Speaking with Channel Post MEA, Philip Liu, General Manager of the Middle East and Africa, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence explains that the company is looking to grow its geographical footprint and expand its channel base across the Middle East
How would you access the cloud market in the Middle East and in which direction is it heading?
Alibaba Cloud opened its first data center in the Middle East in Dubai in November 2016. As a pioneering global public cloud service provider that operates in the region, Alibaba Cloud continues to drive the development of the region’s public cloud market. Alibaba Cloud has a robust local ecosystem with over 50 partners and clients in different sectors including the public sector, retail, fintech and entertainment. Since 2020, we have witnessed a surge in the number of local businesses adopting a hybrid cloud approach to accelerate their digital transformation.
The cloud computing market in the Middle East is growing rapidly – the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the acceleration and growing uptake of several cloud-based technologies and applications. With their cost-efficient processing capabilities and data storage possibilities, cloud technologies are, and continue to be a preferred solution for government entities and private sector companies across the region.
What kind of growth has Alibaba Cloud witnessed over the past year in the region and what is your market share in the MEA region?
Over the past year, we worked with multiple partners to integrate cloud technology into several industries including retail and fintech. We collaborated with businesses of all sizes to boost market growth, and also engaged with local SMEs to increase industry know-how. Last year, we joined forces with Zain Saudi Arabia to launch Zain Cloud, that delivers a flexible and scalable public cloud platform that incorporates artificial intelligence solutions to help the telecoms operator rollout its 5G network in Saudi Arabia.
We also empowered WEMART, a leading Asian supermarket chain in the UAE, with a comprehensive Online-to-Offline (O2O) shopping solution. Customer experience was further enhanced through other features that are integrated into the solution such as the AliMe chatbot, an AI-powered online customer solution that handles 60-70 percent of consumer queries and after sales services, leading to increased workforce efficiency and improved consumer responsiveness levels.
What is your distribution strategy for the Middle East region and currently who are your distributor partners in the region?
Our ecosystem has several layers that include strategic partners, service partners who are capable of providing various delivery services globally, channel partners to provide the best enablement to distributors/resellers, and technology partners with abundant ISV and SI partner resources. We developed an All-in Channel strategy this fiscal year, encouraging our new customers to entrust us with their contracts via our channel partners. Therefore, we are able to share business opportunities with channel partners and grow with them.
At the end of 2020, we made a major decision to jointly build the Cloud MSP Partner Ecosystem in the MEA region with our partner, Redington. With Alibaba Cloud’s cutting-edge product development team and rich industry experience, and through leveraging Redington’s long-standing local experience and partnerships in the Middle East and Africa, we expect to build a strong Cloud MSP Partner Ecosystem in this market.
Please elaborate on your channel partner program.
Alibaba Cloud’s Channel Partner Program is an essential part of our ecosystem. Our channel partners can sell our products to customers for standalone sale, or incorporate Alibaba Cloud products into partner offers and sell these to customers.
Our Channel Partner program offers both basic and advanced options. The basic program focuses on basic business models including agencies, resellers and distributors, while the advanced program is centered on select verticals or markets to demonstrate our unique advantage. Examples include the Alibaba Cloud Hybrid Cloud (Zstack) Partner Program, the Alibaba Cloud Network Expert Program and the Alibaba Cloud New Retail Partner Program.
How do you differentiate yourself from the competition and what are the key advantages Alibaba Cloud offers to its partners?
Alibaba Cloud is more than a cloud service provider. As the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, we offer scalable, robust and secure infrastructure for some of the largest companies in the world, including Alibaba Group. A trusted infrastructure is the foundation for all digital transformation initiatives from retail to finance, manufacturing, media and entertainment. We also provide a first-class ecosystem for companies to enter the Chinese market, and vice versa. The ecosystem consists of cloud-native solutions in e-commerce, payment, and other vertical specific innovations from strategic technology partners.
We ensure that we provide our channel partners with effective support, including training and enablement systems, go-to-market support, sales and operations support, as well as technology support. At Alibaba Cloud, we care about the long-term cooperation and development of our partners and aim to grow together with them.
What challenges do you face in the market and what can be done to overcome those challenges?
The demand for cloud solutions continues to grow in the Middle East and Africa region. However, the industry faces a shortfall of digital talent and sector-specific professionals. One way to overcome this challenge is for companies to invest in training and to work with local universities to plug the gap for competent professionals to drive the sector.
We are currently working closely with local partners of all sizes to boost market growth as well as to increase industry know-how to support more local startups, SMEs, and digital talent. With the support of partners such as Al Jammaz and Interdist Alliances, we have managed to train and certify over 100 cloud professionals across the Middle East and Africa.
What growth are you expecting in this financial year as compared to the previous year and what is driving your business growth?
We believe that hybrid cloud solutions will continue to thrive in the region. The two industries that are set to drive business growth are telecommunications and the retail industry.
The demand for cloud solutions from the telecom industry is surging – many telecom operators launched their own e-wallet services as part of their digital transformation efforts that require a robust, stable and secure cloud infrastructure. Telecom providers also rely on cloud-based technology to develop a ‘super app’ to increase the stickiness of current user groups.
COVID-19 has had an adverse impact on many local (and global) retailers and made it necessary for company owners to re-strategize their approach. Transforming business practices through cloud computing is imperative to ensuring business continuity in the ‘new normal’. We have been powering Alibaba Group’s retail success for years and are proud to share that we now offer robust services to retailers large and small based on their requirements. To date, we have more than 80 security and compliance accreditations worldwide.
What message would you like to give to channel partners, especially those who are keen to join your channel network?
As a public cloud-based service provider, we work closely with our current channel partners to leverage domain knowledge and provide better services and solutions to our customers in different industries. We look forward to expanding our network to reach new partners in the region in the upcoming period.
