AVST widens its distribution net
Vendor poised to commence distribution agreement with Westcon Group
Avanquest is on the verge of losing its status as sole UK distributor for Applied Voice & Speech Technologies (AVST) as the vendor’s global distribution alliance with Westcon Group is due to commence in the UK.
The unified messaging vendor said the Westcon agreement, which was signed in January, could be activated in the UK and Europe as soon as April as it bids to raise its profile in the data channel.
Paul Cheslaw, vice-president of EMEA at AVST, told CRN: “Westcon allows us to extend our offering to data VARs that are active in the unified communications space.
“It has 1,400 resellers in Europe. We will focus on about 50 that have IP telephony experience and a large install base, of which about eight are in the UK.”
Cheslaw claimed AVST is a natural choice for VARs that carry multiple brands because its CallXpress platform interoperates with a variety of switches.
Chris Thompson, managing director of Avanquest, said: “We don’t see the appointment of Westcon as a big disadvantage, but we are yet to be convinced that there are big advantages. It is the telephony VAR that owns the switch, so data VARs are not best placed to sell unified communications.”