value plus quarterly oct 2011

8/3/2019 Value Plus Quarterly Oct 2011

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A special publication from Redington Gulf Value Division

October 2011Presents 03 ESSN06 EMC09 Tripp Lite12 Check Point14 Cisco16 Red Hat18 Fujitsu

ENHANCINGVALUE BUSINESSRedington is a Value Added Distributor for the following brands in parts of Middle East & Africa

HIGHLIGHTSAll eyes on the KSA market

Power Trip

Cisco streamlines EMEA ops

Security business


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[email protected] October 2011 The ValuePlus Quarterly

CONTENTS

Contents

In the recent past there hasbeen a lot o hype on two top-ics namely the uture o PCsand cloud computing. On PCs,

the hype is not unjustifed sincesome numbers indicate a 20% de-cline in home PC usage in 2010over 2009. But, in the short-term,most industry orecasts indicate arising demand or PCs but not atthe same rate as some o the newerdevices such as pads or smart-phones introduced in the market.

Cloud computing is another areawhich is posing certain undamen-tal questions on businesses and themodel o doing business. I hopecloud computing does not becomea ad amongst entrepreneurs and we are led to a cloud computing

bust just like the dot com bust.Redington Gul is working on itscloud strategy which would look atadding value to both cloud buildersand cloud resellers.

Tis issue o Te ValuePlusQuarterly contains interviews with some o Redington Values vendors across technologies togive you a broad view on the ven-dor communities channel approach. I hope this would be in-ormative or your businesses.

Please write to me [email protected]

with your views or suggestions.

Sincerely,

Raj Shankar

Managing Director, Redington Gulf

Cloud computing

is posing certain

fundamental questions

on the model of doing

business.

03 HPs cloud journey

06 All eyes on the KSA market09 Tripp Lite on UPS technology

12 Security business

14 Cisco streamlines EMEA ops

16 Eyeing regional growth

18 Building a sustainable channel

06

09 12

16 18

Opening Note

03


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2 The ValuePlus Quarterly October 2011 [email protected]

RAMKUMARS BLOG

Dear Partner,

It is that time o the year just beore GIEX and also entering the big-gest quarter or anyone who is engaged in the enterprise businesssector. Tere is a lot o anticipation that the dampness o the last twoquarters will be replaced by brisk closures this quarter. We at Reding-ton Value eel the same that the quarter o October to December willyield signifcant results and help partners close the year on a high note.

Looking at the developments around the world and especially in Eu-

rope, there is no doubt that there is a certain amount o uncertaintycreeping into everyones mind as to how things will unold or us in thisregion. At Redington Value, we see that the market undamentals inthis region are very strong and this justly reected in our active pipe-line. Tis is the same mood amongst most vendors we work with inthis region. We also could give you a urther tip by asking you to ocuson unifed communication, unifed computing (storage and virtualisa-tion) and security. Tese seem to be the top most wanted technologiesin the region currently.

Coming to our portolio, we are more and more trying to strengthenthe storage and security side o our business. o this end, we have made

one o the most important announcements in the past ew years aswe have extended our strategic relationship with EMC to this region,mainly Saudi Arabia. Redington Group has a very successul relation-ship with EMC in India and urkey.

We are extremely proud to say that this relationship has been ex-tended to Saudi Arabia. Storage is one o the most important aspectso technology which has seen tremendous growth and transormationover the years. With the cloud becoming more and more o a reality,storage and security take centre stage going orward. We are very clear-ly poised to help partners on these two pillars in the uture. EMC willhelp taking us into the next orbit and help partners in the cloud era.

Happy selling and we look orward to a great closureto the year!

Ramukumar Balakrishnan

Vice President Value Business

Redington Gul

Looking Ahead


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ESSN / FOCUS

HPs Cloud Journey

While moving to the cloud oers powerul benefts, the shit isnot trivial. Your customers needhelpand they know it. Tink oall the changes the inormationtechnology industry has under-gone since HP was ounded morethan 70 years ago. Te com-

pany has helped its customersthrough these earlier changes,and they trust HP to do it again.Te company is up to the task.HPs cloud oerings, includingHP CloudSystem, use its power-ul inventory o components andcapabilities. Te company hasmore cloud resources than anyother vendor. HP deeply under-stands that cloud is a new design

point, and it is building its cloudsolutions with this new para-digm in mind.

Te cloud will be part o everybusiness process. o this end,HP is actoring in the ollowingcloud issues:

All enterprise applicationswill be designed to be cloud-en-abled.

Every major business pro-cess will rely on a hybrid o cloudapplications integrated withopen systems.

Data privacy and compli-ance management will impactevery industry All business pro-cesses will require borderlessend-to-end security assurance.

