With this agreement, Ingram Micro is authorized to sell and promote NVIDIA’s Deep Learning, GPU Virtualization and High Performance Computing solutions in the GCC countries (namely, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates), Turkey and South Africa.

Dr. Ali Baghdadi, SVP & Chief Executive, Ingram Micro in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa
region says: “We are very excited to sign this agreement with NVIDIA. Last year, Ingram Micro
established its own IoT and AI Business Unit in the Middle East, the first of its kind in the region.
It is a Center of Excellence, a solutions provider and a point of expertise for our partners. We
put a lot of focus on developing our own ready and customized solutions for enterprises in the
IoT and AI space. Relationship with NVIDIA opens many new opportunities for our company and
our reseller community in today’s data-driven business environment.’’
Tamer AbdelFattah, Head of IoT and AI Business Unit in the META region commented: “NVIDIA
is a real pioneer of accelerating computing. Its latest GPU (graphics processing unit) technology
has a far-reaching impact on how today’s enterprises manage, process and utilize data. The
NVIDIA GPU platform also provides the ability to harness capabilities like accelerated analytics,
artificial intelligence (AI), graphic virtualization and virtual reality—allowing companies to gain deeper and richer insights about their businesses and the products they sell— tremendous
advantages in today’s intensely competitive business environment. We are very excited to start
a business journey with NVIDIA.”
Carey Bowden, Head of Distribution EMEA, NVIDIA, says, “The Middle East, Turkey and Africa
region demonstrates a growing appetite for the power of GPU computing. Ingram Micro’s
proficiency in supporting their customers’ business transformations will help them take
advantage of the exciting marketing opportunities represented by artificial intelligence and
visual computing.”

JK Group of Companies was founded in 1965 as a one-shop enterprise with prime focus on wholesale and retailing of consumer electronics and photographic equipment. It has steadily grown, successfully switching roles, as an importer, exporter, local distributor, retailer, manufacturer and presently represents several reputed international brands of photographic equipment and accessories, electronics and foodstuff and consumables. Salah Khoory, General Manager, National Store LLC – JK Group and Ateeq Shamsi GM Operations,  National Store LLC – JK Group discuss the company’s focus areas

Discuss the group’s focus on the distribution business?
Ateeq Shamsi (AS): JK Group was established in 1965. It was focused on Electronics and photography Business. There are three divisions, one of which is into Electronics and Photography. We are distributors for Canon Photo Video products as exclusive distributors; we also started with printers which is not an exclusive agreement but in retail we are the only distributor
We are also distributors for SanDisk. There is also a sub-division for home appliances, Beauty care products; personal care products. We have an in-house Brand distributed to retail and some wholesale under the Crownline Brand. We have recently taken up distribution of Wiko but before that we had already introduced an in-house smartphone brand ‘Kzen’- made in China and in the past one and half years we have focused on the mid-to entry level segments for very low priced phones. We have done well in retail.
Wiko expressed their interest in working with us and we have taken up distribution rights for Wiko and have started the retail distribution with the brand. We are hopeful we can meet their expectations on sales expected.

Discuss how the decades old partnership with Canon is a special one for the company? What does this mean for you as a company with other brands that are associated with you?
Salah Khoory (SK): The partnership with Canon has been built on trust and such relationships over such long periods of time are rare in the industry. It is a special relationship and is a measure of canon’s satisfaction with the work we have done. The entire team is responsible for building this relationship. We later took up distribution rights for their printers but they don’t offer exclusive distribution rights for those products.
In a different segment, we have a similar long standing relationship of nearly 25 years with the brand Moser as exclusive distributor in the UAE.

The long standing relationships that National Stores has built with several of its vendor partners and also the fact that we have excellent relations with a large dealer network plus the fact that we are quite flexible with credit terms has helped built the company’s repute with many other vendors who are keen to work with us. We are always the first to support new dealers. We have invested in our logistics making sure that products are available to our dealers without any issues. There is a lot of hard work that goes into supporting our dealers during all major events such as GITEX Shopper, Summer Surprises etc.

