Didata invests to build its Avaya relationship

Systems integrator Dimension Data (Didata) has stepped up its investment in Avaya by creating a 32-man Avaya field engineering team.

Didata started selling Avaya products in 2004 and the Cisco specialist currently only offers Avaya implementation and project management services.

Paul Hart, UK services director at Didata, said that offering support services that it would have previously delegated back to Avaya allows it to provide a “one-stop-shop”.

“We’re looking to expand our install base in other technologies, and in order to do that we need to expand our knowledge,” he said.

Chris Nunn, UK alliances manager at Didata, said: “A lot of Avaya’s traditional voice-centric business partners are a lot smaller than us. Because of our size and resources, we can scale to support customers around the UK and match service- level agreements to their support requirements.”

Although Nunn said the move would make Didata the UK’s largest Avaya support partner, his claims were disputed by rival DataPoint, which acquired Touchbase’s Avaya arm in February.

Martin Hill-Wilson, strategy director at DataPoint, said: “This will add another level of competition to the market place, but we have more than 32 Avaya engineers in the UK.”

John Howard, channel sales director at Avaya, said: “In about two years, Didata has become one of our most highly accredited channels and we have had some large wins with the integrator already.

“It’s predominantly a player in the corporate space and we only have 20 to 25 per cent of that market. There’s a good 75 per cent of the market for it to go after, so this won’t impact our traditional partners’ revenues,” Howard said.

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