Zebra EMEA held its Africa Virtual Channel Event on 6th May 2020 via videoconferencing app, Zoom. The global COVID-19 pandemic has forced what would have been physical events into online events. Tech giants all over the world have had to cancel their physical events and in some cases turn them into virtual events because of the social distancing guidelines enforced worldwide.
The Africa Virtual Channel Event reviewed the company’s strategy in Africa for 2020. The strategy session accessed its foray into the healthcare, retail, and supply chain.
Richard Hudson, EMEA VP and GM opened with Zebra’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic. He says that the first step was to ensure the safety of its ‘people’ and stop all non-essential services.
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Then, he talked about how the company then drove its business continuity plan by keeping its products and incentives running. Support services were fully operational as well.
Zebra EMEA’s message is clear: its supply chain has fully recovered and its products are available in Africa. This is in part, due to stocking up of the right inventory.
Zebra’s 2019 and its numbers
Hudson further described 2019 “as challenging but positive”. Zebra’s mobile business grew by 3.7%, its barcode readers grew by 6.5%, the printer business by 2.4%, and its services business improved by 6.2%.
The company also grew its market share accordingly. Its mobile computing business grew its market share into 53.5%, while the scanning business, 26.5%, and its printing business took 47% of its market.
He says Zebra sees market opportunities in eCommerce, retail, food, healthcare, transport, and logistics. The company is taking advantage of governments around the world putting structures in place to encourage social distancing. It is doing this despite acknowledging that it is not an ideal situation.
Enzo Tumminaro, the Regional Channel Manager at EMEA in his presentation announced that Zebra’s channel revenue grew to over $1 billion in 2019 and in 2020, its distribution revenue is projected to cross the $1 billion mark.
What Zebra is doing to improve?
Enzo revealed that in order to achieve its projected growth, the Zebra EMEA will;
— provide a clear route to market
— come up with a simplified price structure and a dedicated team to help it combat the grey market operators.
— provide reduced differentiation on run rate products
— implement higher-margin predictability to help its partners improve on their profitability
— reach into new markets in order to offset the limited growth in its core market
— develop more channel-friendly solutions to improve the adoption of its new technologies.
Zebra will also launch a webinar series, a gold incentive program, and a co-marketing builder program to support its partners. In addition, he said that Zebra’s partners who sell more than one of its solutions grow faster than those who only sell one.
Wayne Miller, the Director of EMEA healthcare sees renewed growth in healthcare, especially as there is a focus on improving the efficiency of the sector in the wake of COVID-19. He says Zebra is at the center of it with its superior technology and services. He cited the example of its scanners that are suitable for surfaces cleaned with most types of disinfectants and cleaning agents.
Retail update
Mark Thompson, EMEA’s retail industry director said the COVID-19 pandemic has hastened Africa’s shift towards doing business online. He cited online retailers closing some of their counters for varying reasons that are not linked with supply issues. Instead, they had to re-arrange priorities toward essential products because customers were buying them faster than they could replenish.
Thompson announced that the pandemic has forced production, supply chain, and field mobility to move faster than normal and Zebra is also positioning itself to plug the gap. Its role-based apps for inventory management, order replenishment, daily sales tracking, and others will help boost productivity and enhance shopper’s experience
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The crude oil crash is forcing producers to turn to warehousing, so as to store the products. Mark highlights this as an opportunity for Zebra to provide warehouse solutions and help the sector move forward.
The company sees opportunities in the current market climate and its strategy is to grow with the market, win market share as it expands and drives expansion as it provides solutions for businesses.
Although the company is pleased with the state of business in Africa, it wants to improve on it.
Zebra EMEA announced two new distributors in Africa at the Africa Virtual Channel Event. The distributors will be on the forefront of its channel expansion plan in the continent.
The largest technology distributor in West Africa, TD Africa and Redtron of South Africa will now partner with Zebra EMEA to deliver industry-tailored solutions to help its customers optimise their operations and make business-critical decisions.
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