FEATURE

matured and IT infrastructure is now quite capable to enable remote working from home or anywhere. With applications like Zoom, Teams and several others, companies found a way out to connect and operate. While not all job functions can be executed remotely, companies have tried to work around options.

In the IT distribution sector, initially like all, companies were caught off guard as this was indeed an unprecedented situation, perhaps a disruption never faced by humankind on this massive scale. It did take some time, reviewing the situation and coming to terms with a suitable response to continue operations.

Anand Choudha, CEO & PRESIDENT, at Spectrum, a leading VAD says, “This has been an awakening call and quite frankly unprecedented for everyone. Initially, it was a little confusing but the first option was to work from home. Thankfully we had an ERP in place taking care of HR, CRM, back office automation, Finance etc, all functions were integrated. So it was all organized and we just had to open the ports for remote working, put VPNs in place and we were up and working within a week’s time.

RIDING OUT THE PANDEMIC

Value add IT distributors rely on existing business pipelines and remote working tools to keep Business operations as normal as possible and productive

He adds further, “After working for 2 months on this model, the productivity has been similar to prior in terms of output and there has been no impact in terms of that. The impact has been more on the customer facing side, with those meetings at their offices is not possible. Our day to day operations is not affected. We have used Zoom and thankfully it has helped to create a digital workspace with everyone connected and added to that, our internal process automation has helped.” On the security factors that using Zoom was hogging headlines recently, Anand notes, “Every company is vulnerable and to ensure they secured, there are some basic processes to follow. Convenience was at a cost as individuals who started using these tools found out. However, when you organize meetings with Meeting room IDs and use passwords to validate, then it is fairly safe. We wanted to go with an established product – the way Zoom is integrated with Google calendar in Gsuite. makes it convenient. But there are other tools like Microsoft Teams and it really is upto the company to use tools that they are comfortable with.” — By R. Narayan

These past couple of months haven’t been easy for individuals and Businesses as humankind faces unprecedented health risks from the continued pandemic. With stringent stay at home restraints in place initially for most verticals, excluding some essential services, Business and work as usual was disrupted. Mario M. Veljovic, General Manager, VAD Technologies LLC says that they were also able to make the transition swiftly and the systems were all in place to support the shift as well.

He says, “Productivity has good up and we keep calling this new era The New Smart. We are in IT and know how to use IT, we literally changed to work from home over night and continue to do so even after the authorities have relaxed restrictions for business in the UAE.”

cused on cybersecurity solutions says that they were able to make a transition that is enabling a higher productivity.

Jose Menacherry, MD, Bulwark Technologies says, “We have shifted from working-on-premise to a complete work-from-home environment. Although we are all working in remote working conditions, we are well connected with right technologies and advanced CRM systems, which have demonstrated a positive impact on our work productivity. We have also initiated on a tremendous increase in using digital marketing platforms in conducting product webinars for all our partners & customers across the regions (GCC & India). This has in turn showcased a positive increase in the work productivity.”

Negotiating challenges

Not all Business gets done remotely and those face to face interactions are missed opportunities.

Mario concedes that partners are challenged with the prospect of finding new customer opportunities in the face of the safety restriction in place that do not allow face to face interactions, essential in most cases to taking forward sales conversations, especially around larger sales.

Mario comments, “This is the area of concern for us. While we keep ourselves busy with partners and vendors, partners face bigger challenges to generate new Pipeline, if this is not for some in high demand solutions that help manage the current crises. We might be used to video conferences and webinars, but there is no alternative to direct and personal interaction in order to build a successful business relationship. Now we need to work harder and smarter to reach out to our partner ecosystem.”

According to Jose, their partners have likewise embraced the remote model effectively to work around the present challenges and keep the Business on track. Jose says, “Our partners have all embraced the digital platform in a remote work-from-home environment. To assist our partners and as a part of our Channel Growth & Development initiatives, we are conducting roundthe-clock channel enablement and training sessions. This in turn helps the partners to undertake business challenges and meet their objectives and in turn work towards business growth & revenue generation for their respective organizations.”

On the sales front, Anand says that they were able to cope without major impact because they were able to wrap up previous fiscal year on a high although the rear end of the 4th quarter took a hit with the covid-19 challenges.

