Woolhead has joined ZyXEL after working on a contract basis as an SMB channel account manager Cisco for the past three years. He brings over 11 years of experience working in the channel with a number of vendor and distributor companies including Ingram Micro, BT and memory producer, Transcend. All of these roles have brought him into regular contact with channel partners, making him well-placed to lead ZyXel’s efforts to increase its levels of involvement and activity with value-added resellers.
He has joined Distribution Account Manager, Tom Deighton, and a dedicated telesales professional in a four-strong team headed by Antony Byford, Channel Sales Manager, UK and Ireland for ZyXEL. Byford stated: “We’re delighted to have welcomed Andrew into the ZyXEL channel team and we are now pressing ahead with our plans to step-up our involvement and activity with our partners. We will be making further investment and working more closely with value-added resellers to help them grow their ZyXEL business. We see good opportunities for us to increase sales of our switching, wireless and security solutions in both the commercial and public sector. We have a set of products that deliver great performance and value, an excellent channel partner programme and we now also have a dedicated and enthusiastic team in place to support and encourage the efforts of resellers.”
In particular, ZyXEL want to collaborate with VARs to target specific opportunities, says Byford. “We have specific propositions for a number of vertical markets, such as education, hospitality and healthcare and we’ll be looking to engage with partners that have a specific focus and expertise in these and other markets, as well as resellers who can target commercial enterprise and SMB sectors.”
The completion of the channel sales team follows the recent announcement that Lee Marsden, formerly Vice President Channel Sales Europe and Managing Director UK, has been appointed as President of Europe. Marsden continues to function as head of the UK operation.
ZyXEL offers a broad selection of networking and communications solutions, including managed and unmanaged networking switches, wireless access points and routers and security appliances solutions, designed to meet the needs of the full range of end-user customers – from consumer and small-office home-office (SOHO) workers, to SMBs, large enterprises and service providers.
The company has around 1500 registered and accredited partners in the UK. Through the ZyXEL Partner Program, resellers are offered a wide range of benefits including higher margins and discounts, account management and support, access to marketing funding and exclusive promotions and offers.