Inspire Africa reinvents African technology channel

Vincent Entonu, Director at Comstor Africa.

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Comstor Africa today announced the launch of its Inspire Africa programme. The innovative channel-centric programme is designed to empower partners and end-users by providing access to an extensive range of digitally relevant vendor solutions, innovative self-help tools, as well as a host of training and value-added service offerings.

“People being forced to work remotely during the challenging times we are faced with is putting companies under pressure to implement ICT solutions that enable this. And, while this creates opportunities for the channel, the traditional way of managing the sales cycle is evolving to become more digital-centric. The lockdown in many countries is reinforcing this, with partners needing to find increasingly innovative ways to install, manage and support solutions for their customers,” says Vincent Entonu, Director at Comstor Africa.

Fundamentally, Inspire Africa represents a new approach to the channel that consists of training and enablement, professional services, software as a service and cross-vendor solutions. It addresses how the technology of yesterday will no longer be relevant in the future. The focus remains on helping partners and end-users on the continent to embrace change with future-proof technologies that will outlive the global pandemic.

“For us, it centres around a value proposition that integrates the expertise and solutions of our top vendors to create a compelling partner-driven offering. This sees the combining of unique cross-architecture vendor solutions to equip partners to provide their clients with the means to conduct business more efficiently. We are looking to be part of the future by making our business part of the solution – instead of just selling technology for technology's sake," adds Entonu.

Inspire Africa is built around core vendor solution sets:

• Cisco (secure remote working, business solutions and video conferencing);
• Veritas (data replication and reducing the risk of data loss);
• NetApp (enabling a hybrid cloud environment and becoming less reliant on physical applications); and
• Solarwinds (data security and aligning the requirements of Cisco, Veritas, and NetApp across industry verticals).

Comstor Africa will make these offerings available through partners via its traditional channel-centric model as well as innovative digital option that is now a key strategic pillar to drive a digital-first strategy. The latter equips its channel partners with the tools, technology integration and automation they need to better sell technology, no matter the logistics behind how solutions are delivered.

“Inspire Africa makes it even easier for partners to do business with us. A self-service portal with a visual dashboard that tracks the journey and progress with training and enablement, access to vendor promotions and incentives, as well as new ways to accelerate and earn. With the new way of doing business, virtual events and training sessions will be part of everyday business life; our customers can book an array of virtual sessions on the Inspire Africa portal.”

Putting these innovative tools in place helps ensure partners across the Comstor ecosystem can become more proactive in servicing their client requirements, especially around remote working solutions.

“Inspire Africa provides the perfect platform to change the channel operating model into a more efficient one befitting a digital-centric business environment that necessitates round the clock access to ICT solutions. It provides immediate insight into and access to technologies that have been created to meet modern business demands, both of which result in significant additional revenue opportunities for our partners as they grow into new market segments," concludes Entonu.