Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 28 | Page 19

NEWS ServiceNow appoints new regional director for Middle East HID Global supports facial recognition with HID Approve mobile authentication platform Mark Ackerman, Regional Director for the Middle East, South Africa, Turkey and Eastern Europe at ServiceNow S erviceNow has announced the promotion of Mark Ackerman to the position of Regional Director for Middle East, South Africa, Turkey and Eastern Europe. Joaquin Reixa, Senior AVP EMEA South at ServiceNow, said emerging markets such as these require a team with an intimate understanding of their cultural and political nuances. He said: “We have set some extremely ambitious objectives for the region over the next three to five years, and given Mark’s track record and understanding of the market and opportunity, I have full confidence that he is best suited to lead the team and spearhead our growth in the region.” Taking full responsibility for the emerging markets territory, Ackerman has been tasked with accelerating regional revenue contribution for EMEA to US$1 billion by 2020. To that end, his focus for 2018 will be on growing ServiceNow’s footprint and market share, particularly in the UAE, KSA, Kuwait and Bahrain, via additional direct hires and further investments in existing channel partners and alliances. Ackerman added: “At the same time, security still remains a top priority for CIOs in the Middle East and this trend does not show signs of letting up anytime soon.” www.intelligentcio.com H ID Global, a leader in trusted identity solutions which operates in the Middle East, has announced that its HID Approve two-factor mobile authentication and verification platform now supports Apple’s iPhone X Face ID facial recognition system. The company expects facial recognition to play an increasingly important role in its authentication offering, combined with threat and fraud detection. “With the growing demand for an optimised user experience, facial recognition is a great addition for banks and enterprises that also want a high level of security,” said Martin Ladstaetter, Vice President of Product Management, IAM Solutions, with HID Global. “HID Global now delivers an easy way for organisations to take advantage of Apple’s Face ID capability with our HID Approve mobile authentication solution.” Facial recognition is featured on Apple`s new iPhone X phone to secure access to online or mobile banking and digital signatures used in banking transactions. Apple’s Face ID feature can also be used to secure remote access to employee data and applications. HID Global customers now have an easy way to implement Face ID using the company’s mobile authentication platform, either as a turnkey application or directly integrated into existing corporate apps using the HID Approve software development kit. n INTELLIGENTCIO 19