REGIONAL CHANNELS
ASBIS
Repositioning into value
added solutions
Once a champion of volume distribution, Asbis has recently added
additional competency in datacentre, networking, security, IoT, managed
services, solutions business.
I
n sync with t he changing technology
landscape and opportunities for
reseller channel partners, distributor
Asbis Middle East has been enhancing its
value-added solutions offerings. While
Asbis has traditionally been a strong
volume distributor for components and
storage devices, a recent move has been
its solution offerings for Intel servers
meant for the datacentre solution stack.
According to Hesham Tantawi, Vice
President MEA at Asbis, the distributor
now has a strategic partnership with Intel
for its ready to use L9 servers and recently
closed a related $10 million deal. “The
focus is on datacentres. Intel has a line of
servers and we are focusing on it.”
From being a component only
distributor for Intel just a few years ago,
We are interested in
the managed services
business and we are
doing some projects
with security vendors
Asbis now has certified engineers on
board to manage its Intel based datacentre
solution offerings. “We are doing the
datacentre design, reviewing the design
with customer, reseller partner and
vendor, and then we propose the right
solution for them.” Tantawi points out that
the demand driver for datacentres amongst
Key takeaways
• Developing projects in IoT
• Difference between reseller who sells components and those working on projects
• Doing datacentre design, reviewing design, proposing right solution
• Focus is on datacentres and Intel line of servers
• Have an alliance with Microsoft for managed services
• Managed print services about quality not using refurbished equipment
• Not interested to sell in one-deal-and-go, develop partners from A to Z
• People inside who are professionally monitoring their business say it is still healthy
• People looking from outside will say business is not healthy
• Projects for storage of video surveillance data driving demand
• Recently enabled more value-added resellers and system integrators
• Working on managed services projects with security vendors
28
Asbis reseller channel partners is the move
towards managed services.
A new area of activity from Asbis is the
buildup of competency in printers and
investment in managed printing services.
Asbis has tie ups with Samsung, Lexmark
and Oki and is focused on high-end and
mid-range printing solutions. For managed
printing services, Asbis invests in original
and new equipment and does not invest
in refurbished or recertified equipment.
Tantawi gives the following argument for
not investing in refurbished equipment.
“When we are talking about managed
print services we are talking about quality.
Refurbished equipment could have
reduced quality of printing, which the
customer will not accept.”
An area of fast growth for Asbis is the
demand for networking and infrastructure
solutions from system integrators. Asbis
has vendor partnerships with TP-Link,
Tripplite, Netgear, Ubiquiti Networks.
It has also started looking at related
opportunities in the Internet of Things
solutions space. “We are developing a lot of
projects in the area of IoT,” adds Tantawi.
Asbis is also leveraging its competency
in datacentre solutions to move into the
software delivered, managed services
business. As a value-added solutions
distributor, Asbis has relationships with
security vendors Symantec, Eset, Avg
and has also developed an alliance with
Microsoft. “We are interested in the
managed services business and we are
doing some projects with security vendors.
We have the know-how and skills, and we
Issue 02
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS