Cabletron team tackles support

Three managers have set up on their own to offer more after-sales care

Three Cabletron sales managers have set up network reseller Prime Business Solutions (PBS), after customers told them they wanted more support from partners.

PBS, formed by Matt Franklin, Steven Falle and Trevor Rolls, is vendor independent, but is an approved reseller for 3Com, Cabletron and Cisco.

The firm is also in discussions with Newbridge Networks and Xylan, but said it will try to provide customer-tailored solutions rather than pushing particular manufacturers.

Sales director Franklin said that while at Cabletron the three had constantly come across users who wanted to work closely with partners and who were demanding a much more managed service.

?Customers are asking for more and more from their suppliers, wanting best-of-breed solutions, but are concerned about ownership costs and future management.

?PBS was formed to address the spiralling costs associated with network ownership.?

The firm will initially concentrate on building up its customer base in the traditional Lan market as a traditional Var. But strategic accounts manager Falle said PBS had a three-year plan to deliver a managed service for small and medium-sized companies.

?Within a year we will be offering in-house support as well as support by remote access, but the three-year plan is to provide a complete partnership with the customer by offering a managed service.

?That is something which is currently only addressed in the very large corporate companies, but a demand is beginning to grow in the SME market,? he said.

PBS has also just won a large contract to supply an unnamed customer with AT&T?s wireless Lan product, Wavelan.