa. This

is not surprising considering the slow entry and exit procedures of

business professionals across most of the African countries. It is

for this reason that Misys relies heavily on a procedure of technical

enablement with its African partners.

“Most of our presales work is done by Misys itself, but we

do transfer knowledge to our partners in order to quantify the

opportunity and have the basic knowledge of the solutions” says

Attar. Misys solution consultants run training classes for free for the

partners or at a nominal cost depending on the complexity of the

courses. These are run throughout the year at Dubai and include

value added sales road maps, higher level of technical information,

how to position the product, how to identify opportunities and

others.

When Misys directly receives a request for proposal it makes

considerable e"ort to qualify its response and calls it a deal

structure, The first step is to identify the partner who should be

involved in the deal and this is based on the where is the bank

located, response required in the proposal, local resources required

on site and overall resources required for the project. A deal

structure is designed that goes through multiple departments within

Misys and finally requires a group decision on how to structure the

deal and how to respond in the proposal.

If the request for proposal is generated by a sales partner an

opportunity is registered and a deal structure is again generated.

However there are a number of additional inclusions, which cover

role and responsibility of the sales partner during this period, the

governance and review procedure, the agreed commission for the

partner and assistance that Misys will provide during this period.

If the partner is also a service partner in addition to being a sales

partner, the deal structure is accordingly modified. An important

consideration is the visibility factor of Misys.

Partner’s bank

Amer Attar, Partner Sales, Senior Director MEA, Global Partners Group, Misys


For SAP, which operates across the largest government

and public sector enterprise organisations in the region,

partner selection is of critical importance. “With the

complexity of signing contracts and agreements with

the government, you need di!erent types of partners,” explains

Jabri. For him, the year 2011 was the year of SAP’s channel. SAP

put into place a comprehensive partner recruitment, enablement

and activation programme, which uses a business plan format as

its basic core template. SAP has segregated the market in multiple

ways allowing these variables to be tracked in the partner business

plan and inside SAP’s ecosystem.

The first segmentation is of customer accounts segregated into

named accounts, where SAP directly manages the relationship and

the rest of market which it calls the volume accounts. The market

is also segmented by geography, by industry and by business

applications. A partner business plan clearly specifies all these

four variables. Also listed is the revenue expectation, the technical

manpower and consulting resources, credit lines, legal support and

finally the extent of investment required to make this happen.

When SAP first activated its regional partner eco system, it

inherited some partners by way of its acquisition of Sybase and

Business Objects. It also leveraged on its global relationships across

system integrators, ISVs and consulting companies. The net result is

its opening base of partners into 2012. “We are taking all of the above

and moulding it into a new channel strategy,” he explains. Moreover

SAP has created a single document contract called Partner Edge 2.0

that governs all relationships with all partners. On a regional level

such as MENA, all partner relationships are managed by the Head

of Eco Systems and Channels. And for the rest of SAP, all its internal

resources are unified into one theme reporting directly to the CEO.

Once the business plan is signed o" by both SAP and the

partner, a calendar of enablement is drawn up and initiated with

delay. “We help them and guide them and they go through a six

month, one year or two year programme to reach the level of the

business plan they have committed to.” SAP recruits partners in

such a way that they complement each other rather than compete

with each other. SAP also ensures there are su!cient partners

for customers to choose from and avoid the possibility of a cartel

formation.

While SAP has drawn up its partner contracts, Jabri points out

the intents are not to restrict the channel but to keep it open and

allow cross over if required. A smaller VAR may find the opportunity

to enter a named account through a special relationship or political

alignment. Under these circumstances SAP encourages them to

form a consortium with a larger system integrator partner or it lends

the smaller partner its resources. Whichever the final approach, the

idea is that partners should thrive in terms of their capability and

relationships.

Partner Edge 2.0

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



MINDWARE FZ LLCTecom, Cayan Business Center, 10th floor,

PO Box 55609, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesTel: +971 4 450 0600, Fax: +971 4 450 0678

MINDWARE SAUDI ARABIAOlaya Street (opposite Olaya Mall next to

Bank Aljazeera, LG Building, 1st floor), P.O.Box: 10586,Postal Code 11443, Olaya, Riyadh, KSA

Tel: +966 1 215 3126, Fax: +966 1 215 3127

MINDWARE LEBANON6th Floor, St Georges Center,

Main Road, Horch Tabet, Sin El Fil, Beirut, Lebanon,Tel: + 961 1 499 399, Fax: + 961 1 490 274

MINDWARE EGYPTSameh Kandil, Country Area Manager

M: +2 010 141 6916, E: [email protected]

www.mindware.ae

DYNAMIC DISTRIBUTOR TO THE M

IDDLE

EAS

T

VAD

FEATURE

“I do not believe a regional broad line distributor can become a true VAD”In 1980, Baghdadi formed Aptec Distribution to bring appropriate technologies to the region and made it reason for the name of his company. Now thirty years later, after having adopted the value added model of distribution, Baghdadi is faced with the challenge of consolidating Aptec’s position as the leading value added distributor in the region. With an MSc and PhD in computer sciences from London, Baghdadi is no stranger to the mix of technology and business dynamics in the region. A fact recognised by Microsoft when it invited Baghdadi to its recent partner Advisory Council in November 2011. He shares his opinions on what lies ahead as Aptec progresses down the value added route.

