The Integrator East Africa - FEB 2013

NAIROBI: Bright Technologies Ltd - 020-2210174 . Ravenzo Trading Ltd - 020-2306955 . Techbiz Limited - 020-2335512/3/4 . Sight and Sound Computers - 020-3746078 . Technology Associates - 020-3745273 . Avenue Electronics - 0720 544322 . Tec-Today - 020 4444188 . Bytech Engineering Ltd - 020 3860539 . Pc World Limited - 020-258 5301 . Vinn Supply Chain Ltd - 0703 707 100 MOMBASA: Cellnet Mom-basa - 041-2319063 . Avenue Electronics - 0720 544322

February/March 2013 | The Integrator East Africa 3

Cont

ents

We’ve broached the topic of counterfeit and grey marketing in East Africa in this forum before and we are not stopping as this vice threatens the very survival of the region’s IT industry.

Report after report point to a segment of the IT market, illegitimate as it may be, that seems to grow ever bigger every day. Authorities seem helpless in the face of an avalanche of fake software, cartridges, computer parts and all manner of other bogus IT products. To their credit, Governments in the region have made some effort to eradicate the counterfeit market, the latest being the Kenyan Copyright Society which has been in the news lately after destroying over a tonne of unauthorised CDs.

But the task at hand is just too widespread.

The common justification by cheats that they are targeting multi-national corporations with billions of dollars to spare falls short when you consider that at the local level, there are numerous small and medium enterprises that depend on selling the legitimate versions of these same products. It is these small firms who suffer most from the grey market. That is why efforts by the channel to engage with other players in the fight against piracy are commendable.

To win the war against piracy will take a multi-pronged approach incorporating enforcement, education and awareness, technology, prosecution among others. We in the media also do have a role to play and we will continue calling out the cheats while highlighting businesses that play fair.

It’s a gargantuan task but counterfeit can be beaten.

A cause worth fighting for

David NdichuAssistant Editor

Editorial

Publisher: Vivek Sharma Managing Editor: R. NarayanAssistant Editor: David Ndichu Art Director: Faiz Ahmed Sales Director: Alishan ZaidiSr. Sales Manager: R. Subramanyan Business Development Manager: Mallika RegoSales Coordinator: Smitha Jithesh

Disclaimer: While the publishers have made every attempt possible to get accurate information on published content in this handbook they cannot be held liable for any errors herein.

Published by: JNS Media International MFZEP.O. Box: 121075, Montana Building 404, Zabeel Road, Near GPO, Karama, Dubai-UAETel: 04-3705022 Fax: 04-3706639

News in Detail

P-6 ATEN Data Centre Management Solutions now in E.A.

Feature

P-8 Leading Brands Shine at East Africa Integrator Awards

Insight

P-14 Niti’s Grand Ambitions Bear Fruit

TechKnow

P-18 WD Set to Shake Up E.A. Hard Drive Market

Focus

P-20 Sales Staff Receive Training Boost

Interview

P-21 Mitsumi Grows from Strength to StrengthP-22 SOFGEN Spurs E.A. Banking AutomationP-23 Al Shadawi on Regional Charm Offensive

Case Study

P-24 Cyberoam’s All-in-One Security Solution for TANESCO

Expert View

P-26 The Hidden Costs of IT Support

Review

P-28 Kaspersky Security Suite 2013A Data Dashdrive HE 720

Regulars

NewsEyeTechStats and Trends

The Integrator East Africa | February/March 20134

Canon Middle East has established a subsidiary company in Kenya, in a bid to strengthen Canon’s position across the rapidly growing markets of East Africa.

The dedicated entity in Kenya has been set up to further reinforce the company’s ‘closer to customer’ strategy in the region. Canon Kenya Limited will function as a Canon Middle East rep office focused on providing marketing and channel development services

to both new and existing partners and clients across Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea, Rwanda and Burundi, under the directives of the Canon Middle East office.

Anurag Agrawal, Managing Director, Canon Middle East said: “The establishment of Canon Kenya Limited will broaden our ability to invest in the African markets. The new office in Kenya is strategically positioned to bring us closer to our customers and partners across the key markets in East Africa, giving us the opportunity to offer them greater support.”

The move comes after Canon strategic decision in 2011 to move the company’s operations in East Africa to Canon Middle East that were previously handled by Canon South Africa.

The newly set up subsidiary will include two Channel Account Managers who will oversee the provision of on the ground support to tier 2 distributors across specific markets in East Africa. This is in addition to a dedicated Area Manager, based out of the Canon Middle East office in Dubai, who will be responsible for all Tier 1 operations across the East African markets.

Symantec has partnered with Uganda’s Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) to provide companies in the East African country with security, storage and systems management solutions.

Through the partnership, the two companies said they were looking to enhance cybersecurity in the Uganda and the region.

Symantec Territory manager Africa Sholden Hand said the partnership would help customers securely manage their information against rising cyber threats. Like the rest of the world, East Africa continues to experience a large number of attacks as research by Symantec and other consistently show.

Kampala-based CWG is one of the fastest growing information and communication technology companies in Africa today offering integrated ICT solutions that to enterprise small and large.

Google has begun collaborating with two network-driven companies in an attempt to make internet more accessible and effective in Sub-Saharan Africa, including East Africa.

The Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) and national and education networks (NRENs) in Sub-Saharan Africa will receive $3.1 million “to help bring the next billion people online.”

“Google is doing work to get more people connected, especially in places where internet access lags the most,” said Jennifer Roon, principal at Google.org, in a GoogleAfricablogpost.

The project aims to empower the students and staff of more than 50 institutions with internet and network engineering skills.

Another US$3.1 million will be provided to the Internet Society (ISOC) for the improvement and setup of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) in emerging markets. An ISOC toolkit, for the creation, build and improvement of IXPs, including an industry portal, is also in the pipeline.

The search engine giant believes it has barely “scratched the surface on the potential of the web”, pointing to the five billion still without internet access, a large number of them residing in Africa. The IT giant views access to the internet as one of the biggest global challenges.

Google gives boost to region-al IT efforts

Symantec, CWG partner to stem online threats

News

Canon Opens Subsidiary in Kenya


ATEN International has announced its intentions to expand into the booming East African Market.

The East African market has made great strides in the technology and IT industry over the past few years and ATEN wants to be one of the pioneers in Data Centre Management Solutions in this region.

With over 30 years of experience, ATEN has established its position as a worldwide leading designer and manufacturer of advanced connectivity solutions that provides the most comprehensive KVM product portfolio and connectivity solutions with the highest reliability, flexibility and cost/performance value. ATEN boasts of a comprehensive portfolio of KVM Products, Professional Audio Video Solutions and Power Distribution Solutions which aim at solving the day to day complex needs and requirements of the Data Centre Industry.

