Interview with Vikas Panchal – Business Head, Middle East for Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd

Shereen Shabnam

Tally Solutions Pvt Ltd. is a pioneer in the business management software industry. We meet with Vikas Panchal – Business Head, Middle East for Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd to find out how the company has helped over 60,000 businesses with their accounting, inventory and compliance needs.

Vikas is largely responsible for building and leading MENA Strategy to achieve Tally’s dominance in the region. He prepares the company’s annual strategy and ensures its effective execution. He talks about his current role and building a stronger distribution network aiming to achieve a wider dominance in countries of operations through channel expansion and development.

What did Tally showcase at GITEX this year?

This year at GITEX we showcased our new product – TallyPrime- the next generation business management software. TallyPrime is our latest offering which will equip SMEs owners and new-age entrepreneurs with an ultra-simple and powerful software to enhance their business productivity. Focused on making the business owners’ lives simple TallyPrime aims to further simplify business management with facilitating users to comfortably manage and grow their business without needing to know the finer nuances of accounting or technology. The product is meticulously designed keeping the user experience at core, which enhances the legendry speed, simplicity, reliability, and flexibility of the product.

How different is this product from the previous versions?

At Tally, we have always focused on providing simple yet powerful solutions to simplify the lives of business owners, professionals, and accountants, and with TallyPrime, we have reached one step closer to that goal. TallyPrime is meticulously designed keeping the user experience at core, which has enriched the legendry speed, simplicity, and flexibility of the product in addition to making it easy for the business owners and accountants to address all their needs in just one solution.

How easy is the product to use?

There are several new features and experiences that have been introduced to enrich the simplicity and usability of the product. The product with a refreshingly new look and feel has dynamic and flawless navigation which assists in getting insightful reports easily and delivers a super smooth experience, making it a delight to operate. Anyone can use the product comfortably to manage and grow their business without needing to know the finer nuances of accounting or technology. Features line the new ‘GoTo’ capability has taken Tally’s famous reporting engine to the next level, and the simplified data entry has made it faster to use and more flexible for several business use cases. The ability to multi-task in the product has also been appreciated by many early customers.

How was the response at GITEX?

GITEX is the first physical event in the UAE post the pandemic and we were extremely excited to a part of it. This year’s theme of participation is to #MakeEveryDaySimple – by helping SMEs into their digital transformation journey. With the showcase of TallyPrime, we have received positive response from visitors who have deep shown interest in the product to assist them in their journey towards automation and growth.

What are your plans for 2021?

We have a lot in store for 2021. TallyPrime is the first release in a comprehensively planned product roadmap. We are also investing heavily in bringing anytime anywhere access solutions for customers that are inherently secure and private. We also aim to increase our foothold in the current markets and assist SMEs in their journey towards growth.

Riverbedtoday announced expanded product capabilities and strong market momentum of Client Accelerator, with nearly 100% sequential growth, as IT organizations look to accelerate business-critical applications and performance of remote employees as increasingly more employees Work From Anywhere.

Delivered in a software form factor, Client Accelerator extends best-in-class optimization and acceleration technology all the way down to the end user – laptops or desktops – eliminating performance problems caused by network congestion, latency, and increasingly unpredictable last-mile networks, providing accelerated access to on-prem, IaaS, or SaaS-based applications, even in less than ideal user conditions and regardless of location. Client Accelerator reduces network data congestion by up to 99% and offers up to 10x faster and reliable performance for business-critical SaaS apps, on-prem applications and IaaS cloud workloads. As a result, the user experience of business-critical applications significantly improves along with employee productivity.

Client Accelerator feature enhancements include added support for scaling up to 200k clients per customer instance, new reporting APIs and enhanced integration with Riverbed SaaS Accelerator, which eliminates network inhibitors that impact the user experience of key SaaS apps such as Office 365 and Microsoft Teams Live Events and Stream Video, Salesforce, Box, ServiceNow and more. In addition, both SaaS Accelerator and Client Accelerator will be available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace during November 2020.

“In the continued Work From Anywhere reality, Client Accelerator offers a path to fast, consistent and available enterprise applications wherever employees do their work,” said Dante Malagrino, Chief Development Officer at Riverbed. “While there was an immediate and significant increase to remote working at the start of the pandemic, we expect to see a long-term shift toward employees increasingly working from anywhere, including hybrid work environments, where employees spend half the time in the office and the rest of the time remote at home, client locations, at cafes or while traveling for business. We’ve experienced significant market momentum and customer demand for Client Accelerator, as IT and business leaders are looking to deliver strong user productivity and performance regardless of where an employee resides.”

