Hosted voice over IP (VoIP) vendor iHub has teamed up with telecoms outfit the Worldwide Group as it looks to swell its UK reseller ranks.

Worldwide Group sells hardware, data and telephony services direct to its retail customer base as well as working through a channel of about 100 reseller partners.

The company is nearing completion of iHub’s five-stage training process for new partners, but it has already carried out several installations of the hosted products.

iHub’s partner solutions director Kate Covill said new deployments were being undertaken at a rate of about one a week. She also revealed that her company works with some 50 VARs in the UK and hopes to add up to another 20 through the Worldwide agreement.

Covill claimed hosted VoIP is popular with traditional IT resellers who want to dip their toes in the telephony waters.
“Hosted is a very natural step for IT resellers, although there are some difficulties. Remuneration for staff is a little different, but we can aid them in how to set up commission plans,” she said.

“On every PBX quote going out there is now a hosted solution ­ I did not think it would get to this stage quite so quickly. People are taking the plunge and we are now moving into the mainstream,” added Covill.

Worldwide Group managing director Mark Duckmanton said: “There is now no doubt that with a carrier-grade switch, IP-hosted telephony is in a position to transform business communication and it is in our interest to reflect this trend.”