Mitel Expands to Tanzania, Roots for Remote Working Solutions

Mitel, a global leader in business communication technology, has expanded to Tanzania and rooted for investment in remote working solutions as organisations adapt to new work environment models post Covid-19. Following disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company is investing in demand generation using various tools such as tele- calling, social media and webinars to align more with the latest market trends.

Whereas the pandemic has affected virtually all sectors of the economy, notable changes have taken place in the area of IT spending. According to leading marketing research agencies, in the pre-Covid days, spending was more on areas such as government, finance, manufacturing, utilities and transport. But with Covid-19 having ushered in a new normal, spending has shifted from these traditional verticals to two major ones: healthcare and education. With the global pandemic, IT firms and providers are experiencing heightened demand for a scalable Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) portfolio to serve their remote workforce, even as the pandemic eases.

“Covid-19 brought about the need for flexible home working solutions, a situation that has continued even after the pandemic eased, as it is the new normal. The market is ripe for collaborative communication and remote working solutions, smart digital workspaces as well as endpoint security and management solutions”, said Mr Asif Khan, Channel Director, Middle East and Africa (MEA).

These collaborative solutions include mobile apps that can be tied directly into organisations’ workspaces, as today’s technology is geared towards remote working, collaborative efforts and enhancing online presence.

“Healthcare, education, hospitality, contact centre, SME and mid-market, as well as cloud business, will be the key focus areas for Mitel this year. We create our marketing strategy built around those segments to effectively communicate with our end customers and partners”, said Mr Khan.

Mr Khan was speaking during an industry symposium held for channel partners at a Dar-es-Salaam hotel. According to him, Tanzania is a SME dominated market and the strength of the market lies in government, banking and hospitality sectors. It is also a price sensitive market but by looking at the dynamics, feeling the gap is in SME & mobility sector and organizations in Tanzania are looking for flexible & subscription based solutions.

“The Mitel Symposium was very helpful to us. Tanzania is not new to us, but we weren’t active much with regards to holding a physical event due to COVID since last 2 years. This event helped us in building immense confidence in the channel community, with great turnout from all industries, we had channel partners who are specialised in hospitality, focused on contact centers, and government sectors. Overall it was a good feedback in the open platform and had our local distributor with us for the event Networks Distribution. Overall it’s a good start”, said Mr Khan.

He said Mitel would continue enabling more channel partners with more events, trainings, workshops, webinars and marketing support.

Currently, Unified Communication (UC) service providers are experiencing demand for a scalable UCaaS portfolio, which comes at a low cost with a strong presence in instant messaging, mobility and conferencing services. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the region will also focus on the mid-market and small-to-medium business segment to expand and reduce the dependency on large enterprises.

The main driving force behind UCaaS is mobility. Employees today are no longer restricted to traditional office spaces and prefer to work from home and on the go. As such, UCaaS assumes a new importance in the organization to stay connected with employees, as the landscape of the traditional office environment changes dramatically.

When people started working remotely, Mitel had to create remote solutions to suit the growing demand for working from home. The growth in demand for UCaas will be driven increasingly by the implementation of hosted solutions as enterprises look to reduce costs and improve productivity.

“Cloud UC makes more sense for large organizations, because their markets are spread over different geographies and diverse user communities, and their communications are unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. With growing concerns on recession and a volatile world economy, the focus of big firms today has been on cost cutting and reducing expenses as much as possible”, added Mr Khan.

Mitel offers a range of integrated communications solutions that businesses of all kinds and levels of maturity can utilise to boost efficiencies, deliver exceptional customer experience and engage employees. Mitel retains the Number 1 position in Global Cloud Users, with over 5.2 million cloud users worldwide, Number 1 in 5 core markets, with over 1.5 million UCaaS users globally and Number 3 in contact centre systems shipped globally.

Mitel operates in over 100 countries, with a sales and service organization of over 70 offices, in conjunction with over 3000 value-added resellers and partners around the world. Mitel is now a clear market leader, with combined annual revenue of over US$1.3 billion, 70 million customers worldwide, and top market share in Western Europe.