Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 48 | Page 10

NEWS

Comstor launches new go-to-market campaign

Productive is aimed at businesses that need to identify the optimum technology solutions for improving their flexible work environment . The campaign promotes a range of kits designed to help channel partners position solutions to satisfy a variety of user needs .

Comstor , a Cisco distributor and part of Westcon-Comstor , has announced the official launch of Stay Connected , Stay Productive , the company ’ s latest go-tomarket strategy and expansion of its previous campaign , Stay Safe , Stay Connected .

The new campaign includes a selection of support kits incorporating Cisco solutions to address the ongoing needs of businesses and vertical markets , such as education , retail and healthcare , in a new flexible work environment . Stay Connected , Stay
Russell Blackburn , VP Product Management and Marketing , Comstor , said : “ In the current climate , businesses need to be resilient , flexible and adaptable , as such they require best in class solutions that allow their workforces to remain efficient . The Stay Connected , Stay Productive campaign is instrumental in helping our partners achieve this goal and satisfy customer needs . The Comstor kits have been developed by in-house experts at Comstor and with the support of Cisco , to ensure the solutions within each kit are optimal . The kits feature everything partners need to make their customers ’ workforce productive from anywhere .”

Southern Africa PC devices market declines due to economic pressures of COVID-19

Southern Africa ’ s personal computing devices ( PCD ) market , which comprises desktops , notebooks and tablets across South Africa , Botswana and Namibia , saw shipments decline 12.2 % year-on-year ( YoY ) in Q3 2020 , according to the latest research from International Data Corporation ( IDC ). Citing the Quarterly PCD Tracker , IDC revealed that the desktop market was the worst hit during the quarter with a YoY decline of 60 %, while the tablet and notebook markets declined 16.5 % and 2.4 %, respectively . Shipments of gaming notebooks increased 3.8 % over the same period as consumers turned to gaming as a means of entertainment during the lockdown period . the first and second quarters of the year , with GDP down 51 % YoY in Q2 , 2020 . This represents South Africa ’ s steepest economic contraction since 1960 and dwarfed its 2009 global financial crisis slowdown of 6.1 %. The weakening of the rand ’ s exchange rate against the US dollar , together with a shortage of forex , further weakened PCD shipments into the region .”

“ The market also experienced a shortage of components , such as Celeron and Pentium processors , monitors , and CPUs ,” added Munyi .
“ Shipments continued to shrink in the third quarter as the South African economy suffered a significant contraction ,” said Grace Munyi , Research Analyst at IDC . “ The implementation of lockdown measures saw the country ’ s GDP fall by over 16 % between
10 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www . intelligentcio . com