Ramsac makes its presence felt
VAR branching out with convergence sector strategy
VAR Ramsac is branching out its business and making moves into the burgeoning convergence sector.
The VAR, which traditionally comes from a data and infrastructure background, has pin-pointed ‘presence’ technology as an embryonic sector it will target.
Robert May, managing director of Ramsac, said the presence sector is about everyone having just one ID to communicate. “Whether your platform is mobile phone, desk phone, instant message or email, a presence server decides to best way to contact you using the most efficient method,” he said.
“Convergence hasn’t really happened yet, despite all the talk, and because of new technology such as Vista, Exchange and Office, communications including telephones are becoming server based, which is where the IT VARs come in. Microsoft and Exchange is helping to drive this market.”
May said Ramsac is looking to partner with distributors or vendors who can really help data VARs make the most of convergence.
Keith Humphreys, principal analyst at EuroLAN, said that presence technology is part of unified communications. “This market is going to be huge,” he said. “Partnering with a distributor, especially a specialist distributor, is a good way for VARs to go about getting into this market.
“Microsoft’s Live Communications Server already gives a lot of presence technology functionality. It is the way forward, but users can already enjoy it today. However, more education is needed because if end-users don’t know it’s there, then they won’t ask for it.”