Data Trek, Preview - 8th week

OFFICIAL EVENT PREVIEW

JUNE 2015DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE08-09

BROUGHT BY

In a world moving beyond stand-alone devices into an era where every-thing is connected, the Internet of Things (IoT) is opening up a world of new opportunities which are rapidly transforming our busi¬ness practices and daily lives.

With a potential economic impact of US $2.7 trillion to $6.2 trillion annually

by 2025*, the Internet of Things (IoT) also promises vast opportunities for those ready to embrace this modern technology revolution.

With IoT poised to have an unparalleled impact on worldwide industries, it is our pleasure to welcome you to the inaugural IoTx 2015 exhibition and conference. Fea-turing the latest technology and services

with the power to transform business strategies, IoTx will showcase thought leadership from a range of international and regional experts and influencers ready to share the latest industry knowledge and expertise.

To accompany the event, this exclu-sive show supplement will highlight a selection of key speakers who are par-

ticipating at IoTx to reveal how they have made a stand-out contributions to the future of the Internet of Things. Over the following pages, read in the experts own words how the lessons they have learnt, the challenges they have overcome and the objectives they have achieved by embracing the future of the Internet of Things.

Welcome to the age of internet ubiquity

In addition to the speakers taking part in IoTx, we are delighted to welcome a host of key industry experts taking part in the co-located The Big Data Show. This exhibition and conference will answer some of the key questions surrounding one of the fasting growing segments in the IT industry; namely discovering what Big Data is really capable of and how you can use it to benefit your business.

This show supplement will feature a selection of the global big data experts who will be sharing years of data and analytical expertise at the event, as well as exhibiting the latest big data and analytical technology. From this you will gain access to the latest knowledge and technology required to tackle even the most daunting challenges facing modern data powered industries, as well as a host of cutting edge insights for you to apply to your own organisations.

I wish you a successful conference and trust that you will enjoy the lessons learnt and shared by the following industry leaders, and will take away best practices which will benefit your organisation for years to come.

your organisation for years to come.

Regards,

IoTX & The Big Data Show Team

Creating smarter businesses with big data

*Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy, McKinsey Global Institute, 2013

DATATREKOFFICIAL PREVIEW02

“Culture is a more Important Challenge“

ALI REBAIE, INDUSTRY ANALYST AND CONSULTANT FOR BIG DATA

WHAT POTENTIAL IMPACT COULD THE ADOPTION OF

BIG DATA STRATEGIES HAVE ON MIDDLE EASTERN INDUSTRIES?With all the disruption happening within the big data market, it is indeed clear that it is an intimidating task to select amongst the vast array of tools and technologies within the big data landscape. In addition, orga-nizations cannot jump to implementing a Hadoop cluster for example before assess-ing their maturity as an organization when it comes to their people skills, processes, and technology infrastructure. Big data strategies need to be set up in organizations

from distinct industries before implement-ing, and we have been witnessing the need for such strategies in order to set a roadmap which can then enable them to get buy-ins for their big data projects in a timely manner.

CAN YOU IDENTIFY SOME OF THE GREATEST TECHNI-

CAL CHALLENGES FACING ORGANISATIONS WHICH ARE LOOKING TO ADOPT A BIG DATA STRATEGY?Technology challenges like data silos, tradi-tional data governance methodologies, and

data integration are core whenever orga-nizations think about adopting big data strategies. However, in my point of view, culture is a more important challenge as organizations realise the potential rewards and value they can get out of big data. Our experience with different industries in the region like the Oil & Gas, transportation, media, marketing, and retail industries are all beginning to realise this and are moving to a more data-driven approach, which is the key factor to being on the competitive edge in a big data era.

WHAT ARE THE CURRENT BIG DATA ANALYTICS

TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS AVAIL-ABLE TO COMPANIES TO OVER-COME THESE CHALLENGES?Part of our work with big data vendors and start-ups, we have seen innovative solutions in data preparation which are packaged as business user-centric products which then enable automatic and algo-rithmic-based data cleaning and prepara-tion. Thus, filling in the gap of both data integration and the need to collaborate with business users within a data-driven environment. Also, other innovative approaches to data integration is starting to get a spark in the market, such as data vir-tualization which can solve different chal-lenges for organizations who are reluctant in investing in data due to data privacy and sharing restrictions.

WHAT UPCOMING ANA-LYTICAL INNOVATIONS DO

YOU FEEL WILL BE ABLE TO SOLVE THE CURRENT BIG DATA LIMITATIONS IN THE MARKET?The analytical capabilities within the big data market are maturing. Connection Analytics is one of the most promising method which I think it will revolution-ize the way we look at data in different industries.

“Connection Analytics is one of the most promising method which I think it will revolutionize the way we look at data in different industries.”

DATATREKOFFICIAL PREVIEW 03

“IoE is an Ultimate Revenue Generator”

CAN YOU GIVE SOME EXAMPLES OF HOW IOTX

HAS AFFECTED CISCO’S ORGANI-ZATIONAL EFFICIENCY?Together with an ecosystem of partners, at Cisco we have created a powerful, inte-grated platform that incorporates top tech-nology, applications and business models to help governments improve the way com-munities and cities are designed, built and run – from lighting to waste management, from parking and traffic services to safety and security.

HOW IMPORTANT A ROLE DO YOU BELIEVE GOVERN-

MENTS ARE PLAYING IN IOTX INTEGRATION IN THE MAIN-STREAM SOCIETY/BUSINESSES?Globally, some forward-thinking orga-nizations — federal, state, and local governments; healthcare organizations; educational institutions; utilities; and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) — are already seizing the opportunity of the IoE.Governments locally and globally need to update their policies to accommodate growth of powerful new solutions, services and outcomes that can be captured in the

new digital era made possible by the Inter-net of Everything.


IOTX STRATEGIES HAVE ON MIDDLE EASTERN INDUSTRIES? WHICH INDUSTRY DO YOU BELIEVE WILL BE MOST HEAVILY AFFECTED BY IOTX?Becoming a digital business requires an agile IT model, and the ability to rethink core processes for the digital era. Embrac-ing new security, cloud, mobile, social and analytics technologies required to fully

digitize takes imagination, investment and expertise. As the networked connection of people, process, data and things, the Internet of Everything has the potential to further accelerate the Middle East region’s pace of change. Energy can be saved by equipping street lights with intelligent sensors, so they can be dimmed or bright-ened based on motion. Healthcare can be improved by connecting rural patients with chronic diseases to doctors, without ever having to leave their homes. These are just a few of the many outcomes that the Internet of Everything can make possible for the Middle East.

