Pradeesh VS, the General Manager at ESET Middle East speaks about the security threat landscape in the Middle East
Tell us about the technology trends have you seen in the Middle East and Africa market?
Since we are focused on IT security, we regularly monitor security trends – both globally and in the Middle East. In our report titled ‘Trends for 2014: The Challenge of Internet Privacy’ we found that ‘Internet privacy’ is emerging as the top security concern of businesses and internet users in the year ahead.
This is because the increased awareness about internet privacy in the wake of the NSA revelations. Other top trends that we foresee are the rise in cybercrime particularly relating to increasing malware on the Android mobile platform and the emergence of threats on non-traditional devices such as smart cars, game consoles and smart TVs.
Which ICT products are in demand in the MEA region?
With smart devices and low entry prices, faster internet connections and the abundance of cloud services- many of which are ad-supported and therefore free; users now have the opportunity to leverage technology like never before. Today, technology has penetrated every aspect of daily life and this is truly a blessing for end users. Sharing of content, keeping in touch with friends and family, managing services such as banking, shopping, payments etc have all become available at the touch of a button. Going forward, new technologies will emerge that will make technology even more ubiquitous.
There has been a lot of hype around smart wearable devices but I believe this market is till in its nascent stages. While Google glass has definitely received a lot of media traction, there is no hard and fast release date and the expected price tag of $600 would make this far from a mainstream product. Furthermore, consumers are still left in the lurch about what applications would be available on these wearable headsets. There is still a while to go before this technology sees wide acceptance in the consumer market.
Which technologies do you think are the most-wanted technologies in the MEA region for sectors such as enterprise, SMB and end consumers?
It is reassuring for vendors such as ESET that there has been a significant growth in the enterprise security solutions market in the region. According to reports, the Middle East Network Security market is expected to experience a growth rate of more than 18 percent between 2012 and 2018.
One of the driving factors behind this is that the overall IT market in the region is growing- the Middle East expenditure on Information Technology (IT) is expected to cross $20 billion this year, which represents a growth rate of over 10 percent year on-year. With security playing such a pivotal part of today’s IT infrastructures, it is no surprise then that the increase in ICT deployments has also meant a big growth of the security solutions market.
We are seeing good growth in the sectors like Education, Government, Hospitality & Manufacturing. Positive momentum in the Middle East for these segments has also resulted in better traction. Also, the recent spate of attacks targeted at Middle East organizations has resulted in an increase in the overall security awareness of the region.
What do you plan to achieve through GITEX Technology Week and GITEX Shopper this year? Can you please share your plans?
GITEX is the biggest IT exhibition in the region, and our strong participation will be vital to highlighting our commitment to both customers and partners in the region.
Mobile security has taken precedence for ESET since the Middle East is a particularly active market- both in terms of the sophistication and volume of mobile devices used and the threats that users face. Smartphone usage is set to rise and take on an increasingly prominent role in driving productivity, collaboration and convenience, for personal as well as business purposes. We want to give our customers the tools they require to utilize these devices to their maximum potential without having to worry about mobile viruses, trojans, phishing and data leakage due to loss or theft.
Do you plan to launch any new products or technologies at GITEX Technology Week and GITEX Shopper this year?
We will launch version 8 of our ESET Smart Security and ESET NOD32 Antivirus solutions. The latest version of ESET’s Smart Security solution is designed to be the fastest, most effective and most proactive antivirus and antispyware software. It is capable of eliminating viruses, spyware, adware, worms, trojans, rootkits and other malware before they attack systems.
Most prominently, the software boasts low resource utilization and a high scanning speed making it an ideal choice for heavy users and gamers. The solution also features an Advanced Memory Scanner, Vulnerability Shield and Improved Cleaning that will eliminate extremely persistent malware and rootkits and stop heavily-encrypted threats.
Do you have plans to conduct raffle draws, give away gifts and so on for end consumers this year?
Our main attraction for end customers is aimed at deepening their social media engagement with us. ESET has an interesting app called ‘ESET Augmented Reality BETA’ which allows users to take a picture with our famous Android mascot. We will encourage end users to use this app at our stand and then share this via social media. Every day, we will select a winner from these participants and give them a grand prize. We will also give away free trail licenses to our antivirus products and also fun freebees such as stress balls, t-shirts, pens, and so on.
What sort of channel strategies are you going to follow this year?
We already started the year very strong with the establishment of the ‘ESET Partner Program’ which is an extension of our global partner program. This scheme has been tailored for the region and aims to empower ESET’s reseller and system integrator partners to help them secure greater market shares in both, the business and home user segments.
It categorizes partners as Gold, Silver or Bronze according to their revenues, commitment to ESET and ability to provide dedicated end-user support. But as a special consideration for the region, the program makes certain concessions that enables partners and system integrators to qualify for a particular status based on their loyalty to ESET and market position, even if they do not meet certain requirement criteria.
We encourage our partners to sign up for the program as we will extend benefits that include free sales and technical trainings, discounts, demo license keys as well as pre-sales and post-sales support to all who are registered. In addition, higher partner levels will be offered rebate programs, dedicated managers from ESET, access to sales leads and funding for marketing activities. In order to better serve the needs of our valued clients, we will also offer pre-sales consultancy, POCs and post-sales support to our Gold partners.
We also prepared ourselves for a rapid expansion of our channel in Egypt by signing an agreement with Gateworx for the distribution of our entire security solutions portfolio in the Egyptian IT market. This includes ESET’s endpoint, mobile, authentication, file system and gateway security products for businesses and its mobile and computer antivirus products for home users.
We also regularly conduct activities to incentivize our partners. Examples of such programs that we have recently conducted include:
- Extending a cash-back offer to the sales personnel of our resellers. We ran this scheme for a month and a half and based on its success have gone a step further with our gold rewards program. Our resellers are capable of earning gold bars provided they hit the pre-set sales targets
- We regularly host partner get togethers combining team building with valuable product information. For example we recently organized a yacht cruise for our partners and simultaneously educated them about our products
- We had a successful 2% rebate program last year We incentivized resellers’ pre-sales teams based on number of POCs for our Ramadan Incentive Program
- During the holiday season, we challenged our retail partners to decorate their shops. Our team personally visited each participant and awarded cash prizes. This fun team building activity helped strengthen our relationship with the retail arm which plays an important role in helping us reach the consumer segment
- To reward our business partners during the summer, we held 2 promotions. ‘ESET Summer Bonanza’ enabled sales executives from our reseller partners to win a trip to Cyprus, a weekend stay in a luxury hotel or a gift voucher for achieving pre-determined sales targets. Under the ‘Summer Retail Rewards’, our retail partners stood a chance of being rewarded with gift vouchers for amounts that are directly linked to their sales revenues.
