Cerner Masouliya to Develop Local Talent in Middle East

Program designed to provide participants with deeper understanding of health care and information technology

UAE, May 29, 2017- To develop local talent in the region and support nationalization programs throughout the Middle East, Cerner Middle East & Africa today announced the launch of the Cerner Masouliya (meaning “responsibility” in Arabic) program.

This program is designed to provide nationals in the region with knowledge in health care and information technology, as well as to develop skills to help their respective health care organizations transform the medical system in their countries.

Masouliya is aligned with the initiatives of multiple governments in the Middle East to create employment opportunities for nationals and to prepare them to deal with operational and strategic decisions across the private and public sectors.

“We’re proud to help develop the talents of local individuals who want to improve health care in their countries and become future leaders,” said Michael Pomerance, vice president and general manager of Cerner Middle East & Africa. “Cerner Middle East will provide training and experience for various projects, depending on the participant’s area of expertise and future career aspirations in the public or private sectors.”

Masouliya began April 2 with three trainees from Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt.

“The Masouliya program provides trainees an opportunity to gain valuable informatics knowledge that is in high demand and important for their organizations’ ability to manage and support their health care IT system,” said Karim Abd Elhay, strategic business executive, Cerner Middle East.

“Our relationship with Cerner has been much more than a supplier-client relationship. The Masouliya program reflects the spirit of collaboration between Children’s Cancer Hospital and Cerner,” said Dr. Sherif Abouelnaga, CEO, Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 Group.

 سيرنر تطلق برنامج "مسؤولية" لتطوير المواهب المحلية في الشرق الأوسط

المبادرة تستهدف تعزيز مهارات المشاركين في مجال الرعاية الصحية وتكنولوجيا المعلومات

الإمارات - 29 مايو 2017 - أعلنت "سيرنر الشرق الأوسط وأفريقيا" اليوم عن إطلاق برنامج "سيرنر للمسؤولية" لتطوير المواهب المحلية ودعم برامج التوطين الجارية في جميع أنحاء الشرق الأوسط. ويهدف البرنامج إلى تزويد الكفاءات البشرية بالمعرفة اللازمة في مجال الرعاية الصحية وتكنولوجيا المعلومات، فضلاً عن تطوير مهاراتهم بما يدعم جهود مؤسسات الرعاية الصحية التي يعملون بها للارتقاء بمستوى جودة وكفاءة النظام الطبي محلياً وإقليمياً.

وجاء إطلاق برنامج "مسؤولية" انسجاماً مع المبادرات النوعية التي أعلنت عنها العديد من الحكومات في منطقة الشرق الأوسط، بهدف إيجاد المزيد من فرص العمل للمواطنين وإعدادهم بالشكل الأمثل للتعامل بكفاءة مع القرارات التشغيلية والاستراتيجية في مختلف هيئات القطاعين الحكومي والخاص.

وقال مايكل بوميرانس، نائب الرئيس والعضو المنتدب لشركة "سيرنر الشرق الأوسط وأفريقيا": "لقد أخذنا على عاتقنا مسؤولية تطوير مواهب المواطنين الذين يطمحون إلى شغل مناصب قيادية يمكنهم من خلالها تحسين مستوى الرعاية الصحية في بلدانهم، ونحن فخورون بقيامنا بهذه المهمة التي نتطلع من خلالها إلى إحداث بصمة إيجابية واضحة. ويسرّنا في "سيرنر الشرق الأوسط" أن نضع بين أيدي جميع المعنيين في الشرق الأوسط محفظتنا الشاملة من خدمات التدريب، إلى جانب خبرتنا العريقة لتنفيذ مختلف المشاريع الطموحة، وذلك تبعاً لتخصصات المشاركين وبما يساعدهم على تحقيق تطلعاتهم المهنية الحالية والمستقبلية في القطاعين العام والخاص".

وشهد برنامج "مسؤولية" أول انطلاقة له في 2 نيسان/أبريل مع ثلاثة متدربين من مستشفى سرطان الأطفال في مصر. وتعليقاً على الموضوع، قال كريم عبد الحي، المدير التنفيذي لاستراتيجيات الأعمال في شركة "سيرنر الشرق الأوسط": "يعتبر برنامج "مسؤولية" فرصةً مثاليةً للمتدربين لاكتساب وإثراء المعرفة المعلوماتية، التي تحظى بإقبال واسع وأهمية عالية لدورها في تعزيز قدرة المؤسسات على إدارة ودعم نظام تكنولوجيا المعلومات للرعاية الصحية."

