FD Insights Issue 6 | Page 40

Rohan de Beer Role: Brand Manager Brand: EMC & VCE Bio: I studied Computer Science at Vaal Triangle Technicon. After national service I started at the Wheatboard in 1988 as Programmer/Support Engineer. I then resigned after two years and moved into a Systems Engineer role at the SABS, before moving to IBM in 1995 where I worked until 2008, when I became a First Distribution employee. An Overview of Your Brands or Products, and Their Inherent Strengths and Features • EMC values and grows its channel business • It has a simple partnering programme • It’s a financially strong company • It has a strong acquisition path • EMC has the number one market share position in many segments, and owns 40% of the South African storage market share • EMC boasts a complete portfolio to help your customers start their ‘Journey to the Cloud’ • The company is the expert in storage, software and services • There is a dedicated channel focus strategy in place VCE’s Vblock Systems seamlessly integrate best-in-class compute, network, and storage technologies from EMC and VMware. Together the two brands complement each other and make for a powerful combination. What Sets First Distribution Apart • We’re flexible and will bend over backwards to help our customers • We have strong brand and sales teams with high levels of expertise • Despite the complexity of the technologies involved, we understand the importance of keeping things simple Where Do You See Your Brands in the Next 12-18 Months? Taking over the world! Tania Draper IBM Software Brand Manager Tania Draper Role: Brand Manager Brand: IBM Software Bio: I have been in the IBM Software division for seven years now. I joined the FD family in the role of Sales Operations for the software team, then moved into account management and ultimately into the brand management role. This helped me tremendously as I got to know the brand back to front, and it assisted me to master all the processes and procedures that come with being a successful IBM VAD. My work history previous to IBM software is a distant memory as I finally found my true career path when I joined this team. Yes, my life revolves around IBM Software! An Overview of Your Brand or Product, and Its Inherent Strengths and Features IBM is one of the leading vendors of middleware, helping organisations to build flexible solutions that can run on different hardware architectures and on different operating systems for a smarter planet. FIRST DISTRIBUTION 38 | www.firstdistribution.co.za