The global security company has opened a regional office in Johannesburg, as part of its international expansion strategy to establish a footprint across the emerging African region.
The office will provide operational management, brand promotion and sales support for Kaspersky's partners and customers in the sub-Saharan region. It says the local office will have up to 10 employees by the end of 2010, including sales, marketing and technical specialists.
Garry Kondakov, MD of Kaspersky Lab EEMEA, says the opening of the Johannesburg office will be a milestone for the Kaspersky Lab brand and help fuel further awareness of its products and services across the region. “At the moment, Kaspersky Lab does not have enough resources in Africa; this is a step towards investing more in the region.
“We listened to our customers and partners and the next logical step was to have a direct presence in SA. This will enable Kaspersky to get that much closer to each of our African customers and business partners, to provide the level of support that we have made the hallmark of our company,” he adds.
In January 2010, says Kondakov, the company will unveil a partner programme which will create two main statuses for its partners: premium retail and premium business. “The programme will focus on direct support for our partners, to make their lives easier and bring more value, to grow them to the premium level.”
At present, the security company has six distributors and 200 authorised resellers across Africa. It says the region has shown strong growth globally in terms of IT competitiveness.
As malware gets more sophisticated, and new cyber threats affect IT systems daily, Kaspersky Lab is in a good position to capture and service part of the growing anti-virus and security market in SA, notes Kondakov.
"Although the anti-virus market is competitive, Kaspersky Lab's solid solution and rapid threat response will drive growth as it expands into Africa.
“Further development and cementing of our partnerships across the region is the key to unlocking the tremendous potential for our products in Africa,” he says. “I am certain that we are positioned to do great things for both our business partners and our African customers in the years ahead.”
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