OMA Emirates Wins BFSI Solutions Vendor of the Year for the Second Time at GEC Awards 2016

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, November 9, 2016:   OMA Emirates Group, a provider of cutting edge technology for the payment industry was awarded the BFSI Solutions Vendor of the Year at the GEC Awards 2016. The awards recognize excellence in the Middle East and Africa across industry channels including vendors, distributors and resellers. Winning the award for the second consecutive year reiterates the company’s ongoing efforts to provide a wide range of solutions that match industry expectations and customer service levels.  

“The last few years have proved to be an excellent time for us at OMA Emirates where we have made very strong efforts to introduce robust solutions and services which have proved to be extremely beneficial for the BFSI industry. Ranging from our end-to-end Managed Services for banks, to providing innovative platforms which help to broaden not only the payment acceptance and issuance possibilities, but have also enriched the customer service levels through the OMA Retail Suite and our Benefits Beyond loyalty cards,” said, Niranj Sangal, Group CEO, OMA Emirates Group. “We are extremely pleased to be recognized for these achievements, all of which would not be possible without our reliable team and partners and we are thankful for their ongoing support.” Sangal added.

Technology is now being recognized as one of the important factors which can lead to highly successful and effective BFSI systems, processes and business outcomes. OMA Emirates is focused on providing cost effective solutions that can add value to the industry and has made strong investments in Morocco and India which will help in enhancing the company’s product portfolio as well as increase the its geographical footprint.  The latest investment in MobiSwipe in India will now provide OMA Emirates the most convenient mobile payment solution that enables merchants to accept credit and debit cards anywhere and anytime.

IMF Publishes Fiscal Transparency Evaluation for Tunisia

Tunisia has witnessed a profound transformation of its political institutions in the wake of the 2011 revolution, including a new Constitution that came into force on January 27, 2014

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The Tunisian authorities have welcomed the FTE report

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America, November 8, 2016/APO/ --

The IMF has today published a Fiscal Transparency Evaluation (FTE) report for Tunisia, which was carried out at the request of the Government of Tunisia by a joint team from the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs and Statistics Departments that visited Tunis in November-December 2016. This report assesses Tunisia’s fiscal transparency practices based on the IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Code.

Tunisia has witnessed a profound transformation of its political institutions in the wake of the 2011 revolution, including a new Constitution that came into force on January 27, 2014. In this context, the authorities have launched several reforms with a view to modernizing public financial management and enhance the transparency of public finances. The establishment of a newly elected government in early 2015 also presents an opportunity to boost the reform agenda in this area.

The FTE—carried out by the IMF team, in close collaboration with key counterparts in the Ministry of Finance and other relevant government agencies—found that while Tunisia performs well against the Fiscal Transparency Code in some areas, improvements are needed in several other areas to bring country practices in line with international standards. Many indicators can be improved in the short term by consolidating and publishing information that are available but fragmented and also by publishing existing analyses that are prepared for internal management purposes.

The report recognizes several key strengths of fiscal transparency practices in Tunisia such as the centralized preparation of fiscal statistics in accordance with the Special Data Dissemination Standard; timely publication of monthly fiscal reports, with comparison between budget forecast and outturn, since 2014; annual reconciliation of budget outturn data with fiscal statistics and final accounts; a clear legal framework defining the time table for adoption of the budget and its key contents; and the use of a supplementary budget to authorize any material changes to the approved budget.

The evaluation also highlights the need to strengthen the government’s ongoing reform process including:

• Expanding the coverage of fiscal reports to include the wider public sector and balance sheet information, with an initial emphasis on financial assets and liabilities;
• Extending the horizon of fiscal and budgetary forecasts and explicitly stating and reporting on measurable medium-term fiscal policy objectives;
• Disclosing financial forecasts of the social security funds in the budget documentation, including all direct and indirect support provided by the State;
• Conducting an analysis of the sustainability of public finances in the longer term; and
• Commencing the preparation of a fiscal risks statement that provides a consolidated view of all major risks to the public finances and associated mitigation measures.

The Tunisian authorities have welcomed the FTE report. The implementation of the reforms already planned by the authorities and recommended in this report, including publishing existing analyses that are prepared for internal management purposes, will result in a considerable improvement in fiscal transparency in Tunisia in the coming years.

Further information about the new IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Code and Evaluation can be found here.

