Sipera slams lack of UK channel convergence

Bernie Dodwell admits he has seen more traction for Sipera's UC security technology in parts of continental Europe

Dodwell: This is a truly converged product that sits across [voice, data and security]

UK resellers have failed to master selling converged voice, data and security solutions as effectively as some of their continental European cousins.

That is the damning verdict of Bernie Dodwell, channel director EMEA at vendor Sipera Systems, whose technology is designed to enable deployments of unified communications quickly, easily and securely.

Dodwell said Sipera has transacted close to $1m (£611,000) of business in the UK in the past five months, working closely with his former firm Westcon and a small handful of top Cisco and Avaya partners.

But he admitted that the UK channel is lagging behind some other European countries.

“We have had great success in Belgium, as there is a different type of VAR out there,” he explained.

“In the UK you tend to have either voice, security or networking resellers, whereas in Belgium they tend to sell a wider range of technologies so are perhaps understanding the technology a bit quicker. This is a truly converged product that sits across those boundaries.”

Sipera recruited its first UK channel manager before Christmas and a formal partner programme is set to launch in February or March, Dodwell revealed.

Dodwell, who joined Sipera last April after four years at distributor Westcon, admitted the market for Sipera is still relatively small and unable to sustain a large number of VARs.

He added that a joint marketing campaign with Citrix is set to kick off next month, which will pitch Sipera’s technology as a complementary sell to Citrix's application delivery software, NetScaler.

“This is quite a new technology and it is a question of finding the right profile of VARs who are capable, interested and want to move ahead,” he said.