< PreviousSTELLA MEDLICOTT MOVES UP AT ERICSSON Stella Medlicott has been appointed senior vice president and head of group function marketing and corporate relations at Ericsson. Of her appointment, she said: “I really look forward to take on this exciting new role, and to work together with both the global marketing and communications team and the executive team. This is the time where the mobile industry is being transformed through 5G, generating innovation and new business opportunities across industries. Our marketing and communications abilities are key to leveraging our technology ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES NAMES NEW MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA VP Orange Business Services has announced the appointment of Sahem Azzam as vice president for the Middle East and Africa. Azzam is based in the regional headquarters at Dubai Silicon Oasis in the United Arab Emirates. Azzam brings more than 15 years of MOVERS AND SHAKERS Got a personnel change you really want folks to know about? Email andrew.cover@itp.com! TECH MAHINDRA BETS BIG ON AI AND BLOCKCHAIN, GETS NEW SAUDI ARABIA SALES VP Tech Mahindra has appointed Turki Abdullah Alnader as its new vice president of sales in Saudi Arabia, amid a renewed focus on expanding its business in the kingdom. Tech Mahindra, part of the Mahindra Group business conglomerate, has been present in Saudi Arabia since 2006, catering to more than 30 active customers. The company has a combined presence of more than 1,000 associates in the country, including the team that came with the acquisition of Lightbridge Communications Corporation (LCC) in November 2014. Some of Tech Mahindra’s prominent customers in the country include large oil and gas companies, major petrochemical companies, one of the largest manufacturing groups, leading banks, and telecom companies. Manish Agrawal, regional head of communications, media and entertainment business for the Middle East, Europe and Africa at Tech Mahindra, said Alnader’s “rich experience and market knowledge” will be key for Tech Mahindra in the kingdom as its seeks to grow its business. Alnader is a US-educated senior management professional with 14 years of experience in the telecom and related businesses, overseeing programmes and project management, B2B sales, strategic planning and KPI (Key Performance Indicators) performance monitoring, financial and budgeting planning, network implementation and communications. Of his appointment, he said: “I am excited to join a global digital transformation enterprise like Tech Mahindra A roundup of hires, promotions, personnel changes, and who has gone where in the telecoms industry in the Middle East and Africa. leadership in 5G.” Börje Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson, said: “With the introduction of 5G we are at an exciting time in the industry. Our ability to differentiate our offering, articulate the value we bring to our customers and build strong relationships with our stakeholders will be key to build a strong company position for this next phase of industry development. Stella has the right background, experience and capabilities to lead this work going forward and I am very glad to see her stepping up to this role”. Medlicott has a BA (Hons) degree in Social Science and a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing. She has more than 25 years of marketing experience in major IT, telecoms and media companies. Medlicott joined Ericsson in 2014 following the acquisition of Red Bee Media, where she held the position of Chief Marketing Officer. She currently holds the position as vice president, marketing & communications and government & industry relations within Ericsson’s Market Area Europe and Latin America. In her new role, Medlicott replaces Helena Norrman. experience in the region to his new role, including sales and marketing management across the ICT industry and networking space in several multinational organisations. He takes over from Luc Serviant. Azzam will lead the Orange Business Services regional team from the Dubai headquarters, supported by offices in Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf, South Africa and Turkey. Got a personnel change you want the world to know about? Email andrew. cover@itp.com to get in touch! 10www.commsmea.com MOVERS AND SHAKERS CommsMEA September 2019Saying hello in Robot: inside Avaya’s world-first social network for bots For more stories, check out commsmea.com. Follow CommsMEA on Twitter: @COMMSMEA Developed in Dubai. “Machines making machines. How per- verse,” said C-3PO in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. That’s not quite what’s happening in this particular story – but we are talking about chatbots chatting with other chatbots. Long story short: Avaya has created the world’s first social platform for chatbots – and even cooler, it was developed in Dubai. “What we’ve done is develop a platform,” says Ahmed Helmy, CTO for Avaya Interna- tional. “A challenge with any chatbot is, ‘how can you extend the skills and knowledge of your bot?’” Of course, you can – but it often requires an entire research and development team to do so, not to mention