ISME Magazine -Issue 39 webview (1)

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CONTENTS
43
INTERVIEW
Modernising the
Logistics Ecosystem
Janardan Dalmia,
CEO of Trukkin
20
41
22
46
24
INNOVATION
Aligning innovation
strategy with a
business strategy
How an innovative idea
can become a profitable
business trend
SECURITY
The cyber security
trends to look out for
10 steps to stop lateral
movement in data
breaches
Sponsored Feature
MADE IN UAE
SUMMIT 2018
SPI Group
www.spigroup.ae
www.theintelligentsme.com
www.robustrak.com
www.innovationandtech.ae
www.innovationsummit.ae
www.dubai-gbs.com
www.smeworld.ae
www.madeinuae.ae
Publisher & CEO:
Shantanu A.P.
Consulting Editor s:
Ramki Jayakrishnan
Arjun Santhanakrishnan
FINANCE
14
VAT in the Gulf
Corporation Council
26
The possibility of a
cashless economy
TECHNOLOGY
18
The latest cloud
computing changes
shaping the market
28
What works best for
your company: IoT
or Blockchain or a
combination of both?
36
Boost business with
augmented reality
50
What makes cloud
computing imperative to
SMEs?
32
34
38
48
MARCOM
A look at the future of
content marketing
CONTENT
How fake is our news?
COMMUNICATIONS
Why entrepreneurs
should leverage the
power of PR ?
IOT
The changing face of
IOT
Content Manager:
Jem Elizabeth Mathew
Expert Contributors:
Harish Krishnamoorthi
Radhika Iyer
Diksha Vohra
Mohamed Khan
Rohan Nathan
Sirish Kumar
Designer :
Maneesh Ambadi Valappil
Distribution Department :
Jerry P. Sam
Disclaimer
SPI Publishing has endeavoured to bring out a publication that is
reliable and informative. This is true to the best of our knowledge. The
opinions presented are those of individual writers and not necessarily
endorsed by SPI Publishing. The content in this magazine is protected
by copyright law and is copyright to SPI Publishing unless credited
otherwise, and may not be copied, reproduced or republished for any
commercial purpose or financial gain.
6 Intelligent SME December 2017 Intelligent SME December 2017 7

Publisher's Note
We wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
We are at a very interesting time in the UAE’s manufacturing industry. With
technology integrations, smart workforce, intelligent business models and strategies,
today’s manufacturing giants are boosting productivity, enhancing gross profits and
maintaining competitiveness.
Shantanu Phansalkar,
Publisher, SPI Group
However, the regiment of UAE’s small manufacturing enterprises are increasingly
facing myriad of challenges with regards to smaller client base and workforce,
struggling to meet all the demands. They are also facing complex liabilities
related to products and services, federal regulations, and corporate issues. Small
manufacturers must also reconsider their relationship with government organizations,
for a number of reasons. Incidentally, it is the lack of knowledge and expertise that
drives the key issues that they face.
That’s why we are planning to organise Made in UAE summit, a high-profile manufacturing conference and a
knowledge exchange platform bringing together more than 500 manufacturing decision makers who play an
active role in shaping the UAE’s manufacturing scene.
We look forward to welcoming our readers to this amazing conference.
Happy Reading!
@IntelligentSME
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8 Intelligent SME December 2017

IN FOCUS
Technology Industry Leaders Join Forces
to Increase Predictability in Open
Source Licensing
Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:
RHT), Facebook,
Inc. (NASDAQ: FB),
Google (NASDAQ:
GOOGL) and IBM (NYSE: IBM)
recently announced efforts to
promote additional predictability
in open source licensing, by
committing to extend additional
rights to cure open source
license compliance errors and
mistakes.
The GNU General Public
License (GPL) and GNU Lesser
General Public License (LGPL)
are among the most widelyused
open source software
licenses, covering, among other
software, critical parts of the
Linux ecosystem. When GPL
version 3 (GPLv3) was released,
it introduced an express
termination approach that
offered users opportunities
to cure errors in license
compliance. This termination
policy in GPLv3 provided a
more reasonable approach
to errors and mistakes,
which are often inadvertent.
This approach allows for
enforcement of license
compliance that is consistent
with community norms,
To provide greater
predictability to users of
open source software, Red
Hat, Facebook, Google and
IBM today each committed
to extending the GPLv3
approach for license
compliance errors to the
software code that each
licenses under GPLv2 and
LGPLv2.1 and v2.
Michael Cunningham, executive
vice president and general
counsel, Red Hat
“We believe in promoting greater
fairness and predictability in license
enforcement and the growth of
participation in the open source
community. We encourage other
GPLv2 copyright holders to follow
our lead.”
Allen Lo, vice president
and deputy general counsel,
Facebook
“Open source accelerates
the pace of innovation in the
world. Extending the good-faith
opportunity for developers to
correct errors in license compliance
has the potential to help move
the industry forward and allow
engineers to focus on building
great things.”
Mark Ringes, assistant general
counsel, IBM
“For many years, General Public
License v2 and V3 have guided
the development of the world’s
largest shared code base, Linux.
Extending GPLv3’s non-compliance
cure provision to GPLv2 will enable
the continued adoption and robust
growth of Linux for decades to
come. IBM has long been a leading
supporter of Linux and open source
and assists in the development of
the Linux kernel. Deepening our
commitment with this assertion is a
natural evolution of that support.”
Around 3% pay rise likely in the
UAE in 2018, despite VAT and all,
says industry expert
Although the current
economic climate in the
UAE is causing some
uncertainty owing to
the effects of the implementation of
Value Added Tax (VAT), declining
oil prices and the high inflation
rate, there will be some good
news on the pay rise front in 2018,
according to global remuneration
expert, Robert Mosley.
Mosley provided detailed
insights into the current pay trends
and forecasts for the approaching
year, while addressing The Human
Resources Forum’s (THRF)
seminar, hosted in conjunction with
the University of Wollongong in
Dubai (UOWD) recently.
“We are very optimistic about
the latest basic salary pay trends
currently at %2.5 (an increase of
mere %0.3 over the previous year),
with the possibility of moving up in
2018”, he told the participants.
Mr Mosley said salary increase
forecasts for 2018 looked quite
favourable and he expects pay
rises to be in the region of 3 per
cent.
Quoting latest statistics, Mosley
said 34 per cent of employees
received no salary increase
during 2017-2016, whilst 66 per
cent received an increase
averaging 3.6 per cent
with the majority based on
performance.
Interestingly, according to
Mosley, the basic salary trends
based on the various industry
sectors were a complete
reversal from what happened
in 2016. For example, in 2016
the transportation, logistics
and cargo, Insurance, Retail,
Pharmaceutical and Education
and Banks, Financials and
Conglomerates sectors saw
the lowest increases, whilst
Real Estate and Construction,
FMCG, Food & Beverage,
Hotels-Hospitality and
Healthcare and Hospitals
witnessed the highest increase
in salaries. However, in 2017,
the figures were quite the
opposite.
The 2017 guaranteed fixed
cash trends (basic salary
plus allowances) indicate that
UAE Nationals are being paid
around 45 per cent more than
non-nationals with the gap on
the increase, whilst the benefit
cost increased by between
5 per cent and 7 per cent in
2017. Medical insurance and
education benefits have seen
the most significant negative
changes, as these services
are quite expensive for
IN FOCUS
employers to provide.
During the seminar, Mr Mosley
also said that the traditional
performance appraisal system
would soon make way for a new
system called MSC. MSC is
monthly short-term specific Must
Do, Should Do and Could Do
goals and targets. Employees
will be rated in short -10minute
sessions with their managers
instead of the long two-hour
meetings with line managers on
a bi-annual basis. At the end of
the year, a simple calculation will
determine the annual average
and the employee will be scored
accordingly. This system is
considered to be more effective
and more productive than the
current system.
Concluding the seminar, he
provided a summary on how to
conduct performance appraisals
focused on three fundamental
components: objective setting,
competencies and behaviours,
and development planning. He
also talked about the problems
with the current five and six-point
scoring system and how to avoid
forced distribution of ratings.
Mr Mosley is a founder
member of THRF and now runs
his own company, Lemon Pip
Consulting Limited. He is also a
Master Trainer and member of
the Reward Advisory Board for
CIPD.
10 Intelligent SME December 2017
Intelligent SME December 2017
11

IN FOCUS
Emirates Post Issued a Set of Postage
Stamps for the International Year of
Sustainable Tourism for Development
IN FOCUS
Dubai SME and DHL launch
Global Expansion Programme
for SMEs
In order to support the
initiatives and endeavors
of United Arab Emirates to
promote the
tourism sector and
raise awareness
of the country's
significant tourist
landmarks,
Emirates Post
Group has
issued a set of
commemorative
stamps for some
significant tourist
landmarks in UAE
for the International
Year of Sustainable
Tourism for
Development in
cooperation with
World Tourism Organization and
Universal Postal Union.
Acting CEO of Emirates
Post Group, Mr. Abdullah
Mohammed Al Ashram, said
that this issuance sheds light
on the decision taken by United
Nations General Assembly in
its 70th session of defining
2017 as International Year
of Sustainable Tourism for
Development. It aims to educate
decision-makers and the public
on the role of the sustainable
tourism and its contribution to
development and to consolidate
the efforts of all concerned
persons to work together to
make tourism an incentive of
positive change.
Mr. Abdulla added that this
international initiative highlights
the role of tourism in several
key areas, i.e., inclusive and
sustainable economic growth,
social integration, employment
generation, poverty reduction,
resource efficiency,
environmental protection,
climate change as well as
cultural values, diversity,
heritage, values of mutual
understanding and peace and
security.
Mr. Abdullah indicated that this
distinguished issuance of the UAE
commemorative stamps included
the most important
tourist landmarks of
each Emirate. Emirate
of Abu Dhabi stamp
included the image of
the Emirates Palace,
Emirate of Dubai stamp
included fantastic
picture of Burj Khalifa,
Emirate of Sharjah
stamp included
wonderful artistic
picture of Alnoor Island,
Emirate of Ajman stamp
included a traditional
picture for the entrance
to the Ajman Museum,
Emirate of Umm al-
Quwain stamp included
Al-Shuhada Square, Emirate Ras
Al-Khaimah stamp included Al-
Jazirah Al-Hamra and Emirate of
Fujairah stamp included the most
important tourist attractions in it, i.e.
Fujairah Citadel.
He pointed out that such
international cooperation with
World Tourism Organization
and Universal Postal Union
characterizes the vital role played
by tourism sector in the state. This
sector has witnessed a growing
and remarkable growth at the
national and international level.
Dubai SME, the agency
of Dubai Economy has
signed an agreement
with DHL, the
world-leading express transport
company, to launch the 'Global
Expansion Initiative’ for Small and
Medium Enterprises’ programme.
As per the new initiative, DHL
will offer discounted freight
charges and also provide access
to workshops and training
programmes on international
expansion to Dubai SME members
and companies rated under the
SME RATE Framework.
Dubai SME launched the SME
RATE Framework, a first-ofits-kind
initiative in the region
to comprehensively rate SME
performance. This is instrumental
to achieving the goals of the
UAE Vision 2021 goal to building
a diversified and sustainable
economy, and aligns with the
Dubai Plan 2021 goal of increasing
the share of SMEs in the emirate's
GDP.
The agreement was signed by
Abdul Baset Al Janahi, CEO
of Dubai SME, and Jeff Walsh,
General Manager of DHL in the
UAE, in the presence of senior
executives of both entities.
“The partnership marks a
significant step for SMEs
particularly in enhancing
productivity and promoting
innovation among local
companies. It will promote the
performance and growth of
SMEs in Dubai and across the
UAE by facilitating logistics,
and eliminating obstacles
to exporting to markets
overseas,” said Al Janahi.
“The logistics sector plays a
lead role in driving sustainable
growth in Dubai and the UAE.
Through our partnership
with DHL, Dubai SME aims
to promote best practices
among SMEs and empower
them for competing with
large enterprises in overseas
markets.” He added that
the partnership will lead
to enhanced productivity
and promote the export
capabilities of local companies
across varied sectors such as
retail, and food and beverage.
The partnership with DHL
also provides local SMEs
access to smart shipping
solutions, added Al Janahi.
“The agreement covers
a series of specialised
workshops to support skills
development and help business
owners to identify the best growth
strategies, expand to markets
overseas, and optimise logistics
solutions to efficiently serve their
target markets.”
Geoff Walsh said "We look
forward to this new partnership
with Dubai SME and to help
developing businesses in
the UAE grow regionally and
globally.”
12 Intelligent SME December 2017 Intelligent SME December 2017 13