ومن جانبه، قال الدكتور شريف أبو النجا، الرئيس التنفيذي لمستشفى سرطان الأطفال في مصر- مجموعة 57357: "إن ما يربطنا بشركة سيرنر أكثر من مجرد علاقة بين المورد والعميل. ويأتي برنامج "مسؤولية" ليجسد العلاقة الوثيقة والمثمرة التي تربطنا وتعكس روح التعاون البنّاء بين مستشفى سرطان الأطفال وسيرنر".

وقال المهندس ايمن ابراهيم، نائب الرئيس للتكنولوجيا بمستشفى سرطان الاطفال بمصر، علاقتنا بشركة سيرنر تمتد لقرابة العشر سنوات، وقد شرفنا بالتعاون مع سيرنر كأول مؤسسة في المنطقة تبدأ برنامج مسؤولية".

Five lessons for leaders in turbulent times

LBS experts highlight tactics to help business leaders handle volatile economic climate

Dubai, UAE, 29 May 2017 - Since the financial crisis of 2007/2008, volatility has returned to new highs. When faced with turbulent times, leaders in business, politics and society tend to relay contrasting responses.

London Business School’s Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Dominic Houlder and Executive Fellow of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Nandu Nandkishore believe the future belongs to leaders who ignore the pressure to slash jobs, capture value and retreat, and instead choose to pursue sustainable value creation. They have drawn up a list of tactics to help business leaders handle today’s volatile economic climate:

1. Be agile

Where in the past companies might have developed a strategy and created a step-by-step process to execute it, today leaders need a more iterative approach that lets them respond to the sheer pace of change and number of sources of disruption.

2. Build resilience

Resilience and robustness is also required – an ability to absorb shocks. And while large corporations are often written off as lumbering dinosaurs, they are more like saltwater crocodiles who might look like dinosaurs, but when the opportunity is there, they’ll snap it up.

3. Stay true to your purpose

It is vital for a leader to understand the sense of purpose that exists in an organisation. And a leader should be very careful about tampering with it or changing it. In times of turbulence, it is up to leaders to understand, legitimise, spotlight and celebrate the motivations and values that underlie an organisation and communicate them through storytelling.

4. Create platforms to respond in good – and bad – times

Any company will have good and back luck events in its life. What marks a company out is what it does when those events happen. Leaders can’t plan for those events but they can create a platform that makes it possible for them to respond to events. 

5. Look to the medium term

Leaders and management focused on short-term profits are more likely to cut out spare capacity, but that will also decrease their ability to respond to good luck and bad luck events. And although public companies always state a long-term vision this tends to be set so far in the future that it becomes meaningless.

What gets missed is the medium-term – and this is the time frame that lets us consider the health of the platform, the meaning and purpose of the organisation, and the company’s absorptive capacity.

The key to surviving in turbulent times is to choose to pursue new opportunities to create value. Hold on to the five pillars of agility combined with resilience, purpose, platforms and a focus on the medium term to help navigate the stormy times ahead.

To read the full article on LBSR, please click here.

Live demo of network slicing for robotics

· Ericsson demon strates the world´s first 5G network slicing solution with multiple slices on the same device in cooperation with NTT DOCOMO, INC.

· Allows for services with different network requirements, such as latency, capacity and security, using robots for building automation.

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC)aredemonstrating the world´s first 5G network slicing solution supporting multiple network slices on the same device withNTT DOCOMO, INC.The solution, is shownat 5G Tokyo Bay Summit 2017 from May 24 to 26,addresses use cases where robots are used forbuilding automation into public and private infrastructure.The solution could also be used for other industries.

The demo application showcasing the solution employs a robot with a head-mounted camera. The high-bandwidth live video stream is transported to a remote datacenter to meet theample computer resources required. Real-time analysis is performed and mission critical instructions, such as dynamic map delivery is sent to the robot from the command center, based on the video processing input. The video stream and the robotic instruction are sent over two different slices, realizing robotics-based monitoring and security solutions over 5G networks.