Business and I must syn-chronise change, rom develop-

As cloud computing garners momentum in the Middle East, technology vendor HP has been pushing initiatives around its

Cloud Compute and CloudSystem offerings

Converged Inrastructure andHP Cloud Service Automationsimplifes cloud adoption bysimpliying integration.

According to Gartner, 20%oenterprises will have no I re-sources by 2012, while 12% o en-terprise workloads are expected

to be in public clouds by 2013.Gartner says the public cloudservice market will be $143 bil-lion in 2013.

CloudSystemHP has maintained that themove to the cloud and the ull

Introducing HP

CloudSystem

Simplifies cloud adoption

by simpliying integration

HP CloudSystem allows custom-

ers to build and manage services

across the private, public, and

hybrid clouds of their choice

Single services view across

private, public, and hybrid cloud.

Multi-hypervisor, multi-OS,

heterogeneous infrastructure.

Intelligent automation and life-

cycle management; application-

toinfrastructure.

Scalability and elasticity.

Built on proven and market-

leading HP Converged Infra-

structure and HP Cloud Service

Automation.

ment to delivery.

HP CloudSystemHP CloudSystem allows custom-ers to build and manage servicesacross the private, public and hy-brid clouds o their choice. Sin-gle services view across private,

public and hybrid cloud. In addi-tion, multi-hypervisor, multi-OS,heterogeneous inrastructureenables intelligent automationand liecycle management; ap-plication-to-inrastructure, scal-ability and elasticity. Built on proven and market-leading HP

HP deeply understands that cloud is anew design point and it is building its cloudsolutions with this paradigm in mind


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FOCUS / ESSN

exploitation o the cloud are bestaccomplished via an integratedsystems approach. Te vendorhas built and delivered HP Con- verged Inrastructure to solvethe data centre problem o Isprawl, and now has extended itor cloud with HP CloudSystem.Lead with HP CloudSystem, butalways sell the portolio to retirequota and get customers on thepath to cloud.

HP is introducing a compre-hensive, well-thought-out port-olio o products and services

designed to accelerate deploy-ments o cloudcomputing so-lutions or pub-lic, private, andhybrid clouds.

Some IT segments and vendors experiencedchallenges two years ago. I believe the securitybusiness and specifically Check Point hascontinued to be very active during this time

HP CloudStart

Helping customers to get

started with HP CloudSystem in

as little as 30 days with a fixed-

price, fixed-scope project.

Based on CloudSystem Matrix

(including application provi-

sioning andmonitoring), HP

CloudStart services establish

a private cloud service catalog

with up to four services inte-

grated into customers backup

and security environments.


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INTERVIEW / EMC

All Eyes on the

KSA Market What does your channel

role at EMC encompass?

Havier Haddad:Im the channel manager atEMC, or urkey, Emerging A-rica and Middle East. In my role,I am responsible or developingthe EMC incremental businesslead by EMCs dierent leveland categories o partners, deploy the EMC Velocity PartnerProgramme in this territory andleverage all programme benefts

and fnally execute the local go-to-market and coverage model.I am also responsible or build-ing the channel team to developthe competencies o the Velocitypartners and enable them to o-

er a competitive value propo-sition to EMC customers and

prospects. I also manage EMCsstrategic alliances with Cisco,VMware and others.

What are EMCs key chan-nel priorities?EMC has been aiming to becomethe number 1 channel companyo partners choice. We intendto do this by maximising part-ners proft rom products sell-

Havier Haddad, Channel & Alliances Manager - TEAM Region, talks about channelinitiatives in the region and the partnership with Redington Value in the Kingdom o Saudi

Arabia.

ing and Services delivery. Inaddition, EMC has optimised

its go-to-market with the bestmarket coverage, through allmarket segments. Te companyis also building a solid networko committed, specialised andqualifed partners and get themocused with EMC to approach jointly many market segments.Other aspects that we have beentargeying include increasing theincremental business generated

and lead by our partners andenabling partners in cloud com-

puting.

Could you give a brieoverview o the EMC channelpartner programme such asnumber o years since launch,number o partners, eed-back rom partners etc.Te EMC Velocity partner pro-gramme is an award winning partner engagement model de-

signed to support the successo EMC channel partners. It isbased on dierent partner tiersto address dierent partnerscapabilities and go-to marketmodels.

Channel partners seeking to join the VelocityPartner Programme can now do so with as littleas five hours of online training, gaining theability to service select markets


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EMC / INTERVIEW

Te programme defnes anddevelops a comprehensive stra-tegic business plan with part-ners coverings all details suchas revenue generation, sales andtechnical competency, sectorocus, specialty and marketing

planning and allows partners tospecialise and ocus on EMC So-lutions.

