Tarsus and Insync Mobile have announced the signing of a distribution agreement which sees Tarsus becoming the only non-telco route to market for the i-mate range of converged devices.
While Insync's relationship with the mobile operators remains in place, the company believes its new relationship with Tarsus will bring with it a substantial user-base increase in the corporate sector, since more and more executives are procuring their handsets as business tools.
With Windows Mobile 5.0 technology and a full range of features that deliver mobile e-mail, Internet browsing, document editing and full smart phone capabilities, the i-mate range of handsets are more suited to the IT device category than the cellular handset category.
Both companies see value far beyond a simple distribution arrangement in the relationship that has been forged.
Tarsus has been searching for the ultimate converged device for some time now and Insync Mobile has been looking for a channel partner capable of driving its solutions into both the retail and corporate business markets successfully, for an equally long time. The companies agree that each of their goals has been perfectly met with the signing of this agreement.
"We believe the i-mate range has a great deal to offer the corporate sector as an IT tool," says Bruce Cockburn, sales and marketing director for Insync Mobile. "By driving the solutions through Tarsus's 5 000-strong base of enterprise-focused resellers, we believe the solutions will gain access to a relatively untapped market."
Tarsus feels similarly optimistic about the reception with which its partners will meet this new agreement. "With more than 120 000 devices currently active in the local market and 11 new devices on track for release during the course of 2007, i-mate has immediately become one of the most important brands in our portfolio," says Mark Thompson, i-mate product manager at Tarsus.
"In fact," says Thompson, "this agreement could be a precursor to Tarsus forming a cellular and mobile communications focused-division." Thompson says Tarsus sees the addition of i-mate to its portfolio as far more than the simple addition of another brand. "Over the coming year, the i-mate range will be bolstered by high-end devices that will push the limits on functionality and lower-end devices that deliver many of the existing features into the entry-level segment of the market.
"With mobility becoming such an important part of every business's ability to keep its workforce productive no matter what their environment is, we feel this two-pronged approach will play well towards i-mate's goals of becoming the de facto standard converged device locally," he adds.
According to Insync's estimate, over the coming year, the relationship with Tarsus could see at least 20% of the potential market share being attributed to the South African reseller market.
"But these are relatively uncharted waters for both Tarsus and Insync," adds Cockburn. "At this stage we are extremely positive about the promise this new relationship holds, but can not make predictions as to firm volumes of product the Tarsus channel will be responsible for over the coming year.
"With factors like mobile number portability and the fact that i-mate is becoming part of the IT procurement cycle, we remain positive about the possibilities for a massive market share increase over the coming year," he concludes.
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With 21 years of experience in the ICT industry, Tarsus is the leading value-added distributor in South Africa, specialising in the supply of the world's foremost PC and peripheral hardware brands to the local reseller channel.
Tarsus strives to meet the channel's needs for credit funding, stock availability and efficient logistics, ensuring resellers are able to deliver the highest quality service to their customers, focus on support and compiling the best overall solutions for their end-user customer base at the lowest possible cost.
The company prides itself on its flexibility, adaptability, knowledge, skills and successful track record combined with an industry-leading ability to manage large roll-outs. These are the reasons Tarsus has consistently been rated as the top distributor in the country by international vendors, resellers and the IT media alike.
With its strong commitment to the South African channel, Tarsus is able to not only make the reseller channel more efficient, but more importantly, it plays a vital role in dramatically reducing the costs of doing business in the local ICT market.
Brands represented by the Tarsus stable include industry leaders like Acer, Cisco, HP, IBM, i-mate, Lenovo, Oki, Samsung, TallyGenicom, Targus and Wyse Technology.
More information about Tarsus is available at http://www.tarsus.co.za.
For more information on i-mate, check out the official Web site at www.imate.co.za.
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