He elaborates, “The impact on Business was beginning to be felt from mid- Feb. our financial year is from April to March. So towards the close of our 4th quarter, we did feel a big impact as there was a lot of shock from the developments around the outbreak. Thankfully, we had done good Business before Covid 19 and overall, we clocked 25% growth in revenues for the year, compared to the previous year. Since we finished the financial year in the middle of the crisis, we were able to factor in the changing situation and challenges int our strategy for the new financial year. We knew the crisis was going to stay for some time and we came up with plans to work around these challenges.”

Demand for remote working solutions

In the face of demand for remote working solutions, Bulwark has been well placed to meet those requirements since they already had several relevant solutions enabling remote working in their portfolio and have introduced some more.

Jose says, “We have introduced and providing many Secure Remote Access / Work From Home (WFH) Solution in our product portfolio. This includes WFH / Workspace Virtualization solutions from ACCOPS among other solu

Anand Choudha CEO & President, at Spectrum

tions in our current portfolio. As a responsible VAD in security space, we are constantly studying the needs of our customers and partners from time to time and doing our best for bringing in solutions which could address such requirements including Secure Remote Access to have seamless secure Work From Home experience.”

VAD Technologies has also several solutions that their partners can pitch to customers for enabling and securing remote working.

Mario says, “We have solutions from our Physical Security Business Unit, such as thermal cameras to perform fever screening, are in big demand. Productivity solutions available through the cloud, such FreshWorks, ZOHO are another area of interest. Last but not least, remote connectivity solutions, such as TeamViewer’s Augmented Reality (AR) powered “Pilot” or its flagship Solution to connect remotely, is experiencing a surge in demand.”

Jose Menacherry MD, Bulwark Technologies

consideration as remote working from home becomes more prevalent. So demand for these solutions is expected to be higher in terms of priority for customers and has helped companies like Spectrami elude a negative impact to a great extent in their growth.

Anand says, “We are a channel driven company and we have a full view of the ecosystems around which the Business is happening. Fortunately, we had a huge pipeline in place and further cybersecurity was perhaps least impacted although there was an impact. Cybersecurity is an area that customers looking to secure their remote working environments were looking to invest in. So the demand has increased in the short term as customers looked to accommodate their workers accessing their networks working from home. There were also some sleepover deals that didn’t happen during the initial shock of the outbreak and then when things settled down somewhat, those happened. So it has been good so far.” tions. Among our offerings, we have VPN solutions like from Pulse secure that are in high demand, penetration testing products to test readiness of customer networks like Artemis Pro, endpoint security products like Fidelis, Crowdstrike, Blackberry. We have ticked all boxes in terms of security solutions that customers would need during the Covid-19 phase for securing their networks. We are giving free remote health checks to customers, to understand gaps in the customer environment and what they need to fix to have a secure remote working environment.”

Spectrami is also providing free remote health checks to customers, to understand gaps in the customer environment and what they need to fix to have a secure remote working environment. The company ran a small marketing campaign introducing all who at Spectrami from around different locations and also introducing the free healthcare check initiative. This according to Anand, was a great hit, with a lot of good feedback coming in. In addition, their portfolio includes an offering to deploy everything remotely which is coming in handy.

“We have developed tools where everything can be done remotely. We offer SPECTRAMI HIVE, a unified platform to deploy, manage, migrate and monitor SPECTRAMI Security Solutions on the fly over a single pane of glass. We have automated the deployment process for a few of the vendors. Which means that a product which required weekend, can be deployed within hours, remotely without the need of a certified engineer.”

On the importance of ensuring remote working is secured, Jose says that the transition has come abruptly and has thrown up security challenges that need to be addressed by companies, including policies for employees and having a strategic response in place.

Jose says, “Due to the spontaneous spread of Covid-19, organizations all over the world have been forced to adopt the WFH within a short span of time in accordance with the regulations from Government authorities. Cybersecurity is a very important & crucial aspect for Secure Remote Access / Working from Home, where office based employees are allowed to access the company network remotely through Internet. Most of these users were not used to the working from home situation and maintaining security of data and information have suddenly became a herculean task for the IT team. Some important factors of cybersecurity to be kept in mind for Secure Remote Access include re-visiting and creating a robust Security Policy & Procedures & adopting a sound Network Security Methods among others. So, it is highly recommended for every IT organization to start and integrate the remote work into their strategy. Hence cybersecurity is one of the key aspects to be embraced & considered for Secure Remote Access / Work from Home.”