VAT in the Gulf
Corporation Council—
Accelerating Compliance
with the Right ERP Platform
Whatever your scenario, aim for extensible functionality and flexible options
that minimise the likelihood of financial penalties. With a series of interlocking
global engines, you can easily configure the rules that determine how transactions
are posted, where they are posted, how tax is calculated, how currency
is handled, and how data is stored.
The clock is ticking. In
January 2018, the UAE
and Saudi Arabia will
adopt a Value Added
Tax (VAT) at a standard rate
of 5 percent, with the rest of
the Gulf Corporation Council
(GCC) to follow soon after. The
UAE’s Ministry of Finance has
explained in clear terms what
is required of businesses—that
they “will be responsible for
carefully documenting their
business income and costs
and associated VAT charges”.
For those familiar with VAT
compliance in other countries,
there are no surprises here.
And PwC, Deloitte, Ernst &
Young and many others have
already published whitepapers
cataloguing the nuanced
challenges of VAT in the Arab
Gulf region.
The benefits of VAT are well
established. For business,
compliance is relatively
straightforward and the tax is
neutral to economic hiccups
and changes in trading
and distribution patterns.
Governments benefit from VAT
being a proven inflation-neutral
system, and Gulf governments
in particular can be assured
of steady funding for public
spending, to cover any
possible shortfall in non-oil GDP in
the midst of a dip in petrochemical
prices.
Operational Readiness
But benefits aside, being prepared
for VAT compliance can be
a daunting prospect. If you
manufacture, distribute or sell
goods you need to understand
its impact, and have a working
knowledge of input and output
tax. You need to understand the
difference between Standard, Zero
and Exempt rates. How will you
manage VAT as it pertains to your
cash flow? What deferred-payment
schemes are available and how
can you optimise the timing of
recovery of VAT on costs?
If your business crosses
national boundaries, you need
to consider the requirements
of customs authorities—VAT
will add an additional layer to
import-export regulations, and
full compliance will demand
deft handling.
In addition to all of these
considerations, it is expected
that there may be many
exemptions and exceptions
when it comes to intra-GCC
transactions. And there will
remain the significant grey
area of government suppliers,
where a public agency
may have its exempt status
suspended for the purposes
of maintaining a competitive
market.
Different industries will need
to address these complexities
in different ways, in addition
to keeping on top of their own
sector specific issues.
Financial Services
The finance sector traditionally
enjoys many exemptions when
it comes to VAT. In the case of
GCC VAT, it is expected that
these exemptions will extend
to Shariah-compliant banking
and insurance (takaful), but
industry players will have to
wrestle with a certain amount of
complexity to make proper use
of these benefits. Organisations
need to ensure that services are
identified correctly as exempt
or taxable, and that VAT on
reverse-charges is properly
managed. Banks and other
financial institutions may need to
reassess the design of products
to comply, not only with VAT,
but with fundamental changes in
consumer needs.
Manufacturing
Organisations within the
manufacturing supply chain
will feel acutely exposed to
the impact of VAT. Smooth
implementation is crucial, to
ensure sustained cash flow and
optimal operating efficiency.
Manufacturers must keep price
fluctuations firmly in mind, just
as their customers will, and pay
due attention to new invoicing
requirements. Those that are
involved in trade with other
countries inside and outside
the GCC should be prepared to
comply with the strict auditing
requirements of customs officials.
Hospitality and Tourism
Airlines, hotels, travel agents
and other industry specialists
will have very different VAT
stories to tell. The reason for
this complexity lies not only in
the vast operational differences
between, say, an air carrier
and a hotel, but also in the
differentiation between a principal
and an agent. In a recent report
on GCC VAT by Deloitte, the
consultancy firm pointed out
that “many tourism businesses
14 Intelligent SME December 2017 Finance
15

Whether you run a fully fledged, integrated enterprise resource
planning (ERP) system or a standalone finance package, you
will likely have access to basic VAT functionality. But compliance
with new country-specific regulations within the GCC may require
anything from mild configuration to extensive procurement.
describe themselves as an
‘agent’”, but for the purposes
of VAT compliance, they
must “consider if they are
acting as a principal in
reality, while referring to
themselves an ‘agent’”.
Other complexities will arise
for the sector in its dealing
with inbound and outbound
business. Depending on an
end-customer’s itinerary,
multiple different rates of VAT
may apply, depending on
which country is deemed to
be the origin of the business
transaction—the so-called
“place of supply”.
Technology to the
Rescue
Whether you run a fully
fledged, integrated enterprise
resource planning (ERP)
system or a standalone
finance package, you will likely
have access to basic VAT
functionality. But compliance
with new country-specific
regulations within the GCC
may require anything from
mild configuration to extensive
procurement.
Whatever your scenario is, aim
for extensible functionality and
flexible options that minimise
the likelihood of financial
penalties. With a series of
interlocking global engines,
you can easily configure the
rules that determine how
transactions are posted, where
they are posted, how tax is
calculated, how currency is
handled, and how data is
stored.
Demand flexibility so you
can add the functionality
that makes sense for your
business. The best solutions
are designed around core
functions that worldwide tax
systems have in common,
with national variations as
configuration options. In
particular, ensure your chosen
ERP system is capable of
producing the required
level of documentation.
A comprehensive set of
electronic-compliance features
is advisable as is a structured
reporting framework that can
produce VAT submissions in a
wide variety of formats.
Remember that noncompliance
can have a
detrimental effect not only
on the corporate purse,
but on brand credibility.
Managing the intricacies
of VAT regulations is made
a lot easier with the right
technology platform for
commerce.
Monzer Tohme, Regional Vice President, Sales, Middle East and Africa, Epicor
Software. Taking leadership of a business that has seen strong growth over the years,
Tohme focuses on building the sales team, growing the channel community and
expanding the company’s footprint in the region. He is effective and accountable in
high-profile management roles to overcome complex business challenges and make
high-stakes decisions using experience-backed judgment. He believes in strong work
ethic and irreproachable integrity.
16 Intelligent SME December 2017

The Latest Cloud
Computing Changes
Shaping the Market
Many companies are now looking to refactor apps to effectively run on the public
cloud systems. This would help leverage migration services and it works better
than simply dumping apps into a public cloud.
The fact that business
today operates
completely on cloud is
no longer ‘news’. Cloud
computing is a necessity, an
expertise in which determines the
success of a business.
The New Wave
There is a second wave in the
cloud computing market that is
affecting the public, private and
hybrid cloud services. Many
enterprises are now building
private services or procuring
public cloud services. There are
still other enterprises that are
planning on implementing new
cloud technology.
Companies like Google,
Microsoft and IBM are opening
data centres to lure big
companies to their cloud. There
are also many speciality clouds
that have cropped up recently
after Amazon’s venture into
cloud computing services. These
developments in the market
makes it imperative for CIOs to
not only adopt but also catch up
with the new cloud strategies that
is changing the business scene.
There are basically six trends that
are reshaping the second wave
in the market of cloud adoption.
A Rise in Co-Location
Services:
Running one’s own data
centre is a lot of work! It also
eats away a lot of time of CIOs.
This has increasingly made them
avoid a possibility of running
data centres. However, it is not
easy to decide on a particular
cloud given that there are so
many options to choose from.
This has resulted in CIOs turning
to co-location services. Colocations
like Equinix and Digital
Realty, etc. allow a business
to move their systems to a
managed data centre, where
they can get all the benefits that
come from various public clouds
and also SaaS services.
Co-location services also help
businesses to test and try the
cloud before deciding on what
works best for them. A CIO who
is unsure about a cloud service
can easily test services from
Azure, AWS or Google Cloud
without the need to be committed
until they feel their business is
ready to move.
Cost Containment
Tools:
Cloud cost management
is a factor that is increasingly
getting complex. This results
in businesses that engage
with multiple cloud provider
get really confused with cloud
vendor management – reason
being many vendors themselves
are inexperienced. The huge
corporations like AWS etc. do
not make things any better what
with their many cloud services
consumption plans. CIOs who
have used the services of
AWS knows that they charge
customers for the cloud services
by the number of messages
exchanged and in some cases
messages exchanged in an
hour.
Interestingly because of this
complexity companies have
started the trend to hire a Cloud
Architect who can help choose
the correct cloud services
and negotiate contracts. All
of this has given rise to cloud
cost management tools like
Cloudability, Cloud cruiser and
Cloudyn.
The Rise of
Hyperconverge
Infrastructure Solutions:
Businesses are often tempted to
move to public clouds given the
fact that it makes things easy for
them. But not all CIOs are allured
by the risks to their company
data that a shift to a public
cloud or a third-party vendor
brings with it. Managing private
clouds on the other hand brings a
lot of expenses. Mostly because
a private cloud comes with the
costs of virtualization, automation,
standardization, resource
monitoring and self-service access
etc.
This is where the
Hyperconverged Infrastructure
solutions comes in. This provides:
a. Pre-integrated compute
b. Storage and Networking
Resources
c. Faster Cloud Implementations
The benefits of HCI has made
it increasingly popular with
organizations for their private cloud
development.
Use of Containers:
Containers are the latest
development that has made
its presence felt in the world of
Cloud Computing. Containers is
basically a process that allows for
a reliable software transfer from
one computing system to another.
Developers all over are increasingly
making use of containers to migrate
and manage software code. Their
popularity and ease of usage has
made many companies use it to
enable portability between services
from the big corporations like AWS,
Google Cloud etc.
Container Development is
one trend that is catching up on
the Cloud Computing world.
However, the usage of
containers also opens a new
dimension where companies
need to struggle with fresh
security, monitoring, storage
and networking problems.
These problems will continue
to rise as containers start to be
used extensively in production
all over.
Lift and Shift Tools:
The lift and shift tools is
another popular tool that has
arrived in the cloud computing
world. This tool allows one
to accelerate the pace of
cloud migration. For the bulk
application migrations it comes
with a very low cost feature.
Many companies are now
looking to refactor apps to
effectively run on the public
cloud systems. This would help
leverage migration services
and it works better than simply
dumping apps into a public
cloud. The lift and shift tools
are costly but then it helps a
business to take maximum
advantage of cloud’s elasticity
feature.
Enterprise Apps Moving to
Public Cloud:
Using public cloud is convenient.
Many CIOs are comfortable with
hosting software in the public cloud.
Spark Analytics, Splunk and SAP
to name a few are software that
companies prefer to run in AWS.
This is a trend that is catching up
fast with all companies. There is a
growing trend that CIOs will start
to rely even more in the future on
the services of the Public Cloud
Providers.
The business world is evolving
every moment. It was not long ago
that cloud computing started as a
concept. Looking at the scenario
now it seems like it has been in
the business world forever. Some
even question the possibility of
doing business without a cloud
computing system. It is important
for businesses now to know the
trending changes that shape the
digital market world. We have looked
at the six trends that has reached
the cloud computing market today.
Rest assured that these will soon
be history and there will be fresh,
more advanced trends to look out
for. The only mantra that would
work today is ‘Keep looking, keep
implementing and keep evolving
with the changes.’
18
Intelligent SME December 2017
Technology 19

