< Previous30 C EO M I D D L E E A S T M AY 2020 BRINGINGBRINGING REMOTE REMOTE WORKING WORKING CLOSERCLOSER BUSINESS | AVAYA 30 C EO M I D D L E E A S T M AY 2020 AVAYA, LEADERS AND EXPERTS IN REMOTE AND CLOUD SOLUTIONS, ARE ONE OF THE BUSINESSES WHOSE UNIQUE SKILLSET IS ENABLING OTHER INDUSTRIES TO CARRY ON WORKING DURING THE COVID-19 GLOBAL LOCKDOWN. FADI HANI, VICE PRESIDENT – MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA AND TURKEY, TELLS CEO MIDDLE EAST JUST HOW AVAYA CAN HELP LEADERS NAVIGATE TURBULENT WATERS – AND ALSO MORE PREDICTABLE ONESM AY 2020 C EO M I D D L E E A S T 31 BRINGING REMOTE WORKING CLOSER M AY 2020 C EO M I D D L E E A S T 3132 C EO M I D D L E E A S T M AY 2020 VAYA HAS FOUND ITSELF UNIQUELY positioned to help governments, businesses and communities mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time of its outbreak in China’s Hubei Province, Avaya was among the first foreign companies to respond – providing solutions that enabled hospitals on the frontlines to conduct remote diagnosis and treat patients. As the virus spreads, the company has remained steadfast in its mission to help people stay safe, while enabling businesses to continue to deliver critical services. This commitment, and its speed of response, has allowed Avaya to successfully enable more than 11,000 companies worldwide to equip over 2 million workers to operate remotely. In the Middle East specifically, Avaya has worked with numerous government agencies to set up video conferencing solutions across various disaster recovery sites, thus enabling business continuity at the highest levels of government. These solutions are also integrated with various remote working applications to ensure connectivity and productivity across the workforce. A What are some of the key systems that you offer your clients? Avaya has always taken a human-centric approach to developing technologies. In this current climate, when businesses and communities are challenged by social distancing measures, these solutions are more relevant than ever, particularly for organisations in the education, healthcare and government sectors. For example, educational institutions are leveraging our cloud-based collaboration solution, Avaya Spaces, to maintain face- to-face interactions between teachers and students. Entities in the critical infrastructure sector are relying on Avaya contact centre technology to ensure vital emergency services are unimpacted by migrating dispatchers to remote working arrangements. And our video conferencing solutions are enabling hospitals to allow quarantined patients to keep in virtual contact with their loved ones. Our video and collaboration solutions are also being leveraged by private sector companies from all around the world, allowing their employees to meet, connect and interact in innovative and more agile formats, without having to compromise on productivity. Many businesses have had their workflows impacted – what are some of the ways you are able to mitigate the effects of what is happening now? Today more than ever, technology companies have the power to influence the progress of society. I believe therefore that in the time of this crisis it is our moral obligation to enable communities to maintain a sense of continuity – using the power of persistent collaboration. In recent months, we have been able to align our values around innovation and business enablement with our commitment to customer-centricity and technology for the good of humanity. This culminated in our decision to offer all organizations 60 days of complimentary, full-feature access to Avaya Spaces – our flagship cloud-based collaboration app. This offer came as part of the ongoing Avaya Cares programme, which we launched to helped organisations struggling with the effects of Covid-19, and has been very well received by customers and partners across the region. As a case in point, in Egypt, following the government’s decision to close schools and universities as a measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus, we partnered with Orange Egypt to roll out Avaya Spaces to educational institutions in the country, enabling them to implement remote learning initiatives. In a similar vein, we recognise that fear, uncertainty and the inability of customers to avail of services via traditional channels has resulted in a surge in the demand for digital and telephonic support. Organisations in the critical services sector have had to accommodate this while balancing the need to prioritise the health and safety of their contact centre agents. To aid these efforts, Avaya began offering its customers the ability to enable their contact centre agents to work remotely, while maintaining uncompromised access to the tools they need to remain efficient and effective. Raya Contact Centre – a leading Business Process Outsourcing service provider with BUSINESS | AVAYAM AY 2020 C EO M I D D L E E A S T 33 Fadi Hani, Vice President – Middle East, Africa and Turkey at AVAYA contact centres in the UAE, Egypt and Poland – was one of the first organisations in the region to avail of this offer and we worked closely with their team to empower over 6,500 of their service agents to work from home. It was this uncompromising support