Dr Ali Baghdadi, CEO and President of Aptec Group


Now that much of the IT industry

and the channel partners have

got used to the idea of the VAD

business model being the

mainstay of 2012 and the years ahead, what

are the next steps that need to be

addressed by both vendors and the channel

industry in 2012 to complete the

transformation?

A vendor has to realise that

delivering solutions through a VAD requires

investment and preparation by both VAD

and vendor. Therefore, a vendor trying to

introduce a product to the market using the

same channel strategies used for broad line

distribution will ultimately fail in getting its

rightful market share. I do not believe that

a broad line distributor can successfully

combine traditional distribution business

with value added distribution. A channel

reseller must decide on its areas of speciality,

must select the menu of products for its

solution and get its sta# skilled up. This is

neither a retail business nor the business

of selling printers and laptops. At Aptec we

have invested in skilling up consultants and

opening training centres to help new entrants

and channel partners who do not wish to fully

invest in such resources.

How do you see the adoption of the VAD

business model in the short term under

the complex and multiple influences of

new technologies like mobile and remote

computing, uphill movement of transaction

resellers towards becoming value added

resellers, budget limitations at the end

user and increasing shake out across the

regional channels?

VADs sell solutions to VARs. VARs

have to invest in building knowhow and in

selecting their niche areas. New technologies

or new devices may or may not play a part

in the solution, be it a security system, a

virtualised data centre, an in-house cloud

system or other integrated solutions. The

right device and technology will fit in and

would make the solution more e"cient or

attractive. However, every solution has a core

infrastructure or engine, usually driven by a

software system that needs to be understood

and mastered by the VAR and of course

the VAD. End user budgets should not be a

limitation if we know how to show the end user

the economies and cost savings generated

from the given solution. We found that SMBs in

particular form the largest segment purchasing

solutions for the improvement of e"ciency

and protection.

From another point of view, does the VAD

business model provide a future for those

regional channel players used to high top

line revenue figures and how would they

manage the short term impact of moving

towards a VAD type channel engagement,

while facing reduced demand from their

traditional transaction resellers?

I do not believe a regional broad line

distributor can become a true VAD. The culture,

knowledge, cost models are very di#erent. If we

look at global players you will find that global

VADs are di#erent from the global broad liners

like Ingram Micro. Techdata for example set up

its VAD business in Azlan and this is a hybrid

model that may work to a certain extent.

Are there any additional technology

segments that you feel can be brought into

Aptec’s portfolio and leveraged through the

VAD model?

As I said, we first look at the

solutions, then look for the best technologies

that may fit. Today we o#er a multitude of

solutions with components supplied by more

than 30 of the world’s leading IT vendors.

Such solutions may be security, data centre,

storage, virtualisation, private and public

clouds, networking and others. Or they may

be application solutions, such as database

engines, telepresence, data analytics, CRM,

smart dashboards and unified communications.

This year we plan to expand our solutions

to cover enterprise solutions for SMBs in

cooperation with SAP, Microsoft and Oracle.

We are also investing in training centres

that will contribute to the skilling up and

training on technical competencies. I also

believe that people skill development is an

This year we plan to expand our solutions to cover

enterprise solutions for SMBs in cooperation with SAP, Microsoft and Oracle

For distributors, VAD 3.0 and for resellers VAR 3.0 in my

opinion will evolve with the development and increase of services as a major contributor to the income stream


VAD

FEATURE

essential aspect that cannot be ignored by a

VAR for his own teams or his SMB customers,

therefore we have just signed up as an

authorised training partner for the Cisco

Entrepreneur Institute across the region.

Are you satisfied with Aptec’s current

leverage in the area of specialised security

and storage solutions?

Storage solution is one of the

fastest growth areas in the IT industry.

Combining storage with data security creates

a multitude of opportunities and potential

innovations. We are developing some unique

solutions jointly with our key vendors, which

we hope to roll-out during 2012.

How significant is the impact of the Cloud

delivery model on the VAD model of

channel engagement?

Cloud delivery is a SAAS or IAAS

model that presents an alternative to normal

software licenses or in house infrastructures.

We are o#ering public Cloud solutions

including Microsoft O"ce 365 and other CRM

and sales tracking tools developed by ISVs.

I expect that SMBs will opt for some Cloud

solutions and eventually graduate to private

Clouds or solutions based on their own data

centres. VARs will have to identify and o#er

complementary Cloud solutions to those built in

house. The challenge and opportunity will be in

developing services around Cloud applications.

VARs have been used to traditional delivery

of on premise system integration and system

deployment or maintenance as a main service.

New services for the Cloud will need to be

adopted and the entire service model and

revenue stream will change.

Does Cloud sales, pricing and delivery

model fit in well with the VAD business

model or will there need to be significant

changes leading us to a form of VAD 3.0?

All vendors o#ering Cloud based

solutions are learning or experimenting on

how to present the best pricing models. They

have adopted di#erent methods, but I am sure

a winning model will emerge in the next year

or two. I expect Cloud revenues to be in the

range of 20% to 30% of a VAR’s revenue in

mature markets. In the Middle East region, I see

this being around 10% of revenues in the near

to medium term. As I said, Cloud o#erings will

complement enterprise and in house systems.

