Avnet keeps on top of Avaya

Distributor launches UK programme to keep partners up to date with Avaya's Ethernet switching portfolio

Avnet has unveiled a UK programme to keep its business partners fully up to speed on the latest Avaya Ethernet switching portfolio.

The distributor claimed the Data Seed Unit Programme has been designed to "build awareness and confidence" among new and existing Avaya business partners to help them add value to their integrated voice, data and video offerings.

Tony McNish, Avaya business manager at Avnet Technology Solutions, said: "Avaya's portfolio of data products enables enterprises to build solutions that are always on, providing up to seven times better resiliency with up to 40 per cent more energy efficiency.

"In our experience, business partners often benefit from time to get to know the products, so they get to thoroughly understand them and are able to cross-skill their engineers in their own environment.

"The Data Seed Unit Programme means that Avnet will deliver the most up-to-date Avaya Ethernet switching appliances to the business partner and provide on-site training and interoperability advice before leaving the equipment with them for up to two weeks. This means partners can become fully conversant with the technology and confident of its abilities before recommending it to customers, therefore truly adding value to converged sales."

McNish added that the competitive pricing across the product range will help protect margins and drive up profit.

"Avnet account managers will also work with business partners on the sales and marketing elements of business plans to support their efforts," he said. "This includes driving demand-generation activities to deliver sales opportunities to the partners from day one."

Tony Burrows, UK sales lead for data at Avaya, said: "Avnet has a strong understanding of the specific requirements of selling data networks into the channel. This new programme will enable partners to transfer their skills easily from competing technologies to the Avaya data portfolio.

"As we continue to expand Avaya's data portfolio over the coming months, this programme will allow partners to adopt new products without incurring additional costs in training key engineering resources, allowing them to maximise their return on investment."