How are you engagingwith volume resellers here inthe Middle East region?EMC has done an excellent jobby making it easy or volumeresellers to deliver implementa-tion and support services with-

out having to invest in deep spe-cialisation to join the VelocitySolution Provider Partner pro-gramme through the entry-level Aliate tier. Te relatively lowbarrier to entry or the Velocity programm, the new simple andaordable VNXe, and the marketcredibility o EMC makes it veryattractive to be part o Velocity. Itis a great strategy to empower a

new set o partners to reach the vast SMB market, particularlythe lower end o that segment.

How can resellers becomeEMC partners?Channel partners seeking tojoin the Velocity programme cannow do so with as little as fvehours o online training, gainingthe ability to service select mar-kets with a limited set o EMCs portolio. Established existing partners will be able to lever-age the specialty programmeto expand their businesses intoadjacent solution areas in or-der to expand the scope o theirbusiness. By investing in Velocityservices, partners once orced to play the commodity game will

be in a position to capture addi-tional business through assess-ment, design, implementation,and support services.

Considering EMC has re-cently extended its partner-ship with Redington Value inKSA, are there any specificopportunities the company isocusing on in the Kingdom?We are aiming to increase mar-ket share in the Kingdom oSaudi Arabia and address all theunder and or non-covered mar-ket segments; such as small busi-ness, midmarket and low enter-prise segments.

How does EMC see Red-ington Value helping you

achieve EMCs channel objec-tives in KSA?Te initial approach and plans with Redington or KSA arebased on working with Reding-ton to become the extended armor EMC, targeting all capabili-ties o running the pre-sales cy-cle through Redington technol-ogy consultants, manage and work closely with a network oresellers in Saudi Arabia throughRedingtons channel sales man-ager and help building the busi-ness, and all types o productsservices and support.

Considering RedingtonValues presence across MEA,could we see the partnershipextend in other countries in

the near uture?Te expectation is really highrom this extension in our part-nership to Saudi Arabia, and weare very positive that it will beanother successul exercise with

the Value Add Model Redingtonis taking. So, there will be def-nitely high chances to replicatethis success into other territo-ries in the region.

What products or solu-tions will be high on youragenda or your channelpartners in the region?Midmarket will be a big ocusin Saudi Arabia with Redington,so the expectation is to have themid tier oering getting the bestattention. However, the targetis to have a ull leverage romEMCs rich portolio o inorma-tion inrastructure solution andcloud services. Tis is the valuethat EMC is adding to Reding-tons exiting portolio.

The midmarket will be a big focus in SaudiArabia with Redington, so the expectation isto have the mid tier offering getting the bestattention


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TRIPP LITE / INTERVIEW

Power Trip

How does Tripp Lite standout rom its competitors with-in the power managementindustry? What is your valueproposition to the MiddleEast market?Vipin Sharma: Although the com-pany is one o the only three en-ergy protection manuacturers

in the world able to oer a trueenterprise solutions, ripp Liteis the only company that canalso oer an integrated oering.Tis is an important dierentia-tor and distinction, supportingthe sustained growth o our busi-ness even in the midst o a globaleconomic crisis. As manuac-turers, the company uses opensystem modular design, so that

clients can choose which sec-tors within their inrastructurethey wish to update or improvewith ripp Lites solutions. Otherbrands, or example, use a moreclosed or limited proprietarydesign, requently compellingclients to replace the entire in-rastructure, although most oit may be recoverable and use-ul. With ripp Lite, companiescan signifcantly optimise costs,since they can start by taking ad-vantage o the resources they al-ready have available within theircurrent I inrastructure.

How has the companygrown worldwide in recent

years? What is the status osales in Middle East region?

Vipin Sharma: ripp Lites saleshave grown at a rate o a 20% peryear worldwide or the past fve years through innovative busi-ness strategies and healthy com-pany practices. Te company hasmanaged to expand in a varietyo vertical markets in more than60 countries globally. Its porto-lio includes the newest state-o-the-art technology within theindustry, with the best price-per-ormance combination. In Mid-dle East, this growth achieves an

ValuePlus talks toVipin Sharma, Vice President Sales, Tripp Lite MEACIS on the companys surge in the UPS and power

management space, and the channel support services i t has implemented in the region.

average o 15% year ater year,although it must be clarifed thatthis varies a great deal by sectorand region.

What mechanisms doesTripp Lite apply or imple-mentation and technical sup-port o these business solu-tions and its protectionproducts in general?Vipin Sharma: In the MiddleEast, a comprehensive techni-cal support service via a toll ree

number 800-rippLite has beenlaunched. Tis will speed up theprocess to resolve any problemsthe customer would have withripp Lite products. Each Mid-dle Eastern country has an au-thorised service support centrethat is ully stocked with sparesand certifed technicians thatare trained by us.

