REGIONAL CHANNELS
Ishaq. Lines of business, additional
technical resources, marketing activities,
financial operations and the second level
of support are based out of GBM in Dubai.
Hani Nofal, Vice President, Intelligent
Network Solutions, Security and Mobility,
Gulf Business Machines Dubai, explains
the interrelationship between the head
office and branch offices. “Our job is to
enable and complement because some of
the skills and capabilities might not be
available all the time within the countries.
Sometimes, especially when it comes to
We are at the
crossroads
between what
has happened
before and
what is going to
happen now.
innovative projects and the approach to
specific opportunities, we might be able to
replicate some of the good stories we are
doing in some countries. So, this will be
our role as well in the head office.”
Nofal feels this hub and spoke
arrangement between the six operations
is the unique flavour of GBM and
a differentiator from other system
integration competitors. “The beauty
of GBM is that we have always kept our
identity as one brand across the Gulf and
this helps us a lot. The head office is the
glue that brings these countries together.”
For GBM in Bahrain, principal
customers are from the banking, finance
and government market segments.
GBM in Bahrain also has customers
from transportation, petrochemical,
telecommunication and manufacturing,
but they are fewer in number. With the
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REGIONAL CHANNELS
slump in the oil economy, spending by the
government on technology is expected to
reduce. There are also efforts inside the
country to diversify the economy. Ishaq
expects the shortfall in the government’s
technology spending to be made up
from the transportation, tourism and
hospitality market segments in Bahrain.
Another converging trend of
technology and business of relevance to
the country of Bahrain and for GBM in
Bahrain is the rise of Fintech startups.
Is this likely to be an opportunity or the
cannibalization of its ongoing revenue?
Due to the financial regulations in place,
existing banking and finance businesses
may move only a part of their business
into a Fintech model. The Fintech model
is already regarded as a big opportunity by
financial institutions and the government
in Bahrain, who are preparing for it.
From this point of view, Fintechs in
Bahrain are an opportunity for GBM in
Bahrain. “We can do banking services,
you and me, but do we need a bank, a
broker or somebody in the middle to do
this transaction for us? This will change
and we are preparing ourselves for this
new change. Technology companies
providing financial services is a big thing
coming in Bahrain. We look at it as a new
opportunity,” says Ishaq.
Since 2011, to keep customers up
to date and relevant, Ishaq has been
championing migration to the cloud,
the pay-as-go spending model, as
well as other digital transformation
opportunities. Reducing their technology
asset investments and moving that
budgetary spending into operational
expenses over time, helps the end
customers of GBM in Bahrain move
to more agile and modern technology
platforms. It also helps to move GBM
in Bahrain’s sales cycle across older
technology models into new technology
cycles. “We are at the crossroads between
what has happened before and what is
going to happen now. And this has already
started,” adds Ishaq.
However, for Ishaq, the most
important indicator comes directly from
GBM in Bahrain’s customers. “I need to
see the demand of my customers; what
they are asking for and what they want.
Once I understand this, I also look at
For GBM in Bahrain, principal customers are from the banking, finance and
government market segments.
ssue 07
NTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
The first level
of technical
support is
always within
the country
that gives the
assurance for
our customers.
the economic conditions”. Putting these
together, Ishaq decides whether to recruit
additional staff, create another division,
or work with the head office.
As a system integrator, GBM provides
an end-to-end technology infrastructure
solution. This includes systems hardware,
operating systems, including Unix or
mainframe; middleware, databases,
networking, security, backup, management
and administration. It also maintains
skilled resources in services, software,
networking, infrastructure, datacentres,
and training and learning services to train
end users on new implementations.
Banking and financial end user
customers in Bahrain typically require
GBM to only provide and support the
technology infrastructure and not the
applications stack. While GBM does
not provide support for the end user
applications running on its technology
infrastructure, it also does not draw a
hard line between the two. “There is the
relationship between myself and the
bank for the infrastructure, and there is
a relationship between myself and the
application owner because it runs on my
platform. Of course, we have to work
together,” explains Ishaq.
While the business application is
excluded in its deliverables for both
Hani Nofal, Vice President, Intelligent Network Solutions, Security and Mobility, Gulf
Business Machines Dubai.
GBM and the end user, this engagement
still qualifies as an end-to-end solution.
Ishaq justifies the reasons why both
sides consider it to be such. “They do
not want to sign multiple contracts:
one for hardware; one for software;
one for training; one for networking.
We can now give them an end-to-end
solution and we look after it as a system
integrator. It is very important that you
integrate these together and keep one
company responsible for this, providing
project management.”
To reach these high standards of
technological competency across the
region, GBM has invested in building deep
relationships with its vendor partners.
This is characterised by GBM receiving
the highest level of channel partner
recognition from most of its vendor
partners. This recognition is awarded
based on sales turnover and the number
and level of skilled resources.
Nofal further explains the vendor
relationships across the operations.
“IBM is very much in the DNA of the
organisation’s business since its creation
and we have a very special relationship
with it. We have grown to become, by far,
the largest Cisco partner in the region
and one of the top 10 in EMEA. That
has been the case for a couple of years
now. But it is not only about the size of
the business, it is the reflection of our
capabilities as well.”
Building the highest level of vendor
technological competency within the
operations of GBM is not a one-way
process, driven only by the need to build
favourable discount pricing structures.
Vendors tend to use the highly skilled
resources within GBM to build technology
proof-of-concepts for select end users. In
addition, GBM also approaches vendors
for their resources.
As the region and the country
of Bahrain adjusts to the changing
technological, economic and business
realities of today, GBM in Bahrain
continues to be optimistic about its
position among its current base of end
users and potential customers. And the
reason for this is the high degree of trust
it has been able to build with businesses
about its ability to deliver. As Ishaq points
out, customers are less interested in the
products being supplied; they are more
interested in the company that can deliver
and support the solutions, as GBM in
Bahrain has been consistently doing. ¢
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