For distributors, VAD 3.0 and for

resellers, VAR 3.0 in my opinion will evolve

with the development and increase of

services as a major contributor to the

income stream. I believe we shall see new

tools developed to assist in such services

including advanced remote monitoring,

remote deployment, remote training and

remote maintenance. Imagine the idea of

a call centre or a BPO associated with the

cloud o#erings.

With multiple early adopter vendors

pushing Cloud delivery services into the

regional channel, what will be the impact on

the VAD business model?

This will be complementary to a high

extent. However, some vendors are o#ering

relatively low margins on a finder’s fee basis

and some distributors may find that the costs

to cover such an operation exceed the income.

I believe di#erent models will emerge and this

will depend on the type and complexity of the

Cloud solution. ISPs and GSM operators will

enter the game as they own large communities

of end users. A cloud specialist may have to

become the service provider for such entities.

Solutions o#ered through such large operators

will tend be consumer oriented and similar to

Apple’s iCloud or email and communications

related o#erings.

What is the significance of your attending

and being invited to attend the recent

Microsoft Partner Advisory Council?

It is great to participate in

forming ideas on how Cloud solutions can

be channelled in the future and to influence

the thinking of some of the world’s leading

innovators on how their products can reach

the end user. The Council have some of

the most experienced minds in the world of

distribution and some of their or our ideas will

be adopted in Microsoft’s future strategies.

What are the learning points that you

came away with at the end of the partner

engagements at this forum?

Services, services, services are a

key to survival! Distribution is here to stay and

to grow. Innovate, adapt, build your skills or die!

What were the points you communicated

from Aptec’s point of view and from a

regional perspective at this forum?

We covered many issues ranging

from Cloud channel strategy, piracy, the

future of OEM software and online tools

used by distributors.

At the top management level, how do

you feel about this vast array of changes

that are taking place both in the vendor

technology delivery area and in the channel

partner transformation area?

Most exciting! It is a great honour to

be part of the changes happening in our region.

Having studied computer technology for years

and having studied business and practiced it for

more than 30 years, I enjoy and feel privileged

when I can make a small contribution to the

advancement of IT in this region.

What are the best real world experiences

that you are learning from and using

internally to plan ahead?

People are the greatest asset and a

great source of knowledge, so I learn to listen

and put my trust in people and their skills. I

learnt to make calculated risks without which

you cannot succeed. One can never stop

learning, so I never stop studying. I also learnt

that if you do not like what you do, then change

and sometimes you have to follow your heart.

How do you visualise Aptec’s business two

to three years from now?

A great company with great people

contributing to a real change and to the

advancement of one of the most aspiring and

exciting regions in the world. //

Services, services, services are a key to survival ! Distribution

is here to stay and to grow. Innovate, adapt, build your skills or die!


What makes an ideal VADThe value added distribution model is in vogue today. Some of the players are new, some are hybrid and some are established. A look at the current dynamics of this space!

In today’s channel market there

is high pulse of new technologies

moving into the mainstream of

value business. From an eagles

perspective these include Cloud, storage,

data management, mobility, security,

unified computing, virtualisation to name a

few of the prominent ones. There is also

the high pulse of existing distributors

rearranging their divisions to take

advantage of new opportunities and

scaling down legacies of the past. One of

the recent appearances is the spin-o! of

value divisions from mainstream broadline

distribution operations and raises the

questions of suitability.

Global value added distributor Westcon,

manages a five pronged product portfolio

to assess the suitability and acceptance of

new vendors into its stable of value based

services. If the vendor is not a good fit into its

information convergence technology umbrella

and further into its security, convergence,

mobility portfolio, the distributor does not

pursue further engagement. “For any green

field technology you have the opportunity

to add value over a period of time before

everybody starts developing their skill sets

around it. Then it goes o# and you need to

move onto something else. Our objective is to

find the right mix of products and play in each

of the segments where we can add value,”

says Venu Menon, Sales and Marketing

Director, Westcon Middle East. Hence the

starting point for any vendor relationship is to

find the right technology vendor profile and

the right stage of the product life cycle, where

a value added distribution model works as a

win-win for all sides.

Another reason why the profile of value

added distribution business has gone up

many notches in the last few quarter, is

the increased responsibility and business

development investment being funnelled

into the budgets of distributor partners. “With

vendor resources getting scarce, they are

depending more and more on value added

distributors to do lot of front line work on

their behalf in the commercial and general

business, from A to Z,” explains Menon.

A typical market span of a tier-one

vendor crosses service providers, enterprise

space and the small and medium market

segment. With contraction and longer lead

times in the first two segments, the vendor

driven, distributor total accessible market

has been growing consistently. “The SMB

business is substantial, more controlled,

more measurable and is being left to value

added distributors. That is why there is a

lot of interest from broadline guys to get

into these spaces.” Also with extended

periods of payments from the government

and public sector end user organisations,

the stability of some of the tier-one partners

has been a#ected. Since business with tier

one partners has become risky from a credit

point of view, vendors want to put as much

of the risk into value added distributors who

understand the local terrain much better.

