Andrew Harris, chief sales and marketing officer, DCC Technologies.
There is a quiet, uncomfortable truth currently sitting at the centre of the South African ICT channel. We are watching the market right-size and consolidate in real-time. Some of the players in the market are retrenching staff while racing to the bottom on price. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy: under sustained pressure, businesses can accelerate towards the bottom without meaning to, and once that momentum takes hold, it is far harder to reverse than most expect.
As we move through the first quarter of 2026, I find myself less interested in speculative predictions or glossy marketing slogans. I am much more interested in how we weather this storm together. For many in our industry, 2025 was a difficult year and, while there was growth, it does not always equal health. Many resellers are feeling more pressure than progress. In this environment, we must ask a blunt question: what kind of channel are we actually building?
For me, the answer is a channel rooted in reasonable, responsible trading. Profitability is not a bad word; it is what keeps the lights on for the entire ecosystem. If we continue to treat distribution as a race to the lowest possible margin, the only result is a thinning out of the very partners who make this industry thrive. This approach is not a strategic advantage; it is a slow slide into obsolescence that weakens our collective ability to serve the end customer.
This is why we have prioritised the development of Engage, our online reseller portal. For the smaller partner, Engage is more than just a "buy online" button. It is a practical tool designed to level the playing field by providing real-time visibility and streamlined procurement. By automating the manual, repeatable tasks that often drain a small team’s resources, it returns time to the business owner. This allows them to focus on high-value customer relationships and strategic growth rather than administrative friction.
A healthy channel is one that does not leave the other 95% behind. While the top 5% of resellers often dominate the revenue conversation, the heartbeat of the southern African channel is the thousands of smaller "mom and pop" shops. These partners run lean, often with just one or two people handling everything from sales to deliveries. For them, every hour lost to manual quotes or chasing stock is an hour taken away from their long-term survival.
This is why our investment in operational innovation matters. It is not about us having all the answers; it is about providing the infrastructure that returns control to the reseller. When a partner can manage their own engagement and see live stock at any hour, they gain the time needed to differentiate their own business. A well-considered decision made today saves 10 rushed ones tomorrow.
By creating a more connected back-end, we ensure that distribution becomes strategic rather than purely functional. We are building a future where our supply chain is a resource for our partners, not through empty promises, but through practical collaboration. We are betting on their success because that is the only way distribution remains relevant in a consolidating market.
Let us build a channel that values sustainability over reactive speed and partnership over transactional "steroids". When resellers are healthy, the entire value chain is protected. For partners who believe that protecting margins is a shared responsibility, this is an invitation to have a more direct conversation about how we build a healthier channel together.