Aligning Innovation
Strategy with a
Business Strategy
A company struggling to bridge the gap between innovation strategy
and business strategy must look at what kind of need drives their business.
They can then develop an innovation strategy based on this need.
Innovation is indispensable
to business growth.
With the business world
evolving every moment
entrepreneurs need to innovate
extensively to keep up with the
changes. The traditional way
of including innovation strategy
in a company was all about
training employees on how to
use design thinking methods,
processes etc., but this is not
enough. In the present market
for a company’s innovation
strategy to work it is important
to align its business processes
with the innovator’s way of
working.
Here’s Why?
With the growing need to
implement innovation strategy
better many companies are
researching ways of reaping
maximum benefits from it.
Price Waterhouse Cooper
very recently published
an ‘innovation benchmark
report. This report was made
based on a survey with 1220
executives who were based
in 44 different countries. The
research aimed at finding out
what executives understand
about innovation globally and
the measures that they are
taking to reap the maximum
benefits out of it. This report
clearly captures the changing
view of innovation in business.
Some of the key highlights
found from this research are:
1. Embracing
Collaborative Models:
Collaborative models like
Design thinking and open
innovation are increasingly
becoming popular with
companies today. The research
found that companies that
used collaborative approaches
to innovation increased their
growth rate to %15 or more
when compared with their
counterparts.
2. Partners for Innovation:
It is interesting to note that
%60 of the studied companies
think that their employees make
for a great partnership when it
comes to innovation. The rest
%16 or so think that start-ups
make for better partners.
3. Technology the
Key Driver of Future
Innovation:
The way people view technology
in business has changed
dramatically with the intense
digitalisation of the world.
Entrepreneurs no longer view
technology as something that
needs to be updated to keep
up with competitors. It is instead
viewed as the main factor that
drives innovation. Business
executives has also realised that
it is not enough to simply develop
technology only; developing
innovative business models is
equally imperative for sustained
growth.
So what is the ‘take away’
from the PWC report?
The report clearly highlighted
that businessmen are investing in
innovation to be able to sustain
their companies over a long term.
Investing in innovation is not just
something that businesses do
for the fun of it. It has become
a cardinal part that defines a
company’s growth.
The success of innovation is measured by the sales growth.
Therefore, companies should not simply invest in random innovation
of unrelated projects but on something that boosts sales. This is why
every company should align innovation strategies with the overall
business strategy.
Bridging the Gap
Although the reasons are pretty clear as to why an
investment in innovation should align with a company’s
business strategy many entrepreneurs struggle to
bridge the gap between innovation strategy and
business strategy. This is not because of incompetence
but because of a lot of unclear answers to cardinal
questions.
Questions that involves a vision of the company’s future,
key trends impacting the industry, using innovation to
respond, needs to be answered precisely to the point. In
many companies there is a lack of research, understanding
and evaluation of these questions. Unless the management
focuses on the answers it is impossible to develop an innovation
strategy that would suit a company. However, if one looks at these
questions as a whole it is impossible to get real answers. So it is
important that these questions are broken down to parts and then
assessed. Breaking down these question while keeping in mind a
particular business strategy brings us to three main conclusions.
1. Find What Seekers Need:
Every company that does business caters to a particular need
of the client base. A company struggling to bridge the gap between
innovation strategy and business strategy must look at what kind
of need drives their business. They can then develop an innovation
strategy based on this need.
If one looks at Apple products one can see that it develops new
product ideas based on its insight of its clients’ changing needs. To
give a more elaborate example, it is common knowledge that music
lovers struggle a lot with headphone cables that take a long time to
untangle. We now have headphones that are tangle free.
How did this come to be?
There is a company that looked at the need (tangle free cables)
that drives their business (selling everything music lovers want) and
came up with an innovation strategy that would boost their business.
This is a classic example of how innovation strategy that is based on
client’s needs naturally aligns it with business strategy.
2. Breaking Benchmark:
Innovation strategy can also be based on incrementally
improvising products that has
already proved itself to be the
benchmark of convenience,
performance etc.
A good example of a company
that innovates using this second
tactic is Samsung. Its products
always come up as a better version
of products that has already been
established. The cheaper rates of
their products work as a perk for
clients.
3. Technology:
Lastly an innovation strategy
that is based on evolving new
technology can help align it with
a company’s business strategy.
An example of a company who
bases its innovation strategy on
technology is Google.
An Innovation strategy which
is unaligned with a company’s
business strategy neither bring
long term benefits nor profits.
The way the business world now
views innovation has changed. In
order to be at par with this change
it is important that businesses
implement innovation strategies
that equally embrace this changing
view. The three strategies
discussed above has proved to
have work wonders - what with
companies like Apple, Samsung,
and Google whose names are
synonymous with ‘sustained
growth and success’ embracing
it. Innovation strategies are no
longer just theoretical aphorisms.
It is increasingly becoming an
indispensable part for a company’s
growth. The future belongs to those
who think in terms of developing
innovative strategies that is long
term.
Where is your innovative strategy
headed?
20 Intelligent SME December 2017
Innovation
21

The Cyber Security
Trends to Look Out For
Evolution is an ongoing process. In case of cyber criminals, it is happening at a
very fast face. They are getting smarter with every security app. If things go at this
rate, it might be possible that they might exploit a small portion of the Deep Web
namely the Dark web and use it to communicate with other criminals.
The business world is
an interesting place.
We have seen that with
businesses resorting to
the digital world has resulted in
the emergence of cyber criminals.
As businesses upgrade
their security measures so does
these cyber criminals upgrade
their tactics of breaking in. Given
this behaviour it has become
important for entrepreneurs to
look out for the potential trends
of cyber-crime that might shake
the foundation of their companies.
Ignorance in this case
definitely does not lead to bliss
but chaos. As the year comes to
a close let us look at some of the
‘cyber-crime world prophecies’
and decide on what has actually
come to pass. For those trends
that did not materialise, one can
definitely watch out for them
in the following year. For those
trends that has set foot into the
business world, well, the question
remains: Have you beefed
up your security enough to fight
against them?
Expect to See an
Improvement in
Regulations
The world of cyber security is
governed by a set of regulations
that are very slow compared to
the fast moving pace of the cyber
world. These regulations has
been found to rather hinder security
than be an asset because
of its slow pace. The beginning
of this year expected that there
would be an improvement in
the regulations that apply to the
cyber world. An improvement
that would meet the need to
fight a clever, agile and fiercely
motivated criminals
Looking at the shape of the
regulations, this work still seems
to be in progress.
Data Manipulation
Everyone in the business industry
know about the basic data
theft. Given this knowledge,
companies know how to protect
themselves very well. This is not
a very good sign for hackers
because of the obvious reason
that they cannot break into
companies as easily. Experts believe
that cyber criminals would now resort
to attacking data integrity itself to come
out of their situation.
What would happen if data
integrity is attacked?
Well, it will cause long term damage to
the victim. This in turn would lead people
to question the security of integrity
of data.
Attacks on Consumer Devices
Ransomware is a nightmare that every
company with a digital presence is
aware of. A study revealed that it might
be possible that consumers now will be
targeted across connected objects.
Here’s how. It is possible that attackers
might target a consumer’s smart TV
via a ransomware attack. They may
then demand a fee to unlock it. This
is just one example of how it can be
done. It is as threatening as simple as
it sounds.
Hard to Beat Breaches
The demand to fight security measures
has made cyber criminals even
cleverer. It possible that they grow their
malicious activities using ransomware
in more ways than one.
The last year has already seen a
ransomware variant that uses an
innovative system to increase infections.
What happens in this system
is that the software turns the victims
into attackers themselves by offering
something like a pyramid-scheme
style discount. Things like this might
be on the rise very soon. Smart? Very!
Cyber Risk Insurance
Cyber risk insurance will become a
major part of operational risk strategy.
It is possible to see cyber insurance
covering for the following:
i. Loss of Reputation
ii. Loss of Trust
iii. Loss of future revenue from Negative
Media
iv. Improvement Costs for Security
v. Improvement costs for infrastructure
vi. Improvement costs for system
upgrades
Expect Smarter Attackers
Evolution is an ongoing process. In
case of cyber criminals, it is happening
at a very fast face. They are
getting smarter with every security
app. If things go at this rate, it might
be possible that they might exploit
a small portion of the Deep
Web namely the Dark web and
use it to communicate with other
criminals.
Internet of Things (IoT)
It is a possibility that AI-powered
attacks can copy the behaviour
of specific users. This can fool
skilled security personnel. This
in turn might lead to the creation
of complex phishing campaigns
that can easily take even the
most threat conscious business
man on a ride.
Rising Demand for
Security Skills
With the rise in cyber-crime the
business world will have a high
demand for security skills. The
digital business world will throng
cyber security providers and
experts like never before.
Drone-Jacking
As deadly as sophisticated as
it sounds, drone-jacking is the
next big cyber-crime to watch
out for. Drones are easy and
quick to set up and often have
unencrypted communication
and open ports.
This makes it perfect
for hackers to break
in. Drones have no security
and companies,
government or police
drones can be easily
hacked by criminals by
using just a laptop.
Emergence of
CCO
Last but not the least it
is possible that companies
would now keep
a CCO. What is a CCO? Chief
cyber-crime officer. With cyber
criminals becoming smarter every
business minute, it will be imperative
to keep a CCO in a company
who would take care only of the
security.
It is important to monitor the security
of a company on a minute
to minute basis. Having a CCO
would ensure that an organisation
is cyber ready. He/she would help
prevent breaches and would be
responsible to take effective action
if any breach occurs.Some trends
mentioned above have actually
materialised remotely while some
other trends still remain only a
prophecy to watch out for in the
near future. Fulfilled or not the
threat to cyber security still remains.
It is best to be on the lookout
for more threats. This would
help stop a security breach. Cyber
security agencies are effective but
the cyber-criminals are smarter.
The best way to tackle them is to
close all possible gaps that might
allow a security breach before the
cyber criminals can conceive of
one.
22 Intelligent SME December 2017 Security 23

The Biggest Manufacturing Conference
The biggest challenge
for manufacturers today
is to gain the expertise
that would help them
transform their manufacturing
strategies that shape the future
outlook of the economy. It is
paramount to discover the
most capable combination
of technology innovation and
workflow optimization in realtime.
According to Sultan Bin
Saeed Al Mansouri, the UAE
economy minister, UAE is
aiming to attract 75$ billion by
2025 into the country’s new
industrial manufacturing sector.
With myriad technological
implementations, UAE
manufacturers, suppliers and
consumers are increasingly
adopting an “intelligent”
approach to enhance
performance standards, quality
assurance and operational
processes.
Being UAE’s largest
manufacturing summit, Made
in UAE is an unbeatable
knowledge exchange platform
that brings together highlevel
executives who play
an active role in shaping the
UAE’s manufacturing scene.
It’s about rethinking business
strategy for scalable, secure
and efficient future. The
summit features keynotes
from global thought leaders,
engaging panel discussions,
interactive sessions with
MFG tycoons, an exhibition
showcasing leading MFG
brands and strategic
workshops.
UAE’s Manufacturing
Industry
The UAE has no dearth of
manufacturing companies
with strong brand names.
Take Damas, a jewelry maker
founded in Dubai as early as
in 1907. Or Al Khaznah, an
Abu Dhabi-based tannery that
produces an exclusive range
of innovative, biodegradable
camel leather. In the
vehicle industry, defense
vehicle manufacturer Nimr
Automotives has made a name
for itself in North Africa’s harsh
desert environments.
More recently, Tesla-style start-ups
have popped up in the automotive
sector. Zarooq Motors, the first car
manufacturer with facilities in the
UAE and Emirati management,
produces the high-performance
SandRacer sports car. It has been
joined by W Motors, the UAE’s first
supercar manufacturer.
UAE also has a fair share of
technology manufacturing,
including Falcon Technologies
International, which produces
high-end data storage products,
and KhalifaSat, the first satellite
produced here without external
partners. And believe it or not,
the country already has its own
smartphone brand, Four, launched
last year by Emirati entrepreneur
Faisal Al Bannai, who is also
CEO of Axiom Telecom and of
cybersecurity firm DarkMatter.
Connecting the Smartest
People We Know
Made in UAE summit will provide
a platform for local manufacturers
to come together and discuss
the future of manufacturing. The
summit will be held on January
17th at the Emirates Towers and
will feature keynotes from global
thought leaders, engaging panel
discussions, interactive sessions
with MFG tycoons, an exhibition
showcasing leading MFG brands
and strategic workshops etc.
The Theme
• Outlook for the UAE’s
manufacturing sector
• Transforming business models
• Understand and monetize IoT
• Overcoming integration
challenges
• New Asset monitoring and
predictive maintenance techniques
• Understanding the new shift in
supply chain, inventorying and
logistics in manufacturing
• New technologies to watch out
• How to improve productivity
• Understanding data to bring in
more efficiency and scale
• Collaboration and partnerships to
transform economies
Why Attend?
• The summit avails
the business-changing
opportunity to connect with
over 500 MFG decision
makers from all over the UAE.
• It helps in gaining a
competitive advantage by
hearing from expert speakers
and industry leaders relaying
their vast experience
• To learn how to be
future ready and lead your
employees through the digital
era
• To meet and exchange
ideas with your peers, as
Made in UAE is a catalyst for
authentic human connection
and conversation.
Who will You Meet?
Chief Executive Officers
Plant Managers
VP of Manufacturing
VP of Supply Chain
Manufacturing Innovation Heads
Government officials
Venue and Date
Emirates Towers, Dubai
17th January 2018
www.madeinuaesummit.com
24 Intelligent SME June December 2017 2017 Public Relation
Sponsored Feature
25