Discuss why you have not focused on IT distribution a lot in the past? Is that changing now?
AS: We have not focused much on IT earlier. There were too many entrants and the margins were thin and unattractive. Also there was a lot of apprehensions of the volatility in the business channel. We are now focusing on strengthening the focus in this segment. We have tied up with a company called GP Batteries. We will be focusing on consumer IT products for distribution.

SK: We have always backed our vision. We have been told that we would be burning our fingers and we are entering quite late in the smartphone segment for instance. However, we had the visionfor the product to target the lower end as well as position as a possible second mobile for users including students and will also suit for use on travel. We didn’t go after the whole market and were conservative on marketing spend in terms of building the brand. We have thereafter gone into extending into 4K Action cameras, Bluetooth speakers, headsets, smart watches etc. We have focused on a complete range at affordable prices. We are looking to cater to users including students.
Good brands are associated with us today and we have created good demand for them in the brands. The Wiko partnership is one of the recent ones and we are hopeful of creating similar success.

What is the outlook ahead?
SK: We have a vision for the next three years in terms of where we want to go as a Business. We are always looking to expand, whether within the UAE or outside. To take a decision on further investments would be based on market realities. 2016 saw some correction in the market. This may continue until end of year. We hope things will improve by beginning of next year.

How do you see online retail picking up?
SK: We are seeing our dealers shrinking in their size. Online retail is becoming popular and is impacting offline retail. The new generation is more comfortable with online shopping and the preference goes beyond price differences. Online business is becoming more secure with each passing day. Retail will continue and will always thrive because of the high number of tourists to Dubai specifically and the UAE in general. The UAE has been a tourist hub and will also revolve around interesting activities through the year that bring in tourists. Online will take away some share and this may see a 20% shrinkage of conventional retail. The vision of the government in terms of digital is happing even in Business. There will be more competition and customers will have better choices.
The concept is changing. Online is becoming very smart and allows interactive shopping. The online pages of the stores are guiding users towards more offers like salesmen. It offers a different shopping experience.

How do you see the photography business changing?
SK: Today the market has seen a shift. Amateur photography is mostly shot on mobile phones. Professional photography has upgraded and even 4k videos can be shot on a DSLR. The variety and range is much more in terms of accessories. Photography is now picking up as a hobby and the mobile phone has indeed popularized it more, leading many users to take up this as a hobby and own a DSLR camera for taking pictures with better finish. Mobile photography is for instant pictures that are shared typically on social media but in turn has popularized demand for high end DSLR cameras. So the addressable market is growing for DSLR cameras.

Mikhail Voronov, PPS Supplies Distribution Business Manager, Africa at Hewlett-Packard said, “Innovation at HP is not just about products, but about processes— With Mitsumi’s experience and commitment, we are confident that this strategic partnership will help us deliver our business objective to better reach our resellers and customers. We look forward to a more successful partnership with Mitsumi.”

Mitesh Shah, Managing Director, Mitsumi Distribution said, “HP and Mitsumi have always had a strong partnership; expanding our rights not only reflects the vendors’ but also the markets (resellers and stakeholders) confidence and trust in Mitsumi. We will continue to work with HP to realise their business objective; ensuring every option is available to our resellers and customers.”

Mitsumi distributes a wide range of products covering PC, Notebooks, mobility, Data Centre, Storage, Hardware, Services and Telecommunication products from various well-known vendors. Mitsumi operates in 10 Middle East and African countries; this includes U.A.E, Algeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameron.

Having registered its presence in more than 30 countries across the world within a very short span of time, Wiko entered the top 5 in Western Europe in 2016. In France, it is in the number 2 position1 in the open market and is also largely successful in other European markets, it has even managed to climb to 2nd position. The mobile phone brand has shipped out more than 10 million phones globally in 2016, with more than 15 million users worldwide.