What role does Tripp Litesolutions play in ensuringbusiness continuity? (For ex-


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INTERVIEW / TRIPP LITE

ample, via data centres andvirtual environments and / orwith cloud computing)?Vipin Sharma: ripp Lites hassome o the leading solutionsor the energy protection inmarket on the data centre side

(server arms, handling o re-mote installations, server clus-ters or cloud computing, etc).ripp Lite oers the broadest product line or these missioncritical applications, w ith devic-es including UPS single phaseand three-phase systems (withcapacities o up to 480kVA),rack systems, PDUs, and KVMswitches or IP applications and

console server administration.Radiating rom the data cen-tre, ripp Lite products protectand support the backbone o acompany, in distributed serverracks, VoIP/ telecom closetsand switch closets.

At the computer worksta-tion level, ripp Lite products protect and support individualcomputers. Tirty years ago,ripp Lite revolutionised theenergy protection industry withthe frst UPS system designed orPC protection and support. o-day, it continues to provide themost innovative and aordableenergy protection or this seg-ment o the market. Its completerange o related solutions may beadded to this, including voltagesuppressors, line conditioners,hubs, switches, and cables.

How does Tripp Lite ad-dress the topic o environ-mental protection?Vipin Sharma: Te demand orreliable energy is exceeding thecurrent supply capacity, more soin this part o the world i.e. Mid-dle East. Tis reality arises rom

the need to seek ecologically re-sponsible solutions. ripp Lite iscatering to these needs with thedevelopment o energy-ecientproducts in all categories.Consumers need more ecientgreen solutions or energy man-agement, as well as cost eec-tiveness. o reduce energy costs

or its users, the company hasbegun using UPS systems witha variety o energy optimisa-tion eatures and optimised racksystems. Tese also promote anecient cooling and energy environment in the data centres.o reduce the clients capitalcosts, ripp Lite has expanded

the KVM switch and consoleserver product lines, which reduceredundant hardware through acentralised administration plan.Tese green ripp Lite solutionsoriginate rom our corporate poli-cies that ocus on waste reduction

and promoting recycling. All rippLite products comply with RoHSregulations and this means thatthey meet the strictest standardsin the reduction o six hazardoussubstances.

What other avenues doesthe company use to promotegreater brand awareness and

visibility?

Vipin Sharma: Driven by ourcorporate policies that ocuson keeping consumers well-in-ormed, both in the business andconsumer segments, ripp Liteconducts training, events, semi-nars, inormative editorial and personal support as part o itscomprehensive marketing cam-paigns in the region. An exampleis the recent holding o a two-day Critical Application Partnerraining, which the companyhosted or its existing partnersand prospective CAP clients. Tetraining was held to help compa-nies enhance their abilities solvepower quality issues and also o-cused on increasing personnelslevel o expertise and knowledgeo all aspects o 3-phase systemdevelopment and maintenance.Te initiative is part o the com-panys wider GCC outreach cam- paign aimed at empowering itschannel partners and enhancingtheir skills and knowledge onthe latest industry technologies.In addition to this, ripp Lite isusing the Web to oer completeonline product training and cer-tifcation programmes.

The green solutions originate from ourcorporate policies that focus on wastereduction and promoting recycling


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INTERVIEW / CHECK POINT

Security Business

What has been CheckPoints channel ocus or theMiddle East market in 2011?Coskun Goktan: Check Point hasbeen active in the Middle Eastmarket or more than 10 years.During that period, we have al-ways worked with selected value

added partners and brought thebest security technology to ourcustomers through our strategicpartnerships.

In your view, has the ITdistribution segment recov-ered rom the economic up-heaval o two years ago?Coskun Goktan: Some I seg-ments and vendors experiencedchallenges two years ago. I be-lieve the security business andspecifcally Check Point has con-tinued to be very active duringthis time. We observed that ourcustomers set a high priority orkeeping the correct security in-rastructure and executed suc-cessull projects.

More vendors are lookingto work with value-add dis-

tributors in the Middle East.How is Check Point engagingwith its distributors such asRedington Gul?Coskun Goktan: Tere are sev-eral topics that our value added partners provide invaluablecontribution. Our requirementsrom our distribution partners

are beyond the basic fnance and

logistics services. For example,knowledge transer is extremelyimportant in the dyamnic secu-rity environment. In the MiddleEast region, due to the distrib-uted nature o several countries,knowledge transer requiresconsistent team work betweenvendors and channel partners.

The IT security market in the Middle East has continued to grow because o a number o actors. Recently, ValuePlus sat

down with Coskun Goktan, Country Manager, Check Point Turkey and GCC to find what Check Point is doing to help itspartners grow their business in the security segment.

Where will your growth

come rom and what willdrive that growth or CheckPoint this year?Coskun Goktan:As the worldwide provider o security solutions,Check Point is growing both worldwide and in the MiddleEast region, on continuous basis.From a gateway perspective, we

provide six basic security tech-nologies in majority o our projects, which are Firewall, VPN,IPS, URL Filtering, ApplicationControl and DLP.