a huge amount of time and money. This solution means you don’t have to, as the chatbots can “talk” to each other and es- sentially “teach” themselves. “We can use this to extend capabilities,” says Helmy, adding customers that could benefit include public services, marketing companies and service providers. The platform for chatbots was first dem- onstrated at the 2018 edition of GITEX in Dubai. Helmy says it’s “great” to have been able to develop it in the Middle East, and the United Arab Emirates specifically. “The regulations [in the UAE] are very friendly for innovation.” A 2018 global Avaya survey of 8,000 con- sumers found that 80% of people expect an immediate response from their banks, hos- pitals, hotels and even governments, high- lighting the need for efficient and ‘always- on’ customer service. Avaya says that, with automation, organi- sations can overcome their human resource limitations and meet these customer ex- pectations by delivering seamless, intuitive and intelligent experiences across all touch points. The company adds that bots are rapidly becoming one of the most powerful means to positively impact customer service, sec- ond only to face-to-face interaction. But a key shortcoming of chatbots is that they are usually domain-specific and can respond only to a relatively narrow set of dialogues. Hence the need, as Helmy says, to diversify what they can do in order to be able to help more people. “What if we could enable chatbots from different domains and industries to col- laborate and exchange information via a highly regulated platform, and find answers from other chatbots, not just humans? We could, in effect, securely link enterprises, significantly expanding the efficacy and ex- pertise of any single bot thereby enabling organisations to deliver an exceptional level of customer service, reducing the need for human intervention and enabling deeper self-service, as well as reducing the need for supervised learning.” The platform allows registered chatbots to have a unique social profile and “friend” other member bots from different domains and industries – not unlike real humans connecting on a social network. The social platform also allows chatbots to rate each other, and store confidence metrics based on the quality of information received, and feedback from end customers – leading to constant improvements in each bot’s quality and speed of customer service. Translation: the chatbots learn from each other. Avaya envisages two scenarios for how customer and bot interactions will be han- dled in real time: either the original bot contacts a friended bot on the customer’s behalf and delivers the received answer, or the original bot connects the customer to a friended bot in the style of a conference call. So… what’s next? Helmy says the plat- form is constantly improving – just like the bots it’s designed for. 11www.commsmea.com BEST OF THE WEB CommsMEA September 2019Staff training may be essential, but it can also cost a great deal of money. So how can telecommunications companies invest in training without spending a huge amount of cash? It’s been said time and time again that an organisation is only as good as the people working for it. Likewise, an organisation’s employees can only get better and adapt to new technologies if they’re trained in those technologies. But training employees can also cost a great deal of money. So how can telcos train staff without large amounts of capital expenditure? Avaya’s Faten Halabi has some ideas. “The GCC’s telecom service providers have been going through their digital trans- formation since about six to seven years ago,” she explains. To stay up-to-date and keep ahead of the changes, Halabi says staff must be trained in use of digital tools. She adds automa- TRAINING STAFF FOR TOMORROW’S JOBS TODAY by Ben Mack 12www.commsmea.com TRAINING STAFF FEATURE CommsMEA September 2019tion can also help by handling the tasks of multiple employees at lower cost and at faster speeds. Automation is also something telcos can now purchase in lieu of staff training, with automation-as-a-service. One example can be found with Dubai-based Flytxt’s Robo-X. Robo-X utilises AI and machine learn- ing to support marketing professionals in a range of tasks, including campaign construction and automation, performance guidance and personalisation. The solution uses Flytxt’s proprietary AI platform and machine learning algorithms to discover important relations between consumers, products, offers, channels and competitive environment and how they impact busi- ness outcomes. This can help marketers in identifying new opportunities and patterns and develop and assessing campaigns to ad- dress these opportunities; in other words, it can essentially replace an entire call centre with a single service. According to Dr Vinod Vasudevan, CEO of Flytxt: “Robo-X is one example of how society is witnessing the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The power- ful amalgamation of technologies, such as data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, is influencing so many aspects of our lives - both personally and professionally.” He adds: “Robo-X is an AI that can take marketing