VAR Arabia, the bilingual channel magazine for Saudi Arabia, recently held its second Annual Awards that recognized and applauded top performances in the KSA IT channel. The ceremony was hosted on the 23rd April at the Four Seasons Hotel in the spectacular Kingdom Centre and was attended by a large gathering of attendees from the industry including many prominent and senior level executives.The awards were given away in 29 categories this year,ensuring recognition for several leading vendors and distributors who have excelled in their domains over the year.The first award given away on the day was Networking Brand of the Year which went to Linksys, now a part of Belkin after the buyout. Linksys won the award on the basis of a groundswell of good recall in the region’s market and market feedback of its continued lead in overall sales in its categories relative to competing brands.Norton by Symantec was declared the Security Software Brand of the Year, for its strong comeback with improved products and a strong recall in market. For its impressive gains in the Saudi market and its determined commitment which is paying dividends in terms of increased market presence, Cyberoam was declared the winner of the Security Appliance Brand of the Year In the printer categories, HP won the recognition as laser Printer brand of the Year with an impressive product portfolio, while Epson walked away with the Inkjet Printer Brand of the Year for being in the forefront with several new models on the market that have abilities to surpass lasers in cost effectiveness. Xerox was crowned the Multifunction Printer brand of the Year for its end to end portfolio of products, solutions and services.
Dell was the winner of the Business Laptop Brand of the Year, recognizing the fact that it has greatly broadened its Business notebooks portfolio. On the other hand, Lenovo was the winner of the Consumer Laptop Brand of the Year for a comprehensive selection of innovative models that has helped it gain great ground in terms of market share. MSI won the Gaming laptop Brand of the Year for its sharp focus in the enthusiast segment.
The Storage Hardware Brand of the Year was Western Digital, a manufacturer that enjoys a growing clout with a broad portfolio and a very focused
channel strategy in the region. Likewise, Eaton emerged the Power Solutions Brand of the Year for its commitment to the channel business and partners as well making strong gains in the region’s market across verticals. Not surprisingly, Microsoft was declared Software Brand of the Year for its new launches of Windows 365 and office 2013 which raise the bar in terms of innovations yet again. Epson was a clear choice as winner of the Projector Brand of the year for its innovative and numerous product introductions which further broaden its product portfolio and the strong gains made by it in the region’s market. It was again not much of a surprise in the Tablet category where Samsung picked up the top Award, having made the strongest strides in the past couple of years with its tablets and Phablets. In the Emerging Brand of the Year, the award went to the
Networking products manufacturer TP-Link, quite deservingly as a brand that has made great inroads into the region’s market and the channel.
Kaspersky Lab was recognized for outstanding channel initiatives manifested through a strong partner program that is rewarding to its channel and its sustained channel initiatives. In Distribution categories, Redington Arabia picked up two awards for its strong retail focus as Retail Segment
Distributor of the Year and for Best After Sales Service of the year Al Falak Distribution won the Commercial Segment Distributor of the Year for having grown its Business significantly in the commercial segment working with partners focused on that segment. BDL Group was the winner of the Mobility Distributor of the Year for its strong focus in Mobility as a domain and its association with the Technology leaders in the space. It was also the winner of the category Best Channel Promotions by a Distributor. Metra Computer was declared Broadline Distributor of the Year for its overall efforts at growing volume channel sales and profitability through their initiatives. In the Value Add Distributor of the Year category, Al Jamaz was the chosen winner for its sustained initiatives in the channel and an impressive portfolio of solutions and services.
Al Shugaa Computers, distributor of several networking brands with a fast rising profile was the winner of the category Emerging Distributor of the Year. Agnello Fernandes, GM, AL Falak Distribution, an industry veteran was conferred the Channel Executive of the Year recognition for his continuing outstanding contributions as a senior level decision maker in Al Falak. Al Hasoob, one of the leading IT resellers won the Dealer
of the Year category award for outstanding growth. Best Selection seen as a rapidly growing dealer was awarded the Fast Growing Dealer of the year.