Aruba’s mobile engagement platform is presenting a challenge for the company’s Channel, as resellers work out how best to present the solution to regional customers, according to Bart Hulst, Senior Manager for EMEA Channel Marketing at Aruba, now part of HP.
He said there has been a lot of interest in the platform, but there is a longer process to translate this into sales: “Mobile engagement is a solution we’re showcasing at GITEX, and that has a lot of traction with a lot of partners. There’s a lot of partners that like the solution, that understand the benefits to customers could be – but there’s a few that could probably be able to succeed.
“It’s such a broad solution, it can be challenging for resellers to find the right market – and that’s what we’re trying to help them to do as best we can. There are so many different options, and that’s why it’s hard to find the right channel partners that are focusing on the right type of customers, and position the benefits to them,” he added, saying one challenge was the very different requirements across different verticals such as retail, hospitality or public venues.
Hulst also said Aruba was making a greater effort to localise its marketing and sales material for the Middle East: “The different languages and cultures in the region is something we haven’t always treated with the level of respect we should from a Western European perspective. But we’re making progress in that area, to come out with more localised information, localised assets in our marketing materials which are more customised to the Middle East.”