ATEN will partner with its MEA distributor Wave Tech Computers LLC to make inroads in the East African Market. Wave Tech Computers has been an authorized distributor of ATEN in the Middle East Region for the past 15 years. Wave Tech Computers has a well-established setup and expertise to further promote ATEN brand of products in the East African region. “Wave Tech Computers will be partnering with specific partners in East African countries to establish a footprint for ATEN,” said Ahmad Faour, CEO and MD, Wavetech Computers. “To start with, ATEN and Wave Tech will concentrate on developing the markets in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia.”

Established in 1979, ATEN International is today cone of the leading manufacturer of KVM switches and connectivity solutions worldwide. ATEN’s product range covers hundreds of connectivity products, providing complete KVM, Professional Audio, Video and Green Energy solutions–from entry level operations to the enterprise market.

ATEN believes Africa is the next major region whose potential is yet to be tapped. The company through its partner Wavetech has is making steady approach to the East African region where it plans to promote the KVM switches. According to the company, the target markets in Africa for now are Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to start with. Wavetech Computers and ATEN have been partners for the past 15 years in the Middle East and now East Africa. Wavetech has a partnership with leading System Integrators around the MEA region that have

been instrumental in procuring a lot of projects across different verticals.

ATEN last yearlaunched the new range of” NRGence “eco PDU’s this year to capture the PDU market in the region. ATEN is also set to launch the new HDMI Fibre Optic extenders which will allow users to extend sources up to 600m and 20KMs. Fibre technology has a huge potential in the region and ATEN aims to be pioneers in this segment. This is in addition to the recently launched 16 and 32 Port Virtual Media Over IP KVM switches which allows local and remote access to data centre devices. These devices are flexible with Dual LAN, Dual Power for redundancy. As regards theVanCryst range, ATEN has launched a lot of products with multifold interface support like HDMI etc. which addresses the needs of various verticals like Banking, Infrastructure etc. for easy and effective deployment of AV solutions.

ATEN Data Centre Solutions now in E.A.

News in Detail

Ahmed FaourCEO & MD Wavetech


The inaugural East Africa Integrator Awards were held in December of last year to reward leading brands of East Africa IT channel. The awards, spread across17 categories,rewarded the best distribution, sales and marketing performance across East Africa.

The Integrator Awards are the first awards specifically targeting the channel in the region. The East African awards were themselves inspiredby the established success of the VAR Choice of Channel (COC) Awards being held since 2006 that recognizes the best performing brands and individuals in the Middle East.

The final awards list featured some familiar names while there were a good number of surprises. Top brands like Intel, Samsung, HP and Microsoft were awarded in their respective fields while East Africa IT firms, big and small, newcomers and established, shone in the spotlight taking honours in such categories as Value Add Distributor of the Year, Security Integrator of the Year and Storage Integrator the year, among others.

The Awards Gala night also provided an opportunity for senior level executives including vendors, distributors and local resellers to meet and network and look at possible opportunities to take their collaboration further. The networking component of the Gala Night was in fact a special edition of VAR Conclave that was introduced last year as a

Leading Brands Shine at East Africa Integrator AwardsTop vendors and the channel came together at the inaugural East African Integrator Awards to recognise the best of the best in East African IT market.

Feature Awards


Feature Awards

regular forum to bring the movers and shakers of the industry together to facilitate new growth partnerships. To date, VAR Conclave East Africa has had five editions and each of them has been received enthusiastically by the local channel, proof of which is the increased turnout at each successive event.

The one-on-one focused meetings between participating exhibitors and leading resellers have been well received. As in the regular editions, there were product showcases by participating sponsors giving the attendees an idea of what the focus of the vendors would be in the regional market.

The Conclaves are meant to bridge the gap between major vendors and the East African channel market by bringing them together in a formal setting. Benefits spread both ways; vendors get dozens of potential distributors and resellers in the same place at the same time while the East Africa channel gets to experience the latest products, technologies and services from the vendors themselves. Leading brands and distributors have used the VAR Conclave as a venue to announce their entry into the region’s market and discuss their intent with potential partners. Western Digital, GCT, Mitsumi Distribution, Al Shadawi and Comguard participated at the latest edition of VAR Conclave.

Q: What in your opinion was your strongest point that led to being declared a winner?A:Kaspersky Lab has, and remains passionate about IT security and the education of IT security throughout Africa, especially as more and more countries such as Kenya become more acquainted with broadband and the use of the Internet. This passion and dedication, along with our full range of innovative security products across the consumer and corporate markets, aided us in receiving this award and recognition. We are dedicated to developing the most effective security solutions, designed to protect our customers from the threats and viruses that are appearing everyday.

Q: Describe your reaction in being named a winner for EA Awards A: It was certainly an honour to receive such anaward, especially considering that Kaspersky Lab only officially opened its East Africa office in October 2012. Such recognition certainly aids us in further driving our key messaging into East African market.Receiving an award of this nature proves to our teamof experts that their work is not going unrecognized – which if course is

great for team and company morale. This award demonstrates that we are working hard to ensure that we achieve what our brand believes in - which is that everyone – from home computer users to small companies and large corporations and governments – has the right to be free from the cyber-security fears that exist today.

Q: What steps are you taking to make sure that you remain at the very top?A: As a brand, undoubtedly, the company’s most valuable asset is the wealth of expertise it has gained in the 15 years of combating major IT threats including malware research, counteracting potentially dangerous applications, traffic filters etc. This helps Kaspersky Lab remain one step ahead of the competition and provide its users with the most reliable protection from new types of attack.

Q: Discuss the general prospects for your company’s growth this yearA: Kaspersky Lab will continue to grow its brand in 2013. Today we are witnessing how cybercriminals have began to heavily target the business arena, as they see the value in the information that businesses hold and use this for their own financial gain. As a result, our focus will be to continue to research and develop security solutions specific to the corporate environment – ensuring that we can provide the best possible solutions to protect businesses from falling victims of such attacks.In fact, next month, Kaspersky Lab will be making an announcement to the market around our latest security product aimed specifically at the corporate market. This product is an endpoint security solution designed to offer businesses deeper protection and seamless manageability.

Sweet Taste of VictoryKaspersky Lab took home Security Software Brand of the Year Award. Bethwel Opil, Channel Sales Manager for Kaspersky East Africa tells The Integrator what the award means for the brand in East Africa

Bethwel OpilChannel Sales Manager, EA, Kaspersky


Speaking to The East AfricaIntegrator after the event, CEO of Storage Integrator of the Year award winner Gestalt Gild ShailendraYadav attributed his triumph to the company’s solid credentials in the market. Gestalt Gild is a leader in deployment of storage technologies in East Africa with some of the largest number of successfully deployed DR sites in East Africa.

