Value-added distributor Westcon has appointed Leane Hannigan as software solutions director for its southern African business.
Hannigan replaces David Caygill, who recently joined AxizWorkgroup as regional general manager.
Westcon says Hannigan brings with her extensive experience of both consumer and enterprise software environments, backed by extensive managerial and distribution knowledge and experience.
The distributor says Hannigan is no stranger to strategic management and innovative thinking as well as customer relationship management and development.
In 2013, while serving part of her 10-year tenure at Microsoft, Hannigan was selected as a participant in the Gibbs Women in Leadership Programme.
"We believe that Leane has the breadth of understanding and experience of the software industry that will provide Westcon locally with a resource that will help improve relationships between vendors, strategic reseller partners and where appropriate, end user customers too," says Paul Conradie, CEO of Westcon Group Southern Africa.
Hannigan says her immediate goal is to get to know customers, understand what they need from Westcon as a company and tell them the parts of the Westcon story they don't know about.
"Looking ahead, I think it is important for distribution companies to start looking at how they can assist their partners, from a vendor and reseller side, to start providing services in and through the cloud. This requires not only a business change, but a mindset change too," she says.
She points out that the cloud is going to completely change how organisations do things. "The cloud is already impacting business as some companies either don't know how to embrace it or some are just completely opposed to it.
"On the flip side, I think it's a fantastic opportunity for all IT businesses and we want to partner with our customers to help them develop business models that enable them to better embrace it. From a service point of view, I think there remains an opportunity here for distributors to provide customers access to the skills and services they need to grow their business without having to personally 'onboard' these skills themselves."
Among the challenges she expects in her new role are factors such as fluctuating exchange rates, shrinking margins and the skills shortage.
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