Sophos appoints Fayez Eweidat to drive growth across META. Sophos, a global cybersecurity leader, today announced the appointment of Fayez Eweidat as Vice President of Sales for Middle East Turkey and Africa. Based in Dubai, Eweidat will lead Sophos' regional sales strategy, deepen strategic partnerships, and expand access to Sophos' cybersecurity capabilities for enterprise and mid-market organizations across the region. Organizations across META are advancing ambitious digital transformation and modernization initiatives while navigating a demanding threat landscape. In the UAE, organizations hit by ransomware reported an average recovery cost of US $665,000, according to the Sophos 2026 State of Ransomware report. With security teams facing growing operational demands, customers are looking for trusted partners that can simplify security operations, improve resilience, and deliver coordinated defense across endpoint, firewall, email, identity, and cloud environments. In this role, Eweidat will focus on three priorities: helping customers improve their resilience against increasingly disruptive attacks, expanding Sophos enterprise business and strengthening Sophos' partner and managed service provider ecosystem. He will work closely with Sophos' regional sales, channel and technical teams and report to Andy Travers, SVP Sales, EMEA, at Sophos. Eweidat brings extensive experience in technology sales leadership, channel development, and regional business expansion, with a track record of leading teams, building partner ecosystems, and driving go-to-market strategies across the cybersecurity and enterprise technology sectors. His appointment reflects Sophos' continued investment in high-growth markets and its commitment to helping organizations strengthen their cyber resilience with Sophos Fusion, the industry's most complete AI-native cybersecurity defense system. "Fayez is an accomplished sales leader who combines deep regional expertise with a clear focus on customers and sustainable business growth," said Andy Travers, SVP Sales, EMEA, Sophos. "Organizations across META need security outcomes they can trust, delivered at the scale their operations demand. Fayez's leadership will help us grow our presence in what is a strategically important market for Sophos." Eweidat joins Sophos from Juniper Networks, now part of HPE, where he spent eight years leading regional sales, most recently as head of enterprise for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. He previously held regional sales leadership roles at Brocade, Cisco, and Apple, serving enterprise and public sector customers across the UAE and the wider Middle East. "I am excited to join Sophos at a time when organizations across the region are looking for better ways to manage cyber risk, reduce complexity, and strengthen resilience," said Fayez Eweidat, Vice President of Sales for META, Sophos. "Sophos' cybersecurity capabilities, threat intelligence, and partner-first approach provide a strong foundation for supporting customers across the region. I look forward to working with our teams and partners to understand customers' needs, deepen those relationships, and help more organizations achieve stronger, more resilient security outcomes." Middle East News 247 produces the latest news for the Middle East region, with a key focus on the GCC nations: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. Contact News Desk: [email protected] Follow Me:

How Sophos streamlined Salesforce Change Management with Whatfix's In-App Guidance. 12,000 fewer Salesforce support tickets a year, a 15% YoY reduction in global Sales Ops cases, 1,070 hours saved by streamlining seller training and support, 116K+ in-app interactions with Salesforce Flows and Smart Tips. The Sophos Story - Leading global cybersecurity company Sophos is a leading global cybersecurity company offering software and hardware solutions. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the company is headquartered in Abingdon, United Kingdom, with 3,319 employees across US, EMEA, and APAC regional offices. Sophos went live with Salesforce to streamline its sales process and manage client relationships more effectively. However, frequent platform updates and internal customisations made it difficult for sellers to keep pace. By implementing Whatfix's digital adoption platform, Sophos gave its sales teams interactive, on-demand training and support inside Salesforce, reducing support ticket volumes and helping users adapt to change in the flow of work. The challenge - Frequent Salesforce Updates Made Change Hard to Manage Salesforce released new features and updates every quarter, and Sophos wanted its sales teams to benefit from them across the sales process. On top of this, Sophos updated and customised Salesforce every month to suit internal requirements. With users spread across 7 countries, the change challenge was magnified further. While