GEC NEWS WIREDrastic times call for drastic measures. When the market is going through a frenzy, the smart ones chose to join league with their smart counterparts across the market so that together they become a force to reckon with. VCE recently signed a partnership with Mindware and uniting their strengths, they are all set to transform the IT market.
The fluctuations in the oil prices have invariably created a chaotic uncertainty in the market. Companies’ balance sheets have been affected; so have been the strategies to cope up with the changing market dynamics. In such a situation, the competition towards succeeding in the race of “survival of the fittest” becomes fiercer than ever before. When the pie is shrinking, the struggle to capture a bigger share is definitely becoming more competitive. Partnerships at such a juncture become very crucial to the slope of the growth curve of the companies involved. VCE- the leading buzz maker in converged infrastructure has entered into a strategic partnership with the prominent infrastructure VAD of the region, Mindware.
Commenting on the partnership, Said Akar, Regional Director for Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Middle East at VCE said, “VCE is one of the pioneer companies focusing around converged infrastructure. Middle East is one of the fastest growing markets that we have worldwide. One of the most important things is how we can cover the market and have the right go-to-market strategy. This is the main reason why we are signing this partnership with Mindware in order to have a better reach to the market and continue the journey of growth and success. In this region, we operate through an indirect model and drive our business through channel. Therefore, we needed a strong Value Added Distributor in order to manage the partners and the system integrators and this is where Mindware was the perfect choice for this partnership.”
Mario Gay, GM at Mindware remarked, “We started the journey with EMC. The recent market happenings have been evident of how powerful they are from a technology point of view. VCE is one of those products of EMC family which was missing from our portfolio. It was extremely important to have it, so that we could offer more value to the market as well as the vendor. So, we were very keen to have them in our portfolio and hence the partnership with them.”
Mindware is already a leading distributor for Dell in the region. While it’s plausible for one to wander to the consequences of EMC-Dell deal on this partnership, Said cleared the air saying that the objective of the merger is to do something good. The transaction will unite Dell’s strength with small business and mid-market customers with EMC’s strength with large enterprises to fuel profitable growth. He added that the overlap of the portfolios of Dell and VCE is too minimal and hence wouldn’t create any problems even when the EMC-Dell deal has materialized in completeness.
Michael S. Dell, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell had earlier remarked, “The combination of Dell and EMC creates an enterprise solutions powerhouse. Our new company will be exceptionally well-positioned for growth in the most strategic areas of next generation IT including digital transformation, software-defined data centre, converged infrastructure, hybrid cloud, mobile and security.” Said drew attention to the fact how the converged infrastructure offering from EMC was one of the top priorities of the deal. “Converged infrastructure is bringing about a transition in IT. We pioneered the first products around converged infrastructure. We created this market and in few years, Gartner has started to do an integrated system magic quadrant which didn’t exist before. Several other companies have joined the brigade realizing this is the future of IT. Down the lane, we shall keep striving to offer a streamlined product portfolio for our customers which creates no confusion, rather provides enhanced value for the market”, he added.
Talking of the Mindware perspective, Mario said that they are looking to complement their portfolio. “Our prime objective is to serve the market. We always look to have solutions that complement each other.” So, what’s being planned to execute this partnership? Mario remarked that Mindware will continue with its Value Addition Model. “We have two objectives- one to enable the market and the partners; and the other is to help the vendor tap the opportunities offered by complimentary products in our portfolio. At the end, we strive to always be a sort of bridge for the vendor to reach the market”. The VCE-Mindware partnership will be for the whole of Gulf region with exclusion of the KSA and Pakistan.
Delving deeper into the motivation behind this partnership, Said commented that the IT market is changing rapidly. The market is drifting towards integrated systems. When VCE started this in 2009-2010, the major challenge was the customer awareness; but no more. Market awareness and adoption is changing very fast. For the first time the market is witnessing customer RFBs on CI. “Mindware will not only complement the product portfolio we have but also the mission to make sure that together we lead the IT transformation.” “Customers have started to see the benefits of CI in terms of ROI, less downtime, time to market, efficiency, etc. Gartner’s predictions show that while the expenditure in the coming years on storage, compute as separate solutions may see a shrinking trend; the spend around CI is on an upward curve. Hence, it’s definitely a very strategic move from leading distributors like Mindware to ensure they are well-equipped for the future of IT and the changing demands of the market.”
Said further added that Mindware will help VCE to have a strong coverage in the market, that will not only be good for VCE and Mindware but also for all the customers. He went on to cite three main strengths of Mindware- vast experience, coverage and knowhow across the region, strong portfolio and the financial stability which becomes all the more crucial especially at a time when the market is undergoing uncertainties.
Mario remarked that these are tough times and hence the right choice of vendors and partners is all the more vital for the strong sustenance in the market. The need of the hour is to consolidate and work with the market leaders. The VCE-Mindware partnership is definitely a strategic move in that direction.
Looking forward to the future, a plethora of activities on ground including lots of events, awareness campaigns, training and enablement programs for the partners are in the pipeline already. At the end of the day, customer is the king- so if the partnership is successful in bringing value to the customers as well as the partners and both the parties, the bull’s eye is hit. So, it’s time to wait and watch as the deal translates into reality in the coming days.