Shailendra said the awards had made his team proud of their achievement as the company seeks further growth in the market. Gestalt Gild continues to grow within the storage space and is focused on adding other services such as backup solutions, and high availability solutions. Better publicity of the awards themselves, Shailendra noted, would give the company even better prospects for the future.

Networking brand of the YearD-Link

Security Software Brand of the YearKaspersky Lab

Security Appliance Brand of the Year Cyberoam

Printer Brand of the YearHP

Component Brand of the YearIntel

Monitor Brand of the Year AwardSamsung

Power Solutions Brand of the YearEaton

Software Brand of the YearMicrosoft

Laptop Brand of the YearHP

Champion Distributor of the YearMitsumi Distribution

Value Add Distributor of the YearComztek

Networking integrator of the year Dimension Data

Security Integrator of the YearIsolutions Associates

Storage Integrator the yearGestalt Gild

Power Solutions Integrator of the YearComputer Technics

AV Integrator of the YearSight & Sound

East Africa Integrator Awards Final List

Feature Awards


Briefly discuss your operations in AfricaWe provide in-country product availability and services in Dubai, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic Congo and Burundi.Our presence in these markets is in order to guarantee prompt and reliable logistics and product availability, responsive supply chain service and localized in-country services to customers in the region. Last year we also began our expansion into West Africa.

We have resale partnerships with over 1,500resellers in these markets. We maintain strategic alliance agreements with Transcend, Acer, HCL and E-POS as a Tier 1 distributor. The company’s product range includes computers, servers, printers and consumable, software, UPS systems,

computer components networking solutions among others. Other brands we represent include HP, Samsung, Compact, Sony, Microsoft, Toshiba, APC and Kaspersky among others.

We currently have a workforce of 220 employees with well qualified sales professional handling business with our channel partners across Africa. Our operations are backed by a 15000 Sq. Ft of warehouse space in Dubai and Nairobi while all the branches are each connected to a separate warehouse of between 3500 and 6000 Sq. Ft. In each country we operate in, we have a full team led by a Country Manager supported by finance, sales and marketingand distribution teams.

In East Africa, your other major market is Tanzania. Discuss your operations thereWe have a strong presence in Tanzania with an office as well as a warehouse in the East African country. The head office is in Dar-es-Salaam but we also targetmarkets in upcountry cities of Mwanza and Arusha. We have a seven-strong team that covers the country. We now have between 80 and 100 channel partners who do regular business with us and we are always on the look-out for more resellers to partner with us. We are about to embark on a major advertising campaign that will see us feature strongly on various media in the country including billboards and print media. We are also set to unveil major incentives for our channel partners in the country.

Having focused on East Africa for a while, you made your entry into West Africa last year. What is the basis for this move?We entered Nigeria in October last year. We have already signed contracts with major resellers in the country. We have had sales operations in West Africa for years now albeit without an actual physical presence. A lot of these customers in West Africa used to come to us in Dubai as well as Nairobi. The market has become increasingly lucrative for the company and that is why we decided to set up a permanent presence in the country. We are now looking to start operations in Ghana and Benin in the near future.

Just months after starting your West African operations, you signed up as distributors for Samsung and Toshiba in that region. What does this partnership mean for Niti? We are very excited about our partnership with Toshiba and Samsung. We are on an exciting growth phase right now and these two brands will take us to the next level. We will be distributing Toshiba laptops, projectors and printers. Toshiba has led the MEA region in netbook sales in the last two years. The brand has excellent brand recall. Samsung on the other hand is a high volumes brand with a major global presence. We will be distributing all Samsung’s IT products. We have been distributing these two brands in East Africa for a while now with major success and that is why these two vendors decided to partner with us for West Africa.

Niti's Grand Ambitions Bear Fruit

Niti is on a major expansion path. With East Africa already well covered, the distributor is keen to venture into West Africa, Ponnin Selvan, Vice President, sales and marketing at Niti shares his company’s vision.Ponnin Selvan

Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Niti

Insight NITI


TechKnow WD

Briefly describe your East African market strategy Every market we do business in has its own unique do’s and don’ts but our overriding goal is to setup a sustainable long term presence - we don’t believe in shortcuts and quick business as we know that this is not going to be of use in the long term. With the African market we are now working on forging mutually beneficial relationships with all of our partners and this entails understanding their business, their strengths and their concerns. We then look at what we can do to support them and if this entails internal adjustments on our end, we investigate that as well. We feel that relationships are a two-way street and believe that given enough nurturing, a partnership will bear fruit.

Discuss trends in the East African hard drive market in regard to your

productsAs we continue to do business in the African market, trends and specific needs will become apparent but thanks to our diverse range of products, we are confident that we will be able to satisfy the unique needs of the market space. For instance, in the internal hard drive space for consumers, under our ‘Power of Choice’ commitment we offer an internal hard drive for every user’s specific needs. Our WD Blue drives offer a blend of performance, price and reliability that makes them idea for general everyday computing.

If however a consumer wants to build a quiet machine that’s as ecologically friendly as possible, we offer our WD Green hard drives that are optimized to reduce power consumption. For serious data storage needs at home or in a small office, our recently launched Red drives are purpose built for SOHO NAS systems consisting of between 1 to 5 drive bays.Beyond the consumer space we also offer drives that are optimized for video streaming/recording (WD AV-GP and WD AV-25), enterprise hard drives that are optimized for use in data centers or enterprise-class NAS devices (WD RE, WD XE) as well as a line of drives for mobile computing.

Which verticals are you looking to target in East Africa?There are a number of verticals that interest us in East Africa; construction, mining, banking and finance, retail and government are just a few of them.

The African market is characterized by a lot of small and medium businesses. Describe your solutions for SMBsWD has a range of products in its component (internal drives) and branded (finished products) portfolio. On the branded side the SMB-focused products are ready to function right out of the box whereas on the component side, our WD Red drives (1 to 5 bay SOHO NAS optimized hard drives) could be purchased by SMBs as upgrades to their existing NAS systems.

Going back to our branded products we offer the WD Sentinel DX4000 small business storage server, which is ideal for organizations with up to 25 people. This network attached storage (NAS) device is designed so SMBs can purchase, set-up and use the device without needing to employ full time IT staff. The Sentinel allows these businesses to centralize their storage and collaborate effectively and can be purchased with up to 16TB of storage. The NAS uses WD RE enterprise class hard drives which are engineered to offer responsive performance and handle the stress of 24x7 use. The Sentinel also packs an easy-to-use graphics user interface, offers data redundancy features via RAID 1 or RAID 5, is covered by WD’s Guardian Services that offers additional support and warranty in addition to packing cloud storage capabilities.

