Brother Gulf expects to corner the big part of US$ 7.6 billion region’s fast growing printer market segment by achieving a growth rate of 22% by 2012 in the Middle East region. According to Brother, the release of their latest lines of digital copier printers (DCPs) and multifunction centres (MFCs) will act as key drivers in achieving the set growth target and are being packaged as perfect accompaniments for small office / home offices (SOHOs), small & medium businesses (SMBs) and small workgroups of up to 25 users.Read More…

Mustek recently signed the distribution agreement with Lenovo to distribute Think range being aimed at SMEs and the Idea range at retail outlets in South Africa to spearhead Lenovo’s expansion within the small and medium-sized business (SME) sector. “Although we’re already growing faster than the market, both in South Africa and globally, we have no intention of taking our foot off the accelerator,” says Henry Ferreira, country manager, Lenovo South Africa. “We’re targeting expansion in specific sectors, of which SMB is one of the most significant. Mustek has a decades-long track record of serving that market and provides us, in a single partnership, with a breadth and depth of reach that would otherwise take us much longer to achieve. Read More…

Infor today announced a partnership with global systems integrator, Catalyst Business Solutions to market, implement, train and provide professional services for Infor’s ERP LN, ERP VISUAL, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Performance Management (PM) solutions across the Middle East and Africa, supporting Infor’s growth and expansion plans in these regions. Jean-Baptiste Blanc, vice-president, sales at Catalyst Business Solutions. “In addition to its recently launched portfolio of truly innovative solutions, we were impressed with Infor’s new channel partner network programme, which provides extensive support in the form of local resources, marketing and training.
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Drobo, makers of the award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, recently announced corporate momentum and growth across hiring, partners, and customers, as the market readies for a wave of new storage companies, called Storage 3.0 by a leading industry analyst. Recently, Drobo introduced a new business line custom built for small and medium businesses (SMB), completed two key executive hires and achieved record year-on-year growth and sales levels.Read More…

Netgear, a networking and storage specialist, hosted a special road show with its global technology partner, Acronis, leading disaster recovery and data protection solution provider in Dubai. During the road show, NETGEAR launched its new Global Partner Program for resellers and Acronis released its new edition of backup and disaster recovery solution, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11. “This special roadshow event demonstrates the strength of the relationship that we have developed with NETGEAR and also gives us the key opportunity to meet up with our reseller partners and discuss new strategic and promotions that can help raise their sales and margins,” said David Blackman, General Manager, Acronis NEMEA.
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McAfee recently announced the launch of the SMB Specialization within the McAfee SecurityAlliance program (MSA) to enable partners to improve profitability while addressing the unique needs of SMB customers. McAfee SMB specialization is a program that enables partners to sell targeted security solutions to customers with less than 250 employees. By enrolling in this, partners can offer their customers email, web, data and endpoint security solutions, with on-premise or SaaS delivery models. Also, program partners can take advantage of a monthly billing option, a full range of enablement tools, turnkey marketing programs, and dedicated resources. Read More…

NETGEAR has been ranked as a global leader in the Network-Attached Storage segment in the latest ‘Market Share: Network-Attached Storage (NAS) / Unified Storage Worldwide 2010’ report released by leading IT research firm, Gartner. The report shows the global NAS market grew by 37.4 per cent in 2010, which translates to total revenue of over AED 13.6 billion. NETGEAR ranked number one in global vendor revenue share for NAS/unified storage systems priced under AED 18,400; number four for NAS / unified storage systems under AED 92,000 and ranked eighth in the NAS / unified systems overall segment.Read More…

NEC announced the launch of its new SL series of smart communication servers in the Middle East. Specifically directed at smaller businesses, the SL is an intelligent cost-effective telecommunication solution that packs affordability, efficiency, IP-telephony and ecology all into one. It is equipped with the capabilities to adapt to the needs of any small organisation.
The new SL series offers extreme value for money. Meeting the needs of the increasingly mobile workforce, a mobile phone can be designated as the answering terminal when users are away from their desk or the office.
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Riverbed Technology an IT performance company, has introduced three new Riverbed Whitewater cloud storage gateway models designed to optimise data protection. Whitewater will now allow a wider range of organisations, including small and medium businesses (SMBs), to take advantage of the benefits of cloud data protection. The new Whitewater models 510 and 710 are purpose-built for SMBs, while the Whitewater model 2010 is designed for the mid-sized enterprise and targeted use cases in the large enterprise.
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Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organisations, has named Pervez Qureshi as president and CEO of Epicor, effective immediately. Qureshi brings over 20 years of management experience in the software and technology industry. Since 2006, Qureshi has served as CEO and president of Activant Solutions, which was combined with Epicor following the acquisition of both companies by funds advised by Apax Partners which was completed on May 16, 2011.Read More…

Network Platforms, the distributors for the advanced DrayTek product range in Southern Africa, announced the release of the DrayTek Vigor 2830 Series ADSL Router Firewall. The series provides users with secure uptime and greater bandwidth capacity through triple connections, as well as tough security features. Bradley Love, MD, Network Platforms, said, “One of the main functions of this series is its ability to handle three WAN connections to enhance your Internet connectivity.
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Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organizations has revealed plans to expand and strengthen its channel programme in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with a focus on adding more partners with value-added industry and market expertise to support the growing demand for its next-generation ERP solution. The “Saudi Arabia Information Technology Report Q1 2011” forecasts excellent growth opportunities with the value of KSA’s IT market to reach US $4.9 billion by 2014 from the forecast value of $3.6 billion in 2011. The report shows that the Saudi government continues to regard development of the country’s information communications technologies (ICT) industries as a national priority.
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