By eliminating performance problems caused by network latency, congestion and unpredictable competition for last-mile network access, businesses can move from remote workforce triage to achieving improved customer/client/employee satisfaction, faster time to market, increased pipeline/revenue, improved reputation and lower cost/risk to the business. Organizations globally, across all industries have been deploying Client Accelerator to accelerate the performance of their remote and hybrid workforces.

Case Study: ERM ­– Efficient Collaboration and a Mobilized Workforce

By using Client Accelerator, Environmental Resources Management (ERM), a leading global provider of environmental, health, safety, risk, social consulting, and sustainability related services provides accelerated access to centralized files and applications to 5,500 employees (in 42 countries and territories) who are working remote from home or at a client location.  A 15MB Excel file or 30MB PowerPoint file that previously took minutes to open without Riverbed Client Accelerator now opens in a few seconds. Company-wide, the time savings are significant – if half of ERM’s 5,500 employees open three large files a day and save just one minute each time, ERM gains 137 hours of work time daily, the equivalent of an extra 17 employees year-round. 

ERM and the Company’s consultants experienced no downtime in the transition to work from home during the pandemic, and no drop in productivity. “I can’t overstate the value of Riverbed for collaboration among people in different locations,” said Ian Trueman, IT Operations Director at ERM. “With Riverbed Client Accelerator, we’re working as efficiently from home as we did in the office. Our clients are impressed.”

For more information, or to sign up for a 60-day trial, please visit Riverbed Client Accelerator.

With a view to strengthening its security capabilities and portfolio, Mindware, a leading Value Added Distributor (VAD), today signed a partnership agreement with Vade Secure, the global leader in predictive email defense. As per the agreement, Vade Secure for Microsoft 365 – the only native email security solution for Microsoft 365, will be made available to Mindware’s managed service provider (MSP) partners across select countries in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) market. The solution will be hosted on Mindware Cloud Marketplace.

“The security business is one of the major growth drivers for Mindware and our partners. We are constantly looking to partner with security vendors that drive innovation and lead the market. Vade Secure is one such vendor,” commented Philippe Jarre, CEO of Mindware. “With over 258 million corporate users, the highly popular Microsoft 365 platform has become the most popular target for hackers. Vade Secure is a best-of-breed AI-based email security solution for Microsoft 365. Our partnership with the security vendor will benefit all our partners that are looking to increase their business around Microsoft 365 and protect their customers from targeted and unknown attacks that pass through standard protect ions. The solution is easy to sell, install and manage. We are excited about the partnership and believe that the vendor will add a great deal of value to our portfolio. We are confident of the rapid uptake of the solution by companies across the region.”

Vade Secure for Microsoft 365 is an award-winning email security solution that provides comprehensive, automated protection before, during, and after attacks. The solution uses artificial intelligence, including machine-learning mechanisms patented in the USA, to detect unknown, highly targeted threats, such as phishing, spear phishing, malware, and ransomware.  
Vade Secure integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 environments via a simple API call and can be deployed in minutes, without changing the client’s MX record. The solution is well suited to small-to-medium-sized business (SMBs) as it is very simple to deploy and manage.

Vade Secure has the ‘Microsoft Partner’ label for its Microsoft 365 solution. The security vendor has been granted Microsoft co-sell ready status and has joined the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) to share its cybersecurity expertise with the Microsoft ecosystem.

By adding Vade Secure to its portfolio, Mindware allows its partners to increase their business around Microsoft 365 with a minimum of investment. The solution that can be deployed in 3 clicks allows MSPs to deliver additional value with a complementary cloud security solution designed to augment Microsoft 365 protection. They also benefit from a more than 95% client retention rate that leads to long-term growth and stability.

Vade Secure will support Mindware in onboarding the first partners. The VAD on the other hand will provide sales support including helping MSPs conduct proof of concepts (POCs) as well as technical support involving configuring, integrating and optimizing the solution within the Microsoft environment. Both companies will jointly conduct marketing activities that include events, promotions, traditional and digital advertising campaigns and more.

“Partnering with Mindware is key for Vade Secure in order to accelerate our international expansion and capacity to develop business in new markets. Through Mindware marketplace, we will be able to address Middle Est and Africa and offer to their partners a solution that is easy to deploy that will allow them to grow their business,” concluded Frédéric Braut, Senior Vice President Global Channels Sales at Vade Secure.

By: Mohammed Al-Moneer, Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey & Africa at Infoblox

Recent world events—especially the COVID-19 epidemic and the subsequent global adoption work from anywhere (WFA)—have made network reliability and visibility more important than ever. This massive disruption has highlighted a fact that was becoming abundantly clear even before the pandemic hit—that achieving network reliability and visibility depends on the core network services that make all modern networking possible: DNS, DHCP and IP address management (DDI). According to a Dimensional Research 2019 study, almost every business suffers network interruptions. Three-fourths of them experience these several times a year. For many organizations, these network disruptions can be traced to out-of-date and inadequate DDI services.

