2012 Qatar Partner Awards – Feb 7 – Qatar Open Door

by Shijaz Abdulla on 12.02.2012 at 18:40

At the Open Door event in Qatar, Microsoft recognized some of our top partners and customers and presented them with awards.

Mamoun Al Bishtawi SMS&P Lead Qatar, Naim Yazbeck, Country Manager Qatar, Bruno Delamarre, SMS&P Director at Microsoft Gulf, and Samer Abu Ltaif, General Manager at Microsoft Gulf presented the awards to partners and customers at a Gala Dinner ceremony on February 7.

The nominees and winners in each category are listed below.

Partner Awards

Innovation Award

Nominees:

  • Cloud implementation (public or private)

Afkar, Wirestorm, Mannai, WIPRO

  • Business Relevance

Winner: Afkar

  • innovative customer offering

Customer Satisfaction Award

Nominees:

  • Customer feedback

Mannai, ICT, QDS, Ever Gulf, Ebla, IT Worx, LBI

  • quick issue mitigation

Winner: QDS

  • consistency in delivery

Impact Award

Nominees:

  • Market coverage

IT Worx, Mannai, QDS

  • business empowerment

Winner: Mannai

  • Project scope

Best Training Center Award

Nominees:

  • extraordinary customer experience

Infocenter, New Horizons, Al Attiyah Training Center

  • Strategic impact and support

Winner: Infocenter

  • Community Reach

Microsoft Distributor of the Year Award

Nominees:

  • Year over Year Growth

Emitac, Logicom, Mindware

  • Partner Outreach

Winner: Emitac

  • Partner Satisfaction

Alliances Award

Nominees:

  • Cross business segment impact

HP, IBM, Dell

  • Cross regional success in partnership

Winner: HP

Mid-Market Award

Nominees:

  • Customer outreach

Qatar Business Systems, Mannai, Qatar Datamation Systems, Qatar Compuer Services, ICT

  • Year Over Year growth

Winner: Qatar Business Systems

  • Customer Support

 

Customer Awards

 

National Impact Award

Nominees:

  • Community Impact

SEC, ICT Qatar, CBQ, SCH

  • Citizen Empowerment

Winner: SEC

Cloud Award

Nominees:

  • planning and implementation (no. of nodes)

AJN, Hamad Medical Corp, ICT, QNA, SEC, Oryx, QFIB

  • early adopter

Winner: Al Jazeera Network

  • innovative use of cloud technology for business requirement

MBS Award

Nominees:

  • Impact- of implementation (on business and on customers)

QA, Al Meera, ICT Qatar, QPM, Rayan Bank, CBQ, Nasser Bin Abdullah

  • best practice/ strategy

Winner: Qatar Airways

Productivity Award

Nominees:

  • innovative use of productivity

Qtel, Qatar Gas, MOFA, CNAQ, QNA, QA, QPM, Kahrama, Oryx

  • completeness of solution

Winner: Qtel

  • internal/external impact

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you for all that you do!

AfkarQatar Datamation SystemsMannai Trading CompanyQatar Business SystemsHPEmitacInfocenterIMG_1579IMG_1587Qatar AirwaysQTel


Microsoft Open Door Qatar | Feb 7-8, 2012

by Shijaz Abdulla on 16.01.2012 at 14:30

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Guess what is the biggest event we’re doing in Qatar this year? It’s the Microsoft Open Door 2012!

This is one event you don’t want to miss. Make sure you save the date now!

What is Open Door, anyway?

Open Door is Microsoft’s premier technical education event aimed at offering technology professionals and decision makers the chance to explore and connect with a broad set of current and soon-to-be-released Microsoft technologies, tools, platforms and services.

An all-encompassing 2-day event, Open Door is the perfect venue for customers and partners to engage and interact, while learning about Microsoft’s breadth of solutions, technologies and innovations.

Who is coming to Open Door?

Open Door will be attended by a wide range of Microsoft customers including IT professionals, developers and IT decision makers from small and medium-sized businesses, government institutions and large enterprises.

When and Where is it being held?

It’s going to be held at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) on February 7-8, 2012.

image courtesy: pedrogoico.com

How do I register? What sessions/topics are covered? How much does it cost?

Go to www.opendoor-gulf.com for more information and registration. Registration is FREE.


‘Coffee and Pins’ Saturday

by Shijaz Abdulla on 24.11.2011 at 22:41

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Coffee and Pins: What’s common between the two?
Here’s a hint: Internet Explorer 9

Still don’t get it? Find the answer by visiting me at Starbucks Coffee, near Hamad Hospital on Saturday, 26th November at 10:00 AM.

pushpinI will show you how you can retain visitors on your website and increase the number of returning visitors by adding simple browser capabilities to your website. The session is free to attend for all web developers.

What’s more? Coffee and pastry is on me Smile

If you’re a web developer and you want to register, send me a private message or write a comment below.


