Converged space set to put squeeze on VARs

Solutions integrator MiTech claims its new cabling method will help it survive in a tough environment

Solutions integrator MiTech claims its new cabling method will help it survive in a tough environment.

Three-quarters of resellers in the converged network space will go under, or be bought in the next 12 months, according to VAR MiTech.

Eric Thickett, chief executive of MiTech, said: “IP telephony is extremely complicated and the smaller resellers in this space will get squeezed on price. The design of the network is critical and should be done by resellers, but 75 per cent of them don’t have these skills. Next year they will dry up.”

“I predict that we will end up with just eight large integrators providing true voice over IP (VoIP) solutions.”

MiTech began life in 1992 as a data reseller. Thickett now describes it as a solutions integrator and believes it is large enough to survive.

“Our turnover is about £20m and we are aiming for £100m over the next few years. This won’t be possible purely through organic growth, so we will look to acquire some decent, smaller players in this space,” Thickett said.

One thing that Thickett thinks will help MiTech grow further is its new cabling method, which it has claimed can reduce costs by half.

“There have been two pressures in cabling: to go faster and to keep the cost down. Traditional structured cabling creates a lot of wastage. Our goal was to find a method that didn’t involve installing miles of redundant cabling.

“The result is MiConnect Pair Based Design (PBD) which enables us to provide a Category 7 system [the fastest copper system available], 33 per cent cheaper than a Category 5, and with six and half times more performance,” Thickett claimed.

Rob Bamforth, senior analyst at Quocirca, said: “If a business was at the point of recabling then MiTech’s PBD method could be ideal, but for those that are just making incremental improvements to their networks, it wouldn’t be as cost effective. Recabling is a big step to take.

“With the increasing convergence of voice and data, I can see that we might need to change the way firms do cabling but I don’t know whether MiTech’s method is the best way.”