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Channel veteran Millett starts consultancy

Ex-Nortel, Avaya, Siemens and Inclarity man founds Equinox Business Consulting to offer VARs practical advice

Channel veteran Dave Millett is hoping to help struggling channel firms keep their heads above water with his new consultancy firm Equinox Business Consulting.

Millett most recently served at hosted voice over IP specialist Inclarity, where he filled the role of operations director for more than 18 months. Prior to that, he worked at vendor Nortel as marketing and business development director for EMEA services.

Millett has also held senior positions at Avaya, Siemens and BT in a telecoms career spanning 25 years. He has now founded west London-based Equinox and will work collaboratively with other consultancy firms to provide insights into technology and business development for channel firms.

Millett said: "It was the right time to move on and it seemed a good time to go out on my own. Myself and Inclarity parted amicably; they are doing well and I hope and believe they will succeed."

Equinox worked with Illume Consulting to author its first report titled Challenges for the Channel and how to Survive the Recession. The report assesses the current market and aims to offer resellers practical advice on what revenue streams to bank on this year.

Millett claimed annuity services would be fruitful for VARs in 2009, including software-as-a-service and hosted telephony. He identified three key challenges facing VARs in the current climate.

"First, end users are reducing their spending and putting off capital purchases," he said. "Second, technology is still moving apace. If you ask 11 people what unified communications means, you will get 12 different opinions.

"How do you decide which technologies are going to make money? Third, there is the question of which vendor you are going to back."

Millett indicated he was currently working with one person but may look to bring other staff with strong channel backgrounds on board.

"There are a lot of good people on the market at the moment and I want people who have been there, done it and bought the T-shirt," he said. "We want to offer practical advice that has been proven."