Johannesburg, 10 Oct 2003
Esquire Technologies, one of SA's leading distributors of computer hardware and peripherals, joined forces with global technology leaders - ABIT, CTX, Intel and Microsoft - to host one of the largest small and medium enterprise (SME) channel events on 7 October.
The event, which took place at The Castle, Kyalami, was one of the largest of its kind to address resellers and system integrators in the burgeoning SME market, which is responsible for 80% of IT sales in SA.
Asgar Mahomed, Managing Director of Esquire, commented: "The overwhelming response indicates the demand and real need for a gathering of this nature for SME resellers, who want to be informed what's happening in the marketplace, as well as have the opportunity to network with likeminded colleagues in the industry. Traditionally, channel events are held for the bigger, corporate-focused reseller."
The presentation took place in a mock-up interior of an aircraft playing on the theme of the event 'fly high with global captains of industry' and incorporating fun elements, such as a safety-belt demonstration, a hair-raising take-off and landing, and the handing over of exciting prizes, from an overseas trip, a PC, components to software.
Esquire announced several exclusive distribution agreements for global leading brands, including ABIT motherboards; CTX monitors, projectors and optical drives; KingMax memory products; PRIME networking products; ProLink graphic and multimedia adaptors, and Xitel multimedia products.
Esquire also announced key relationships that the company has established over the last few months, including the appointment as an Intel premier provider; a Microsoft Tier 1 Managed System Builder, the first Premier Partner (System Builder) for Computer Associates E-Trust Antivirus software in SA; and a Western Digital Select Golden Partner.
As part of the presentation, Esquire announced its incentive programme for resellers, as well as the Esquire range of PCs based on the Intel platform.
Mahomed added: "We were honoured to have overseas representatives from ABIT and CTX and local representatives from Intel and Microsoft, who all informed our channel customers of developments in their particular field.
"Of particular interest was ABIT's presentation outlining Micro Guru, a new concept of motherboard design with an on-board processor and interactive Windows-based user interface. In addition, ABIT unveiled DigiDice, a mainstream P4 platform mini PC that arrives in SA soon and will take the gamers by storm.
"CTX, which sells a monitor every 25 seconds in 76 countries, outlined the availability of its broad product range of quality monitors, plasma displays, projectors and storage devices that are now available in SA through Esquire.
"Microsoft focused on the new Microsoft Office System 2003 and the new Small Business Server 2003, encouraging resellers to motivate their customers to update and enjoy the benefits.
"Intel's presentation highlighted Esquire's newly attained Intel premier provider status and the benefits this will bring to their customer base, as well as introduced the new Pentium 4 processor with HT Technology Extreme Edition," said Mahomed.
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