from Avaya that prompted Yasser M. Sharaf, IT Director at Raya Contact Centre to commend us for being “extremely proactive in anticipating business continuity requirements” and enabling them to “implement a solution without having to incur any additional costs”. What is Avaya Spaces? Avaya Spaces is a unified communications solution that enables a way of working which supports modern-day, unplanned work challenges. Avaya Spaces helps reduce the current disruption organisations face by providing an easy way to securely share documents, coordinate work across teams and assign and track work. It supports hyper decision making as using this application, anyone can have a say and get things going around the world. This way, I could post an idea and then, by the time I wake up the following morning, someone has already picked it up and done something with it – regardless of the hierarchy. It’s almost like you’ve got everyone in a room, constantly collaborating in a reactive and high-octane manner. As a demonstration of how critical a role that Avaya Spaces is playing in enabling businesses to overcome the challenges they currently face, I would highlight that we have seen a 2,700 percent increase in video collaboration traffic on Avaya Spaces since January. What are some of Avaya’s USPs that business leaders in the region should be aware of ? Avaya is not only uniquely positioned to deliver the technologies that businesses need in these challenging times, we do so with the speed and agility this rapidly evolving crisis demands. Although Avaya has been on the forefront in helping to support companies in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic since day one, we have not for a second rested on our laurels. We’re offering the kind of tools and professional support that will become the benchmark in the new and evolved communications market. We’re delivering something that’s valuable, extensible, and innovative. Our technologies aren’t just ticking boxes, they’re solving real problems, allowing people to work with the tools that they need, and access the latest innovations when they arrive. Moreover, we are a company that has been defined by its long-term vision. We remain market leaders, be it in established or emerging technological domains. Our customers can therefore rest assured that Avaya solutions will not only empower them to effectively address the challenges they face today, but will strongly position them for success in the post-Covid world. Who are Avaya’s customers? Cupola Teleservices: Recognising the urgent need for organisations to main- tain continuity through the crisis, Cupola Teleservices, the Middle East’s pioneer in outsourced contact centre services has worked with Avaya to further enhance its contact centre capabilities. As the BPO partner to several multinational corpora- tions across vital sectors including govern- ment, financial services, food and beverage, transportation and logistics, and education, Cupola’s technology upgrade will ensure that the critical customer services these or- ganisations rely on it to deliver will meet in- creased consumer demand. The company has partnered with Avaya to transition over 450 agents to work from home arrange- ments. This large-scale workforce migration was expertly facilitated by Avaya in a matter of days. “Thanks to the rapid speed of the rollout, made possible by Avaya, we are able to safeguard our employees by enabling them to stay safe and work from home without impacting the experience for our clients’ customers who continue to receive a world-class support services,” said Sajjad Hamid, Group Head – Sales and Marketing, Cupola. Crystel: This leading business processing outsourcing company in Jordan has used Avaya technology to move all of its contact centre agents to a work-from-home set-up, enabling business continuity for its clients while maintaining administrative flexibility and staff safety. Lebanese American University: The Faculty of Medicine at this leading university has launched LAU Coronavirus Telecare, a free distance healthcare offering aiming to preserve the health of potential coronavi- rus patients and limiting the spread of the disease. The offering runs on Avaya Spaces, enabling healthcare providers to safely and securely provide distance consultation and treatment to those affected by Covid-19. Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology: The gov- ernment institution National Relay Centre for Deaf and Hard of Hearing has launched a new service to answer the inquiries of the hard of hearing on Covid-19 through its mobile application, “Wasel”. The service, powered by Avaya IX Contact Centre, is available 24 hours a day, and provides support to those experiencing Covid-19 symptoms through connecting them to government agencies to receive any necessary healthcare. Saudi Red Crescent: The largest NGO in Saudi Arabia and the organisation respon- sible for all healthcare emergency calls in the kingdom has turned to Avaya to help it handle a large increase in requests that came about as a result of Covid-19-related restrictions. With the Red Crescent now han- dling all approvals for hospital visits across Saudi Arabia, Avaya helped with a significant contact centre capacity increase. Avaya Spaces