How has the Value team grown over the past year in terms of new solutions offered or new markets covered? Have there been any additions to the headcount as well?
The value division has registered a stupendous growth of 250% jump in revenues during the financial year ended March 2009, as compared to the year ended March 2008.
In 2008, we set up 2 separate offices in Dubai and 1 office in Saudi Arabia for the value division. We have successfully ventured into East Africa, thereby strengthening our presence in Africa. We have more than doubled our employee strength to 36 from 14 employees in 2007.
In 2008, we signed up Trapeze Networks (wireless solutions), Nortel (voice) and HP software range of product which include Openview (network management), application life cycle management, project and portfolio management and information life cycle management.
Even in the midst of the current economic crisis, we are very bullish and are confident of registering a 30-40% growth in the coming financial year.
What are the ways you are looking at to stay profitable in these tougher market conditions?
We are extremely positive and will go an extra mile to achieve our targets. We believe there is tremendous scope for growth within the available market. We have streamlined our Saudi Arabia operations, strengthened our workforce in Kuwait to efficiently cater to the Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain markets.
Redington has invested heavily in technically certified personnel, demo centres and labs, training and technical certification for resellers, interactive technology roadshows and workshops in order to provide top quality service to our partners.
What is the value proposition that you bring to table for your partners?
The value division is bringing new opportunities to the table for partners by signing up with complimenting brands and solutions which will give them the added growth prospects within their existing clientele. Apart from this we also are tying up with the Redington Service team to provide implementation support where the partner is not skilled enough to handle the same on their own.
The division has experts who design tailor-made solutions based on customer requirements. In addition to this, the value team also has dedicated product and sales teams as well as implementation experts to provide personalised attention to partners.
While networking seems to be adequately covered in terms of solutions that the Value team offers, there seems to be a lot missing in security, software and storage portfolios. Do comment whether this holds true? And if so, how is the team looking to strengthen these?
The value division was started in 2006 as part of Redington’s horizontal expansion with focus on networking products and solutions. In the first few years of operation, the focus was to get the networking portfolio right which we think we have achieved to a certain degree of success. The value business has grown within a short span of 3 years and now offers networking, software, security, server and storage products and services. In the value space, Redington is associated with leading global brands including Avaya, Cisco, Linksys, ProCurve, Sonicwall, HP Software, Nortel, Trapeze Networks and Trend Micro.
We are looking at expanding our brand portfolio in the security/software space. Talks are on and they are at various stages of discussion. We will have a clear picture in the next 3-6 months time.
Would Redington consider spinning off the value business as a separate company to strengthen the solutions/value brand?
Currently, the value business is an integral business unit of Redington Gulf. At the moment, there are no plans to hive it off into a separate entity. But we might consider it at a later date if the need arises.
B. Ramkumar, General Manager, Value Business, Redington Gulf chats to RWME about the Redington value team?s growth strategies
