COMSTOR
WESTCON SECURITY
WESTCON COLLABORATION AND MOBILITY
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H2 2019 Issue
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SECURITY SOLUTIONS TO ‘DEFEND - DETECT REMEDIATE - PROTECT’ Our Security practice arms you with products, services and expertise that help you safeguard your customers’ data, infrastructure, users and applications from threats and downtime. westconcomstor.com
security solutions
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FOREWORD
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elcome to another edition of Westcon-Comstor Advantage, where we continue to showcase our innovation alongside our vendor partners and WestconComstor programmes. Along with having some fantastic growth during the first half of the year, we have been able to successfully drive several channel as well as internal growth initiatives which have been well very received. We hope that this issue of the magazine will give you a good flavor of these initiatives. We remain committed to our core values while offering key services that revolve around EDGE which stands for Engage, Develop, Grow and Extend – our framework for the partner sales engagement journey. We continue to lead and innovate in value distribution and are delighted to have had this recognized with no less than 30+ awards this year including the ones from Aon Hewitt, Cisco Systems, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, Ribbon, Ruckus, Pelco, Extreme Networks and Zebra Technologies. Our global footprint and extensive range of solutions and services ensure that no challenge is impossible. We are constantly trying to make our relationship with our local partners even more intimate through setting up local entities and investing in in-country resources. Our local and personal touch means we stay close to the action, right down to the smallest detail. As a value added distributor, what really sets us apart from the rest is a winning team which acts as an extension of your company by assisting you at every stage of your sales cycle, working over extended hours and within your deadlines. Infused with energy and drive, our people dedicate themselves to identifying opportunity, driving business and delivering customer satisfaction. This attitude to go above and beyond to support our resellers and vendors is a reflection of the internal culture we have built as a company. We take great delight in having built a team that focuses on empowering people, having fun, building a winning culture and maintaining ethics and respect for all our employees. We love to celebrate our cultural diversity by coming together as one big family to celebrate various festivals from across the world. We have several ongoing initiatives which focus on corporate social responsibility, team building, employee health and staff wellness. Our aim is to create a community of highly performing individuals who also believe in being socially responsible. We also regularly partner with many local organizations and charities while supporting our employees in their volunteering efforts. This continued people-centric approach to distribution will further accelerate our innovation and leadership into the years. Our ability to revolutionize distribution is fueled by our passion for outstanding channel performance and a leading vendor portfolio. As always, I would welcome your feedback on what we are getting right, but more importantly what could we do to offer you an even greater level of satisfaction, or what we could do to leverage more business opportunities in this exciting region. We are committed to your success in the market. Let me have your thoughts and comments on how we can continue to profitably grow our mutual businesses at steve.lockie@westcon.com
Steve Lockie Group Managing Director, Westcon-Comstor Middle East
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elcome to another edition of WestconComstor's Advantage. It is a pleasure to share our insights, capabilities and the value that we create for our partners in the Middle East on
behalf of our vendors. A recent Gartner survey stated that IT spending across the Middle East region (including North Africa) will reach $160 billion in 2019. The software and services segments are expected to witness the fastest growth – with spending on Software-as-aService destined to grow at more than 25 per cent year-to-year. Clearly, the region is thriving and innovating. Service providers in the region aim to be at the forefront of 5G deployment, opening up a world of opportunity where technology can create new ways of doing business and creating innovative consumer experiences. Several Gulf countries are pursuing national development projects, with plans such as the UAE’s Vision 2021 and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, both of which are focused on expanding the knowledge- and technology-based sectors. At Westcon-Comstor, we plan to be at the centre of this region’s technology growth and innovation, creating value for partners to help them deliver on the promise of our outstanding vendor portfolio. We are in constant pursuit of innovation and we do not stand still. In our Westcon line of business, we have recently established new EMEA Go to Market units dedicated to technologies where we see transformation and growth – Collaboration and Networking and Cyber Security. We believe that the Collaboration market is at an inflection point and our new dedicated Go to Market business unit brings enhanced levels of expertise and specialisation to existing vendors and partners. Subsequently, reiterating the recent IDC survey, security is a top priority for the Middle East CIOs. This is why, with our intensified focus on our Cyber Security Go to Market, we are better equipped than ever to help partners address their concerns. In summary, we see numerous opportunities in the Middle East, and at Westcon-Comstor we’re gearing up to help vendors and partners make the most of it. Please do enjoy reading about our news and developments.
davidgrant DAVID GRANT COO, Westcon-Comstor
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5/ FOREWORD
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MESSAGE FROM WESTCON-COMSTOR INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM
14/ DIRECTORS’ QUOTES
18/ CISCO
20/ CIENA
15/ SERVICES
22/ FORESCOUT 24/ VERTIV
28/SONICWALL 31/ MITEL
You are invited! ENGAGE. EXPLORE. EXPERIENCE.
VISIT THE WESTCON-COMSTOR CONNECT LOUNGE DURING GITEX Venue: Lobby area of IBIS hotel, DWTC Date: 7th - 9th of October, 2019
16/ GLOBAL SIs & SERVICE PROVIDERS
26/ EXTREME NETWORKS
32/PELCO
27/ AVAYA
WE ARE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF DISTRIBUTION Westcon-Comstor is the leading global distributor of business technology. We combine unrivalled expertise in technology with unique capabilities.
Deep vendor relationships
Partner enablement
Market insight
Global deployment capabilities
Technical services
Digital Distribution
Real value for all our partners
EDGE TAILORED SUPPORT AND SOLUTIONS TO HELP ALL OUR PARTNERS SUCCEED ENGAGE We help partners to engage and onboard with our vendors with access to our core services
DEVELOP We develop their business with pre sales consultancy and support, mentoring and education
Vendor portfolio & programmes
PartnerView platform
PoC Trials
Testing
Technical Services
Account management
Training
Monitoring
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GROW We grow their business with new technologies, marketing and services
EXTEND We extend their business with new consumption models and international opportunities
Marketing
Lead Generation
Renewals
Financial Services
Logistics, Supply Chain Support
Professional Services
Global Deployment Solutions
Digital Distribution
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WESTCON-COMSTOR IN A SNAPSHOT We manage global opportunities through a joint venture with Westcon Americas, providing continuity and a seamless global service for our partners.
GLOBAL
Westcon-Comstor
Synnex
Local presence Office
Local presence
Warehouse
Office
Advanced logistic centre
Warehouse
EMEA
APAC
WESTCON-COMSTOR IN NUMBERS
30+
years experience in technology distribution
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$3.3B in FY 2019 revenues
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international support centres
70+
countries with a physical presence
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We manage global opportunities through a joint venture with Westcon Americas, providing continuity and a seamless global service for our partners.
EMEA
Local presence Office Warehouse Advanced logistic centre
3200 people
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280 engineers
180+
countries or territories shipped to
44
international logistics centres & stocking facilities
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DELIVERING VALUE WITH MARKETING
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t Westcon-Comstor, our marketing mission is clear – to help vendors and partners succeed. To do so, we create value in ways that differentiate their offerings and that also support our distribution proposition. Our marketing strategy continues to evolve, and I’d like to share our commitment to marketing innovation. Firstly, and unique to WestconComstor, is our methodology for partner sales engagement called EDGE, which stands for Engage, Develop, Grow and Extend. Based on this, we create bespoke partner marketing initiatives that build opportunity, cultivate effective alliances, and drive partner revenue and growth. Our campaigns and initiatives are built on centrally developed vendor
PAUL CUNNINGHAM Chief Marketing Officer, Westcon-Comstor
strategies, but also apply a regional flavour that matches local marketplace needs. We believe that our industry insights, based on 27 years of doing business in the Middle East, combined with our flexibility and adaptability, is essential to delivering value to the regional market.
