Faisal Jamal Managing Director, Despec
Despec, which caters to both resellers and retailers, represents some of the leading brands in hardware and supplies in addition to accessories. “We are a specialised distributor focused on aftermarket products with in-country operations in most of the major markets in the Middle East and Africa. Recently, we have shifted our focus to East and Central African markets,” says Faisal Jamal, Managing Director of the company. Despec has distribution deals with almost all major printing vendors for their supplies and these include HP, Lexmark, Canon, and Printronix. For storage and accessories, it has vendor partners such as Symantec, Imation, Verbatim and Sony, to name a few. “What is really unique about us is the way we support our channel partners with sales and after-sales support. We are probably the only distributor with a dedicated supply chain department, which manages all the back-office sales operations for resellers, who don’t have to invest in these resources,” says Jamal.
Despec has invested heavily in training and skilling up its people to better support its channel. “We work very closely with our partners, and empower them to realise the opportunities around the brands we bring to the market,” says Jamal. Despec is currently exploring the opportunities to set up local presences in Iraq and Qatar this year, while it continues to expand its African operations to include Ethiopia and Mozambique. Despec has also expanded its portfolio by signing up brands such as Targus and Trust for accessories, and bagged the master distribution rights for Pantum printers for the Middle East and African region. To fine tune its logistics operations, Despec has recently outsourced the function to 3PLs. Also, the company is in the process of rolling out SAP to transform its back office and inventory management. This will include a redesigned website, which will offer a fully functional e-commerce portal that will allow partners to enjoy the experience of online ordering.
These are good times to be in the security market, and that is reflected in the growth of specialised distributor Secureway, which represents brands such as F5 Networks, Fortinet, HID Global and Sourcefire. “Secureway has been around since 2005, with an unwavering focus on end-to-end solutions. We have evolved beyond commoditised products such as UTMs and firewalls and offer advanced security technologies related to log management, data loss prevention and identity and access management,” says Fari Boustantchi, CEO of Secureway. Secureway firmly believes in channel empowerment, and provides free accreditation workshops to its partners. “We are the authorised training centre for most of our vendors and recently we have tied up with Mile2, which provides vendor-neutral professional certification for cyber security,” says Boustantchi. Secureway’s value-added distribution model extends beyond just pre-and postsales support. “We go and do joint sales with our resellers, help them with PoCs and
configurations. We have more than 400 resellers across the region, who benefit from the level of service, support and logistics capabilities we bring to the table.” Secureway’s product portfolio comprises around 12 to 13 brands. “We could have easily have 40 brands and it was a conscious decision because we want to stay focused. We will not have more than 13 or 14 brands and if we want to add a new brand we will exit an exit one. The moment you go for 40 you cease to be a VAD,” says Boustantchi. He adds that all of the brands in Secureway’s portfolio have been brought to the Middle East first by the distributor. Boustantchi also says that Secureway doesn’t offer consulting unless a partner needs it: “That’s something we will not do because we don’t want to compete with our partners. In the Middle East, we address even the telecom market through partners because we are committed to growth their business and profitability. We also work very closely with them in the areas of finance and credit management.”
Fari Boustantchi CEO, Secureway
june 2013
Reseller Middle East
31