Cisilion lets the catalogue out of the bag
Reseller launches catalogue containing solutions, not products
Networking and security reseller Cisilion has launched a catalogue containing solutions, as opposed to products.
By selling packaged solutions, the company, headed by former ilion and Landis UK managing director Roger Paul, hopes to appeal to both new and existing customers.
"It's not really a catalogue; it's more of a guide," said Chris Jenkins, Cisilion's product and marketing director.
The 44-page booklet contains few product photographs and no part numbers, and refers to entire solutions throughout.
Jenkins said: "We approached vendors that we thought fitted specific areas, such as IP telephony, virtual private networks and security. Within about six days we had not only managed to fill the catalogue, but had actually increased the pagination from 32 to 44 pages."
Jenkins said his company had signed up vendors such as Netilla, which offer new technologies likely to come to the fore in the next 18 months.
Cisilion has started by assembling a list of about 3,000 existing customers, quoted firms and seminar attendees to target, but will also aim for the wider SME community.
"SME is where the lion's share of the market is; potentially there are about 44,000 customers out there," said Jenkins.
Rachel Power, an analyst at channel consultancy Canalys, said the move was interesting. "This is quite an innovative thing to do. It will raise Cisilion's level of awareness in the market," she said.
"But in the SME market it will have to compete with the likes of Dabs and Black Box, although it wouldn't see itself in that category.
"It will be a challenge to convert people at that end of the market to buying solutions rather than products."