Crane Telecommunications set to give Mitel a lift
Distributor looks to push telephony vendor's offering towards vertical markets
Distributor Crane Telecommunications is looking to recruit new data VARs to push its Mitel portfolio into vertical markets.
Crane recently reshuffled its Mitel division management team to provide more support for the telephony vendor’s offering (CRN, 19 June). Crane is now looking to swell its reseller ranks with data VARs that can tap into niche market segments.
Will Morey, managing director of the Mitel division at Crane, said: “We are looking to recruit data resellers and have already seen a good uptake. There are a number of partners we have taken on for specific verticals. Data VARs find a focus on vertical markets an attractive proposition.”
Morey added that Mitel’s offering has proved strong in the retail, hospitality, financial services and local authority verticals.
“We have done a lot of lead generation, with 50 to 60 new leads being passed to partners in the past month,” he claimed. “We currently have 40 Mitel VARs and we would like to recruit another 20 partners during this quarter. A lot of these will be from a data background, but there is still strong interest from the voice side.”
Graham Francis, managing director of Mitel reseller Vocale, said: “Targeting data VARs is a good idea, because voice over IP (VoIP) is more of a data application. When dealing with VoIP, it is easier to come from a data background than a voice one.”
Francis added that Vocale has received good support from Mitel and its distributors, which include Crane, Nessco, Nimans and Westcon.
“The Mitel product is being well received,” he said. “It contends well with the competition and its latest telephony system is very good.”
Crane also recently held the second of its Mitel partner recruitment events. The event, which took place at the beginning of July, aimed to attract new data, voice and converged resellers.
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