TechAccess Sharpens Focus on Saudi Arabia; Encourages Partner Training in KSA with Partner HUB

Riyadh, KSA, November 9, 2016: TechAccess, the leading value-added distributor in the Middle East, North Africa, Levant, Pakistan and Afghanistan is sharpening its focus on Saudi Arabia and is encouraging its partner community to advance their skills by taking advantage of its fully equipped Partner HUB. TechAccess’ dedicated Partner HUB located in Riyadh, is the distributors efforts to enable its reseller base with complete insight on solutions and current market dynamics. TechAccess has invested in this state-of-the art facility by deploying only the best-of-breed technology from across its vendor portfolio.

“Saudi Arabia a vital market for TechAccess, as we tighten our focus on providing organizations with technologies that will help drive the country’s digital endeavor. Technology deployments in the country are becoming more strategic; we believe it is crucial for partners to stay up-to-date on current trends and technological developments in-order to scale high levels of efficiency in deploying these solutions, and deal with complex implementations. The Partner HUB is an indispensable component of our value addition efforts to ensure that our partners update their skills, and provide customers with live demonstrations of the solutions that they are investing in,” said Sherif M. Alashery, General Manager- KSA at TechAccess.

The Partner HUB facility consists of a Partner Academy for training, a Partner Studio for customer meetings, a Migration Centre and a Systems Room. The Partner HUB has been fully functional for more than a year and TechAccess has conducted numerous partner and customer training. All training and courses are delivered by experienced professionals and covers the full range of solutions including Server and Infrastructure, Virtualization, Security, Data backup, Storage, Data Archiving, Disaster Recovery, Networks and Unified Communications.

The Migration Center at the Partner HUB is designed to provide practical & technical support to partners for migrating or upgrading solutions. The Partner Studio offers a central location for partners to meet with their customers and prospects. TechAccess is currently working on a range of projects including Proof-of-Concept focused on showing partners and customers the performance of its technology stack, as well as migrations and upgrading to new product versions. 

Strategic partnership between Buzinessware and NetApp to help Middle East businesses transition to next gen data centres

Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider to fuel its On-demand Managed Infrastructure with NetApp SolidFire All-Flash Storage

November 09, 2016

Buzinessware, a leading Middle East Hosting Specialist, has revealed that it has become the Middle East region’s first ever provider to deploy NetApp’s SolidFire all-flash scale-out storage to help further reinforce its hosting and cloud services. The strategic new partnership between Buzinessware and NetApp, a leading American multinational storage and data management company, will now allow companies in the UAE with key access to agile, scalable, on-demand storage infrastructure that delivers predictable, cost-effective performance in the cloud--along with reliable 24/7 UAE-based support.

40% of current market leaders could get displaced by digital disruption in five years. Designing & launching a next generation data center is the answer for being a disruptor, not get disrupted. In its 2015 Middle East Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) predictions, Deloitte expects the region’s digital economy to double by 2018, reaching US$30 billion. Growing revenue in the digital economy requires on-demand infrastructure elasticity–the unique ability offered by NetApp SolidFire to independently scale capacity and performance–without impacting production workloads. With NetApp SolidFire at the core of its cloud infrastructure, Buzinessware is well positioned to support customers’ cloud initiatives by enabling them to increase revenue, minimize cost and reduce risk

“We are very excited with this new development for Buzinessware--being the first in the region to offer NetApp SolidFire,” said Sajid Mulla, CEO, Buzinessware. “This new solution will address the challenge of meeting the demand for consistent, predictable performance in the cloud--even in the face of ever-increasing demands. Our partnership with NetApp will now give us the ability to deliver the exact level of performance required for each and every one of our customer’s applications while also making changes to performance and capacity on the fly without any disruption. We can help customers cost-effectively manage their core business services on demand, accelerate the pace of their innovation and drive true value in their businesses.”

Unlike any other technology, NetApp SolidFire enables Buzinessware to guarantee performance to each and every customer application and workload, scale out non-disruptively, and automate its entire storage infrastructure to keep operational costs low. As a result, it provides a superior hosting and cloud computing experience to customers by delivering reliable, high-performance, cost-effective infrastructure services.

“Buzinessware is a leader in accelerating the Middle East’s global success and giving its customers a competitive advantage in the digital economy,” said Stuart Oliver, Global Consulting Director, Fueled by SolidFire. “Buzinessware’s infrastructure, fueled by NetApp SolidFire, empowers customers to capitalize on the agility, automation and scalability of a next generation data center, enabling new business opportunities and driving new growth.”

