ISSUE 02

Logicom Expands gEographicaLfootprint & soLutions portfoLio

THE

INSIDER

Published by

Plot S60608 South Zone, Jebel Ali, PO BOX 54328 DubaiTel: +971 4 8055399 Fax: +971 4 3961144 info@logicom.ae www.logicomdistribution.net

Logicom Dubai

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Dear Partners,

Welcome to the second edition of The Insider. I would like to begin by thanking all our partners, our vendors, and of course, the Logicom team for their hard work and cooperation that made

2013 a truly exciting and busy year for us. We’re looking forward to an even more fruitful 2014, and it is your valuable contribution that will make it so.

There have been major changes all across the Distribution landscape, and many players in the market have had to adapt to the ever-changing conditions of Middle East IT channel. Some have used this challenging year as an

opportunity to exit the region, while others viewed it as the right time to make their entrance.

Throughout 2013, Logicom has continued its steady path of success. We are proud to have ended 2013 with the Cisco ‘EMEAR Services Distributor of the Year’ Award, an accolade that is a well-deserved recognition for Logicom’s leadership, innovation and teamwork. We are similarly honored to have received two more regional awards this past year, including the ‘Distributor of the Year for MEA’ Award from APC by Schneider Electric, and HP’s ‘PPS Distributor of the Year’ Award. The past year also saw an expansion in our reach, with the addition of new partnerships and regional cooperation with a number of new vendors.

The New Year is already shaping up to follow in the same manner. Since the start of 2014, we have already enhanced our HP Enterprise Group Portfolio by adding HP Services, a move that effectively names Logicom as an HP Services Contract Specialist Distribution partner for the UAE. The addition of HP Services allows Logicom to provide the full portfolio of HP Enterprise, thus strengthening our value-added proposition to the channel.

In January, Logicom signed a VAD agreement with CommVault. This new partnership allows us to distribute the data and information management vendor’s products and services to the KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.

Moreover, we aim to continue investing in the growth and development of our local presence with the addition of fully-fledged offices and resources on the ground. This year marks the beginning of a new strategy to enhance our coverage in Iraq, which will make Logicom the only authorized Cisco distributor to cover the whole Middle East region, both locally and remotely through its regional partners. In addition, we have recently unveiled our new offices and warehouses in Kuwait and Qatar, in order to accommodate our partners’ growing demand in the region. This will create an additional regional hub from which we service our partners and customers.

This year, we are striving to enhance our growth and coverage with the only aim of reaching new heights. The key to our success is, undoubtedly, the sincere relationship with our partners.

Once again, thank you for your support. We look forward to another outstanding year as partners.

Sajith RajGM, Logicom Dubai

05 Logicom in news

06 Forging alliances

09 Focal point .

10 Region focus.

14 The road ahead.

15 Meet the team

coNtENtSfRom thE gENERal maNagER:

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Logicom also announced the appointment of Sajith Raj as the new General Manager of Logicom Dubai. Mr. Raj will be responsible for the management of Logicom Dubai’s business operation strategies and expanding Logicom’s distribution business in the UAE and the GCC. Mr. Raj has over fifteen years of experience in IT Distribution, in a variety of Sales and Managerial roles. His experience with Logicom dates from 2001, when he first joined the company as Product Manager for Logicom Dubai. He since progressed to the position Corporate Business Manager and most recently, Regional Distribution Manager, a position he has held for the past two years. 

2013 in review

Logicom and NetApp sign distribution agreement

logicom awarded Distributor of the Year for mEa

Logicom has signed a partnership agreement with NetApp, globally recognized as a leader in data management and storage solutions. The agreement, effective as of March 2013, names Logicom as an official distributor of NetApp products and solutions across a select geography of countries in EMEA, including Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. This agreement allows Logicom to build on its value add division that offers partners technical support and presales assistance, technology training and education, as well as logistics and financial services.