Te engine behind these tech-nologies is our 3D security vi-sion where we combine policy,

people and enorcement or un-beatable protection. From andend-point perspective, we again provide total security approachand in addition we have inno-vative leading solutions such asAbra GO which turns any PC to acorporate desktop.

Briefly explain your geo-graphical coverage plan orthe Middle East and otheremerging markets?Coskun Goktan: Our regional o-fce in urkey is responsibleor 20 countries in Middle East, where GCC is a key region. Weare part o the Asia, Middle Eastand Arica territory within theCheck Point organisation.

What in your opinionshould value add distribution

cover?Coskun Goktan: As security issuch a dynamic market, distri-bution is frst o all the school orthe system integrators technicalconsultants to stay up to date ontechnology enhancements. Atersuccessull completion o theseknowledge transer cycles, our


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CHECK POINT / INTERVIEW

distributors should support thedemand creation cycles o sys-tem integrators. We support andprioritise the marketing cycles oour channel partners where ourdistibutors are consolidatingthe plans or system integrators.

Without knowledge transer,demand creation and strategicmarketing support, distributorswould basically stay with ullfll-ment type o operations which would not be sucient or ourbusiness plans.

Which verticals is CheckPoint targeting with the Red-ington partnership?

Coskun Goktan:While we do nothave any contractual limitations,Redington is mostly deliveringour appliance based mid sizegateway solutions to the chan-nel. Check Point introduced anew concept o security powerthis year, which is a new bench-mark metric that allows custom-ers to select security appliancesby their capability to handle real- world network trac, multiplesecurity unctions and a typicalsecurity policy. Redington wasmostly active on mid size solu-tions around 300 security powerunits. We are encouraging Red-ington channel to learn and uti-lise in their projects the indus-trys astest security appliance, which delivers 14,600 securitypower units.

How strong is the CheckPoint brand in the MiddleEast IT security channel?Coskun Goktan: Check Point isan exceptional vendor that pri-oritises channel partners ormarketing cycles. We work 100%through channels and we keepthis act or planning and ex-

ecuting our marketing cycles aswell. So in most cases, our chan-nel partners are leading wherethe Check Point team is sup-porting. Having said that, CheckPoint is a worldwide player thathas been securing the Internetsince 1993. Some o the custom-ers include all Fortune and Glob-al 100 companies so yes we havea very strong brand to supportour partners sales and market-ing cycles.

What are some o thechallenges that your channelpartners are experiencing atthe moment in the MiddleEast?Coskun Goktan: Te basic modelo Check Point is the same every-where, where our channel man-agers and technical consultants

are in the feld, together with ourchannel partners to solve issuescase by case. Te issues have abroad range, starting rom queueo demo units, to requency andlocations o authorised trainingsand sometimes to support en-hancements. We are committedto supporting our partners orall their needs on a sustainablebasis.

ValuePlus Quarterly: DoesCheck Point have a partner

programme or all it channelpartner in the Middle East? Iso how is this being rolled outin the Middle East?Coskun Goktan: Our partner pro-gramme is transparent and pre-sented on our Web portal. Wedeveloped the optimum ecosys-tem o market leading technol-

ogy and channel partners whereour partnership is not on com-mercial basis only, security busi-ness by nature requires signif-cant technical competence, tobe combined with commercialplans. Te good news is that we

have our technical consultantswho are in the feld every day toto present our localised latesttechnology update to our part-ners. From a commercial per-spective, our channel managersare working partner by partner,project by project, to provide theoptimum solutions.

Major security vendors

have been losing marketshare to start-ups. Have youbeen affected by this here inthe Middle East?Coskun Goktan: Losing marketshare to start ups could be morerelevant to non ocus vendorsthat provide security solutionsnext to another core business.Tis is true or dierent marketsas well, i a ocus vendor comesup to compete with a tacticalsolution, customers may see adierent value proposition romthis new ocused vendor. In thesecurity market, there were bothtypes o oerings, where CheckPoint has always been ocusedand committed to security. Webelieve Check Point is at the op-timum scale today, where ourability to execute is very high asthe largest security ocus ven-

dor listed on the Nasdaq with amarket capitalisation above $11billion. In addition, security is allwe do, Check Point provides itscustomers with uncompromised protection against all types othreats, reduces security com- plexity and lowers total cost oownership.

Some IT segments and vendors experiencedchallenges two years ago. I believe the securitybusiness and specifically Check Point hascontinued to be very active during this time


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FOCUS / CISCO

CISCO Streamlines

its Business in EMEARestructuring aimed at enhancing portolio strategy, simpliying operations & accelerating expense management in theEurope Middle East and Arica region.