TRIED AND TRUSTED PARTNERS
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or Comstor, it’s all about Cisco. We’ve enjoyed a global relationship with Cisco for more than 25 years. We have an exclusive focus on Cisco products – it’s all we do. This means we have all the expertise and knowledge we need to help partners grow their Cisco business. Understanding its channel like no-one else, we give partners unmatched insight into Cisco’s technology, solutions and programmes. Our proven partner engagement programmes are dedicated to increasing Cisco business and finding new opportunities for growth. Via EDGE and the Comstor Mentor Program, our
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WILLEM JH DE HAAN SVP, Comstor International
passionate teams help partners grow by realising new, recurring revenue Cisco opportunities – security, software and services, as well as building on Cisco’s core – collaboration, data center and networking.
That value also extends to Digital Distribution. To win in the new marketplace of services and software, subscription payment and recurring revenue – our new digital distribution capability helps put partners in the driving seat. With our PartnerView platform, we seek to make doing business with us even easier. Using PartnerView, partners can browse and order online, as well as confirm price, availability and delivery. It manages quotes, renewals, order tracking and history, and RMA submissions. All in one place, 24/7. Through these efforts and more, we seek to build successful business for our vendors and partners in the region. I hope you enjoy hearing more about our news and insights in this edition of Advantage.
We believe it’s important to have experts aligned to every Cisco architecture. We have that expertise on a central basis in our EMEA team, but we have also replicated it on the ground, in every country. When partners can access this expertise, they can accelerate their business quickly. We believe that we consistently grow our partners’ businesses faster than any other distributor in the channel. One of our main focuses to drive this growth is by delivering recurring revenue streams for predictable cash-flow, lower cost of sales and increased customer loyalty. We are experts in Cisco’s recurring offers and our goal is to help partners get the best Cisco rebates while protecting end customer investments. To that end, we have a dedicated recurring offers team, unrivalled annuity billing capability and a robust renewal processes to help partners secure the renewal sale.
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HOW DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION IS DRIVING INNOVATION ACROSS THE SUPPLY CHAIN
HOW DIGITAL IS TRANSFORMING OUR SUPPLY CHAIN
HOW WE’RE MAKING A SUCCESS OF RENEWALS
DWIGHT PITTER Chief Information Officer, Westcon-Comstor
KEVIN BRZEZINSKI Senior Vice President for Operations, Westcon-Comstor
SAM PARIS Vice President, Services and Renewals, Westcon-Comstor
Digital Distribution is about simplification. The mantra of ‘making the complex simple’ has always been fundamental for us at Westcon-Comstor, and it’s no different for digital. It’s how we simplify complexity, grow the business and forge strong partnerships. This means working with vendors because for digital transformation to be a success, we have to be integrated with their data and systems. From a partner perspective, everything needs be seamless; but as no two vendors are the same, behind the scenes data integration can be a challenge. Aside from having a good product-market fit, maintaining high subscription renewal rates is the most important single success factor in a XaaS business. So, it’s really important for us to be strong in renewals and there’s no other distributor who can currently compare with us – we have a renewals solution to be really proud of. Another strength is having all the pieces of the puzzle wired up, by which we mean the integration and interoperability of our applications. Our PartnerView portal provides a really compelling customer experience, and we have further enhancements in the pipeline. Partners see real value in our platform already, but they don’t always see its full capabilities. We are educating and communicating what we can do – and not just in terms of procurement. Feedback from our partners is important too: what works and what more do they want from us? Across the business, we are always improving performance and stability. On the vendor side, further integration means we are becoming an extension of their business. On the partner side, we are seeing increased adoption and use of our PartnerView portal, while the roll out of our BlueSky cloud business platform is gathering pace. Further enhancements are focus on enabling partners manage all their software, cloud and virtual instances in one place.
Digital transformation has affected every aspect of life in some way, shape or form. Naturally, some sectors and enterprises are harnessing the potential of digital more than others. Today, our supply chain relies heavily on digital technology to ensure accuracy, delivery optimization and to create real value for our partners. Efficiency and optimization have always been fundamental to logistics, but the application of technology is now bringing real benefits for our partners across the supply chain beyond productivity gains, increased performance and cost reduction. The next step is increased integration with partners to give real-time data, inventory visibility and zero-touch provisioning so solutions can be deployed even more quickly and accurately. Automation reduces admin and manual tasks, which minimises errors and enables us to focus on value-added tasks and processes that put our partners first. The way technology is being consumed and procured today is changing. Subscriptions, licences and consumptionbased models are the new norm. Our investment in tools and technologies ensure partners can adapt to this increasingly software-driven world. That’s why collaboration is as important for supply chain as it is for sales. Accurate forecasting in real-time from multiple data sources drives integrated business planning processes that are responsive and flexible. It makes us more efficient and makes transactions quicker and more accurate for partners, which in turn reduces time to revenue. This is an exciting time for our supply chain. By being lean, fast and agile, we’re delivering the outcomes our partners need – even as preferences, requirements, and the digital economy continue to evolve.
As the world becomes increasingly softwaredriven, the biggest business in the coming years will come from recurring subscriptions. Vendors are transitioning to this model, which is driving Westcon-Comstor and our partners to evolve. To help the channel get the management of software licensing and solutions right, we have invested heavily in our dedicated renewals process, including an internal automated renewals platform to manage the entire renewals process. Previously, renewing a contract would be a complicated process, which requires more than 90 manual steps between the channel, Westcon-Comstor, and vendors. Our platform automatically creates and captures quotes from a variety of vendor tools, and then send those quotes back to Westcon-Comstor partners with little human intervention. Renewal opportunities are then made available in our customer-facing PartnerView portal – 90 days before the renewal date so no opportunity is missed. Meanwhile, our BlueSky platform provides greater provision for partners to engage with vendors. It incorporates a cloud-based billing platform, which allows partners to bill vendors on a usage basis. Our innovations don’t stop there. The ultimate goal is to enable our partners configure solutions, request a single quote for all vendor solutions and manage recurring offers through one ‘pane of glass’. Our renewals process offers partners significant insight into their renewals and recurring revenue opportunities, including official quotes from across all of our vendors. We have already built the foundation of a dedicated renewals platform and process, and we continue to invest in it. Our focus is helping partners to better manage the renewals process so that we can all grasp the opportunity offered by recurring software revenues.
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OUR COMPANY VALUES SHAPE OUR WORKPLACE
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ur employer ‘brand’ gives the outside world a clear sense of who we are as a company, what our culture is, and what makes us unique and special. Now more than ever, a strong employer brand is crucial for attracting the right talent and for sustainable business success. People today are looking for organisations that are open, honest and genuine. They want to know who we are as an organisation, what it’s like to work at Westcon-Comstor, and whether it’s a culture that connects with their values. Westcon-Comstor Middle East is a vibrant, inclusive, diverse and creative place to work. You can see that in the passion our people have for the work they do, their relationships with customers, and their dedication to solving problems.
