Drive Control Corporation (DCC) has been appointed as a fully-fledged distributor for D-Link South Africa.
"DCC has more than met our criteria in terms of sales targets and other financial requirements," says Attie Pienaar, D-Link SA branch manager. DCC was previously a D-Link Diamond Distribution Partner.
Neil Rex, DCC MD, says the company, which has focused primarily on the storage market over the past few years, plans to become more deeply involved in the networking market.
"Storage and networking are continuing to merge and there is evidence of this within the storage area networking and network-attached storage markets." He adds that given the convergence of these markets, there is "an ideal opportunity [for the company] to move into networking".
Rex believes distributors should be more than just "box-droppers" as it is important that distributors offer the channel comprehensive solutions. "A distributor that is solely reliant on moving kit will not last very long. We are not just going to be another box-dropper, but a network solutions company in the future."
"D-Link aims to be at least 25% cheaper than our competitors," says Pienaar, noting that the company is focused on five main areas: broadband networking including DSL technology, as well as voice over IP, digital home networking, wireless technology and office networking.
According to Pienaar, D-Link was one of the first companies globally to release gigabit over copper solutions. He expects network speeds to reach up to 40Gb over the next couple of years.
"D-Link started testing ADSL in November last year ... and we are now waiting for Telkom to release ADSL," he says.
D-Link`s global revenue for 2001 was $604 million, with an average revenue increase of 24% over the past five years.
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