Smith to take helm of Siemens channel

Tony Smith to take charge of two-tier channel for comms vendor following departure of Leon Mangan

Communications vendor Siemens Enterprise Communications is handing the reins of its two-tier channel to company stalwart Tony Smith.

Smith (pictured), who has worked at the vendor for more than five years, will take up the post of sales director of indirect channel on 1 October after current head Leon Mangan leaves to join Salesforce.com.

Smith previously managed distribution for the vendor but will now also take charge of the 200 or so SME- and mid-market-focused partners who buy from Arrow ECS, Nimans and Westcon.

He stressed he is taking the helm at a time when SEN's fortunes are on the up, with the vendor having recently moved back into a leadership position in Gartner's magic quadrant for unified communications (UC).

"My priority is to ramp up the activities of our existing resellers," Smith said. "Our UC portfolio today is the most exciting we have had, so our core focus is to upgrade those customers to take full advantage of the benefits UC can bring."