GEC NEWS WIREWhat is your channel strategy for the Middle East region? How do you cover this huge geography?
We have been empowering our channel community, which has significantly contributed to our growth & development as a value-added distributor in the region. Partners & customers can look forward to more of activities & enhancements in the current year. We offer regular channel enablement & enhancement session for partners to make them self-sufficient on the solution offerings to be able to manage the opportunity end-to-end. We assist them in conducting product specific roadshows in coordination with vendors. Generation and assignment of potential leads, along with Sales and technical enablement sessions on regular basis. We also conduct combined customer visits to address customer’s requirements. We offer 24/7 all-round support to partners in undertaking PoC, demos and implementation services whenever required.
We have country-wise dedicated sales resources for every country represented by us including in-country resources for some GCC countries.
What is the state of Channel Partner Network is the region? How have you managed to remain focused in a rapidly evolving region like the Middle East?
Bulwark, the cyber security specialized Value-Added Distributor, has been managing the dynamic changes and challenges in the information security space in the region by adopting adequate measures with a systematic & time-bound approach. The solutions portfolio we offer provide a unique value proposition to our partners & customers. With our constant endeavor on customer service & ROI, we have been able to effectively demonstrate a pragmatic approach that clients need to adopt while choosing the right solutions to strengthen the cyber security postures of their organizations. We are very much focused on our product portfolio and offerings to partners and customers in the region. This would enable in the optimum utilization of skills and resources within the organization and deliver world-class and customer centric approach to serve our partners and customers in the region.
With the channel partner market constantly evolving, what are the key elements that a partner should incorporate?
The emergence of the new digital era has caused several challenges to organizations. There is a new pressure on prices & margins, with competition from unexpected places. Stay focused on your area of expertise & work towards achievement of customer satisfaction & expectations. Digital technologies know no borders, and the customer’s demand for a unified experience is raising pressure on global companies to standardize offerings. All these above factors cause challenges to stay profitable in the digital era.
Now-a-days, vendors are demanding more from channel partners. How challenging is it to keep up to their expectations?
Value Addition has been at the very core of Bulwark’s operations since its inception in 1999, making the company a pioneer in the domain of Information Security value distribution and has helped it and its channel grow at an accelerated rate. Bulwark has excelled in providing and delivering value-added services, that include solutions pre-sales consulting, training, channel enablement programs, post-sales implementation and technical support, and adding value at every stage of product life cycle. Channel development and growth into focused territories across GCC, Middle East & India has been our constant endeavor. As part of this strategy, we execute comprehensive, action-oriented and established Channel programs which benefits our channel through deal registrations, better rebates, joint marketing activities, technical and sales enablement and promotes greater synergy among our vendors and partners and added value to end customers. With the above approach, our channel partners can offer wide range of products and solutions to their existing customers.
How are you adding value to your vendors whose products you represent?
Bulwark is a leading Value-Added Distributor in the Middle East region. Bulwark works closely with its channel ecosystem in the region to deliver solutions spanning across technology domains in Cyber Security, Networking, Storage among others. Bulwark serves the entire region with innovations from more than 20 technology vendors and provides value-added services such as pre-sales expertise to support partners, sales and technical trainings, marketing support, logistics and credit facilities to support and benefit its channel ecosystem and thus adding value to every stage of product life cycle.
How does effective partner programs help you grow your business?
Bulwark plans to keep its channel community up to date on the specialized cutting-edge technology products and solutions and simultaneously provide world-class service to its customers. It is our continuous and ongoing effort to invest on channel initiatives which include long term partner growth plans, partner certification and reward programs and channel enablement sessions. Our constant focus is on channel growth & development. We have been empowering our channel community, which has significantly contributed to our growth & development as a value-added distributor in the region.
If could you improve one thing in the channel business, what would that be?
Channel growth & development would be a main area of focus for leading VAD Bulwark. We have been empowering our channel community, which has significantly contributed to our growth & development as a value-added distributor in the region. We are offering certifications and value-added channel enablement sessions to motivate and upskill our partners to the wide array of our Technology offerings. These partners could enjoy better margins and more leads assigned to them. Apart from these, there are partner incentive programs to motivate and encourage them to engage in suitable Technology certifications.
What product or technology should the channel watch out for this year?
There is a greater demand for emerging technologies as new frontiers of technologies like involving Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Social media, Cloud, Big Data, Mobile & Internet of Things are evolving in the market. As a security focused value-added distributor in the region, we know the battle is continuous and ongoing as new security breaches / discoveries emerge every moment and we are prepared to meet such challenges with latest technologies. We have recently added solution for Encryption Key generation / management and Robotic Process Automation.
How are you raising your brand across this region?
A value-added distributor complements the skills, knowledge and portfolio of a reselling company in such a manner that they can enhance their customer base, generate more valuable business opportunities and manage complex business opportunities exceeding its own skill and resource capabilities. The value and volume distribution channel’s success are clearly linked to the success of its partners. Therefore, to help them achieve and even exceed their objectives, their teams work closely with them in the planning and development of their strategies. The support provided to the business, technical and marketing levels, illustrates the added value brought to the channel and thus raise our brand value as Value-Added Distributor in the region.
