Cyberoam has successfully penetrated Middle East and Africa

Mr. Kalpesh Maheshwari, Uganda country manager at Cyberoam, talks about this week’s Cyberoam Conference in Kampala, Uganda and Cyberoam’s plans for Cyber security in general.

Mr. Kalpesh Maheshwari, Uganda Country Manager Cyberoam
Mr. Kalpesh Maheshwari, Uganda Country Manager Cyberoam

How come a Cyberoam conference in Uganda?
Cyberoam has created a formidable reputation for aggressive expansion. We have established channel network in nearly 150 countries around the world, which not only includes developed and advanced users of technology but also those markets that are either in nascent phase of technology use or are showing strong signs of momentum in ICT. So we have a fair idea on emerging opportunities and potential sources from where we can achieve impressive growth. Taking a visionary leap in this direction, Cyberoam has successfully penetrated in all key markers across Middle East and Africa. We observe East African turf as a home to lucrative opportunities with ICT reach and momentum gaining pace together with rapid socio-economic transformation. No wonder, a recent UN study recognized Uganda among the fastest growing countries in the world.
The World Bank’s Doing Business 2014 report has Uganda scoring impressive performance and is being identified as a future hotspot. The region has strong economic prospects from medium to long term. Following energy sector, significant business activity and potential is visible in the verticals of ICT and financial services. ICT will continue to increase share in Uganda’s GDP. Uganda needs to secure its IT networks and computing infrastructure; the government also scouts for like-minded partners to protect Uganda’s cyber-space. Cyberoam as one of the key network and IT security players in the region has an important role to play in this transition. From product launch events to channel partner activities, we continue to do more and greater business in Uganda.

How is the channel business shaping up for Cyberoam in Uganda and the wider East Africa market?
We have nearly doubled our channel strength in Uganda, taking total tally of resellers to an all-time high.  To celebrate our increased channel strength and impressive achievements by resellers, Cyberoam recently held East African partner meet. The event awarded reseller partners from all Eats African countries including Uganda were recognized for their efforts in pushing Cyberoam IT security solutions in the market. Moreover, with a strong distributor tie-up in the region, it has only added to our advantage to invest more focused efforts in Uganda channel business. Cyberoam has come to enjoy exceptional RoI in Uganda from its investments in channel.

Is Cyberoam seeking to recruit resellers in Uganda? If so how is it going about this?
Cyberoam sees its reseller partners in Uganda as the valued extension of its sales team. As already partially answered earlier, with a solid and experienced distributor partnership, Cyberoam is poised to strengthen its reseller base in Uganda and get more willing and growth-focused resellers on board. Feet on street is of prime importance. That’s where Cyberoam believes in making significant investments in channel resources and resellers including measures like training + incentives + marketing assistance. Cyberoam puts its money where its mouth is and always walk the talk in channel empowerment. Our recent East Africa channel meet discussed future roadmap and expansion strategy for the region and gave resellers a broad view on emerging opportunities with Cyberoam.

How would you assess the Ugandan IT security market in terms of companies being security aware and ready?
ICT is assuming increasing importance with businesses and other organizations in Uganda, including government establishments, in bringing technology driven reforms. As ICT usage and internet connectivity grows more pervasive, Uganda’s networks, IT infrastructure and cyber space will become more vulnerable to new threats and online risks.

What are Cyberoam’s plans for channel partners in 2015 in Uganda?
Our aim is to occupy leadership position in those territories. This hinges on how effective our reseller and channel strategy is. To this end, we will continue to promote channel excellence and growth for our Uganda partners. Cyberoam has an extensive program for its partners covering technical trainings and certifications along with marketing and sales support. To stimulate partner performance the company also has a comprehensive partner program that ensures adequate access to various opportunities, attractive incentives and reward offers from time to time.

What will be a key focus for Cyberoam in Uganda in terms of the solutions they are bring into the market?
Cyberoam observes that Uganda is extremely well poised to reap greater rewards from progress being made due to regional integration in East Africa and also due to growing collaboration through the auspices of the EAC. However, cyber threats and networks now have varied motives and also include frauds, political espionage, hactivism etc. Hence, Uganda’s growing socio-economic potential is easily on the radar of cyber criminals. It is not just the reach of ICT but ubiquity of the Internet too, which is clearly visible in Uganda and other East African markets. The uptake of mobiles has jumped 550% in five years, making East Africa the world’s fastest-growing market. This again attracts new threats through mobile devices and puts networks, data and users at risks from malware, social engineering and spamming /phishing attacks. Moreover, as Uganda maintains a strong focus for its energy and oil sector, it also needs to protect connected industrial computing infrastructure such as SCADA networks that are now exposed to the internet and might be targeted by cyber criminals. Hackers have caused colossal damage to similar infrastructure in Middle East and toppled down IT linked SCADA and industrial control systems with lethal malware attacks. To this end, Cyberoam intends to promote its identity-based security and a vast portfolio of Unified Threat Management and Next Generation Firewall security appliances that provide granular user controls, advanced threat management features, on-appliance reporting capabilities with flexible connectivity options and support for IT productivity.

What challenges does Cyberoam expect to encounter in the Ugandan market?
Cyberoam is the most active and well established network security vendor in the region. The company continues to earn the trust of various organizations, businesses in Uganda, reaching customers across a myriad of verticals. The company believes that real challenge lies in promoting thought leadership and making Uganda based organizations better aware on security best practices.

Where will majority of Cyberoam’s growth come from this year?
Cyberoam expects continued growth from all verticals since IT and network security investment momentum is building up across sectors.

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