The former Panasonic channel chief told Comms Business Magazine, “My move to Samsung was a great opportunity; Samsung has a great product range today and a great product road map for the future. My immediate task is to grow our business and expand our reseller base. Having both a direct reseller and indirect distribution channel is relatively new for Samsung. We now have distribution through Rocom and Crane and it is important that works well so that we can reach the smaller reseller.”
Giving his former employer a bloody nose is clearly on the agenda for James who says Panasonic is one of his targets as they have a large slice of the pie.
“We want some more of that pie and believe we have the products for the channel. The new 7100 product will help our channel partners address smaller users more easily and the 7100 Compact, due later this year, will complete the picture as far as this group of customer is concerned. It’s therefore important that we do look our competitors in those markets and steal some of their business.
“One of the reasons I joined Samsung is that our products are years ahead of Panasonic; we have on board SIP and full IP, built in voicemail – the whole portfolio is ahead of their game and it is likely that the Panasonic TDE introduction will be delayed.
Samsung resellers are looking for stability and positive marketing activity from our company and right now we have the product, a great team and now need to be out there in the market shouting about what we can do.”
Mark Ivens, the former Panasonic marketing manager is also set to join Samsung and will be bolstering the vendor’s channel experience.