MB Technologies has agreed to acquire the full ownership of Ingram Micro South Africa. The transaction is subject to South African Competitions Board approval, after which it will become effective. An application to the Competitions Board is in the process of being filed.

“MB Technologies has taken this decision given the strategic importance of the components business to the group and the success that has been achieved in building this business over the past three years”, says Glenn Fullerton, CEO of MB Technologies.

He adds “Over this period day to day management has been vested in a strong, fully fledged South African management team and this team will continue to grow the proposed full MB Technologies subsidiary. The transaction will have no effect on the day to day operations of the Group’s components business.”

The company has grown strongly over the last three years and has earned recognition from the channel for customer service and the international vendors for the growth achieved. Recently the company won the African Distributor of the Year award at the EMEA Channel Academy Awards 2010 in Monaco.

The company will be re-branded in the months to come to reflect its new status as a fully-owned member of the MB Technologies Group.

The company will continue to primarily be an independent components-focused distributor within the MB Technologies Group and provide its customers and partners with the same level of excellent service as it has in the past.

Ingram Micro South Africa was voted 2010 Africa Distributor of the Year at the recent EMEA Channel Academy event in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

The awards, held in conjunction with the second annual DISTREE XXL channel event that brings together more than 1,000 vendor and channel executives from throughout the European, Middle East and Africa region, recognises the focus and ability of distributors in areas such as sales growth, channel coverage, credit facilities, financing, stock management, logistics, market development and reseller engagement.

In a comprehensive and transparent selection process in the months leading up to the gala event, hundreds of senior vendor executives are canvassed by the academy for distributor of the year nominations in nine regions. Nominations are then collated by the Channel Academy jury who select five nominees for each region. The list of nominees is then submitted to the channel executives at the gala event who vote electronically to select a winner in each region.

“To receive an official nomination is an achievement in itself,” said Farouk Hemraj, director at the EMEA Channel Academy. “We would like to congratulate all winners as well as those distributors that were nominated.”

Ingram Micro SA, a joint venture between MB Technologies and Ingram Micro, secured 45% of the votes cast to win the award for Sub-Saharan Africa (including South Africa). The four other nominees for the region were all South African-based distributors – Annex, Comztek, Rectron and Workgroup.

Hansie Fourie, CEO of Ingram Micro SA, said: “It was a great honour to be recognised by senior executives from throughout the vendor community across EMEA. We have made some difficult decisions in tough times, but our decision to focus on key brands and our willingness to offer our expertise and guidance to our partners seems to be paying off. We look forward to working together with our vendors and our business partners throughout the reseller channel to grow our mutual businesses in the years ahead.”

Distributor of the year awards were handed out for the following regions, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, Dach, Middle East and North Africa, Northern Europe, Russia & CIS, South East Europe, Southern Europe, UK & Ireland.

Ingram Micro won the 2010 EMEA Distributor Channel Initiative of the Year award for its logistics expertise and its ability to offer bespoke supply chain optimisation solutions to clients across EMEA.

With an increasing number of network switches supporting the Power over Ethernet (PoE), Hilton Haefele, product manager at Ingram Micro believes the market will see ‘VoIP in a box’ solutions emerging as more of the current platforms within small and medium sized businesses are capable of supporting IP Telephony.

“Besides the cost of replacing a company’s entire networking infrastructure, the primary obstacle to the success of VoIP has been providing the necessary reticulation (cabling and power) to the different parts of the customer’s premises,” Haefele says.

“PoE capable switches combined with 802.11n capable wireless access points cut down on the cabling required to setup a VoIP network substantially, since the electricity required to power the wireless access point can be provided over the same Ethernet cable connecting it to the network’s backbone and communication with VoIP handsets can take place over the faster N-class network protocol,” he explains.

“This not only reduces cost and complexity associated with taking advantage of VoIP, but also the time such a solution takes to rollout,” Haefele adds.

“By removing these obstacles and reducing the overall cost of the hardware – as vendors have been steadily doing for the past decade – VoIP is becoming a more viable option for small businesses.

“These smaller players, I believe, are the key to driving greater adoption for this technology.

“And with forces in the market aligning as they are, I don’t think that time is further away than a year to eighteen months,” he concludes.

We all know just how tough this year has been and I am sure everyone would agree with me that we are optimistically looking forward to a slightly less stressful 2010.

My wish for the channel is that resellers realise tough times require making tough decisions and that they actually have the guts to follow their instincts. We are willing to offer our expertise and guidance but none of that can replace your gut feel.

