Integrators greet Ericsson deal
Nimans becomes sole distributor for MD110 and Business Phone
Ericsson Enterprise's systems integrators have welcomed last week's appointment of distributor Nimans, despite the fact that it could create more competition for them.
Resellers Logical and Damovo both buy MD110 systems direct from Ericsson, but last week Nimans became the new sole distributor for MD110 and Business Phone, which it will sell on to smaller resellers.
"We're pleased there is now a higher profile for Ericsson," said Martin Lockett, business development director at Logical. "Given the fact that there has only been one major integrator - as Damovo was - it's always a good thing to give customers more choice."
Phillip Taylor, vice president of partnerships and alliances at Damovo, formerly Ericsson Enterprise's direct sales arm, was also optimistic about the move.
"Damovo has an important global partnership with Ericsson. Ericsson's decision to expand local reseller networks does not affect this alliance in any way.
"Damovo is vendor-independent and does not wish to be an exclusive reseller for any one supplier. It welcomes healthy competition in this market which ultimately gives the client more choice."
Richard Carter, Nimans's sales, marketing and operations director, said Ericsson products will be shipped from this week. He countered reports that VARs were unhappy with the change of distributor, which saw Centia and Norwood Adam lose their accreditations to sell Business Phone, in favour of Nimans.
"We've spoken with most of the existing resellers and the response has been extremely favourable," said Carter. He added that he hoped to move the company from a simple fulfilment role towards increased service and support.
"Existing accreditations for Business Phone will be adequate. We won't make it easier to get an accreditation, but we'll remove the need to jump through unnecessary hoops," he said.