Sunit Gadhia, marketing Manager, Pavan Computers Ltd in Uganda, talks about the IT reseller experiences in the Country.
Briefly tell us about Pavan Computers and please talk us through the IT business prospects for your company?
We started with a retail business in I.T supplies only 2 years ago in Garden City, Kampala. We soon realized that Ugandan business trend is shifting to online selling, hence we set up our own website www.computers.co.ug. Due to a location in the centre of busy mall in Garden City in Kampala, we started building relations with walk-in clients corporate enquiries. Our clients now include many Primary and Secondary schools, NGOs like USAID, Embassies, Government Organizations like Trade Mark East Africa, Banks, Hotels like Serena Kampala, Insurance companies and many more.
Briefly outline the company’s focus in IT and the addressable market you target in Uganda?
Our target market is shifted to corporate marketing. They are the main and biggest share of I.T consumers in Uganda. We focus on giving only channel products to our clients because we are given a satisfactory warranty support from authorized service centers in Kampala.
What other IT services do you offer your clients in Uganda?
We do general maintenance of I.T labs, which includes servicing laptops and desktops, Printers and Network infrastructure. To our walk-in clients we also offer instant smart phone repairing services, laptop and desktop repairing.
Do you have subsidiaries in other East African countries? If not, does the company have any plans to expand its operations into other countries in East Africa?
Not as of now, but we are a fast growing company and definitely by the end of this year. We are looking at plans to move into South Sudan, Burundi and Congo.
What are the main areas of IT where you have expertise?
Software is our main area of expertise, however the challenge is, it is very vast and we do not have much support for products including the most basic software such as Kaspersky Anti Virus has no support. Fixing broken gadgets such as Samsung Tablets and Phones, Apple laptops and Phone Screens, HP, Dell, Toshiba Laptops and desktops repairing is our core expertise area.
Are you a partner of Microsoft in Uganda, how competitive is business in software for Education sector in Uganda? Please name other players that you know of in this business.
Pavan Trading Co. is “Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller” Authorization Number V81656. The business in software is not very competitive as the biggest challenge educating Educational institutions the advantages of using genuine software and the
discount pricing benefits they enjoy compared to the higher pricing of corporate organizations.
Which other IT vendors does you company represent at the moment? Are you looking to expand your product portfolio?
We are resellers of APC, HP, Lenevo, Acer, Toshiba, Trust, Logitech, Transcend. Yes we always seek to expand our product portfolio as this adds a variety of products we can offer to our market.
How challenging is it for your company to retain qualified IT professionals?
That is a universal question not only for IT. In order to keep our IT professionals we always have to update them with regular trainings and give them bonuses on the work done. We make them feel they are not only part of our company but rather one of the shareholders of our company hence they do their jobs putting 100% of their efforts and knowledge.
What do you see as the most challenging issue in the Uganda IT channel at the moment?
Recently the government of Uganda has put 18% VAT on laptops, desktops and all IT products. This has brought IT retail business slowdown compared to previous years. Now-a-days all customers including corporate and retail, assume price by simply searching Amazon and eBay and claim that we as retailers eat all the margins. Despite explaining the tax situations to customers we still fail to sell to them in some cases. Many times we also get bulk corporate orders but then the distributors run out of stock and we fail to supply on time. Consistency and variety of products with channel distributors is limited.
