The IT channels industry is one that is often overlooked, but it remains an industry that many ICT big names depend on to carry their brands in Malaysia. James Lee, executive director of Convergence Networks Sdn Bhd, provides Tech&U’s Rozana Sani an insight into the issues and challenges a company has to go through to stay in the game and succeed.

Lee says support is critical in IT channels.

Q: Is IT channels the preferred business model deployed by global IT brands in Malaysia?
A: The distribution/systems integration (SI) channel strategy is the main sales model adopted in Malaysia. For any multinational company (MNC) to push their products in a country like Malaysia, it is the only model that has proven to work successfully.
Armed with knowledge of local geography and the in-country know-how, distributors and SI channels are able to maximise their reach to end-customers.
However, the commitment by distributors or SI channels to implement and maintain their partners’ solutions successfully is paramount to the success of this sales model.
Having said that, we are proud to have a panel of qualified and certified people at Convergence Networks with knowledge of the partner brands we carry, and all the necessary infrastructure to ensure the services required are executed successfully.

Q: How does Convergence differentiate itself to stay ahead in the business?
A: In general, we work closely with any partners that provide connectivity solutions – to connect and network users in a wired or wireless world; availability solutions – to provide application or IP devices uptime; security solutions – to ensure their network or applications are protected from unauthorised access; and optimisation solutions – to optimise application and data delivery.
Our target market for F5 Networks solutions are generally large enterprises that offer mission-critical services such as financial or insurance institutions, data centres, telecommunications providers, the Government sector, and the education sector. Through the partnership with Convergence Networks, we believe F5 Networks has established a top position in the market.
We are confident that the HP ProCurve brand will do well here with companies where connectivity for their IT infrastructure is essential to their businesses.
Our challenge in Malaysia is the market breakthrough for HP ProCurve, with their recent market entrance, and the market needs to be educated about its benefits.
Cheaper broadband services and Internet accessibility for small-office home-office (SOHO) have also been very encouraging for TRENDnet solutions.

Q: How does the company address challenges/issues in the IT channels/distribution line in Malaysia?
A: The main challenge is to get customers to look beyond the cost factor and appreciate the benefits.
For example, while we believe F5 Networks is the leading solution for “availability”, the challenges come from marketing its solutions and convincing customers the benefits of F5 solutions for their ICT environment.
While we appreciate that affordability is always a main concern with customers, we always stress that the “completeness” of the solutions is imperative, including reference sites, feature/function of equipment and most importantly, support after implementation. After all, we are talking about high availability implementation to ensure maximum uptime and prevent loss of business revenue. Support is critical.

Q. What are your short-term and long-term targets for the company?
A: In this business of providing connectivity, availability, security and optimisation of applications to customers across Malaysia, we believe that “presence” is the key.
We continue to make our presence felt, and to build a good support system for our customers. Customers have easy access to us as we partner with existing partners throughout the country.
One of our immediate goals is to increase our small and medium-sized partners, and to expand our reach to outstation partners.
We plan to bring in more security solutions to fill the gap in the current market, and expand our business focus in the area of storage.


About Convergence Networks Sdn Bhd

Convergence Networks (Convergence) is a value-added distributor in Malaysia that provides end-to-end services to partners. These include consultancy, solutions implementation, maintenance and troubleshooting, and training.

The company started operations in May 2001 and has since grown 300 per cent in size and revenue. As of Press time, Convergence Networks has a headcount of 24, with half being certified engineers.

Its key partners are F5 Networks, HP ProCurve and RENDnet.