Schneider Electric had awarded Logicom the Distributor of the Year for MEA Award from APC, at its recent channel awards event. Through its partnership with APC, Logicom was said to have developed a robust value proposition for APC, and extended its current distribution agreement with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar to include the UAE. This has added to APC’s penetration into both the Enterprise and SMB channels. The award was presented by Thierry Chamayou, Vice President Middle East & Africa to Srijit Nair of Logicom, who accepted it at the awards ceremony held in May 2013 in Istanbul, Turkey. Speaking on the occasion, Thierry said, “Logicom

was rewarded for its exponential growth and success with APC by Schneider Electric during 2012, specifically for having constantly surpassed their targets and helping to expand business quarter by quarter with new customers.”

logicom appoints Director of Sales & marketingThis year, Logicom announced the appointment of Nicholas Argyrides as Director of Sales and Marketing. Mr. Argyrides is responsible for driving sales at Logicom in the EMEA region and leading the marketing strategy of the Group’s distribution arm. Mr. Argyrides has over ten years’ experience in IT Distribution. His professional career includes an impressive array of leadership roles within the United States, Europe and the Middle East. His experience with Logicom dates from 2001 where he took the role of Project Fulfillment Manager/ Product Manager at the company’s headquarters in Nicosia, Cyprus. He has also served as General Manager of Logicom Jordan and Logicom Dubai. Mr. Argyrides holds an MBA from the London Business School. He currently resides in Dubai. 

logicom names Sajith Raj as general manager of logicom Dubai

logicom rebrand

Earlier this year, Logicom revealed its new plans for rebranding. Delivering a message of change and optimism, Logicom aimed to upgrade and renew its way of communicating with the public. The rebranding plans included the adoption of a revamped logo, the use of social networking sites, and a brand new website complete with

graphical language. Logicom’s flagship website, www.logicomdistribution.net, went live recently, along with the company’s new social media sites. Logicom has also created an online presence on three popular social networking sites:  Facebook,  Twitter, and  LinkedIn. Visitors can “Like” or “Follow” the company for live updates of the latest news, company and partner events, product offerings, promotions and general information about the company, as well as engage in an active online conversation. This new online presence completes Logicom’s recent rebranding plans, which aimed to upgrade and renew its way of communicating with the public. With its new image, Logicom highlights the key pillars upon which the success and development of the Logicom brand are based.

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Logicom in the news

Already making headlines with its initial activities for this year, 2014 is shaping up to be a productive year for Logicom. Here’s a quick look.

Logicom has added HP Services to its Enterprise Group Portfolio. Through this partnership, which will go into effect as of February 2014, Logicom will officially be named an HP Services Contract Specialist Distribution Partner for the UAE region. The addition of HP Services enables Logicom to provide the full portfolio of HP Enterprise, thus strengthening its partner offering and value-added proposition.

Logicom, the leading regional Distributor of Technology Solutions and Services, has announced the opening of a new office and warehouse in Kuwait, in order to accommodate the growing demand in the region.

The office is located in the Hawally Business District, while the 100sqm warehouse is based

in the Ardiya area of Kuwait City. This is a major investment for Logicom, as it will enable the company to facilitate quicker and more efficient deliveries to the local market, thus boosting its business in Kuwait.

With the establishment of stock in country, Logicom is set to become more competitive in its offerings, and to better serve its local customer base with run rate stock. This will allow Logicom to consolidate much of its current Middle East operations, and create an additional regional hub from which it will service its partners and customers.

Logicom’s investment in the new Kuwait facility is a direct response to its partners’ needs in the region, as well as its commitment to grow its business in Kuwait, in a move that is in line with the company’s 2014 growth strategy. Logicom is now in the position to offer its local partners access to the latest technologies and solutions from world class vendors including Adobe, APC by Schneider Electric, Cisco, CommVault, HP, Intel, Jabra, Kingston, NetApp, Qnap, WatchGuard & WD.

Logicom has announced a new strategy to enhance its coverage in Iraq. This investment is part of Logicom’s commitment to grow Cisco’s business in the Middle East. Logicom will be the only authorized Cisco distributor to cover the whole Middle East region, both through a local presence and remotely, through its partners in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, UAE, KSA and the Gulf.

With its international reach and local coverage, Logicom will offer consistent value-added services based on Cisco products and

solutions, as well as enablement activities for its partners, including solution-demos and training events.

Logicom kicked-off its 2014 activities in Iraq with the successful Logicom-Cisco Partner Forum, held at the Erbil Rotana Hotel on January 15th. The event aimed to inform partners about Logicom’s local Cisco operations in Iraq, provide updates on the latest Cisco technologies, programs and promotions, and explore business opportunities that could help boost partners’ sales and profitability.

Logicom joins the Global Technology Distribution Council

Logicom is honoured to announce its association with the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC).

The GTDC is an industry consortium representing the world’s leading technology distributors. Its members drive more than $130 billion in annual worldwide sales of technology products, services and solutions through a range of dynamic business channels. Logicom was selected as one of the leading and fastest-growing distributors in the world, and aims to add to the strength of the GTDC, helping the organization communicate the value of distribution to both the vendor and investor communities. In particular, Logicom’s strong presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Gulf, the Middle East and North Africa will especially help to communicate the GTDC’s message to new vendors in the region and provide more visibility for the regional channel.

