In this promoted episode of the TechCentral podcast, Duncan McLeod interviews Axiz chief technology officer Jacques Malherbe on how the ICT distribution industry is changing significantly.

Driven by the growth of cloud computing, digital transformation and a less comprehensive role being played by original equipment manufacturers, the relationship between these vendors, their distributors and resellers is being shaken up radically.

In the podcast, Malherbe explains how all the big vendors globally are changing their business approach -- from one where there were “super active” in the entire value chain to one where they are shrinking into their core businesses, in the process moving a lot of their activities to distribution partners.

They are asking distribution to do market-making, to have enablement technical resources and provide other support services. At the same time, corporate customers are shrinking their IT departments.

All of this has a big impact on the profit margins for distributors, as vendors shed their service offerings. It also affects how and where distributors must invest. This has drastic implications not only for the IT distribution channel but for the broader IT ecosystem in South Africa.

In the South African context, government is shifting spend from the big systems integrators into the small, medium and micro enterprise segment, leading to a big shift in the sector. Malherbe explains how Axiz hopes to help SMMEs participate in the market more actively and meaningfully.