South Africa and SADC-focused ICT distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC) has launched a newly established Professional Services division, to be headed up by industry expert James Wood.

In a statement the company said the division will focus predominately on technologies from vendors Citrix, Dell, Commvault and Symantec, "delivering critical skills, services and support to its reseller partners."

"Our Professional Services will provide an invaluable role in an industry that requires resellers to offer complete solutions, expertise and services for solutions such as SaaS, hyperconvergence and simple rack-and-stack offerings," explains Wood, head: professional services at DCC.

Wood continues: "The drive is twofold... one is to assist the vendors we support to grow their products with specialists in those areas, and two to support our resellers who might have no or limited skills to access these technologies. The objective is not to detract from being a distributor, but rather to add value to the product we distribute and resellers we serve."

He says the company intends for the division to also serve as an incubator for resellers.

"DCC already offers pre-delivery configuration and upgrade services; our professional services division therefore represents a natural extension of our existing, established offering. Furthermore, we believe we can play a vital role in markets where resellers must provide services that lower business risk, cut down on infrastructure and staffing costs and ultimately save on IT expenditure.

"We are hoping that our efforts in the professional services area will serve as an incubator for resellers to further grow their own technical competencies whilst opening up new lines or further enhancing their current business and products with minimal risks and costs."

Rebirth of VAD

Wood adds, "We, as distributors, can offer the requisite skills and services to assist with this requirement. I am excited to say that, more than anything, the value-added distributor has seen a rebirth of sorts, providing critical technical skills and services to an evolving marketplace. We are working closely with some key vendors to achieve our joint objectives."

DCC says the announcement comes as the company enters 31 years of operation.