WD Set to Shake Up E.A. Hard Drive Market

Khwaja SaifuddinSenior Sales Director, MEA & South Asia, WD

WD has big plans for the East African market. Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, for MEA & South Asia tells The Integrator how the company intends to turn these ideas into reality.


Last year was a busy one for WD as you launched several product lines. Discuss some of these products and what the market can expect from WD this yearLast year, WD grew its product portfolio with the launch of two brand new product categories. For components we introduced a new category of 3.5-inch hard drives, WD Red, that are purpose-built for use in SOHO NAS systems consisting of between one to five drive bays. When these drives were launched, no other hard drive vendor offered a specific NAS aimed drive for the SOHO market. The Red drives are pre-qualified for use in a number of NAS manufacturer’s products as they offer NASWare technology which helps to simplify the NAS building and usability experience and are designed to be energy efficient. The drives are also covered by a longer warranty period than our standard 3.5-inch drives and

are covered by WD’s premium 24/7 phone support. On the branded side we introduced our My Net range of routers consisting of the N600, N750, N900 and N900 Central (1TB or 2TB hard drive built-in). Despite entering a product space crowded with several well established competitors, our routers have gained a following owing to unique features such as our FasTrack technology. FasTrackintelligently analyzes and prioritizes network traffic so that more Internet bandwidth is given to tasks that occur in real time. So in the case of a user downloading a file and watching a YouTube video, with our routers FasTrack will prioritize the YouTube video so that it streams smoothly at the resolution you’ve selected. The background download meanwhile will continue albeit a little slower since more bandwidth has been allocated to the YouTube stream. With other routers you’d likely experience pauses in the YouTube stream as the

bandwidth is being split, likely 50/50, between the two tasks.

In 2013 WD will continue to expand its range of products and from a component perspective this will likely be led by the launch of our hybrid drives that combine the benefits of NAND flash memory and hard drive technology.

Discuss the uptake of cloud services across your product lines in the MEA marketOur My Book Live range of network attached storage drives and My Net N900 Central routers allow users to setup their very own personal cloud. Using this feature a consumer can access data on connected devices within their homes as well as from remote locations. It’s completely free to use and you have as much storage as you have available on your drive.


Focus In Search of a Champion

Dozens of IT front sales staff braved the Nairobi evening chill to participate at the In Search of a Champion (ISoaC) Kenyan edition, third leg, in December last year.

ISoaC is a series of sustained training workshops for frontline sales executives in the IT channel. The training series, organized by this magazine’s sister publication VAR magazine, follows a championship format that runs through the year and recognizes the top ten participants as champions and the best as Champion of Champions.

This particular event, sponsored by distributor Comztek brought some of the company’s partners including Symantec, Ruckus Wireless, Microsoft and Fujitsu to educate participants on the latest technologies from their respective companies.

Comztek’s Regional Manager Matthew Rudd explained the company’s recent partnership with Wi-Fi equipment manufacturer Ruckus Wireless. The partnership, Matthew said, was the coming together of two very strong brands in their respective fields. Comztek brings a dedicated African focus, a wide reseller network and a strong technical competence. Ruckus Wireless on the other hand is a leader in wireless communications delivering

Wi-Fi solutions for businesses as well as network carriers.

On hand from Fujitsu was AshvinSaminanthan, who took the crowd through the latest technology in netbooks from Fujitsu. Fujitsu, Ashvin explained, had fully embraced BYOD with a series of sleek and portable Windows 8 netbooks that help bridge the gap between home and the enterprise.

“Fujitsu is now focused on developing the market in the rest of the continent,” Ashvin revealed. “In the past, our focus has been on South Africa and the North African region. The Sub-Saharan region has however been doing very well lately.”

According to Ashvin, the company is involved in various training programmes for its resale partners, called Partner Days. He commended the participants in this event who he said were knowledgeable about trends in the industry.

Denis Pita of Symantec commended the idea behind ISoaC saying it was good idea to bring all the resellers together in a single place. “It’s encouraging to see a lot of the participants actively participating in the proceedings,” Pita said. “Events

like these help in raising brand awareness and educate the resale channel.”Symantec African operations are directed from South Africa but the company has a team on the ground in Kenya.

Participant Evangeline Kariukifrom Nairobi-based Crescentech has partaken in the last three editions of the ISoaCseries and said the events are a good way to learn about the technology out there.

“The events have motivated me to be a better-informed front sales person,” Kariuki said. “With more knowledge, I feel I am a more marketable sales person. Also, because the series iscontinuous over a period of time, Comztek brands are always on top of my mind.” To top it all off, Kariuki was one of the winners of the day, awarded for participation and knowledge of material being taught.

Christine Onyango, participating for the second time, said her motivation was the knowledge and exposure that she was able to get from the event. “Beyond my marketing work, the event is beneficial to the individual at a personal level as one became more knowledgeable about the technology in the field,” Christine added.

Sales Staff Receive Training BoostSales Staff Receive Training BoostIn Search of a Champion continues on its multi-national quest to teach front line sales staff the latest trends in IT. In December last year, the event returned to Nairobi for the third time.


Jagat ShahCEO, Mitsumi

Interview Mitsumi

Discuss your 2012 growth patterns2012 was a growth year for Mitsumi Distribution with the company experiencing strong overall corporate growth as well as significant growth across all its product lines. This growth was made possible by proper planning, healthy stock rotation and inventory, marketing initiatives and cash flow management. The FY 2012 revenue was $245 Million, whereby in 2011 it was $171 Million. In 2012, Mitsumi opened up new branches in theDRC,

South Sudan, Benin, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Mauritius and Madagascar.