Members of the GTDC benefit from being at the forefront of industry issues, opportunities and innovations. They frequently participate in GTDC conferences, initiatives and activities that also periodically enable interaction between the companies’ senior management. In addition, the GTDC helps its members to strengthen their partnerships with dynamic business channels, whilst adhering to the GTDC Partner Code of Conduct.

Logicom adds HP Services to its Enterprise Group Portfolio

Logicom opens new facility in Kuwait

Logicom expands Cisco operations to include Iraq

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W ith the explosion of smart devices and increase

of mobile computing, data volumes have grown at an escalating rate in the last few years. It is not financially viable to manually manage data of large enterprises as they will have huge volumes from various data centres

forging alliancesA closer look at Logicom’s recent partnership with CommVault to distribute data management and storage solutions to the region.

and recovery sites.Big Data is posing a big

storage challenge for businesses across the Middle East, as the race to unlock value from massive and exponentially growing datasets flares up. IT market intelligence leader, IDC, predicts that the global Big Data market will grow 40 percent per year, which is

Feature | pArtnership

around seven times as fast as the rest of the IT industry. Most of the cost will come from infrastructure and storage management projects that are set to drive spending in the current market to growth rates of above 61 percent through 2015.

Due to this demand, Logicom recently signed a value-added partnership

(VAD) agreement with Commvault, the data management and security solutions provider.

“This contract will enable us to distribute the data and information management products and services through the channel partners with our extensive network of resellers and system integrators,” says Shibu

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Shibu Thomas, Product Specialist CommVault, Logicom

for their customers, Thomas adds, “We believe that the data centre should be an enabler that provides a competitive advantage, not a burdening cost centre. These synergies can be achieved by utilising CommVault’s products and Logicom’s experienced professionals.”

Logicom intends to recruit a minimum of 15 to 20 new partners within the first two quarters of operations and grow it to 30 partners within FY’2014. “Channel enablement will be our key focus for which we will conduct sales and pre-sales training workshops for select partners, with the objective of training and certifying them on CommVault products and services. As a distributor, we will work with our partners to put together more complex sales solutions, combining the best of our products, network and expertise with our experience and knowledge of what their customer needs,” concludes Thomas.

products for the region as it provides leading backup solutions, data protection, deduplication, e-discovery and a host of solutions for large and small businesses.

As per the agreement, the value-added distributor will deliver the vendor’s best in class data management solutions into KSA, UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan.

Thomas further adds, “By partnering with CommVault, we know that we are working with one of the leaders in the business continuity arena and with a company that is as well respected for its stability as its leading-edge products and services.”

Proud of the business that they do with their channel partners, Logicom has a dynamic and partner-friendly business environment to ensure that they can offer their partners a wider range of products, which will help to lead to a profitable business. “When the reputation of your business relies on what you sell, you can’t afford to take chances,” Thomas says.

Thomas says that the company will position CommVault both as a stand-alone product and also as a part of its data centre integrated converged architecture offering as they are looking at building CommVault into storage value-bundles for their channel partners.

Working closely with partners to understand their business and build a proper data management solution

Thomas, Product Specialist CommVault, Logicom. “Large organisations need to back up and move tens of terabytes of data over a WAN quickly and efficiently. Also, they need to manage backup and replication policies for hundreds of backup volumes and data types to ensure data is de-duplicated, replicated and

stored. We see the demand for managing data increasing as data is growing minute by minute,” he adds.

CommVault fills the gap the distributor had in the data management, backup and recovery, replication and archiving space.

Thomas believes that CommVault fits in perfectly with its existing portfolio of

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What value proposition does Logicom bring to its

datacentre solutions?As we have partnered with industry leaders such as Cisco, NetApp, APC (Schneider) and Commvault, we find ourselves with a great advantage to deal with data centre and cloud opportunities. Our reseller partners benefits the most as they can find almost all the datacenter products and technologies under one roof, with us. We have a certified and highly experienced sales and pre-sales team in place; we can be trusted advisors to our partners.  We have further strengthened our value proposition by offering professional service, training and certification support to our partners.

