The favourable market conditions of the Middle Eastern region are drawing in a number of new players, looking to sustain a profitable business. As the region is preparing to take on the complete potential of emerging and third platform technologies, Reseller ME speaks to new vendors on the block to explore the strategies that work the best in this region.
AirTight Networks
Spokesperson: Malik Nawaz, Regional Manager – MEA, AirTight Networks
AirTight Networks, headquartered in California, has been doing business in the region for the last four years. Identifying immense opportunities in the market and to keep up with the growth, the company established a direct presence last year.
“AirTight Networks offers enterprises the next generation of intelligent edge, secure, and flexible WLAN and WIPS solutions,” says Malik Nawaz, Regional Manager, MEA, AirTight Networks. “Wireless demand is growing in the Middle East and WLAN security is a major concern for all large businesses, which have unlocked new verticals for us in the region.”
The vendor’s key focus is to develop its partners’ and resellers’ business and help them achieve their objectives.
“A good partner engagement is the core success of channel business and we have developed programmes such as Opex pricing programmes for our partners to help them win more projects. This helps us to differentiate from the competition.
“Our key criteria for a partner is to have full understanding of WLAN and WIPS solution and the ability to go after market and not be afraid of positioning new technologies,” says Nawaz.
The company has been growing at a steady rate every quarter and this year we will see it working towards gaining “region-wide recognition” in areas it is not present yet.
“Technology partners and end users need to focus more on wireless security because protection of personal data is important. Poor wireless security leads to vulnerabilities and hacking attacks,” says Nawaz.
ColorJet International
Spokesperson: Pavan Gupta, Director, ColorJet
ColorJet, the India-based printer company began operations in the region a year ago. Having established its international headquarters in Dubai and with resident representatives in Turkey, KSA, Bangladesh and China, the vendor will eventually look to expand more on a global level. The vendor aims to strictly operate through the regional channel network present here.
Pavan Gupta, Director, ColorJet, says, “Our offerings bring a certain degree of freshness and innovativeness into the market. We focus on offering what the market needs, for example, quick go-to-market products under the soft signage or digital textile requirements. Our second focus is on the channel front – channels are utmost important.
“However good the product is, you need a local person for pre-sales and post-sales. We prefer to work with a single partner in a given country. We want to work on a dedicated channel,” he adds.
To expand its production capacity, in addition to its India-based one, the company established a second factory in China, which is less than a year old.
Going forward, the company plans to have about 25 channels in the region including South Africa, West Africa, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. “Once we have established here, which should be two years from now, then our focus is going to move on to South America and then the Russian-speaking areas,” explains Gupta. “In 2015, we are working towards having around 25 to 30 channel partners who can give us a mindshare, and once we have this mindshare, we believe the marketshare will follow.”
CopperFasten Technologies
Spokesperson: Eddie Monaghan, Channel Manager, CopperFasten Technologies
Ireland-based CopperFasten Technologies, which was founded in 1999, is famous for two of its product divisions – SpamTitan, an anti-spam solution and WebTitan, a web filter solution. Identifying the Middle East as a strategically significant region, the company now has sales and support offices in Dubai through its partnership with ABS MENA in 2014.
Eddie Monaghan, Channel Manager, CopperFasten Technologies, says, “We have found a high level of demand for our security solutions and services in the Middle East. The region’s buoyant economy, which includes a large number of growing mid-size companies with a need for effective email and web security products at a competitive price have led us to expand the business. Also, the growth of Managed Service Providers throughout the Middle East region, which represents an excellent opportunity, was another reason why we set shop here.”
The company aims to further strengthen its channel base and have a strong reseller partner in each Gulf state by the end of this year. He says, “We will be actively participating in channel recruitment to support this growth strategy. We offer complete local technical assistance to all of our partners in both Arabic and English to help them deploy free product evaluations to prospective clients,” he adds.
The vendor is on the lookout for two different types of channel partners in the region – partners who wish to expand their managed services offering and security focused partners.
“We look forward to developing productive and meaningful relationships with key partners throughout the region,” he adds.
Daon
Spokesperson: Ghassan Chahine, Consultant, Daon
The 14-year-old biometrics and identity management software provider, Daon, began focusing on the Middle East market and other GCC countries about three years ago as there was a significant demand for the company’s solutions.