is a cloud-based app that enables users to securely collaborate re- motely by integrating chat, voice, multiuser video conferencing, content sharing, note- taking, and more within a single platform. This solution enables users to securely share docs, coordinate work across teams, and assign and track ongoing projects re- gardless of where employees are located. TECHNICAL DETAILS ABOUT AVAYA SPACES34 C EO M I D D L E E A S T M AY 2020 BUSINESS | DIAMONDS ISCUSSIONS ABOUT CLOUD COMPUTING security are as old as cloud computing itself. Although it is a relatively new technology, almost all organisations are now clients of a cloud computing provider, regardless of their size and sector of activity. Governments in the MENA region are encouraging cloud adoption through initiatives such as the government of D UNDER ATTACKUNDER ATTACK CLOUD-BASED SOLUTIONS HAVE HAD A BOOST DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, AS WORKING FROM HOME BECOMES THE NORM. WITH THIS SWIFTLY ADOPTED STANDARD COME CHALLENGES RELATING TO SECURITY, WRITES EMILE ABOU SALEH, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA AT PROOFPOINT BUSINESS | PROOFPOINT Bahrain’s “cloud-first policy”, or UAE’s Smart Dubai and Smart Abu Dhabi visions. In addition, UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) is working on a comprehensive policy for cloud security, including for public and private use. The rise of innovative start-ups and the willingness of SMEs to adopt emerging technology is starting to change the cloud computing landscape in the Middle East. According to IDC, the MENA region is currently worth $2.2bn to cloud vendors and is expected to increase 24 percent yearly on average to reach approximately $5bn by 2022. With these developments come new cyber security challenges. Smart as they are, cyber criminals have developed specific attack methods for cloud applications. In itself, cloud computing is CLOUD APPSCLOUD APPSM AY 2020 C EO M I D D L E E A S T 35 no less secure than most traditional forms of IT. However, we should take into account the specific vulnerabilities of cloud apps and the specific methods of attack used by cybercriminals. A problem area for the security of cloud computing is still the so-called “shadow IT”: the use of cloud apps that are not approved or managed by the IT department and therefore pose a particularly high risk. It also shows that cloud accounts are a favourite target for cybercriminals who often use a compromised account to further penetrate an organisation. For example, an organisation purchased a G Suite implementation for one department, (in addition to a Microsoft Office 365 subscription for the entire organisation) and saw more than 15 million unauthorised login attempts (or attacks), of which more than 400,000 were successful. Popular attack methods There are three methods of attack that are currently very popular with cybercriminals: brute force attacks, phishing within an organisation, and third party apps that have access to Office 365 and G Suite data. The criminals use brute force attacks in a targeted and intelligent manner. Abuse of the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is particularly popular. The way these attacks are set up makes them look like randomly failed logins that have nothing to do with each other. This way, they don’t stand out and prevent the account from being blocked. To name but one worrying statistic, roughly 25 percent of Office 365 and G Suite customers were victims of a successful breach due to IMAP-based password spraying. These password spraying campaigns were particularly effective and are mainly aimed at valuable users such as executives and their administrative staff. Often, cybercriminals do not limit themselves to using the stolen login data to access the hacked accounts. This is especially true if the original target does not have the authorisation needed to transfer money or share important data. In these cases, the criminals use the login credentials to expand their access within an organisation and infiltrate the cloud applications of other users. Our researchers found that more than 31 percent of all customers had to deal with infringements resulting from successful phishing campaigns. In such attacks, cybercriminals use hacked cloud accounts to send phishing emails within an organisation. Because they look very reliable to colleagues, this helps the criminals to efficiently expand their access within an organisation. Attackers often change the rules for forwarding email or set themselves up as mandatories to maintain access to the account. Sometimes they also carry out ‘man-in-the-middle’ attacks (intercepting communication between two other parties) from a hacked account. They also use hijacked accounts to send phishing e-mails to other (partner) organisations, thus contaminating the cloud environment of third parties. Another method of attack we’ve observed is through third-party apps that have access to Office 365 and G Suite data. Infiltration or obtaining OAuth tokens is done through phishing, social engineering, malware or compromised accounts. This is an inconspicuous but persistent way to obtain data and poses a high compliance risk. To combat such attacks, the use of third-party apps, the OAuth