Johannesburg, 04 Sep 2014
This message is not intended to sell you anything but more to be an "exclamation mark" in the strategy decisions being made in the consumer's IT environment. By Russell Gill, general manager at Linux Warehouse.
If you speak to IT professionals, Gartner etc, the majority agree that open source products are playing a larger part in the consumer's IT environment. But here's the conundrum: it's more profitable for the average reseller out there to sell the proprietary product than to have their customers subscribe to enterprise open source software. Coupled with this, the resellers have to ensure that their staff are up to date with ever-changing trends and that they are able to support the IT environment.
While these reseller concerns are valid, to me they pale in comparison to the risk the resellers have if they do not have an open source alternative in their product offering.
One of the additional benefits to resellers selling enterprise open source products is that their customers do not ever get exposed to vendor lock-in and there is no way that the vendor can cut out the supply chain. This means that that the reseller has a valid reason to be in more contact with their customer base and there's repeat business when the customer renews their annual subscriptions.
At Linux Warehouse we often come across consumers who have no idea of what alternatives are available to them. Consumers do not understand the complicated proprietary agreements they sign into and once the enterprise open source model is explained to them, they show a keen interest in the open source offering, and look for advice on identifying a strategic reseller that has their best interests at heart.
If the resellers are not providing the consumers with alternatives that can make them more effective and efficient, and provide the ability for the consumer to free up their IT budget to do more R&D and innovation, then the consumer can't possibly see the reseller as a trusted advisor in the IT environment.
In Africa, the open source environment is relatively unknown to the majority of consumers out there but this is fast changing. As the consumer becomes educated and exposed to open source products, so they start questioning the effectiveness of their IT environment and talking to their resellers. If the reseller is not prepared for this conversation then they had better be prepared to look at selling something else because they can't possibly be selling IT products for very much longer.
The Linux Warehouse is quite possibly the largest specialised open source distributor in sub-Saharan Africa with a variety of key vendors that we have partnered with. Look at our Web site or give us a call to discuss the open source products we distribute and how the reseller can become their customers' hero. We are here to advise and guide you into the future of IT software.
For more queries, contact marketing@linuxwarehouse.co.za or telephone 011 795 7950
Get in touch with the Linux Warehouse team and we will help you get started on implementing an open source solution our team is ready to speak to you and even meet with you to discuss your pain points and even just a conversation about who we are and what solutions we have on offer.
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