Cisco already has a strong relationship with Westcon Group via Comstor, but the vendor says this extended distribution relationship will match Westcon’s voice and security focused reseller base with Cisco’s family of convergence products, services, support and financing options to improve operations and gain a sustainable competitive advantage for Westcon’s channel partners.
John Donovan, Managing Director of Channels, Cisco Systems UK & Ireland said, “This move will not impact our existing UK distributions agreements. There is a general acceptance that the convergence of voice and data is essential for streamlined business communications. By making these advanced technologies available to their existing channel partners, we are looking to further accelerate the adoption of highly secure converged communications.”
This move to offer highly secure converged communications comes as a result of Westcon’s strategy to help their channel partners grow their businesses by meeting the demand for inclusive voice and networking offerings amongst small businesses. Barry Shakespeare, VP Europe, Westcon said, “This announcement marks our continuing strategy to sell security, voice and networking as part of an overall offering. It’s a natural extension to our existing Comstor contract, and further enhances our joint market opportunity.”
As part of the extension of the distribution relationship, Westcon will offer Cisco’s portfolio of converged Switches, Routers, Wireless, IP Communications and Security products and solutions. This will include the recently launched Cisco Business Communications Solution providing purpose-built voice and switching products plus support, services and financing for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and mid-market companies.
The Cisco Challenge and Reward program will prepare Westcon's VAR's for the new offering. The program provides promotional pricing, training plans and technical support which will fast track a VAR toward Cisco's specialist accreditations. Cisco has introduced tools and programs to support the effective delivery of complete solutions to customers. The tools include the Cisco IP Communications Express Quick Configuration Tool to speed the configuration and deployment of a fully-converged office voice and data solution, as well as tools for remote monitoring and reporting on the health of their customer's networks. Programs include simple quotation tools and ordering bundles, as well as financial incentives for successfully implementing complete converged solutions in a customer environment.
Westcon VAR’s will also have access to the Cisco SMARTnet offering for 24x7x365 technical support, plus operating system software maintenance releases, advance hardware replacement and client electronic tools which simplify customer’s implementation phases.