permissions granted, and the app’s reputation must be constantly monitored. It also requires an alert system and the ability to automatically remove apps. CASB to the rescue In order to prevent such attacks, CIOs must look at their organisation the way cybercriminals look at their targets, by focussing on the human factor. They should shift the mindset to a people-centric approach and make security awareness training a pillar of their cyber defence strategy. Pay particular attention to your Very Attacked People (VAPs), those people within your organisation who are particularly attractive targets for cyber criminals because of their access rights. Next, they must focus on the technical defences to better protect the organisation against abuse of cloud accounts. The Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) has a crucial role to play here as it helps in four ways: managing cloud apps, defending against threats, protecting sensitive data and compliance for your cloud. Indeed, the cloud threat landscape has no biases in terms of industry as they can all come under attack. Some sectors are more vulnerable, but all organisations can benefit from robust visibility into cloud threats and automated security measures driven by threat intelligence. Appropriate security measures can help prevent or quickly remediate account takeover and further compromises inside organisations or at partners and customers. Organisations need to implement layered, intelligent security measures including user education and awareness training to combat these evolving threats that are increasingly successful in compromising user cloud accounts. EMILE ABOU SALEH, Regional Director, Middle East and Africa at Proofpoint36 C EO M I D D L E E A S T M AY 2020 LEADERSHIP BRANDS OST PEOPLE KNOW KELLOGG’S – BUT WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW IS THAT Kellogg’s became a household name during the economic recession of the 1920s, because it did the unthinkable. While the market leader for cereal, ‘Post’ took the expected course of action and cut back on advertising to lower costs, Kellogg’s doubled its advertising budget, amplified its radio spots and maximised promotion of its new cereal, Rice Krispies. By the time the recession was over, Kellogg’s M profits had risen by 30 percent and it had solidified itself as an industry leader – a position it still claims today. With coronavirus impacting businesses in a catastrophic way, the first reaction of most companies is to halt all marketing, advertising and PR, in efforts to curtail spending. For those reeling from the economic fallout, like companies operating in the travel, hospitality and aviation sectors, it makes complete sense. However, what about other sectors like F&B, FMCGs, healthcare MARKETING WITHOUT BACKLASH: MARKETING WITHOUT BACKLASH: FOUR TIPS ON ENGAGING CUSTOMERS DURINGFOUR TIPS ON ENGAGING CUSTOMERS DURING COVID-19COVID-19 and financial institutions, who still continue to see demand? Simply using the coronavirus as a marketing opportunity is a recipe for disaster, but when a company sees interest from consumers, there is merit to engaging with them in an authentic, genuine and responsible way. The biggest misconception that brands have is that consumers don’t want to be advertised to during a crisis period. However, this isn’t the case; a global survey of THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION THAT BRANDS HAVE IS THAT CONSUMERS DON’T WANT TO BE ADVERTISED TO DURING A CRISIS, WRITES ZAIB SHADANI Deliverdxb.com – The brainchild of Dubai food blogger, FoodSheikh, this ‘order direct and support local’ initiative supports local restaurants by cutting out delivery platforms that charge high fees; after the crisis, the F&B entrepreneur hopes that this marketing support for restaurants will stand him in good stead when he launches his own venture. M AY 2020 CEO MIDDLE E A ST 37 effect on businesses and caused a major economic downturn, resulting in a staggering decline in consumer spending. To offset this, brands need to look at alternative options that can be utilised for free or at a reduced rate, to help people cope, till the situation stabilises. Once customer loyalty has been established, and the crisis is over, the free products can be phased out or upgraded to a paid subscription model. An example of this can be seen in the many video- conferencing products by Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangout Meets, which are offering a combination of limited period, free or upgraded access to their services, to help make life easier during the pandemic. 