While the opportunity for value added

Five pillars to evaluate market opportunities, Steve Lockie, Group Managing Director MENA, Westcon


VAD

FEATURE

distributors may be growing with the increase

in distributors total accessible market share,

there is a flip side to the Westcon approach

of addressing the market with five pillars

and only five pillars. “If we were end to end

we would be a broadline distributor. So it is

a very conscious decision that we want to

keep this value distribution space and keep

speaking the language of the reseller. The

unfortunate side e#ect is we will lose business

opportunities,” explains Steve Lockie, Group

Managing Director MENA, Westcon.

Hence the strength of a value added

distribution model is its closeness and

relationship with the reseller community;

however because of the inherent nature of

specialisation it does mean that it cannot

address all possible opportunities in the

market. Notwithstanding this shortfall, the value

added distribution business model has some

other very important riders built into its success.

Other than assessment of vendor

suitability and corresponding value support

by the distributor, the next most fundamental

aspect is assessment of the product life cycle

stage. When a technology product is in a

nascent stage, the skills knowhow rests only

with the vendor and as such it has minimum

reach into the market and minimum sales

volume. As the requirement of disseminating

skills knowhow into the market increases, the

appropriate distribution model also changes.

It moves from a direct engagement model to

tier-one, value added and finally into broadline.

Hence selection of the most appropriate

distribution business model depends largely

on the product life cycle stage and the current

and projected sales volume.

On the flip side, the knee jerk reaction

of distributors spinning o# value divisions

does not imply their basic business model is

flawed or obsolete. “Broadline is a very viable

business and it is an essential part of the

supply chain. You should not be embarrassed

about being a broadline distributor, instead

celebrate it. You need to be focussed on what

you are good at. The challenge is doing the

job that needs to be done for the margin that

is available,” remarks Lockie.

The other critical success factors for

running a successful value added distribution

business are the right set of skilled manpower

and resources and close relationships with

the partner community.

While quality of people are important

everywhere, it is immensely more important

in the value added business than in the

broadline business. “Ultimately people

do business with people and that only

happens over a period of time. The quality of

people you use to engage with the partner

ecosystem can make or break you,” says

Menon. For every business opportunity raised

by a partner into a value added business,

the qualitative aspect of the engagement is

the one the partner carries forward into the

relationship. This can include joint presales

meetings, time spent over the proposal and

BOQ, credit lines, proof of concept, project

management, technology skills training

and adherence to commitments, amongst

others. The weakest link is usually always the

partner relationship and requires a high level

of continuous quality engagement from the

value added distributor’s sales team.

A show case example of the close

engagement between a vendor and its value

added distributors is EMC’s relationship with

its regional distributor partners. EMC uses

nine value added distributors across the

region and works very closely them. The

level, depth and intensity of the engagements

it has with its distributor partners are as

if the teams are from within EMC itself.

“We treat them as one family. We listen to

The weakest link is usually always the partner relationship

and requires a high level of continuous quality engagement from the value added distributor’s sales team

Focus on quality of talent in sales, Venu Menon, Sales and Marketing Director, Westcon Middle East


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them, tell them our strategy and we set

the expectations on day one,” says Havier

Haddad, Channel and Alliances Manager,

TEAM Region, EMC. Meetings are held on

regular basis, with reviews of the previous

period and considerable planning and details

into the upcoming period. Both sides come

up with their targets but the final target is put

down together. “We plan together; we set

the expectations and then come up with a

joint target. We will go into details about who

will do what. Once we have done the joint

planning, the name of the game becomes

execution,” continuous Haddad.

EMC therefore maintains a high degree of

transparency between itself and its partners.

By spending time and e#ort in details, both

sides can focus more clearly on the results

and lack of results without operational

conflict. “For us we have no choice, it is the

only way to scale, we cannot do it without

our distributors.” Since both sides also put

down their expectations at an early stage, the

extent of synergy can be gauged upfront and

costly turnarounds avoided. “If we do not feel

the synergy we do not sign. This is why I take

time in the preparatory phase, if they do not

have the mindset it automatically does not

work,” says Haddad.

Amongst its distributor partners it

appears to have the best synergy with

Computerlinks that operates across the

region excluding Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

“Computerlinks is a blueprint of a value

added distribution model,” concedes

Hadad. Amongst the impressive traits the

When a technology product or solution is nascent, the skills knowhow of how to deploy the product is virtually non-existent in the market.

Only the vendor approaches the market through direct end user engagement. Progressively the vendor engages with tier-one partners and

system integrators, the availability of skills in the market begins to increase and sales volumes start rising. During this progression, tier one

partner and system integrators begin to appoint sales partners to help resell the product and are referred to as distregtors. The next stage

is to develop technical skills amongst partners on a wider regional scale. This skills enablement is managed by a value added distributor.

As partners and end users get conversant with the technology behind a product it gets commoditised and competition amongst partners

becomes fierce with minimal margins. Volume is the name of the game and this is best managed by a volume or broadline distributor.


VAD

FEATURE

distributor has demonstrated with its vendor

partner is its flexibility to EMC’s tactical

changes as well as its readiness to enter

jointly into any operational investment.

“They are flexible to change whenever we

need any change and we do not feel the

resistance. Whenever we are investing they

are investing together, without waiting for

any returns,” he says.

From a Computerlink’s perspective,

it puts down its success to an indepth

understanding of what EMC requires.

There is considerable transparency at the

management level and the high quality of

sales and technical talent at Computerlinks

has helped to strengthen the relationship.