“THE ROLE OF IT WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST WILL CONTINUE TO EVOLVE AS IOE GATHERS PACE, GIVING CIOS, IT DIRECTORS AND BUSINESS LEADERS EVER MORE OPPORTUNITY TO INFLUENCE THE STRATEGIC DIRECTION OF THE BUSINESS.”

RABIH DABBOUSSI.GENERAL MANAGER CISCO UAE


“Evolution of IT Portfolio with IoT”

INTERNET OF ‘THINGS’. WHAT ‘THINGS’ SHOULD

BE CONNECTED AND NOT CONNECTED?Eventually, all things will be connected or at least all things that can benefit from being connected will be connected. What is important is to provide adequate tools to enable using the connectivity and the information obtained through such con-nections efficiently and securely. Ensuring secure access to data and protection of data privacy, providing ability to data owners to monitor and track how the information generated by their smart things is used are among key challenges we are facing.

HOW HAVE THE RECENT CHANGES IN THE MARKET

BEEN REFLECTED IN THE GROWTH OF IOTX? HOW HAS THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF IOTX CHANGED THE EFFICIENCY OF EMPLOYEES?The efficiency of employees will be primar-ily impacted in cases when IoT is applied in industrial processes, but will eventually come to other areas as well. For example, in case of waste management, if every bin is connected, it will not be required to stop by each bin and check if it should be emptied or not, which will have dramatic impact on reduction of time required to manage

waste.

ARE YOU ABLE TO SHARE SOME EXAMPLES FOR

HOW IOT HAS BEEN INCORPO-RATED IN DUNAVNET’S OPERA-TIONS AND SERVICES?DunavNET is active in the IoT domain since 2008. We have been involved in many research and innovation projects, working on development of some core IoT technologies, definition of IoT architec-ture as well as implementation and pilot deployment of many IoT based services. Of particular importance for us are devel-opments done in the domain of air quality

monitoring (www.ekonet.solutions), smart city solutions done in projects SocIoTalIoT Lab and more recently IoT services we are designing for use in the agriculture sector (improving irrigation, monitoring pests in the open field and connecting local farm-ers and customers).

HOW IMPORTANT A ROLE DO YOU BELIEVE GOVERN-

MENTS ARE PLAYING IN IOT INTEGRATION IN THE MAIN-STREAM SOCIETY/BUSINESSES?Governments do have an important role, in particular in the domain of promoting the concepts and education of people in relation to the benefits as well as risks of using different IoT solutions. Further to this, governments should make sure that legislation supports developments in this field, in particular in the domain of data protection. Last, but not the least, public administrations can serve as forerunners by funding development and introducing various IoT based smart services, where smart cities are a field that can hugely benefit.

“IOT IS STARTING TO MAKE IMPACT. PRACTICALLY ALL TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES HAVE ESTABLISHED THEIR IOT TEAMS IN ORDER TO EXPAND INTO THIS FIELD OR TO DEFINE STRATEGY FOR EVOLUTION OF THEIR PORTFOLIO WITH IOT IN MIND.”

SRDJAN KRCO, PHD E.E. CEO AND CO-FOUNDER DUNAV NET


“Revolutionizing Public Service Delivery with IoT”

HOW IMPORTANT ARE EVENTS SUCH AS INTER-

NET OF THINGS EXPO TO SHAR-ING KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION WITHIN THE IOT INDUSTRY?IOTX provides an ideal platform for advancing the sharing of knowledge between the wide range of stakeholders. It is all the more relevant that IOTX is held in Dubai as this process of involvement of the ecosystem is the approach Smart Dubai has taken to enhance the benefits from technol-ogy to people living and visiting Dubai.


IOT STRATEGIES HAVE ON MIDDLE EASTERN INDUSTRIES? WHICH INDUSTRY DO YOU BELIEVE WILL BE MOST HEAVILY AFFECTED BY IOT?There will be impacts in two key areas, namely efficiency of existing activities and the new products or services that will be possible. IOT will be a driver of efficiency on many parameters beyond the profit and loss balance that they may effect.One of the industries impacted from the perspective of providing a relevant ecosys-tem will be the telecommunications sector

as IOT, by its nature, is heavily dependent on fixed or wireless networks to function. This will mean an increase in the require-ment for telecoms providers to deliver networks that facilitate large numbers of sensor devices with always on connectiv-ity, small bandwidth consumption and low power requirements. Likewise we expect local ICT and innovative SMEs to benefit from the expansion of IOT.

CAN YOU GIVE SOME EXAMPLES OF HOW IOT

HAS AFFECTED YOUR ORGANIZA-TIONAL EFFICIENCY?If we take our “organisation” to mean the

Government of Dubai, we have seen IOT start to revolutionise the way that public services are delivered from sectors as varied as water management, energy management, transportation, healthcare and security. A central tenants of the Smart Dubai’s efforts has been to capture these enhancements and bring them together into one coherent strategy. In order to do so, we have developed the Smart Dubai Blueprint from the Current State of Dubai government, Benchmarks of global Smart City initiatives and technology landscape studies. From these we have determined that, for Dubai, the city’s IOT development will require three things:l Unified wireless and landline networks, including new low power wirelessl Orchestration of data coming from IOT systems and sensor management that can be used by multiple entities, over timel Guidelines that implement interna-tional standards locally for IOT deploy-ment, including sensor placement and compatibility.

“DUBAI’S VISIONARY LEADER SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN RASHID AL MAKTOUM EQUATES TECHNOLOGY TO A BUILDING BLOCK TOWARDS EXTRAORDINARY QUALITY OF LIFE, NOT THE END GOAL.”

DR. AISHA BUTTI BIN BISHR.ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL, THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE, GOVERNMENT OF DUBAI


“Working Hand in Hand with IoT”

WHAT KIND OF GROWTH HAPPENING IN THE IOTX

MARKET IN THIS REGION?According to IDC, IOT market is to grow 19% in 2015. IOTX will bring in enormous opportunities in many verticals including consumer, retail, healthcare, government, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries. Dubai Government has already taken several initiatives and most of the government entities started transforming them into a digitally inter connected world.