DONNA BAIN Senior Vice President Human Resources, Westcon-Comstor
As a global company, diversity runs through the business at every level. We fundamentally believe that everyone should be treated equally, and that a diverse and inclusive workplace culture is good for our people, our brand and our business. We continually monitor our workplace profile, our approach to
recruitment, and how we develop our talent so we continue to foster an inclusive culture. People should feel ready to take the next step up when they want to, with the right support to reach their potential. At Westcon-Comstor, our people see what we’re doing across the business – through internal communications, newsletters, business updates and leadership interaction – so they feel fully connected. This ability to feel part of a bigger organisation in their day-to-day life is really important to show that their work has an impact on more than just their colleagues around them. We may be located around the world, but we all have the same goal. Happy and productive people translate to growth, so it’s good for people and good for business.
OUR PEOPLE: A TEAM YOU CAN TRUST Every member of our team is committed to our partners’ success and creating an exceptional customer experience.
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OUR COMMUNITY OUR CULTURE At Westcon-Comstor, we remain committed to our promise of offering an environment that focuses on empowering people, having fun, building a winning culture and maintaining ethics and respect to all our employees. We love to celebrate our cultural diversity by coming together as one big family to celebrate various festivals from across the world. We have several ongoing initiatives like Fun Squad which is aimed at getting our employees to work together as a team while having fun and recharging their energy levels. We also regularly organize several health and wellness initiatives for our employees. At Westcon-Comstor we remain committed to creating a community of people that is socially responsible. We have several ongoing initiatives which are led by our employees who are highly driven to contribute towards the society. WESTCON-COMSTOR UNITES Westcon-Comstor Unites, our CSR initiative is driven by our employees to pursue the realization for a better society by changing perspective, creating awareness, fostering care, showing responsibility and achieving a sense of satisfaction. Over the years we have been active in doing our share to contribute to the society. We recognise that such initiatives are an integral part of our culture and, hence, have been actively involved in many activities. These include visiting children with determination at Rashid Centre for People with Determination and distributing Iftar kits to Dubai Labor camps
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during the month of Ramadan as helping hands to needy. Environmental issues are also a focus area for our CSR campaigns. Westcon-Comstor Middle East celebrated Environment Day recently by distributing indoor plants to all employees as a step towards fighting indoor air pollution and global warming. In an effort to discourage the use of single use plastics due to environmental concerns, we have launched the ‘No Single Use Plastic Cup’ initiative and in line with this, single use plastic cups have been removed from our pantry and employees are encouraged to bring their own water bottles and mugs. We also continue to create awareness about these causes among our staff by sharing regular mailers and other creatives.
WHAT OUR EMPLOYEES SAY ABOUT WORKING AT WESTCON-COMSTOR
ATHIRA PAVITHRAN “Westcon-Comstor provides a platform to employees to think beyond self and gives the opportunity to be a good corporate citizen of our local communities and to the world. I am glad to be a part of the team that works together to make a difference."
NADIR AHMED “I love how making a positive social impact to the community gives me a feeling of true fulfillment. The realization of our impact on the environment, made me became a part of our CSR initiatives.”
YATISH RAMESH “I am inspired every day to see our teams collaborate with such energy and passion to deliver business excellence and customer success”
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DIRECTORS’ QUOTES Our continuing endeavor this past year at Comstor has been to drive the adoption of our partner self-help tools like PartnerView. These tools help partners gain a competitive advantage by giving them access via a single pane to view orders placed, historical data, renewals data, stock availability, ETA for orders and much more. With accelerated investments in countries like Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, we are now uniquely poised as one of the few value-added distributors with a footprint across the region with the ability to drive global GTM with local flair. Our long-standing alignment with Cisco’s priorities this fiscal year has led to investments that are focused on opportunities within the Small Business market, which could yield great returns. RENTON DSOUZA DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR, COMSTOR
IAN JONES DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR, WESTCON SECURITY
PRASHANT NAIK DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR, MOBILITY AND UCC
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Westcon Security's practice remains committed to arming our security solution providers with products that are effective in today’s threat environment. Our practice connects specialty vendors to solution providers focused on providing leading security solutions. We provide our partners with the portfolio, tools and support they need to safeguard the clients’ information and reputations. Our expansive global network, decades of channel experience, and an innovative physical and digital distribution model, enable our security team to develop tailored solutions that help partners capture more revenue. In addition, our partners can expand sales efforts by utilizing our vendor-specific security training, state-of-the-art lead generation and management tools, as well as extensive market analyses. Westcon Security’s comprehensive portfolio, which includes solutions from Palo Alto Networks, F5 Networks, Symantec, Forescout, Arbor, Sonicwall, Trend Micro, Pulse Secure, Certes and Carbon Black, addresses network security, secure web gateways, enterprise email security, unified threat management, endpoint security and cloud-based security. We are excited to be working with all our channel partners in a time when security is largely being recognized as an essential element in the adoption of new technologies and way of conducting business. We are dedicated to creating an exceptional experience for every person touched by our solutions and services.
The Westcon Mobility and UCC Division’s portfolio includes innovations from Avaya, Ciena, Datalogic, Extreme Networks, Infovista, Jabra, Mitel, Nokia, Oracle, Pelco, Poly, Ribbon, Ruckus, SMART, Vertiv and Zebra. Collectively, we provide solutions and technologies around Infrastructure like Power UPS, Racks, Datacenter Management Solutions, Networking, Voice and Video Communications, Interactive Collaborative Displays, Video Surveillance, Handheld Scanners and Rugged Mobile Terminals. Our new partnership with Nokia extends our offerings to SDN and SD-WAN, Optical Networking, Broadband Microwave Links, Private LTE Networks and IoT. With Vertiv our offerings extend to Power UPS, Racks and data center solutions. Our team specializes in helping support you and your end-customers chart their digital transformation journey by taking advantages of innovations in analytics, AI, cloud, IoT, SDWAN and much more. We aim to continue to lead the way in thought leadership by investing in futuristic technologies and unique offerings including professional services and training from Westcon at each stage of the sales process as we recruit, enable and grow the channel partner base.
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WESTCON-COMSTOR SERVICES
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estcon-Comstor Services team helps partners deliver highly comprehensive and profitable solutions to their customers by adding a full range of Services to the products they deliver. Our team offers a range of services which include implementation, solutions delivery, education, managed services, supply chain and support. We understand the demands involved in fulfilling customer requirements and how partners may need a helping hand to
TECHNICAL SERVICES
Extending capabilities, capacity and coverage • Adopt new technologies and revenue streams • Increase focus on selling and accelerating the sales cycle • Improve ROI for partners and their customers • Grow customer success and loyalty • Adapt to and profit from cloud and annuity-based business models
WESTCONCOMSTOR SERVICES
bid, win, deliver and deploy. Our close alignment with our vendors ensure that our team members constantly update themselves with the latest vendor technology information and best practices. This, in turn, allows us to seamlessly deliver our services to our partners and end-customers. As Westcon-Comstor Services Team, we always strive to help our partners deliver the most thorough and profitable solutions to their customers by offering managed services, service desk and global technical/supply chain services.
Technical Services wrap real value around our technologies to deliver more complete and profitable solutions
White-labelled Support Services help partners and their customers identify, manage and solve IT issues
ESSAM RIAD Services Divisional Director - Middle East, Westcon-Comstor
Vendor-certified training and Education Services extend knowledge, expertise and positioning
Professional Services strengthen partners so they can pursue more opportunities without investment
Supply Chain Services provide end-to-end logistics and operational excellence, wherever and whenever they’re needed
Proactive Care Services take on day-to-day operational responsibilities with remote monitoring, analytics, troubleshooting and IT administration
End-to-end services complement our partners’ capabilities, providing a complete solution to maximise every opportunity.
