Thus targets data resellers as top priority for 2007
Network operator wants to get 30 to 40 VARs of Cisco-Gold quality on board
Bullish network operator Thus has made the recruitment of data resellers its top priority for 2007.
Duncan Wilkinson, head of UK channel at Thus, said the firm posted a 49 per cent year-on-year rise in turnover to £263.2m for the six months to 30 September 2006.
“Thus as a firm is steered towards data, but our channel is steered towards voice,” he said. “I want to have 30 to 40 really strong data VARs of Cisco-Gold quality on board. At the moment we have between 10 and 15.”
Wilkinson added that he has just hired a team of specialist data managers charged with recruiting more data-centric partners.
“Voice will become just another application on the LAN, and it is unclear who the winners and losers will be in terms of who supplies it,” he said. “Will it be the PBX suppliers or LAN providers? No-one knows, so we need to have both.”
Wilkinson said that the two main benefits open to VARs are extra margin and the opportunity to present a more coherent solution to customers.
Les Cooper, sales and marketing director at Cisco Gold partner Minx, which recently signed a strategic alliance with Thus (CRN, 2 February), said: “Customers told us they want the VAR to own both the implementation of the Cisco environment and the bandwidth, so they have one project manager and point of contact.
“We went for Thus because it has its own infrastructure that is completely Cisco-powered.”
Tom Perry, head of marketing at Alcatel-Lucent VAR Freedom, said: “Thus is widening its net and selling into the data channel as well as voice, where it has been strong. This makes sense because the market is converging, with voice resellers such as us moving into data, and vice versa.”