"بيزنس وير" تعقد شراكة استراتيجية مع "نت آب" لمساعدة الشركات في الشرق الأوسط على التحول إلى الجيل الجديد من مراكز البيانات

9 نوفمبر 2016 - عقدت "بيزنس وير"، إحدى الشركات الرائدة في مجال توفير تكنولوجيا الإنترنت في الشرق الأوسط، شراكة استراتيجية مع "نت آب"، إحدى الشركات الأمريكية الرائدة في مجال التخزين وإدارة البيانات. وبموجب هذه الشراكة تصبح "بيزنس وير" أول شركة في منطقة الشرق الأوسط  التي تقوم بإعتماد نظام التخزين بالذاكرة الضوئية والقابل للتوسيع "سوليد فاير" من شركة "نت آب" بهدف تعزيز خدماتها في مجال الاستضافة والحوسبة السحابية. وسيتاح للشركتين من خلال الشراكة الاستراتيجية، الوصول إلى بنية تحتية للتخزين تتميز بالمرونة وقابلية التطوير وتتاح عند الطلب من شأنها توفير أداء منخفض التكلفة ويمكن التنبؤ به في مجال التقنية السحابية إلى جانب الدعم الموثوق على مدار الساعة في دولة الإمارات.

ومع التطور الرقمي الحاصل، فإنه يمكن لـ 40% من الشركات الرائدة في السوق حالياً أن تخرج من الأسواق في غضون 5 سنوات في حال لم تعتمد على تصميم وإطلاق جيل جديد من مراكز البيانات التي تتيح لها الحل الأمثل لتكون شركات تواكب التطورات الجارية كي لا تتعثر في أعمالها. وترى شركة "ديلويت" في تقريرها حول توقعات العام 2015 لأسواق التكنولوجيا والاعلام والاتصالات، أن الاقتصاد الرقمي سيتضاعف بحلول العام 2018 لتصل قيمته إلى 30 مليار دولار. وتتطلب زيادة الإيرادات في الاقتصاد الرقمي وجود بنية تحتية مرنة تحت الطلب، وهي الميزة الفريدة التي يوفرها نظام التخزين "سوليد فاير" من (نت آب) من أجل تطوير قدرات وأداء الشركات باستقلالية دون التأثير على أعباء الإنتاج. ومن خلال تبنيها لنظام "سوليد فاير" ضمن بنيتها السحابية، تصبح "بيزنس وير" في وضع جيد يؤهلها دعم المبادرات السحابية للعملاء من خلال مساعدتهم على زيادة الإيرادات وتخفيض التكاليف والحد من المخاطر.

وقال ساجد مُلا، الرئيس التنفيذي لشركة "بيزنس وير": "نحن سعداء للغاية بالتطور الجديد الذي طرأ على أعمالنا والذي أصبحنا من خلاله أول شركة على مستوى المنطقة تعتمد نظام التخزين "سوليد فاير" وتتيح توفيره في السوق. وسيعمل هذا الحل الجديد على معالجة التحدي المتمثل في الحاجة إلى أداء مرن ومتسق يمكن التنبؤ به في مجال التقنية السحابية، حتى في تزايد المطالب من هذا النوع. وستتيح لنا شراكتنا مع "نت آب" القدرة على تقديم مستوى الأداء المطلوب لكل تطبيق من تطبيقات عملائنا مع إحداث التغييرات المطلوبة من حيث الأداء والقدرة بشكل فوري ودون أية عراقيل. كما يمكننا مساعدة العملاء على إدارة أعمالهم وخدماتهم الأساسية بفعالية من حيث التكلفة وعند الطلب، بالإضافة إلى تسريع وتيرة الابتكار وإحداث قيمة حقيقية في أعمالهم".

وبخلاف التقنيات الأخرى، يساعد "سوليد فاير" شركة "بيزنس وير" على ضمان أداء أفضل لكل تطبيق وكمية عمل لدى العملاء، بالإضافة إلى توسيع نطاق التخزين دون عراقيل، فضلاً عن أتمتة كامل بنيتها التحتية للتخزين بغية الحفاظ على انخفاض التكاليف التشغيلية. وكنتيجة لذلك توفر الشركة خدمات متميزة فيما يتعلق بالاستضافة والحوسبة السحابية بما يوفر للعملاء خدمات بنية تحتية موثوقة وعالية الأداء ومنخفضة التكاليف.

من جانبه، قال ستيوارت أوليفر، مدير الاستشارات العالمية لدى "سوليد فاير": "تعد "بيزنس وير" إحدى الشركات الرائدة التي تسهم في تسريع النجاح العالمي لمنطقة الشرق الأوسط ومنح عملائها ميزة تنافسية في الاقتصاد الرقمي. وستمكن البنية التحتية للشركة المُعززة بنظام التخزين "سوليد فاير" العملاء من الاستفادة من ميزات المرونة والأتمتة وقابلية التدرج لجيل جديد من مراكز البيانات، ما يتيح فرص أعمال جديدة ويدفع بمزيد من النمو".