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GLOBAL SYSTEM INTEGRATORS & SERVICE PROVIDERS
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t Westcon-Comstor’s global systems integrator and service provider (GSI/SP) business unit, we have been engaging with telcos and global systems integrators in the region, to deliver the latest technology and solutions to the technology market. Working on critical infrastructure and cybersecurity projects, this business unit offers the entire range of Westcon-Comstor vendor solutions. Our focus remains on following a solutions-based approach while offering an end-to-end delivery of product, software and services which cover networking, infrastructure,
cybersecurity and wireless solutions. We maintain a strategic relationship with our vendors and partners while driving latest technologies such as SDWAN, private LTE, optical networking, DDoS, cloud, IoT and endpoint for the enterprise, edge and core network architectures, and the evolving SDN networks. Our focus is to bring value to service providers by optimizing TCO (Total cost of ownership) of all the products and services sourced through Westcon-Comstor. We believe that global deployment solutions, supply chain optimization and bespoke services will continue to drive the adoption of our offerings in the region.
NITESH BAJPAI Director - Telcos & Global Accounts, Westcon-Comstor
THE EXPERTISE YOU NEED, WHEN YOU NEED IT GLOBAL CUSTOMERS
Fulfilment of international and domestic opportunities
GSI/SP TEAM
REGIONAL VARs
Enabling international trading opportunities
• Commercial and contractual management • Relationship & Engagement • Strategic direction • Drive solutions
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Customer relationship management Global Project management Optimized supply chain Contractual alignments Financial models GLOBAL DEPLOYMENT SOLUTIONS Multi country deliveries Local Staging VAT recovery Project Management Compliance Advance logistics TECHNOLOGY ENABLEMENT Solution design Dedicated Presales Global best practices Enablement sessions End to end Services
Commercial engagement and governance 16
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DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION A POWERFUL PLATFORM, BUILT FOR MUTUAL SUCCESS The way technology is consumed, distributed and procured is changing. We’re applying our experience and expertise to help partners adapt to the new digital world. Our integrated Digital Distribution Platform delivers
the tools, partner technology integration and automation partners need to grow and thrive. One platform of integrated, powerful digital toolsets across purchasing, renewals, sales management, cloud services and software – built to benefit all partners across the supply chain. DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM
Agility
Productivity
Partners can adapt and respond quickly to customer needs with real time visibility
Scalability
Workflow automation and functionality enables vendors and partners to scale
Clean and accurate data improves efficiency for faster turnaround
Profitability
Reduces time to cash, unlocks more opportunities and recurring revenues
MAKES IT EVEN EASIER FOR PARTNERS TO DO BUSINESS WITH US • Visibility across all quotes, orders and renewals ensures no opportunity is missed • SimplifitPartner discounts are automatically applied to quotes • Vendor integration enables migration of existing quotes from vendor systems • Partners can self-serve online and easily resolve everyday enquiries without needing to contact our teams
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SHOP ONLINE • • •
Vendor portfolios and tech specs Real time pricing and availability Migrate quotes from vendor systems
Order history and status Download invoices and packing slips Request RMAs
MANAGE QUOTES AND ORDERS
SELF SERVICE
• • •
Request, revise and manage quotes Convert to orders Renew licences and subscriptions
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SMALL BUSINESS, BIG OPPORTUNITY HANI RAAD, GENERAL MANAGER - MEA SMALL BUSINESS AT CISCO, DELVES INTO HOW ITS SMALL BUSINESS OFFERINGS CAN ENABLE THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF ORGANSIATIONS IN THIS SEGMENT AND THE HUGE OPPORTUNITIES THAT AWAIT CHANNEL PARTNERS. What is Cisco Small Business? Cisco empowers Small Businesses (SB) with best-of-breed IT products they can afford. Small businesses face many challenges: they want to accelerate teamwork, fend off cyberattacks, and increase employee productivity. Technology can help address these challenges, with solutions that are easy to deploy, easy to manage, and help take the complexity out of IT. What is unique, is that Cisco offers a portfolio that works seamlessly whether it is on-premise or in the cloud, providing flexibility to small businesses as they grow, shrink or as the business circumstances change. Ultimately, Cisco SB solutions help our customers on their digital transformation journey. The pace of change in our industry and in the small business segment is incredibly fast right now. Cisco and our partners can help our customers build connectivity, security and collaboration to accelerate and differentiate their own businesses and grow. What are your offerings under the Cisco Small Business portfolio? Cisco offers an affordable and advanced purpose-built portfolio. It is enterprise class technology, fit and tailored to SB customers’ size and goals. That is, a small business IT solution that can do it all — securely, simply, and flexibly. World-class
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"THE PACE OF CHANGE IN OUR INDUSTRY AND IN THE SMALL BUSINESS SEGMENT IS INCREDIBLY FAST RIGHT NOW. CISCO AND OUR PARTNERS CAN HELP OUR CUSTOMERS BUILD CONNECTIVITY, SECURITY AND COLLABORATION TO ACCELERATE AND DIFFERENTIATE THEIR OWN BUSINESSES AND GROW."
networking, simple yet robust security, one-stop collaboration and a streamlined data center. Cisco tailored SB solutions are costeffective, secure and reliable. The result: IT resources are freed up, so businesses can focus on higher-value projects. Our comprehensive portfolio is backed by a significant R&D investment with flexible deployment options to meet the customer needs, whether on your premises, with managed services, or in the cloud.
HANI RAAD Cisco Small Business, MEA
Why is it important for organizations to optimize products that are tailored to the scale of their business? We live in a hyper-connected and networked society. This is reflected by the fact that all small businesses are constantly evolving and innovating; consequently, Cisco and partners need to evolve with them. Company boundaries are disappearing: SBs are operating across supply chains where they interact not only internally, but also with partners, and customers. Also, they look for solutions that scale as their IT needs increase. When it comes to the modernday digital workplace, network and security are the most important elements in the day-to-day functionality of an organization. A strong IT foundation can help enable growth for small businesses, but it needs to be simplified and tailor made to their size and goals as well as provide differentiated value to customers of all sizes. What are the opportunities for channel partners in this space? The Small Business segment is growing fast, and Cisco can help partners capture their share of this expanding market. Small businesses may be small today, but they grow over time and we want to ensure they have the right touch from our talented channel ecosystem.
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To accommodate this business opportunity, Cisco offers everything a partner needs to address this market segment, develop expertise, drive demand and accelerate sales. Moreover, Cisco has the technology innovation as well as Enterprise-class tech for Small Businesses assisting our partner community build a strong technology foundation with their customers. Small businesses typically have no, or only limited IT resources, so they depend on partners for IT expertise, staffing, and support. That’s why we’ve also made significant investments in our global
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network of partners. We provide our partners with training, sales incentives (discounts, rebates, etc.), enablement tools and programs, and the marketing support they need. How is the market for Cisco Small Business here in the region? Today, we see a massive opportunity across the Middle East & Africa. Small business is big business. We believe that the time is right to invest as the profitability of the Small Business segment is above average. The size and the scale of the opportunity in the region is massive and with a closer look we can find
that 32,000 SB’s are operating in Oman, 90% of the companies in Pakistan are classified as SB’s and there are 350,000 SB’s in the UAE alone. (*as per the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority) We should also take into consideration that these companies are contributing significantly into region’s GDP growth, creating employment and riding the wave towards digital transformation through entrepreneurship and innovation. The next generation of the workforce is evolving broadly and there’s a pioneering and creative attitude which is quite unique in the market.
