PARTNERS’ PERSPECTIVE operational scale that partners need to focus on what they do best.
Distributors have seen this first-hand in Southern Africa, where partners deal with market realities like limited customer budgets, inconsistent access to skills, and growing pressure to deliver outcomes, not just infrastructure. The distributors role is to take some of that pressure off by offering flexibility, simplifying procurement, and supporting them in building recurring revenue models that are sustainable in the long term.
Investing in digital has been a critical part of that evolution. Partners expect speed, visibility, and automation, and rightly so. Whether it is managing subscriptions, quoting multi-vendor solutions, or accessing analytics that help them sell smarter, the tools distributors provide need to be intuitive and reliable.
But the relationship does not start and end with a platform. Partners still need people they can call, technical expertise they can count on, and local teams that understand their realities. That balance between digital enablement and human
Rentia Booysen, Westcon Director, Westcon-Comstor Southern Africa
A distributors role is to take pressure off by offering flexibility, simplifying procurement, recurring revenue models that are sustainable in the long term.
connection is something distributors take seriously, and others need to too. It is also something distributors are continually working to get right.
Not all support is immediate. Some of the most valuable work distributors do with partners takes time: helping them enter new markets, supporting their transformation into managed service providers, or guiding them through vendor programme changes. These are not transactional engagements but rather ongoing conversations.
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