The Possibility of a
Cashless Economy
account is a block
and the network
being a chain that
links the blocks.
This gives rise to the
word – Blockchain.
With Bitcoin the payer simply needs to calculate the exact bitcoin equivalent of the
amount to be sent in the local currency of the entity that one is sending payment to
Digitalisation has changed
the way the world understands
finance. The
possibility of a cashless
economy has given rise to Bitcoins,
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency.
The concept of Bitcoin was
coined on 3rd January 2009 by a
person named Satoshi Nakamoto
as an online currency that requires
no centralised administrator or any
repository. Ever since its conception
the value of Bitcoin has slowly
increased with its current value
being higher than over 72 billion
pounds. Yes, it’s worth more than
Morgan Stanley and Goldman
Sachs!
Why are we discussing
Bitcoins and
Cryptocurrency here?
Well, because it is important to
SMEs.
Here’s why?
1. Bitcoins are going to be
the next trading currency
Yes, you have heard it right. The
dream of a cashless economy
is slowly materialising in Cryptocurrency.
Many influential banks
are looking at this possibility
very closely. It is old news that
countries like Sweden and
Denmark are moving into a
completely cashless society.
Needless to say that Cryptocurrency
has made its presence
felt slowly, but surely!
Looking at where the business
world is heading to it is important
for SMEs to think in terms
of Cryptocurrency.
2. Bitcoins are accepted
as a Payment for
products:
A recent study revealed that
almost 100,000 merchants
are now accepting Bitcoins
as a payment for products
and services. Accepting
bitcoin as payment allows
them to effectively levWerage
an increase in the value in
Bitcoin as against takings in
their respective businesses.
Needless to say that it is a
good way to reinvest into one’s
business. Companies who now
accept Bitcoins as payment
are Virgin, Bloomberg,
Expedia, Wordpress, Subway
and Microsoft. Is there any
reason why you think your business
should stay behind?
3. Cryptocurrency is
Decentralised:
A financial transaction as we know
it now goes through a lot of intermediaries
like a middle man, a bank, a
broker an agent etc. These elements
were initially added in the process of
a financial transaction to ensure that
there is no breach of trust. Nonetheless
these intermediaries did not come
free of charge. In a way having these
intermediaries eats away at a major
chunk of money in the first place.
The usage of a Bitcoin removes the
need for intermediaries because it
runs on a decentralised network. With
the usage of Bitcoin one can easily
transfer money over a secure network
for no fee. Moreover it also comes with
the benefit that every transaction is
recorded in a ledger that cannot be
intercepted by banks or hackers.
4. The usage of
cryptocurrency is secure:
Cryptocurrency can only be transferred
over a network of people who
owns cryptocurrency. It is like a chain
of blocks where a particular person’s
It is believed that the
Blockchain technology
is so advanced that it has the
potential to replace internet itself.
It is impossible to intercept a transaction
here. This is because there are
one million cryptocurrency wallets in
a network. So to intercept one transaction
here one would have to hack
every single one. This is impossible
even for the smartest hacker. This
makes Blockchain networks the most
secure till date.
5. Fast Overseas Transfers:
Overseas transfers are usually an
expensive and a slow process. The
usage of Bitcoins can help an SME
save both money and time because
transactions with Bitcoins takes only
30 minutes or less.
With Bitcoin the payer simply needs
to calculate the exact bitcoin equivalent
of the amount to be sent in the
local currency of the entity that one
is sending payment to. After this is
made, the transaction is successfully
done and the payee can withdraw the
amount in their own currency.
6. Customers gradually would
prefer Bitcoin Payment:
Making payment with Bitcoin is
something that will define the way
people pay in the future. All one
needs to do is to transfer the amount
from one’s bitcoin wallet to the other.
Bitcoin payment can easily be done
with a smartphone alone. The BIC
store in Japan has already
started accepting Bitcoin
payment from customers
and given that it makes
payment so hassle free, it
is soon to catch up with the
rest of the world.
7. Marketing Strategy:
Bitcoin is a topic that is covered
up by every business
tabloid. These tabloids also
keep a track of which businesses
has started accepting
bitcoin as a payment
method. Given this scenario,
an SME if it starts accepting
bitcoin at this stage, it will
gain a lot of attention from
the media. This will naturally
lead to it being mentioned
in all important business
discussions. There is a
saying, ‘Make hay while the
sun shines.’ For competitive
SMEs who want to reach
a height of media success
and boost their marketing
chances, this is the right
time to introduce bitcoin in
their company.
Cryptocurrency is the next
new thing in the finance
world. The big corporations
have already tested and
tried this new emerging
way of making payments.
The success of bitcoins
has gone higher with every
transaction. More and more
corporations are heading
towards embracing it. It is only
when one moves in tune with
the changing trends that one
can keep pace in the competitive
business world. SMEs
who choose to keep their old
way of doing things unless it
is deemed necessary have a
lot to lose. It’s true that given
that cryptocurrency is a very
complicated and technologically
advanced concept not
everyone is keen on using it.
But it is always better to lay the
foundation in one’s company to
support a future of cryptocurrency
transactions. A company
can easily do that by educating
its people, following latest
cryptocurrency trends and by
shaping ones business towards
the needed finance evolution.
The emergence of cryptocurrency
has changed the way we
understand finances. It is a
concept that has made dealing
with finances more convenient.
Embrace the technology of
Cryptocurrency and step into
technologically advanced way
of making payments.
26 Intelligent SME December 2017
Finance
27

What Works Best for
Your Company: IoT or
Blockchain or a
Combination of both?
The world as we know it
has been taken over by
IoT. Digitalisation has
made our way of doing
business smarter, our lives
easier and has created a future
that holds immense possibilities.
Needless to say, it has gained
much popularity and has made
its presence felt across all
aspects of the world. Business,
finance, environment name
anything, IoT is everywhere.
For those areas that have not
been touched by IoT well,
there is ‘work in progress’. It
is an undisputed fact that IoT
has bestowed our world with a
plethora of benefits, but it has a
lot of limitations as well.
IoT is Fragmented in
Nature
The IoT market is very
fragmented in nature. Whoever
knows an IoT market knows
that there are many standards
and vendors to it. This results
in an uncertainty about the
technology, vendors and
solutions in the minds of
people. Another question that
arises with this technology is
the concern of interoperability
and its solutions. All these
together make adoption of IoT
very slow.
Safety of Data
Data is naturally the biggest
asset in IoT. However, the
solutions that are provided
do not protect data through
its complete lifecycle. In IoT
data is stored in the cloud but
there is no solution provided
for things like compromised
integrity of devices and
tampering with data that might
happen at the source level.
Scalability Limitations
IoT uses technologies like PKI
(Public Key Infrastructure) to
encrypt data and store it in cloud.
This process creates a lot of load
and results in a rise of scalability
limitations. The centralised
architecture that defines IoT
solutions leads to resiliency issues
as well; the reason being the
transactions that are processed
in the cloud are unavailable to
the cloud resources. Any minute
problem here could lead to a
complete failure of one’s business
operations.
The Blockchain technology helps
to remove these limitations.
Here’s how?
The nature of Blockchain
technology is characterised by
being a distributed ledger that can
be used to distribute computation
and log transactions and business
operations. Blockchain has
something like Keyless Signature
Infrastructure that can be used to
provide an integrity of all assets
including clouds and devices.
How does it work?
The KSI allows a user to create
a cryptographically secure hash
for each asset that one needs to
protect. It is then stored in the
Blockchain. This process allows the
user to check if any data has been
tampered with. With this technology
every change is logged. If there are
any unwanted changes, it can be
easily detected and immediately
acted on. KSI allows not only to
log data changes but also to log
software and configuration changes.
All at a device level. This makes it
possible to secure data on cloud
throughout its lifecycle. Moreover
this technology also removes the
drawbacks of cenrtalised coud
architectures that arise in terms of
computation and resiliency.
But the benefits of Blockchain to IoT
are not one sided. True, Blockchain
can provide the perfect
solution to IoT’s scalability and
security issues, but a seamless
operation of Blockchain will not
be possible without a little help
from IoT. Let us look at how
IoT makes the functioning of
blockchain flawless.
a. Supply Chain:
Let’s take an example of the
Blockchain technology in
terms of deliverable goods.
The distributed ledger of a
Blockchain can allow to log
when a particular product or
goods are leaving the factory,
is being loaded on a mode of
transport, when it has been
unloaded and passed through
customs and finally delivered
to the customer. Here IoT can
be used at the various points
of this delivery process to scan
and log the type of goods shipped,
track the arrival and automatically
release payment to the shipping
company. The sensors from IoT can
also be used to measure simple
things like the temperature if the
products shipped are perishable
goods. This would help in keeping
track of simple things like a breach
of temperature contract. Goods
then can proceed on to be rejected
automatically.
b. Electronic Health
Records:
Blockchain can be used to store
Electronic Health Records. These
health records with the use of
IoT technology can be easily
updated by adding sensor data
from the medical devices. This
28 Intelligent SME December 2017
Technology
29

will allow doctors to tie a
prescription to a patient’s EHR
while assessing the patients’
Health Records. Scanners in
a pharmacy can then verify if
the medication contradicts with
the allergies stored in the EHR.
Reimbursements can also be
automated by this process.
c. Removes Tediousness
from processing claims:
It is a known fact that getting an
insurance policy or processing
claims is a very tedious process.
The Blockchain technology
allows a policy to be defined as
a smart contract. Now with the
usage of IoT technology one
can easily lower the premium for
this policy because the asset is
monitored and any possible
threat can be detected and
action taken. Blockchain
and IoT can also ensure that
insurance companies are free
from fraud by ensuring that
accurate data is provided
to insurance companies.
Blockchain and IoT when
jointly used can also reduce
costs of operations and speed
up pay-out for insurance
companies.
Blockchain and IoT when
used together makes business
look smoother than ever. Any
company that involves IoT
must start to think in terms
of IoT and Blockchain now,
mostly because a combination
of both these technologies
gives the best of both to a
business. Given the fact that they
eliminate all drawbacks related to
each other and work wonders as a
team it is important for companies
to include the technology of both
Blockchain and IoT together. The
combination of Blockchain and
IoT is a trend that is gradually
catching up with the technologically
sound companies. For those who
are still contemplating about a
possible step should act on it. A
business that goes with the times
is a business that tastes success.
Switch to the proven benefits of IoT
and Blockchain and watch your
company’s business operations
smooth out.
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A Look at the Future
of Content Marketing
‘Content is Fire, Social Media is Gasoline’
-Jay Baer
No matter how digitalised or materialistic the world is, we do business with
sentient human beings. It is therefore important to write content that touches
a customer’s heart and not just google rankings.
Ever since the conception
of language the power
of the written word has
been deemed as the
mightiest force. Very subtle, it
is almost an invisible force; but
a force nonetheless that leaves
a lasting impact if it touches
the correct notes of the reader.
The written word has evolved
through the ages powerfully and
has now made its presence felt
in today’s business world. Content
as we know today shapes
the path where a business is
headed to.
How?
In business terms, by bridging
the gap of communication between
buyers and sellers. There
cannot be a business exchange
without communication and
when it comes to business communication
of a digital market,
there cannot be communication
without content. The question
that now arises is – ‘As an
ambitious SME are you communicating
about your business in
a language that your clients love
and understand?’
The past year like every year
has seen a lot of interactions,
advertisements and campaigns.
Some left a trailblazer
while some others made a
temporary buzz. As the year
2017 comes to an end, we are
all geared up to learn from the
past and start afresh. In this
article, let’s have a look at what
kind of content would make for
a great marketing campaign in
the changing business scene
of 2018.
1. Write for Humans:
With the advent of Social
Media Marketing things like
Google analytics and page
rankings have taken precedence
over the quality of conversation.
Companies fill their
web pages with content that
are written aimed at getting a
high ranking and capable of
bringing in traffic as soon as it
is published. This might look
business smart initially but it
fails in the long run.
Why?
Because it has the human
factor missing in it.
No matter how digitalised or
materialistic the world is, we
do business with sentient human
beings. It is therefore important to
write content that touches a customer’s
heart and not just google
rankings. This would bring in genuine
clients who would want to know
more and most importantly, keep
coming back. This in turn would
boost a business’ traffic positively.
For example – If an SME sells
sports products, its worth will be
assessed by sports enthusiasts.
Things like google rankings, analytics
of the company content will
not matter to them. It is the trust
and value worth of the articles they
read that might trigger an interest
in them in the first place to come
and check what the business is all
about.
2. Actionable Content:
An article when it is made engaging
becomes interesting. Content
marketing campaigns thrive
on interactive articles. It is wise for
SMEs to focus on creating content
marketing campaigns that engages
customers in all possible ways.
How can SMEs do that?
For example - By creating articles
that has a little quiz based on the
content at the end. A company can
then proceed to give away prizes
to the winners. Another way one
can create interesting content is by
writing articles that educate people
and have live interaction sessions.
This opens up a two way conversation,
between the company and
the consumer. A conversation in
turn would familiarise the company
with potential consumers and build
trust.
An SME that sells laptops can have
a blog dedicated to customers
where they write about the latest
products and offer live expert
advice on them while helping customers
to decide on what to buy
and why.
There are a plethora of options that
one can explore when creating
engaging content. Things like free
coffee for the first few subscriptions
to a company blog also work
wonder to improve a business
ranking. Engaging content bring
back readers for more thereby
increasing traffic and retaining
customers.
3. Stories Matter:
Everyone loves to hear a good
story. Stories gives a face to the
company in question.
Every business has a blog which is
doing a one sided content marketing
where the company talk and
people hear. Bringing in the human
touch is the game changer here.
Featuring stories to promote a
product rather than advertisements
is how content marketing
would take shape in 2018.
If you are at a loss about what I
am talking about, take a look at
the official website of Coca-Cola.
Their official website called
‘The Journey’ is all about
stories. Stories that somehow
relate to the product. Stories
work because it relates to the
human element of business.
4. Transparency:
Consumers today question
everything about a business.
Transparency is becoming an
increasingly important factor
for retaining customers. The
year 2018 would see more
content that is transparent and
easy to authenticate.
One can easily create such
articles by backing it up with
information that supports what
the article says.
5. Contextual Content
Experience:
In this age of AI, content
has moved beyond the screen.
Business today works in a
world of beacons, censors
and the Internet-of-Things. The
written word is no longer restricted
within the virtual walls
of Facebook or a blog.
With consumers interacting
directly with AI and virtual assistants
through apps like Siri it is
important that SMEs think about
content marketing in these new
contexts. For a marketing campaign
to succeed it is important
that it is in sync with the times.
SMEs often lose their way amidst
the technicalities of Social Media
Marketing. True, the technicalities
of business are uncompromisable;
what with the world taking a
giant leap towards a complete hitech
world. But having said and
done all, we should not forget
what is at the heart of all of this.
Who does business cater to? It
caters to the people.
The year 2018 will see a lot of
things digital, hi-tech and advanced.
While it is important to
move with the changing times it is
also important that we do not lose
the human touch. Base content
marketing tactics on humans and
see a business effortlessly reach
popularity and commendable
rankings.
32 Intelligent SME December 2017
Marcom
33