Jan Häglund, Head of Technology Management, Digital Systems, Ericsson, says: “Continuingour joint development of an industry ecosystem for 5G and IoT together with NTT DOCOMO, we are applying multiple network slices on the same deviceto enable different services with different characteristics. This demonstration showcases just one of the seemingly endless possible use cases that are opening up new business opportunities for both operators and industries.”

Network slicing is one of the key capabilities that will enable flexibility in future mobile networks, as it allows multiple logical networks to be created on top of a common shared physical infrastructure. Ericsson’s 5G Core takes advantage of Network Function Virtualization (NFV), andby integrating distributed cloud and network slicing functionality, brings new levels of flexibility and optimization that drive business innovation.

Network slicing has significant benefits for a number of industries, such automotive, manufacturing and transport, by providing different efficiencies in latency and speed depending on service requirements.

NTT DOCOMO is playing a driving role in developing and trialing 5G network technologies in collaboration with leading vendors worldwide. The company has been developing network slicing technology with Ericsson since September 2014. In June 2016 at 5G World in London,the two companies demonstrated a successful Proof of Concept of dynamic 5G network slicing.

إريكسون تستعرض أول اختبار حي لحلول شرائح شبكات الجيل الخامس للروبوتات

·   إريكسون تستعرض أول حلول خاصة بشرائح شبكات الجيل الخامس على مستوى العالم باباستخدام شرائح متعددة على نفس الجهاز لتعاون مع NTT DOCOMO, INC .

· تتيح الحلول الجديدة للخدمات تلبية متطلبات الشبكة المختلفة مثل معدلات الكمون والطاقة الاستيعابية والأمان باستخدام روبوتات لتمكين الأتمتة والتشغيل الآلي.

استعرضت إريكسون أول حلول خاصة بشرائح شبكات الجيل الخامس على مستوى العالم والذي يدعم استخدام شرائح متعددة على نفس الجهاز وذلك بالتعاون مع شركة NTT DOCOMO, INC . وتعالج الحلول الجديدة التي كشفت عنها الشركة خلال فعاليات مؤتمر " قمة خليج طوكيو 2017 " التي انعقدت من 24 وحتى 26 مايو حالات الاستخدام التي يتم فيهااستخدام الروبوتات لدمج عمليات الأتمتة في البنية التحتية العامة والخاصة. ويمكن أيضاًاستخدام هذه الحلول في صناعات أخرى.

 وتم خلال التطبيق التجريبي لاستعراض الحلول توظيف روبوت مع كاميرا محمولة على الرأس، حيث تم بث محتوى الفيديو الحي ذي النطاق الترددي العالي إلى مركز بيانات يتم التحكم به عن بعد لتلبية احتياجات مصادر الكمبيوتر المتوفرة المطلوبة. ليتم بعد ذلك تنفيذ التحليل بشكل سريع وإرسال تعليمات مهمة وحاسمة، مثل توفير خريطة حيوية للروبوت من مركز الإدارة، استناداً إلى معطيات معالجة الفيديو. وقد تم ارسال بث هذا الفيديو والتعليمات الآلية عبر شريحتين مختلفتين، ليتم في النهاية تحقيق تحكم وإدارة عن بعد بالاعتماد على الروبوتات وحلول الحماية عبر شبكات الجيل الخامس.

وتعليقاً على اختبار الحلول الجديدة، جان هاغلوند، رئيس إدارة التكنولوجيا والأنظمة الرقمية في إريكسون: " من خلال مواصلة تطويرنا لمنظومة متكاملة من تقنيات وحلول شبكات تكنولوجيا الجيل الخامس وتقنية إنترنت الأشياء بالتعاون مع NTT DOCOMO، نحن نسهى إلى تطبيق شرائح متعددة للشبكة على نفس الجهاز لتمكين مجموعة من الخدمات مختلفة ذات خصائص المميزة. ويظهر الاستعراض الجديد لهذه الحلولفقط واحدة من حالات الاستخدام المحتملة التي لا نهاية لها والتي تفتح فرص أعمال جديدة لكل من المشغلين والصناعات الأخرى".

وتعتبر حلول شرائح الشبكات أحد الإمكانيات الرئيسية التي ستعزز مرونة شبكات الاتصال المستقبلية، حيث تتيح تأسيس شبكات منطقية متعددة بالاعتماد على بنية تحتية مادية مشتركة. وتستفيد أنظمة إريكسون الخاصة بشبكات الجيل الخامس الأساسية من وظائف الشبكات الافتراضية NFV، ومن خلال دمج وظائف الخدمات السحابية الموزعة وحلول شرائح الشبكات، سيتم توفير مستويات جديدة من المرونة والعمليات المحسنة التي تحفز الابتكار في مجال الأعمال.

تتميزحلول شرائح الشبكات بتوفيرها فوائد كبيرة لعدد من القطاعات مثل السيارات والصناعات التحويلية والنقل، من خلال تعزيز كفاءة عمليات الشبكات فيما يتعلق بخفض معدلات الكمون في الشبكة وزيادة السرعة وفقاً لمتطلبات الخدمة.

تلعب NTT DOCOMO دورا ريادياً في تطوير وتجربة تقنيات شبكات الجيل الخامس بالتعاون مع كبار الموردين حول العالم. وقد قامت الشركة بتطوير حلول تقنية شرائح الشبكات مع إريكسون منذ سبتمبر 2014. وخلال مؤتمر عالم شبكات الجيل الخامس في لندن في يونيو 2016 ، استعرضت الشركتان اختباراتناجحةفيما يتعلقبمفهوم حلول شرائح شبكات الجيل الخامس الديناميكية.

Sophos Honours Top Performing Channel Partners at its EMEA Partner Conference in Lisbon, Portugal

Sophos awards six partners across the Middle East & Africa for their outstanding performance in FY 17 at the partner event

Dubai, UAE – May 29, 2017 - Sophos (LSE: SOPH), a global leader in network and endpoint security presented awards to six of its top performing channel partners from the Middle East and Africa region at its EMEA Partner Conference which was held in Lisbon, Portugal between 9th - 11th May, 2017. These awards were in recognition for their proactive approach and significant achievements in FY 17. The event attracted 750 attendees across Europe, Middle East & Africa.

"We would like to congratulate our winning partners and extend our gratitude to all our partners for their continuous support and commitment in embracing our complete IT security value proposition and recognizing the benefits of delivering our award-winning, simple-to-use security solutions to their customers, " commented  Harish Chib, Vice President Middle East & Africa, Sophos."As a 100 percent channel focused business, the success of our channel partners is vital to the success of Sophos and it’s an honour for us to work with some of the best channel partners in the Middle East and Africa in order to provide to the products and the best customers service," he continued.

Partners with long standing relationships with Sophos as well as the more recent partners who have helped clients transform their business in line with the company's focus were awarded in a series of categories.

The top performing Channel Partners in the Middle East & Africa are

1.       2017 New Partner of the Year, NEEMEA - Batelco

2.       2017 Top Performer of the Year, NEEMEA - Obsequium

3.       Top Regional Excellence Partner Middle East - Ansa Otomasyon Bilgisayar Muh. San. Tic. Ltd. Sti.

4.       Discovery Partner Middle East - Entelyst

5.       Top Regional Excellence Partner Africa - Datategra

6.       Discovery Partner Africa –MTDS

The theme of the partner conference this year was 'This Is Next Gen'. It focused on how the company is reinforcing its 100 percent channel first business strategy and how it continues to expand its synchronized security approach to arm partners with defences for their customers that are as coordinated as the attacks they protect them against. The event was created to encourage partners to achieve their growth objectives with competitive margins, dedicated marketing and sales support, deal registration protection, sales tools, training and certification and other programs. For Sophos, partners are a critical part of the company's ecosystem and the growth and success of their business is a top priority.

"The partner conference is a good opportunity to get our partners synchronized with our vision and strategy, our product roadmap and training. It also gives them a chance to network face to face with our team, and get to know and discuss the company's partner strategy for accelerating profitable growth together. We are becoming a disruptive leader in the IT security market, and the company's dedication to the success of its partners is second to none," added Chib.