the Sales Operations team strongly believed in in-person training, it recognised the need for self-serve training and support that users could access at the moment of need. Sophos chose Whatfix's DAP to deliver interactive, on-demand guidance, based on four factors: * Usability for admins: an easy-to-use tool to create, publish, analyse, and manage in-app help content * Effectiveness for users: just-in-time, moment-of-need training for Salesforce users * Customer service: quick support turnaround from the Whatfix team * Time-to-value: the fastest go-live time compared to other DAP competitors The Solution - In-App Guidance for Effective Change Management and Unified Communication Sophos used Whatfix to manage change on Salesforce and to reinforce the learning delivered during initial training. * Effective change management * In-App Support: Sales representatives gained a 24/7, personalised in-app digital assistant with on-demand information from both Whatfix content and integrated knowledge bases. Users no longer needed to raise tickets and could move on with their tasks, contributing to a 15% (~12,000 tickets) global reduction in Sales Ops support tickets. * Real-Time Training: Updates, communication, and training were delivered directly within Salesforce, increasing recall of onboarding training with interactive guidance at the point of need. * Business Compliance: In-app Smart Tips provided contextual information on each new Salesforce button, form field, action, and flow. Sophos recorded 116,061 Smart Tips shown in 12 months, or roughly 400 engaged with daily, helping users become more confident and proficient. * Unified internal communication Sophos took a systematic approach to its Salesforce launch and change plan: * Its IT and HR teams first built interactive walkthroughs and product tours covering Salesforce basics, core features, and workflows such as lead and opportunity creation. * The team then moved to more complex features where users faced friction, using guided walkthroughs and intelligent pop-ups. * Sophos also embedded videos and other media in Whatfix to align its sales and product management teams, unifying product communication that previously relied on multiple tools. The Results - Whatfix Cut Support Tickets and Saved Sellers Over 1,000 Hours Using Whatfix, Sophos made Salesforce change management lighter for both users and support teams. Here are the results: * 15% YoY reduction in global Sales Ops support cases, equal to roughly 12,000 fewer tickets a year * 1,070 hours saved by streamlining seller training and support * 116,061 Smart Tips shown over 12 months, with around 400 engaged daily * 116K+ interactions with in-app Salesforce Flows and Smart Tips * Training, updates, and communication delivered in real time inside Salesforce, improving recall of onboarding training "Whatfix is a contributing factor to YoY 15% reduction in Sales Ops cases globally," said Phil Walley, Sales Operations Manager, Sophos. The Bigger Picture - Why Change Management Now Depends on Guidance Inside the Application Sophos's experience shows that the real test of a CRM investment begins after go-live. With Salesforce releasing updates every quarter and Sophos customising the platform every month, the rate of change quickly outpaced what classroom-style training could cover, particularly across users in 7 countries. Whatfix closed that gap by moving learning to where work happens. Instead of relying on sellers to recall training or raise a ticket, Sophos placed contextual guidance, from Flows to Smart Tips to a 24/7 in-app assistant, directly inside Salesforce. The outcome was measurable: ~12,000 fewer support tickets a year and 1,070 hours returned to sellers and support teams. The 116K+ in-app interactions also show that users actively chose this guidance as part of their daily workflow. For enterprises running frequently updated platforms, Sophos offers a useful model. Adoption is not a one-time training event. It is an ongoing process that has to keep pace with every release and customisation. By placing guidance inside the application, teams can support users through each change without adding to the support load.

GTCR, a private equity firm, has jointly led a $200 million second lien term loan for cybersecurity company Sophos, which is owned by Thoma Bravo. The loan was raised as Sophos refinances its existing $2.45 billion first lien term loan. Based in Oxford, UK, Sophos serves about 625,000 customers, mostly small and medium-sized businesses and mid-market organisations. In February 2025, it acquired Secureworks, adding an enterprise-focused managed detection and response business. The deal follows the close of GTCR's first Capital Solutions Fund, which makes bespoke minority structured investments. "Our ongoing dialogue with Thoma Bravo and familiarity with the sector enabled us to move quickly," said Jason Prager, managing director at GTCR.