How Fake is our news?
Fake news and disinformation is not a new phenomenon, and it will no be going
away anytime soon and indeed the continuing digitization and move to less
traditional media sources is only likely to accelerate the issue further
Hardly a day goes
by without media
and sometimes
government claims
that Russia has been utilising
social media tools to spread
fake news and misinformation
to influence everything from
elections, mining approvals and
even Brexit.
But Russia is just the tip of
the iceberg for this issue
with regular misinformation
campaigns and attacks
observed worldwide from
activists, political and business
rivalry, and even kids looking
for kicks.
But how hard is it to
spread this sort of misinformation?
Well it appears to be very easy
indeed with easily available
tools and services which actors
can buy or rent as needed to
get up and running quickly.
The barrier to entry is very low
indeed.
This means that for example
twitter accounts can suddenly
come out of nowhere and
attract tens of thousands of
followers and retweets in a
matter of hours associated
with particular misinformation
campaigns.
For example, in October 2016
an ideologically motivated
hacktivist group called
Anonymous Poland published
documents it claimed it had
stolen from a breach of the
Bradley Foundation, a U.S.-
charity. Over the ensuing
week almost 15,000 nearly
identical tweets posted by
approximately 12,000 Twitter
accounts, featuring links to
tweets about the Anonymous
Poland breach were identified.
Disinformation campaigns can
take many forms; however,
they generally follow three
distinct stages: 1) Creation, 2)
Publication and 3) Circulation.
For each stage, there are
countless online tools,
software and platforms to allow
attackers to create credible
and effective disinformation
campaigns.
In recent years, there has
been a growth in toolkits
and services designed to
propagate the spread of
misinformation – available
for just 7$ – that are aimed
specifically at causing financial
and reputational damage for
companies and governments
There is a myriad of
drivers that will affect how
disinformation campaigns
evolve in the upcoming years.
Based on the drivers and
assumptions shown below, it’s
almost certain that disinformation
will continue; the geopolitical
situation shows no signs of easing,
and there is plenty of sociocultural
unease to exploit. While there will
be continued efforts to remove
suspicious content from social
media sites, the low barriers to
entry and innovation of threat
actors will lead to an increase in
disinformation. Moreover, this is
not just a risk for political parties
in 2018; disinformation affects
businesses and individuals too.
So how do we combat this
sort of threat?
There are some steps businesses
can take to lessen the risk of
disinformation impacting their
businesses. These include:
• Combat domain spoofing
- organizations should proactively
monitor for the registration of
malicious domains and have a
defined process of dealing with
infringements when they occur.
An agile and scalable takedown
capability is critical for combating
domain spoofing
• Combat the ‘bots’ - monitor
social media for brand mentions
and seek to detect the ‘bots’
though it’s not always immediately
obvious, there are often clues
such as looking at the age of the
account, the content being posted,
and the number of friends and
followers
• Monitor forums for
information that could manipulate
the share price - organizations
should search for mentions of their
brand or staff across forums, which
could be instances of malicious
actors spreading disinformation
• Keep an eye on
trending activity – monitor
trending activity as it relates
to an organization’s digital
footprint and potentially
identify disinformation activity
Fake news and disinformation
is not a new phenomenon,
and it will not be going away
anytime soon and indeed
the continuing digitization
and move to less traditional
media sources is only likely to
accelerate the issue further. The
blurring between truth and fiction
is often difficult to ascertain but
businesses need to ensure they
do all they can to monitor and
protect their own reputations to
ensure next time it is not them in
the crosshairs of the attacker.
Rick Holland is the Vice President of Strategy at Digital Shadows. Holland has more than
14 years experience working in information security. Prior to joining Digital Shadows, he
was a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, providing strategic
guidance on security architecture, operations, and data privacy. He also served as an
intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army. He is currently the co-chair of the SANS Cyber
Threat Intelligence Summit, and holds a B.S. in business administration with an MIS
concentration from the University of Texas at Dallas.
34 Intelligent SME December 2017
Content
35

Boost Business With
Augmented Reality
The usage of augmented reality in any kind of business increases clarity of a
proposal, creates better decision making possibilities and helps one to avoid
flaws.
The emergence of
augmented reality has
laid the foundation
for a business world
that operates digitally. It is
no longer a concept of the
future, but a possibility that we
hold to explore in the present.
Augmented reality has made its
presence felt in all aspects of
the world. Like everything else, it
is catching up with the business
world first and fast.
What is Augmented
Reality?
Augmented Reality is a
technology that enables a
computer-generated image
to be superimposed on a
user’s view of the real world.
Augmented reality unlike a
virtual reality uses the existing
environment and overlays it
with new information on it. This
provides a composite view to
the user. This manipulation of
data creates a higher level of
engagement with the information
applied on the world around us.
For Example, Ikea has recently
showcased to its customers
how a particular couch would
look in their living room using
augmented reality.
The usage of augmented
reality in any kind of business
increases clarity of a proposal,
creates better decision making
possibilities and helps one
to avoid flaws. It materialises
a discussed proposal and
opens it up for assessment
before actually going forward
with it. It is a technology that
simply put, makes life easy.
Businesses do not need to wait
for a decision or a proposal to
manifest materially to decide if
it works best for the business or
not. It is a technology that has
started to re-define the way we
know and operate in our world.
Given the fact that Augmented
Reality benefits everything
that it touches the competitive
business world has long
desired it since its inception.
We have now reached a state
where many businesses are
already using this hi- end
technology. Let us take a
look at how this technology
is now being used and at the
possibilities that will open up at
its evolution.
1. Collaboration across
Borders
The world as we know it is
one connected whole. Thanks
to digitalisation we are now
capable of doing business that
cut across time zones, borders
and even remote geographical
locations. There is one thing
however that has always been
a challenge when it came to
a long distance business i.e.,
the absence of a one-to-one
interaction. Augmented reality
can remove this drawback and
make long distance businesses
feel more real.
Here’s how?
When workers in a remote
location come together for
a meeting, one can easily
get distracted. The reason
being, the long distance.
With augmented reality, these
business meetings will be
revolutionised. Meetings held
with AR technology will feel
like everyone in the
meeting is actually
present in the same
room. This makes a
discussion naturally
more engaging.
2. Training and
Education
With AR training and education
will become more insightful and
engaging. Gone are the days
when training meant attending
a lecture. With the use of AR
technology, trainers can now
engage their audience with
‘on screen instructions’ or with
‘layered graphics’ to give them a
hands-on training on the subject.
This will result in a more effective
and qualified audience.
For example – Suppose there is
a complex machine that a trainer
is educating its audience about.
Using AG will allow the audience
to actually see and handle how
it works. Audiences with AG are
not only equipped theoretically
but practically after a class.
Needless to say these people
will have a deeper and clearer
understanding of things.
3. Repairs
AR will make everyone capable
to fix machines. Yes, even
inexperienced people will be able
to repair complex machines.
How?
Augmented Reality has the ability
to demonstrate each part of a
machine, explain what needs to
be done to access it and then
repair it. The overlays that comes
with AR technology can easily
illustrate a step-by-step process
of repairing anything that can be
repaired precisely.
4. Showcasing New
Products
We have already seen how
IKEA used AG to showcase its
products. Given that people
resort to e-commerce mostly
for shopping showcasing
products has become an even
more important aspect of trade
and commerce. AR will allow
customers to fully assess a
product they want to buy as
if it is physically there. This
technology allows customers
to know what exactly they are
getting into before they decide
to make a purchase. It also
helps a business to reduce
expenses by minimising returns.
5. Real-Estate and Maps
One of the best feature
about the Augmented Reality
technology is Directionality.
The world of real estate and
the usage of maps will be
completely revolutionised
with augmented reality. A
realtor showing a home can
show details of a house in
a graphic overlay while the
customer walks through it.
Business deliveries can also
use the graphical overlays that
augmented reality offers in
place of maps and reach their
destination without taking their
eyes off the road.
6. Office Spaces
Office spaces can be
completely revamped with the
use of the AG Technology. A
small office can be made into a
cheaply multifunctional space.
For example there is this office
room that has only tables and
chairs and nothing on the walls.
Augmented reality can easily
transform that room into one that
is filled with digital whiteboards
on all the sides that can be used
to scribble on.
It is also possible with AR to
voice command the room to save
the Moments of meeting and also
transform it into a boardroom
layout or anything that works
best for the current meeting. All
with one voice command.
Augmented reality has arrived
and is very much here. The
future of business is already
making its presence felt.
The traditional way of doing
business will soon be replaced
with augmented reality. In this
constantly changing world it is
best to keep ourselves open and
adaptable to change. Very soon
augmented reality will move from
the big corporations to the small
businesses and become an
everyday reality. The business
world as we know it is getting
a makeover. Are we ready to
embrace the change?
36 Intelligent SME December 2017
Technology
37