WHAT KIND OF CHAL-LENGES CIOS FACE WHILE

INTEGRATING IOTX STRATEGY?There are several challenges CIOs will face

during the IOTx implementation apart from the typical technical integration issues which includes that of power, security, stor-age, latency etc, however this should also open numerous opportunities for vendors and system integrators. The operating sys-tems and system standards for IOTX are still evolving and are still under develop-ment and testing. With several platforms, various communication protocols and a huge number of APIs, IOTX integration and testing will not be easy to deal with.

AS A SOLUTIONS PRO-VIDER, HOW DO YOU HELP

THEM?As a system integrator, all these are going

to be opportunities for us and we have already started heavily investing in learn-ing and testing. We are also working closely with several of our vendors and customers, understanding their vision and to assist them in making it work.

WHAT IS YOUR IOTX STRATEGY?

We shall remain as a responsible and reli-able system integrator who will bring in international products and solutions to this region and will closely work with our enter-prise clients to implement them and to have meaningful outcomes.We also have leading business practice for Business Intelligence &Big Data Analytics

and they will work hand in hand with the IOTX team.

WHAT ALL SOLUTIONS YOU HAVE FOR THE

MARKET?Our solutions include for data extraction and cleansing, business intelligence and analytics, enterprise information manage-ment, governance risk and compliance and security etc. apart from the various system integration services we offer.

WHAT IS YOUR MARKET-ING STRATEGY?

Events, Road shows, mailers, and POCs for shortlisted clients.

WHO ARE YOUR MAJOR CUSTOMERS SO FAR AND

WHO ARE EVALUATING NOW?We have engaged with a few clients in the government and retail segments and are currently deliberating with them of the deployment strategy.

“Dubai’s Smart City and Smart Govt Initiatives should act as a catalyst and will soon move to a world of connected city with connected government services, connected buildings, connected education, connected infrastructure, connected cars and with connected people.”

SUNIL PAUL. CO-FOUNDER & COO OF FINESSE


“New Services. Higher Productivity. Fresh Solutions.”

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FOR CIOS IN INTEGRATING IOT?Generally companies signing up to cloud solutions would be expected to do exten-sive research before investing in that solu-tion and it is the CIO’s responsibility to make sure that sufficient due diligence is done to have cloud as part of their infra-structure plans. Nevertheless, businesses need to be aware of user access privileges and what sort of access they are granting a third party cloud provider. Questions they need to ask are “who at the back end has access to my data?” and “if they do have access, how often and why?”

TELL US ABOUT THE INTEL IOT PLATFORM...The Intel IoT Platform helps deliver inno-vations to market faster, reducing solution complexity and delivering actionable intel-ligence by offering a defined, repeatable foundation for how devices will connect and deliver trusted data to the cloud. And it allows OEMs, SIs, and vertical industries to develop and deploy solutions using build-ing blocks on the Intel IoT Platform.

WHAT IS INTEL IOTX STRATEGY?Intel and its ecosystem want to help busi-nesses use the IoT to solve long-standing industry-specific challenges. By quickly

developing IoT solutions that help to con-nect things, collect data, and derive insights with Intel’s portfolio of open and scalable solutions, IoT will reduce costs, improve productivity, and increase revenue.The Internet of Things (IoT) is taking shape. Intel helps connect things to the cloud, integrate with existing infrastruc-ture, and securely manage data.Intel offers an extensive portfolio of open and scalable solutions that let developers connect, pro-tect, and manage things with pre-validated building blocks.The Intel IoT Platform identifies the key components of an IoT solution, how they work together, and where essen-

tial capabilities—such as security and analytics—happen.

SOLUTIONS FOR THE MARKETIntel, McAfee, and Wind River provide the fundamental building blocks that enable this critical interoperability. Working together, they developed Intel® IoT Gate-ways. With pre-integrated, pre-validated hardware and software, the solutions enable you to extract the value in legacy equipment data today.

Intel IoT Gateway development kits help you quickly develop, prototype, and deploy intelligent gateways. The kits also maintain interoperability between new intelligent infrastructure and legacy systems, includ-ing sensors and data-centre servers.

The kits include pre-integrated and pre-validated hardware and software from Intel, McAfee, and Wind River, helping you reduce time-to-market and development costs.

“The Intel IoT Platform an end-to-end platform for connecting the unconnected—allowing data from billions of devices, sensors, and databases to be securely gathered, exchanged, stored, and analysed across multiple industries.”

TOMMI RAITIO.DIRECTOR OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INTERNET OF THINGS MIDDLE EAST TURKEY AND AFRICA, INTEL CORPORATION


“Digitization – A Step Towards Embracing The Internet Of Everything”

The Internet of Things (IoT) is already changing the world. We are now just begin-ning to enter a new realm of the Internet of Everything (IoE), which will bring together things, people, process and data to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before. These connec-tions will turn information into actions that create new capabilities, richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunity for businesses, individuals, and countries.

With over 50 billion networked connec-tions in 2020 and 500 billion by 2030, we see the IoE era becoming a reality soon. Today more than 99 per cent of things in the physical world are not connected.

Imagine what is possible when we connect the unconnected!

According to research by Cisco Con-sulting Services, IoE will be a $19 trillion opportunity for businesses and govern-ments globally over the next 10 years. Cisco estimates that IoE will deliver savings, new revenue gains in employee productivity and quantifiable citizen experience benefits over the next 10 years for private and public sector organizations that connect people, processes, data and things unconnected today.

DIGITIZATION - THE WAY FORWARD

How smartly countries build, manage and operate their governments, infrastructure and businesses will be one of the biggest determinants of their people’s future. Lead-ers are looking to improve efficiencies, reduce their spending and move with speed and agility in deploying new services.There is tremendous potential in the Middle East to build effective, competitive and sustainable nations through digitiza-tion. Digitization will transform citizen services, health, education, and safety and security, improving citizens experience and productivity. Digitization will also transform the way industries such as Oil & Gas, banking, retail, tourism and manufac-

turing, to name some, operate today. This in turn will create employment opportuni-ties and contribute to economic growth through innovation.Today, Global Smart Cities have already reduced water consumption by 50 percent, enhanced energy savings by 30 percent, and reduced traffic by 30 percent. Likewise, smart transport such as the public trans-port Nol card, the Salik electronic toll gate, and driverless Dubai Metro have reduced traffic fatalities from 20 in 2005 to less than 4 in 2014, and the percentage of the population using public transport growing from 6 percent in 2005 to 12 percent in 2014, according to the Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority.Digitization requires organizations to leverage IoE to become more hyper-aware, predictive and agile. These traits will enable them to innovate faster and achieve their desired business outcomes. To achieve suc-cess, they need to apply the digital frame-work across data, people and processes.In a digitized economy with an increased number of valuable connections, success will come not just by changing business models and innovating, but also with a change in mindset.