Next generation Microsoft Surface available for pre-order in Qatar

by Shijaz Abdulla on 19.11.2011 at 06:15

Qatar is one of the 23 countries in the world where Microsoft Surface 2.0 is available for pre-order as of November 17, 2011. The product is available through Samsung resellers via the Samsung Electronics website.

The Samsung SUR40 with PixelSense technology makes it possible for people to share, collaborate and explore together using a large, thin display. Recognizing up to 50 points of simultaneous touch, including fingers, hands and other objects placed on the screen, it has been well-received by new and existing Surface customers as companies such as Dassault Aviation, Fujifilm Corp. and Royal Bank of Canada prepare to deploy units around the globe in early 2012.

Announced earlier this week, the next-generation device was named a 2011 “Best of What’s New” award winner by Popular Science magazine.

Partners and Software developers interested in creating solutions for the Samsung SUR40 can visit the Surface Developer Center to get started with the Surface 2.0 software developer kit, featuring the Input Simulator, which enables developers to write Surface applications on any Windows 7 machine, as well as other helpful developer-related resources. There are already hundreds of highly skilled Surface software development partners that can be found at http://www.surface.com.

The 23 countries where Samsung SUR40 is available for pre-order are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.


Looking for a Microsoft partner in Qatar? Use PinPoint.

by Shijaz Abdulla on 19.10.2011 at 14:34

The Microsoft PinPoint website is now available in Qatar.

You can now locate Microsot partners that can fulfill your specific technology needs by using the Microsoft Pinpoint portal – our comprehensive online partner directory. To identify a list of partners, please visit the Qatar Pinpoint site and click on the relevant ‘Competency’ or ‘Business Need’ from the left navigation bar. Please let me know if I can assist with anything further.

You can also read reviews about the partners and leave your own comments about partners you have tried.

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Office 365 trial for Qatar-based customers

by Shijaz Abdulla on 09.10.2011 at 05:47

We are happy to inform you that the Office 365 trial is now available for Qatar customers. To access Office 365 in Qatar, visit www.office365.com.qa

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Top Community Honor goes to QDS employee

by Shijaz Abdulla on 25.09.2011 at 16:02

Wajahat Abbas, Service Manager at Qatar Datamation Systems (QDS) has been awarded the Microsoft Community recognition award.

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“Community Recognition Award” is an award rewarded to those who are contributing to Microsoft development community within the region as a speaker, trainer and mentor.
 
Wajahat received this award from Microsoft Pakistan on his continues service to Microsoft development communities. He is also a Judge for Microsoft Image Cup Pakistan since 2007. He was also Microsoft Official trainer for SharePoint 2010 Ignite and a founder member of INETA Pakistan committee.
 
He was the SharePoint Speaker for Microsoft Open Door Pakistan 2010.
 
Wajahat is currently working as a Service Manager at QDS. He is an experienced SharePoint consultant and through his consulting and training, he helps clients in Middle East, Pakistan & East African region. He has closely worked with Microsoft consulting services as a contingent consultant. He was also Microsoft MVP for 3 consecutive years. He has around 10 years of IT industry experience.


Today’s Bing Picture: Doha

by Shijaz Abdulla on 03.09.2011 at 16:33

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Interesting picture on Bing today!


Microsoft and Qatar Foundation: Affordable software for students

by Shijaz Abdulla on 02.06.2011 at 10:35

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Microsoft has come to an agreement with Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, to provide its students and community members with heavily discounted software. The initiative, named "Student Select", was set up to further Microsoft and Qatar Foundation’s dedication to delivering quality education in the country. By enabling students to utilize the latest Microsoft products at academic prices, the initiative aids students and teachers alike to reach their full potential.

All students have to do to access the most up to date Microsoft software is to log on to the web portal and order their digital copy downloads of the latest Microsoft products, including Microsoft Office Professional 2010. The cost is significantly cheaper, with a copy of Office costing just 255.5QAR instead of 1,821.35QAR.

Mohammed Hammoudi, Country Manager Microsoft Qatar said: "The potential of students and teachers is something that is there to be unlocked, and by providing them with the latest IT tools in their homes, they have the opportunity to make the most of their talents. In offering the most up-to-date products to the Qatar Foundation community at significantly discounted academic prices, we ensure students and educators are working towards a knowledge-based society built on technology – building an even more robust future for Qatar." [Read more]

The service is being provided through a web portal http://qataredu.onthehub.com supported by Microsoft partner Mannai, giving students access anytime, anywhere.


Qatar Partners: Join us for an Office 365 webcast

by Shijaz Abdulla on 29.05.2011 at 19:06

Microsoft Partners only

Microsoft Office 365 delivers the power of cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, helping to save time and money and to free valuable resources.

clip_image001[5]Join our Online Webcast with our Partner Technical Consultant Khaled Yehia on  Thursday 2 June, 2011 at 11:00 AM. Khaled Yehia was recently in Qatar for the Microsoft University delivery.

For registration please send your Partner ID to Khaled Yehia.

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