decisions on its own. As an intel- ligent companion for marketers, it will act as a force multiplier, increasing uplifts in revenue. With the addition of Robo-X, marketers can now harness the power of artificial in- telligence to create personalised customer interactions with a level of precision and scale that is beyond human capability, whether they are veterans of the industry or just beginners.” The GCC’s telecom service providers have been going through their digital transformation since about six to seven years ago.” Faten Halabi, Avaya 13www.commsmea.com TRAINING STAFF FEATURE CommsMEA September 2019Staff diversity as a strength It’s a fact repeated time and time again: the more diverse a company is, the more money it makes. Therefore, it makes sense for telcos to have as diverse a staff as pos- sible if they want to increase revenues. That’s one reason why many Gulf telcos have recently begun to recruit more women. For example, Dubai-based telco du has formed the first Women’s Council for the IT industry in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s STC (the Arab World’s largest telecommunications company) has gone from having zero female executives just a few months ago to three (and they even have men working under them), Kuwait’s B Online has hired its first female CEO, pan- Arab telco Zain has launched a new strat- egy to hire and retain more women while setting ambitious targets for the number of women it employs, Bahrain’s Batelco is specifically recruiting women – and there are many, many more examples. According to Noora Al Mansoori, official spokeswoman for du’s Women’s Coun- cil (officially called the EITC Women’s Council, in reference to du parent company EITC), having more women on the payroll is key if telcos are going to be successful in the future. “Globally, gender diversity, or the lack of it, is being held to account across many sectors,” she explains. “The ICT industry is no different. The way that women work is under the micro- scope as ideologies shift that allow more flexible working conditions and that enable women to take charge of their careers and professional aspirations. “For example, roles that were tradition- ally male-orientated are now being filled by women, which signals that corporate cultures and society are motivating and encouraging us to take positions without having to face obstacles that hindered progress in the past.” She adds: “Gender diversity is becoming a priority for many workplaces, and we can see this through the increasing representa- tion of women in management roles. While there is always room for improvement, the foundations are in place for positive organisational development. The effects of this can be lucrative for companies, and the UAE is definitely on the route towards achieving potential.” Vice President of the UAE Gender Coun- cil, Mona Al Marri, says something similar. “Our gender participation model has grown considerably faster than the global inclu- sivity rates. And given that there are a num- ber of countries in the region that we share culture and demography with, we definitely see it as a model that could be replicated in other countries in the region.” In other words: one reason the UAE is thriving is because more women are enter- ing the workforce – something telcos would do well to emulate. Training for the technology of tomorrow today Of course, a company can invest all it wants in training staff in customer service and maximising the potential of today’s technology. But preparing them for what Our gender participation model has grown considerably faster than the global inclusivity rates. And given that there are a number of countries in the region that we share culture and demography with, we definitely see it as a model that could be replicated in other countries in the region.” Mona Al Marri, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates' Gender Council 14www.commsmea.com TRAINING STAFF FEATURE CommsMEA September 2019the future might bring is a different story – or is it? Eng. Abdullah M. Alosaimi, CEO of Saudi Arabia-based satellite company Taqnia Space (which is making in-flight high- speed satellite Internet a possibility), says it’s a matter of recognising that training is continuous – and that it’s an investment that will pay off when it becomes clear telcos, or any other company, have invested in (and hired) the right people. One strategy, of course, is offering training programmes for staff – which is especially critical for technologies that are constantly evolving. For instance, Kaspersky Lab has launched a cybersecu- rity learning programme to make it easier for companies to improve cybersecurity awareness among staff. According to a 2017 Survey by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, 57% of compa- nies in the UAE and 42% in Saudi Arabia attributed weaknesses in their IT security strategy to the careless actions of employ- ees. To that end, the Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform (ASAP) helps businesses address gaps in employees’ cybersecurity skills and knowledge, with each lesson taking less than 10 minutes to complete. ASAP can be used to bolster the cyber-hygiene of employees