Hosting Great Service
for Their Customers
First Distribution’s Hosting Division prides itself on service with a smile,
all the while keeping abreast of the latest aggregation and hosting
technologies.
We find out a bit more on the individuals who operate and control this
important division of First Distribution’s business.
F
ive individuals - Esther Matshego, Lebo Matshego,
Darren Naidoo and Mosa Selewe under the management of Kevin Derman, make up the First Distribution
Hosting Division.
Now in its third year of operation, the division has gone
from strength-to-strength. From its humble beginnings, this
part of First Distribution’s business has grown in conjunction
with the rise of hosted services such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), all of which have become almost
ubiquitous in the IT industry over the last few years.
First Distribution now serves some of the world’s biggest
and most prestigious vendors in this area – Microsoft,
VMware, IBM, Oracle, McAfee, Symantec, CommVault and
Veeam all provide solutions which are sold by First Distribution. Being associated with so many innovative vendors
keeps the team on their toes regarding new hosting and
cloud technologies as well as forcing them to regularly
review their skill and knowledge sets.
“I really enjoy working in such a dynamic environment” says
Senior Account Manager Esther Matshego. “Being part of
this division means one needs to deal with a wide range of
different vendors, each with their own specific requirements
and technologies. In addition, the cloud and hosting environment is a fast-changing one – I need to be on my toes to
keep up!” she adds.
The current Cloud and Hosting Business Unit Manager is
Kevin Derman. Joining First Distribution following Antoinette’s departure in August 2013, Kevin has vast experi-
08 | www.firstdistribution.co.za
ence within the hosted solutions industry space, previously
coming from Microsoft as their Partner Strategy and Programmes Lead. As highlighted elsewhere in the magazine,
Kevin believes strongly in the viability of hosted solutions
and its accompanying cloud technology. He, better than
anyone, knows the advantages of the cloud model to prospective businesses looking to get involved, and cites low
financial barrier to entry and flexible scalability as attractive
benefits.
As a distributor however, he emphasises the need for excellent service levels to back-up the solution offering.
“Although the initial fees associated with cloud are low and
exclude the bulk capital investment of traditional sales,
shifting a customer from a product to a service provides
a lifetime income that will be higher in the long run – provided that you keep delivering good service” he mentions.
“Customer retention can also be higher and easier when
you provide a service which the customer must subscribe to
- again provided that your service levels are up to scratch”
he adds.
Much of this division’s success stems from the fact that the
previous division manager Antoinette de Waal assembled a
good team around her, with members who have worked in
the department for over six years collectively. This means
that they know each other well and can transfer skills or
pick up each others’ workloads when appropriate. This stability also means that they have a good working knowledge
of the vendors which First Distribution serves in this area,
something which can only benefit the Hosting Division as
they move forward into the future.