A busy time in 2011 for the telecoms channel

Mark Shane

ICON expects a busy time for its Channel Partners in the new year as the new on-site mobility products launched at the end of 2010 begin to bear fruit and the results of the recent release of Wave 2 combined with the aggressive dealer marketing of the Wave IP-PBX solution planned for early 2011 takes hold - and this is not counting the effects of new product releases.

Hot products for 2011 in the on-site mobility market place have to be the DECT Mobility Pendant.  Launched in late November the response from the Channel so far suggests that there is an unfilled gap in the market for this type of device. 

Other on-site mobility solutions which ICON expects will sell well in 2011 are the Polycom Universal DECT solutions the KWS2500 and KWS8000.  Completely new designs, these solutions can support an analogue and IP PBX interface at the same time.  They are the ideal for users in transition from analogue to IP and offer peace of mind to businesses still not sure about IP or locked into a legacy analogue solution but wanting to move to IP at some time in the future.  

Still talking mobility, expected in the first half the year is the exciting new SpectraLink 8400 family of WiFi handsets including some with optional bar code scanners.  These handsets share the same provisioning framework as the Polycom SoundPoint desk handsets meaning that if your IP telephone solution supports the SoundPoint handsets then adding a SpectraLink handset should be straighforward.

On the Unified Communications front the recent release of Wave 2.0 is expected to boost sales for Channel Partners in 2011.  Wave 2.0 packs even more UC features into the Wave IP box including synchronisation with Outlook, mobile extensions, instant messaging, integrated softphone and personal status.  These really do push the Wave IP solution to the top of the pile as far as features go and with the dealer marketing push planned for early 2011 ICON expects to see increasing sales of this powerful IP-PBX solution.

Mark Shane, Sales manager at ICON commented,

“2011 will be an exciting year for our Channel Partners.  The Universal DECT solutions are exactly the right product for the market which is in transition from analogue to IP, the new SpectraLink handsets will open up opportunities, and with the release of Wave 2.0 dealers will find that they have a very feature rich and cost competitive IP-PBX solution.”