Nortel PAC set to give SMEs 'peace of mind'
Vendor extends channel services pack to include SME resellers
Telephony vendor Nortel has extended its channel services package to cater for SME resellers across the EMEA region.
The Nortel Partner Assurance Contract (PAC) was launched in March last year to provide a services portfolio to its enterprise channel partners. The offering has now been extended to cover Nortel’s SME partners.
SME PAC is an annually renewable contract where SME partners will receive access to a set of services including technical support, software patches and technical docu-mentation.
Dave Millett, director of business development for EMEA services at Nortel, said: “SME resellers can now go to end-users and say they are backed by Nortel on the services front.
“Our partners can take as much support as they like. They can build all of their own services, but they could also choose to sell a Nortel services contract under their own banner and take a margin.”
Millett said partners would be able to build up their own services model over time, and need less direct support from Nortel.
Amanda Gidden, distribution director EMEA at Nortel, said: “We have 45 SME UK partners at the moment and we are on track to make this 60 by the end of the year. The SME PAC programme will get out to 30 to 40 per cent of resellers by the end of the year, and 100 per cent of SME partners next year.”
Tom Jacques, managing director of Nortel reseller 1st Communication, said: “My customers, which are mainly small businesses, need and use technology every day to communicate.
“With Nortel SME PAC we are now able to offer peace of mind if things go wrong, without putting any burden on our existing re-sources.”
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