“All vendors are much more focussed on the SME today. We believe that this market is all about applications and Westcon is recognised in the channel as being a strong convergence player. We have the tools, the products and the infrastructure for resellers selling to the SME. With a portfolio of Avaya, Nortel and Mitel, Westcon will be invigorating the channel. Quick Edition from Avaya and Nortel’s SME based building blocks and service pack strategies are two example.
We have re-organised our sales teams in to vendor product groups both internally and externally facing as resellers want more in depth knowledge from their account managers.
It is dangerous to assume that the sub 25 user market is all about ‘Panasonic’ type systems as users can deploy technology to improve productivity, home working for example. I see the role of the distributor in this market as being to link the third party applications with the core platform. To this end we have developed a unique Avaya configuration tool that integrates Avaya and third part products for the reseller. We are also launching some product bundles such as Avaya MVE with Extreme Networks products. We aim to take away the pain of sourcing and matching third party products from resellers.”
Westcon say that a move to hosted IP telephony is not a logical fit for them at the moment – the market, they say, is not yet defined. On the other hand they are examining a managed services offering.