Why Entrepreneurs Should
Leverage the Power of PR ?
PR allows a company to share a detailed and more engaging message because
it covers newsworthy messages like a new venture, an innovation or may be an
achievement.
Public Relations or PR as
it is commonly known is
a great way to manage
a company’s brand
name. SMEs focus a lot on
marketing but very less on PR.
The reasons for this are varied
and of course at times validated.
Many SMEs do not understand
the value of Public Relations.
The ones that do are either not
confident enough to focus on it
or do not want to spend money
on it. Everyone understands
marketing, because it has
become so commonplace.
But PR is that sophisticated
and unexplored part of brand
management that no one wants
to get involved in.
How PR helps?
The communication is aimed
at maintaining a strong and
positive image of the company
through its ups and downs.
While marketing gives a
company space to express
and hopefully make audience
turn heads, PR seeks a
journalist’s endorsements
to tell its story and earn
credibility. The trick here is to
be newsworthy.
Benefits of PR:
1. PR allows a company to
put its message in front of a
very large audience. A large
audience naturally opens up
to a large pool of potential
clients.
2. PR allows a company to share
a detailed and more engaging
message because it covers
newsworthy messages like a new
venture, an innovation or maybe an
achievement. This feature helps to
win over customers easily because
they can go on in depth into the
workings of a company. It helps
clients to make a deeper connect
with a company.
3. PR is all about being featured
in newspapers, magazines or on a
local radio station. This opens up
amazing sources for a company
to reach its potential clients.
The thing with marketing is that
people might choose to see, hear
or get involved in the campaigns
or they might not. With PR, it is
in the news, on the radio and on
magazines. So, even if people
choose to ignore the message they
do get to know about the company.
This definitely works positively for a
business to grow.
4. Bloggers, journalists and
established presenters have a fan
following who follow everything
they publish or say. They trust
their opinion. So a company which
is spoken well of by one of these
people earns an unquestionable
credibility in the market.
The benefits of PR are many and
one can reap these benefits with
just one good story. It definitely
makes sense to include PR as part
of SMEs branding campaign. But still
SMEs hesitate to venture into public
relations.
Here’s why?
a. PR Baffles Businessmen
Marketing has become so popular
that everyone prefers it over anything
else. Moreover, marketing can be
understood in terms of campaigns,
numbers and traffic. PR does not
work this way. There is no guarantee
with PR. It can be said to be a risk
because companies need to deal
with surrendering their image to a
medium over which they can have
no control at all. With marketing there
is this comfort level that PR does not
offer. This is the first and foremost
reason why companies hesitate to
take the first step. What is needed
here is an understanding of PR and
how it works for a business. Many
a times this need is overlooked or
postponed.
How to get over this barrier?
Well, entrepreneurs simply need
to go that extra mile and try get
an understanding of what a PR
is all about. There are many
management support agencies
in the market who can willingly
help a business understand the
benefits of PR and also show
them how to apply PR to their
particular business.
b. The Dilemma of a Good
Story
For those entrepreneurs who
do understand about PR they are
perplexed about where to start.
‘What would make a great
story? What kind of story
would give their brand
credibility? How will people
take their story?’
The fact that the stories of the
company are not told by the
company itself but by a journalist,
brings in these questions. As a
result, to play safe, entrepreneurs
choose to stick to marketing.
How do entrepreneurs
get over this barrier?
First and foremost, entrepreneurs
need to understand their target
media and familiarise their
company with stories that they
like to cover. One can then easily
find a place where their company
is a perfect fit.
There are many media
companies who like to cover local
stories to highlight the progress
of the local economy. They also
cover specialist trade media. Any
SME who have started up fresh,
expanded business or is simply
doing good business, has a good
story.
Many media also cover personal
business stories. These stories that
have a human angle to it make for
great case studies. It is something
that the business section of almost
all national media cover. These
stories are harder to find with a
big company. A little research on
the same can help SMEs find the
correct PR source.
PR is a great way to boost a
company’s brand name, business
and success. Given that PR does
not work the Marketing way and
involves a certain factor of risk it
is natural for entrepreneurs to be
afraid to venture ahead. Whatever
the case an SME who wants to
carve a niche in the business
world, it is important to take risks.
Moreover risks where the benefits
far exceed the chances of failure
should always be taken. One can
always start small. An SME can
always start with the local media.
One thing would lead to the other
until one reaches the confidence
to hire a full-fledged PR specialist
and feature one’s business in
the national paper. Start small
but do start the PR way and see
your business gain commendable
popularity.
38 Intelligent SME December 2017
Communications
39

How an innovative idea can
become a profitable business
trend
Every innovative
entrepreneur follows the
road less travelled and by
far the only way to reach
there is—by Converting Cuttingedge
Ideas into a regular Income.
The journey of a thousand miles
begins with one single step…so
goes the popular proverb.
The journey from Idea to Income
follows the same step up approach.
The various stages involved in this
journey include:
Conception of an Idea
(Ideation)
The innovator conceptualizes an
Idea based on his / her assessment
of the need in the market for
the product or service to be
developed.
Evaluation of this idea
Once the idea is firmed up by the
innovator, the idea goes through the
phases of
a. Concept Testing
b. Concept Development
c. Concept Finalization
Making a Prototype and
Proof of Concept
Based on the concept finalized,
the Prototype is developed and
Proof of Concept demonstrated
to ensure the product or idea is
implementable and the technical
details and usage particulars are
documented.
Financials forecasting
and Regulatory
Compliances
To convert this idea into a
commercially viable business
model—the entrepreneur then
gets into financial forecasting
including cash flows for both
capex or capital expenditure and
opex or operating expenditure.
It is also critical to understand all
regulatory compliances required
to set up and start the project and
begin commercial operations.
Commercialization of the
Idea
Team Building, process set up, sales
management and commencing
commercial selling of the product
or services. This step involves
Generating CASH FLOWS, the lifeline
of any business.
Scaling up and Growth
Taking the business to the next level
of growth involves building a fullfledged,
capable team, upgrading
technology so as to be able to handle
larger operations.
Pitching for Investments, product
value-add if any, expansion in various
geographies and markets and many
such initiatives will assist the business
to grow and generate more INCOME.
Renuka G., Principal Consultant, Centurion Consulting L.L.C., Dubai. Centurion
Consulting is a business consulting firm that can assist entrepreneurs and SME in
Market Entry and growth of their business in the UAE.
Innovation 41

Modernising the Logistics
Ecosystem: TRUKKIN
An investment banker turned technology evangelist, Janardan Dalmia aka JD is
on a mission to transform logistics industry. As CEO of Trukkin, JD is tasked with
the mammoth responsibility of leading young, energetic and passionate team on
to the next revolution in technology & logistics. Prior to Trukkin, JD was honing
his corporate finance experience working with and advising on some of the very
high profile M&A transactions over a decade at Barclays and Bank of America in
Dubai and New York.
JANARDAN DALMIA,
Partner / CEO, Trukkin
What are some of
the challenges that
manufacturers are facing
in today’s era and how
is Trukkin playing a
role in alleviating those
challenges?
More with less approach. Today,
manufacturers are looking for
ways by which they can optimize
costs i.e, to achieve best quality
production and distribution at the
lowest cost, to be able to compete
in the market.
The logistics ecosystem, lacks a
modern strategy especially from
the commercial transport point
of view. Across GCC, there is a
road network and the distribution
happens through the land
transport. Absence of modern
technology and professional
service is causing inefficiencies in
the business. Trukkin, with an aim
to reinvent and rebuild logistics
ecosystem on the foundations
of technology, delivers top
notch professional services
to the companies as well to
the transporters, providing
faster delivery, consistent
and reliable system and
transparent platform to the
truckers and customers.
What are some of the
current technological
trends existing in the
manufacturing industry
and how do you inject
those trends into the
effective solutions you
offer?
Technology as an enabler.
There is a need for modern
technologies in today’s
logistics market. I believe
the aim of technology is not
to disrupt something, but
to make a system much
more efficient. Our goal is to
use existing technology or
develop technologies to improve
the operational experience
of both the shippers and the
transporters through creating
transparency and visibility for
them and generating more real
time data. We implement data
analytics to help companies
or transporters make real-time
data-driven decisions.
What were the key
elements that stimulated
the conception of
Trukkin? Can you give us
a quick snapshot of the
company’s history and its
evolution over the years?
Bridging the gap. The idea of
was incubated in the beginning
of 2016 while I was in Saudi
Arabia with my partner. We
began brainstorming and
realized that today’s commercial
transport is very much old
school and they have been
42 Intelligent SME December 2017
Interview
43

Give us an analogy
between your personal traits
and the way you manage
your company to success.
Team-work and culture of
superior experience. I strongly
believe in team-work. I try to instil
a culture of superior experience
within the team. Transportation
is generally a non-glamourous
business, especially the
commercial transport. Here,
people are not used to providing
a top-notch high quality or
personalized service. For instance,
the service experience that a
customer receives from a hotel
is something that makes him/
her want to come back to the
same place. I want to bring about
a similar kind of experience for
both transporters and companies
through our platform. We want to
deliver continuous improvement,
keeping in mind how we can
improve ourselves.
We operate at a management
level as well as at the grass-root
level. We believe in maintaining
a close interaction with all our
clients and understanding their
problems.
What is Trukkin’s next big
step to move forward?
Please elaborate on
any upcoming product/
plan or even geographic
expansion.
Modernising the commercial
transport. From Trukkin’s
perspective, the next short-term
goal is to scale and increase
our presence in UAE, Riyadh
and Saudi Arabia as they are
home markets for us. We want
to work with quality clients
and aggregate more and
more transporters for us. We
want to be at the forefront of
modernising the commercial
transport in the region. We want
to develop a local company or
home-grown, rather than an
international company coming
to region.
dependent on a traditional
transporter where the service
is inefficient compared to B2C
services. We researched and
approached transporters/
shippers and independent
truck drivers and fleet owners
across GCC to understand their
challenges, and noticed that
there is indeed a gap in the
market which can be addressed
by a superior operational
presence, complemented with
the help of technology. This was
the conception of Trukkin, which
led to the launch of the company
in 2017.
Trukkin is a leading cloud
based B2B platform
uniting shippers and
truckers in the middle
eastern region by
providing innovative
solutions to cater to
their logistics needs.
Could you brief us about
Trukkin platform, its
features and benefits?
A single-stop shop platform.
Trukkin aims at removing the
pressure of managing logistics
for businesses. We provide
quality services, fine drivers,
full time support and real-time
tracking of the vehicles. Our
very dignified platform enables
the customers/shippers to
place their job request in
a matter of seconds. This
shipment requirement is sent
out to all transporters (fleet
owners, independent drivers),
who provide their availability
and quotes. The customer/fleet
owners can track their shipments
real time from their mobile phones
or desktop/laptop computers,
without making anxious calls to
know where the shipments are.
According to you, what
are the key differentiating
factors that set Trukkin
ahead of the competition
curve?
Transparency & Efficiency. We do
not focus on market competition.
Our aim is to deliver superior
operational expertise, top-notch
quality services, transparency
and efficiency to improve the lives
of independent truck drivers. We
stay very close to the ground to
carefully learn the challenges of
the transporters and help them
remove their burden.
Transportation is generally a nonglamourous
business, especially the
commercial transport. Here, people are
not used to providing a top-notch high
quality or personalized service. We stay
very close to the ground to carefully
learn the lives of the transporters, the
challenges they face and help them
remove their burden.
44 Intelligent SME December 2017
Interview
45

