BTIC hunts for data partners.
Telecoms giant poised to appoint new distribution partner
BT Indirect Channels (BTIC) will appoint a new distributor in the next few months to gain more clout in the data market.
The firm, which has tried consistently over the past few years to push deeper into the IT data arena, appointed distributors Crane and Azlan last year to service the voice and data convergence side of its business.
Jon Lane, director at BTIC, said the company is happy with its existing distributors, although when asked if he intended to axe any partners he declined to comment. "We are already in negotiations with a number of players and will look to appoint a new distributor in the next three months. Clearly, we want to have a better presence in data as it's a huge growth area for us. We want to encourage more of our resellers into this area as well."
Andrew Saunders, managing director of the BT business unit at Crane, said the distributor already has plans to expand its data relationship with BTIC. "We are expanding our relationship to include VPN and data-centric services under the BT Integrator programme," he said.
Saunders added that in May the distributor will also be distributing the Nortel data portfolio through BTIC.
Derek Wilson, BT sales specialist at Azlan Network Services, said BTIC has to ensure it has the right partners. "If they are finding new partners, they'll have already analysed why they need them and will bring a company on board that has something its other partners don't. What BTIC won't do is appoint a distributor that has a similar list of resellers as an existing partner."