Aastra gets tough on accreditation

Comms vendor tells partners to keep their badges up to date or be denied product as it launches video assault

Aastra wants to keep a watertight grip on its accreditation programmes as it looks to make a bigger splash in the video space.

Alan Reeve, UK and Ireland managing director of the comms vendor, claimed the firm is at number one or two in the PBX market-share rankings across Europe - except in the UK, where it lies sixth. But progress has been made in recent years in building the brand in this country, he asserted.

"Over the past three years, many more in the channel know about us. We now have about 130 UK partners; our channel has expanded considerably," he explained.

The Canadian vendor is aiming to make further inroads into the video turf of Cisco, Lifesize, Polycom and others with the recent release of the latest iteration of its BluStar platform.

"A lot of [our partners] are legacy voice guys. But we now have channels in the IT and software markets. We have channels in videoconferencing, and we are trying to encourage them to sell our full suite of technologies," said Reeve. "We have also seen some systems integrators that have worked in the electricals space."

The UK boss claimed his firm differentiated itself as a partner for resellers firstly through its comprehensive set of solutions, but also through a more hands-on approach than others.

"We are a very flexible organisation, and we want to work with the channel," he said. "One of my competitors just had a [partner] cleansing exercise. Do I want those channels? Probably not. But the channels I do have we look after. I try to get to everyone in my channel on a first-name basis. If someone has a problem, they can ring me. I am not hiding behind a desk and letting my sales guys deal with the issue."

But Aastra has been taking a tough line with its VARs this year in ensuring their accreditations are up to date. Reeve (pictured) outlined that it was important to "cut off at source" any potential problems, as the vendor "cannot fix problems that resellers have caused at their own hands" in the field.

"We started this year by refusing to ship product to resellers that had not gone through the accreditation process," he added. "One of my priorities is monitoring the accreditation programme and making sure that each and every one [is maintained properly]."