“We are seen as an extension of EMC’s sales

force, so that partners use our resources in

the market for the whole sales cycle. At the

end of the day we are one team and we are

flexible in our approach,” says Kieran Hernon,

Sales Manager, Computerlinks. His biggest

challenge is to find good sales, business

development and presales talent in the

storage arena.

Another example of the importance

of partner skill levels is from Sourcefire

that provides cyber security solutions

for the global top 2000 organisations.

“The Sourcefire product is an extremely

sophisticated product. If you do not implement

it correctly it is not going to work and the

customer will not be happy. We would not

sign up a transactional partner for this; that

would be a disaster. They would not know

what to do with it, how to install it and not

be able to integrate it. Sourcefire business is

all about quality, not quantity, says Anthony

Perridge, Channel Director EMEA, Sourcefire.

Across the region Sourcefire uses FVC and

Secureway Networks as its distributors and

has four reseller partners.

From Westcon’s point of view, the

services its partners rate of highest value

is the assurance of being o#ered the most

appropriate solution that meets their end user

requirement. “While buying the right solution

the risk is sanitised by Westcon,” says Menon.

Another fundamental di#erence between

the two types of business models is the profit

margin structure. A broadline distributor

usually operates at margins from 1% to 4%

and works on volume turnover rather than

margin gains. The motto is always pile them

high, move them out fast and it tends to be

a fulfilment business. “For a value added

business, if you are doing business at 4%

margin you will not make it,” says Menon. The

recurring cost base of value added business

is much higher than a broadline business

and includes a team of skilled technical

resources, investment into proof of concept

centres, investment into continuous product

and technology training and longer lead

time for orders. Going into the market and

selecting a piece of technology overnight

does not complete the transition into a value

added distribution model. “If you have a great

piece of technology and put it in a catalogue

and send it out to 3,000 resellers, it is not

going to sell itself. You need to educate the

market and you need to train and support the

resellers,” explains Lockie.

The two business models are so

fundamentally di#erent that most players in

the field reject the possibility of a broadline

distributor migrating to a value added

distribution model. Some of the measures

being taken in the field today are half way,

down the road initiatives, to access products

that are in between a value added model and

a broadline model. “You can dress yourself

up to be a bit more value added than the guy

down the road. You can pick up products

pre-commodity, give them special treatment

and over time take them through mid value

distribution,” explains Lockie about some

of the initiatives in the market today. “But it

is a long and arduous process to make the

transition,” concludes Menon. //

Complete transparency with EMC, Kieran Hernon, Sales Manager, Computerlinks

Computerlinks is a blueprint of a value added distribution

model


Rewarding a VADA look at Optimus’ innovative partner loyalty programme

Loyalty programmes are meant to reward a

partner for maintaining positive relationships

with their distributor. In the case of Wafa

programme from Optimus, not only is the

partner assessed in terms of business

volume concluded, but Optimus also

measures the ratio of business it lost through

the partner for some reason or the other.

The business model of a value

added distributor rests on a continuous

and sustained relationship with a value

Using Wafa to get feedback from reseller partners, Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecom

Wafa is

Optimus’

tiered loyalty

programme,

that enables

partners to

earn loyalty

points for their

continuous

and consistent business with Optimus.

Introduced in the last quarter of 2011,

the loyalty programme is categorised

into loyalty levels of Blatin, Dahab

and Fida. New partners enter the

Wafa programme at the Fida Level

and, through continuous business,

graduates to Dahab and Blatin

depending on their sales volumes with

Optimus in the year.

Channel partners can redeem their

Wafa points against options such as

vendor led paid training programmes,

air travel ticket to attend Optimus

training programmes, purchasing

Optimus professional services, payment

for next sales transaction, credit notes

to be used against accounts payable

and participation in various Optimus-

approved marketing activities.

“We saw that as a gap in our model. Now

with the loyalty programme we are not only

measuring the partner’s performance with

us but our performance with the partner.

We base a lot of our e#orts on design and

technicalities and these technical resources

are extremely expensive. If we were only

concentrated on trading all these things do

not matter. But since we are investing in it, we

need to measure the percentage of business

lost, in order to measure the return on our

investment. That is why the introduction of

a loyalty programme was very important

towards the end of last year.”

The Wafa programme gives points

to the reseller based on value of sales,

consistency of business and how much

business did Optimus lose because of its

internal issues. Optimus has started looking

at the micro details of each engagement

such as inflexibility in insurance, terms and

conditions, design, pricing and others. “What

we have realised over the last four years,

ultimately these are the small things that

a#ect the quality of the relationship and

repeat business.”

WAFA LOYALTY PROGRAM

added reseller or reseller. The distributor

invests the time of its pre sales consulting

team or other technical resources to

help the reseller penetrate an end user

account. The progress is much slower

than a transactional engagement but if

invested correctly the time and e#ort of

the technical teams can give longer term

and higher percentage of returns. From

this point of view, if Optimus finds that the

engagement with a particular reseller has

been significant both in terms of time and

resources, but the financial returns have

been weak, the correct approach would be

to seek feedback for the low returns.

“If the quality of the relationship is

a#ected and we cannot manage it, we might

as well be a trader. If we start measuring our

value, it is a two way process. It cannot be

a one way process where we keep pushing

resources to do a certain service and not get

any return on employing those resources. We

need longetivity and stability in the account,”

explains Meera Kaul, Managing Director,

Optimus Technology and Telecom.