with differ- ent risk levels – from basic to advanced – through an automated learning path which allows them to progress at their own pace. Optimising and empowering staff for the future George Rouppas, country category manag- er for personal systems for the Middle East and Saudi Arabia at HP, says it all comes down to “optimising” training for staff – automating where possible, but tailoring operations to suit their particular strengths and core responsibilities. A way to think about it is this: would you have a football goalkeeper play forward, or a centre in basketball play point guard instead? Exactly. Avaya’s Faten Halabi adds another word that’s important to remember for staff training: empowerment. Empowered employees, she says, are bet- ter employees – and they can become em- powered when they are supported by the organisation and receive regular training. There’s also a social calling for staff training – many Gulf telcos, in particular, are government-owned and have a respon- sibility to train local talents. STC is one of the most active telcos in this space. The company recently helped launch the Future Solutions Platform to train young Saudi talents, with the goal of them eventu- ally becoming full STC employees at some later point. Says Dr Tarig Enaya, senior vice presi- dent of the business unit at STC: “We are constantly seeking to achieve a high level of creating opportunities.” And opportunities, as we all know, create success – in really any endeavour that one can possibly conceive of. 15www.commsmea.com TRAINING STAFF FEATURE CommsMEA September 201916CommsMEA September 2019www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW ADEL AL-DAYLAMI The keys to success aren’t just new products and services, says Batelco’s Adel Al-Daylami. People and partnerships can’t be neglected either – and they are big reasons why Batelco has thrived amidst enormous transformation in the company, within Bahrain and across the wider world17CommsMEA September 2019www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW ADEL AL-DAYLAMI18CommsMEA September 2019www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW ADEL AL-DAYLAMI It is one thing to say the world – and consequently, the business climate – is changing. It’s really a whole other thing to not just survive such changes, but thrive amidst them. Adel Al-Daylami, chief global business officer for Batelco, says that achieving success amid the constantly changing communication and business environ- ment locally, regionally and interna- tionally, really comes down to a simple formula. “It’s a simple magic that we have... The key element is the people that you have,” he says. Those people have been helping Batelco Global thrive. As Al-Daylami says: “Batel- co has been developing a carrier friendly ecosystem supported by a strong value proposition to attract international carri- ers and content providers to the Kingdom and to reach global locations in the East and West from Asia to Europe and the Americas. The ecosystem is designed to cater for the ever-growing data demands. Batelco has recently launched a Carrier Neutral Transit Zone (Global Zone), regional data centre collocation, and IP transit and internet exchange (Manama- IX) which is managed by a world leader Amsterdam-IX.” Additionally, Batelco has also launched BGN (Batelco Global Network) to meet the demand for reliable high bandwidth connectivity and capacity serving the different needs of global services and customers.” That may be a lot, but Al-Daylami says it’s been possible thanks to Batelco’s vi- sion and team. He expands on this – and why good peo- ple are really the “secret sauce” for any business, not just telecommunications. “When it comes to operators, we are using more or less the same technology. What makes the difference is people. All business is about people,” comments Al- Daylami. Business is also about partnerships, and it’s something that Batelco has par- ticularly excelled in. Part of it is simple necessity and adapt- ing to the changing times. “Those days of anyone working alone are gone,” he asserts, adding this even applies to industry 'giants' like Amazon or Microsoft or Google. In other words: technology companies today are interdependent – because tech- nology itself is interdependent. Al-Daylami says: “partnerships are for the benefit of everybody.” There’s another ingredient to add to the recipe for success: being responsive When it comes to operators, we are using more or less the same technology. What makes the difference is people. All business is about people” Adel Al-Daylami, chief global business officer, Batelco According to Adel Al-Daylami, people make all the difference.19CommsMEA September 2019www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW ADEL AL-DAYLAMI to changes. Al-Daylami says that has been a critical reason Batelco has been able to stand out in a market that, although small in terms of overall population com- pared to other Middle East countries, is as ultracompetitive. “If you have these two elements, part- nerships and responsiveness, you will have success.” But what, really, makes Batelco differ- ent? Al-Daylami has a quick answer. “Our experienced and highly