Consolidating on opportunities

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Nicholas Argyrides, Chief of Sales and Marketing & Deputy General Manager at Mindware discusses the market trends, the distributor’s pillars of focus as well as value differentiation offered to partners

Discuss Mindware’s focus around different product and solution segments in terms of its distribution portfolio

Mindware’s solutions are mostly focused on the value segment. Having said that, we do carry a number of traditional volume products including PCs which brings a healthy balance in terms of our overall portfolio.

The fact is we, as Mindware, don’t define the model. Our customers define it and we have been always listening to them very carefully. Our stand at GITEX this year was divided into three divisions. The Volume Division with products including Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo and so on. The Networking & Security Division with products such as Symantec, Riverbed, and Juniper. The third division focuses on Infrastructure products including Eaton, Veritas, and EMC. Essentially, we have transformed our model into a customer-centric rather than product-centric one.

Discuss market outlook in general for industry and how Mindware in particular is coping with the challenges?

The main challenge of our business is, principally, to balance the channel & vendor needs in a profitable manner for the distributor. Given the rather harsh commercial climate the region is recently undergoing, such a task requires the careful handling of credit availability to the market and close alignment with both partners and suppliers. Despite sounding like a cliché, the opportunities arising from the current business environment are numerous and available to those who are bold enough to seize them.

How do you enhance your value propositions to the channel?

We help our partners in expanding their opportunities in terms of new technologies and solutions they can, in turn, offer to their customers. We execute this approach by concentrating on educating them on subjects such as vendor (product) roadmaps and new technology trends. Mindware’s new distribution structure is, frankly, ideal in executing such objectives wherein enabling and supporting our channel partners is of a top priority.

Discuss territories covered and overseen from the Dubai office?Mindware is headquartered in Dubai, UAE with full-fledged and sales rep offices in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, and Pakistan. We, of course, cover the whole Middle East with more than 2,500 active customers across the region.

How have different markets in the region fared over the year?

The economic and political climate in the region has not been very positive recently – this is a fact for everyone to admit. Some have been doing better than the others. Business in Saudi Arabia has been extensively affected. Egypt, with its unpredictable currency fluctuations, has been a serious challenge for our channel partners. Mindware’s strategy is to consciously engage within the channel and continually gain market share from competitors with minimum possible credit risk.

Discuss any new vendor tie-ups

We are always working on both horizontal expansion (based on geography) and vertical expansion (based on technologies/vendor portfolio). Projects such as a Cloud Marketplace and Client Services are also running in parallel. It is worth noting here that the recent weak business climate in the region has been contributing into the surfacing some significant commercial opportunities and, at Mindware, we certainly have our radars focused on a number of such prospects.