Smart SMB Summit & Awards 2019 sees a full house attendance
The second edition of the Smart SMB Summit & Awards, held on the 11th of September at Atlantis, The Palm, lived up to its expectations with a massive turnout of over 1500 ‘C’ level executives. Organized by Business Media International, premier publishers for the mid-market and organizers of large format industry events, the event ran under the theme ‘Redefining digital & Business Transformation’
As the early movers on the road to digital transformation achieve several desired outcomes including higher productivity, the milestones are a measure of what is achieved and yet, also symbolic of the fact that digital transformation is a journey, not a destination. Newer technologies will keep pushing the realms of possibilities for Businesses that can adopt and leverage. The 2019 edition of Smart SMB Summit brought this continuous pursuit of digital excellence into focus.
The event agenda included a summit in the afternoon followed by an Awards gala in the late evening. Dr. Saeed Al Dhaheri, Chairman, Smartworld presented the opening keynote as Chief Guest. The Summit included keynotes by industry and technology experts from leading vendors on various pertinent topics, panel discussions with industry luminaries as participants, case study presentations as well as a talk show with eminent industry icon Mr. Rizwan Sajan, the Founder and Chairman of Danube Group to close out engaging sequence of sessions, in furthering awareness of digital and business transformation imperatives. The panel discussion sessions had several CIOs and top executives from the region as participants.
“We had an outstanding event last year and saw an impressive number of decision makers attending the various sessions. Likewise, this year’s event has also been quite constructive in enhancing more detailed awareness of how digital transformation is now integral to Business transformation,” said Saumyadeep Halder, CEO of Business Media International.
Following the Summit, the Awards in the evening recognized some of the standout deployments towards digital transformation across different verticals. The awards have been validated by an eminent jury panel. In addition, awards were also presented to companies who have been making a vital contribution to facilitating digital transformation for Business customers.
“We have been quite committed to such industry focused events since we began operations. The feedback from last year’s event had been very favorable, hence it encouraged us to extend events under the Smart SMB Summit banner across several countries including Bahrain, Oman, Kenya and soon to be held in Saudi Arabia as well. We ensure our events bring the value that attendees look to when they participate at such events,” said Ankit Shukla, MD at Business Media International.
“Digital transformation has started out at several companies but this a continuous journey as technologies evolve further, necessitating the adoption and integration of what is relevant by Businesses looking to enhance their strategic advantages. For the many companies that are yet to commence their digital transformation initiatives or have started out already, this has been a great opportunity to further their understanding of various aspects around digital and business transformation in addition to the opportunity to network with peers,” said Raman Narayan, Editor in chief and publisher at Business Media International.
Apart from a unique opportunity for the region’s ‘C’ level executives from the SMB/SME segment to meet and interact on one platform, an elaborate and exclusive exhibition zone showcased exciting and pioneering technologies from exhibitors. The exhibition zone offered attendees the opportunity to enhance their understanding of several technologies, they will likely need to adopt in their acceleration towards embracing the digital economy.
The event has been supported by several leading companies as partners. These include Platinum partners Dell Technologies and Mindware as well as Gold sponsors - Microsoft, Salesforce, Sage, Veeam, Zendesk, Zoho, Redington and Intel; Silver Partners- Epicor, Mimecast and Bulwark, CVSaya.id, Happay, Pure Storage and Starlink; Exhibition partners D-Link, Finesse, YouFirst, Alcatel Lucent Enterprise and Securenet as well as strategic partners Smart World, Dubai Business Women Council and Mobile partner Webcastle.
Smart SMB 2019 Winners list:
Best Digital Transformation in Healthcare - Aster DM Healthcare
Best Digital Transformation in Hospitality - Millennium Hotels & Resorts
Best Digital Transformation in Education - S P Jain School of Global Management
Best Digital Transformation in Manufacturing - Emirates Metallic Industries Company Limited
Best Digital Transformation in SME Banking - First Abu Dhabi Bank
Best Digital Transformation in Insurance - National Takaful Company PSC, WATANIA
Best Digital Transformation in Travel - musafir.com
Best Digital Transformation in Logistics - Fetchr
Best Digital Transformation in Construction - Xtramix Group of Companies
Best Customer Loyalty App of the Year - The Entertainer
Best Digital Transformation in Transportation - eKar
CEO of the YearDebbie Stanford - Kristiansen, CEO, Novo Cinemas
CIO of the Year - Jayakumar Mohanachandran, Head - IT, Precision Group
CISO of the Year - Umesh Moolchandani, Group IT Head, Bin Dasmal Group
Best Digital Transformation Vendor of the Year - Dell Technologies
Cloud Computing Vendor of the Year - Microsoft
SMB Networking Vendor of the Year - D-Link
Storage Vendor of the Year - Pure Storage
ERP Vendor of the Year - Sage
UC vendor of the YearAlcatel - Lucent Enterprise
SaaS Provider of the YearZoho One
Data Management Vendor of the YearVeeam Software
CRM Vendor of the Year - Salesforce.com
Email Security Vendor of the Year - Mimecast
Digital Innovations in Customer Experience - Zendesk
Volume Distributor of the Year - Redington Gulf
Security VAD of the Year - Bulwark Technologies
VAD with Best Digital Transformation Focus - Mindware
Regional VAD of the Year - Redington Value
Easy Set-Up Services for SMB - YouFirst
Digital Agency of the Year - WebCastle Technologies
Appreciation Award for Best CSR Initiatives - Dr Rodolphe Ocler, Senior Lecturer, University of Bedfordshire