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THE NEW NETWORK LORRAINE TWIGG, HEAD OF PARTNERS, EMEA, CIENA, SHARES INSIGHTS INTO THE EVOLUTION OF NETWORKING SOLUTIONS AND HOW THE FIRM’S INNOVATIONS ARE POISED TO RE-SHAPE THE INDUSTRY. LORRAINE TWIGG Ciena
How has the region’s demand for Ciena solutions grown over the past two years? The telecommunications industry is undergoing an incredible amount of change – both in the region and globally. The integration of millions of connected devices and mobile 'citizen sensors' interacting with machines, users and clouds require a fundamental rethink of the network. To meet the dynamic needs of new smart city platforms, networks must be more predictive, agile and able to rapidly scale to move massive amounts of data in real-time. Ciena’s solutions empower customers and partners to build flexible, agile networks that connect the world’s data centers, telecommunications carriers and global content providers. While 5G is not yet a reality, it is expected to revolutionize how users access and create content from their wireless device and there will be a significant need for new network infrastructures (hardware, software, and services). Put simply – demand for more connectivity and networks that can support new technologies like 5G, the Internet of Things, smart cities, virtual gaming and the likes, is unabated. This trend requires networks that not only scale but also adjust automatically – or adapt – to meet end-user requirements. Ciena’s solutions help service providers handle the scaling and automation
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"WHILE 5G IS NOT YET A REALITY, IT IS EXPECTED TO REVOLUTIONIZE HOW USERS ACCESS AND CREATE CONTENT FROM THEIR WIRELESS DEVICE AND THERE WILL BE A SIGNIFICANT NEED FOR NEW NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURES." challenges created by these digital disruptions. Our channel partners are a critical part of helping us take these solutions to market. How have demands for network solutions evolved over the years? The proliferation of 5G is the most significant change to impact network performance and it will open the doors to an incredible amount of new services and applications. There are already many technologies that are flourishing supported by the increased adoption of 5G networks, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT). The higher download speeds and reduced latency that 5G will provide
are great enablers for such emerging technologies, making it possible to communicate in near real-time across a myriad of devices and endpoints. There are some countries in the Middle East region that are at the forefront of the network industry. Some of the leading GCC countries, for instance, are already furthering the deployment of 5G networks and according to the latest GSMA Report for the Middle East, by 2025, 15 markets will have launched 5G mobile services across the MENA region. How do you think Ciena’s Route Optimization Assurance (ROA) software will re-shape the networking industry? Troubleshooting and resolving issues in today’s increasingly complex and dynamic networks has become a major operational burden, complicated by multiple management systems and a flood of raw network data and alarms. More people, tools and devices added into the network, on top of old processes are no longer a sustainable IT model. These challenges can result in network troubles that last for weeks or even months. To stay competitive, it’s critical for service providers to have the ability to automatically orchestrate the planning and deployment of new services over multi-layer, multi-
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vendor networks, and across multiple domains. Ciena’s Blue Planet Route Optimization and Assurance (ROA) solution fills this key management gap in IP/MPLS networks. While SNMP, log, NetFlow, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and other tools are ubiquitous, only the ROA products provide real-time visibility into how routing behaviour affects service delivery. ROA captures real-time telemetry from network devices as well as from domain controllers and service orchestrators such as Blue Planet Multi-Domain Service Orchestration (MDSO). What role do channel partners play in your growth here in the region? We launched the Ciena Partner Network (CPN) in 2018 to
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strategically partner with organisations that offer knowledge and skills that complement ours. With the help of our partners, we are able to scale and grow our global reach further, enabling us to penetrate new markets and reach customers that were not initially accessible. Ciena’s technology and ability to support massive, international, infrastructure projects with service providers and webscale players has enabled us to become the industry leader in optical networking. Can you please elaborate on your partnership with Westcon? We have been partners with Westcon for several years now. Last year, we revamped our partner program, and following the launch of CPN, we are now truly harnessing the unique value that Westcon brings to make our partnership more strategic
and deliver real value to Westcon’s partners and their customers. Through our joint business planning, we have evolved our partnership to become more strategic. With our partnership with Westcon we have been able to develop and deliver real value to partners and their customers. As Ciena is not over-distributed, it creates a unique, integrated offering for Westcon and channel partners serving service providers, government entities and enterprises in the region. Westcon and partners have full access to Ciena’s partner program (CPN). Our partner program offers enablement training on specific verticals, solutions and technical levels as well as solution toolkits, marketing assets and relevant market data analysis on demand, to help develop and drive more business.
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A CLEAR VIEW HAMED DIAB, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, META, CIS, RUSSIA AND EE, FORESCOUT, DISCUSSES HOW THE FIRM’S UNIFIED PLATFORM CAN ENABLE REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ACHIEVE BETTER VISIBILITY AND CONTROL OVER THEIR NETWORK.
The cybersecurity industry is constantly evolving especially as organizations seek to stay ahead of the bad guys. How do you think attitudes and views around security have evolved over the last couple of years? Security always requires IT leaders to think ahead. Security professionals across the globe are increasingly looking for a unified platform that would provide intelligence across users, devices and applications to enforce granular controls and enable control interoperability. Today, ensuring business continuity is a priority for many enterprises and, therefore, a big aspect of their security budget. This is because attacks on the network significantly affect the firm’s OT and negatively impact both the company’s and customers’ reputation. By integrating the latest security solutions, organizations can maximize their current security investments. More and more IT leaders are implementing a strategic approach when it comes to their network security to minimize the number of hours and optimize the resources dedicated to threat prevention, awareness and response. As cybersecurity increasingly becomes embedded into the latest technologies, how are you innovating to keep your offerings future-proof? Over the past few years, the network and infrastructure technologies have evolved driven by the explosion
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“FORESCOUT OFFERS THE FIRST UNIFIED DEVICE VISIBILITY AND CONTROL PLATFORM FOR CONVERGING IT AND OT NETWORKS. THE PLATFORM ENABLES ORGANIZATIONS TO GAIN COMPLETE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS OF ALL DEVICES IN THEIR INTERCONNECTED ENVIRONMENT AND ORCHESTRATE ACTIONS TO MITIGATE BOTH THEIR CYBER AND OPERATIONAL RISKS.”
of new devices. With the growing number of Internet of Things and operational technology (OT) devices, today’s networks have become increasingly vulnerable. In such a dynamic day and age, even a year-old approach to security may not be enough. Forescout offers the first unified device visibility and control platform for converging IT and OT networks. The platform enables organizations to gain complete situational awareness of all devices in their interconnected
HAMED DIAB Forescout
environment and orchestrate actions to mitigate both their cyber and operational risks. What is Westcon-Comstor’s role in enabling Forescout to achieve its business objectives in the Middle East? Westcon has been a strategic partner for Forescout in the region over the years. Their robust market presence and strong channel community have enabled Forescout to effectively reach regional customers. Westcon’s technical and services team has made significant investments in acquiring the skillsets required to offer Forescout solutions, regional customers and partners. We look forward to a continued partnership with Westcon. How does your partnership with Westcon-Comstor help you foster security transformation in the region? Westcon has been a major player in security evangelism in the region. With their products and solutions, they have been able to address the requirements across multiple industries. The breadth of their partners, ranging from the local partners to global players, has enabled them to reach a vast array of end-customers.
