SIEMENS CONFERENCE REPORT AVAYA SPECIAL NEWS REPORT
Siemens spurs mid-market channel push
Leon Mangan A
Since investment house Gores Group took a majority stake in Siemens Enterprise Communications in July 2008 the German manufacturing giant has been quietly developing its UC portfolio. Now it’s back with a bang and gunning for a slice of the mid-market opportunity with the exclusive help of channel partners.
fter 10 years as Managing Director of
Siemens Enterprise
Communications Graham Walker has seen all of the highs and lows market fluctuations can bring, but his mood was decidedly upbeat after delivering his keynote speech at the company’s first UK partner conference for two years last month. “We’ve had four consecutive quarters of growth and we currently have five to six per cent of the UK mid- market space,” said Walker. “I have an aspiration to get that to between 10 and 15 per cent in the UK and I don’t think that’s over ambitious. We have looked at the market and the way it is segmented. I can’t see why we can’t double our
market share in two to three years. That’s our objective and the only way we are going to do that is through our partner relationships.”
Key to that statement were the groundbreaking announcements made earlier this year. The first was that the vendor’s entry level OpenScape Office v3 solution can now scale up to 1,000 users and the second was that the larger OpenScape Xpress version can scale down from 10,000 to 500 plus users. Thirdly, and most importantly, the products are now exclusive to the channel. These developments give 200-plus partners and any new resellers looking to enter the UC space a golden opportunity to address the lucrative mid-market sector
We are back with a bang and people are going to take notice
24 COMMS DEALER MAY 2011
and compete effectively against the likes of Avaya, Cisco and Shoretel.
Fit for purpose
Polled during the conference, reseller delegates gave a universal thumbs up to the plan to the delight of Indirect Channel Director Leon Mangan, who told Comms Dealer: “Partners had an expectation of what was coming but I was pleasantly surprised that the stats were so high and partners are ready to address the mid-market sector with the right strategy and the right products. Out of our top 40 performing partners about half of them have the ability and desire to move into that mid-market space because margins are being squeezed at the lower end and the opportunities to sell wider, higher and get a bigger margin share of the deal are there for the taking.”
Siemens Enterprise Communications and its distribution partners are now
targeting mid-market reseller business and as Mangan stressed both the voice and data communities are being addressed. “Nimans is a dominant player in the SMB space and is educating existing partners about the step up,” he stated. “Arrow is big in enterprise networking and security so they are talking to software and IT partners, and Westcon is strong in the traditional comms channel mid-market space. All in all we have got the perfect blend of distribution partners.”
For many years Siemens Enterprise Communications has been a dominant player in the SMB space and has a significant presence in the public sector, but Walker readily admits there was a hole in the company’s portfolio and it has taken a long time to get the OpenScape product fully fit for the demands of mid-market consumers which the channel can market exclusively.
“It’s no secret in the market that there were challenges around the first Openscape product but we have put our heart and soul into giving resellers a UC product they can configure, install and take to market with minimal effort,” commented Walker. “There is a whole range of new partners out there that will be attracted to Siemens Enterprise Communications’ products, especially the data players as this technology lends itself to their skill sets.”
Mangan promised resellers would get all the support they need to address the opportunity including increased marketing and, vitally, sales leads and support from the direct teams. He commented: “A lot of these opportunities in the early days will be created by us and fed into the channel, so partners that are looking to get new opportunities quickly will be feeding off our direct sales force. We are back with a bang and people are going to start to take notice.” n
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