"With the increased business opportunities and some major 3Com projects in Africa, 3Com SA has decided to open an office in Zimbabwe to focus on business development for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa," says Linda Richter, who will be heading up the Harare office.
She says 3Com decided to open an office in Zimbabwe because of its close proximity to neighbouring African countries. "Our Harare office will be a springboard into the rest of sub-Saharan Africa."
Richter who has had five years experience in dealing in African markets, says 3Com is focusing its attention on East and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands. "These areas present a huge, untapped, diverse market.
"We will be focusing on reseller partnerships and will make a big investment through our sub-Saharan partners in technology training and targeted partner programs.
3Com, according to Richter, has always had an existing channel and partners in Africa, however, until recently the company had no strategic focus on developing these relationships. "With our Harare office we can develop them and create new business."
3Com has partners in Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mauritius and Namibia and its major projects include Zanzibar Telecommunications (Zantel), the United Nations Environment Programme, and the Ministry of Health in Tanzania.
Richter advises that support will be handled from the Johannesburg office and the Zimbabwe office will leverage off Johannesburg`s installed base.
According to Chris van Niekerk, channel manager for 3Com SA,
there are numerous new developments underway in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. "This provides an opportunity for 3Com to further develop businesses there.
"3Com`s newly launched products, particularly the SuperStack3 and Office Connect ranges, are highly suited to the African market.
"With network appliances like these our partners and resellers in Africa can now offer a total solution to their customers. This solution will include Internet and e-mail servers and security products.
"We also foresee opportunities in countries using digital connectivity, such as ISDN, for our LAN telephony products; plus there are many opportunities for our carrier products in the Network Service Provider (NSP) markets.
Share
