Nathan Clements, Managing Director at Exclusive Networks, gives an overview of the latest developments of the security value added distributor’s operations.
What have been some highlights at Exclusive Networks over the last year?
The past 18 months has seen Exclusive Networks Middle East rapidly evolve and adapt so we can keep ahead of the challenging market conditions. We have invested in Saudi Arabia. Grant Taylor joined us in April 2017 as General Manager, Saudi Arabia. We have opened a new and bigger office in Riyadh to cope with our expanding team, and to offer larger demonstration facilities and training rooms for our accredited training courses.
We have also added to our team in Jeddah. Our Saudi Arabian business is going from strength to strength. We have also added to our team in Egypt and Levant in response to strong growth and demand for our solutions and services in these countries.
We launched a telemarketing team this year, based out of our head office in Dubai, to find qualified leads for our vendors and our channel. We have a number of market leading and disruptive vendors, so the market’s appetite to learn about what we offer has been very encouraging, and therefore our telemarketing team has delivered on their promise of providing strong leads.
Another highlight has been our appointment as an Infoblox Authorised Support Centre. We have a long and successful partnership with Infoblox so it was only natural that we added support to our services portfolio. We now offer local language level 1 and 2 support, across the region. This brings us closer to our channel and allows us to fill the gaps in their service portfolio to offer a true end to end service to their end users.
Can you share the details of the vendors you have added on to the portfolio?
This includes Rubrik, SentinelOne, Gigamon. All are disruptive technologies looking for high double digit growth, which matches our aggressive growth expectations.
What have been some growth factors for the company in 2017?
The obvious answer is to say our growth has come from our existing vendors, along with signing a handful of new vendors. But in parallel to this we have maintained and added some new faces to a great team. Having a strong, stable and highly motivated team has allowed us to consistently deliver good growth. We have worked hard to make Exclusive Networks a place where people aspire to work, and once here all of our team are constantly trained, and developed so they can be the best in their field. Our vendors and our channel partners appreciate and understand the value of our team, and enjoy working with them.
Can you elaborate on the markets where Exclusive Networks has grown significantly?
We made a conscious effort to focus on the private sector, and we have been rewarded with significant growth from multiple enterprise customers, spanning across all countries.
Which are the technologies you are encouraging your partners to bet on for next year?
It is tough to pick one or two vendors. Every vendor we work with is compelling and disruptive for different reasons. I am looking forward to seeing our new vendors continue to grow at a rapid pace. Rubrik and Sentinel One are my big bets for 2018.
Can you share your plans for 2018?
If it’s not broken do not try and fix it! 2017 has been successful so far, so 2018 will see more of the same with a few little tweaks here and there!