The event brought together key channel partners from around the EMEA region to discuss their market strategy and to plan how to add value to customers as threat experts. It also includedworkshops, networking sessions, and meetings with Sophos experts where partners were advised and mentored about the threats in the region such as ransomware and how Sophos Intercept X , one of its  fastest growing products is used to combat these sophisticated cyber threats.  Through this conference, partners were also introduced to the new app that allows partners to track and manage customers as well as submit deal registrations. It also gives them an overall visibility into the business and across platforms. The app once downloaded is updated with all the marketing material and competitive resources for partners to build their business. In addition, working together at the event got partners to realise the importance of synchronized security and how they are now able to cross-sell the products.

Customer Experience in the Hospitality Industry Set for Improvement with Epicor iScala for Hospitality

Advanced ERP Technology Bridges Gap between Front and Back Office, Enabling Efficient Operations so Managers can Focus on Growth

Customers are at the heart of the hospitality industry, where successful businesses pride themselves on delivering the highest levels of customer experience, perhaps more than any other industry, according to Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth. The sector is booming, with global business travel spend hitting a record-breaking $1.2 trillion and leisure travel gross bookings sustaining growth rates higher than GDP. However, with customer expectations changing, the industry must adapt to keep up with demands.

Back-end systems have come under the spotlight because, as the hospitality sector increases its investments in internet of things (IoT) devices in a bid to improve customer experiences (to an estimated $109 million in the US in 2018), hospitality managers are becoming overwhelmed by the challenges of integrating existing front and back office solutions. Nevertheless, this integration is essential to effectively manage costs, optimize business performance, and free up managers’ time.

In response to this trend, Epicor has released iScala® for Hospitality, a back-office solution for restaurants, hotels, and resorts. The platform is designed to enable its users to meet the unique needs of the hospitality industry by enabling companies to streamline operations by efficiently integrating all operations, from intelligent technologies, room reservations, and food and beverage, to event sales, human resources, and finance, on a single platform.  

Improved visibility

Easy to implement and integrate with most existing systems, iScala is a centralized back office management software solution that provides a holistic picture of financial and operational data. Optimal stock control, efficient requisition and robust financial management, provide companies with enhanced business intelligence to help drive efficiency across all areas of the business. Real-time visibility means that key operations are connected with front office systems, supporting features such as menu management. Designed so that managers can quickly create recipes that include ingredient quantities, preparation instructions, and any other required information and easily calculate the cost of each serving while monitoring the sales markup. As servings are sold, stock usage can be tracked to compare against actual storeroom quantities during stock counts.

Localized capabilities

iScala for Hospitality delivers a range of financial management capabilities that handle complex localized tax and currency structures and multiple languages that allow local staff to deal with the back office in their preferred language. Local requirements are also addressed with multi-company functionality that allows management of transactions in a single location or across multiple global locations.

Improving customer experience

A recent report by Deloitte¹ covering the latest travel and hospitality industry trends points to “game-changing innovation” as a major disruptor and says that consumers have begun to expect a personalized experience tailored to meet their needs. 

With improved back-end processes, managers are free to focus on building better experiences for customers. Insight from data helps to build an enriched customer view that subsequently provides a better, more personalized customer experience.

Robert Sinfield, director, product marketing at Epicor commented, “The hospitality industry is a fiercely competitive industry. Mainlydriven by consumers who are using their disposable income and free time to seek leisure and adventure, which leads them to have high expectations. The challenge for growing companies in this sector is how to improve the customer experience so that guests return again and again. New technology is helping companies to improve business processes to do this.  It is also generating a vast amount of data—a single source of meaningful, up-to-date information that helps managers make good business decisions and enables them to focus less on the paperwork and more on keeping customers delighted.”

Lakshmi Nagaraj, global director of finance technology for Hyatt Hotels Corporation, which has been an iScala Hospitality customer for over 10 years for their international hotels, said, “We have recently moved our financial systems from a distributed solution to a centralized finance technology platform at EAME (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) and ASPAC (Asia Pacific) to efficiently support our hotels and the Global Finance Shared Service organization. It has helped us improve our productivity and cost savings. Epicor has been a great partner in this transition providing the required global support.”