Working with Channel Partners to create value

Value added distribution means being the resource that the reseller can call on at any time, it means being loyal to the reseller and its business aims and it means buying into the resellers objectives and supporting them all the way.

Mark Shane, Sales and Marketing Director of ICON says than ICON does all this for its partners every day of the week.  These are not hollow words says Mark, for example, we recently worked with Affinity Communication Systems to develop and win a major retail bid.

The retail client contacted Affinity with a requirement to upgrade its telecoms infrastructure and provide a voice mobility solution. The existing mobility solution was a legacy OEM analogue implementation of a Polycom KIRK solution that had served well but needed modernising to ensure interoperability with the proposed Splicecom Maximiser on a VoIP network.  One of the criteria that Affinity had to work with was a fixed budget set by the retailer.  Often a first reaction of many resellers is to reduce the margin on the project to meet their client’s budget target.  ICON was able to put together a system architecture and handset combination that delivered the clients requirements, met its budget aims, and maintained Affinity’s margin.  During the sales process ICON sent both sales and technical people to site to ensure the opportunity was well executed and understood by the partner and their customer.

This is how good value added distribution works to everyone’s benefit.  When practiced fully and with conviction value added distribution results in a win-win scenario for the client, the reseller partner, in this case Affinity, and ICON.

Affinity won the business because with ICON’s support it was able to address the three key requirements of any deal -

• the right commercial solution,
• the right technical solution, and
• the right equipment.  

With ICON adding value, Affinity put forward a business case for migration to VoIP showing how the client would benefit, proposed a minimum cost system architecture that provided the performance the client required, and presented a range of professional Polycom KIRK handsets to choose from. 

A look back at the 2011 telephone market for 50 users or more

Wave is Vertical Communications solution for the 50+ extension market.  There have been a slew of upgrades and new features since 2010 and this, along with a reseller price drop at the start of 2011 has shot Wave out of the starting blocks. 

Now over three quarters through the year Wave is continuing to exceed all expectations with more and more solutions being deployed.   ICON has seen double figure growth compared with last year.  In a market which is experiencing little growth overall this is quite impressive.  Once customers have experienced Wave in action they come back for more.  One government service is expected to spin out Wave in its centres across the UK.  

The feedback from the Channel is that when going head to head with the alternative solutions Wave wins on value for money and functionality.  Wins include installs in retail, hospitality, government, and manufacturing.  Mark Shane Sales and Marketing Director at ICON commented, “In the government sector especially we have seen a lot of wins for Wave as a result it pushing out the incumbent vendors solution” 

A strength of Wave IP is its free out of the box UC apps.  Now, Vertical is introducing an apps store for Wave.   Up and running in the US this will be an invaluable source of additional apps.  It will enable Channel Partners to add even more functionality to Wave IP bids.

The move by vendors to shift product strategy to that of selling a platform on which comms apps can be run is a developing trend in many markets.  Vertical already has an apps store for USA resellers of the IP-PBX Wave and Polycom is expected to move to a KIRK handset platform that runs “apps”