IT teams are realizing that core networking services are more important than ever for organizations that expect to not just survive but also thrive in this new era. For many, this is prompting renewed scrutiny of existing resources and a move toward modern DDI services.

The Heart of Networking: Core Network Services

DNS, DHCP and IP address management (collectively known as DDI) play a central role in every network interaction. Here’s a brief look at each component.

DNS (Domain Name System) – The Domain Name System is the starting point for all network interactions. It translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical identifiers associated with networking equipment to locate and address these devices worldwide.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) – DHCP is used to dynamically assign IP addresses to endpoints. It enables IT teams to more easily keep track of networks, ranges, names and hardware address mappings.

IPAM (Internet Protocol Address Management) – IPAM is the administration of DNS and DHCP, which are the network services that assign and resolve IP addresses to machines in a TCP/IP network.

DDI Essentials: Critical Capabilities to Consider

Visibility, automation and control are the key attributes—the framework and the overarching goals—that organizations need to keep in mind as they seek to optimize and secure their networks for new WFH realities. But what are the specific underlying elements and capabilities that will enable them to achieve these ends? Here’s a closer look at the DDI essentials to consider for a robust networking infrastructure.

Centralized Authoritative IPAM Database – A centralized and authoritative IPAM database acts as a single source of truth for all the network-connected assets within the organization. It empowers IT teams with network discovery and optimum use of resources. Advanced IPAM solutions include this single-source of truth capability, which plays a key role in network optimization.

Integrated DDI Management – Traditional systems such as BIND/DHCP, Microsoft DNS/DHCP and spreadsheets do not adequately address the needs of a modern network. Integrating IPAM with DNS is crucial to keeping both systems accurate and synchronized. When a new device is deployed on a network, the assignment of an IP address comes first, usually followed immediately by a request to add the host to DNS. By integrating DNS and IPAM, this process becomes a single step—the DNS record is created at the same time as the IP assignment. Integrated DDI extends beyond protocol services such as single-point data entry, accurate address assignment, inter-system data federation, inventory tracking, change control delegation and name resolution. As organizational networks evolve, integrated DDI services become the essential networking technology to link branch offices, remote workers, mobile devices, the cloud and more.

Support for Virtual SDN – While the transition to software-defined networking (SDN) comes with some noted benefits such as mobility and flexibility, if it is not supported by equally competent DDI, it can be challenging for a business to function after the transition. The biggest of these challenges involve uninterrupted networking and robust security.

Support for IPv6 Adoption – The IPv6 migration has been underway for several years now, yet many organizations have yet to make the full transition from IPv4 onto the new standard. IPv6 provides a vast abundance of IP addresses needed for the billions of smartphones, wearables and IoT devices coming online. However, many organizations are still lagging behind when it comes to having a DDI infrastructure in place to support IPv6. As a consequence, they risk losing communication, revenue and customers if they don’t plan for IPv6 adoption now.

By analyzing all the DNS mapping of network infrastructure, organizations can understand whether they can immediately shift to IPv6 or have some critical network dependencies that need IPv4 support. When organizations select a DDI network partner, they should check whether it provides dual support for IPv4 and IPv6.

DNS Security – DNS is the foundation of every network conversation and also the first target for the majority of network cyberattacks. DDI has traditionally been regarded as a means to simplify and automate network management while provisioning and integrating other cloud orchestration systems. But as DNS security has come to the forefront for organizations, it’s now become a top priority that DDI solutions also provide smart DNS security.

Reporting and Analytics – The components of modern DDI services furnish invaluable data for networking teams. This data helps in keeping an eye on network operations, endpoint usage and vulnerabilities that can have negative impacts—thus alerting networking professionals of upcoming attacks or failures that could lead to network outage. Modern DDI platforms provide pre-built and customizable reporting tools that help networking teams in multiple crucial ways. Gauging application running status, security threats and resource utilization in a timely and orderly manner are just a few of the benefits these tools supply.

Cloud-Managed DDI Is the Future

The beauty and core value of the cloud are that it frees the organization—and the IT team— from the day-to-day chores required to maintain the machines, devices and appliances that support data processing, storage and networking. Cloud-managed DDI makes life easier for the network administrator and business operators by solving many of the biggest challenges of modern networking. At the core of the cloud-managed DDI evolution lies the need for a reliable and straightforward computing experience anywhere and at any scale. A DDI solution that is cloud native and uses software-defined architecture for core network services such as DNS, DHCP and IP address management is the best fit for organizations interested in complete cloud migration in the near future. It helps deliver a uniform customer experience, paving the way for SD-WAN and IoT adoption, both of which are on a steep upward trend.

