Unipalm hopes for fat profits from Thintune

Distribution agreement with hardware vendor will support Citrix deal

Unipalm has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with hardware vendor Thintune to support its recent Citrix deal.

The security distributor entered the thin-client market when it became a Citrix partner last August.

Russell Zientek, director of professional and technical services at Unipalm, said the distributor needed a thin-client hardware supplier to complete its portfolio.

He said the firm wanted to distribute Thintune in the UK because the firms have an existing relationship in Germany and because of good margins.

"Thin-client hardware makers Wyse and Neoware are already distributed in the UK, and there would be no room for us," said Zientek.

He said Unipalm had achieved its target of signing 10 resellers to work with Citrix. "Citrix signed us to get new resellers on board, and because these are resellers that have never sold Citrix it was quite a challenge," he said.

Lewis Gee, managing director of Citrix UK, said Unipalm's Thintune deal is good for Citrix. "We prefer our partners to offer different portfolios," he said.

"We did not want Unipalm's role to be just servicing existing resellers."

Unipalm said it has also picked up a number of VARs formerly serviced by Westcon, which parted from Citrix in September.

Separately, Gee said Citrix was continuing to work with more VARs through its Professional Services Programme, launched last year. The scheme aims to support smaller players carrying out larger Citrix projects.