On a more personal note, I wish every reseller a productive first quarter so that we can all kick back during the world cup, enjoy a beer and not get stuck in what seems to be a looming traffic nightmare in and around Gauteng.

If you absolutely have to work during this time, please be safe and don’t forget to drop off a few pizzas as you pass the offices.

Networking resellers will be pleased to know that 3Com’s 2900 range of Baseline Plus Gigabit switches is available from Ingram Micro, bringing a host of features and a variety of benefits normally only available with Enterprise grade solutions within the small and medium sized business price range.

“These switches offer incredible value to organisations that want a modicum of control over their network while at the same time converging voice, video and data traffic onto a single set of infrastructure,” Hilton Haefele, 3Com product manager at Ingram Micro says.

“Not only do these switches converge existing applications and infrastructures, but there is the potential for future add-ons, which brings along increased revenue potential,” Haefele adds.

By far however, the benefit that stands head and shoulders above the rest is the switch’s full support of Layer 2 switching, as well as sophisticated features that are essential in building a voice ready network.

“With this range of switches, bandwidth is optimally utilised in order to provide the utmost voice and data quality, while traffic flow is directed by recognising and prioritising different types of traffic and queuing it appropriately,” Haefele says.

Additionally, ports can be grouped together to form separate logical networks that enhance the overall network core capacity or spreads it out to other parts of the network.

“To this end, the Baseline Plus Switch 2900 models can be purchased with either 20, 28 and 52 ports, and each model has four dedicated SFP ports for longer distance fibre uplinks,” he continues.

This range of switches also shines on the security front. With superb safety measures in the form of IEEE 802.1X network login and sophisticated Access Control Lists, not to mention time-based access plans, companies can rest assured that their data is kept free from prying eyes.

Looking lastly at cost savings, Haefele says the Plus Switch 2928 PWR and 2928 HPWR models provide power to a variety of plug-in devices over a single Ethernet (PoE) cable, which means a considerable reduction in operations costs.

“The 2900 range also requires minimal setup for industry standard environments. That said however, should settings need modification, accessing the switch through a web browser, console port or SNMP (simple network management protocol) software will do the trick,” he says..

Not only a solution for today, the 2900G family of switches show that they’re geared towards the future, catering well for the expansion a small business might want to undertake, while maintaining the same ease of use and network optimising benefits.

“We’re convinced the market will respond positively to the availability of these units, as well as their attractive price points,” Haefele concludes.

Acer South Africa has appointed Ingram Micro South Africa as its third distribution partner for the country giving the company access to Acer’s range of desktop and notebook products.       

Ingram Micro South Africa, a  joint venture between South Africa’s largest broad-based technology distributor, MB Technologies and the world’s largest IT distributor, Ingram Micro  will differentiate itself by focusing on growing Acer’s presence in selected niche markets.

Graham Braum, country manager of Acer South Africa says: “This partnership with Ingram Micro South Africa will allow us to cover new key segments of the market by tapping into Ingram’s growing base of resellers and their customers”.

He continues “we are particularly excited by the focus Acer will receive from Ingram Micro South Africa as the only top-tier international hardware brand in its product portfolio. Ingram Micro is one of Acer’s biggest distribution partner’s in EMEA and it makes sense to bring that highly successful relationship to South Africa.”

Ingram Mcro South Africa entered the market as a focused components distributor servicing South Africa’s system builder, upgrade and ‘white-box’ channels. However, these dealers have reported growing demand from their customers for access to complete systems from a tier one PC brand, especially in the SMEE market.

“Although we will retain our focus on this growing and vital part of the South African technology reseller channel, we are answering their need for a complementary range of products from an international PC brand,” says Hansie Fourie, CEO of Ingram Micro.

“It made sense for us to look towards Acer South Africa as a partner because of the significant and long standing relationship that exists between our international parent companies.”

Ingram Micro South Africa does not plan to take on any additional international PC brands and will focus only on the Acer products in its completed systems product portfolio. In the future, Ingram Micro South Africa may look to offer its resellers a choice of Acer server and storage products, in addition to the desktop, LCD, projector and notebook ranges it will supply with immediate effect.

Tarsus, a MB Technologies subsidiary, will continue to serve as a broad-based distributor for Acer while Ingram Micro South Africa will keep its focus on selected vertical markets in its existing dealer base.

“MB Technologies is delighted to broaden its important and strategic relationship with Acer South Africa,” says Glenn Fullerton, CEO of the MB Technologies Group. “This new agreement between Ingram Micro South Africa and Acer allows the joint venture to enhance its offering by adding an international tier one highly respected completed product range to its vertical market and further strengthens the MB Technologies Group’s relationship with Acer”.