“There is tremendous potential in the Middle East to build effective, competitive and sustainable nations through digitization.”

SHUKRI EID. DIRECTOR CISCO CONSULTING SERVICES, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA AND RUSSIA, CIS


“Benefitting Humanity with Big Data“


BIG DATA STRATEGIES HAVE ON MIDDLE EASTERN INDUSTRIES?With the launch of Smart City and Smart Government initiatives by the Govern-ment of Dubai, there is huge opportunity for public sector, private sector, academic institutions and residents to collaborate and make our city smarter through creativ-ity and innovation. The Government of Dubai is also leading the region by develop-ing Open Data roadmap, guidelines and policies. Public sector leadership role will help promote data driven initiatives among private sector toowithin UAE and the GCC

region.


CAL CHALLENGES FACING ORGANISATIONS WHICH ARE LOOKING TO ADOPT A BIG DATA STRATEGY?Smart phones, innovative apps, social media platforms, and cutting edge technologies have led to data explosion unprecedented in the history of human civilisation. CIOs must invest in IT sys-tems that enable them to turn increasing amounts of data into strategic insight and intelligence. Organizations need to develop

Big Data Strategy as an integral part of their IT Strategy instead of blindly buying Big Data solutions.

CAN YOU SHARE ANY SPECIFIC COMPANY NEWS

AND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST THAT MAY TIE IN WITH DATA AND ANALYTICS?There are many innovative solutions in the Big Data space. The Big Data solution from GE Aviation in partnership with Accenture is very innovative. It powers a new Indus-trial Internet. The machines can be con-nected directly to the internet like the web. The solution is aimed at improving opera-

tional efficiency and customer experience for Airlines industry. I believe this solution is being implemented by a major airlines in the UAE.

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT RECENT

DEVELOPMENTS IN BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS THAT YOU BELIEVE WILL HAVE THE BIG-GEST IMPACT ON THE INDUS-TRY? WHAT DEVELOPMENTS SHOULD THE MARKET BE AWARE OF THAT THEY AREN’T ALREADY?While everyone talks about benefits of Big Data for public and private organizations, very little has been done in the area of per-sonal data privacy, security and safety. The laws, regulations and policies need to be developed in accordance with social and cultural nuances of a given society. Innova-tive solutions should benefit the humanity at large and not become an obstacle in pro-moting collaboration and communication.

“CURRENTLY WE ARE WORKING ON PROJECTS THAT WILL BUILD BIG DATA AND ADVANCED ANALYTICS CAPABILITIES FOR THE FUTURE”

ABDULLA AL MADANI,CEO, CORPORATE TECHNICAL SUPPORT ERVICES,RTA


“Firms which do not Pursue Big Data will Lose Opportunities”

HOW IMPORTANT ARE EVENTS SUCH AS THE BIG

DATA SHOW TO SHARING KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION WITHIN THE BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS INDUSTRY?Although the concepts involved are not extremely difficult to grasp, a practical and successful application is far from trivial. Seeing examples from others is not only inspirational, but also gives insight into key success factors for turning big data into actual business value.


BIG DATA STRATEGIES HAVE ON MIDDLE EASTERN INDUSTRIES?Considering existing big data strategies, there is a wide range of possible benefits, ranging from optimizing existing business processes to completely new, innovative business models. The reverse is also true: firms that do not pursue big data opportu-nities will eventually lose their competitive edge in an increasingly global business ecosystem.

HOW HAVE THE RECENT CHANGES IN THE ENERGY

MARKET BEEN REFLECTED IN THE GROWTH OF BIG DATA AND

ANALYTICS? HOW HAS THE GROWING IMPORTANCE IN DATA CHANGED THE ENERGY MARKET?A major trend in the energy market is the advent of local, decentralized production of sustainable energy (solar, wind, and other). Also the rise of electric transportation is a major trend. Together, these trends lead to a more sustainable yet also more volatile energy system. To manage the increasing fluctuations of energy demand and supply, much more real-time and more detailed data is required, provided by the smart grid and smart meters. This in turn provides opportunities to do more accurate forecasts as a basis for more dynamic pricing or for

instance for predictive asset maintenance or other data-driven business innovations.

CAN YOU GIVE SOME EXAMPLES OF HOW BIG

DATA HAS DRIVEN ALLIANDER’S INNOVATIONS IN AREAS SUCH AS ENERGY, SUSTAINABILITY AND TRANSPORTATION?One example would be the use of big data in more targeted communication about potential energy savings towards residen-tial customers, by taking data about demo-graphics, buildings and energy usage into account. Another example lies in the area of forecasting the energy demand in our electricity grid, as a basis for optimizing our asset investments, based on technical sensor data, weather data and demograph-ical data, amongst others.

“Dubai’s Smart City and Smart Govt Initiatives should act as a catalyst and will soon move to a world of connected city with connected government services, connected buildings, connected education, connected infrastructure, connected cars and with connected people.”

PIETER DEN HAMER. LEAD BIG DATA & ANALYTICS, ALLIANDER

IN THE 21ST CENTURY, BIG DATA & ANALYTICS ARE OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE TO BUSINESS INNOVATION AND INDEED SOCIETY AT LARGE, INCLUDING OF COURSE THE MIDDLE EAST REGION. HAVING A DEDICATED EVENT IN THE REGION LOWERS THE BAR FOR MORE PEOPLE TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE ABOUT IMPORTANT TRENDS AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. OBVIOUSLY, THE MORE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS, THE BETTER.


“LONG TERM STRATEGIC INITIATIVE“

“The big data is the future source of development decisions worldwide”

MUNTHIR AL-ANSARI,DIRECTOR GENERAL FOR TOURISM INFORMATION AND RESEARCH, SAUDI COMMISSION FOR TOURISM AND ANTIQUITIES

WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THERE TO

BE A DEDICATED BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS EVENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST?Because it is the most important and recent way of understanding the markets. Also it is a way for utilizing the huge investment on data infrastructure in the region.


BIG DATA STRATEGIES HAVE ON MIDDLE EASTERN INDUSTRIES?This will impact the investment in the infrastructure for development. In addition

it will impact the product development and marketing activities of public and private sector.