Salah Khoory, General Manager, National Store– Jk Group, said, “Partnering with Wiko is a part of National Store’s future strategy to diversify the business of the company, while creating a strong base in the mobile and IT category. Wiko is a young and fresh brand with a lot of potential which will add a strong new category to the company’s portfolio. The brand is already very well presented in the individual retail channel. Therefore, our aim is to further fortify its visibility in this segment and then move into increasing its presence through power retailers”.

As distributors and retailers, National Store has had a successful run for almost half a century showcasing brands such as Canon, Sandisk, Moser, Crown Line, KZEN and GP Batteries, among others. The company launched an outlet in Khalidyah Mall, Abu Dhabi, last year, and has a number of expansion plans in the future.

Commenting on the partnership, Didier Carmeille Regional Director MENA region for Wiko said: “We aim to reach out to the entire UAE market and be present in every nook and corner of the country. To achieve this, a very strong and professional distributor partner is required and National Store was a natural choice, as they have vast experience in mobile sales. They are already into sales and distribution of a mobile brand and also have very strong relations with all the retailers because they carry some very renowned non-mobile brands too. Wiko came to the UAE with an ambition of achieving 10 percent of the market share. This ambition continues for us and with the right partnership with National Store, and the right products at the right price, we expect to achieve it very soon”.

Explaining the retail philosophy of the brand, Kashif Siddiqui, Head of Sales Wiko, UAE: “We believe in maintaining the right balance in the pricing and product mix to avoid major fluctuations in pricing during the product’s life cycle, thus giving stability to both retailers and consumers. In the UAE, Wiko has succeeded to position itself as a challenger brand, which combines the product and service quality of any top brand in this market, and keeps the prices as competitive as smaller brands. It thus manages to hold a distinctive position between the top brands and tier 2 brands and is seen by customers as a real “Value for Money” brand.

“With this partnership, we aim to strengthen the brand’s presence in the independent retail market, as this market provides better reach and returns with less investments. Wiko has worked with nearly all the power retailers in the UAE and is keen on re-entering the Power retail segment with its new range of 4G phones equipped with the latest technologies and is already in discussions with the top power retailers. Soon, consumers will start seeing Wiko on the shelves of power retailers”, further elaborated Siddiqui.

Besides the 3G and feature phones offered by the mobile company, National Store will be showcasing the latest range of Wiko smartphones, including Highway Pure, one of the world’s slimmest and lightest 4G phone, and Wiko-Fever, a glow in the dark phone. The distributors will also market accessories, such as WiSHAKE, both the wireless and wired headphones, earphones, Bluetooth speakers; WiMATE Smartband; car chargers; power banks; among other products.

Further commenting on National Store partnership with Wiko, Khoory said: “National Store has grown on the concept of ‘value for money’, which has won it a trusted consumer base. One of the biggest strengths of National Store is that brands trust us to provide them with the best visibility and positioning. We have courted prestigious names in the past and as always, we are confident that our relationship with Wiko will reap rich dividends and go a long way. As a distributor, our customers expect us to provide the best of the latest gadgets. We are happy to provide them with one more option to choose from, which is known for its quality as well as competitive pricing”.

Ateeq Ahmad Shamsi, General Manager – Operations, National Store LLC, added: “2016 has been a very good year for us: the launch of our new store in Abu Dhabi and the Golden Jubilee partnership with Canon are just a few highlights of the beautiful and lucrative journey – a journey that has continued into this year with the partnership with Wiko.”

Wiko products are available across all branches of National Store. The company deals in various high-profile brands, carefully sourced from across the globe. It has three main divisions, namely Photo-Video, Electronic and Media, through which it represents well-known brands.

Nicholas Argyrides, Chief of Sales and Marketing & Deputy General Manager at Mindware discusses the market trends, the distributor’s pillars of focus as well as value differentiation offered to partners

Discuss Mindware’s focus around different product and solution segments in terms of its distribution portfolio

Mindware’s solutions are mostly focused on the value segment. Having said that, we do carry a number of traditional volume products including PCs which brings a healthy balance in terms of our overall portfolio.

