StorTech will make a million rand investment in local skills development and call centre technology to become the first channel member in Africa to join Symantec`s technical support partner programme (TSPP) for experienced support engineers.
As new members of the TSPP, six StorTech support engineers, including three from previously-disadvantaged communities, are to undergo 45 days of specialist training in Symantec`s backup, storage virtualisation, data availability and disaster recovery products.
They will form the core of Symantec`s mission-critical support team in the southern African region, which both companies expect to grow and level out at around 12 members.
Symantec regional pre-sales manager Sheldon Hand says the new level of partnership is key to the business strategy of both companies. He says it demonstrates Symantec`s commitment to the region and builds on StorTech`s long-standing relationship with Veritas, which was acquired by Symantec in July 2005.
"Having a high level technical support team in SA will create new business opportunities for Symantec and StorTech locally and elsewhere in Africa by providing the highest level of assurance to customers," he explains.
Rapid support
StorTech CEO Tim Knowles says most multinationals keep top skills in home countries overseas or centralise them in regional support centres. "Symantec`s TSPP enables partners like StorTech to offer customers rapid support at the highest level," he says.
Hand says partners who have implemented Symantec solutions are typically in a much better position to offer fast, appropriate support in an emergency than any remote call centre because they are already intimately acquainted with the environment.
Knowles says the new partnership with Symantec is the natural result of StorTech`s view that specialisation in particular product sets is a better strategy than taking on a broad range of competing technology.
According to Knowles, specialisation has important benefits: "It enables improved customer service through optimisation and the broadest range of support, as well as eliminating a common lack of partner focus and any element of mistrust in the channel."
Although Symantec is already in discussions with other local partners about joining the TSPP, Hand says any additional members from SA are likely to focus more on security.
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