 How big is the demand for these solutions in the region? We have observed that the data centre and cloud technology adoption in the Middle East region is gathering

focal point

What is the distribution strategy?We plan to focus on markets such as KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman where there is a higher market potential. We also plan to recruit a minimum of 20 to 30 partners within the first six months of this year and grow that to 40 partners by the end of FY14. Logicom will position Cisco, NetApp and CommVault as a point product and also as a part of our data centre integrated converged architecture offering. This is going to ensure maximum sales coverage for all the data centre brands we represent. We would also consider looking at building fixed converged bundles for our channel partners, which will be easier to procure, deploy and manage.

 Which are the main areas this solution will be distributed to?Work is in progress to recruit and onboard the existing partners who are specialized in data centre related projects focused in the enterprise and public sector space. In parallel, we are also working on recruiting and enabling the next generation of data centre partners who are going to focus on the midmarket and commercial space.

 What are your future plans?We will carry on doing what we do best that is selling products and services to the channel partners and our approach towards data centre technology is no exception. We will further strengthen our value proposition by offering professional service, training and certification support to our partners. We will also increasingly engage with the Tier-2 channel partners by increasing their capacity to build their own cloud

peter D’souza, regional product Manager, netApp & Data Centre, Logicom, explains how strategic its data centre solutions are to the business.

netApp | interview

a lot of momentum. Most of the internet service providers within the GCC are progressively adding cloud services to their service portfolio and from an end-user’s perspective, we see some of the larger enterprises leading the way in moving both critical and non-critical workloads to the cloud. This is a very positive sign because this will also give the smaller and medium enterprises the confidence to make the move.

 Can you discuss how the market has been responding to these solutions?There certainly is a growing interest and curiosity among customers towards pre-fabricated data centres, these systems consist of purpose-engineered modules and components to offer scalable data center capacity. A FlexPod Infrastructure Stack for example integrates NetApp FAS storage, Cisco Systems, Unified Computing System (UCS) and VMware/Microsoft

Hypervisor Technology. These modules can be shipped anywhere in the world to be added, integrated or retrofitted into the customer’s existing data centre footprint. Having rolled out solutions like FlexPod Express, vendors such as Cisco and NetApp have taken a lead in this space. 

 How does NetApp play a role in this endeavour? The team at Logicom together with NetApp has been putting in a lot of effort to educate our customers about the latest technology by providing them with seminars, webinars and boot camps. We would like to encourage more IT managers and other stakeholders to attend these events as they will receive access to rich content free of cost. Once they have a strong domain knowledge they have to start approaching certified data centre partners and consultants to build a tailor made data centre solution that suits their individual business needs.

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Iraq has been rebuilding itself as a commerce centre in the last few years. According to the

International Trade Administration, in its 2010–2014 national development plan, Iraq’s government had budgeted more than $186 billion for around 2,700 projects, including large projects related to construction, highways, railways, telecommunications, and security and defense. This means that the market will have an increased rate of ICT requirements and will grow exponentially even in the years to come.

Region focussecurity challenges.

But these can be easily overcome with adequate measures in place. Considering the potential of the region, the company is positive for a high growth business. Nicholas Argyrides, Director of Sales & Marketing, Logicom Public says, “The country is currently redeveloping itself to ensure a safe and secure future. There is steep forecast predicted for the country in the next 5-10 years. As the country becomes more secure, more investment will be made and more foreign companies will open in country operations. With this, comes the opportunity for us to grow,” adds Argyrides.

In the initial stages of its in-country business, Logicom has set up a legal entity in Erbil and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce. “We now have stock on ground and in-country warehousing. We have been doing business in Iraq since 2005 selling Cisco. Microsoft, Intel, Kingston and HP brands were added at a later stage to our offering in Iraq,” explains Argyrides.

Logicom has over 150 Iraqi-based resellers in its customer base with whom they have been working closely over the last few years, offering them training, stock availability and credit facilities.

The company is the only regional distributor with six offices and warehouses surrounding the country.

identifying huge opportunities in the growing economy of iraq, companies such as Logicom considers it a strategic market and is investing heavily in it.

anaLysis | irAq

Identifying the potential of this market, Logicom believes it will be a positive move for the company to expand its business. Also, its vendors are focusing heavily on Iraq and it is a key location for its flagship partners such as Cisco and HP.

According to reports, there is a large and growing demand for IT solutions in Iraq both in the consumer and commercial space. The use of technology has increased rapidly since 2003, with 78 percent of Iraqis using mobile telephones and 12 percent owning a personal computer and these numbers are

expected to increase year on year.

Iraq is also an emerging economy. It is one of the largest oil producers in the world. This means there are large investments in this area. There is also a growing hospitality industry and the Government is spending heavily in education.