$1bnwill take out $1 billion in

cost from its fiscal year 12

expense run rate.

Cisco is making a number o tar-geted moves as it aligns its op-erations in support o the com-panys network-centric platorm

strategy. Tese moves includebusiness decisions that will a-ect its portolio strategy, sim- pliy operations and accelerateexpense management.

Decisions announced in thecoming weeks and months, thenetworking giant moves into fs-cal year 2012, will ensure that Cis-co successully executes againstits fve company priorities:

Leadership in Core (Routing,Switching, and Services), whichincludes comprehensive secu-rity and mobility solutions Collaboration Data Centre, Virtualisation,and Cloud Video Business and Technology Ar-chitectures

According to the vendor, during

this process, the company hasimplemented the ollowing ac-tion plan:Simplify and focus the organi-

sation on the operating model

Cisco is streamlining the organi-sation and overhauling its busi-ness model dramatically. Tecompany is making it easier or

customers and channel partnersto do business with it and speed-ing up internal decision-making.

Align the cost structure given

transitions in the market-place. Cisco has stated that as part o a broader initiative, thecompany will take out $1 billionin cost rom its fscal year 12 ex-pense run rate. Changes to howit does business are also expect-ed to ensure a lower cost basegoing orward.Divest or exit underperform-

ing operations. As the network-ing major has already started todo, its examining its operationsthrough the flters o the fvecompany priorities and compre-hensive metrics.Deliver value to shareholders.

We are working on both the f-nancial and operational rontsto deliver value to shareholdersor their investment and support. We have already initiateda quarterly cash dividend, are


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CISCO / FOCUS

continuing our stock repurchase program, and are ocused onmaking changes that improveour operations and help us real-ize consistent proftable growthand optimisation o our domes-tically available cash.

Redefining EMEA As Cisco builds the EMEA or-ganisation, the principles be-hind the changes are to improvethe customer, channel partner

and employee experience. In ad-dition the company is aiming atsimpliying its operating modelin order to create greater ocuson the fve priority areas. Tecompany says by removing someo the complexities that existedin a multi-theatre organisationstructure, it can urther accel-erate growth in the business,internal decision-making, pro-ductivity in the feld and mostimportantly, ocus on delivering value to its channel ecosystemand end-user customers.

Tese changes along with thecontinued globalisation o thecompany and its operationsmove Cisco towards truly un-derstanding the need or dier-ent approaches across dierentcountries and cultures.

Part o becoming more glob-al is moving decision-making

closer to customers in the timezones o customers and the lan-guage o customers thereby en-abling the company to respondmore quickly to market changes,customer needs and competitivethreats.

As a consequence, Cisco statesthat the EMEA region will have proft-and-loss responsibility,

which is a signifcantly dierent way o running the company.It means the region will be ac-countable or revenue, grossmargin and proftability, allow-ing entire EMEA operation tomeasure the business more ho-listically and ensure that everyinvestment and employee is pos-itively inuencing the fnancial

situation o the region.Tese bold moves have led to

a company reorganisation inwhich Arica moved to be underEMEA led by Anthony Vonsee in-stead o emerging markets. Von-see used to lead emerging Aricaand aterwards North Arica andLevant.

Removing some of the complexities thatexisted in a multi-theatre organisation structure

will accelerate growth in the business

EMEAThe principles behind the

changes in the region are to

improve client experience


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INTERVIEW / RED HAT

Eyeing Regional

GrowthYou have taken on the role

as regional GM at Red Hat.What is your vision or the com-pany in the Middle East?

George DeBono: Te vision or theRed Hat business in the MiddleEast is to frstly raise awareness othe advantages that open sourceand open standards bring to or-ganisations. Tis is key and i wecan execute this successully, it willhelp our various channel partnersto grow their businesses and inturn help us grow ours.

What is Red Hats channelstrategy in the Middle East re-gion and which geographiesdoes the Dubai head officecover?George DeBono: Out o our oceDubai, we cover the Middle Eastand North Arica regions. Our cur-rent strategy is to reocus on a ewkey partners who have alreadydeveloped business practices andskills, both technical and sales, in

the Open Source arena. Addition-ally, we will continue to recruit andeducate those additional channelorganisations that are willing toembrace this very disruptive sot-ware which changes the overall Ilandscape.

What has been the compa-

nys ocus or 2011 with yourchannel partners in the region?George DeBono: My ocus, giventhe act that I have just arrived in

the Middle East, has been to getto know the major players. Teteam and I have developed a planaround growth, which has alreadyrequired me to add resources toour ever growing channel team.Tis will help us share the load,and as such also ocus on morecountries and develop (with our partners help) more markets andopportunities.