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OPPORTUNITIES ON THE EDGE NASSIF YAZBECK, IT CHANNEL SALES MANAGER, VERTIV, SHARES BUSINESS UPDATES AND FUTURE PLANS TO FURTHER ACCELERATE THE COMPANY’S OPERATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
Can you please share some of the biggest milestones that the company has achieved so far? We have successfully optimized our partner programme with a digital transformation backbone in the form of a new partner portal. We worked closely with our partners to fully understand their pain points and this year we have launched a brand-new partner program as well as a new partner portal. Since the launch of our revamped partner program, we have seen registrations increase by 100% when compared to the last two years combined. Our marketing programs have been expanded to align with our partners’ needs rather than corporate policy. We are working directly with our key partners to enable them to grow our business as we continue to expand in this region. Another key milestone for us is the significant return on investments we’ve witnessed in our channel business both internally and externally with year-to-date revenue figures in June 2019 already surpassing annual revenue for 2018. How have data centre technologies evolved over the years? There is an increased demand for our edge and server room solutions as customers continue to look for ways to reduce latency, accelerate the speed of deployment and manage internet security concerns. We are seeing organisations across major
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“AS A GLOBAL COMPANY WHICH HAS DECADES OF EXPERIENCE YET THE FLEXIBILITY OF A START-UP, VERTIV UNDERSTANDS HOW TO ADDRESS TECHNICALLY CHALLENGING AND CONSTANTLY CHANGING CUSTOMER NEEDS.” sectors, including finance, healthcare and education, turning towards edge solutions. Another trend that we see in the market is the cost of bandwidth continuing to remain relatively high. This is why many organisations look for edge installations to help them reduce the costs of long-distance connections. What is Vertiv’s market strategy in optimizing the opportunities in the Middle East? As a global company which has decades of experience yet the flexibility of a start-up, Vertiv understands how to address technically challenging and constantly changing customer needs.
NASSIF YAZBECK Vertiv
These market demands require us to apply and integrate our capabilities and resources to be where the business is going. With this in mind, we are heavily investing in new platforms, programs, tools and incentives. We are making strategic changes to our go-to-market strategy for the EMEA region to address the USD 250 million opportunities in the Middle East and Levant channel markets. We continue to optimize the product offerings in the channel space and keeping the same in mind, all singlephase UPS systems and the new Rack Power Distribution Unit Geist rPDU series that are exclusive to the Vertiv partner program. We fully recognize resellers are not only the end-users’ trusted advisor but quite often the main influencer to the buying decision. Furthermore, as solutions at the edge become more prolific whilst in-house infrastructure expertise face increasing pressures from their organisations, we know that partnering with Vertiv combined with solution expertise of resellers present tremendous value for end-users. Can you please share your market plans and partner initiatives this year? This year, we aim to continue expanding and growing channel ecosystem. We will continue to onboard channel partners. In line with this, we will continue to enhance the initiatives within our Vertiv Partner Program.
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Our revamped program includes new features such as target rebates for Gold and Platinum resellers with agreed action plans supported by dedicated account management. We have also launched the new Vertiv Partner Portal which provides an effective platform for effective communication and incentive. Vertiv strongly encourages partner progression from Authorized to Platinum with each level bringing new benefits such as bespoke training, marketing development funds and enhanced quarterly rebates. Our VIP program allows resellers to automatically earn bonus points and quickly monetize rewards. We believe that the launch of our new Vertiv Partner Portal experience will be instrumental in improving the way we
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communicate the different incentives we offer. Furthermore, we plan to target untapped markets especially in the African markets, expand our product offerings for our channel network and improve our supply chain. What makes Westcon-Comstor the right partner for Vertiv in the Middle East region? We believe Westcon-Comstor is the ideal distribution partner for us here in the Middle East because of their expansive market coverage and the strong relationship they share with regional systems integrators. Another reason is that Westcon has products that complement Vertiv’s offerings such as Racks PDU
and UPS with IT equipment. Their wide array of offering allows us to capitalize on their expertise in power and thermal management, core sites, edge computing and physical security solutions. Westcon required a highquality manufacturer such as Vertiv to further complement its product portfolio. This benefits local resellers by providing access to a margin-rich, reliable product range and enables endusers to now only deal with one vendor, which significantly enhances the buying experience. Through our distribution partnership with Westcon, we seek to provide our partners with the necessary tools and solutions to elevate their offerings and give them a competitive advantage in the market.
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THE VIRTUAL SHIFT MATTHEW PALMER, SE MANAGER - MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, EXTREME NETWORKS, DISCUSSES HOW THE COMPANY IS TRANSFORMING AND SECURING ENTERPRISE NETWORKS. How have demands around networking solutions evolved over the years? There are two aspects that contributed to the evolution of network solutions. Firstly, customers do not want to buy switches anymore, instead they want to avail a solution. However, this does not mean switches have become any less important, they provide this critical foundation for the applications that will directly interface with the business processes. This foundation must provide maximum reliability and efficiency. Network providers today are expected to offer an end-to-end solution, rather than just components of it, and ensure that it can enable a company’s digital transformation. Secondly, customers need the networking solution to be flexible for future business requirements, which are often very difficult to predict over the service lifetime of a network. They expect the solution to be highly secure and allow the network to serve multiple functions whilst maintaining complete isolation between those services. This is being driven primarily by the uptake of IoT devices in the enterprise. The most important thing however is simplicity of operation. Enterprise IT teams are being pushed to support more and more applications to serve the business. There is an increasing need to find a solution that meets all the security and flexibility requirements without requiring great expertise to operate it. With the explosion of connected objects on the same network, how is Extreme Networks innovating to make sure its offerings are secure? The explosion of the Internet of Things (IoT) opens a lot of challenges
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for enterprise network operators. The need to segment services or have many virtual networks running on a single physical infrastructure has never been greater. Extreme’s automated campus solution, which is based on the innovative Fabric Connect technology, provides the simplest solution in the market to allow customers to realize true security for IoT. It provides complete separation of services, which increases security by ensuring that devices that should not be able to talk to each other are isolated. Extreme is the only vendor that has extended its fabric technology end-to-end from the data center to the wireless access point where the user device connect. It provides holistic and secure services, without the need for human intervention. In addition to the separation of services, Extreme is also able to provide security assessment for all devices connecting to the network. The Extreme Control solution passively scans every device connecting to the network and reports on vulnerabilities detected on these devices. This gives the network operator a full view of exactly what is connected to the network at any given time and what security vulnerabilities those connected devices may have. Having visibility across the network means remedial actions can be applied in a timely manner bringing back control to
MATTHEW PALMER Extreme Networks
the IT department. Flying blind is no longer an option with the increasing cybersecurity threats of today and tomorrow. How will your partnership with Westcon-Comstor enable your business objectives here in the region? Extreme Networks is a dedicated endto-end network provider offering the best-of-breed networking solutions. For a customer, digital transformation of the business requires this solid networking foundation, but the solution will require many other components to strengthen the entire solution. Westcon-Comstor partners with best-of-breed vendors offering solutions in their area of specialization. They provide the know-how to put together the latest innovations to provide holistic solutions to the customer. By partnering with WestconComstor, we become a part of their expansive ecosystem. In turn, it gives us the ability to provide WestconComstor with the capability to deliver our solutions to regional customers and help them enhance their business. Westcon-Comstor also brings scale to Extreme Networks. Westcon's extensive footprint helps bring expertise and know-how to customers across the Middle East region.