Last Year you also brought into your portfolio some new brands. Discuss this developmentIn 2012, Mitsumi got distribution rights for the following leading vendors like Lenovo, Samsung, Western Digital, Huawei and Tripplite.In fiscal year 2012, we sold IT products to more than 3000 technology resellers in over 12 Countries. We are an Africa-centric distributor and have our main mother hub and Business Team headquartered out of Dubai for smooth vendor and logistical support to all our Ops in 19 Countries in East, West, North and Southern Africa. Our focus remains "To be the ‘Distributor of Choice’ in Information Technology and Consumer Electronics in Africa"

What sets your distribution model apart from the competition?We have invested heavily in East Africa and have a dedicated team of highly skilled sales, technical, financial and marketing professionals who live the Mitsumi philosophy of going the extra

mile for our dealers/reseller community in East Africa.In-country stock point and service centerare our core focus. We sell solutions through VARs aimed at businesses and the commercial sector.The company’s recent move into Middle East is evidence to Mitsumi’s commitment to better serve its customers while leveraging market opportunities to boost the business globally.The market is constantly evolving. We are looking to add full implementa

Discuss your forays in the rest of the African continentWe have opened new service centers in West, Southern and North Africa regions. These service centres will provide the highly possible level of quality for its most valuable assets – vendor partners & clients – across the region. Professional certified technical staff will manage and will offer warranty & Post warranty services and Maintenance contracts.We will be heavily pursuing growth around our areas of focus and I think that the rationalization and the capacity now open for Mitsumi is a key sign to all the vendors that we are looking at some major tie-ups to deploy our free capacity. We will target both organic and inorganic growth in 2013 and investing heavily in infrastructure and manpower to realize our goal of bringing affordable technologies to Africa.

Discuss the general prospects for your company’s growth this year?We have divided the business into 4 regions in Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan and DRC (East Africa).West Africa

operations grew from Nigeria in 2009, Ghana in 2008 to Ivory Coast in 2012 and Benin In 2012. We intend to grow into Libya, Egypt, South Africa, Angola and Cameroon in 2013.Southern Africa operations constitute Zambia, Mozambique, Mauritius, Madagascar and Nambia. North Africa operations comprise Algeria and Tunisia. We will seed and ramp Morocco in Q1-2013.Our main growth engine for the next 5 years is Southern and North Africa.

What does 2013 hold for Mitsumi?In 2013 we plan to implement which includes but is not limited to, adding new products to our current portfolio offering, expanding into exciting new geographies, focusing on our human capital and adding the VAD thrust to our company.The company is attempting to make North Africa as one of the top markets for Mitsumi given the high level of IT awareness in North Africa and opportunities in that market.Mitsumi Distribution has structured its business units into 5 Groups: PC Group; Printers & Peripherals Group; Component & Consumer Electronics Group; Value Group; and Telco

Mitsumi Grows from Strength to StrengthMitsumi Grows from Strength to StrengthPicking from where they left off in 2011, Mitsumi made significant investments in 2012 which paid off handsomely by year end as CEO Jagat Shah explains


Interview SOFGEN

Discuss your IT banking solutions for East Africa We are a global IT service company with focus strictly on banks. We have 20 entities across the globe through which we deliver IT solutions, including two entities in Africa based out of Nairobi and Accra. We equally have representations covering Southern Africa countries. In line with our global mandate, SOFGEN provides independent Banking Software consultancy services in East Africa. In addition to this, SOFGEN also delivers core banking and related IT solutions to financial institutions in the areas of Retail and Corporate Banking, as well as Microfinance. We help banks select, implement, and support their banking systems. Specifically, we have

been involved in providing solutions in the area of core banking, credit risk management, channel/agency banking and MIS/reporting.

Cloud deployment is rising around the world. Discuss cloud solutions you are offering to customers in East Africa The cost of running in-house banking systems is rising steadily, making the total cost of ownership of these systems unsustainable for smaller banks and microfinance institutions. Small banks and microfinance institutions are beginning to show interest in alternative cost-effective approaches for accessing high quality processing capacity. Cloud technology fulfils this promise. SOFGEN, working with our partner Temenos, is at the forefront of delivering this promise to

banks and microfinance institutions. Just last week, we successfully completed the first-ever cloud banking implementation in East Africa, migrating a fast growing microfinance institution to the cloud. Already, many more have started contacting us to take advantage of our cloud offering.

Kindly discuss some of the deals you have been able to sign in East Africa in the recent past SOFGEN counts amongst its customer some of the most prestigious names in banking across East Africa. We have worked with some of them for more than five years, and others have acquired additional products and services thereby making SOFGEN

a strategic partner. Early this year, an international bank adopted our credit risk management system for deployment in its East Africa operations, including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. We have also conducted many core banking implementations, including projects at Agribank (Zimbabwe), Tropical Bank (Uganda), K-Rep Bank (Kenya), Bank of Zambia, NMB Bank (Kenya), Commercial Bank of Africa (Kenya), and NBS Bank (Malawi).

Uptake for IT technology is growing exponentially in Africa. What is driving this trend in regard to banking solutions?The growth of banking channels and their increased sophistication, as well as customer demands for more convenience, reach, and personalized

banking experience, have necessitated banks inthe region to continually improve their channel banking offering. Towards this, SOFGEN has identified a multi-channel software suite that enables banks to deliver comprehensive channel strategy that addresses all customer segments in an efficient and cost effective manner. In order to attract and retain profitable customers, banks are leveraging investments in technologies to become more customer-centric. Products like CreditQuest are increasingly being deployed to manage credit relationships, improve efficiency in credit processing, reduce time to market, and enhance overall credit quality and administration.

TundeOladeleCEO, SOFGEN Africa

SOFGEN Spurs E.A. Banking Automation

SOFGEN stands to benefit from a major uptick in IT adoption by banks in Africa. TundeOladele, CEO at SOFGEN Africa looks at how IT is turning out to be a gamechanger in East Africa’s financial sector


Dubai based distributor Al Shadawi sees East Africa as the next growth frontier for the company. Savio Fernandes, UAE Country Manager discusses what the region means to Al Shadawi.

Savio FernandesCountry Manager, UAE, Al Shadawi

Discuss your East African operationsAfrica is an emerging market and very strongly so. Research studies show that the African IT market is right now growing than anywhere else. East Africa in particular is doing even better. We thus cannot affordto be left out of potentially lucrative market. In today’s business environment you need to be dynamic and open to opportunities wherever they are. That is why we are serious about stepping into this market.

Why are you focusing on the East African market at this time?I believe that we can have a mutually beneficial relationship with the East African IT consumer market. East Africa is looking for dynamic technology suppliers to feed the region’s growing appetite for cutting edge technology. We too are hungry for IT Business and we believe we have the right solutions for this vibrant market.

You are still in the East African market. Give us an update on your channel development We are in the initial stages of developing our market strategy and structure. One way we are doing this is participating in channel events that put us in touch with potential partners in East Africa. We are partnering

with VAR (The Integrator’s sister publication) for their Conclave series of events. Through these events, we are able to engage many resellers in the region at a single event in a social yet professional setting.

Which product lines and segments are you targeting in East Africa?Among the brands we have currently in our portfolio include Eaton, Hawk, Targus, Zalman and Point of View.Hawk is a recent addition and is a brand that includes a range of Laptop accessories and cases. Zalman manufactures cooling solutions for laptops and Desktops. Point of View is a brand of graphics cards and Tablet PC. For Eaton, we distribute products across its range, from single to three phase power solutions etc.

