Avaya boss Shepperd asks VARs to put video in the picture

New UK and Ireland leader wants more channel sales of video and collaboration kit

Avaya's recently appointed UK boss has expressed his desire to get more of the vendor's channel base selling video and high-end collaboration technologies.

Former Azlan boss Andrew Shepperd joined the comms vendor as UK and Ireland managing director two months ago, taking over from departing UK chief Lee Shorten. Shepperd told ChannelWeb that he wants partners to explore sophisticated technologies such as Avaya's Flare video offering and Aura, its SIP-based architecture.

"We have a very mature and established channel, but there are opportunities for partners to engage in incremental revenue streams with us through things like Flare, and also through our data solutions," he explained. "Where we are looking for more partner engagement is certainly on the video and data."

Shepperd stressed the importance of resellers basing their sales efforts on end users' business objectives.

"The demand we are seeing is more from less - we have customers and users with higher expectations, but there are financial pressures," he said. "People are asking for flexibility and mobility, and part of that is people looking to get the very most they can out of their OpEx."

VARs must get under the skin of clients before pitching high-end technologies, insisted Shepperd (pictured).

"It is about discovering the real pressures, challenges and priorities of an organisation. What are their pain points?" he added. "Having defined and described the value, having done that in pound-note terms, then we create commercial platforms to create commercial opportunity. Once you understand what those pain points are, then, and only then, do you position an architectural play."

As revealed by ChannelWeb, Avaya recently parted ways with Shepperd's former employer, Azlan, leaving the vendor with three distribution partners - Westcon, Avnet and ScanSource Europe. Shepperd would not be drawn on how the reseller migration process would be managed, but expressed his faith in the remaining trio.

"What I can say is that, going forward, we have three very effective distributor relationships that are valued by us," he said. "Westcon, Avnet and ScanSource are doing a good job for resellers."