Unified DDI

Although many organizations firmly believe that the cloud is the future, they are not always ready to migrate their entire data center to the cloud at once for various reasons. Head office data security, network output and the IT team’s preference for bare metal over virtual infrastructure are few of these reasons. In such scenarios, on-premises DDI solutions already integrated with virtualization platforms such as VMware or Microsoft Azure provide the needed feasibility with a unified DDI approach.

Conclusion

Key verticals as telecom and IT, banking, financial services, insurance, government and defense, healthcare and life sciences, education, retail and manufacturing have shown tremendous commitment to modernizing their DDI infrastructure. This modernization is possible with advanced DDI capabilities achieved by edge computing, distributed cloud data centers, virtualization and cloud applications. On-premises DDI is likely to continue to be the first choice among enterprises where security and control are the highest priorities. Yet as cloud and unified DDI approaches continue to close the gap in performance, security and manageability, these options will become increasingly attractive to IT decision makers.

Toshiba Gulf FZE appoints regional distributor, Redington Gulf to handle their memory and storage solutions product portfolio for Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, formalising the partnership at GITEX 2020 in a signing ceremeony.

Santosh Varghese, Vice President, Toshiba Gulf FZE said, “To remain at the forefront and position ourselves as market leaders for storage and memory solutions, we are excited to partner with Redington and are confident that in a short time, our brands will have the market footprint it deserves. We look forward to Redington Gulf’s value added services for our products.”

“Our partnership with Toshiba/KIOXIA enables us to offer a wider choice of storage products to our partners in the region and  become their preferred distributor for sourcing storage products. As part of this agreement, Redington will ensure availability of products locally in the countries we are contracted through our robust in-country distribution capabilities and an engaged partner network.” said Jeetendra Berry, President-IT Volume Middle East, Redington Gulf.

“KIOXIA”(Previously Toshiba Memory) branded  products are being showcased at GITEX 2020 and includes microSD/SD memory cards, USB memory and SSDs, specifically designed for end-users to store their digital way of life wherever and whenever they want for use with smartphones, tablets and PCs, digital cameras and more.

Also highlighted at GITEX was Canvio^® portable storage lineup with new applications and designs, adding new Canvio Flex^TM and Canvio Gaming^TM models along with new colors and textures. The next generation of Canvio^® designs delivers seamless portability, high storage capacity, suited for a broad range of users, including multi-platform users, gamers, business professionals, outdoor photographers, and students. 

Toshiba Gulf FZE offered various activations at Gitex 2020 including seminars that helps to prepare for future Jobs and enhance photography as a hobby in the digital transformation era .

Canvio Flex^TM and Canvio Gaming^TM models now come with new colors and textures.

Toshiba Gulf FZE is geared to highlight the Canvio^® portable storage Series at GITEX 2020, designed to meet the evolving needs for storage solutions suited for a broad range of users, including multi-platform users, gamers, business professionals, outdoor photographers and students.

“The Canvio^® series delivers data storage excellent for a broad range of use cases and applications. The two new models, Canvio Flex^TM and Canvio Gaming^TM, allow gamers and multi-platform users respectively to expand storage seamlessly and across various devices. They can take their favorite content on the go in a sleek, portable design,” says Santosh Varghese, Vice President, Digital Products and Services Division, Toshiba Gulf FZE.

Canvio Flex^TM is the new USB-C^® portable storage designed for PCs/Mac^® computers/iPad Pro^® mobile digital devices/Tablets for cross platform compatibility. The Canvio Gaming^TM portable storage is designed for game consoles and gaming PCs, users will be able to expand their game library easier than ever with the ability to carry up to 100 games³ (4TB) in a stylish portable case designed for popular gaming consoles and PC game systems². Canvio Gaming^TM features a firmware-customized “Always-On” mode to support responsive gameplay.

The next generation models of Canvio^® Advance and Canvio Ready^TM come in a distinctive new design that deliver portability, storage capacity, and broad capability for your PC, a great option for simple but reliable storage.

Canvio^® Advance features a unique textured design with new colors that helps content creators and photographers protect their content on the go. With portable storage, using with both auto backup, and data security software, users will be able to take life anywhere.

Canvio Ready^TM is a great storage solution for students and other entry-level users who want simple storage that’s easy to use. now featuring a new two-tone design. This portable storage offers USB plug & play, file drag & drop, and simple storage expansion for your PC.

Toshiba Gulf FZE will be showcasing the latest Canvio products in Hall 4, Stand C10 at GITEX 2020.