IMA Launches Regional Initiative to Empower Business Leaders in the Middle East

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, November 8, 2016 (ME NewsWire): IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants), the global association of accountants and financial accountants in business, is conducting a roadshow across the Middle Eastern countries to drive value in corporate organizations. Dennis Whitney, Senior Vice President, Certifications, Exams, and Content Integration for IMA, will be arriving from the Unites States to chair the event, speak about IMA’s globally recognized management accounting certification (CMA), and conduct sessions on managing innovation, risk, and adapting to new technology, amongst other trending topics in the finance industry.

Whitney has held positions as CFO for a management consulting company and tax accountant for an insurance company before joining IMA in 1993. And to add to his expertise, Whitney has presented on a variety of topics, including computer-based testing, the business of certification, growing a credential overseas, closing the accounting and finance skills gap, financial leadership, and ethics.

“The roadshow aims to use presentations, conferences, corporate and university visits as a platform to speak to growing professionals and empower the business leaders within them,” says Whitney. “Management accountancy is an integral part of any business, and it is essential that students and working professionals are encouraged and taught how to use this tool their best advantage.”

SCHEDULE:

Date	Activity
Tuesday  8th	Arrives to Dubai
Wednesday  9th	Jordan - Roadshow
Thursday  10th	Jordan - Corporate Visits
Sunday 13th	Muscat Roadshow
Monday 14th	Dammam Roadshow
Tuesday 15th	Dubai -  MECA Conference - Student Presentation at  AUS ( American University of Sharjah)
Wednesday 16th	Leaves Dubai

To register please visit: http://imamiddleeast.org/roadshow16

معهد المحاسبين الإداريين يطلق مبادرة إقليمية لتمكين رواد الأعمال في الشرق الأوسط

دبي، الإمارات العربية المتحدة، 8 نوفمبر 2016 – ("إم إي نيوز واير"): يقيم معهد المحاسبين الإداريين "IMA"، وهو الرابطة العالمية للمحاسبين والمحاسبين الماليين في الشركات، جولةً ترويجية في دول الشرق الأوسط لدعم وتطوير المهارات المحاسبيه في قطاع المال والأعمال. وسيصل دينيس ويتني، نائب الرئيس الأول لشؤون الشهادات والامتحانات وتكامل المحتوى لدى معهد المحاسبين الإداريين، قادماً من الولايات المتحدة لترؤس هذا الحدث والتكلم عن شهادة المحاسب الإداري المعتمد("CMA") من معهد المحاسبين الإداريين المعترف بها عالمياً، وتقديم محاضرات في إدارة الابتكار والمخاطر واعتماد التقنيات الجديدة، بالإضافة إلى مواضيع شائعة أخرى في قطاع الخدمات المالية.

وشغل ويتني منصب الرئيس التنفيذي للشؤون المالية في شركة استشارات إدارية، بالإضافة لعمله كمحاسب ضريبي لدى شركة تأمين قبل انضمامه إلى معهد المحاسبين الإداريين عام 1993. وإضافة إلى خبراته، قدم ويتني مجموعة متنوعة من المواضيع، بما في ذلك الاختبار المحوسب وشهادات الأعمال ونمو الاعتمادات في الخارج وسد الفجوة في المهارات المالية والمحاسبية والريادة المالية والأخلاق.

وقال ويتني: "تهدف الجولة إلى استخدام العروض التقديمية والمؤتمرات والزيارات للشركات والجامعات كمنصة للتحدث إلى العدد المتنامي من المهنيين وتمكين رواد الأعمال فيهم. تعتبر المحاسبة الإدارية جزءاً لا يتجزأ من أي عمل، وإنه لمن الضروري تشجيع الطلاب والمهنيين العاملين وتعليمهم كيفية استخدام هذه الأداة بالشكل الأمثل لمنفعتهم وبالتالي منفعة شركاتهم".

جدول الأعمال:

التاريخ	الأنشطة
الثلاثاء 8 نوفمبر	الوصول إلى دبي
الأربعاء 9 نوفمبر	محاضرة في الأردن
الخميس 10 نوفمبر	الأردن – زيارات للشركات
الأحد 13 نوفمبر	محاضرة في مسقط
الاثنين 14 نوفمبر	محاضرة في الدمام
الثلاثاء 15 نوفمبر	دبي – مؤتمر MECA- محاضرة لطلاب الجامعة الأمريكية في الشارقة
الأربعاء 16 نوفمبر	مغادرة دبي

للتسجيل يرجى زيارة الرابط الإلكتروني التالي: http://imamiddleeast.org/roadshow16