Crane lifts Cisco resellers with 5i partnership

Crane Telecommunications has sealed a partnership with Cisco services and support organisation 5i to supply telephony applications from Zeacom to 5i's Cisco-based reseller channel.

The deal allows firms that obtain 5i technical support to sell the Zeacom range, which includes Q-Master call routing software and the Corus call handling system.

Value-added distributor Crane claimed its move will help smaller resellers open new service-based revenue streams at a time when margins on traditional telephony hardware are decreasing.

Rachel Power, analyst at Canalys, agreed the deal could benefit Cisco resellers that are being affected by falling hardware revenues.

"Margins have come down, particularly from the traditional voice vendors, as the likes of Cisco have moved into the market with a more data-like selling model. Resellers need to find alternative revenues," she said.

"The Cisco solutions typically play at the higher end of the market, so this is likely to be of limited help to only a handful of resellers. But this will change as Cisco targets smaller customers."

Simon Longhurst, general manager for applications at Crane, said: "The relationship with 5i is very important because it forms part of our ongoing drive to add more applications to our portfolio, in addition to our traditional hardware business."

Dale Vile, service director at analyst Quocirca, said: "One-off installation deals are useful, but the Rolls-Royce of service contracts is anything that represents an annuity revenue. This is where smaller resellers should be heading."

According to David Grant, managing director of Crane's Avaya business unit, the Zeacom product range integrates well with both Cisco offerings and the IP Office and MultiVantage products from Avaya.

"Consequently, we can offer 5i an applications suite that, once mastered, can be used to create revenue streams and higher margin across a number of platforms," he said.

crn@vnu.co.uk