Mark Davison at Dell’s Technology Camp, Paris – While Dell’s direct model in South Africa will continue to play a crucial role for the company, it is looking to involve the local channel in more aspects of its business.
John Coulston, director of Global Commercial Channel, Emerging Markets at Dell says that the South African market is different from many other emerging market territories.
“In emerging markets, the majority of our business is through the channel and in territories like the Middle East, Turkey and Russia, it is 100% channel,” Coulston says. “So there are markets where our channel business is bigger than our more traditional direct business.”
Coulston says the roles are, however, reversed in South Africa.
“In South Africa, the direct business is still predominant and we expect that to remain the case for the time being,” he says. “We’ve got some very good relationships with our customers in South Africa and this is something I don’t see changing in the foreseeable future.”
Having said that, Coulston says Dell is actively looking to engage with the channel in specific market sectors.
“Where we see a big play in the channel is in the mid-market,” he says. “There is a lot of untapped potential there and, globally, we are focusing on the mid-market space where we are looking to increase the awareness about some of our products and solutions.
“For example, take AppAssure, part of our data protection solution,” he says. “This product does relatively decent in the US and reasonable in Europe, but it’s non-existent outside of those markets. The opportunity for us lies in bringing products like this to emerging markets and including the channel in this go-to-market strategy.
“It is as applicable in South Africa as it is in Germany and it means talking to that mid-market,” he says.