Microsoft Sri Lanka announced that it has just entered into an agreement with Redington Sri Lanka to distribute its software and services across the island.  Redington, who entered the Sri Lankan market as a networking business back in 2002, is a worldwide distribution company with a network of more than 33,000 channel partners across 24 countries, as well as being the single largest distribution partner for Microsoft products and services in India.  

Manish Joshipura, Country Manager for Redington Sri Lanka Pvt. Limited said: “We have a long history of collaboration with Microsoft.  When we first entered the Sri Lankan market we were a network business operating with companies like Cisco and EMC. Then we set up our operations catering to components, printers and the PC markets. We later signed up with IBM for a server portfolio. We are now pleased to complete the portfolio of offerings which includes software and services through this agreement with Microsoft.

“We are the only distributor in Sri Lanka with the complete portfolio starting from CPUs, hard disk, Enterprise and software. Sri Lanka is a growing market and Redington and Microsoft will complement each other in terms of the products and services as well as the reach we have across the island, especially to SMEs, which is our main strength.  We are very well connected in out of Colombo markets where we have branch offices almost everywhere, with the ability to reach even the little pockets of the island.  We have just begun this relationship and intend to strengthen it even further.”

For Microsoft, the relationship with Redington is a vital one in terms of increasingly accessibility of their software and services to SMBs in Sri Lanka. It will help them to gain easier access to the latest cloud computing technology, software, devices and services which have not been very avaiable to them in the past.

Imran Vilcassim, Country Manager for Microsoft Sri Lanka & Maldives said that one of the key areas the company would be focusing on in this market is cloud services.  “Over the last few years, Microsoft has made great strides in delivering solutions for a mobile-first, cloud-first world. Organisations in Sri Lanka are poised to take advantage of cloud computing and mobile technology just like any other developed market. The key is enabling access.  We strongly believe that cloud computing services like our industry-leading Office 365 will enable more SMEs to grow, drive up productivity and increase their ability to do business across the country and internationally. Our agreement with Redington will enable us to reach more SMEs regardless of where they reside.

“SMEs play a substantial role in fueling the economic growth of a country, making up at least 95% of businesses. When we increase the competitiveness of SMEs and help them to improve their business, we also become that much more competitive as a nation.”

Redington is already an existing distributor for Microsoft with Windows Mobile devices. By expanding their portfolio to include software and services, the two companies are bringing end to end solutions to more companies in Sri Lanka.

Photo caption: Manish Joshipura, Country Manager for Redington Sri Lanka and Imran Vilcassim Country Manager for Microsoft Sri Lanka and The Maldives shaking hands on the collaboration