Storgate Africa seeks expanded opportunities with VERITAS Software throughout Africa

Storgate Africa will be expanding into Africa with among others, its range of VERITAS Software workgroup solutions that will assist the Spartan supply of technical skills to manage and maintain their data as well as keep it highly available.

With the shortage of highly skilled staff the failure of a server can mean flying technicians from South Africa to address the problem. Andrew Wynne, national sales manager at Storgate Africa, says that not many of the organisations operating in the region presently perform backups. The recovery of a server or system is far simpler when restoring from tape as opposed to reconfiguring the device from scratch.

The expansion plans include: Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. "Once those markets are established, Storgate will continue its growth phase by targeting West African countries by mid-2001," says Wynne.

Storgate is making the move after proving the concept with its Zimbabwean subsidiary, formerly Datasafe, with which Storgate Africa entered into a joint venture some three years ago. Datasafe has been supporting VERITAS Software solutions in the region for the past four years, when the company was still known as Seagate Software.

Storgate Africa`s Zimbabwean subsidiary has captured nearly 80 percent of the market and Wynne predicts that performance in the rest of Africa will eventually grow to three to five times the size of the Zimbabwe operation.

"Storgate has been a distributor for the past five years and developed a wide product knowledge and many years experience in the data availability arena, experience now paying dividends in this expansion into Africa, as these skills are sorely needed," says Elizabeth le Roux, regional manager, Sub-Saharan at VERITRAS Software.

"If projected growth is achieved, Africa could account for up to 30 percent of the South African operation`s business," says Wynne.

He adds: "Storgate intends appointing resellers who can add value and supply high-end storage solutions, not merely drop boxes. We need partners with good trade practices, payment and credit records, as well as solid relationships with the market." He says that Storgate Africa was initially looking for distribution partners in Africa but that IT companies in the region generally do not fill that role, instead opting to go the VAR route.

In terms of sales the Zimbabwe office will head up the expansion drive, while logistics and distribution will be from the Johannesburg office. Stocks will be sourced from a bonded warehouse and warranty returns will also be managed from Johannesburg.