Networks Unlimited Africa embraces power of three with its value offering to partners

Aaron Burden, Unsplash.

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There is a mysterious alchemy about the number three. As the saying goes: "Good things come in threes" – which is why Networks Unlimited Africa is embracing this ‘magic number'.

“A triangle, with its three sides, is one of the most stable shapes that you will find, which is why it’s used in building bridges and other structures where supporting a lot of weight is required,” says Anton Jacobsz, CEO at this leading value-added distributor in the sub-Saharan Africa market.

“In the world of colour, we find three primary colours that make up all the rest – red, yellow and blue. In sport, we invariably award medals to the top three competitors, while in photography and design, artists often work in the rule of thirds for perspective. And so here at Networks Unlimited Africa, ever mindful of universal truths, we have decided to concentrate the ongoing evolution of our own unique partner offering on also harnessing ‘the power of three’.”

Anton Jacobsz, CEO at Networks Unlimited Africa

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This means, says Jacobsz, that Networks Unlimited will continue to present itself as delivering products and solutions that are affordable, better than the competition, and with faster service delivery.

“These three pillars have always been part of our suite of offerings through our vendor partners,” he explains. “Now, we are simply making sure that the world in which we operate is absolutely aware of this. We are presenting this three-in-one package as the kernel of our differential, and how we showcase ourselves to our partners, potential partners and end-users within the converged technology, data centre, networking and security landscapes.”

Networks Unlimited structures its partners loosely according to the following business unit areas, with some fitting into more than one of these categories:

• Networking;
• Cyber security;
• Cloud/data storage;
• Enterprises systems management (ESM); and
• Affordable equals passing on the value.

“There’s more to pricing strategies than simply offering the lowest price to beat your competitors,” says Jacobsz. “Nonetheless, the right pricing strategy must align with your business goals, which could include profitability, growing your customer base, or ensuring your organisation’s longevity. Affordability of the solutions that we provide is a critical part of our business strategy, ensuring that we pass on value to our partners in a virtuous trajectory.”

Reasons to bypass the competition

Explains Jacobsz: “Networks Unlimited has been adapting for over 25 years and remaining relevant within a progressively competitive and evolving marketplace. We continuously assess our portfolio to include the very latest thinking and best-of-breed offerings and solutions, whether they are from global giants or relatively new start-up companies.”

Networks Unlimited provides solutions from the network edge to the data centre, and addresses key areas such as cyber security in the IT/OT space, hybrid cloud, data centre and infrastructure, networking and integration, SD-WAN solutions, network performance management and application performance management, application delivery networking and load balancing, DataOps management and data management, and backup and recovery solutions.

Jacobsz adds: “We also offer significant training opportunities and ongoing support to keep the IT evolution moving in a forward trajectory and address a growing shortage of vital IT skills. To further enrich our partners’ relationships with us, we bring to the table comprehensive sales and technical support, product management support, a partner readiness enablement programme, training and proof of concept demonstrations.

Faster in all the ways that count

“Speed is the third distinguishing competitive advantage that we offer,” notes Jacobsz. “We understand the value of speed and the relationship that it plays in efficient and successful service provision as part of establishing a competitive edge. It is therefore important to us to offer faster service delivery.

“Additionally, our passion for innovation, people and business drives us to embrace the newest frontiers of technology and plays a role in igniting pending tech developments that enhance our customers’ businesses.”

Preparing for the future

The Networks Unlimited Training Academy, offering both end-user and partner training, includes certification for partners to use in their different spheres and assists with much-needed empowerment in the South African IT skills space.

“We support a structured long-term learnership model, both internally and externally, and also back social initiative projects that show a strong emphasis and return on education. It remains our constant hope, in the future, to employ the generation we had a hand in educating and play our part in encouraging this new workforce to constantly continue innovating for a better life,” concludes Jacobsz.