Cisco VARs blast Mitel and Avaya price cuts
Resellers struggling to compete with aggresive pricing strategies
Price cuts from Avaya and Mitel are making Cisco’s mid-market IP telephony gear an increasingly hard sell, some Cisco resellers have complained.
Scott Nursten, managing director at Cisco Gold partner s2s, said: “Six months ago, if three competing quotes for a 500 to 1,000 seat IP telephony installation were compared, there wouldn’t have been much difference in price. Mitel and Avaya are being exceptionally aggressive and that gap has widened to up to 50 per cent.”
Nursten added the price gulf will begin to bite over the coming months because deals take between three and 12 months to close.
“The same thing happened in the switching market three years ago when switching prices dropped tremendously and Cisco prices stayed where they were,” he added.
John Donovan, managing director of Cisco and Ireland channels, said: “This is the first I’ve heard of a price gap, but the results we are driving would not support that.”
Donovan said recent figures from analyst MZA showed that Cisco extended its lead in the UK and Ireland telephony market for 100 lines and above to six points in the first quarter.
Peter Titmus, managing director at channel services firm Networks First, said: “Over the past 12 months, the IP telephony market has become commoditised across the board.”