The Wafa loyalty programme is therefore

a two way process, where a reseller’s

commitment towards value added services

from Optimus is measured. And on reciprocal

basis the partner is asked to give feedback

on the quality of the engagement with

Optimus. “Instead of just going the number

game we have made it more qualitative,”

explains Kaul.

The value added model of channel

partner engagement therefore has a loop

hole in it: What is the assurance that quality

engagement with a reseller will necessarily

convert into a favourable and conclusive

deal transaction with the same distributor?

The most singular aspect of the value

added model is therefore, how much of the

work done with a reseller translates into

actual orders or business or how engaged

is the reseller with the distributors account

management team.


VAD

FEATURE

FAQ: deal, value based engagementsWhat is the di!erence between a deal or

transaction based engagement versus a

solution or value based engagement with a

customer?

A deal based engagement focuses on

immediate gains from that particular deal. Both

parties try to maximise their returns in the short

term and no e#ort is spent on developing the

relationship for long term mutual benefits. It has

characteristics of a commodity sale with low

margin and high volume.

Compared to this, a value-based

engagement depends more on long term

gains. Organisations would typically let go

o# immediate returns to build trust and get

repeat business. The idea here is to work as a

consultant to customers and design solutions

as per their needs. Value based sale has the

potential to impact areas beyond the scope

and time of the engagement. Some of it can

be quantified and some of it can only be

anticipated. There is a high degree of trust that

needs to be built in accomplishing such a sale.

!

If there is a di!erence in the type of

engagement, how is it linked to the associated

mark-ups that a supplier may include in either

of the transactions?

Pros and cons of a deal based engagements

Pros and cons of a value based engagements

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hence can charge a premium. It is a longer

term sale that requires upfront investment of

time and resources on both the customer side

as well as the solution provider side. Research

says customers are ready to pay upto 25%

more for a better service.

From an end-customer point of view, what are

the possible variances in satisfaction levels

of deal based engagement and value based

engagement?

Variance can be high in both the cases as

satisfaction depends on so many things. In a

deal-based scenario if the product is robust,

pricing is competitive and after-sales service

is good, satisfaction would be very high. On

the other hand, if both product and service

quality is poor, satisfaction levels would be low

irrespective of the price paid.

Similarly, for a solution-based engagement,

satisfaction is a result of experiences at all touch

points with the organisation. An organisation

can go completely wrong in understanding a

customer’s needs and in designing a solution for

the end customer. So satisfaction is a factor of

how organisations perform at each touch-point in

relation to the expectation of the customer.

Most suited customer environment

Compelling reasons to switch

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A deal-based commodity sale would be more

price, discount and availability based. The

products have low entry and exit barriers

and hence are more competitive. You give

a discount and push your product against

competition. You largely sell on price, customer

friendly terms and availability.

Whereas in a solution based engagement

you try to create value for the customer. You

might be designing a product or service and

Arti Gupta is Managing Partner of Lead On Consultants. They enable organisations to deliver exceptional customer experience.!


Multiple buyers, multiple messagesWhy a role-based sales approach is required for complex IT sales

The message coming from technology

buyers is clear — they want more from

sales engagements than a product

discussion. There has been a shift in the

way vendors must sell in complex sales

environments – it is no longer purely a

technical sell to a technical audience,

but increasingly involves business and

functional executives.

Where multiple decision makers and

influencers are involved, marketing and sales

content often does not resonate. Marketing

messaging typically lack su"cient granularity

to be useful to sales, leaving salespeople

to create their own versions with potential

disconnects and inconsistencies with

corporate messaging.

Buyers are telling Gartner that they are

having di"culty understanding the relevance

of a solution or its impact and value. Value,

relevance and impact depend largely on how

they are measured and what the buyer is

responsible for — in other words, the buyer’s

role is a key issue.

Role-based messaging helps address

this problem and can be an e#ective

first step toward building a strong sales

enablement function. It considers the buyer’s

organisational role -- job title, description,

responsibilities, authority, and crafts a story

specifically for them. This improves relevance

by connecting the o#ering to issues specific

to each role.

It is not separate from corporate

positioning, messaging or value propositions,

but takes these factors and adapts them for

solution, close more business faster and build

credibility and rapport with customers.

Vendors that are considering developing

and deploying this approach need to

understand and address the factors and

issues before proceeding to commit further

resources. The benefits of role-based

messaging in improving sales e#ectiveness

can be significant, but providers should not

underestimate the resources required or

the behavioural changes needed to achieve

those benefits.

Neil McMurchy is a Research Vice President with Gartner in the IT marketing and channel strategies group. He is based in Sydney.

Buyers are telling Gartner they are having difficulty understanding

the relevance of a solution or its impact and value

use with individual decision makers during a

sales interaction.

Role-based messaging provides a means

of significantly improving sales performance.

Two consistent themes characterise buyers’

basis of vendor di#erentiation in increasingly

undi#erentiated product markets: “The

winning provider understands my issues

and challenges, and translates its o#ering in

terms relevant to me and shows the value in

my terms.”