As the economy size increased, the identity management needs became part of almost all market sectors; this was also initiated by the government needs of both digital economy boost and increasing security demands.
“Daon was part of providing response to clients in this region by providing complete end-to-end solution in satisfying, compliant and competitive results,” says Ghassan Chahine, Consultant, Daon.
The company’s channel strategy is to cover the market through consultants that work on the ground, engaging with clients on the roles of sales and presales, in order to provide market intelligence, collect requirements and provide the solution effectively.
“Once the project is implemented, we dispatch estimated resources to field, ensuring proper engagement for successful implementations as well as ensuring proper delivery and support.”
Partner’s knowledge about the client or end user and his past performance experience plays an important role when the vendor selects partners. Another factor that is evaluated is the partner’s technology and project management capabilities.
He adds, “Our focus in 2015 is to invest more in the GCC market by increasing the awareness of identity related business and also about our capabilities.”
Infoblox
Spokesperson: Cherif Sleiman, General Manager, Middle East, Infoblox
Infoblox, founded 16 years ago in California, has been cashing in on the opportunities present in the Middle East over the last three years through its distributor and reseller partners. It opened an office in the region last year.
According to the company, trends such as cloud, Big Data, virtualisation, security and mobility are creating significant pressure and opportunities for customers across various verticals.
Cherif Sleiman, General Manager, Middle East, Infoblox, says, “When we look at security, we see huge growth prospects. Regional organisations will focus on security as the number one area of IT spend. DNS is a big area of opportunity for us in 2015.”
The company has put in place aggressive training and tailored certification programmes in order to enable its partners and to enhance channel coverage.
He says, “Ensuring that we have a very capable channel in every country in the region is top priority and we are well on our way. We continue to work very closely to focus on delivering more value to our customers and partners through our distribution including executing lead generation campaigns, conducting proof of concepts and demos, and training and certifying our key partners.”
According to the vendor, its direct touch and executive team are 100 percent channel focused and partners can expect immediate responses to their needs and queries.
“We look for partners with exceptional reputation of excellence in service and with solid expertise in applications, networking and/or security,” he adds.
MOBOTIX
Spokesperson: Phillip Antoniou, Business Development Manager, Middle East & Africa, Mobotix AG, Security Vision Systems
The European network camera manufacturing vendor, Mobotix established business in the region in 2008, however opened the regional office only three years ago.
Phillip Antoniou, Business Development Manager, Middle East & Africa, Mobotix AG, Security Vision Systems says, “We are a software company with in-house hardware development for digital, high-resolution and network-based video security solutions.”
The region has many prospects in security and video surveillance market. Understanding the market’s demands for a standard of product that is versatile, robust and resilient against the environmental and operating challenges, the vendor decided to initiate business here.
The company follows a strict channel structure, which includes distributors, systems integrators and end users and it makes sure that there is no overlapping.
“The key attributes we look for in a channel partner are professionalism, technical competency and the ability to provide a turnkey solution as needed to the end user,” says Antoniou.
In 2015, the company aims to continue its mandate of supporting its channel ecosystem.
“Our goal is to continue to support our channel and our end-user clients. We will also be introducing new future proof solutions throughout the year and the emphasis is on highlighting where these solutions will be most beneficial to our regional partners, also to increase our footprint across various verticals such as education, hospitality and mobility,” he adds.
Netfort Technologies
Spokesperson: John Brosnan, Managing Director, Netfort Technologies
The software development company, Netfort Technologies, through its LANGuardian product offering, enables organisations to understand what is happening internally, helps monitor users and how key resources are used, to bring about a high level of network performance and security.
Founded in 2002, the Irish company has been operational in the region since 2012.
John Brosnan, Managing Director, Netfort Technologies, says, “The region’s increased dependence on IT and focus on network security, reliability and performance has led us to establish business here. It is now obvious that due to the diversity and growth of recent security incidents, companies of all sizes must proactively and continuously monitor activity to protect their business, data, customers and staff.
“Our channel approach includes a two-tier channel strategy including a network of distributors and trusted value-added resellers. All Netfort business in the region is done via the channel.”
