Allied Telesyn extends UK coverage

Microtronica to distribute range of high-margin equipment.

Networking equipment vendor Allied Telesyn has appointed Microtronica to distribute its range of high-margin networking equipment and extend its UK coverage.

Eddy Hinge, managing director at reseller Universal Networks, said: "We still find that we can get decent margins with Allied kit because it is not saturated, and it compares favourably on price and functionality with similar products from 3Com and Cisco. We are in the process of joining the company's partner programme to allow us to go to the next level."

Allied sells over 99 per cent of its products through the channel, and has about 50 strategically linked channel partners made up of large system integrators, corporate resellers, networking integrators and value-added resellers.

"The best thing about Allied is its accessibility and willingness to work with us on projects," explained Hinge. "It is flexible because it is a small company with the mentality of being keen to do business."

The company's products are resold by about 900 resellers in total, and Microtronica is its latest UK distributor joining Micro Peripherals, Ideal Hardware, Open Computing and ACAL.

Jim Sampins, managing director for Northern Europe at Allied, said: "The key reason resellers are talking to us is because margins are kept high. We do not over-distribute the products. When a reseller goes into a deal, if they bid Allied they are less likely to come up against another Allied reseller."

He added that the company is filling a gap left in Microtronica's portfolio when Intel pulled out of the high-end switching and routing business to concentrate on network cards and wireless equipment.

The vendor is supporting its resellers with technical training, and is offering partners value-add with its technical support programme. "This is a good offering and we are educating our sales people to sell these as value-adds," said Hinge.