The East African market lacks the large malls and power retailers you have in your home region of the GCC. Discuss how you plan to go about reaching the end userThat is right. But that makes it even more poignant that we enter the market now. The Mall Concepts and Power retail shops are few but are on the rise. So we will be able to develop with the market.

Al Shadawi on Regional Charm Offensive

Interview Al Shadawi


Cyberoam Provides an All-in-One Security Solution to Tanzania Electric Supply Company

Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) is a Tanzanian parastatal organization established in 1964. It generates, transmits, distributes and sells electricity to Tanzania Mainland and sells bulk power to the Zanzibar Electricity Corporation (ZECO). Its main offices are located in Dar es Salaam and it operates regional offices throughout Tanzania. The Ministry of Energy and Minerals regulates the operations of TANESCO. In this era of technology where Internet is a prerequisite for almost all business activities, TANESCO depends on Internet for connectivity, research, surfing and communication purposes.

Organization Tanzania Electric Supply Company

Country Tanzania, Africa

Industry/ Vertical Government

Corporate Profile

The TANESCO Challenge Mr. Elirehema Obedi Mejooli, the Ag. Manager ICT Communications and Infrastructure at TANESCO said, “Since most of our business activities are dependent on Internet, continuous and secured connectivity is a major necessity for us”. The security issues faced were: Risky Network Perimeter Increasing usage of Internet also increased the number of threats. Moreover, if the network was infected by any of the threats like remote exploits, DoS attacks and other random network attacks, it led to serious network downtime. Mr. Mejooli said, “Many a times our network got victimized by DoS attacks.” Unrestrained Internet Browsing Mr. Mejooli wished to keep his employees focused on their tasks, preventing them from getting distracted by surfing unproductive websites like social networking sites, gaming, music and other entertainment-related websites. Moreover, bandwidth was also excessively used by such websites, making legitimate applications inaccessible due to insufficient bandwidth. As a result, productivity and bandwidth both were affected. He said, “We noticed that many employees got diverted from their tasks while surfing non-work-related websites”. Flooding Spam Mails TANESCO’s network received a significant number of mails as Spam, leading employees to waste a considerable amount of time in reading and then deleting those mails. Some Emails were such that tempted the employees to click spiteful links which ultimately led to hassles for the organization and the employees. This resulted to an unacceptable loss of productivity. The Cyberoam Solution Having considered many solutions like Cisco ASA5505, TANESCO found Cyberoam to be satisfactory and appealing. Hence, they purchased One (1) CR 1500i and deployed it in Gateway Mode at their Data Center. After deployment they noticed the following benefits:

Case Study

Since most of our business activities are dependent on Internet, continuous and secured connectivity is a major necessity for us. Mr. Elirehema Obedi Mejooli Ag. Manager ICT Communications and Infrastructure Tanzania Electric Supply Company

Having considered many solutions TANESCO found Cyberoam to be satisfactory and appealing.

www.cyberoam.com

Case Study Cyberoam


To Conclude

Mr. Mejooli said, “Cyberoam is a good product that integrates all the security solutions in just one device. It also has an excellent ability to control access to resources”. .

Toll Free Numbers USA : +1-800-686-2360 | India : 1-800-301-00013 APAC/MEA : +1-877-777-0368 | Europe : +44-808-120-3958 C o p y r i g h t © 1999-2013 Cyberoam Te c h n o l o g i e s Pvt. L t d. A l l R i g h t s R e s e r v e d.Cyberoam and Cyberoam logo are registered trademark of Cyberoam Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Although Cyberoam has attempted to provide accurate information, Cyberoam assumes no responsibility for accuracy or completeness of information neither is this a legally binding representation. Cyberoam has the right to change,modify, transfer or otherwise revise the publication without notice.

www.cyberoam.com

Firewall – A Safe Network Perimeter Cyberoam’s Firewall is Checkmark Level 5 and ICSA Certified. It provides stateful and deep packet inspection for network based security thereby protecting the organization from DoS, IP Spoofing and other network attacks. It also provides a Fusion technology that enables creation of policies for multiple features through a single interface. Mr. Mejooli said, “Thanks to Cyberoam our network is now safe from malicious traffic”. Restrained Internet Browsing Cyberoam has a constantly updated database of millions of sites divided into 82+ categories which allows access only to those sites which are permitted by IT guidelines of the company. Cyberoam’s Web and Application Filtering blocks all malware-laden sites, P2P, IMs, illegal audio, video, streaming media and other bandwidth-intensive download. Moreover, Cyberoam’s identity-based filtering allows creating and assigning schedules, policies and level of access to individual users based on their designation and role for surfing the web. In addition, HTTPS scanning controls unauthorized secure access, thereby preventing unauthorized download, upload and data leakage. Mr. Mejooli said, “Using Cyberoam’s Web and Application Filtering solution, we are assured that all the employees are focused on their tasks”. Controlled Spam Cyberoam’s Gateway Anti Spam solution provides Recurrent Pattern Detection technology that is content and language agnostic. Moreover, it provides protection

against foreign characters and image-based Spam with almost no cases of false positives. Finally, its Virus Outbreak Detection (VOD) feature protects the network against real-time massive virus outbreaks. Mr. Mejooli said, “With Cyberoam at our gateway, the number of Spam mails has reduced significantly”. Cautious Usage of Bandwidth Cyberoam’s Bandwidth Management solution solved TANESCO’s earlier issues with bandwidth scarcity for legitimate applications. It offers identity-based bandwidth controls, preventing blockage and optimizing bandwidth. Mr. Mejooli said, “Based on identity now everyone gets their own share of bandwidth. Hence bandwidth is wisely managed”. Business Stability Maintained Cyberoam’s Multiple Link Management, smartly distributes the Internet traffic between the two ISP links ensuring its best possible usage. It also enables Mr. Mejooli to assign weights to each ISP links such that the traffic load is distributed accordingly. Moreover, the Multi-Link Manager keeps a constant watch on the behaviour of the links. If any of the links fail the load is automatically transferred to the working link, leading to all-time Internet accessibility. Mr. Mejooli said, “In our organization multiple ISP links are load balanced assuring guaranteed service availability”. He further added, “Thanks to Cyberoam, the network has now become stable enough to run the business smoothly without any Internet problems, ensuring efficient business continuity”.

Thanks to Cyberoam our network is now safe from malicious traffic.

With Cyberoam at our gateway, the number of Spam mails has reduced significantly.


