NEWS EXTRA
Westcon gets Lync-in-a-box
DISTRIBUTOR Westcon Con- vergence has become the first Pan-EMEA distribution partner for Microsoft’s Lync-in-a-Box solutions catalogue. The Lync In-A-Box hardware
Marathon duo join up in aid of Sparks
DETERMINED channel duo Bernie McPhillips (pictured right), Channel Business Manager at O2, and Alan Shraga (left), MD of Fidelity Group, completed last month’s London Marathon together, taking their ‘Joined Up’ business relationship to a whole new level and raising over £6,000 for Comms Dealer charity Sparks. At the dreaded 15 mile mark McPhillips ‘hit the wall’ and recalled the battle of breaking the pain barrier. “I was injured in training and didn’t do enough long runs ahead of the big day so I completely cramped up.” Shraga had already pledged to finish the race alongside his running partner, but he too was
suffering from an injured back. “It was a case of helping each other but it was a terribly hard slog,” said McPhillips. Shraga added: “Bernie was
a real hero but we were both absolutely determined to finish and not let the charity down. “The marathon was a wonderful event and a truly memorably occasion. You don’t really feel the pain in the last two miles because the crowd gets behind you and adrenalin kicks in. We’ll both be back next year, no question!” James Pearce of RouteOne Media also completed the course for the Comms Dealer Sparks team taking the cash raised to well over £8,000.
catalogue brings together tested and qualified phones, gateways, video and USB devices for Microsoft Lync so partners and customers can take advantage of the broad choice, price range and variety of hardware solu- tions for Lync, in a simpler and more efficient way. “Our goal is to make Lync easy and more profitable for customers,” stated Guy Koster, European Director of Product Management and Marketing at Westcon Convergence. “We
provide an integrat- ed supply chain proposition encompassing product, sales and pre-sales support, market- ing, services and training. “By reducing the costs and complexities associated with the current Lync channel sup- ply chain we hope channel partners work with Westcon to increase their responsiveness and improve efficiency of solu- tion fulfilment for Lync-related business,” explained Koster. Scott Brown, Senior Director for Worldwide Lync Enterprise
SAS bags Tidewell’s expertise
MANAGED network and pro- fessional services firm the SAS Group has acquired Tidewell Solutions, a privately owned virtual network operator. Based
in West Sussex, Guy Koster
Voice at Microsoft, commented: “The Convergence Business Unit of Westcon Group offers a wide portfolio of hardware solu- tions that are fundamental for a Lync deployment. It brings sim- plicity and agility for partners and customers.” Distributor Westcon current- ly provides this support for the following Lync eco-system part- ners: Active Communications, Acme Packet, Advatel, Audio- Codes, Jabra, NET, Plantronics and Polycom.
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Tidewell Solutions resells IP voice and data networking prod- ucts to global and UK clients. “With this acquisition we will have more control over the networking products we sell to our customers,” stated Charles Davis, CEO of the SAS Group. “It will also allow us to be more competitive on pricing, a key component of growing our direct customer base, and will be a major enabler for increas- ing our service levels and flex- ibility to existing customers.” The purchase marks the first in a series of acquisitions the company expects to make over the next three years. “We are looking to acquire businesses that allow us to extend our service reach from IP networking and application path management into key areas such as business applications, cloud security, hosting and mobility management,” said Davis. “This will ensure
that we
continue to bridge the knowl- edge gap between network and application providers.”
Along with voice and data packet resiliency†
†ViBE eliminates failover delay by mirroring data payload in transit over a secondary circuit
www.comms-dealer.com COMMS DEALER MAY 2012 29
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