3. Collaborate, adapt and improvise to get on-line… and fast With social distancing and lockdown in effect, everyone is now going online to get information, partake in discussions, make purchases, pass time etc. The quicker brands adapt to the online marketplace the better. A great example of this is the world’s largest mall, The Dubai Mall, which has announced its partnership with e-commerce marketplace Noon.com, in response to the impact of coronavirus. A range of other businesses have also demonstrated agility of a similar kind; gyms are renting out equipment and offering online workout classes, grocery stores are collaborating with independent delivery apps to meet increasing demand, entertainment companies are hosting ‘virtual’ concerts and much more. 4. Amplify your digital presence With print circulation curtailed and people consuming information online, brands need to be amplifying their digital presence across the board, ensuring their business can be easily found, customer interaction happens in ‘real time’ and above all, that they are pushing positive brand recall. Paid techniques can include increasing online ad spend, promoting social media posts and engaging in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), but concurrently, brands need to engage in ‘social listening’ so they can widen their scope and frequency of communication. For example, if a brand used to post social media content three times a week, then increase it to daily and make sure the content is topical, helpful and on-brand. Create and upload video content, which is more popular than static content and more appealing to customers. Also use this opportunity to build the thought leadership position of your brand by seeding expert articles to blogs, online forums and participate in industry commentary pieces and op-eds of digital e-papers and magazines. A combination of these efforts will ensure that your brand stays ‘top of mind’, promotes a sense of business stability and fosters a deeper relationship with the customer. “BRANDS NEED TO BE AMPLIFYING THEIR DIGITAL PRESENCE ACROSS THE BOARD” Zaib Shadani , PR consultant and media trainer at Shadani Consulting MARKETING WITHOUT BACKLASH: FOUR TIPS ON ENGAGING CUSTOMERS DURING COVID-19 more than 35,000 consumers during Covid-19, by Kantar, revealed that only 8 percent of respondents thought brands should stop advertising, while 75 percent agreed that brands should not exploit the situation. Consumers absolutely want to hear from brands – but not if brands are tone deaf to the implications of the coronavirus pandemic or operating from a place of self- promotion and self-serving interests. While one size doesn’t fit all, here are four ways that brands can conscientiously engage with customers during the coronavirus crisis: 1. Reiterate your brand values via socially conscious marketing Brands should focus on how they want to be remembered, once the crisis is over. Fostering trust, relevance and authenticity are critical and a good way to do this is through socially conscious messaging, where brands share ways that people can ‘flatten the curve” or inspiring stories about how they’re contributing to mitigating the crisis. Consumers want to know that a company’s brand values align with their own and that a brand will step up and stand with them in times of crisis. For example, McDonalds is running a campaign wherein they have separated their iconic golden arches to demonstrate their commitment to ‘social distancing’, while BMW is encouraging people to ‘drive forward without driving at all’. Certain brands have taken this a step further and introduced measures towards helping people deal with ‘social distancing’; Popeyes started its ‘fried chicken and chill’ campaign where they’re sharing their Netflix username and password with customers while LVMH have converted their perfume factory to make hand sanitiser. 2. Introduce alternatives for cash-strapped customers The coronavirus has had a catastrophic COVER STORY | IRFAN TANSEL 38 C EO M I D D L E E A S T M AY 2020 DRIVING DISRUPTION, OVERCOMING CRISIS A PASSIONATE LEADER, AUTOMOTIVE VISIONARY IRFAN TANSEL IS THE CEO OF AL MASAOOD AUTOMOBILES, AN INDUSTRY TITAN ON A MISSION TO SHARE HIS KNOWLEDGE BY JOLA CHUDY COVER STORY | IRFAN TANSEL 38 C EO M I D D L E E A S T M AY 2020 RFAN TANSEL, CEO OF AL MASAOOD AUTOMOBILES, IS ONE OF THE REGION’S MOST RECOGNISED LEADERS, not least because his illustrious career spanning more than four decades has such humble beginnings. Starting his working life as a car apprentice and working his way steadily up to management and leadership positions, his breadth of knowledge about the automotive industry makes him preeminent in his field and is equalled only by his lifelong passion for everything car-related. Entrepreneurial, visionary and relentlessly ambitious, he is results-driven and people-focused. An award-winning leader, he speaks on leadership, disruption, autonomous vehicles and the green economy to audiences around the world, and his interviews and opinion pieces have been published in leading newspapers and magazines. “After reaching the peak of my career, I want to be remembered as someone who gave back to the world,” says Tansel, a UAE resident. You are a bona fide example of someone who has ‘worked their way up the ladder’ – there cannot be many automotive CEOs with your level of innate knowledge from the ground up. Do you think it is essential for a good leader to know his business inside out at such a practical level? Being a highly effective business leader takes years of practice, knowledge and experience. This is because effective leadership translates to having the ability to balance a number of skills -- all of which require their own time in learning. Over the years, I’ve discovered that these are not just skills but also virtues that you place value and importance in. The triumphs and IM AY 2020 C EO M I D D L E E A S T 39Next >