Expert View Dimension Data

The price on the bottom line of your ICT maintenance contract is often not what you actually pay for support. This is not because your service provider is billing inaccurately; in fact, it has more to do with costs incurred by your own organisation’s internal teams and structures. Brent Flint, Middle East and Africa Services Executive at Dimension Data, points out that the bulk of support-related expenses fall outside the scope of traditional support offerings. The goal should therefore be to reduce total cost of support by recognising and eliminating ‘hidden’ expenses, and not to cut down on externally provided services that you might later regret discontinuing.

Many vendors, many processesOne example of a hidden cost, says Flint, is the expense incurred in

managing the support processes of different vendors. “These processes are never the same for every service provider. So the more vendors you have, the more intricate your support environment is to manage. And the more complicated this management is, the more mistakes are made and the more downtime occurs which, in turn, drives up your operational costs. At the same time, your organisation would require more service vendor management, which means more work for your procurement department, more effort to keep up with vendor research, and more contract management and renewal complications – all of which add to your total cost of support.” By reducing the number of vendors in your environment, you can lower your total cost of support.

Which level of service?“Some of these hidden costs are inversely related to the type of service contract you have in place,” adds Flint. “The simpler and cheaper the contract, the more costs are carried internally. For example, should an organisation decide not to buy a premium level of service but opt for a simple ‘break-fix’ service instead, a large degree of management is required on the business’ side to initiate and ensure the proper delivery of the service. The internal support team would, firstly, need to be aware that a piece of equipment has malfunctioned, which implies the need for some form of monitoring as well as an internal help desk. The internal team would then have to determine if the equipment is under contract and, if so, with which service provider.

Brent FlintService Executive, MEA, Dimension Data

The Hidden Costs ofIT Support

Every CIO would hope for a straighforward pricing mechanism when signing a maintannance contract. However, between the fine lines are unseen costs that could end up eating a large chunk of the IT budget.


Again, this takes time and effort, and the more out-of-date or incomplete the organisation’s asset register is, the longer and more involved this tracking process becomes. “When the call to the break-fix service provider is then finally made and the new equipment is installed, the business still has to ensure that the equipment’s service to the organisation is restored and runs as smoothly as before. The result of this is that businesses spend far more on ‘cheaper’ break-fix services than they realise. Using a service provider to restore equipment as opposed to delivering a simple ‘break-fix’ service might seem like it costs more, but the organisation would need far fewer in-house administration and engineering resources to ensure maximum business continuity.” Freeing up your internal support team by relying more on a service provider’s capabilities can lower your total cost of support.

On foreign shoresAnother cost that’s often overlooked by international organisations is foreign service tax liabilities. Flint explains: “If a chosen service provider isn’t large enough to have billing entities in all the countries in which an organisation has a presence, it incurs a foreign tax liability for procuring services in those geographies. That’s a factor that many businesses forget.

Choosing a service provider with coverage in the countries in which you operate can lower your total cost of support. On the other hand, an area in which businesses tend to under-spend is in service entitlements. Best practice in determining which service levels you need is to categorise your locations by availability requirements.

The highest service level requirement might be for your data centres, which would need a 7x24x4 entitlement to ensure maximum uptime for business-critical systems and processes, whereas a satellite location might need only an 8x5xnext business day entitlement owing to the location’s lower importance to the overall business. When we do the location versus- support analysis with some of our clients, we often find that their service level coverage is not the right fit in many locations. In a few cases, the service level may be set too high but, more often than not, organisations have opted for cheaper options with less support than they really need.” Right-sizing the service level to the requirements of the location can lower your total cost of support.

Short on skillsOne of the most important reasons why organisations need external support services is because they lack the required in-house technical skills. Exacerbating this problem is the general shortage of technical skills worldwide, as well as the more pronounced lack in developing geographies into which international organisations might want to expand.

Flint believes, however, that the most impactful factor contributing to skills shortage is the pace of technological change. Given the day-to-day pressures of in-house IT support teams in ensuring maximum business continuity, not much time or budget is left to channel into up

skilling employees on the latest advances. “For example, when IP telephony first emerged, there was a distinct lack of expertise and knowledge in this particular

area,” says Flint. “The same would probably be the case as the market moves towards adopting the new software-defined network approach. Knowledge and expertise can only be gained over time and, therefore, always lag behind the introduction of new technologies. The problem is also that the variety of different technologies involved in organisations’ estates is so wide that they simply can’t afford to skill up each time there’s a change or new development in the market.“ Using shared, skilled resources of a service provider can lower the total cost of support.

Global scaleWhile certain smaller, often localised, service providers may be able to offer some of these proactive components, Flint believes large, multinational organisations would do better to consider partnering with a global support provider that can offer several such elements in combination and at scale, which would save costs. “Most importantly, the service provider should be able to deliver these services consistently and reliably around the globe.” If you’re a large, multinational organisation, leveraging a global service provider’s scale can lower your total cost of support.

Whichever of these steps you choose to lower your total cost of support, these choices will deliver a simpler, more consolidated and more proactive overall support environment, with fewer hidden costs to think about.

"Freeing up your internal support team by relying more on a service provider’s capabilities can lower your total cost of

support."


OverviewKaspersky Security Suite 2013 extends the benefitsof the Anti-Virus 2013, adding Parental Control, Anti-Spam and online banking protection among other features.

The Security Suite is refreshingly easy to install with just four steps taking you there. Once installed, you are greeted by a clean interface with Kaspersky’s green as the backdrop when you open the page. The main screen informs you on the current security condition of your machine and number of days remaining on your license. A banner at the bottom has all the common features including a tab for initiating scan.

Special featuresPerhaps the most important feature in the 2013 Suite is the Safe Money feature, meant to shield users from online scam artists by protecting online financial interactions. Every time you open a banking website, Safe Money will offer to have you open the website in a protected browser. You can also add other websites to open in the safe browser as well. You’ll notice a green line that wraps around the

browser window when it’s running on a protected browser. You can also add extra websites that you would like to open on the protected browser.

Safe Money also features a virtual keyboard, which you can use when inputting passwords for credit card transactions. This prevents fraudsters from capturing your password through keylogging malware.

A few months back I installed a competing anti-virus and had to remove it shortly after as my computer almost ground to a halt.You should not face similar problems with Kaspersky 2013 Suite as the software does not noticeably slow down operation of your PC. 2013 is also fully attuned with Windows 8 so compatibility should not be an issue.

There’s also the Anti-Banner feature, blocking, by default, the most annoying pop-up ads on your browser. You can also add to the list of sites you want to blacklist. There’s also Anti-Spam, which allows you to block a lot of junk mail on your email client. Settings allow you to select exactly which sites you want blocked.

