Sahara was named "Distributor of the Year" in two categories, Components and Monitors, at the CRN SA Channel Awards held on Monday night. Sahara PC also took second spot for the CRN Outlook Awards for local desktop computers, second only to Mecer.
This annual gathering of the top channel performers serves as a barometer to measure not only performance but also market perception.
"Within the component sector we were up against strong competitors such as Axiz, Mustek and Rectron. However our strategy to focus on a select number of vendors seems to have paid off," comments Atul Gupta, MD of the Sahara Group.
One of the areas in which Sahara scored the highest is ease of doing business. Gupta believes that the company's knowledgeable and dedicated sales team goes along way towards assisting resellers with the Sahara product range and facilitating business transactions.
As with components, Sahara's decision to focus on selected products within the monitor sector has added to its 2002 success. Limiting its focus to the distribution of Samsung and Mag monitors, the company has been able to provide top-notch support and value for money on both CRT and LCD models. In the local desktops category, Sahara came literally out of nowhere to challenge previous winner, Mustek.
"In an environment where IT managers are being called on to do more with less budget, price-performance ratio is the key differentiator. Sahara manages to satisfy these needs by delivering high quality PCs at an affordable price," notes Gupta.
Despite most local companies reporting a continuation in 2002 of the IT woes of previous years, Sahara has managed to grow its business on the back of a solid channel infrastructure and strong vendor relationships.
"As always, Sahara will be striving to cement relationships within the channel over the coming year, and work towards offering best-of-breed products and service," he concludes.
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