10 Steps to Stop Lateral
Movement in Data
Breaches
As highlighted in the 2017
Verizon Data Breach
Investigation Report
(DBIR), 75 percent of
attacks come from the outside and
a whopping 81 percent of hackingrelated
breaches leveraged either
stolen and/or weak passwords.
While the specific tactics may vary,
the stages of an outsider attack
are similar and usually follow four
steps.
First, the attackers penetrate the
perimeter but more than likely,
they execute a successful driveby
download or launch a phishing
attack to compromise a user’s
system and establish a foothold
inside the network; all the while
flying “under the radar” of many
traditional security defenses.
Next, they establish a connection
- unless it’s ransomware or selfcontained
malware, the attacker
quickly establishes a connection
to a command and control (C&C)
server to download toolkits,
additional payloads, and to receive
additional instructions. According
to the Verizon report, social attacks
were utilized in 43 percent of all
breaches in this year’s dataset.
Almost all phishing attacks that
led to a breach were followed
with some form of malware, and
28 percent of phishing breaches
were targeted. Once inside
the network, attackers begin
to learn about the network, the
layout, the assets. They begin to
move laterally to other systems
and look for opportunities to
collect additional credentials,
upgrade privileges, or just
use the privileges that they
have already compromised to
access systems, applications
and data. Lastly, the attacker
collects, packages and
eventually exfiltrates the data.
How to Stop Lateral
Movement
While the Data Breach
Investigations Report and nearly
every security vendor on the
planet makes recommendations
on reducing the risks associated
with each stage of the attack, it
is worth focusing on the stage
related to lateral movement.
If you can create barriers to
move laterally, you may be
able to protect access to highvalue
assets, or at least slow
the attacker down enough that
you can adequately contain
the outbreak and mitigate
the impact of the breach. To
that end, below are ten steps
organizations can take to stop
lateral movement:
1. Use Standard User
Accounts.
Enforce that all users have
a standard user account.
Administrators across all platforms
should log in with their standard
accounts as normal practice.
They should only log in with
administrative rights when they
need to perform administrative
tasks. This might sound obvious
and reasonable but in practice,
doesn’t always happen
2. Enforce the Principle of
Least
Privilege. If a user does not need
access to systems, applications
or data, remove it. As a first step
remove administrator rights on
desktops for all users
3. Implement Application
Whitelisting. Implement policy to
allow known good applications
and log all other applications
and launch attempts. If possible,
restrict launching of end user
applications with known critical
security vulnerabilities
4. Require Multifactor
Authentication: Implement multifactor
authentication for access to
internal systems, applications and
even data. While implementing
static multi-factor authentication
based on whether a system or
application is good, getting too
restrictive can become frustrating
for users. Look for solutions that
can also restrict access based
on the risk associated with the
environment or activity. For
example, if someone tries to
launch a sensitive application after
hours for the first time, or tries to
run a sensitive command on the
Unix server that is missing critical
patches, step up the security and
trigger to re-authenticate with
multi-factor
5. Use Context-Based and
Adaptive Access Controls: At
some point people need access
to do their jobs, but continue to
lock down when they have access,
and from which location they have
access. Restricting access based
on static elements like time of day
or subnet is good, but restricting
access dynamically based on
risk (i.e. does a ticket exist for the
access, does this request adhere
to a normal access patterns and
have I received recent alerts from
my threat detection layers) adds
greater protections
6. Implement Strong
Password Policy
Management:
Require strong passwords, and
that they should be changed
frequently. Deny password
reuse. Log failed authentication
requests
7. Automate Password
Management:
Require unique passwords
across all privileged systems
and accounts. Eliminate hard
coded passwords in service
accounts and scripts. Implement
SSH key management tools
8. Segment Networks:
Group assets, including
application and resource
servers, into logical units
that do not trust one another.
Segmenting the network reduces
the “line of sight” access
attackers must have into your
internal systems. For access that
needs to cross the trust zones,
require a secured jump server
with multi-factor authentication,
adaptive access authorization,
and session monitoring
9. Consider Micro-
Segmentation:
Where possible, go beyond
standard network segmentation.
Segment based on context of the
user, role, application and data
being requested.
10. Implement Threat
and Advanced Behaviour
Monitoring:
Somewhere along the line,
accounts have access to stuff.
Implement base security event
monitoring and advanced threat
detection (including user behaviour
monitoring) to more accurately
and quickly detect compromised
account activity as well as insider
privilege misuse and abuse.
In today’s sophisticated threat
landscape, one product will
certainly not provide the protection
enterprises need against all stages
of an attack. And while some new
and innovative solutions will help
protect against or detect the initial
infection, they are not guaranteed
to stop 100 percent of malicious
activity. In fact, it’s not a matter of
if, but a matter of when you will be
successfully breached. You still
need to do the basics – patching,
firewalls, endpoint AV, threat
detection and so on. But you also
need to protect against, and monitor
for, lateral movement. So, assuming
the bad guys get in, following the
ten recommendations can help you
can stop them, slow them down,
and/or detect them faster in order
to mitigate the impact.
Brad Hibbert, Lead Solutions Strategist at BeyondTrust. With over 20 years of
experience in product strategy and management, Brad leads BeyondTrust’s solution
strategy. He joined BeyondTrust via the company’s acquisition of eEye Digital Security,
where Brad led strategy and products. Under Brad’s leadership, eEye launched
several market firsts, including vulnerability management solutions for cloud, mobile
and virtualization technologies.
46 Intelligent SME December 2017
Security
47

The Changing Face of IoT
The IoT business processes we know today mostly occur either in on-premises
data centre or on cloud. Further developments in this process will give rise to
businesses that deploy processes that require a local data analysis connected to
devices that enable this process.
We are in the last
month of 2017
business year. This
year has seen a lot
of innovations, transformations
and developments in the
business world. Internet-of-Things
ranked as one of the highest
influencers in businesses and
have contributed effectively to
re-shape the world as we know
it. It has touched every aspect
of our world and plans on going
even further. Internet-of-Things is
here to stay and keep evolving the
world around us. As we wrap this
business year let’s take a look at
the possibilities that will open up
for IoT in the coming year based
on the developments that it has
seen till date.
Voice-Based Services for
Consumers:
Looking at how voice based
services influenced businesses
this year it is likely that it will
grow in the year 2018. The
already available services
will double in the coming
year. The financial or other
industrial services that require
authentication for tasks will
be seen to lag behind in this
context.
Commercialising IoT
Data:
Countries who understands
the benefit of IoT has already
started to commercialise IoT
data. However not every country
has adopted this process giving
rise to an extreme polarity
when it comes to assessing the
percentage of commercialised
IoT data globally. The
enterprises that are lagging
behind would naturally want to
keep pace with the others. This
in turn might lead to the European
Commission to issue guidelines
that would make people want to
use advanced technology. This
step will work to spark the IoT
economy.
Exploring IoT
Opportunity:
The intelligent agents like
Amazon’s Alexa or for that matter
Google Assistant hasW already set
a benchmark of a business world
driven by advanced technology.
This is just the basis of what’s to
come. In 2018, more and more
businesses will explore ways of
interacting with customers. The
trend of giving out more intimate
brand experience will be on the
rise. It is possible that businesses
will use mobile moment strategy
and start to include new interfaces
with the help of smart home
speakers etc.
A Rise in Deployment of
Edge Solutions:
The IoT business processes we
know today mostly occur either
in on-premises data centre or on
cloud. Further developments in this
process will give rise to businesses
that deploy processes that require
a local data analysis connected to
devices that enable this process.
The advantage of this technology
or the edge IoT devices as they are
known is that they can
Act locally on data that it
generates
Resort to Cloud for essential
features like Security, Configuration,
Scalability, deployment and
management
Exiting IaaS Business:
Ever since the emergence of IoT
it has caught up with businesses
globally very fast. The year 2017 has
seen that many companies mostly
the giant corporations have started
to focus on making their IoT specific
capabilities available to consumers
through cloud providers. These
hyper scale providers tends to break
through geographical boundaries
and acquire evidence for strict
regulatory environments. This will
help them strengthen their own IoT
capabilities. This trend will only be
on the rise in the future.
IoT in Design and
Operation:
There are product designers
who build IoT into products and
experiences. One can see an
increasing need among these
designers to develop capabilities for
remote product management and
control. These designers or any IoT
business operator feels a need to
develop an orchestration software
that would help them to integrate
their diverse IoT business assets
into one cohesive whole. This
would then help them to focus on
doing business smoothly rather
than manually while managing
every minute IoT part. Given this
situation it is possible that IoT
platform built to cater to certain
professional needs will emerge in
the future.
Precipitation of IoT
Platform:
One of the major drawback of
IoT is the high data ingestion
cost and network latency. An
increasing number of enterprises
are therefore pushing the
processing of data to the edge
of the network. Given this trend,
IoT platform will need to evolve
and go beyond having services
only at the core of a network. This
need to support both edge and
core networks with programming
and an analytical model will give
rise to an increased expense.
This expense in turn will make
IoTs reduce their ambition.
Popularity of Device
Integration via Public
Cloud:
With the evolution of the usage
of IoT developers would demand
for –
a. Low Adoption Costs
b. Quick Deployment for
Prototyping
c. Global Reach
d. Easy Integration for Record
and Engagement Systems
e. Low Maintenance
These new needs will result in
an increased adoption of IoT
platforms from public cloud
providers.
IoT and Cyberattacks:
The security system of IoT is still
developing. It leaves a lot of data
exposed for cyber-attacks. The
pace of security measures is still
lower than that of the adoption of
the IoT platform by consumers.
This will result in serious cyberattacks
in the future unless of
course security measures are
deployed at place.
A Rise in Block-chain
based IoT Adoption:
This year has seen promising
projects that revolve around a
development in the Blockchain
Technology. A maturation of
these two technologies namely
Blockchain and IoT if it happens
this year will see the business
world adopt Blockchain
Technology completely in the
future.
This had been an interesting
business year. The technological
developments that made itself
manifest has already laid the
foundation of more interesting
business years to come. The
world of business has changed
in the last few years. The coming
year will only boost the changes
in an already changing business
world. Keep yourself up to date
and in sync with the possible
ventures that might touch your
company. IoT and Blockchain
technology has revolutionised
the way the business world
works. It is important for people
in business to be aware of the
minutest development in these
technologies. The year 2018 will
see even more developments in
the way we understand business
technology. It is best to keep your
business ready.
48 Intelligent SME December 2017
IOT
49

What makes Cloud
Computing Imperative
to SMEs?
Companies that resort to cloud computing can do business on the go
because it removes the barrier of physical distance. Flexibility of work in
turn allows an SME to grow.
Cloud Computing is a
trend that has taken
the business industry
by storm ever since its
inception. Armed with benefits
like ‘skyrocketing productivity of a
company’ and ‘helping save time
and money’ cloud computing is a
concept that is difficult for SMEs all
over the world to resist.
So, what is Cloud
Computing?
We use cloud computing every
day in our life. For example, apps
like Uber, Google, Zomato all are
examples of cloud computing.
Although it has been literally
penetrating all aspects of our life,
using cloud computing services in
the corporate is something relatively
new in the business industry. Let us
take a closer look at it.
To put it in layman’s words cloud
computing is a practice of storing,
managing and processing data on
a network of remote servers which is
hosted on the internet. This makes
it possible to access and share
data virtually without the usage of
physical servers and the additional
hardware. Needless to say
having everything related
to computing sorted out at
one single place companies
get ample free time to focus
on other growth promoting
aspects of the company.
Growth of a company is an
uncompromisable factor for
any company especially the
SMEs. A study suggests
that SMEs are increasingly
resorting to cloud computing.
With the growing popularity
of cloud computing there are
many service providers now
in the market that offer the
delivery of computing services
transforming computing
into a paid utility service. A
paid utility service means
computing convenience at the
end of one’s cash card and
what can be more alluring for
an SME than a convenience to
growth.
There are three kinds of cloud
computing.:
1. Public Clouds
Public Clouds offer off-site
infrastructure to a company
over the internet.
2. Private Clouds
Private clouds as the name
suggests offers infrastructure on
a private network. This is efficient
as well as secure unlike its public
counterpart, but the downfall
about a private cloud is that it is
expensive. To avail of its services
the hosting company has to buy all
the software and the support.
3. Hybrid Clouds
Hybrid cloud offers a mix of both
public and private computing
from different providers. It is
possible for the users of a hybrid
cloud to differentiate each aspect
of a business and customise
accordingly. This is believed to be
the most efficient of all the three.
For those who are still wondering
how cloud computing helps SMEs,
let’s have a closer look at the
benefits.
Minimises Expenses
What can be better for a budding
SME than cost saving? Well, cloud
computing makes that possible.
It helps a company cut significant
money on infrastructure and IT
maintenance costs. It takes away
all the hassles related to maintaining
an IT infrastructure in-house because
everything can be stored on the
cloud. Moreover, the pay-per-use
concept of cloud computing helps
a company to cut down extra costs
and pay for only what has been
used.
This in turn allows budding
companies to focus and spend
money on ‘company growth boosting
options’ like marketing or manpower.
Seems like an irresistible option
isn’t it?
Business on the GO
Companies that resort to cloud
computing can do business on the
go because it removes the barrier of
physical distance. Flexibility of work
in turn allows an SME to grow. Citing
a small example, suppose an SME
has got accounts and clients but no
proper office space yet. There is no
need to panic or lose business over
this issue. One can easily manage
with an internet connection and
a mobile phone. Something like
this would not have been possible
without cloud computing.
Cloud computing has made it
possible to conduct business
across geographical locations and
cultures through telecommuting
while opening up avenues of new
market. Studies also show
that telecommuting makes for
happier and more efficient staff.
Flexibility works to improve
retention rates and opens up
more talent pool. All these
factors add up to the success of
an SME.
Fluid Collaboration
Companies with cloud
computing understands
collaboration in quite a different
way. Here’s how?
Citing an example - Cloud
computing open the workforce
to an all new level altogether.
This makes it possible for
brainstorming sessions to
cross the narrow threshold of
boardrooms. Any employee
who has access to the system
can with the benefit of cloud
computing services add
expertise to a file without ever
having version control issues.
A little convenience like this
goes a long way in increasing
the efficiency of an SME.
Easy Integration
Cloud computing makes
integration of the different
elements of a company easy.
A company that has cloud
computing services need not
deal with different aspects like
payroll, invoice, HR accounting
etc, separately. One can easily
integrate all of these in one big
virtual room by connecting it all
up. This helps a company save a
lot of extra expense.
Security
Data loss and company data
theft can incur huge losses for
a company. Cloud computing
makes company data secure.
Break-ins, cyber-attacks and
physical damage to premises
name anything, cloud computing
has data secured from all these
threats. Moreover, a back-up of
all data is always stored on cloud.
So the fear of losing something
due to a sudden power cut or
an employee carelessness is
mitigated by cloud computing.
Even time sensitive data like
financial data management
that needs frequent back-up is
automatically secured and backed
up by cloud computing.
An aversion from data loss
is a stepping stone to business
progress. Cloud computing makes
this possible.
No Carbon Footprint
Cloud Computing makes
it possible to do business in a
nature friendly way. Companies
with cloud computing use energy
only that is needed. Secondly,
the usage of paper and other
hardware is minimal. This in turn
helps to reduce the negative
environmental effects of hardware
manufacturing and disposal.
Cloud computing has
revolutionised the way we do
business. Give your SME the
benefits of cloud computing and
see it soar the height of success.
50 Intelligent SME December 2017 Technology
51