The role o a distributor isconstantly changing. How are

you engaging with your dis-tributor Redington to ensurethat the alliance remains rele-

vant?George DeBono: We are work-ing very closely with the team inRedingtons Value Distributionbusiness to ensure that they aredelivering the right support to the

channel ecosystem, while alsoevangelising the benefts o opensource. My team and I hold regu-lar reviews along all sides o ourbusinesses, rom sales pipeline re-views to marketing and lead allo-cation. Tis is being done in orderto ensure that we stay very closelyaligned and that our objectives are

ValuePlus talks to George DeBono, the new General Manager at Red Hat Middle East and Arica on his vision or the com-pany and how the open-source sofware vendor is cementing its channel presence and growing its ootprint in the region.


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RED HAT / INTERVIEW

in act our channel partners objec-tives as well.

Does Red Hat have any di-rect accounts that it handles inthe region? I so in which verti-cals are these accounts and

how have you lessened theconflict o interest with yourchannel partners?George DeBono: We have recent-ly implemented a Key Accountstrategy where we are beginningto work with a ew very key mar-ket maker accounts across theregion. Whilst on the surace, thismay appear to be in conict withour partners, the reality is that it

works very well or our channel.Our objective with Key Accountsis to help build and drive an over-all account strategy, and by beingable to answer two key questions what is the customers pain andwho are they looking to or guid-ance?, we are better able to direct-ly support our partners in theireorts to secure business. We stillremain a 100% channel based ul-flment business, and have no in-tention o changing this.

What is the split o yourchannel ecosystem (VARs, so-lution providers, system inte-grators, resellers, ISVs and in-dependent hardware vendors)in the Middle East today?George DeBono: Te core o thebusiness is ocused around the re-seller community. However, given

the nature o our products, in 99.9%o all cases, there will be an ISVssolution driving the requirement,and an IHVs involvement aroundthe platorm. I I throw back to thetwo key questions, typically, it is anISVs oering that is the answer tothe frst, and a solution provider orSI that is the answer to the second.

Has Red Hat launched its various partner programmesin the Middle East?George DeBono: We are currentlyreviewing all our programmes todetermine which are best suitedto our market. Tis will be an ever

evolving, ongoing process. We willleverage rom the successes o the various programmes we have al-ready run but also look to otherregions to see what works, andthen determine how we need tomodiy it or our partners in theMiddle East.

How many Red Hat certi-fied partners do you have on

your books in the Middle Eastregion?George DeBono: Across the vari-ous levels we have in our partner programme, we currently main-tain in excess o 200 active solutionprovider partners.

How important is the sys-tem builder or IHV communityin the Middle East to your busi-ness?George DeBono: Hardware is a keyelement because i there is no hard-ware, then we have no opportunity.Even with the talk around cloud, itmust be remembered that cloudtoo is just a delivery platorm, andas such requires hardware.

How are you addressingthis channel at the moment?George DeBono: Red Hat at

the corporate level maintainsa healthy relationship with themajor players and chip manu-acturers. Locally, while I do nothave dedicated resources work-ing with these partners, we are working with them strategicallyto the beneft o the customersand markets.

How challenging has theMiddle East sofware marketbeen or Red Hat in the lastthree years?George DeBono: Over the last threeyears, we have seen an increase ininterest in our oerings, not just in

the Middle East, but globally. Tisis in part due to our value propo-sition and subscription basedmodel, which provides custom-ers across the board, signifcantsavings whilst delivering an en-terprise-ready set o oerings andsolutions which are in use by thetop local and global companies inall industry verticals.

What is your perception othe operating systems marketin the Middle East at the mo-ment?George DeBono: Buoyant the in-creased investment that the multi-nationals are making in the regionis resulting in new data centres, I projects and the like. Tis invest-ment is due in a large part to thegrowing business requirement toexpand that our local companiesare eeling, and executing against.Tis has resulted in many new andexciting opportunities or us andour ecosystem with existing, newcustomers and prospects.

Who do you consider asyour biggest competitor in theMiddle East when you poll yourchannel partners?George DeBono: Tis is a good

question. In terms o our biggestcompetitor, in some respects it isourselves. Many companies in theregion are using community basedvariants o our oerings, withoutunderstanding the underlyingrisks o this strategy. Whilst thesevariants are very close and in actlead our enterprise certifed ver-

sions, they are in act supportedby a community o developerson a best eorts basis. WhatRed Hat provides or both ourinrastructure and middleware products is a stable, certifed,endorsed environment that has

a ull 24 x 7, ollow-the-sun support team that is available tocompanies that have active andcurrent subscriptions to ourproducts.

How does Red Hat scopethe Open Source Middle-ware market in the MiddleEast and what would be yourstrategy to tap the opportu-

nity?George DeBono: Te middleware market across the regionis still largely a edgling one, with some countries more ad-vanced than others. In terms ohow do we tap into the develop-ing opportunity, that is simple.It comes down to identiyingthe right channel partners andworking with them. Middlewarerequires a reasonable amount oservices delivery work in orderto be a successul deployment,and as we will not build a bodyshop o resources, we need to work with those partners thatcan deliver those skills or ourcustomers.