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THE VIRTUAL SHIFT HOW CAN PARTNERS HELP THEIR CUSTOMERS ON THEIR CLOUD JOURNEYS, ASKS SAIFUDDIN WAGH, SENIOR MANAGER DISTRIBUTION – MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA AND TURKEY, AVAYA
SAIFUDDIN WAGH Avaya
As any VAD or VAR knows, many enterprise IT leaders are interested in the benefits of a public cloud offering. What’s not to like about an OPEX-based consumption model, flexibility and speed of deployment? But in this region, the path to cloud is often made difficult because of control and security concerns. This, along with the more limited manageability and customization options from upstart cloud CCaaS and UCaaS vendors, has slowed adoption for the larger enterprise requirements. The problem, however, is that customers need to move to the cloud at some level. The economics of cloud computing make it an imperative. So how can partners help their customers on their cloud journeys? The answer is to partner with the vendors that are already serving your largest customers, and are actively working to make their products consumable on a cloud model with very little effort. At Avaya, we have built our solutions with a truly cloud-first design approach employing the power
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of microservices and containerization, and we’re investing to have our cloud solutions certified across the multitude of cloud platforms. As an example, our ReadyNow private cloud solution is now being made available with the launch of new Avaya and partner hosted data centres in the EMEA and APAC regions. With it, customers across the EMEA and APAC regions can build compelling private clouds for their enterprise CC and UC needs. ReadyNow gives enterprise customers access to Avaya Unified Communications (UC) and Contact Centre (CC) solutions delivered in a secure private cloud environment, providing enterprises with convenient and automated path to the benefits of cloud communications. The magic, however, comes in the fact that ReadyNow offers the same applications that Avaya customers are currently using on-premise. This means customers are able to enjoy a smooth transition to cloud. And because the deployment is
private, the solution answers the security concerns that most enterprises have. Meanwhile our Powered By offerings, with solutions hosted in channel partner data centers, continue to excite customers for exactly the same reasons – the solutions available through cloud are just as fully formed as the ones available via cloud. And because they’re hosted in in-country partner data centers, these solutions also stand up to security scrutiny. Indeed, Avaya’s near global deployment of its virtual cloud infrastructure now sees over 3.6 million cloud seats deployed to date. Avaya is a market leader with 145 million seats worldwide, making it uniquely positioned to help enterprise customers transition to the cloud at scale. And for your customers already in the cloud, you can be sure we’ll continue to deliver innovation for them. For example, we recently launched the ‘Customer Portal’, our cloud-based UC management tool. And we’re soon to announce Avaya Spaces, a cloud-based video collaboration solution. With innovations at every stage of the cloud journey, we’re helping our partners move their customers to the cloud – at their own pace, through whichever cloud they prefer.
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DYNAMIC DEFENSE MOHAMED ABDALLAH, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST AND TURKEY, SONICWALL, SHEDS LIGHT ON THE EVER-GROWING SECURITY LANDSCAPE AND HOW THEIR SOLUTIONS CAN HELP ORGANIZATIONS KEEP PACE WITH THE INCREASING THREATS.
How has the regional threat landscape evolved over the past two years? Year-on-year we are seeing a big change in the threat landscape due to the increasing number of threats and growing sophistication of these threats. At SonicWall, we issue two main threat reports to ensure that regional customers are up-to-date with the latest threats surrounding the market. In our H2 July release report, SonicWall recorded more than 4.78 billion malware attacks for the first half of 2019, with an average of 13% of malware attacks coming from non-standard ports. In addition, SonicWall’s Unique RTDMI Solution has identified 74,360 never before seen malware variants. This is a big number when it comes to malware that are not detected by any of the other solution providers. These figures show how vast the threat landscape is growing in the digital era. What kind of threats should we be preparing for in the next 12 months? What technologies will disrupt the security industry this year? We project an increase in all types of cyber threats and we can expect attackers finding new backdoors to exploit an organization. Over the past few months, we have noticed an increase in the non-standard ports and memory injections attacks. SonicWall’s RTDMI technology detects and blocks malware that does not
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exhibit any malicious behavior and hides its weaponry via encryption. By forcing malware to reveal its weaponry into memory, the RTDMI engine proactively detects and blocks massmarket, zero-day threats and unknown malware. How can businesses mitigate the security risks that inevitably come with advancing their technology infrastructure and operations? A lack of focus on cybersecurity can be greatly damaging to a business. There is a direct economic cost in case of any attack to a business. This impact can be direct like financial loss, data leakage or even system failure. Businesses need to understand this high risk and proactively defend themselves with advanced technology infrastructure and security tools. With over 29 years of experience, we at Sonicwall share our experiences and expertise with our customers to ensure that they understand the implications of not having the right security platform in place. Why is the Middle East region an important market for SonicWall? The Middle East is an important market for SonicWall because of the numerous smart initiatives and investments that the governments are introducing, especially in the fields of IoT, AI, smart education and the likes. Because of these developments, we believe that cybersecurity will remain
MOHAMED ABDALLAH SonicWall
"BUSINESSES NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS HIGH RISK AND PROACTIVELY DEFEND THEMSELVES WITH AN ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY TOOLS. " a top priority for organizations in this region. At SonicWall, we are delighted to guide our customers in this journey with best-in-class cybersecurity solutions. What makes Westcon-Comstor the right partner for Sonicwall in the Middle East region? How important is your partnership with them in enabling security transformation in the region? Westcon ME is a major strategic partner for SonicWall. They provide us value-added distribution solutions through their highly capable sales, technical, professional services and training teams. In addition, Westcon helps SonicWall users at every step of their cybersecurity transformation practice.
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WHAT’S IN STORE FOR UC? MITEL’S MEA VICE PRESIDENT FERAS ZEIDAN (FZ) AND CHANNEL DIRECTOR ASIF KHAN (AF), DELVE INTO THE TRENDS IMPACTING THE UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS MARKET AND HOW MSPS WILL PLAY A KEY ROLE IN THE GROWTH OF THIS IT SEGMENT. committed to helping our partners meet the expectations of their end customers.
FERAS ZEIDAN Mitel
How have advancements in cloud impacted unified communications solutions? FZ: The growth in the UCaaS market is increasingly being driven by the implementation of cloud-hosted solutions as enterprises look to reduce costs and improve productivity. Other factors including the sluggish economy and superiority of service models may contribute to an even faster uptake to UCaaS than anticipated, as businesses that may have previously deployed an on-premises solution may opt instead to deploy UCaaS. Also, the main driving force behind UCaaS today is mobility. Employees today are no longer restricted to traditional office spaces and prefer to work from home and on the go. As such UCaaS assumes a new importance in the organization to stay connected with employees, as the landscape of the traditional office environment changes dramatically. How is Mitel innovating to make its products and solutions futureproof? FZ: With 45 years of industry leadership, we help businesses connect, collaborate and provide better experiences for their customers. Mitel is trusted by 70 million business users in more than 100 countries. Throughout our long history of industry experience, innovation has been core to Mitel’s DNA – allowing us to become experts in evolving to meet our clients’ needs and help them do the same for their customers. We remain
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How has the UC market evolved over the past two years? How was the adoption in the Middle East market? FZ: UC service providers are experiencing a huge demand for a scalable UCaaS portfolio, which comes at a low cost with a strong presence in instant messaging, presence, mobility and conferencing services. OEMs in the region will also focus on the mid-market and small-to-medium business segment to expand and reduce the dependency on large enterprises. We are seeing strong investments in UC solutions from sectors such as government, oil and gas, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and IT regardless of the company’s size. This is primarily driven by the wide acceptance of the technology’s role in enabling smart city initiatives in the region. We can also expect single-digit growth in the UC market for smaller countries like Bahrain and Oman by 2021. What do you think will be the biggest trend that will transform the UC market? AK: Unified Communications systems have fundamentally changed how companies manage internal and external communications. The UC market is enjoying impressive growth as both small and large companies adopt cloud-based solutions. New features like artificial intelligence and machine learning promise to make UC platforms even more effective. Companies using multiple UC products may find themselves relying on Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to integrate vendors and make the most of their investment. What can we expect from Mitel Middle East & Africa for the rest of 2019 and beyond? AK: We aim to continue to drive UC growth in the region and add more value to our partners’ and customers’ businesses. Mitel is investing significantly in more local high-touch teams to align our business with our customers across
ASIF KHAN Mitel
various verticals and industries. This will help us to drive end customer demands and establish relationship with top customers. Our key drivers in Q4 2019 and 2020 will help increase our footprint in the hospitality and healthcare sectors. We will optimize our offerings in our contact center and cloud business and appoint new SME/mid-market-focused channel partners across the region. What makes Westcon-Comstor the right partner for Mitel in the Middle East region? AK: Westcon distributes Mitel's entire portfolio of communications and collaboration solutions across EMEA and South Pacific markets. Through this expanded partnership, Mitel and Westcon work closely together to help channel partners meet this demand and further develop their businesses. Westcon and Mitel’s partnership in the MEA region is very strategic in terms of our channel growth, training and service deliveries. We will continue to grow our market share with channel partners and Westcon will be playing a very important role in executing this strategy. Also, Mitel is launching MiVoice Connect platform (Shortel) in the MEA region, which will bring a fundamentally different approach to business communications amongst partners and customers. As our distribution partner for MiVoice Connect, Westcon will be playing key role in developing SME/Mid- Market focused resellers in Middle East.