In a highly competitive market, it is challenging to stand out from the crowd. However, LANGuardian allows the company to differentiate itself from the competition.
Brosnan says that local knowledge of market and establishing the Netfort brand is tough for an Irish company but “total focus on channel partners ensures we overcome these obstacles.” And establishing the brand in the region is one of the main focuses for the firm in 2015. Additionally, it aims to grow its network of partners and subsequently its customer base in the region.
Nexthink
Spokesperson: Yassine Zaied, Executive Vice President, Emerging Markets, Nexthink Middle East
Over three years ago, Nexthink, a provider of end-user IT analytics, entered the region by launching operations in Qatar.
With a triple-digit growth in the region, the company also has businesses in UAE, KSA, Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt; and is looking to expand to Bahrain and Oman.
Yassine Zaied, Executive Vice President, Emerging Markets, Nexthink Middle East, says, “The UAE and KSA are continuing to grow and we believe that Egypt and Kuwait are promising markets that have a lot of potential. In Egypt, the newfound stability is reviving business and consumer confidence and as a result, organisations are now investing in their IT infrastructures to support further growth.”
The market is maturing, there is a growing diversity of end-users in all types of organisations, and the opportunity in the Middle East is huge, says Zaied.
The company is in the process of recruiting partners across the region, including systems integrators, service providers and MSPs in GCC and North Africa.
“By leveraging Nexthink’s technology, partners can enhance their existing offerings and deliver the next level of managed services,” adds Zaied.
When selecting partner, the company looks for those who have solid relationships with their customers.
“Channel partners remain the focal point of any enterprise solution provider doing business in the Middle East. The channel is very important to Nexthink and we work closely with our partners, as they are often our entry point to the customer,” says Zaied.
Pure Storage
Spokesperson: Joao Silva, VP EMEA, Channels and Business Development
The enterprise storage vendor, Pure Storage, commenced operations in the Middle East market through its regional distributor, Global Distribution since June 2014. And soon after assessing and identifying with the market potential, established a team based in Dubai.
Joao Silva, VP EMEA, Channels and Business Development, says, “Our mission is to enable the adoption of flash in the data centre and build a better storage company. Flash has a transformative effect on the data centre. It allows IT staff to deliver 10x better application performance, with 10x less space and power requirement, while being more reliable and simpler to manage.”
Being a 100 percent channel company, it operates through a two-tier model, with a local distributor and channel partners catering to most Gulf states.
Partners can avail extensive benefits through the vendor’s P3 partner programme. “We follow a strict deal registration discipline and once a deal registration is accepted, we win or lose with our partner. Our unique technology allows our partners to offer a transformative approach to the data centre and act as real technology advisors to their customers. Our Dubai team is here to support our partners through the whole sales cycle as well as after.”
The vendor believes a consultative approach, willingness to disrupt the status-quo and bring a better technological approach to their customers are some of the qualities required in a partner. “We are looking at forming real win-win-win partnerships between our customers, our partners and us.”
Secunia
Spokesperson: Victoria Bentham, Regional Director, UKI/MEA/ANZ, Secunia
Secunia, a global security solutions provider, helps businesses to control and manage vulnerability threats across networks and end-points, through its vulnerability intelligence and patch management offerings. Operating in the region since 2007, it was only last year that it decided to have a channel approach towards the market.
Victoria Bentham, Regional Director, UKI/MEA/ANZ, Secunia, says, “We work through channel partners and believe in empowering them to achieve their and our business goals.
“We have a distributor for the region. We offer support to our partners for pre sales, sales, technical and training. We also have quarterly awards for partners and we do bi-annual partner events across the world.”
Catering to all verticals including education, utilities and aviation, the company has excelled with customers in the oil and gas and banking sectors among others.
“Our customers see us as a unique solution that gives them the ability not only to find vulnerabilities in their network but also patch/remediate those vulnerabilities – all from one platform,” she adds.
While selecting partners, the vendor identifies those who have interest and experience in the security field. “Also, we look for partners’ work on Microsoft products. Another criteria we look for is good regional presence along with some solid customer references.”
In 2015, the vendor aims to become the top provider for vulnerability intelligence and patch management in the region. “We also want to develop and nurture strong partner relationships across the region.”
