HOME Linux vendor Red Hat is beefing up its presence in some of EMEA’s emerging markets, opening an office in South Africa and outlining plans to build up its presence in Dubai. Louis Seyfert, formerly at storage giant EMC, has been selected to head up the new office in South Africa, which will handle the whole of Southern Africa. The planned Dubai office will look after Red Hat’s activities in North Africa.
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South African technology solutions provider Lorge has picked up gold partner status for SAP Business One. The new partner status was confirmed at the recent SAP PartnerEdge Awards ceremony for 2007 where Lorge was also voted a top three partner in the reseller of the year and achievement of excellence categories.
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McAfee names Coetzee as Africa channel manager
Security software outfit McAfee has named Trevor Coetzee as channel manager for Africa. Coetzee joins McAfee from a role in the security channel space where he spent six years in a number of commercial roles. McAfee reckons that Coetzee’s background will prove valuable in his new role.
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Extreme adds Mayflex as MEA distributor
Extreme Networks has signed up Mayflex Middle East as a distribution partner. Under the terms of the agreement, Mayflex, which describes itself a a cabling, networking ans IP security solutions distributor, will push Extreme kit across the Middle East and Africa. Mayflex will assist Extreme in terms of channel development and boosting overall sales.
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Stuart Simms, Director of Microsoft’s Mobility Business, Middle East & Africa, speaking at Digital Consumer Channel (DCC) 2008 about Microsoft’s strategy in the mobile device market.
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Asbis sales soar in first quarter
Emerging markets distribution powerhouse Asbis has revealed first quarter 2008 sales up 38.9% year-on-year at US$360m. Asbis’ after-tax profits almost tripled to US$5.53m, a profit margin of 1.5%. Sales of CPUs climbed 34.7% year-on-year, contributing US$95.67m of Asbis’ total first quarter revenues. Microsoft sales more than tripled year-on-year boosting first quarter software sales to US$54.84m.
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Microsoft tackles South African pirates
Software giant Microsoft has cracked down on South African dealers selling counterfeit and illegal software. Microsoft has reached settlements worth tens of thousands of US dollars with 21 local computer dealers. The 21 dealers, based in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Pretoria and a number of smaller regional locations, were found to be selling computers loaded with unlicensed Microsoft software.
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Vendors run channel programmes, not value-added distributors (VADs). South African VAD SecureData Security begs to differ from this conventional channel wisdom and has whipped the covers off its own channel scheme called the enterprise security partner programme – abbreviated to ESP². The new programme aims to reward the VAD’s enterprise security channel partners for focus and commitment.
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Dell appoints volume distributor in South Africa
Hardware giant Dell has named Drive Control (DCC) as its first volume distributor in South Africa. Both Dell and DCC are confident that the deal will allow the vendor to grab greater market share in South Africa. Despite the volume distribution agreement with DCC, Dell will continue to work with Tecchnogistics as an in-country logistics partner.
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Mobile phone distribution and retail giant i2 had officially opened a new office in Johannesburg, South Africa, as the company sets its sights on rapid expansion in the Sub-Saharan region. The new regional office will oversee i2 activities in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Angola, Reunion and Senegal. i2 plans to aggressively ramp up the number of retail outlets it has in the Sub-Saharan region.
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