When sales people cannot articulate

tangible business value or lead a business

conversation, buyers tune out. When

salespeople cannot move past these

hurdles, sales cycles become longer and

conversion rates fall. Your brand su#ers

from a lack of credibility on the part of

sales representatives; selling expenses

increase and you are left with frustrated

salespeople.

Role-based messaging and positioning

does not replace existing investments in

strategic or solution-selling frameworks

or other investments in sales training.

It actually supports these as it provides

company specific information and enables

sales reps to spend less time tracking down

information and more time selling.

Role-based messaging is a very

e#ective first or early sales enablement

initiative that can drive significant and

fast impact across the sales organisation,

enabling them to better di#erentiate your

The winning provider understands my issues and challenges, and

translates its offering in terms relevant to me and shows the value in my terms

Neil McMurchy, Research Vice President, Gartner


PEOPLEJacob Lebo

All recruiters and employers face

common problems, yet here in the

Middle East and particularly in IT

these problems are noticeably

amplified. Overall the perception is there are

not enough qualified candidates – however

other common problems such as under

prepared, under educated or already gainfully

employed are consistently mentioned.

As a result many hours and much

hard work go into the recruitment of sta#.

Despite the hypercompetitive marketplace

rife with problems and sincere e#orts to

attract top talent, recruitment, development

and retention for position of sales is often

overlooked.

Addressing the larger prevailing

attitude throughout the region that the sales

profession is viewed more of a stepping-

stone to a better position does help to

understand the problem of attracting and

developing top IT sales talent. While both

job seekers and employers foster this

misperception it causes pain on both sides of

the equation.

As a virtue of being treated as second

class employees, sales professionals are

always on the hunt for their next higher

paying job, ready to jump ship with a

marginal salary increase and at a moment’s

notice. Employers are aware of this and

treat sales people as a flight risk, under

compensating; micromanaging and fostering

the atmosphere of not being indispensable.

This results in a vicious cycle of disloyalty

where sales professionals hop from

company to company acting as hired guns

for the next highest bidder.

Since retention of top sales talent starts

with recruitment, how do you attract the top

talent? This is simply put – by treating your

employees well. A more complicated answer

Valuing sales staff

would be a larger organisational change,

fostering an environment where it is viewed

upon as a great place to work. Since we as

humans spend better part of our days and

particularly our lives at work we look for great

and fun places to work. But what makes a

place great to work in and how do we attract

great people to work here?

When advertising and recruiting for a

position it is okay to use unique incentive

structures to attract top talent, and just

like o#ering value added services, this will

distinguish your business in the market place.

Besides straight monetary compensation here

are some other incentive ideas to attract top

talent, particularly sales talent.

O#ering the

ability to work one day at home a week.

However to keep employees productive

on these days clear and measurable

benefits and goals must be set.

Talented

people appreciate the opportunity

to perform a wide array of tasks and

responsibilities. Proclaiming this to be the

case when recruiting and hiring will drive

you top talent.

O!ering training and continuing

Along with a diverse skill

Branded as ready to jump the ship, there is more to managing the sales team than just meeting business targets

A thought leader in human and business development, Jacob Lebo develops software sales channels in the US and UAE for early stage companies. He is the lead market developer for Laimoon.com a disruptive online recruitment website.

As a virtue of being treated as second class employees, sales

professionals are always on the hunt for their next higher paying job, ready to jump ship with a marginal salary increase and at a moment’s notice

set, top talent needs to be driven to

excellence. Mastery of concepts and

technical aspects will contribute to

employees’ personal and professional

growth as well as creating more

knowledgeable employees for your

business.

Business

is not expected to grow without a clear

business plan, so why should your

employees be any di#erent? Laying out

clear career paths assist in showing

employees how they must perform to get

to where they want to be.

Unfortunately workers can become

comfortable at their jobs figuring out how to

do the least amount of work and still impress

their bosses. This is why unique and goal

driven compensation can enable employees

to perform not only for the business but also

for themselves. There are many challenges

in the sales profession in the MENA region.

Only when perceptions change and a few

forward thinking companies start to change

the environment will the market change and

sales professionals will soon follow.


Karl Hougaard, Commercial DirectorTel: +971 50 8818577


Rajashree R Kumar, Commercial DirectorTel: +971 55 1053782


Jeevan Thankappan, Senior EditorTel: +971 55 1053774


Sathya Mithra Ashok, Senior EditorTel: +971 55 1053783


Nominations close 15th February 2012

www.cnmeonline.com/nwmeawards

Manojeet Chowdhury

has joined Defiance

Technologies as Senior

Vice President. Prior to

this Chowdhury was the

Vice President and Head

of Mahindra Satyam

Middle East and Africa. Defiance

Technologies is part of Hindujas Group, one

of the largest multibillion Dollar groups from

India and focuses on IT services. With its

regional hub based out of Dubai its o#erings

include product engineering services,

enterprise business solutions and emerging

technology solutions. The Dubai hub will also

manage North Africa, Central Asia and Turkey.

Canon Middle East

announced the

appointment of Shadi

Bakhour as the new

General Manager of

Canon Emirates. Bakhour

is expected to provide

leadership stability and bring fresh business

insights, driving Canon Emirates’ growth plans

for 2012 and beyond and supporting the

company’s future business direction as it

moves towards becoming a solutions and

services-oriented organization. Bakhour, who

previously served as Director of Sales and

Marketing Operations at Xerox Saudi Arabia,

has an Executive Masters degree in Business

Administration from the American University

of Beirut in Lebanon and is a Lean Six Sigma

Green Belt holder.

