Michael Dell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dell Incorporated, has made a surprise visit to Nigeria.
The historic visit was in fulfillment of a promise made by Michael in September 2010 when Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) visited the Dell Executive Briefing Centre (EBC) in Texas with some customers from Nigeria, including Ecobank International.
The appointment of Nnamdi Orakwue as Executive Director for Strategy and Operations by Dell also contributed to actualizing the trip.
“To the teeming Dell community in Nigeria, there can be no stronger demonstration of commitment to the market than the fulfillment of this promise.
“Coming nine years after the visit in 2003 by Narayana Murthy, founder and former CEO of Infosys Technologies, one could argue that it is well overdue,” CWG said in a statement.
Austin Okere, founder and CEO of the CWG, the largest systems integration company in West Africa, was among other chief executives and managing directors who welcomed Michael to the local Dell office at Mulliner Towers, Ikoyi.
Michael gave a presentation about the current strategic focus of Dell, and the acquisitions that have been made to support the strategy, including Equalogic, Compellent, Wyse and Perot Systems, which are the technology platforms upon which Dell intends to launch into the enterprise and cloud spaces.
Mr Okere explained that CWG had taken advantage of the opportunities of these platforms to provide virtualization solutions to major customers in finance and oil & gas sectors such as First Bank of Nigeria, UBA, TotalElf and Ecobank International for their global operations covering over 30 countries.
A major move of the Dell Partners’ strategy has been the ‘Try & Buy’ concept which has worked very well. Dell intends to reciprocate the commitment of the partner community by shouldering some of the burden of the ‘Proof of Concepts’ through direct input or discount structure to maximize the reach and impact.
Other initiatives considered include a local Dell Lab to showcase its range of solutions in a ‘touch and feel’ manner to offer customers the opportunity of experiencing the solutions in a live environment.
Dell will also provide engineer certification facilities in-country so that partners do not have to incur huge travel expenses and visa inconveniences to go overseas for certification.
Stewart Van Graan, General Manager, Dell (Southern, Central and East Africa), expressed the hope that the visit will mark the beginning of the recognition of West and East Africa as a focal point for Dell’s initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa and attract other global IT companies to tap the full potential that the region offers.
From the business desk
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