Ingrian slashes Euro workforce
Vendor blames premature expansion for major cuts, leaving partners bemused
Security appliance vendor Ingrian Networks has left partners in the dark after scaling back its European operations. The company has claimed the move was due to premature expansion driven by over-optimistic forecasts.
After only nine months in Europe the workforce in the region has been axed from seven to three, with just one representative left in the UK.
James Blom, former director of European operations at Ingrian, is no longer with the company. In total, 10 per cent of Ingrian's global workforce has been cut.
George Daum, vice president of worldwide sales at Ingrian, explained that the vendor had decided to scale back after being led to believe that its presence in Europe was "bigger than it actually was".
Industry sources commented that Ingrian had been building its European business based on sales in the pipeline rather than actual sales.
The decision has put existing arrangements in jeopardy. City-based reseller Hydra told CRN that it had not heard from the vendor since agreeing to sell its e-transactions device in May.
"We tested its box and were looking forward to working with Ingrian, and then all of a sudden it had disappeared," said Mark O'Hara, managing director of Hydra.
O'Hara added that the agreement has gone from a "done deal, back into negotiations" as a result of the uncertainty.
"We will see what happens, but I do not want to go to my corporate customers with a company that is not committed to Europe," he said. "It would have been nice if someone had telephoned us."
Neil Ledger, a director at Ingrian's sole UK distributor, equIP, said his firm had been left in limbo. "But it is a good product and we have had a lot of interest. I look forward to meeting [Daum] to see what the company's UK ambitions are," he said.
Daum insisted Ingrian is still committed to the UK. "We are starting over and I want to meet UK partners to collaborate," he said.
Morgan Flager, principal architect, is the company's only UK representative, but Daum said the firm intended to bring in a UK head.