By Editor
Global Distribution has expanded its association with several vendors over the past year or so and is consolidating its reach into the value add space. Mario M. Veljovic, VP Solutions MENA at Global Distribution speaks about the company’s focus and initiatives
Discuss Global’s growth highlights in the value add distribution space over the past year?
Global Distribution continued to grow in double digits and achieved its Financial Goals, despite solid investments in new business and territories, which we are very proud of. Especially the investments we have made in 2014 will support Global Distribution’s growth in 2015. The Solutions Distribution Team has built a complete stack of Enterprise IT Solutions Vendors to cater the growing Data Centre requirements in the MENA Region. The Solutions Portfolio today represents more than 15 Enterprise Vendors. The High Performance Computing Unit, represents Fujitsu (Primergy Servers), Optoma (AV solutions) and HP. Our Enterprise Storage unit, addresses all requirements of Storage from Tier 1 to Back up, and represents FusionIO (SanDisk), Pure Storage, Fujitsu (Eternus Storage), Overland Storage & V3 VDI and Tandberg Data. The Software & NAS Unit promotes Kaspersky and SolarWinds on the Software side and QNAP, Seagate NAS and Synology, along with a comprehensive HDD and SSD Offering. Last but not least, we have our IT Infrastructure & Physical Security Unit, which offers Linkcomn, Datwyler, ZyXel and Mobotix, helping to build “Layer-0” Infrastructures.
Are there significant domains where you would like to expand?
Today the solutions portfolio is able to address all Data Centre requirements, which comprises High Performance Computing, Enterprise Storage, IT Infrastructure & Physical Security and Software (mainly infrastructure monitoring). We have invested into new and proven technologies to ensure our Partners are getting the “best-of-breed” in each segment.
The Solutions Distribution Team in particular has developed a product portfolio to address key industry trends, such as out-of-the-box solutions, converged infrastructures, VDI and IP-based CCTV.
All solutions promoted are offering a strong “ROI”, which is a compelling argument for end-users especially this year, as concerns over the regional Economy is felt. We already feel that end-users are questioning the IT Departments regarding what they have done to explore solutions apart from that available from mainstream and usual suppliers. There are a few more vendors we are in final discussion to complete missing elements.
Areas we are still keen to develop in 2015 are BI/Analytics, Data Security, Automatic Identification & Data Capturing (AIDC) and Digital Signage, as those are still key industry trends, which are not seriously addressed by Competitors in the Region.
How has the company gone about to expand the in-house expertise to manage these separate domains in terms of pre-sales or account management?
We have done significant investments into local teams and support structures, the demo and POC units, marketing funds and channel enablement (commercially and technically).
What have been the on ground channel engagements in terms of roadshows, training etc and in terms of frequency?
We are not planning for anything extraordinary, but will have just more frequent channel activities this year, such as events, road shows, round tables, technical enablement sessions and training & knowledge transfer get-togethers etc. As last year was the year of on-boarding new vendors, this year will be to grow our Channel Partner community across the Region.
How do you see the industry outlook for the VAD as well as the value channel Business?
The traditional VAD Concepts is increasingly under pressure. The GTDC (Global Technology Distribution Council) has already in 2010 predicted that the next step beyond value-based distribution are wholesalers that embrace VAR business development, market segmentation, sophisticated sales and technical enablement to help their customers realize faster and more specific market success. Key differentiators will be partner enablement and development, selling into target markets, Analytics based marketing, technical & sales acumen, partner practice consulting, developing a knowledge base of expertise and a comprehensive product portfolio.
Global Distribution has probably been the 1st in the region to start venturing into this new segment and promoting solutions distribution since last year.
Distributors have always offered dedicated sales and account management as benefits to their customers. But it hasn’t been until recently that distributors have started working with suppliers and vendors to offer in-depth business and practice development to VARs. Distributors are now growing VAR revenue and loyalty by helping them identify new technology and market practices through distributor-facilitated business planning. Distributors are also assisting VARs with business transformation awareness and training as cloud computing continues to encroach on traditional on-premise business models.
Which markets in the region are you focusing at the moment? Any plans to expand with direct offices in other parts of the region?
Today we have strong coverage of the entire GCC, with people on ground and supply chain set up in all major markets. An area we are keen to develop is North Africa.
How many active channel partners do you currently manage? Are you looking to increase that in specific verticals?
We have about 250 channel partners in the region and the list just keeps growing. Our partner community has a well coverage of all key verticals, though I would appreciate, if partner in general would develop a more vertical focus approach. Still today most of the partners in the region cover all verticals, rather than developing in-depth skills and understand of a specific vertical. The challenges of a client in hospitality is very different than education, for example. The focus should be on understanding the Business challenges a vertical faces, rather than merely the IT Challenges.