The fact is we, as Mindware, don’t define the model. Our customers define it and we have been always listening to them very carefully. Our stand at GITEX this year was divided into three divisions. The Volume Division with products including Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo and so on. The Networking & Security Division with products such as Symantec, Riverbed, and Juniper. The third division focuses on Infrastructure products including Eaton, Veritas, and EMC. Essentially, we have transformed our model into a customer-centric rather than product-centric one.

Discuss market outlook in general for industry and how Mindware in particular is coping with the challenges?

The main challenge of our business is, principally, to balance the channel & vendor needs in a profitable manner for the distributor. Given the rather harsh commercial climate the region is recently undergoing, such a task requires the careful handling of credit availability to the market and close alignment with both partners and suppliers. Despite sounding like a cliché, the opportunities arising from the current business environment are numerous and available to those who are bold enough to seize them.

How do you enhance your value propositions to the channel?

We help our partners in expanding their opportunities in terms of new technologies and solutions they can, in turn, offer to their customers. We execute this approach by concentrating on educating them on subjects such as vendor (product) roadmaps and new technology trends. Mindware’s new distribution structure is, frankly, ideal in executing such objectives wherein enabling and supporting our channel partners is of a top priority.

Discuss territories covered and overseen from the Dubai office?Mindware is headquartered in Dubai, UAE with full-fledged and sales rep offices in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, and Pakistan. We, of course, cover the whole Middle East with more than 2,500 active customers across the region.

How have different markets in the region fared over the year?

The economic and political climate in the region has not been very positive recently – this is a fact for everyone to admit. Some have been doing better than the others. Business in Saudi Arabia has been extensively affected. Egypt, with its unpredictable currency fluctuations, has been a serious challenge for our channel partners. Mindware’s strategy is to consciously engage within the channel and continually gain market share from competitors with minimum possible credit risk.

Discuss any new vendor tie-ups

We are always working on both horizontal expansion (based on geography) and vertical expansion (based on technologies/vendor portfolio). Projects such as a Cloud Marketplace and Client Services are also running in parallel. It is worth noting here that the recent weak business climate in the region has been contributing into the surfacing some significant commercial opportunities and, at Mindware, we certainly have our radars focused on a number of such prospects.

“The market for wearable devices in both autonomous and passive categories has exploded in the UAE over the past couple of years, and we wanted the best-in-industry representation of our products. With Trigon, we feel we have a synergetic partnership. Trigon, knows the customer base inside-out, and we can look forward to satisfying the customers’ desire for innovative wearables”, says Arnav Kishore, CEO of Boltt.

“The UAE is paying attention to the ill-effects of obesity, and we will help the people achieve their fitness goals by making our state-of-the-art products easily available to them through our partnership. Trigon has excellent reach in the UAE to give our buyers a great product experience, from pre-sales to customer support”, says Arun Chawla, CEO, Trigon.

“The wide reach of Trigon, combined with their excellent customer service, complements the Boltt ideology. They have deep-rooted channels of sale ranging from Power Retailers, hyper markets to healthcare chains and Dubai’s famous duty-free market. Boltt is fortunate to have such a strong partner in the UAE because they are veterans of the market and have their fingers on the pulse of the customer base”, comments Aayushi Kishore, Co-Founder, Boltt.

Boltt is redefining the role technology plays in people’s health and fitness. The manufacturer’s product portfolio uses best-in-class technology to gather metrics from the user’s activity. It has innovated wearable technology trackers like a ‘smart band’ and a ‘stride sensor’ that are most superior to other available trackers in the market today. They are powered by a virtual health coach which provides real-time audio feedback and interactive health coaching ,depending on the activity and lifestyle of the user. To help consumers in leading healthier lives, it offers a companion app that advises users about nutrition and sleep as well.

Mindware, active in the region since opening its Dubai HQ in 1991, will be responsible for the distribution of Eaton’s Power Infrastructure Solutions, including virtualisation-ready uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), rack mountable power distribution units (ePDU®), and Intelligent Power® Manager (IPM) software.

