REDEFINING THE DISTRIBUTION MARKET

For Tahawultech | Reseller Middle East’s October Magazine, Mario M. Veljovic, General Manager at VAD Technologies, explains Editor Anita Joseph in an exclusive interview how the company's constant quest for disruptive & innovative technologies is reinventing the distribution space.
Here you can read the full Interview with the Editor:

How does VAD scout disruptive & innovative Technologies and successfully establish them in the Middle East?
MV: I love this Question! In fact, it’s a “Billion Dollar Recipe” that has several ingredients and is refined with a unique & secret VAD Technologies Factor.
But let me share with you some insights of what we do to help our Partners to be successful in an increasingly complex and competitive Business Environment.
To start with, let’s define what are Disruptive & Innovative Technologies, as especially, “Disruption” is nowadays a very conveniently used term to just hype a Product, Solution or even Go-To-Market. Unfortunately, too much of it is just “Old Wine in new Bottles”.
For us it’s all about looking for simplification of a Technology, which will lead to a Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or other significant advantages that will justify an investment in any such “new” technology.
This constant search for Disruptive & Innovative Technologies leads us to very Entrepreneurial Vendors that Challenge the established Players and Market Leaders.
To make our mission successful, VAD Technologies works with various Industry Organizations & Associations, such as the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC), ContextWorld and many others to proactively scout disruptive and innovative Technologies from major IT Research & Development Centers around the Globe. Furthermore, the Team constantly examine most of the world's leading research & advisory company's frequent Reports, such as the "Magic Quadrants" from Gartner or other Reports from Forrester, IDC, Evalueserv and Nielsen, to name a few.
Last but not least, we observe the regional Market and track the Executive Movements inside the Channel Ecosystem very closely.
Visiting international ICT Trade Exhibitions and Conferences. such as GITEX, GISEC, InterSEC, GESS, CES, MWC, IFA and many others, is another important aspect of the Product Management Team.
 
Once we found and evaluated the “Unicorns” we need to build a Launch Plan with realistic Timelines and Business Expectations. While everybody wishes to take the Market in the Storm – including myself by the way – it all needs patience and more over consistency.
If you are looking for a quick win, better focus on something else!
That’s why all our Partnerships are going back for a long time. And this is particularly true for the Team, which works together for many years, the Channel Partners we consider real Friends and our Key People insight the Vendors we are working with.
 
Distribution is a complex and competitive activity, especially in this region. So, how does VAD make its voice heard in all the cacophony?
MV: Thanks to publications such as ResellerME and people like you, we have a strong reach to Top Industry Leaders and Key Decision Makers in the ICT World. Our Social Media Team is obviously taking an important active role in our Marcom Strategy and allows us to get our Message unfiltered to those we would like to reach.
But most importantly it’s our track record in the market of successfully launching Disruptive and Innovative Technologies. We take pride in being see as “Founding Members” or sometimes even as “the First Staff” in the Region for many of our vendors. Our Partners know that we genuinely committed to their long-term success, and we go through good and bad times with them, till we achieve victory. 
 
What are some of the main challenges you face in your journey today, especially in the battle with new and emerging technologies?
MV: Something Important to mention here is that we have taken a conscience decision to establish VAD Technologies as a Leader in scouting and promoting Disruptive & Innovative Technologies in the Region. As such we haven’t gone the easy way to build this business, but it’s understood that this is an important and strategic Mission that comes with Challenges. Hence, we welcome Challenges and take them in a positive spirit, as they drive us to advance and prosper in this Industry.
However, ultimately any Distribution Business is about building Economy of Scale and your Business has to be equipped accordingly with the right Finances and Resources. Accordingly, identifying the Emerging Technologies from a long list of Disruptive & Innovative Technologies is crucial and Key to Success to drive a healthy and profitable Business.
Another Challenge we see is the higher Fluctuation of Senior Executives in the Vendors we are working with. It needs time to build relationship, align strategies and work on execution of the agreed business plans, and any change in stakeholders is impacting the success of the joint mission.
A reason for this fluctuation could be that many times we see People moving from Market Leaders into very entrepreneurial business environments, but still maintain an “Old Fashion” Mentality. As mentioned earlier, it needs patience and consistency to be successful in this New Era of Disruptive Technologies!
 
What do you think are some of the key trends in the distribution market today?
MV: We have been working on the “Cloudification” of our Product & Solutions Offering and have done a very good job over the years to understand this market well and establishing ourselves as Pioneer and Leader in this space.
We are focusing now on bringing AI Based Solutions to the Market that will support Human Efficiency. Key Trends we see here are AI powered Computer Vision and Communication Bots.
Last but not least, together with our High-Performance Data Center Solution Vendors and Channel Partners we are working on bringing Public Cloud Experience into Enterprise Customer’s On-Premise Data Centres across the Middle East. Vendors have created fantastic Value Propositions to allow Customers gain the agility and financial flexibility their business needs to accelerate their Digital Transformation journey.
 
The Full Magazine of Reseller Middle East can be found online here:
https://issuu.com/resellerme/docs/resellermiddleeast_20211016/2?ff
or just visit: www.tahawultech.com
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