With 75,000
more coming
online with
Expo 2020
announced,
we believe this
sector deserves
more attention
and focus.
Serjios Hage, the Founder of EMW and winner of the Vertical Partner of the Year
latest transformational technologies and
received a detailed road map of Cisco’s
digital and smart solution strategy for
accelerating profitable growth. The
event underscored the power of working
together in the Partner Ecosystem, and
provided an opportunity for the partners
to engage with Cisco executives and
network with their peers.
Serjios Hage, the Founder of EMW
and winner of the Vertical Partner of the
Year, commented: “When we began in early
2004, we took the strategic decision to
serve specific verticals, primarily the service
industry led, of course, by hospitality.
“This strategy has paid off and we see
ourselves as an extension to our clients’
teams, helping them improve and expand,
specifically those in the high-end category
such as the Jumeirah Group’s iconic Burj
Al Arab; Radisson Blue; Atlantis the Palm;
Rixos; EMAAR and, most recently, Meraas.
“The trend we see with end users
today is very different than, say, five years
ago when a sale was closed with one or a
maximum of two decision makers. Today,
it is more a case of purchase by consensus,
24
with a minimum average of 5.4 persons,
or sometimes more, depending on the
value. This means that the decision to
invest in the right technology can take
months, sometimes a year, depending on
the project size and how many holdouts
there are inside this circle of trust. Having
said that, the network infrastructure needs
to be procured, whether on-premises or
hosted, which is what we do and do very
well. Lots of buzz words are out there:
IoT, digitisation, cloud, AI, but without
an ethernet port, nothing will function.
Clients will still invest in networking
gear but consolidation, orchestration and
intelligence will take the lion’s share rather
than just brand names. It is an interesting
time to be part of these new technology
initiatives and we’re very excited to have
clients already engaged.”
And the key verticals the channel
needs to look at this year? “We are biased
towards hospitality, having more than
10,000 keys in our portfolio, most of
which we’ve built from the ground up with
14 years of hands-on experience,” added
Hage. “With 75,000 more coming online
with Expo 2020 announced, we believe this
sector deserves more attention and focus,
which is what we’re leading with. What
makes us even more eager is the customer
experience and how to take each and
every person, guest or visitor, through the
journey of being home away from home.
“We’re really thrilled to have won this
award. There are many benefits in being
a Cisco channel partner; one of the most
obvious is the brand name and the fact
that it’s a reputable, trusted and stable
vendor. As a systems integrator, we rely
heavily on our OEMs and I’ve known of
vendors that have been acquired, then
ceased to exist, then resold, chopped
up and sold to many vendors, then
bankrupted . . . anything you can think
of has happened. With Cisco, you do not
have to sell the vendor’s story; rather, you
can focus on the solution that best fits the
customer’s needs.
“Our Cisco award for the Vertical
Partner of the Year is a testament to
how when a partner-vendor-customer
work together and support each other,
everyone wins.”
Issue 06
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS