Azlan tears off chunk of VC-NET's business

£10m VAR to begin purchasing Tandberg and Cisco products from distributor

Chris Wade: The intention is to use Azlan more, because of its Cisco connections

Azlan has snared the custom of videoconferencing VAR VC-NET, following on from its recent initiation into Tandberg’s distribution set-up.

VC-NET, which claims to be one of Tandberg’s top five UK partners with a turnover of about £10m, has traditionally procured its Tandberg kit from Avnet. It also specialises in Polycom, which it buys from Westcon.

Although the VAR will continue to use Avnet, it has struck up a parallel relationship with Azlan to tap into the distributor’s wider relationship with Cisco, which acquired Tandberg last December.

VC-NET executive chairman Chris Wade said the private equity-backed VAR made its first purchase from Azlan last month.

“The intention is to use Azlan more, because of its Cisco connections,” he said. “There is a tremendous opportunity for us to take advantage of the whole collaboration market, not just videoconferencing, and we needed a distributor that reflects that.”

He added: “We were also impressed with the services they offer and engineering support.”

Wade said that VC-NET had grown 25 per cent a year since its inception in 2002, barring its most recent year, and stressed that the MMC Ventures-backed VAR is profitable. “We are in a growth phase of our business at the moment and are able to fund it from our cashflow,” he said.

Ian French, strategic development director at TDAzlan, said in a statement: “Existing Cisco partners who embrace the opportunities presented by Cisco’s acquisition of Tandberg have a fantastic opportunity to widen their portfolio, increase their revenue, and expand their profitable services-based income.”