The distributors have been constantly engaging their partners through webinars and video conferencing sessions. As most industry events have gone virtual for the moment, so did Spectrami organize their channel event virtually.

Anand says, “We did our annual kickoff with over 85 people via zoom. From 9 in morning until 6 in evening. We used to do this in exotic locations like Baku, Bangkok etc – those were great experiences to interact, network, learn and motivate. This year, it has been virtual and I have received feedback from several that in terms of value of content, this session was more rewarding. People have been quite involved with the session.

He adds, “We have launched an elite channel programs.so we have been interacting with the c-level executives of the partner companies through Zoom. We have also been doing webinars with customers. Every organization has found a way today to collaborate and communicate to do business. There are many available tools for collaboration. Companies need to just go with tools that they find comfortable.” The partners in turn have been holding

virtual meetings and events with end users and prospects. Distributors are doing such sessions along with partners.

Mario says, “We obviously running a lot of webinars for our partners and along with our partners for their customers. The rest of the day is filled by video conference calls to ensure we are on top of our Business and active opportunities.

Companies indeed have found more purpose in channeling all work through digital platforms. This has been a quick transition for the companies, who seem to have found a way out to negotiate through the current situation.

Jose says, “We are connecting with our vendors, partners & customers on a proactive basis. We are continuously engaged in partner & end-customer webinars along with Remote POCs to serve our customers in the region. We are currently organizing multiple product promotions along with free Cybersecurity Assessments to ensure that our customers are well protected during the current challenging environment.”

There are opportunities for partners attending to support initiatives for customers who are implementing or scrambling to deploy remote work from home arrangements.

Jose adds, “We are also providing Secure Remote Access/Work from Home solutions to address the current remote working from home requirements for customers. Due to the advent of the current pandemic affecting worldwide, Secure Remote Access/Work from Home has become a crucial need for customers across the globe. So, we forecast & foresee an active requirement for partners to deploy remote working arrangements for the security requirements of customers.”

Mario agrees that the demand for such remote working solutions will a driving factor for foreseeable future. He adds, “In fact In collaboration with our vendors we have been able to give our partners access to Work from Home solutions for their own use completely free or with very high NFR (not for resell) discounts. That in turn has helped partners to run POC and demos with their customers.”

In the short term and possibly even for several months ahead, cash flow challenges could be substantial for companies. The channel is no exception to these challenges ahead.

Mario opines, “Unfortunately, partners have still not improved on ensuring proper Working Capital Deployment for their Business. Hence, now in times of economic slowdown and complete lock down in some parts of the Region, they are squeezed. We are offering some relieve to our Partners that showed strong Payment Performance over the years with extended Payment Terms.”

Bulwark is confident that their model of managing credit facilities has given them an advantage to maintain growth.

Jose opines, “During the recent economic slowdown caused by the current COVID 19 pandemic in the region, distributors have managed their finance and logistics in an efficient manner. Bulwark is also managing their credit facilities and logistics for continued business growth and revenue generation. The innovative supply chain management has yielded financial benefits for the Specialized Value-Added Distributor. We are also in discussion with our loyal channel partners regularly, extending whatever possible from our end to support their business and maintain the channel ecosystem.”

Anand says that that though they have done fairly well, if the situation prolongs, impact will be felt. At the moment, though the company is upbeat with reasonable growth expectations for the year.

Mario M. Veljovic General Manager, VAD Technologies LLC

dict as the state of things is dynamic. We still see a prospect for decent 15-20 growth, much more modest than other years of course where we have seen growth rates of 50 to 70% year on year. We are geared up for a marginal increase. We haven’t laid off employees due to Covid 19 and we haven’t cut salaries. We have done what we do every year- letting performance dictate continuity of employees. We have recruited some new staff as well in lines with our growth plans. We appointed one of our senior Management executives, Mohammad Illyas as COO to lead the company.”

For the typical specialist value added IT distributor, therefore, it seems they have options to continue operations without disruption and enough Business in pipeline to negotiate and outlast a foreseeable challenging period. This could be likewise for companies that were fortunate to be in domains across verticals with enough demand and growth over past year. But they would also keep fingers crossed that the challenges from the pandemic caused impasse get over sooner than later.