Ingram Micro South Africa is using its strong relationship with Targus to create added value for its resellers and retaining a strong focus on strengthening the resellers’ position in the market.

“We want to empower all our resellers to be able to compete on equal footing with their competitors who have traditionally enjoyed more favourable terms and prices based purely on their size,” explains Hansie Fourie, CEO of Ingram Micro South Africa. “For us it’s not only about volumes and the size of orders; we are committed to helping our resellers build their business and client base by offering top quality products, world-class customer service and an eye on strengthening their business.”

By offering weekly sales seminars where resellers can learn about the newest product releases and special offerings, Targus, a recognised market leader in notebook carry cases and accessories explained how one of its value-adds is its ability to package products and accessories for the mobile user into easily configured and highly affordable bundles,. There is also a minimum two-year warranty on a wide range of accessories, while all Targus carry case products are covered by their renowned lifetime warranty, not forgetting their high levels of customer service.

Renate Viljoen, Targus product manager at Ingram Micro South Africa says, “This is great value not only for the buyer but also benefits the flow in the channel as the resellers now have a bargaining chip based on quality products, packaged according to the end-user’s specific needs. The resellers can also build longer-lasting relationships with customers by passing on the cost saving gained as aresult of bundle purchases.”

“We believe in stocking high-quality brands such as Targus as it means our resellers can serve their customers with confidence and be safe in the knowledge that they will be fully backed by ourselves and the brands we stock.”

The Iomega brand name has long been synonymous with desktop storage solutions, but following the company’s acquisition by enterprise storage vendor EMC, the Iomega brand has now comfortably moved into the SMB storage environment.

“The need for data storage devices and capacity is growing by the day, no matter the size of the business – or even home entertainment system,” says Kathy Milan, Iomega product manager at distributor Ingram Micro South Africa.

“We have long carried the Iomega range and are very excited to offer our resellers these excellent-quality products that will suit the needs of their SMB customers.”

Some of the latest additions to the Iomega range are the StorCentre network storage devices that offer capacities of anywhere from 1TB up to 8TB. The advantage that this iX range offers is that it contains a fair amount of EMC technology that has traditionally only been available to high-end enterprise systems.

“The iX range is unique in that it offers a lot of storage management functions, including the ability to hot-swop drive, VMWare capabilities and RAID functionality,” explains Milan

This means that storage virtualisation is now available to even the smallest user, at very competitive pricing, she adds.

In addition to the VMWare capabilities, EMC is also bundling ITbackup and disaster recovery software with the StorCentre products, while also providing access to the EMC MozyHome online backup facility.

While businesses have had to readjust their priorities and goals due to the economic downturn, Ingram Micro South Africa managing director Hansie Fourie says the market fundamentals are still in place.

“We are not panicking,” he says. “The fundamental base of customers is still there and is not going to disappear overnight. People are just not going to be buying as much as they previously have, and businesses need to get smarter and work harder to win that business.”

The basis of this approach lies in clearly identifying and offering a value proposition to the customer.

“Businesses need to find cheaper ways to solve the end-users’ needs – which basically means selling the right product to satisfy a specific demand,” he says.

“When times are good, people tend to oversell – trying to maximize the customer spend by selling products or equipment they don’t necessarily need.”

Those days are over, he says, with customers buying the necessities and riding out the storm.

“Until then, however, companies need to consolidate internally, without necessarily contracting; this is a time to focus and structure the business. If that business happens to be overstaffed, the downturn is a good excuse to cut staff overheads, but if the business is lean already, then now is when you should be consolidating and building.

“We have to accept that profit will be lower but also that we need to be best positioned to take advantage of the turnaround when it comes,” he adds.

Without offering a prediction of when this will happen, Fourie believes we are at the bottom of the downturn, but also that the turnaround may not be as swift as previously.

“When everyone is talking doom and gloom, it’s a sign to me that things are about to turn. A number of people are talking about a turnaround in the short term, but I think it will take longer.

“One of the reasons for that is the effect of the National Credit Act. Fewer people qualify for finance, which impacts on the whole economy, not just the IT sector. And this factor is not going to go away.”

This situation is compounded by the historically high levels of household debt, with any relief from interest rates being used to settle other debt, he suggests.

“Competition is therefore going to get stiffer, but we are buckling down and putting ourselves in a position geared towards growth once market conditions improve. By doing this and working harder, we will develop specific strategies or innovations to give us the edge,” he says.