DATA HAS DRIVEN SAUDI COMMISSION FOR TOURISM AND ANTIQUITIES’ INNOVATIONS IN YOUR AREA OF OPERATIONS?Analysing demand data helped us to high-light the most important source markets for Saudi tourism.


HOW BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS HAVE DRIVEN SAUDI COMMIS-SION FOR TOURISM AND ANTIQ-UITIES’ OPERATIONS AND SERVICES – ESPECIALLY IN THE AREA OF RETAINING CUSTOMERS AND ACCOMMODATING THEIR REQUIREMENTS?AUtilizing the big data from our demand surveys allows us to understand character-istics of tourists in Saudi Arabia.

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT BIG DATA AND

ANALYTICAL LESSONS THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH

YOUR MIDDLE EASTERN COLLEAGUES?It is long term strategic initiative, requires continues knowledge acquiring and shar-ing experience with others.

CAN YOU IDENTIFY SOME OF THE GREATEST TECH-

NICAL CHALLENGES FACING ORGANIZATIONS WHICH ARE LOOKING TO ADOPT A BIG DATA STRATEGY?Data MiningTalent turn over


DEVELOPMENTS IN BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS THAT YOU BELIEVE WILL HAVE THE BIG-GEST IMPACT ON THE INDUS-TRY? WHAT DEVELOPMENTS SHOULD THE MARKET BE AWARE OF THAT THEY AREN’T ALREADY?Knowledge ManagementReal time data


“The Biggest Challenge is not the Technology”

DAVID STEPHENSON. CHIEF DATA OFFICER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, DATA SCIENCE INNOVATION

WHAT ARE THE CURRENT BIG DATA ANALYTICS

TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS AVAIL-ABLE TO COMPANIES TO OVER-COME THESE CHALLENGES?Big data analytics solutions have been progressing for several years, including implementations of R in Hadoop, Apache Mahout, and in-database analytics for major analytics vendors within their MPPs. These provide solutions within certain con-texts, but the underlying challenge remains to develop a business-appropriate analytics framework and not try to replace brain-power with horsepower.


YOU FEEL WILL BE ABLE TO SOLVE THE CURRENT BIG DATA LIMITATIONS ON THE MARKET?I believe cloud computing is helping in terms of lowering the entrance barrier to big data analytics. If nothing else, it allows companies to experiment with the possi-bilities without the large initial investment of time and money that would otherwise be required.

BEYOND DELIVERING CUSTOMER INSIGHTS, IN

WHICH AREAS OF BUSINESS CAN BIG DATA IMPROVE OPERA-TIONAL EFFICIENCIES AND STRATEGIES?It varies per industry, but marketing and product improvements are two big ones (beyond customer insights). A good thought exercise to show this is to identify something you’d like to observe in detail, be it a customer journey, the impact of a product change, an individual’s response to a marketing effort, a series of video foot-age, web logs, etc., in order to gain some business insight. Now imagine being able to simultaneously analyze that insight for

every single customer journey, response, video or event.

HOW NEW TECHNOLOGY IS AFFECTING WORLD-

WIDE BIG DATA STRATEGY AND INFLUENCING MODERN BUSI-NESS MODELS, IN RESPECT TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND WITHIN THE WIDER MARKET IN GENERAL.The ecosystem around Apache products such as Hadoop and Spark continues to mature, with open source and proprietary analytics solutions further developed to run as MapReduce jobs and companies such as Cloudera and Hortonworks pro-ducing tools that increase usability of Big Data solutions in an enterprise setting.


DEVELOPMENTS IN BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS THAT YOU BELIEVE WILL HAVE THE BIG-GEST IMPACT ON THE INDUS-TRY? WHAT DEVELOPMENTS SHOULD THE MARKET BE AWARE OF THAT THEY AREN’T ALREADY?I would say that the biggest potential is from solutions with the lowest threshold of implementation. In that sense, it’s interest-ing to see the product developments with the larger providers of cloud solutions, such as the recently expanded product offerings of Amazon and the acquisition of Revolution Analytics by Microsoft. The low threshold of cloud solutions means that Big Data developments in this area have perhaps the greatest potential for impacting the market.


“Significant Competency, World Class Solutions “

“Our focus is to spread the awareness in terms of long term goals and positioning our customers in terms of how they want to get there. Big Data projects are unlikely to succeed with a Big Bang approach except in rare instances.”

RAJU RAMESH,CO-FOUNDER & CEO OF FINESSE

WHAT IS YOUR BIG DATA STRATEGY?

Our strategy is to build significant com-petency in world class solutions that we can then leverage to provide our custom-ers with a one stop service point. There is the traditional skill ramp up in terms of solutions both on guided and self-service analytics. In addition to this the skills we are building have already started to extend into the area of advanced or statistical ana-lytics that can make meaningful insight. However the most important aspect that requires specialized attention is the ability to architect a robust platform that can serve the customer’s needs over a period of time.

It is this investment in architecture capabil-ity that will form the basis of our roll out successes.


MARKET?Our basket extends all the way from tra-ditional guided and self service analytics, Advanced Statistical analysis and visualiza-tion as well as robust ETL capability. This Analytics suite extends both to the realm of structured and unstructured content and all the way to social media. We are also investing significantly in tools and capa-bility for automation of insight that helps

organizations to focus on the not so obvi-ous. We also have embedded tools today that are in the area of DWA (Data Ware-house Automation) that involve significant workflow capability to make data ready for interpretation.

HOW A CUSTOMER CAN AVAIL OF YOUR SOLU-

TIONS DESPITE THEIR SIZE – BIG OR SMALL?Analytics is not necessarily an exclusive prerogative for the big only. Today there are small footprint companies that have built their whole customer service offer-ing on an Analytics platform only. Case in

point is a company like Uber or ride shar-ing apps like Lyft that are small in size but are capable of some heavy lifting in terms of market penetration. Our attempt will always be to provide a solution to whoever wants to leverage the power of information to either build a business model or grow a business model.

HOW DO YOU MAKE THOSE SOLUTIONS

AVAILABLE TO THE MARKET?We work with our customers to create a blueprint and timescale for the end solu-tion. Based on the roadmap we then start to construct parts that will fit the whole picture all the while focused on how to roll out incremental benefits. From a strictly operational point of view we have business models that can help a customer approach an investment in an OPEX manner so that the burden of large Capital Expenditure can be eased over a period of time. This is starting to resonate with our customers.


