Lucent centralises reseller support unit

Lucent Technologies will open a support centre in the Netherlands this week for its European resellers as it raises service levels for its increasing number of partners.

The telecoms giant, which has traditionally sold direct, has about 270 channel partners in the EMEA region, generating three-quarters of it revenue.

The Dutch support centre in Rijaswijk will offer multi-lingual support for resellers. Services will include online ordering and database resources for sales and marketing. All services will be available over the internet, as well as using the phone and videoconferencing to contact resellers.

Angela Elliot, marketing director of Lucent's business communications systems business EMEA, said: 'We decided this was a critical investment. We've had a shift from a large proportion of sales being direct to channel sales.'

Previously, Lucent supported resellers from their nearest regional base.

The centre will centralise its support operations.

Lucent recently revealed it had invested #1 million in doubling the capacity of its training rooms and the number of trainers at its Welwyn Garden City office (PC Dealer, 3 March). It claimed the reseller market was entering a period in which the voice and data channels were merging as a result of the increasing number of converged products on the market.