However, there are quite a few roadblocks in this market such as piracy issues and lack of relevant laws and regulations, which make it harder for business to happen here. Aside from this, there are also safety and personal

Plot S60608 South Zone, Jebel Ali, PO BOX 54328 DubaiTel: +971 4 8055399 Fax: +971 4 3961144 info@logicom.ae www.logicomdistribution.net

Logicom Dubai

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Plot S60608 South Zone, Jebel Ali, PO BOX 54328 DubaiTel: +971 4 8055399 Fax: +971 4 3961144 info@logicom.ae www.logicomdistribution.net

Logicom Dubai

Contact your Logicom Account Manager to find out more about HP’s Fastest Printer

Mega trends—that include cloud, security, Big Data, and mobility—are

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HP’s ProLiant Gen8 servers, the world’s most intelligent servers, support a wide range of

your complex IT demands from cloud based applications to security, Big Data, and mobility in a virtualized environment. Building on this foundation, the next wave of ProLiant Gen8 innovations accelerate performance of your virtualized environment and deliver the agility necessary to optimize the effectiveness of your data center.  In short, HP ProLiant Gen8 servers are faster, more agile with improved efficiencies.  With an agile and efficient data center you will now have the capability to build a strong foundation for your business, and protect your infrastructure investments.  Better yet, these customer-inspired innovations have a 5-month ROI, helping you transform your data center to better protect, compete, and grow your business today while being ready for what is next. 

The industry-leading ProLiant Gen8 platforms provide the foundation for running core business applications ranging in size from small-midsize to enterprise business.  Typically, these servers are deployed in a virtualized fashion to support a

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coLumn | hp

significantly reduces OPEX (including power and cooling expenses) while increasing administrator productivity resulting in the most efficient infrastructure in the industry.

Experience Matters. Market leadership represents sustained industry leadership, investment in innovation and deep server expertise. According to IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker for 3Q13 published December 2013, HP continues to lead in worldwide server markets. It is number one in worldwide server shipments, for 11.5 consecutive years, 46 straight quarters. It is a leader in worldwide server revenue. According to the report, it leads in x86 server revenue and units for more than 17 consecutive years, 70 quarters.It is also number one in blade server revenue and units for 28 consecutive quarters, 7 years. And a market leader in the density optimized server market, leading in both revenue and units. It also leads in Windows® revenue and units worldwide and comes first in Linux® revenue and units worldwide.

Only HP provides a consistent track record of redefining the server market to meet the next wave of computing requirements. HP is the only company who has IP across all three of the technology areas (servers, storage, and networking) needed to address the challenges and rebuild the internet in a sustainable way for the new style of IT.

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the road aheadChuck Klein, hp servers says the more agile and faster hp proLiant Gen8 servers are the right tool to support the new style of it.

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meet the team

Logicom’s call center team carries out outbound calls and vendor oriented campaigns, largely to existing and prospective partners. The call center aims to strengthen the partner experience by expanding the company’s reach to its partner space, raising awareness around Logicom’s offerings, conducting partner segmentation and running quarterly sales activities. In order to do this, the company believes in nurturing skills and enabling its call center agents. The team discusses how the

company has enabled them in their professional lives.

Cyril D’souza, Call Centre Agent, Logicom

“At Logicom, our work is not repetitive, we have new challenges and have the opportunity to interact with different kinds of people everyday. The company has enabled me to nurture my talents and also gives me the necessary work space to have a better work-life balance. It has also inculcated team sprit within me . They have provided me with both product and sales specific training that ensures I am always up-to-date with the latest technologies.”

meet the team

Rodney Morais, Call Centre Lead, Logicom

“What I like best about my job is the value it adds into the bottom line of Logicom. I was heavily involved right from the inception of the call centre, setting up of the equipment to forming the processes and policies. This has taught me a variety of new skills.”

Swithin Pinto, Call Centre Agent, Logicom

“The best part of being a part of the contact center is being the voice of Logicom. Within this environment I have exposure to people management, processes, technology, operational management, different cultures and team work.”

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Success comes from close partnerships in a global environment. At Logicom, our business is built on strong relationships with our partners. We are proud to deliver exceptional service, and go the extra mile so that we can celebrate in your success.

We can help you sustain a competitive advantage and grow in a every changing market. We are the partner you can count on to succeed.

To make Logicom a partner in your success call our team to find out more.

Logicom Dubai

Plot S60608 South Zone, Jebel Ali, PO BOX 54328 Dubai

T: +971 4 8055399 | F: +971 4 8894950 | info@logicom.ae

www.logicomdistribution.com

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