Arab News spoke with Sherif M. Alashery, GM, Tech Access, KSA, to learn his perspective on some of the issues facing the Kingdom’s businesses in terms of the availability of products and solutions for mid-market companies in Saudi Arabia. Headquartered in Dubai, Tech Access is a value-added IT distributor (VAD), providing IT products and solutions in networking, storage, hardware, software and security to the enterprise and mid-market business sectors.

One current point of unhappiness is that as more and more Saudi companies upgrade their networks to include higher end servers and storage products, delays of six to eight weeks are common in receiving the hardware, before installation can begin. Alashery explained that, when it comes to the high end solutions, vendors don’t keep these technologies in stock within the Kingdom.

“Storage and server technology is brought in with the exact configuration required for the specific project,” he explained. “There is stock in the Middle East for entry level servers for which there is a demand on a daily basis, but when it comes to the high end — no. This is because high end solutions are updated and upgraded annually. At the end of the day, having no stock here is for the benefit of the market. If there were older stock here, vendors would push that before they would be willing to bring in anything new. If you’re going to speak about one or two months delay for equipment that will last years, the wait is reasonable in order to get something that is really new.”

For technology that is kept in stock locally, Alashery advised that it usually takes three to six months from the time new hardware is released in the USA, before it is available in Saudi Arabia. The reasons for this vary from shipping times to the geographical distribution strategies of certain vendors. There also may be a requirement to modify the equipment to meet market regulations or market conditions. For instance, Saudi companies often prefer hardware that is a more basic version of what’s sold in the US. 

The biggest challenge for Alashery and Tech Access is not selling in the Kingdom. He remarked that promoting awareness of new technologies to local value added resellers and end users is complex because Saudi Arabia is vast, there are so many different nationalities involved in the reseller channels, and IT knowledge across the business community is extremely variable.

“As a VAD we need to do more than just sell the box. On behalf of the vendors we represent, we need to educate the market, offer professional services and provide support. We can easily get the technology to the market, but everything else requires a targeted strategy,” Alashery said. “Tech Acess is investing in resources to bring the Saudi market the service and support it deserves. People need to know more about technology than the fact that it is new. It’s important for a value added distributor to educate the resellers and end users about the new technology, how to use it and its benefits.”