Key Digital is creating Key Digital Africa, a partnership dedicated to expansion of distribution and marketing of Key Digital products across the African continent. The announcement was made by Dwayne Husbands, Key Digital vice president of global distribution sales, and follows the successful model of Key Digital Europe, representing the brand's ongoing initiative to extend awareness and availability of Key Digital products on a global scale.
The partnership grew out of Key Digital's relationship with Magfre Enterprises Ltd, a Kenyan audio-visual specialist integrator and distributor. Magfre has been selling and installing Key Digital products in Kenya. "We've developed a great deal of respect for our new partners as a Key Digital dealer," said Husbands, "and are delighted to take this next step with them. We are confident that we have the right team in place for the success of this sweeping initiative."
The rich feature sets of Key Digital solutions require far less need for additional devices to complete audiovisual systems than with competing brands and are both high quality and user- and price-friendly, according to Magfre pre-sale and technical manager Alfred Akelo. "That," says Akelo, "is what formed the basis of us looking to work with Key Digital to a point where now we are becoming Key Digital Africa." The new enterprise will have continent-wide responsibility for distribution and marketing. "We will build relationships with dealers across Africa," says Akelo.
Magfre, formed in 1988, has not only decades of experience in audiovisual system integration and sales, but also a division that does printing and branding. Its marketing experience uniquely qualifies it for the tasks ahead as it takes the Key Digital brand across Africa, including the skills and resources needed to increase brand and product awareness. "The use of social media is quite key on this," says Akelo, adding that presence at local exhibitions will be part of the promotions. Along with demos of gear and systems, "We also intend to train the integrators and build awareness of Key Digital products."
As has been the case worldwide, exhibitions in Africa have been "very much affected" by the pandemic, says Akelo, "But I can say we have made quite big strides in the Kenyan front because a lot of people have now embraced and taken up the vaccination." Kenya has just fully reopened from pandemic related restrictions in October. "With the opening of the business space, we expect that things are going to be brighter on our side," Akelo continues. "Business channels are opening. We are optimistic that the space is going to be open wider and wider, allowing us to hold training in our demo room, which we couldn't do before." Implementing Key Digital gear in video conferencing and demonstrations via the internet will demonstrate the product's effectiveness while providing a platform for further awareness and training, according to Akelo.
Fred Murathe, Magfre director, cites the Key Digital KD-BYOD4K Wireless Presentation Gateway, in combination with the KD CAMUSB PTZ camera, as an important and "most effective solution" for business communication in the current business climate as impacted by the pandemic. Also, "because the clubs are opening up, the matrix switchers will pop out as effective technology, along with the HDBaseT extenders." The flexibility of interconnectivity, scalable hardware solutions and cost-effectiveness of Key Digital products and their installation, adds Akelo, "are the key advantages that we want to capitalize on."
Key Digital Africa anticipates further expansion of its open channel to the technical and application support infrastructure with the parent organization, which, including Key Digital Africa's relationship with Key Digital VP of product education and experience Jonathon Ferry, have been central to the success of Key Digital in Kenya thus far. That support has been complemented by product ease-of-use and by the ability to implement sophisticated installations without the necessity of deep programming, facilitated by the Compass Control Pro fully integrated iOS control system and by the free iOS KD App, according to Key Digital Africa staff. Key Digital's technical team has proven itself responsive to feature and capability requests from Key Digital Africa's own customer support and sales staff. "Their response to our feedback is quite amazing," says Akelo.
