SonicWall announced that it has re-entered the Pakistan market once again with a distribution tie-up with one of the leading names in IT distribution in the country, LinkQuest. As the authorised distributor LinkQuest will now offer SonicWall’s security products and solutions to its channel partners and customers.
The product portfolio includes Next Generation Firewalls for small to medium to large enterprise deployments, Multi-Engine Sandboxing technology, Email Security, Wireless Security, Secure Mobile Access, Secure remote access, WAN Optimisation solution and Next Gen Endpoint.
While expressing his delight on re-entering the Pakistan market, the Sales and Channel Director for SonicWall META and CEE, Shahnawaz Sheikh said, “Pakistan has always been a key market for us, but unfortunately during our acquisition period with Dell, we had to realign certain territories and had to let Pakistan go to APAC region. Now, as we emerge out of Dell merger, we took a conscious decision to bring Pakistan back to Middle East region and support it from Dubai.”
Pakistan has a vibrant technology market that is estimated at $3.5 billion and is expected to grow by 100% in next two years to touch the $7 billion mark by 2020. Talking about the market potential Sheikh said, “We are extremely excited about the opportunities but it is not easy to re-enter the market after a gap of few years, which is why after a long due-diligence process and our history with LinkQuest, we were able to team up with LinkQuest as our best suited distribution partner for Pakistan, as we both share the common past and understanding.”
LinkQuest is a Dubai based value added distribution with operations spanning Middle East, Pakistan and Africa. The distribution company has direct presence in UAE and Pakistan and has grown into a major force since it was established in 1993. LinkQuest portfolio includes Barracuda Networks, SonicWall, CyberArk and Rapid7 among others.
In Pakistan, LinkQuest has a well-established nation-wide strong partner network and a loyal customer base. Excited about the new possibilities and with the tie-up with SonicWall, the CEO for LinkQuest, Mash Khan said “Late last year, we were delighted upon learning of SonicWall’s return to its original status of an independent company. Having been associated with them originally as their outsourced Middle East Regional office, we are excited about the prospect of working with SonicWall and Shahnawaz Sheikh again.”
Khan said, “We will be focusing on Pakistan that is a fertile territory for selling SonicWall’s technologies and we look forward to making our contribution in assisting SonicWall to regain its old pre-eminence in the marketplace.”
SonicWall invites channel partners in Pakistan to join their SecureFirst partner programme that is crafted to support all the requirements of partners. Enabling partners with education and knowledge, equipping them with sales and technical skills are part of the programme. Other benefits include access to online learning, Deal Registration, SonicWall Overdrive – a lead gen tool, Certification Courses, Renewals tools.
Explaining the advantages of its partner programme,” Sheikh said. “We have one of the best partner enablement processes in the industry, which starts from handholding a partner from initial stage and empowering them with required skill-sets, so that a partner can work independently on our solutions. Our easy to use, innovative and technically advance products ensure customer satisfaction ensuring comprehensive security at a right price point.”