These interactive roadshows presented the perfect opportunity for Westcon Group to update the reseller audience with its strategic plans and roadmaps, and for vendor partners to share newly launched products and solutions. New product launches included: the One Box 365 from Audiocodes that enables Lync for SMB’s and proof of concept, and Oracle launched a new Session Border Controller (SBC) aimed at the SMB market and branch office deployments.
Murray Grubb, National Sales Manager, Annodata commented, “The road show was a fantastic opportunity to meet up with the wider Westcon team and some of the key vendors. With our industry moving and changing at such a fast pace, it was invaluable to receive a complex update on what is coming next. I was particularly impressed with the AudioCodes One Box 365 for Lync - a ‘solution in a box’; as with the increase in multi-vendor solutions it was a very innovative and required concept. Annodata don't see Westcon as a ‘one stop shop distributer’, to us they are an esteemed strategic partner that provides a whole host of value added services such as: strategic advice, training and sales & marketing support - all helping to simplify complex deployments.”
Microsoft discussed how Lync is moving beyond IM and Presence, and how resellers were effectively leaving money on the table and by not taking advantage of the Office 365 opportunity.
“Office 365 is now Microsoft’s fastest growing business with over $1.5bn of revenue and 60% growth YoY, plus 18 consecutive quarters of triple digit growth since launching in 2009, so the market opportunity is colossal. Microsoft is now focusing on driving the utilisation of the multi-party conferencing and voice workloads across the 3 million seats of the underutilised E3 & E4 O365 subscriptions. This is a fantastic opportunity for the channel to broaden their solutions offerings to include devices, infrastructure and services. Westcon is aligned with Microsoft’s strategy to move Lync “Beyond IM & Presence” and to collaborate with partners to ensure they fully maximise this opportunity,” commented Guy Koster, Director Product Management & Marketing - EMEAWestcon Group.