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30 Mar 2009
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US open-source telephony specialist Digium is scouting for about 40 VARs and has told the UK channel: “We are here and we mean it.”
The company, which developed the popular open-source Asterisk platform, recently inked a UK distribution deal with Vcomm to sell Switchvox, a commercial PBX.
Digium runs a three-tier reseller programme with product margins starting at 20 per cent and VAR tools such as a quote generator.
Further reading
The vendor’s director of Switchvox products, Tristan Degenhardt, said: “We are going to do everything we can do to support VComm and help to recruit partners.
“Those partners that are most successful with us have some experience in telecoms.”
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Don't overlook Asterisk
We are the largest Select Reseller for Digium in Europe and believe that Digium's Asterisk platform is a powerful enabler to unified communications (UC) and a compelling proposition for the channel.
More resellers, telecom professionals and software developers choose Digium's products than those of any other open source telephony company because only Digium delivers the technical superiority, security and flexibility associated with Asterisk. And with the broad availability of commercially supported versions, any perceived risk associated with open source software is removed.
But it's not for the faint hearted. Convergence has been talked up for several years, usually from the point of view that it is providing fantastic opportunities for diversification and to make more margin, but for every telecoms reseller diversifying into IT there are IT resellers moving into telecoms because many business now wish to run their voice and data on the same network. This means smaller telecoms resellers may have acquired a small number of IT service contracts along with the mainstay of their business; customers that don't want to pay much if they are small or those with more complex needs require highly skilled IT support.
IT engineers are expensive. Add into the mix service delivery managers and front-line support staff and this could represent huge cost.
Whether it's finding someone to partner with or investigating the possibilities of selling off part of your business, for telecoms resellers caught with the conflicting needs of low-rent IT services customers and big bucks IT staff, the need to find a way out could become increasingly pressing.
Partnering with a company that has a strong pedigree within a complimentary sector can be one route to success. If managed properly it can be extremely beneficial to both parties and their customers. It's something we have worked on with several telco resellers, are looking to develop further and looks likely to be a growing trend in the future.
Posted by Matthew Pitt, Foehn Ltd, www.foehn.co.uk | 14 Apr 2009
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