“Security, Business Intelligence and Big Data“

SUDHEER SUBRAMANIAN, IT SOLUTIONS DIRECTOR, HUAWEI ENTERPRISE MIDDLE EAST

WHAT KIND OF TREND YOU SEE IN THE REGION

AS FAR AS EMBRACING BIG DATA IS CONCERNED?Like the rest of the world, Middle East enterprises are certainly affected by the rapid pace of technological evolution, espe-cially with regards to storage and managing the influx of Big Data. The Middle East represents a rapidly growing market for big data solutions, which can be seen in sectors such as Public Sector, Education, Health-care, Banking and Oil & Gas. Enterprises in these sectors are all moving into a manda-tory phase of data capturing and storage,

forcing organizations to manage and ana-lyze higher volumes, variety and velocity of data at lower costs.

WHAT KIND OF CHAL-LENGES CIOS FACE WHILE

INTEGRATING BIG DATA STRATEGY?The challenges that CIOs face will greatly depend on the specific big data require-ments of the organization and the current ICT networks and storage systems being utilized.This is why we advise that CIOs take the time to understand what they already have

implemented within the network and what they really need to add in order to analyze, store and extract value from Big Data in real or near real time.Many organizations make the same mis-take of thinking they have a big data solu-tion because they have business intelligence – they perform different functions.l BI is reactive approach with historical data in structured data formatl Big Data BI is the same reactive approach with unstructured data formatl Big Analytics is the proactive or predic-tive approach of real time or near real time analytics of structured data.

l Big Data Analytics is the proactive approach of real time analytics of unstruc-tured dataAdditionally within today’s big data con-text, organizations must consider security across the collection, analysis and storage of sensitive information. These fundamen-tals remain just as important as ever in the age of big data, and unfortunately the topic of security is sometimes overshadowed by discussions of sheer storage capacity and data analytics.


MARKET?Huawei offers Scale-out storage solutions like the OceanStor 9000 which has seen great demand withits 3-in-1 functionality (storage, archiving and analysis capa-bilities in one box) and its operational performance.

“We believe that having an increased volume of collected data does not necessarily have to result in higher levels of data vulnerability. If the right technology framework is in place, organizations can stay protected regardless of how much data they are collecting.”


“Enhancing Public Services with Big Data”

“The challenge of protecting data and being able to fully exploit the value of datais one that all CIOs will face. Establishing a policy and introducing processes to enable this to happen should be the first priority.”

RICHARD HARRIS,SOLUTION DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION AND GOVERNMENT, XEROX

AS A SOLUTIONS PRO-VIDER, HOW DO YOU HELP

THEM?One of the tools, The Mobility Analyt-ics Platform (MAP) uses data analysis and research technology from the Xerox Research Centre Europe to provide a city-wide representation of transportation operations. Important metrics such as commuter numbers and car park statistics can be analyzed, which can provide huge benefits. This tool, which is considered a major contribution to the advancement of improved urban mobility, has been used to anticipate when passengers will leave a transport service and is capable of predict-ing the impact of traffic delays and hostile weather conditions. It is believed that the manner in which the data is collected from

the platform will influence future parking developments.

The transformational nature of Intel-ligent Transport Systems is illustrated through the value and role of big data analytics in Smart Parking Solutions. Smart Parking is an advanced technology solu-tion that involves the use of real time data collection, helpful and reliable information and cell phone enabled automated payment systems that help people pay for parking and predict precisely where they will find a spot.

For instance, in Los Angeles, the Merge Platform tool, which combines data from over 6000 on street parking spaces and four off street car parks and other data sources to provide integrated data for analysis has delivered outstanding results. The analytics

are used to observe parking maintenance, revenue and occupancy and by applying a dynamic pricing algorithm, a more bal-anced use of parking is achieved. This has resulted in a 10% reduction in parking related congestion caused by drivers cir-cling looking for a free space. Another good example is in Nancy, France where data analytics (public transport ticket informa-tion) is used to identify in advance trends in public transport use. This enables the authorities to plan for future development and to increase the efficiency of the current services. Data analytics can thus help in comprehending new trends, travel behav-ior and plan for the future.

WWHAT KIND OF CHAL-LENGES CIOS FACE WHILE

INTEGRATING BIG DATA STRATEGY?The CIOs should focus their attention on data and data integration. Data will drive our future mobility, so it needs to be safeguarded against cyber-attacks. Data integrity is also key as it enables real insight and intelligence and also needs to comply to intellectual property and sensi-tive data constraints. Part of a smart city is to embrace the concept of open data which allows app developers to help accelerate new services and information.

HOW CAN A CUSTOMER AVAIL THEMSELVES OF

YOUR SOLUTIONS DESPITE THEIR SIZE?Getting the maximum return from invest-ment in ITS solutions is essential for both authorities and private sector operators. While it is true that Xerox is best known for solving large scale complex transport challenges (e.g. city and region wide public transport ticketing and operations) we also provide scalable solutions that address more specific and smaller scale operations.


“Discover Disruptive Innovations with Big Data“

“BY UNDERSTANDING THE MACHINES, HOW THEY BEHAVE, WE CAN MAKE OPERATIONS MORE EFFICIENT FOR OUR CUSTOMERS”

FREDRIK OHLSSON,DIRECTOR, GLOBAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE, TETRA PAK


BE A DEDICATED BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS EVENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST?Data (not only big…) and analytics is becoming an invaluable asset for compa-nies and organizations, and the ones that manage this well will have a great com-petitive advantage over the ones that don’t manage this. ME is an emerging region and an important hub for regional and global HQs. Strategies for Data management and analytics has to be tightly linked to the cor-porate strategy, hence indeed a very critical subject for all HQ functions.


DATA HAS DRIVEN TETRA PAK’S INNOVATIONS IN YOUR AREA OF OPERATIONS?We are mining the data from our machines we rent/sell to customers. Analysing this data will help us advice our customers on how to optimize their production, optimize maintenance of machines and to avoid breakdowns.


CAL CHALLENGES FOR ORGANI-SATIONS WHICH ARE LOOKING

TO ADOPT A BIG DATA STRATEGY?I don’t think the biggest challenge is related to technology, However, the challenge I experience is to find big data technol-ogy that is easy to use and can be put into the hands of business users. These are the people that will unlock the business opportunities, not the data scientists. The technology I’m referring to is data acquisi-tion tools and data visualization tools that anybody can use. Today you need to be quite tech savvy to really optimize the use of these tools.


