Channel Post caught up with Gabriela Mechea, the Country Manager for Romania and the Sales Director for Emergent Markets at a recent roadshow conducted by Avira in association with EMT Distribution.
In our conversation, Gabriela Mechea speaks about the IT security threats out there in the Middle East and Africa region, the way Avira keeps those threats at bay and how the company works with its channel partners in the region.
Tell us about Avira’s physical presence in the Middle East region?
While many companies have opened offices here in the Middle East, we chose to not open an office. We chose to appoint a reliable distributor in the Middle East region. After assessing and evaluating several partners and local players in the IT security arena, we chose to go with EMT Distribution.
The Middle East region is a very competitive market for us, because almost every large company is present in this region. What I believe is that this market has the potential for growth above the other markets worldwide, such as Europe or United States. Emerging markets have always been targets for IT security attacks and it makes sense for us to be present in this region currently.
Why has Avira not thought about setting up an operating base in the Middle East region?
As a company, we have decided to not have any physical presence in the Middle East – at least for now. However, we continue to work closely with our partner EMT Distribution.
We have dedicated staff that work with EMT Distribution and travel a lot to this region. I would also like to add that we are located not very far from Dubai. Our sales team which manages the Middle East region is located in Romania, which is a five-hour flight and can be easily reached, whenever needed.
How has Avira’s product strategy changed, now that mobile devices have entered the corporate network?
Our strategies have indeed changed a lot. In the past, most IT security companies, including Avira, would be focused on protecting devices. Not anymore. We now focus on protecting the users. This is because today, a person may carry and use multiple devices and so it makes sense to protect the user than the devices itself.
Users need to be safe, and that is our priority. Whatever device the user choses to use, he / she should have unconditional protection. The user should know that he / she has got the same level of protection on all the devices they choose to use.
Which IT security threats are the most prevalent in the Middle East and Africa region?
Different types of IT security threats are spread across the world. There is no distinct pattern anymore when you take into account the types of IT security threats out in the open.
Middle East region for instance is not the most attacked region in the world. However, it is getting there. Emerging markets as mentioned earlier are always susceptible to new kinds of IT security threats.
Our research team has put together a ThreatMap that shows the hotspots of these IT security threats. This ThreatMap is frequently updated and will soon be available on Avira’s website for anyone to see.
Tell us about your engagements with channel partners.
We have a Partner Program which offers different levels of partnership to our channel partners. In addition, every partner has access to our knowledge base and online training sessions, irrespective of their partnership level.
These online training sessions are focused on sales, product information and technical aspect of the products and services we offer in the region. This roadshow is the first in the Middle East, wherein we have partnered with EMT Distribution.
Each year we organise such events and we have been present at GITEX for many years. We will work closely with EMT Distribution to identify upcoming markets and organise similar events in other markets in the Middle East.