“This partnership represents a significant development for Eaton in our channel strategy,” commented Karim Refas, Regional Channel Manager, Eaton Middle East. “We are confident that Mindware’s access to distribution networks across the GCC, together with Eaton’s range of Power Management Solutions, the partnership brings a strong proposition to the market.”

“We are delighted to team up with Eaton, one of the most reputable names in the power management arena,” commented Nicholas Argyrides, Chief of Sales and Marketing and Deputy General Manager, Mindware. “Always keeping in mind our channel partners’ needs and requirements, we feel that the Eaton line of products further complements Mindware’s existing infrastructure solutions portfolio. We are looking forward to a fruitful partnership.”

Called the Red Vault, the centre fully integrates more than 40 different solutions from numerous vendors, thereby making it the only such facility in the region with a multi-vendor environment.
The innovative new solutions centre will create a platform for existing and new partners and customers to get trained in vendor-authorised training centres.

A soft launch of the solutions centre was held at the company’s headquarters in Dubai in January. The facility is now being expanded to Redington Value’s branches in Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Nigeria.

The announcement comes as Redington Gulf, by far the largest distributor of IT products in the Middle East and Africa and a growing force in Turkey and CIS regions, plans to expand into new markets and strategically position itself as a value-added distributor for solutions.

The strategy behind setting up Red Vault is to position Redington Value into playing a much bigger role in speeding up its partners’ and end customers’ IT transformation journey. “We want to play a critical role in training and facilitating transformation among our partners,” says Ramkumar Balakrishnan, President, Redington Value Distribution.

He explains that Red Vault is an attempt by Redington Value to create a unique facility within the industry, especially in this region, for its partners and customers to get hands-on experience in the functioning of every possible mainstream IT Solutions in a live environment, aided by a giant display.

“Connected to our specialised training centres, the Red Vault shows technology in action and brings it closer than ever,” he says.

The fully functional solutions centre, with one of the largest interactive transparent display in the region, is currently operational at the Redington Value headquarters in Dubai, UAE.

The company’s solutions span across traditional technology domains such as networking, voice, servers, storage, software, security and infrastructure, even as it plans to grow more aggressively, catering to the newer growth potential areas such as Internet of Things (IOT), mobility, cloud and hyper-convergence.

The integrated touch panels of the solutions centre will connect to fully operational control and training rooms running live demos of various solutions such as Oracle’s ZFS Storage, xSeries servers, DB appliance, virtualisation software, enterprise manager and Oracle Cloud; Virtual Computing Group solutions such as Dell EMC’s VxRail and Vx Rack, Vmware’s software-defined data centre, virtual VSAN & NSX; security applications such as Trend Micro Deep Security & Deep Discovery Platform, Malware Bytes, Entrust, Cyberark, Check Point, Barracuda and Fortinet; Enterprise software solutions such as Red Hat covering virtualization, IaaS (Internet as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and JBoss Middleware; Disaster Recovery, Backup, Monitoring and Migration solutions from DoubleTake & Veam; Public Cloud services including Amazon Web Services and Azure; and hardware solutions such as Sonicwall, Fidelis Security, Alcatel Lucent, Fortinet and HPE Converged System and Networking.

“The key milestone that we have for ourselves is to elevate Red Vault – the solutions centre and the whole approach of building solutions – to the mainstream. The idea is to attempt to help our partners and end customers in the transformation journey. So being a catalyst in transformation of the channel and its enablement is really at the core of what we do at Redington Value. A visit to our office offers a chance to look at all these different technologies, to see and test the whole environment,” says Balakrishnan.

Earlier this year Redington Value moved its offices into a more strategic location situated opposite the Dubai World Trade Centre, primarily to cater to its partners and enable them to get their end customers to visit the premises and showcase the solutions being built.

At last year’s Gitex Technology Week, Redington Value launched RedCloud, an integrated cloud solutions platform offering customers a one-stop solution for all their Enterprise Cloud requirements. Among the key highlights during this Gitex Technology Week will also be the announcement of new vendors for the RedCloud and the company’s expansion into new markets.