What can your MiddleEast partners expect romRed Hat in the next 12 to 18

months?George DeBono: More visibilityand more aggression. We needto make the various countries inthe region know that we are here,are serious about the market,and that there are great partnersout there than can help them de-ploy our oerings successully.


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INTERVIEW / FUJITSU

Fujitsu now has a different internalstructure in the region to the one it hadbeore rebranding rom Fujitsu-Sie-mens. What can you tell us about yournew structure?Hussein Shehab: Fujitsu has reorganised itselaround three business lines : Product, Main-tenance and Services. In each o these, weendeavour to bring world leading oeringsto our channel partners and their customersin the Middle East.

How have you repositioned your-selves in the Middle East to ensure thatboth distributors and the channel atlarge are benefiting rom this new struc-ture?Hussein Shehab: Redington which was ear-lier distributing into the UAE only is now aregional distributor or all products acrossthe Middle East and Levant. Tis means that

customers now fnd better pricing and avail-ability o Fujitsu products than ever beore.

Briefly outline some o Fujitsus keychannel expansion areas this year.Hussein Shehab: Fujitsus Select Partner Pro-gramme has taken o in the Middle Eastregion and we now have a air representa-tion in all countries that we address. Chan-

nel partners are classifed as Partner, SelectPartner or Select Expert depending on theirexpertise and business they do.

What is the next stage or Fujitsuwhen it comes to partner engagementin the Middle East?Hussein Shehab:We have already begun empowering our channel partners with jointmarketing programmes, unds, trainings andon feld support. We recently invited around20 channel partners rom the region to our

Building a

SustainableChannelHussein Shehab, Channel Director, Fujitsu Technology Solutions Middle East,is spearheading Fujitsus efforts to build up a sustainable partner base in the

GCC and Levant. Value Plus caught up with Shehab to find out more about chan-

nel initiatives the technology vendor is driving in the region.

notebook, desktop and server manuactur-ing acilities near Munich and we intend tocontinue this and most importantly enhanceour relationship with key channel partners.

We have seen more and more ven-dors avouring value add distribution.How are you engaging with your distri-bution partners to ensure that they areactually adding value to the Fujitsu solu-tions they sell?Hussein Shehab:We are working on the frstBO acility in the Middle East, where ourdistribution partners will have the capabili-ties to build and stage servers and storageinrastructure in the Middle East. Tis iscurrently being done out o our acilities inGermany. Tis move will urther enhanceavailability. On the maintenance ront, wehave already beeed up our number o certi-fed engineers and spares supply chain in theMiddle East.

What is behind Fujitsus enhancedchannel ocus in the Middle East region?Hussein Shehab: Our organisations policy isto conduct business through and with chan-

nel partners and all steps being taken and processes being set up are to support thisstrategy.

What is your perspective o the cloudcomputing, virtualisation and othercloud-based managed services?Hussein Shehab: Fujitsu was one o the worlds frst companies to oer platorm


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FUJITSU / INTERVIEW

as a service (PaaS) services in Japan andEurope and we strongly eel that cloud services will have a sizeable impact on SMB

businesses in the uture in the Middle Eastgeography.

With the Middle East channel experi-encing credit issues, how best are youhelping your distributors and resellersto cope with credit challenges in thechannel?Hussein Shehab: For end-users, we oer f-

nancing models which help them with inra-structure procurement, thus removing theburden on our partners. Additionally, taking

cognisance o the credit issues in the chan-nel, we are extending all possible support toour partners and rankly, due to our long

term relationship practices, we havent beenimpacted so much.

What technology and trends is Fujit-su tracking this year?Hussein Shehab: Fujitsu intends to make astrong play in x86 servers Primergy, and on-line and back up to disk with deduplicationEternus range o storage solutions.

PaaSFujitsu was one of the first vendors

to offer platform as a service in

Japan & Europe

Fujitsu has reorganiseditself around three businessliness: Product, Maintenance

and Services. In each of thesethe company endeavours tobring world leading offeringsto channel partners and end-user customers in the MiddleEast region


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REDINGTON / CHANNEL UPDATES


Redington Channel Updates

1. HP Networking Ifar at Burj Al Arab, Dubai 4. SonicWalls Master Pitch training hosted in June in the UAE

2. Trend Micro Ifar in KSA

3. Trend Micros Worry Free partner training held June in the UAE 6. Emerging Markets Technology Conerence in Nigeria & Ghana, July 2011

5. Emerging Markets Technology Conerence in Nigeria & Ghana, July 2011


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value plus quarterly oct 2011

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