1
2
4
7 REMOTE WORK TRENDS
TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION
MOST OF THE REMOTE WORKING ORGANISATIONS ARE
ORIGINALLY FROM THE US & UK
72%
USA
6
7
7%
7% 5% 2%
UK SPAIN CANADA GERMANY
THE HOTTEST INDUSTRIES
FOR REMOTE JOBS ARE TECHNOLOGY & MARKETING
29%
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
25%
MARKETING
5%
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION
5%
MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT
PREFERED PLACES
TO WORK FROM
HOME
CO-WORKINGS
COFFEE SHOP
HOTEL ROOM
RENTED APARTMENT
ANYWHERE
15%
LONELINESS
10%
10%
8%
42%
38%
27%
29%
3
5
MISSING SOCIAL INTERACTION
SKYPE & SLACK
ARE THE MOST POPULAR TOOLS
FOR REMOTE COMMUNICATION
56%
SKYPE SLACK TRELLO HANGOUTS
FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY
ADVANTAGE OF REMOTE WORK
FREEDOM 31%
FLEXIBILITY 27%
PRODUCTIVITY 25%
FAMILY LIFE 8%
SAVING TIME OR MONEY 6%
LACK OF SOCIAL INTERACTION & LONELINESS ARE
MENTIONED AS THE BIGGEST DISADVANTAGES
15%
NO DISADVANTAGES
SHOWING TRUST + CONFIDENCE TO THEIR TEAM
& REDUCING COSTS ARE THE MAIN REASONS FOR
COMPANIES TO GO REMOTE
46% 31% 21%
1. ANALYSIS AND ROI
10 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS
From analyzing thousands of sites to
manually fixing broken links, old school
methods will be used pften in 2016. They
work well because you have to earn them,
and they're not easily manipulated.
2. FOCUSED PLANNING
Marketers want to reign in the everything/
everywhere approach, and plan to be
more connected to customers by focusing
on one channel at a time. This means
research, planning & competitive analysis
3. PPC IS CHANGING
For 60% of marketers, PPC ads were
more effective in 2015 than in 2014.
Still, though, we found there's always room
for optimization. In most case, 80% of the
PPC budget gives a ROAS lower than 1. And
with Google eliminating AdWords right rail
real estate, PPC is about to become more
difficult & more competitive.
4. SEO WILL BECOME HARDER
Google is rewarding mobile friendly sites.
Traditional SEO efforts are no longer
enough. Having a responsive site and a
blended PPC strategy is absolutely essential
to earning a high ranking, especially with
the expected increases in competition
5. MARKETING BUDGET
WILL BESHIFTED TOWARDS
CREATIVE APPROACHES
The use of traditional advertising channels
such as PPC & social media marketing will
continue to rise. But companies will also
start exploring new venues. It's all about
testing, and you'll see companies doing
more & more of this in 2016.
6. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
WILL BECOME CRITICAL
For every 100,000 followers on facebook, only 130
people will click on an organic post. What does
that mean? Well for one thing, you need to start
thinking about emerging opportunities in social
media, with instagram & pinterest opening up their
ad networks. It's all about being creative and
staying relevent.
7. MORE CONTENT MARKETING
We've seen a 10x lift overall organic traffic tp one
of our client's sites as a results of increased
content production(This client was'nt regularly
producing content prior to working ith us). Content
production will become even more critical in 2016.
8. INCREASED DEMAND FOR
CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION
We believe companies will be investing more and
more in conversion optimization because of the
need to combat increases in sdvertising costs.
9. MOBILE WILL TAKE CENTRE
STAGE IN THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
We all know mobile is getting more and more
important by the day, & research indicates that
mobile ads perform about five times better than
traditional web ads (based on most common
mobile ads that are sold on cost per click, cost per
acquisition, and cost per thousand bases.)
10. INCREASED PERSONALIZATION
AND SEGMENTATION
In 2016, marketers will need to focus more than
every on personalization and segmentation. Email
campaign need to be personalized and catered to
actual individuals, content needs to target specific
personas and sub-personas, and landing pages
need to relate to people on an individual level.
52 Infographics
Intelligent SME December 2017 53

One For The Wish List
SUCCESS IS A DESTINATION
HAVE YOU ARRIVED?
Santa Claus is coming to town on a festive
Graham Chronofighter Vintage
Nose Art Ltd
Assuming they’ve been good and not naughty, 25
lucky individuals around the world can celebrate in
style with a Graham Chronofighter sporting a Merry
pin-up. This limited edition Swiss made timepiece
magic’s a glamorous “Santa Babe” from the wish
list to the wrist, from morning till night.
Meticulously hand-painted on the dial, Merry ignites
festive spirit with 1940s nostalgia and top-ofthe-tree
horological craftsmanship.
This Chronofighter Vintage Nose Art festive special
is powered by an automatic chronograph G1747
movement, visible through a see-through case
back. A day-date window at nine o’clock is ready
to handle any sort of calendar countdown. And why
exclude watches from dressing up to the nines?
Each piece comes with a hand-sewn blue calf-leather
strap, along with a red canvas alternative that
will harmonize perfectly with any Santa outfit. What
more could a guy wish for?
WATCHES YACHTS DESIGNER JEWELLERY BOUTIQUE REAL ESTATE GADGETS EXOTIC DESTINATIONS FINE DINING
Intelligent SME December 2017
Rare & Fabulous 55

Olympus Tough TG-Tracker
Camera
The Amazon Tap
Olympus Tough TG-Tracker camera is waterproof, shockproof, crushproof,
freezeproof, and dustproof for adventure and travel. Features: 5-axis
stabilization, GPS and 4K video, waterproof to 30m, freezeproof to –10°C,
shockproof to 2.1m, crushproof to 100kg and dustproof. The new TG-
Tracker is built to relish whatever challenge you face. A sophisticated inner and
outer chassis and the renowned OLYMPUS sealing system deliver impressive tough,
waterproof performance.
It has a five-sensor tracking in a fully tough video and still camera captures everything
you see and records everything you feel! GPS, compass, acceleration sensor,
barometer and thermometer track the action, making your adventures even more
memorable. Ideal for recording personal performance during challenging outdoor
activities.
The Amazon Tap is a wireless, Alexa-enabled portable Bluetooth speaker.
Just tap the microphone button and ask for music from Prime Music, Spotify,
Pandora, iHeartRadio and TuneIn. The device uses the Alexa Voice Service
when connected to Wi-Fi or a mobile hotspot to play music, read the news,
provide weather reports, and even order a pizza. It delivers sound powered by Dolby
-- with dual stereo speakers that provide 360-degree omni-directional audio -- and
provides up to nine hours of playback. It has Up to 9 hours of continuous playback.
Battery life will vary based on device settings, usage, and environmental factors.
Actual results may vary. It has Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) support
for audio streaming from your mobile device to Amazon Tap. Audio/Video Remote
Control Profile (AVRCP) for voice control of connected mobile devices. Media control
over AVRCP is not supported for Mac OS X devices.
56 Intelligent SME December 2017 Rare & Fabulous 57

Editorial Think Tank & Advisors
Editorial Think Tank & Advisors
Ajay Bindroo,
CEO & Managing
Partner, Clasico
Brands
Within a span of 18
months, Ajay has
established a global
venture that caters to consumer goods
ranging from beauty and personal care,
grooming products to oral care, bath and hygiene,
hair care and homecare products. Under
the flagship of “CLÁSICO BRANDS”, over
a dozen brands have been created and are
in the process of being launched worldwide.
Ajay is a true visionary and makes sure that
the company's concept and strategies are
right on track.
Alexandar
Williams,
Director, Business
Development,
Department
of Economic
Development (DED)
Alexandar Mathew Williams is presently the
Director, Business Development, Department
of Economic Development (DED), Government
of Dubai. He has more than 20 years of experience
in SME development and business
creation. He is interested in the life cycle
dynamics of firm growth and mentoring entrepreneurs.
In his current job, Alexander is
responsible for developing new initiatives for
DED to take it to the next level as a knowledge-driven
economic development agency.
Akram Miknas,
Chairman & Founder,
PROMOSEVEN
HOLDINGS B.S.C.C.
(P7H)
Akram Miknas is known
to be one of the pillars of
modern marketing communications in the Middle
East. His involvement in real estate development,
especially after the successful completion
of the Pearl Towers (Abraj Al Lulu), anchored him
as a leading accomplished developer in the Gulf.
In early 2000, he branched into the hospitality
business and successfully managed and built
several hotels and outlets in Bahrain. His success
in this business was crowned by becoming the
franchisee of McDonald’s in Lebanon; where he
built the business from seven to 26 restaurants
in just five years.
Deepak J Babani,
CEO, Eros Group
Deepak Babani has been
with Eros Group for over
30 years. Mr. Babani has
spearheaded the growth
of Eros Group from a turnover
of Dhs six million in
1981 to over Dhs four Billion in 2010. Under his
leadership, Eros Group has established itself as
the leading distributor for Consumer Electronics,
Home Appliances, Telecom, IT and Air-conditioning
products in the UAE, GCC and East African
regions. Mr. Babani joined Eros as Marketing
Manager and was promoted to General Manager
in 1988 and subsequently to CEO in 2002. and
subsequently to CEO in 2002.
Mishal Kanoo,
Deputy Chairman,
The Kanoo Group
Mishal Kanoo serves as
the Deputy Chairman
of The Kanoo Group,
one of the largest, independent
and longest running family-owned
group of companies in the Gulf region. He is
also one of the most iconic business figures
in the Middle East, featured on various magazines
and listed in the ‘Top 100 Powerful
Arabs 2013’, and ‘The 15 Wealthiest Arab
Businessmen in the World 2012’, among
others. Subsequently, he worked at Arthur
Andersen in Dubai as an auditor before taking
up his current position in 1997. Mishal
Kanoo adheres to family values and ideals
in pursuit for quality and excellence which
has greatly influenced his corporate policies
and goals for ‘The Kanoo Group’ as a reputable
company.
Reg Athwal,
Founding Partner
& MD, RTS Global
Partners
Reg Athwal is the
Chairman of RAW
Group and the Founding
Partner & MD of
RTS Global Partners, the leading family
business advisory firm in Africa, Middle East
and Asia. The company has been supporting
hundreds of clients in over 150 disciplines
spread across 57 countries with offices in
Dubai, UAE and Nairobi, Kenya. Reg’s vision
is to grow into a major company of
1000 members in 22 countries by the year
2022 with the primary aim of transforming
22,000+ family businesses and impacting
millions on the way.
K. Rajaram, CEO, Al
Nabooda Automobiles
K. Rajaram has more than
three decades of experience
in the automotive industry,
starting his career in
Oman in 1983. He moved
to the UAE in 1996 to lead
Al Nabooda Automobiles, the exclusive dealer of
Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen in Dubai and the
Northern Emirates. Under his leadership, Al Nabooda
Automobiles has changed the face of the
UAE automotive market by setting the highest
benchmarks in customer service and pioneering
the automobile ownership experience.
Rizwan Sajan,
Founder & Chairman,
Danube Group
The Danube Group was
founded and established by
Mr. Rizwan Sajan in 1993.
Over the last 22 years, the
group has come a long way
since its humble beginnings of a small trading
shop in Deira to being the region’s leader in construction,
building materials, home interiors and
shop fitting industries. The head office & logistics
facilities are present at the Jebel Ali Free Zone
(JAFZA). Danube has coursed a path that transformed
only one shop with three employees to
over 40 locations in nine countries worldwide including
UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar,
Africa and India, in addition to procurement offices
in China with employee strength of over 2,200
people. Being a top ranking business icon, Mr.
Rizwan Sajan has been a source of inspiration for
driving Danube’s business by leaps and bounds.
source of inspiration for driving Danube’s business
by leaps and bounds.
58 Intelligent SME December 2017
Intelligent SME December 2017
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