With country growth forecasts of just 1.2%, 2018 is off to a shaky start. Our channel will do well to reduce costs and improve margins to weather the storm. We still have many untapped markets to address so all is not lost, but it will not come easy.
Clear go-to-market strategies and tactics will need to be employed to ensure that the business thrives while making customers the centre of our business models and addressing their needs.
Irregularities Rife
The world economy is outperforming most predictions and the forecast by Goldman Sachs is that global GDP will be at 4%; however, with corruption and accounting irregularities rife in our country all eyes are – and will continue to be – on us to drive ethical corporate governance, good fiscal policies and lowered unemployment rates to rebuild confidence in our country.
Accountability is vital
Unfortunately, a few bad apples have tarnished our South African image, but we have been through worse. We can overcome this by holding people accountable for their actions, standing up for our rights and driving messages of hope and change. We have a lot of work to do to build our channel and rebuild our country, and with official unemployment rates forecast to continue at 28%, we definitely need to find better ways to create jobs in a depressed market. The IT sector can play a pivotal role in this.
Human Connections
We are now fully immersed in this Digital Revolution, and with new technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data and augmented reality starting to gain a foothold, what will thrive in 2018 is human connections, creativity, intuition and innovation; things which cannot yet be mastered by technology.
At Tarsus Distribution we are constantly finding ways to improve our service offering to our reseller partners and their end customers, and in 2018 it will not be any different as this will be a year of focus to ensure that we make it easier for our reseller partners to deal with us.
Becoming Omnichannel
Our aim is to truly become an omnichannel distributor and ensure that our reseller partners can engage with us at various touch points, whether through our online portals, face-to-face customer engagement, our traditional call centre agents or through our regional walk-in partner centres.
We are open for business, and we wish you a prosperous 2018!
Shirlinia Jacobs is the General Manager: Regional Channel Sales at Tarsus Distribution.
