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SA faces legacy networks challenge

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 20 Oct 2014
Networks Unlimited has faced business challenges and steep learning curves over the years, says Craig Copeland, co-founder and director of the value-added distributor.
Networks Unlimited has faced business challenges and steep learning curves over the years, says Craig Copeland, co-founder and director of the value-added distributor.

There are many legacy networks left within South African companies and, with the adoption of cloud computing, virtualisation and mobility by business, the challenge will be to ensure these business requirements are met with as little disruption to the business as possible.

So says Craig Copeland, co-founder and director of value-added distributor Networks Unlimited, who notes the decision of whom to partner with becomes a more complex one due to the diverse nature of these challenges; and the growing pace at which technology is changing makes this decision even more difficult.

"There is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution; every company is different; so how quickly you adapt to the new technology could be a significant advantage to your business," says Copeland.

"With all these changes, we have a scenario where there are many vested parties that now carry the weight on their shoulders to collaborate to get business systems working on the infrastructure provided, with increasingly limited skills."

He is of the view, faced with these challenges, organisations need to identify the most critical systems to a business, isolate these, and internally try to up-skill themselves before bringing on a partner.

Copeland believes the channel offers many ways in which partners and end-users can up-skill themselves and learn, backed by the vendors in the areas in which they operate.

"There are also many commercial and free downloadable tools that can facilitate a company in getting a better understanding of what the infrastructure looks like and how these new business tools (applications) will affect their network," he says.

Steep learning curves

Copeland says, as an independent value-added distributor, Networks Unlimited has faced business challenges and steep learning curves over the years.

The company now has 800 partners and Copeland explains to manage relations with all of them, it employs that 20/80% rule where Networks Unlimited, as a value-added distributor, works very closely with 20% of the partners.

"Here we interact on a regular basis with the partner, do sales and technical training, account-mapping sessions, joint marketing drives etc, and in many instances, work the opportunity together, allowing the end-user access to the best possible resources in country."

This does not mean we are de-focused on the remaining 80% of our partners, Copeland notes.

"We run regular training sessions in conjunction with our vendors, attend trade shows, and visit a vast number of these partners outside of South African boarders."

He also points out that as a value-added distributor, Networks Unlimited does not take orders directly from end-users, but via partners.

"Our role is to aid the partner where possible, help grow their business, which, in turn, grows our business."

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