Wick Hill and Sipera issue UC call to arms

Duo claim unified communications security is a gaping opportunity for the channel after joining forces

Bernie Dodwell: Sipera sales well over seven figures

Distributor Wick Hill and new vendor partner Sipera are urging VARs to cash in on the “99 per cent of companies” with no unified communications (UC) security.

Sipera marched into the UK channel 18 months ago, having appointed ex-Westcon man Bernie Dodwell as its first director of EMEA channels. He claimed the UC security vendor’s European channel sales have since grown from nothing to “well over seven figures”. Wick Hill joins Westcon in the vendor’s UK distribution line-up.

Westcon’s Avaya, Cisco and Siemens partnerships will complement Wick Hill’s Panasonic, Samsung and security franchises and provide Sipera with diverse routes to market, said Dodwell.

Wick Hill chairman Ian Kilpatrick claimed Sipera’s wares could give security VARs a competitive edge.

“When we started with [vendor] WatchGuard in 1997, they were the first firewall appliance in the world and 95 per cent of the market did not have a firewall,” said Kilpatrick. “Now 99 per cent have a firewall – but the same amount does not have UC security at all. I look at that as a huge opportunity; some of the impediment to growth of UC is about security concerns.”