DEVELOPMENTS IN BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS THAT YOU BELIEVE WILL HAVE THE BIG-GEST IMPACT ON THE INDUS-TRY? WHAT DEVELOPMENTS SHOULD THE MARKET BE AWARE OF THAT THEY AREN’T ALREADY?The IoT (internet of things), when every-thing is becoming a data collector. This will open up a completely new world of analyt-ics. The amount of data will be on a level we never been before, there will be a lot of noise and we need to ensure the right skills and the tools are mature enough to turn this data into actionable insight.


“Big Data/Small Data- 2 Sides of a Coin“

CHRISTOPHER O’HEARN, GENERAL MANAGER, TVIEW EMIRATES MEDIA MEASUREMENT COMPANY


CAL CHALLENGES FOR ORGANI-SATIONS WHICH ARE LOOKING TO ADOPT A BIG DATA STRATEGY?In my area, audience measurement, some of the biggest challenges are actually around verification, fraud and transpar-ency. Vast amounts of online advertising is never actually seen by humans and yet it generates huge numbers that become part of big data. This is a major challenge – how to retain the high-level perspective of big

data without losing sight of critical details.


DEVELOPMENTS IN BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS THAT YOU BELIEVE WILL HAVE THE BIG-GEST IMPACT ON THE INDUSTRY? WHAT DEVELOPMENTS SHOULD THE MARKET BE AWARE OF THAT THEY AREN’T ALREADY?For advertisers there is great potential in the use of big data to target specific audi-ences – programmatic advertising, which

may be specific to certain types of viewer. This has been used for some time in online advertising but is more recently coming to television. This is important because televi-sion advertising is extremely effective and viewers are very receptive in a different way to online and other media.


HOW BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS HAVE DRIVEN EMMC’S OPERA-TIONS AND SERVICES – ESPE-CIALLY IN THE AREA OF TRP AND

AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT?Traditionally audience measurement has operated based on very small data from panels and samples. It will continue to do so for very good reasons, but some of the most interesting opportunities in this area are around integrating and blending this with big data, such as the information from set-top boxes and cable networks. Additionally the industry is also looking at how data from online environments can be compared and integrated to TV and other data, which is becoming more important as advertisers develop more sophisticated cross-media campaigns.

“EMMC WORKS AT THE VERY SMALL DATA LEVEL BUT WE ARE INCREASINGLY SEEING INTEREST AND WORKING WITH SOME OF THE VERY BIGGEST DATA OWNERS AND ANALYSTS. THEY ARE DRIVING THE COMBINATION OF BIG DATA WITH SMALL DATA AND LEADING THE MARKET TOWARDS TAKING A MORE INTEGRATED APPROACH”


“Big Data is a Game Changer”

DR. ANASTASIA MIRZOYANTS-MCKNIGHT, CEO AND FOUNDER, MIRZOYANTS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING (MMC)


BE A DEDICATED BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS EVENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST?I think it is really important for the finan-cial sector, which is one of the key sectors in the Middle East market, to understand the opportunities as well as challenges related to the rise of big data.

HOW HAVE THE RECENT CHANGES IN THE ENERGY

MARKET BEEN REFLECTED IN

THE GROWTH OF BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS? HOW HAS THE GROWING IMPORTANCE IN DATA CHANGED THE ENERGY MARKET?The importance of big data for the energy market is high, especially now - at the time when oil prices are very vulnerable. Big data offer an opportunity to maximize assets by reducing costs of doing business through real-time asset management, logistic and distribution optimization. In addition, big data help utilize human resources more effectively by digitizing/automatizing rou-tine activities and applying talent instead to

R&D, operation enhancement, etc.

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT BIG DATA AND

ANALYTICAL LESSONS THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOUR MIDDLE EASTERN COLLEAGUES?I think one of the most interesting develop-ments related to big data is the new oppor-tunity to expand customer base by adding customers typically considered high-risks. Big data help look at the risks and calculate such customers’ profitability from a differ-

ent perspective. Companies that found big-data-driven algorithms that help predict default rates on loans from such population and imbed potential losses in their service fees are earning money while also improving the lives of those poor by proving access to formal financial services.


DEVELOPMENTS IN BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS THAT YOU BELIEVE WILL HAVE THE BIG-GEST IMPACT ON THE INDUS-TRY? WHAT DEVELOPMENTS SHOULD THE MARKET BE AWARE OF THAT THEY AREN’T ALREADY?The three that immediately come to mind:1) The development of alternative credit-score algorithms in financial industry;2) Decentralized digital currencies;3) Recommendation engines as a new marketing tool;

“WE ARE ALL CLOSER TO EACH OTHER COMPARED TO THE TIME BEFORE THE RISE OF BIG DATA. THE CONTEXT OF A SMALLER WORLD AND LARGER MARKET SPACE MEANS INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SMALL- AND LARGE-SCALE INNOVATIONS IN PRODUCT AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT.”


“Big Data is a Big Deal”

HOW IMPORTANT ARE EVENTS SUCH AS THE BIG

DATA SHOW TO SHARING KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION WITHIN THE BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS INDUSTRY?It is very important to have a forum for

discussion and knowledge sharing. Knowl-edge discovery, latest trends in analytics and technology and vendor contribution to best practice frameworks are vital to update, improve and share.


BIG DATA STRATEGIES HAVE ON MIDDLE EASTERN INDUSTRIES?Big Data is a big deal, to borrow a phrase from the boffins at Harvard University. There is data every day, everywhere, in every sector - be it from phones, sensor-equipped buildings, televisions, credit cards, trains; cars; medical tech; agriculture yields, logistics..... and more. Organizations that adopt a Big Data strategy, finding ways to link and analyse data and uncover the patterns and insights stand to benefit mas-sively, enhance profitability and contribute to development of communities they are actively present in.

CAN YOU IDENTIFY SOME OF THE GREATEST TECH-

NICAL CHALLENGES FACING ORGANISATIONS, WHICH ARE LOOKING TO ADOPT A BIG DATA STRATEGY?It is less a matter of great technical chal-lenges but much more of visionary, busi-ness and decision-making framework challenges that can hold organizations back. And of course there is the challenge of data analytics expertise, which our industry here in the Middle East should address rapidly. Organisations should work hand-in-glove with centres of educa-tional excellence in the region to train the next generation of smart data scientists.


