Ericsson Enterprise consolidates EMEA units

Networking vendor restructures sales regions to refocus operations and reducecosts

Ericsson Enterprise has become the latest networking vendor to restructure its sales regions in a bid to refocus its operation and reduce costs.

The exclusively indirect vendor will merge its western Europe sales organisation with its central Europe, Middle East and Africa units, forming a single EMEA sales organisation.

The move follows similar changes by Alcatel and 3Com in recent months.

Olof Aurell, vice-president of Ericsson Enterprise EMEA, said there will be no redundancies in the UK but stressed that the company is striving to be cost-efficient across the region.

"We will have one organisation instead of two," he said. "We will also introduce four different channel management organisations across the region."

Staffan Johansson will become director of channel management for the UK and Benelux sales organisation. As part of the restructure Ericsson Enterprise's UK focus looks set to increase.

"The UK is the second-largest communications market in Europe, after Germany, and we need a dedicated team," Aurell said.

Manny Pinon, sales and marketing director at Ericsson Enterprise distributor Norwood Adam, said the vendor's increased UK focus was a positive move.

"The company is rationalising its organisation, but this move will also sharpen the way it looks at the UK market," he said. "This will benefit resellers of its enterprise product set."

Separately, Telecom Knowledge has become an Ericsson Enterprise authorised training provider in the UK. It will provide pre-sales, technical and end-user training to resellers and customers in the UK for its MD110 PBX, BusinessPhone applications and contact centre products.

Ericsson Enterprise said the training partnership will help it to meet the demand for continuous training within its indirect sales channel.