Toshiba invites channel to surf growth wave

Vendor claims UK sales on course to jump by a fifth this year following launch of new products

Toshiba is confident it can deliver 20 per cent growth to its UK channel in its current fiscal year after completing a portfolio refresh.

The Tokyo-based outfit unveiled a new range of notebooks and ultrabooks in April and will also refresh its channel partner programme in the autumn to help differentiate partners that work in specialist verticals such as education.

Speaking to ChannelWeb, Neil Bramley, B2B sales director for northern Europe, predicted that loyal partners would have a bumper year ahead of them.

"We have a clear direction to grow by at least 20 per cent and so we represent a very strong opportunity for our channel partners," he said. "In the April and May period we achieved our objective."

Toshiba is already ranked second in the overall UK B2B mobile market but leads the pack in the government and education space, Bramley said.

Bramley said he expected to see substantial growth for the firm's new 9 series notebooks, which are aimed at the government, education and corporate markets, as well as its 930 ultrabook. All are equipped with Toshiba Smart Client Manager, a device management solution built on IBM's Tivoli software that Bramley described as a very strong differentiator for the channel.

It will play well into customers with mixed estates of desktops, notebooks, smartphones and tablets, he added.

"This is a very strong representation for us to meet customer needs but also very importantly gives our channel partners an opportunity to offer services, consultancy and image build around the device," he said.

Toshiba recently launched its first pure IP business telephone offering, IPedge, and took on a distributor, Capstan Communications, to offer a services and support wrap around it in January. Bramley suggested resellers could take this to market with its refreshed mobility range.

A new accreditation programme is designed to recognise the expertise of Toshiba's 30 Premier and several hundred lower-level partners in certain verticals such as education, government and SMB.

"As we go through this year we will also introduce new solutions and will be looking for specialists that choose to focus on certain solutions for certain marketplaces, and we will build that into our accreditation programme," Bramley said.