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02 May 2006
Wireless networking vendor Aruba has caused waves in its distribution channel by extending its European contract with Noxs to cover the UK market.
The deal will see Noxs, which is traditionally a security distributor, make its first move into the wireless networking market.
Bob Vickers, UK and Ireland general manager at Aruba, said: “We signed Noxs as a European distributor about a year ago, but we have only just extended that to the UK.”
He added that Aruba now has three distributors in the UK: React Technologies, Unipalm and Noxs. Vickers also claimed that this was enough, and that Aruba will not sign any more.
“Our products suit a lot of different verticals,” Vickers said. “They have both a wireless networking and a security play, so there is plenty of demand. We are a secure mobility company, rather than just wireless.”
Kay Eggleston, UK managing director of Noxs, said she is pleased with the partnership.
“We already had a pan-European contract with Aruba,” she said. “We could have signed sooner, but we were too busy last year to do it justice. Wireless security is coming of age.
Up until now it was seen as more of a security risk, but with companies such as Aruba it is more widely accepted.”
However, Jess Thompson-Hughes, managing director of React Technologies, is unhappy with the appoint-ment of another distributor in the UK.
“We represent about 80 per cent of Aruba’s UK business, and about 30 per cent of its European revenue,” he said. “Aruba gives us no leads or assistance, and it keeps appointing new distributors that add no value to its product.
“We are concerned that there is no real loyalty in the market from our partners, because we are a relatively new and small company. This is not great news for us.”
However, Eggleston denied that Noxs will deliberately lure partners away from rival distributors.
“We are not here to ransack other companies’ partners. We intend to build our own channel, but obviously if resellers do come to us, then of course we are not going to turn them away,” she said.
Separately, Aruba has signed two new reseller partners to its channel programme: security VAR Assurix, and software and services giant Computacenter.
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