Reseller Middle East’s 2011 Conference and Awards
Top notch speakers at the Reseller Conference covered a wide gamut of channel topics including upcoming technology trends, value addition, vendor-partner relationships, cash flow and social marketing. The day was rounded off with a glitzy awards ceremony to celebrate the industries finest. Arun Shankar reports.
Reseller Middle East kicked off its first conference directed at the reseller community. The conference was a day-long, single track event, held at Westin Dubai, UAE. The highlights of the conference were intended to be the wide range of channel issues tackled by a high-level team of experienced industry leaders selected from vendors, distributors and consultants.
The conference was kicked off by a short welcome address by Reseller’s senior editor Arun Shankar, after which the key note speaker was invited to the stage
The keynote address for the conference was presented by Nassir Nauthoa, General Manager, GCC, Intel Corporation. There were a number of important highlights in the presentation. Nauthoa drew the attention of the audience to the increasing purchasing power of the emerging markets. The index used to track the changes in purchasing power of the markets is the number of weeks of income required to buy an average priced consumer laptop.
After Nathuoa’s visionary address, there was a round table discussion on the growth dynamics across the Middle East. The participants were jointly made up of speakers from the Reseller Conference and some special invitees. The speakers of the conference who sat on the panel included Nassir Nauthoa, Intel Corporation; Meera Kaul, Optimus Technology and Telecommunications and Hesham Tantawi, Asbis.
Continuing on the theme of economical perspective of the market, the next topic was on the dynamics of exports out of UAE was discussed at the conference. Dr Ashraf Ali Mahate, Head of Export Market Intelligence talked about the need to export out of UAE in the face of growing entry of low cost players and development of production scale. Dubai is ideally suited to be a hub for exports. All countries can be reached by shipping within 30 days and by air within 24 hours.
Exports have been consistently growing at close to 30% for the last five years. However, Mahate warned that an exhaustive due diligence of a planned export strategy should be completed before project roll out is initiated. The due diligence should cover target countries, IP protection, distribution partners, and marketing plans amongst others.
The Reseller Conference concluded with a vigorous question and answer session directed at a panel made up of speakers again. Speakers participating in the end of day session included Meera Kaul, Managing Director, Optimus Technology and Telecommunications, Hesham Tantawi, Vice President, Asbis and John Andrews, Director of Marketing MEA and APAC, Computerlinks.
Reseller Middle East 2011 Awards
WINNERS, Prestige
Readers’ Choice, Vendor: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Reader’s Choice, Distributor: ASBIS Middle East
Best Partner Excellence, Vendor: Microsoft Gulf
Best Partner Excellence, Distributor: Redington Gulf
Outstanding Executive, IT Channel: Madhav Narayan
Outstanding Executive, IT Channel: Lee Reynolds
Editor’s Choice: Kaspersky Lab
WINNERS, VENDOR
Networking Vendor: Cisco
Software & Security Vendor: Blue Coat Systems
Storage Vendor: Western Digital
Peripherals Vendor: Genius
Components Vendor: Intel Corporation
Printing Vendor: HP IPG Middle East
Systems & Hardware Vendor: Dell Middle East
WINNERS, DISTRIBUTOR
IT Distributor: Aptec Holding
Components Distributor: FDC International
Networking Distributor: Westcon Middle East
Specialized Distributor: FVC, Inc
Value Added Distributor: Optimus Technology and Telecommunications
Software & Security Distributor: COMPUTERLINKS
Peripherals distributor: Logicom
WINNERS, RESELLER
Enterprise Reseller: help AG
SMB & Consumer Reseller: Accent Office Supplies Trading
Super Retailer: X-cite by Alghanim Electronics
Systems Integrator: Gulf Business Machines
