Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company recently signed a value-added distribution agreement with Logicom for the regions spanning across the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen, Cyprus, Greece, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The agreement requires Logicom to promote networking, security and mobile engagement products to partners, and to provide them with policy management, policy firewall, intrusion protection and VPN services. Through this association, Aruba HPE aims to increase their customer base in the market. Ahmed Elsayed, Distribution Account Manager for Middle East at Aruba HPE said, “In terms of industry verticals, we are a major player in the hospitality and education sectors. We are targeting within these sectors very aggressively and are customising our products and solutions to better serve these verticals.”
To inaugurate the Aruba-Logicom partnership, Logicom hosted the Logicom Aruba launch event in UAE on June 1, 2016. Held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in DIFC, Dubai, the ceremony was attended by Logicom partners from across the region and entertained dialogue on the operations and benefits of the newly formed alliance. Spokespersons at the event included Gamal Emarat, Country Manager at Aruba, Vikram Grover, Product Manager HP-ESS at Logicom and Hemayun Bazaz, Regional Manager, Channel Sales at Aruba, among others.
Being the VA distributor for Aruba HPE, Logicom will conduct enablement training sessions for partners in order to help them promote Aruba solutions in their respective markets. Hemayun Bezaz, Regional Manager, Channel Sales at Aruba HPE said, “We intend to increase our footprint in the market, and this can only be done if we have enabled partners who go and talk to our customers and present our products for us. It is, therefore, very important for us that Logicom enables as many partners as possible in the sales and technical aspects of the product line. Given that technology, solutions and products change at such a fast pace, we want to ensure that we conduct training sessions frequently so partners get a good refresher of the technologies and solutions offered by Aruba HPE. For the purpose, we will conduct enablement sessions on a quarterly basis as opposed to the previously adopted strategy of conducting them once a year.”
Sajith Raj, Group Distribution Director – HP at Logicom said, “Currently, Logicom holds the biggest reseller network for the HPE product line. By adding Aruba to the mix, we will be able to enhance our product base for existing customers. For a product like Aruba HPE, partners need to have a strong understanding of the products and solutions they can offer to end-users. Our aim is to equip our partners with more knowledge across Aruba products. We have invested heavily in technical resources who, along with HPE Aruba specialists, will provide trainings to our partner base.”
Commenting on the role of Logicom in enabling SMBs and helping them grow, Bezaz said, “We are looking at Logicom as a value added distributor where they add value in enabling partners and in bringing in business from a much larger partner base. Aruba HPE sees potential of growth with SMBs. I personally feel that this is one space where we can grow in if we have the right footprint. Aruba HPE can do a lot in the SMB space, both in terms of partners, where we can enable them to reach out to customers, and in terms of customers, where there is a lot of untouched potential in the market today. We want to reach out to those customers and talk about our solutions. Personally, I see a big growth in the SMB sector for Aruba.”
“Engaging and involving SMBs has been Logicom’s strong suit since we established twelve years ago. We have been distributing products like Microsoft and Intel, and this helped us develop a broad spectrum of customers. In the past, we have used different schemes to engage SMBs, one of which is the ‘recruit, enable and grow’ approach. We have one of the biggest SMB base, and we intend on introducing Aruba as a product and solution to them,” says Raj.
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