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MAKE THE WORLD SAFER PRADEEP NAIR, VICE PRESIDENT, SALES, MIDDLE EAST, INDIA AND AFRICA, PELCO, SHARES INSIGHTS INTO HOW THEIR OFFERINGS CAN ENABLE SECURE AND ENHANCE GUEST EXPERIENCES.
With the continuous growth of the retail sector in the Middle East, what are the solutions offered by Pelco to help Secure Commercial Environments? Monitoring commercial environments, whether it means overseeing a shopping centre, hotel, or office complex, bring an array of challenges for even the most seasoned security professional. A major challenge for a commercial building of any size is the ability to adequately manage security in spaces such as parking lots, lobbies, or restricted areas. Having an on-site personnel may be cost-prohibitive for many property managers. Pelco provides the commercial industry with tailored solutions that address unique surveillance challenges whether they are experiencing high downtime, scaling security plan or managing the bandwidth costs. By helping reduce operational costs and maximize staff productivity, Pelco allows security professionals in the commercial industry to provide employees, guests, and visitors with a safe and productive environment. Can you share some of the most common security challenges faced by the hospitality industry and what solutions does Pelco offer to address them? Business owners in the hospitality sector are facing an unprecedented amount of pressure as they are tasked with balancing guest experiences with the safety and security of both the guests and their confidential data. Today, one of the primary objectives for any hospitality manager is attracting an
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ample number of guests while providing optimal experiences. Hoteliers have to constantly weigh the costs and benefits of enforcing security measures which can be cumbersome to guests. Hence, finding security solutions that can minimize any negative impact on customer experience is extremely critical. In addition, factors such as maintaining guest safety, having centralized and remote management systems, preventing data loss and ensuring proper staff training, are key security challenges in the hospitality industry. We design, develop and manufacture best-in-class video security solutions including cameras, recording and management systems, software, and services. While we operate on an enterprise level, we also provide customized video surveillance solutions, which when combined with our rapport with our customers translate to business success. Pelco ensures to meet industry standards for the camera and recording specifications for a range of protocols unique to specific verticals, such as local government regulatory requirements, NDAA compliance standards, cybersecurity protocol, open-architecture platforms, or integration with third-party systems. From our VideoXpert video management platform to our industryleading selection of IP cameras and accessories, we offer commercial security solutions tailored to the unique needs of establishments in the hospitality sector. What are your key focus areas for the year? We will continue to make further investments to develop our video
PRADEEP NAIR Pelco
management system, VideoXpert (VX) and build on its position as the best VMS platform in the industry. The launch of various new cameras including the next generation of our current Sarix fixed cameras, new fixed and PTZ 4K cameras, plus new multi-sensor products are in-line with our focus to further strengthen our portfolio. We have also made huge strides in enhancing our partner base for technology solutions, including analytics, ANPR, facial recognition and access control to provide an end-to-end security solution experience to our customers. Providing support to endusers and partners will continue to be our primary objective. Can you elaborate on your partnership with Westcon-Comstor? We share a strong strategic partnership with Westcon-Comstor which has been strengthened over the years. WestconComstor, being our largest distributor in the region, provides immense value to our business as well as to the resellers by providing extended engineering support, stock facility in the region, credit enablement, support for logistics and enablement activities. Westcon has supported many Pelco resellers in the region through their tailor-made value-added services. We are confident that this partnership will continue to grow further.
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THE YEAR WAS 1969
PLANTRONICS + POLYCOM NOW TOGETHER AS
AND ALL EYES WHERE FIXED ON MISSION APOLLO 11. At the height of the race to space, NASA challenged us to build a comfortable headset that would equip astronauts to communicate with Mission Control from the earth to the moon, and back again.
THERE WAS NO ROOM FOR ERROR
OUR SOLUTION:
A LIGHTWEIGHT, COMFORTABLE HEADSET
COMFORTABLE
ENGINEERED TO ENDURE THE UNPREDICTABLE RIGORS OF SPACE.
HISTORY WAS CREATED WHEN AT 02:56:15 UTC ON JULY 21, 1969, NEIL ARMSTRONG BECAME THE FIRST PERSON TO STEP ON THE MOON. 50 YEARS LATER, WE ARE STILL CAPTIVATED BY THE SAME MOON. AT POLY, WE SHARE THE SAME MISSION. TO CREATE POWERFUL CONNECTIONS THAT CONNECT PEOPLE THE WORLD OVER- AND BEYOND.
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POLY. WE'RE A GO.
H2, 2019 Issue
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Wall mount - optional accessory
See the full picture. Hear the full story.
Jabra PanaCast
Engineered to be the world’s first intelligent 180° Panoramic-4K plug-and-play video solution* *See facts on Jabra.com/commercial-claims
Power to Connect | 2019 - 2020
OUR COMPANY VALUES Our values are embedded in our DNA and we demonstrate them every day:Â a commitment to excellence and integrity, investment in our people and partners, and innovation so we continue to grow and succeed together.
PARTNERSHIP We put our partners at the centre of everything we do.
INNOVATION We embrace change and creativity to deliver the right results.
EXCELLENCE We always aim to exceed expectations and be the best.
EMPOWERMENT We love initiative and invest in our people and partners.
INTEGRITY We do business with honesty, fairness and high ethical standards.
Power to Connect | 2019 - 2020
OUR 5 PILLARS FOR YOUR SUCCESS EXECUTION EXCELLENCE A performance culture giving you the confidence that we get it right the first time. SOLUTIONS & SERVICES A world-class portfolio of products, services and cloud solutions that address your needs. CUSTOMER SUCCESS We enable you to grow your business profitably. WINNING TEAM Highly motivated and empowered people are the foundation of our winning culture. DIGITAL ENABLEMENT We make it easier for you and our vendors to do business with us. Our tools and data analytics become a key enabler and differentiator.
KEEP YOURSELF UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LATEST HAPPENINGS FROM WESTCON-COMSTOR AND OUR VENDORS VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE www.westconcomstor.com
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