Konftel teams up with Nimans for channel push
Vendor targets firms that do not have audio-conferencing
Swedish vendor Konftel has launched its first formal UK channel programme in conjunction with its sole UK distributor Nimans to target the 70 per cent of UK firms that do not have audio-conferencing equipment.
The accreditation programme is backed by technical and sales support, and a ‘try before you buy’ option for end-users.
Chris Sulej, conferencing sales manager at Nimans, said: “Konftel carried out a survey with YouGov. It discovered that only 30 per cent of UK business are using audio-conferencing. We are really going after the 70 per cent of the market that isn’t using it as a way of doing businesses. This is not a question of taking market share.”
Sulej added that Konftel could add “another string to resellers’ bows” because its OmniSound offering works with digital, analogue and IP telephony technology.
He said that Konftel currently has a three to four per cent share of the UK market, but it was aiming to hit double figures as quickly as possible.
Campbell Williams, group marketing director at Polycom distributor and VAR AT Communications, said: “For a new market entrant to assume it can just snap its fingers and address the remaining 70 per cent of the market is a little naive. Firms that don’t have audio-conferencing don’t want it.”
Gerald Thornton, sales director for meeting exchange applications at Avaya, which plays in the higher-end multipoint audio-conferencing segment, said: “Konftel is spreading the word of desktop audio-conferencing. This is great for Avaya because firms that start off with desktop audio conferencing graduate to multipoint audio-conferencing.”