Yesterday, we attended a Sophos event hosted by IDSS, the local distributor of the cybersecurity platform. The two companies celebrated reaching $2 million in sales in the Zimbabwe market.
IDSS, the exclusive distributor of Sophos services in Zimbabwe and one of only three in the SADC region, operates through a network of partners. These partners—including tech firms like Dandemutande, Liquid, TelOne, and Convex — work directly with the customers, typically financial institutions, government departments, educational institutions and such.
Munashe Mugudza, IDSS’s Sophos Channel Manager, told us they now work with over 400 local partners. To incentivize growth, IDSS and Sophos used the event to recognize the top performers amoung these partners. LogikMind was crowned Sophos Partner of the Year and will represent Zimbabwe at an upcoming Sophos SADC awards. Liquid, Dandemutande, Convex and others also got some recognition for sales volumes achieved.
Cybersecurity & the Data Protection Act
The event was attended by Zimbabwe Deputy Minister of ICT Dingumuzi Phuti who spoke mostly about the importance of cybersecurity in the context of Zimbabwe’s Data Protection Act.
Sophos SADC Sales Director Peter Nel also spoke about the Data Protection Act and how cybersecurity software helps, specifically the Data Loss Prevention aspect. He also said they want to work with the regulator to better understand the local Data Protection law context so they can tailor the partner training to Zim.
Nel also revealed that SADC makes some US $16 million in Sophos annual sales, and Zimbabwe, with its US $2m is the second-largest market after South Africa. For context, Zimbabwe’s Sophos sales 2 years ago were about US $1 million.
Sophos which is UK-based competes globally and in the African market against other large cybersecurity platform providers such as CrowdStrike, Cisco, Fortinet, Kaspersky, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, Webroot, Trend Micro, Check Point, and IBM.
Our Takeaway
It was great talking with the IDSS team — one of the few companies willing to open up about their business numbers. A pity there’s no broader industry data to understand how the $2 million stacks up.
We wish more data was available. So if you happen to be in cybersecurity, please do help with insights in the comments below.
Besides the Sophos consulting partners mentioned above, other companies in offering cybersecurity consulting in Zimbabwe include TechSol, Frampol, ProComm, Axis Solutions, Frolgate, National IT Services, Kenac, Compulink, Solution Centre, Mitra, and others.
Most of these companies already offer Data Protection Act compliance services (like outsourced Data Protection Officers).
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