skilled teams put customers at the heart of eve- rything we do,” he says. “Being responsive and acting as a consultant to our customers are key at- tributes in making our business unique.” According to the chief global business officer, other important factors include efforts to invest and adopt in 'cutting edge' technologies. Additionally, Bah- rain's laws and regulations, which have been built through ongoing discussion and collaboration play an important role. "We are very proud of the level of regula- tory support in the Kingdom of Bahrain," he adds. But what are some of the things Batelco is working on to achieve success, both in the near term and further into the future? According to Al-Daylami, there are a number of initiatives that the opera- tor has been working on. “We have two exciting new services, Global Zone and Manama-IX [Manama Internet Ex- change],” he says. We also announced the launch of our Uptime Institute Certified Tier III data centre earlier this year, and we have a second Tier III data centre planned and in process.” “Our focus will be how to turn Global Zone and Manama-IX into a leading hub point of exchange in the region. Our aspiration is to expand Global Zone’s presence in the region and beyond by connecting to other data centres and con- nect IXs together as well.” He expands on what Global Zone is and how it works. “Global Zone is a carrier neutral digital business platform based on a highly secure Tier III data centre, lo- cated in Bahrain, the heart of the Arabian Gulf. Global Zone is built to support the development of the digital economy and attract leading ICT players by enabling them to meet and exchange data in a robust ecosystem.” And Manama-IX? “Manama Internet Exchange (mn-ix) is the internet traffic exchange platform interconnecting global networks within the Global Zone, the neutral transit zone. mn-ix meets the demands of the global network operators and content provid- ers from a comprehensive integrated platform. It also contributes toward the development of internet services across the region including interconnecting re- gional Internet exchanges, cloud service providers, CDNs, data centres and retain- ing regional traffic, leading to ultimately enhancing the user experience.” Al-Daylami says these initiatives rein- force a simple ethos for the company. “We support digital economies.” Batelco is also planning on expanding its global presence with more points-of- presence (POP’s) and Internet exchanges in other locations – which reflects the success of Batelco’s business reach which continues to expand. Al-Daylami says while Batelco already provides cloud services for the local market, there are plans for taking its cloud-related services to the regional market too, particularly focussing on cloud services for enterprise and small to medium sized organisations. This is only natural, he says, since so many services are already based in the cloud – and far more are likely to migrate there in the future, particularly with the explosion of IOT (Internet of Things) devices and ever-increasing amounts of data being generated. There are other services that Batelco is planning, too. Al-Daylami says big initiatives include, among other things, strengthening the current partnerships to grow the com- pany’s partnership circle, introduction of innovative solutions, expanding its global presence by entering into strategic alli- ances for the development of new cable systems, introducing managed services to further support customers and delivering an exceptional experience to them, offer- ing professional and consultancy services to help customers reduce costs, improve business operations and increase produc- tivity – and many more things. And 5G? That’s a given – it’s already be- ing rolled out across Bahrain. “Batelco is very proud to have launched this technology in the Kingdom's market due to the importance of 5G technol- ogy in enabling the digital economy and enhancing the telecom sector,” comments Al-Daylami. Al-Daylami elaborated on the impor- tance of Batelco's partners and joint ven- tures, noting that the company's strong partnerships are not just local, but also regional and global. “We maintain very strong relationships with our partners and as a result, of such collaborations, we have witnessed several achievements that support our growth agenda,” Al-Daylami says. “I can see that regional players work closely with international carriers, while I believe they should collaborate regionally to help each other in strengthening busi- ness ties. With partnerships, all of us will succeed,” he adds. And Batelco? “We are focussed on continuing to be a major contributor in the evolving ecosys- tem,” Al-Daylami concluded. And given their track record so far despite the continuous evolution of com- munication technology and a very com- petitive playing field, there’s little doubt they will continue to succeed. Proof of this: the company’s financial results for the first half of 2019 were up from the same period in 2018 – and the future looks bright. Our experienced and highly skilled teams put customers at the heart of everything we do.” Adel Al-Daylami, chief global business officer, BatelcoNext >