The software will also offer to scan USBs when you use one. Although these may seem infuriating, we would recommend that you scan USBs every time. You never know what your stick has picked up along the way.

Parental ControlParents will be pleased with the

Review:Kaspersky 2013 Internet Security Suite 2013

Parental Controlfeature. This option offers among other options, the Social NetworkingControl which allows parents to block suspicious contacts they don’t want to their children to communicate with. There’s also the Safe Search feature which can block websites based on a set of selected categories. Parents can also limit usage of the internet on select days and times; say when their children should be doing their homework. The only drawback is that Kaspersky does not allow for remote monitoring of the parental control feature. Many standalone parental control software these days have a smartphone app that with control enabled anywhere in the world.

The Middle East region has fallen victim to targeted and dangerous malware in the last few years. Kaspersky 2013 now provides protection against Duqu, one of the most dangerous of these new malicious codes as well as others of its ilk.

ConclusionAt 59.95USD, Kaspersky 2013 Security Suite is not cheap. But you do feel that you are getting value for money with this software. With almost all of us involved in some form of online financial transaction or another, Safe Money offers some valuable peace of mind against the marauding online criminals. Parental control is also comprehensive enough, and parents should have some peace of mind knowing their children have some protection online.

Product Review Kaspersky


Eyetech

The LX60ST features the BlueCore light engine technology, a light engine that utilizes the qualities of a laser light source to achieve optimized energy efficiency, projection performance and readiness. Utilizing SmartEco Advanced Technology, customers are able to reduce light source power consumption by up to 90%. It's an economic and environmentally friendly choice for your school.

Key Features:• BenQBlueCoreLightEngine• 80000:1HighContrastPerformance for Ultra Sharp Graphics and Text• 2000:1ContrastRatio80000:1 Contrast Ratio• InstantOn/OffProjection Readiness for Classroom Instruction• AdjustableBrightness

The Series 3 300 features a stylish design yet offers the performance you need to handle everyday tasks effortlessly. The notebook features advanced image processing for a high definition video and gaming. It’s powered by next generation AMD Radeon HD 8750M graphics card with up to 2GB of dedicated memory.

BenQLX60ST Projector

Samsung Series 3 300 Notebook

HP Pavilion 20 All-in-One Desktop

HP Pavilion 20 All-in-One Desktop offers fast, fluid performance and enriched multimedia. You can control music, photos and videos remotely and save space in style with the slim design and one-wire setup.

Key Features:• Windows8orotheroperatingsystemsavailable• Clutterfreeone-wireset• HighperformanceinanAll-in-Onepackage• Multimedia-richtechnology.

This printer, scanner and copier is the ideal choice for home users and students who need a compact all-in-one at an affordable price. The printer is part of the Small-in-One range, Epson’s smallest ever range of all-in-one home inkjets.Epson’s new, Claria Home Ink is ideal for affordable reliable printing, producing crisp, clear text documents and glossy, lab-quality photos. With individual ink cartridges you only have to replace the colour used, saving you money.

Key Features:• Small-in-One:Savespace,save money, save time• IndividualInks:Onlyreplacethe colour used• ClariaHomeInk:Crisp,cleartext and glossy photos• ENERGYSTAR-qualified:Power efficient

Epson ExpressionHome XP-103

Key features:• Fullyintegratedopticaldrive• Smartkeyboard&touchpad• Acompletechoiceofbuilt-inports• Sleekandportabledesign


Stats & trends

The world’s leading notebook PC original design manufacturers (ODM) will endure a bleak first quarter and slow first half in 2013, before ultrathin PC sales help revive the market later in the year, according to an IHS iSuppli PC Dynamics Market Brief from information and analytics provider HIS.

Notebook PC shipments from the Top 5 ODMs are forecast to amount to 35.2 million units during the first quarter, down 15% from 41.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. While shipments commonly decline in the first quarter compared to the fourth, the drop this year is expected to be particularly sharp.

Peter Lin, senior analyst for computer platforms at IHS said, “Consumers are remaining wary as uncertainties linger in the global economy, and a slowing in the markets of Europe, China and the United States further depresses sales. More importantly, smartphones and tablets have been outselling notebook computers, and demand for Ultrabooks and other ultrathin PCs so far has not taken off as expected. However, an expected increase in demand for Ultrabooks and other ultrathins will help reignite notebook PC shipments

IHS predicts total PCs shipments worldwide in 2013 will grow to 371.3 million units, up from 343.2 million units last year. Year-over-year growth will be 8.2% in 2013, much improved from the 2.7% contraction witnessed in 2012.

A major trend to watch for 2013 will be how well Windows 8 is accepted into the consumer market as well as for commercial upgrades. Some businesses are still running the old Windows XP. Since Microsoft is ending XP support, will need to transition to either Windows 7 or Windows 8. Another development to monitor is the adoption rate of the new features Windows 8 generates, such as touch screens, voice and hand gesture recognition and other consumer-friendly options.

Form factor also will continue to be in the forefront in the PC market. For mobile PCs, convertible tablet PCs that are based on x86 microprocessors are expected to hit the mainstream in 2013. These may be the best competitors against the hot media tablets such as the Apple iPad.

For the desktop space, which is a declining market overall, the All-In-One form factor PCs combined with Windows 8 and touch screens make a great combination.

However, it remains uncertain how successful these PCs will be in diverting consumer attention and dollars away from the lower-priced media tablets. If these new form factors along with Windows 8 do not spark the market as anticipated, then 2013 could end up being another year of struggle for the PC industry.

from ODMs to their client OEMs in the second half.”

Taiwan on topAll based in Taiwan, the Top 5 notebook ODMs are employed by original equipment manufacturers (OEM), which use them on an outsourced or contract manufacturing basis in order to make computers that are then branded by the OEMs. The key strengths of Taiwanese notebook ODMs include low manufacturing cost, flexibility, quick response and high vertical integration—qualities that most major notebook OEMs are keen to leverage in the design and manufacture of their own branded products.

After a shaky start, the notebook ODMs will start picking up steam as the year unfolds, IHS iSuppli believes.Though not performing as expected last year, ultrathins are being given a new lease on life in 2013 in light of new features, including improved battery power, a form factor that lets the display be detached for use as a tablet, a higher-performance central processing unit in the form of Intel’s Haswell chip, and the gradual uptake of the recently released Windows 8 operating system.

Top Notebook Makersstart 2013 on a Weak Note

PC Market will Bounce Back in 2013, IHS Says

Notebook PC Shipments from the World’s Top5Original Design Manufacturers (Millions of Units)

42

40

38

36

34

32Q4 2011

Source: IHS iSuppli Research, February 2013

Q4 2012

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The Integrator East Africa - FEB 2013

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