MARKET REPORT Voice, Data and Mobile Distribution
“The key is to not expect partners to know everything and be there to advise and educate them on the
extensive product range that is now available.”
Darren Garland Managing Director of ProVu
Richard Carter, Director of Channel Sales, Nimans
end user for the long term as the
technology evolves.
Meanwhile, the vendor
solutions we see increasingly
shifting to an OpEx and
licence models a ect a
traditional partners’ ability
to enjoy advance revenues,
so we have to continually
refresh our value o ering. We
invest heavily in creating more
advanced web-tools that allow
partners to manage their own
clients’ services, spotting new
opportunities for services sales,
consultancy, nancing and
cross-selling.”
Richard Carter at Nimans,
“Traditional PBX sales remain
strong at Nimans but our overall
portfolio continues to evolve and
is much more cloud-based in line
with current market trends, such
as SIP end points and a dedicated
Network Services division.”
Darren Garland at ProVu,
says that desk phones still remain
at the core of his business.
“However, over the past
couple of years we have adopted
some newer, less traditional
products such as softphones,
routers and cloud-based
products which we have seen a
tremendous uptake for.
Jason Beeson at Exertis sagely
notes that distribution portfolios
are always evolving to re ect
market trends.
“Emerging technologies
are either taken up by existing
vendors or in some cases new
vendors emerge. It’s our role
to ensure that we have the
right products and solutions
that our resellers need to meet
their customers’ requirements.
Where we see new market
opportunities, such as in Smart
Tech, we build a portfolio that
can satisfy our customers. Here,
we have signi cantly extended
our vendor range.”
ED SAYS…
Keeping portfolios current is one of the ongoing
key challenges for distributors. Reliance on
existing vendors for such currency is often an
egg too many in their basket so awareness of
other vendor responses to trends as well as
new vendor application initiatives is paramount.
On-boarding new products for resellers can’t be
done overnight.
a dedicated Solutions Sales
team as well as a team of UC
Device Business Managers. Our
expertise encompasses all areas
of the customer journey, from
connectivity, to cloud and onpremise
systems to end points.
We have eld-based experts
who support resellers face-toface
helping them put complex
solutions together based on bestadvice
in an agnostic way.”
ProVu’s Darren Garland
says that to truly add value,
distributors must be able to
help Channel partners to build
solutions.
“Without the correct skill
set they will be limited to the
amount of value that they
can actually add. ProVu is
extremely strong technically and
we frequently work with our
partners to assist them with the
creation of bespoke solutions –
these projects usually include
an array of products from a
variety of our vendor partners.
Without an extensive knowledge
of the products we sell, it would
not be possible for us to design
or support such solutions. e
key is to not expect partners to
know everything and be there to
advise and educate them on the
extensive product range that is
now available.”
Jason Beeson at Exertis,
explains that his company has
pre-sales teams across all of
their business and enterprise
categories that help resellers to
scope requirements, deliver proof
of concept and provide solutions
that meet their customers’ needs.
“Our expertise and specialist
focus are key to helping
resellers put together solutions.
For instance, our datacentre
enterprise team alone has 45
highly skilled and experienced
individuals holding more than
182 accreditations. We have,
for example, dedicated teams
Winners of the Best Hosted Telephony Platform
Wishing you a happy and
prosperous new year
in UC, security, wireless,
networking and AV. Indeed, our
Exertis Pro AV division is a great
example of where we provide a
complete end-to-end solution.
Audio and video components,
whether in the home or in a
commercial environment, are no
longer just standalone devices.
ey are invariably connected to
one another, to the internet and
reside on a network.”
HOW ARE DISTRIBUTOR PORTFOLIOS
CHANGING TO REFLECT CURRENT MARKET
TRENDS?
John Nolan at Westcon believes
that by being responsive and
adapting a distribution portfolio
to include emerging technologies
that fuel new business
conversations with end users is
imperative.
“Whether the customer is
ready or just researching, the
distributor being able to qualify
the need and provide a roadmap
or proof of concept on behalf of
the partner will then retain the
Tel Sales: 01708 320000 or Email: sales@nta.co.uk
20 | Comms Business Magazine | January 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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