YOU FEEL WILL BE ABLE TO SOLVE THE CURRENT BIG DATA LIMITATIONS ON THE MARKET?Advances in Big Data infrastructure solu-tions/ Network Visualization and Software Defined Networks (SDN) for Cloud Com-puting are exciting.

ABIM ONASANYA, HEAD OF RESEARCH & INSIGHTS, MBC

THE MIDDLE EAST IS A REGION THAT IS VERY PARTICULAR IN ITS CULTURE YET GLOBAL IN ITS OUTREACH AND AMBITION. AS EXEMPLIFIED BY DUBAI, IT IS THE CENTRE OF GLOBAL COMMERCE AND LOGISTICS, ATTRACTING SEVERAL MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES AND CONSUMERS FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE. THE REGION IS ON THE BRINK OF LEAPFROGGING LEGACY MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM AND THINKING, DRIVEN BY AHIGHLY SAVVY AND HIGHLY DEMANDING ASPIRATIONAL AND AFFLUENT SOCIETY. AS SUCH, IT IS ESSENTIAL TO HAVE A COMING TOGETHER OF LEADING THINKERS AND EXPONENTS OF BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS IN A FORUM DEDICATED TO THE REGION’S DEMANDS AND FUTURE EXPANSION.


“IoT Boosts Efficiency, Safety and Democracy”

STEVEN R. RAY, PH.D. DISTINGUISHED RESEARCH FELLOW, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

HOW IMPORTANT ARE EVENTS SUCH AS INTER-

NET OF THINGS EXPO TO SHAR-ING KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION WITHIN THE IOTX INDUSTRY?These kinds of events are key to gaining knowledge about things you didn’t know you didn’t know – in other words, seren-dipitous learning. Also, networking is really only feasible by physically getting together.


IOTX STRATEGIES HAVE ON MIDDLE EASTERN INDUSTRIES?From an economic perspective, I believe it is the industrial internet of things that will have the greatest impact, rather than consumer applications. The Oil and Gas industry sector clearly can benefit, as well as transportation, and civic infrastructures.

INTERNET OF ‘THINGS’. WHAT ‘THINGS’ SHOULD

BE CONNECTED AND NOT CONNECTED?The biggest worry is security and privacy.

When physical devices become connected to the internet, the stakes rise tremen-dously, because the risk goes from simply loss of information to actual physical damage. I believe such devices should still be connected, but strong attention should be paid to proper authentication, authori-zation, and related security measures.

HOW HAVE THE RECENT CHANGES IN THE MARKET

BEEN REFLECTED IN THE GROWTH OF IOTX? HOW HAS THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF IOTX

CHANGED THE EFFICIENCY OF EMPLOYEES?Living in Silicon Valley, I can say that atten-tion here has moved from pure software development to cyber-physical systems, i.e. the Internet of Things. People are rec-ognizing that we are only at the early stages of impacting efficiency, so there are still tremendous gains to be realized.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE KEY LEARNINGS OF IOTX

YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOUR MIDDLE EASTERN COLLEAGUES?It is very important to recognize the criti-cal role played by technical standards in enabling interoperability among IOT systems.

HOW CAN IOTX INFLU-ENCE (POSITIVELY OR

NEGATIVELY) OVERALL DEVEL-OPMENT OF ANY COUNTRY?Positives: Increases in efficiency, safety and democracyNegatives: Risk of loss of privacy and misuse of data

“Local governments have a critical role to play in incorporating IOTX technology into the civilian infrastructure (transportation, water, electricity, health…) Most of this will play out at the local level.”


“Capturing the Full Value of IoT”

“The Internet of Things (IoT) will be the Middle East’s biggest game-changer, and enterprises need to develop comprehensive strategies to reimagine businesses and business models in this new Digital Economy”

HANNES LIEBE,COO, SAP MENA

As more objects and devices are con-nected, they are creating vast amounts of data that Middle East businesses can leverage for actionable insights on supply chain, research and product development, customer preferences, and location-based services and offers.

With the Middle East’s IoT market growth outpacing the global average, the region’s IoT hardware and services rev-enues will reach nearly USD 2 billion in 2015, according to Deloitte. Organizations here are ideally placed to leverage the IoT, connecting at least 50 billion devices and generate USD 14.4 trillion in value by 2020, according to Stephenson Strategies and SAP.

Now, Middle East organizations are still being held back from capturing the fullIoT

value due to complex processes such as scattered information, slower batch pro-cessing of data, and technical limitations. The IoTX and especially the Big Data Show, for which SAP is a Gold Sponsor, and Lead Sponsor, respectively, are ideal platforms for Middle East organizations to learn how real-time Big Data analysis can simplify processes, and become more agile, efficient, and productive.

To support IoT solutions take-up, we’ve recently launched the SAP HANA Cloud Platform for the Internet of Things for businesses to securely tap into a network of connected devices.

And we’re also seeing strong take-up of our SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA (SAP S/4HANA), which will help Middle East customers realize the full potential of

analytics, Big Data, the business network, and IoT – all in one single platform. It will allow customers to innovate new business models, deliver unique customer experi-ences, and run world-class business pro-cesses. SAP S4/HANA is not only the only fourth generation ERP in the market, it will be the platform that enables the dream of a digital enterprise.

SAP counts more than 370 SAP S4/HANA customers worldwide, and two of the earliest adopters in the region are Bin Sammar Trading and Contracting Com-pany, one of the Kingdom of Saudi Ara-bia’s leading contracting companies, and Al Khalili Group, one of Oman’s leading conglomerates.

SAP S/4HANA adds to the SAP MENA partner ecosystem of solutions, includ-

ing in-memory computing SAP HANA, Mobility (SAP Fiori), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and SAP cloud offerings in Human Capital Management (Success Factors), Customer Relationship Manage-ment (Cloud for Customer), and Supplier Relationship Management (Ariba).

With 125,000 global partners, SAP sees strong potential for MENA, one of the fastest-growing regions in our SAP Global Alliance Partner Program and our Partner-Edge Program to drive innovation, which are the key of our marketing strategy. SMEs are a key part of SAP’s long-term strategy and goals worldwide, as the majority of new SAP customers are now SMEs.

The SAP MENA Training and Devel-opment Institute executes programs that target students, young graduates, and expe-rienced workers to bring essential business skills around SAP solutions, including the Young Professional Program, more than 100 University Alliance Partners, and Dual Study Education.

In the region, we’re continuing to enhance our focus on the high-growth ver-ticals of Smart Cities, public sector, health-care, education, sports, and oil and gas.


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