D-Link Corporation, a global leader in connectivity solutions for small, medium and large enterprise business networking, has urged its channel partners to take advantage of business opportunities opening up as a result of high Internet broadband penetration rates in the Middle East.

According to the vendor that manufactures solutions in the IP Surveillance, Wireless, Switching, Storage, Security, Cloud, VoIP, Print Servers, Structured Cabling, Digital Home, 3G/4G Routers, Power over Ethernet Kit, Powerline, KVM, Structured Cabling and Digital home offerings, the plan to help channel partners grow their businesses in the region comes at a time when analyst IDC is forecasting ICT spending in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) to bounce back and total $243 billion in 2017.

Sakkeer Hussain, Director – Sales and Marketing, D-Link Middle East and Africa (MEA), said if one looks at most countries in MEA, their governments are doing everything possible to get people and small businesses connected to the Internet.

Hussain said in the UAE for example, the government’s efforts around smart city and smart government initiatives have to be commended because that is encouraging people to get connected to the Internet at home or through their mobile devices. “This is opening up opportunities for partners to offer the right networking and wireless solutions to consumers, SOHO, SMB and enterprise customers,” he said. “This is spreading across MEA with governments, private sector organisations and telecom providers all getting involved.”

Hussain added that having more people connected to the Internet be it a consumer, SMB, big corporate, a college or university, benefits everyone as people are now in a better position to access the many services and vital information offered online.

He explained that what this transformation happening in the Middle East has done for D-Link and its partner ecosystem, is help the company to identify verticals and countries where jointly with the channel it can provide products, solutions and services to suit the needs of those markets.

Hussain said in 2017, D-Link is targeting growth of more than 10% even though the market confidence seems to have ebbed especially towards the end of last year. “Closely related to our growth target is the issue of services. As a vendor that has been in this market for a long time, we take networking services very serious and we have been encouraging our channel partners to get involved in offering services in addition to the products they supply to their customers,” he said.

He said that’s the reason why D-Link has an in-house service centre in most of the countries across MEA to train and help channel partners jump onto the services bandwagon. “To support channel partners in their quest to offer services, we have a dedicated technical support team and a call centre that offers pre- and post-sales support to resellers and their customers,” he said.