MARKET MOVEMENT
Leviton opens
interactive customer
experience centre
Aldo Strawbridge, Managing Director of
Leviton Middle East.
Leviton, an industry-leading network
and lighting solutions manufacturer,
announced the opening of a state-of-
the-art customer experience centre,
Leviton Live Dubai, located in the heart
of the business district, Business Bay.
The interactive venue is equipped with
innovative technologies and solutions
for a range of applications, including
networking, structured cabling, Power
over Ethernet, lighting controls, security,
audio visual, energy management, LED
lighting, and more, presented to customers
in a real-life, working environment.
“As a manufacturer with customers in
100 countries throughout the globe, the
Middle East is an important region for
Leviton. Our new Leviton Live demonstration
centre offers us the opportunity to showcase
the capabilities of our products and solutions
to our Middle East customers, partners, and
consultants in a highly interactive, hands-on
setting,” said Aldo Strawbridge, Managing
Director of Leviton Middle East.
The new Leviton Live centre includes
a comprehensive training facility that will
deliver on-site product and solution trainings
and certification programmes to Leviton
Middle East customers, consultants, and
partners. The new Dubai facility represents a
key strategic component of Leviton’s ongoing
growth in the Middle East region.
Leviton Network Solutions delivers
complete network infrastructure systems
for enterprise, data centre, government,
education, health care and residential
markets around the globe. Solutions include
copper and fiber optic connectivity, power
distribution units, and more.
Saudi Arabia’s Al Muhaidib Group partners
with SAP to initiate digital transformation
One of the Kingdom’s largest
conglomerates and investment
companies, Al Muhaidib Group, launched
its digital business strategy, with
digital transformation enabler SAP in
an enterprise agreement signed by
Abdulkareem AlKhaliwi, Vice President of
IT at Al Muhaidib Group, and Steve Tzikakis,
President of Europe, Middle East, and
Africa South at SAP.
With Saudi Vision 2030 calling on
private sector contribution to GDP to grow
from 40% to 65%, Al Muhaidib Group is
undergoing digital transformation across
its 93 affiliates, covering five key sectors:
building materials, food, contracting, utilities
and infrastructure and real estate. As part
of its digital transformation, Al Muhaidib
Group’s eight largest entities will run on the
SAP HANA in-memory platform.
“Saudi’s largest organisations need to
run in real-time to enhance their business
competitiveness. Using SAP HANA, Al
Muhaidib Group now has the real-time
analytics to ensure our customers have the
right products at the right time. We have
enhanced our performance, improved our
reporting time, and can better fuel our
regional and international expansion,” said
Abdulkareem Al Khalawi, Vice President of
IT, Al Muhaidib Group.
One of the oldest and largest
conglomerates in the Kingdom, Al Muhaidib
Group was founded in 1943. Its most
prominent investments include Mayar
Foods, Savola Group, Masdar Building
Materials and Thabat Construction, Saudi
Tharwa in real estate, and ACWA Holding.
“Al Muhaidib Group is at the cutting-
edge of Saudi organisations undergoing
digital transformation. Conglomerates
are the lifeblood of the Saudi economy,
across a wide range of industry verticals.
SAP is committed to exchanging global
best practices in enabling Saudi Vision
2030’s nationwide digital transformation
and private sector companies to take
their business plans to the next level,” said
Ahmed Al-Faifi, Managing Director, SAP
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen.
Abu Dhabi based Yahsat partners with
Bluetown to provide connectivity to rural Africa
Yahsat, the UAE-based satellite operator,
signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with the Danish technology and Internet
Service Provider company Bluetown. The
partnership agreement aims to connect
the unconnected by providing high
performance Ka-band satellite Internet
services combined with Bluetown’s
unique last mile solutions in unserved or
underserved locations.
Both companies will join forces to offer
an innovative, reliable and sustainable
solution that will overcome the challenging
and harsh terrain conditions present in
the most remote areas of Africa. The
combination of the partners’ technologies
will support the distribution of Yahsat
Internet satellite services to a substantial
number of users within communities
utilising Bluetown’s last mile solution.
Bluetown solutions vary from single village
installations and refugee camps to solutions
with up to 200 Wi-Fi hotspots in a 15km
radius. All solutions are 100% powered by
solar energy with rechargeable batteries as
a back-up, which provides 24x7 access to
the Internet.
The Wi-Fi hotspots will be backhauled
by YahClick, the high-performance satellite
broadband service provided by Yahsat,
making it possible for people to browse
the Internet, keep in touch, or participate
in e-learning, e-health and e-government
programmes using any smartphone, tablet,
or laptop.
In addition to its core solution, Bluetown
has developed a local cloud intranet
platform to provide fast and easy access
to e-learning, e-health and e-government
services among others.
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