Gitex Technology Week will be held from October 16-20, 2016, at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Redington Value stand will be located in Hall 3, #C3-1 at DWTC.

“We are excited to be a part of the Infoblox ecosystem. Our mission is to improve the quality and security of communications in Africa. Network landscapes are rapidly evolving, driven by trends in security, virtualization, cloud, SDN, IPv6 adoption, and the Internet of Things (IoT). These demands require advanced solutions for managing DNS, DHCP, and IP address management, critical network services collectively known as DDI. By partnering with Infoblox, we will provide our customers with exactly that – the most advanced and secure DDI solution on the market and an improved end-customer experience,” said Mr. Tim Courtenay, Managing Director of ATIO telecoms. “Infoblox products deliver mission-critical network services, which includes automating complex network control functions to reduce costs, increasing overall security, maximizing uptime and much more. With the prolific growth of device technology and the greater need for compliance, organisations have found it imperative to invest in robust network and security infrastructures. With Infoblox now part of our portfolio, we are well placed to cater to this need,” he continued.

Mr. Rene Bosman, Manager, Infoblox Africa says, “We are very proud to be working with ATIO and have them as a valuable channel partner in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company brings tremendous value to Infoblox in different verticals, but especially in the service provider (SP) segment. In a service provider’s network, it’s all about the subscribers’ quality of experience. A poor experience leads to customers moving to competition. ATIO’s knowledge and expertise in the SP industry as well as capabilities of conducting assurance and performance benchmarking assessments on networks, adds real value to Infoblox solutions.”

“In nearly half of today’s enterprise and service provider networks there is evidence of DNS Tunneling, a significant security threat that indicates active malware or ongoing data exfiltration within those networks. In partnering with ATIO, we believe we have a partner that can not only identify those threats, but also mitigate and stop them,” says Mr. Bosman.

The “first-connection impression” is that important moment when a subscriber first connects into the network and instantly judges its safety, reliability, and speed. Suspicious application activity, an inaccessible favorite web site, or slow response results in calls into customer care or subscribers questioning loyalty to their current service provider.

Infoblox technology enables the crucial IP connection between the subscriber and his digital world. Infoblox solutions provide actionable network intelligence, carrier-grade security, high availability, and ultra-low latency that helps create a better first-connection impression for subscribers and greater cost efficiency, visibility, insight, and manageability for service providers, while supporting a smooth transition to NFV.

EnGenius’ dominant player for wired and indoor and outdoor wireless networking solutions for business deliver long-range connectivity, robust feature sets and versatility for class-leading performance at affordable price points. Their wireless networking solutions for the home provide fast, long-range, reliable connectivity for computers, home entertainment and mobile devices resulting in expanded options for accessing, and sharing video, music and other content throughout the home and even away from home.

Mr. Jose Thomas Menacherry, CEO, Bulwark Distribution said, ’Through our competent resources, technical, sales and marketing experts and huge partner network, we are ready to distribute Engenius wide array of products to the market. We are very pleased to add Engenius to our product portfolio and emphasize that we are now the Value-Added-Distributors for Engenius, to the market. Their products highly complement our existing product portfolio.’’

‘’It gives us immense pride to announce our partnership launch with Bulwark Distribution in the region. The distributor brings on board, immense experience, wide partner network and regional expertise to provide continuous and excellent value-added services to our customers. Our aim is to have a bigger penetration across different verticals and across different market segments in the Middle East region and this would be achieved through implementing a focused go to market strategy especially in UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain Oman and Qatar with Bulwark, ’says Mr. Van Hsiao, Regional General Manager at EnGenius International.

Bulwark will deliver value-added services that include solutions pre-sales consulting, training, channel enablement programs, sales & marketing support, post-sales implementation and technical support, to effectively distribute Engenius product portfolio in the market.

Bulwark has established an excellent track record in delivering world-class products and excellent customer service and Value Addition has been at the very core of Bulwark’s operations since its inception in 1999, making the company grow from strength to strength.