BUSINESS INTERVIEW
www.comms-dealer.com
Direct pays off for Mitel
EXCLUSIVE
Dealing direct with the channel rather than through
a network of distribution partners has helped
Mitel to maintain and increase its market share
under difficult trading conditions, according to
UK Managing Director Graham Bevington.
alking about the gateway, but for larger clients
T
company’s plans for the that want to host everything
rest of the year, Bevington within their own datacentre we
explained that he’s don’t have to be prescriptive
pleased with Mitel’s performance – and neither do our channels.”
so far, and says key to its success
has been the ability to react Like many vendors, Bevington also
quickly to partner’s problems. “The believes that the swine flu outbreak
benefits of the model we adopted has increased business’ awareness
a couple of years ago are there of contingency planning and the
to be seen,” he said. “A channel need for reliable disaster recovery
comes to us in the morning with a planning, even if money is tight.
problem, and we can come back Resellers should be talking to
with a solution in the afternoon.” customers about issues which are
going to be topical before they
Bevington cites a new zero percent happen, he believes. “Going
finance plan for dealers and back a few years to the terrorist
putting prices on hold despite the attacks in London, a number of
increasing strength of the dollar customers told me their disaster
as initiatives which have helped recovery plan was based around
maintain Mitel’s presence in the the mobile network,” he added.
market. Despite this, he admits “But in a terrorist alert the first thing
revenues are likely to be down the police do is shut down the
but is confident that Mitel has mobile phone network. We have
Graham Bevington
the right product set to meet to help customers think through the
the demands in 2009. Key to implications of what they’re doing. manufacturer, if you’re not sat warns that there may be harder
its strategy will be the rollout of With swine flu, some people will be in front of your user base and times ahead. At the same time,
IBM and HP server compatibility uncomfortable while others will feel listening to them, you don’t know he reiterated the company’s
for its flagship 3300 ICP unified well and want to come in to work. if what you’re designing is good, commitment to its channel partners
communications platform, You can give them a teleworking bad or indifferent,” he says. “At and doesn’t anticipate changes in
announced earlier this year. product where they can still be the end of the day, our job is to the current strategy. “I’m told by
Targeted at large, multi-site firms, effective for you in that period.” create the best applications for people who are way smarter than
it will enable multiple instances of our end users; and if our clients me that every recession since the
the call management software In a world of increasingly similar turn around and say ‘I’ve seen the 1930s has been a double dip,” he
to be hosted on the same server, UC suites, applications like Microsoft presence tool, but I like warns. “And there’s no reason to
and follows a similar rollout of Sun- teleworking are what differentiate what Mitel does with it’, then our assume this one will be different, so
compatible applications in 2008. vendors, says Bevington, and customers will stay loyal to us.” we’ll just have to keep our heads
Its importance for resellers, says he holds regular user groups to down and see where we land over
Bevington, is that it allows them solicit feedback on Mitel products While Bevington is pleased with the next few months. The channel
to match clients’ requirements to suggest new features. “As a Mitel’s performance so far, he strategy we’ve got has worked
whatever their demands. to get us where we are now, so
A channel comes to us
it’s business as usual as we work
“It opens up whole new channels with partners to make us both
to market and ways of deploying with a problem in the successful. Although it probably
our technology,” he explains. doesn’t feel like it at the moment,
“For people who need it, we’ll
morning, and we come back
the one thing I can be certain of
clearly continue deploying the
with a solution in the afternoon
is that at some point this recession
3300 hardware appliance or will end.”
n
26 COMMS DEALER SEPTEMBER 2009 www.comms-dealer.com
P26 G Mitel.indd 1 27/8/09 3:31:29 pm
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