By Editor
Atom Options Computers recently brought together partners and vendors for a day meant to showcase the latest technologies from vendor partners including Fujitsu and Microsoft. We spoke with Director Hemant Parmar about his vision for the company.
Atom Options celebrates 10 years in the regional market this year and seems to have a lot going for it as it looks forward to another decade.
Atom Options is an IT distribution and system integration company catering to resellers as well as corporate end users. “We are involved in selling servers and storage systems, WAN optimization, network access and control, load balancing and encryption as well as undertaking IT audits and ISO standards,” explained Hemant Parmar, Director at the company.
The major markets for Atom Options are UAE and Oman for system integration projects while the market is also growing in the other countries of the Gulf region as well as in East Africa.
Atom Options operates as a tier 1/tier 2 distributor as well as sub-distributor depending on the brands. “A lot of other IT companies also buy from us because of our well-known reliability and the fact that we offer full warranties on all our products and solutions,” said Parmar.
For system integration projects, the company has a team of certified engineers in-house capable of undertaking projects, small and large, while sub-contracting for larger projects. “Up to 80% of projects can be taken care using the human resources that we have in-house,” explained Parmar, adding, “we also have a tie-up with a partner in India with access to 40 service engineers that can help implement bigger projects when need be.”
The regional market, according to Parmar, is on a slow rebound after a few years of subdued activity. “The market has been slow for the 2011/2012 financial year but things are expected to pick up as budgets for new solutions are assigned,” said Parmar. “Budgets constraints by potential customers hindered implementation of major projects the last few years. In a downturn, IT investment takes a back burner.”
Much of the growth is being driven by virtualization as cloud, desktop virtualization and server consolidation becoming more popular in the region. Contrary to industry fears, cloud services are inspiring their own boon for server and storage systems as cloud service providers require massive storage equipment at the back end.
According to Parmar, 30-40% of local enterprises have already taken the virtualization route. Those still out in the cold are hesitant to take the plunge as they are still not sure how virtualization can work for them. “IT managers are also reluctant to take ownership in case the system does not perform as expected.”
Either way, Atom Options has all the bases covered. “Those who are using we are able to sell even more. Those who do not have any virtualization systems, we try to get them to adopt this technology through us,” said Parmar. “There are a lot of benefits to be accrued through virtualization with a reduced ROI in the long run. You are able to do more with less,” he added.
Organizations in the region also seem to be realizing the threat posed by cyber-crime and are putting money into stronger security measures, explained Parmar.
Like all other IT players in the market, Atom Options faces the menace of a major parallel market and counterfeit products. “We are trying to tackle grey marketing with awareness and education campaigns for resellers as well as consumers,” Parmar concluded.