SAP MENA has

appointed Ghassan Abu

Asba as Country Sales

Manager for Kuwait.

Reporting to Gergi

Abboud, Country

Manager for SAP Kuwait

and Qatar, Abu Asba will be responsible for

driving the country’s field sales operations

and ensuring momentum across all verticals.

He has more than 20 years of Middle East IT

industry experience, including stints as

Enterprise System Manager at Kuwait

Computer Company and Kuwait Country

Manager at HP. Some of his key accounts

included Wataniya, Equate, Kuwait Stock

Exchange, Ministry of Health and the Ministry

of Finance. Previous to this he worked as

Channel Manager at Cisco and Regional

Channel and Commercial Manager for

Juniper Networks in the North Gulf and

Levant region.

HP Middle East

announced Ayman

Dwidar as the new

Middle East Enterprise

Storage, Servers and

Networking Channel

Manager. Dwidar comes

to the role from within HP, where he moves

from Business Manager for BladeSystem in

the Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa

region to take on the responsibility of

overseeing and managing HP Middle East’s

relationships with its channel partners. He will

prioritise reaching out to new partners across

the region, developing HP’s business and will

drive specialisation in the channel to sell the

complete ESSN portfolio. Dwidar also leads

the Cloud team for HP, driving the growth of

Cloud opportunity in the MEMA region. Prior

to HP he worked at Dell Middle East.

Gulf Business Machines

has appointed Miguel El

Khoury as Country

General Manager for

GBM Abu Dhabi. In this

role, El Khoury will be

responsible for the

relationship with GBM customers in the

Emirate, the growth of business and the

development of skill levels of the GBM

employees in Abu Dhabi. El Khoury, has 15

years of regional experience and joined GBM

in 2005 as Networking and Services

Manager. In 2009, he was promoted to

Director of Integrated Networking and Site

Services where he was responsible for

running the company’s networking business

across most of the adjacent regions. Prior to

joining GBM, El Khoury worked for Saudi

Business Machines for almost nine years.

Tech Mahindra has

appointed Girish Bhat as

the new Vice President

of Sales and Operations

for the Middle East and

African region. He has

more than 22 years of

industry experience across diverse

geographies. Prior to his new position, he

served as Head of Africa region at Tech

Mahindra. Tech Mahindra is planning entry

into markets like UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia

for applications outsourcing, system

integration, managed services, business

process outsourcing and security solutions. It

will be rolling out a new portfolio of services

for the region’s telco providers including

value added services, e-security,

infrastructure management and network

services.

Ciena Corporation

announced appointment

of Saad Khan as

Regional Managing

Director in the Middle

East. Based out of the

company’s Abu Dhabi

o"ce, Khan is responsible for overall

management and growth of Ciena’s business

in the region. He has more than 15 years

experience in the telecom industry and was

previously Vice President of Services group,

Alcatel Lucent Middle East and Africa. Prior to

Alcatel-Lucent, Khan served several years in

Ericsson’s managed services and hosting

practice, based out of the Middle East and

North America. He has also worked in the

services and support areas of several US

telecommunications service providers. Khan

holds an MBA degree from University of

Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a

Bachelor of Science in Marketing from

Northeastern University, Chicago.

Movements

PEOPLE


PEOPLEAli Mohd Alamadi

Alamadi’s ambition is to become a leading professional in the

field of information security in the region. Joining aeCERT’s

emergency response team at UAE’s telecommunication

regulatory authority in 2007, he recollects the four year stint to

have been the richest in his professional career. Now working as principal

consultant at help AG since mid 2011, Alamadi admits moving to the private

sector was not without its share of question marks.

“Everybody was telling me joining the private sector may not be the

right thing to do. But I felt it would put me in a unique position professionally,

eventually making me competitive in the local job market.” Alamadi

anticipated it would be culturally challenging to fit into help AG’s work

environment, but now well into the job Ali has no regrets. “It turned out to be

exactly the opposite and I find myself fitting well into help AG’s multicultural

environment.”

Ali has a Master’s of Science in Information Technology with specialisation

in Cyber Crime as well as QualysGuard specialist certification and enjoys

his current job role of conducting security risk assessments for diverse

environments. Since each company’s security environment is very di#erent

and unique, the job role is never boring and on the contrary becomes very

interesting. On the other hand educating customers on the benefits and

importance of establishing international and local security standards can

sometimes become the most challenging part of the job role. During his stint

at aeCERT, Ali found developing awareness campaigns in di#erent languages

for di#erent audiences as well as presenting it in di#erent emirates in the UAE

to be the most challenging.

Ali looks at each day as a new lesson in both his personal and

professional life. He loves languages and speaks Italian, Farsi and Urdu

fluently amongst others and is learning German. He describes himself as

eager to meet new people, open minded and cosmopolitan, social, well-

travelled and easy to get along with. Quality leisure time is spent with family,

friends and sports. “I cannot imagine a day without exercising.” Ali has another

passion. “I love writing and it gives me great joy.” So far he has written seven

titles, published one and is writing his eight. His favourite daydreams: to

become a professional writer and enjoy the simple things in life. //

help AG’s passionate writer

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