Avaya and Azlan reignite UK pact after two-year hiatus

Under-distributed comms vendor rekindles ties with old ally following its acquisition of SDG

Comms vendor Avaya has rekindled its UK partnership with distributor Azlan SDG less than two years after the duo parted ways.

Avaya was left under-distributed earlier this year when Avnet bailed out of the unified communications space as it refocused on its core business. This left the vendor with just two distributors for its full portfolio in Westcon and ScanSource.

Although it's no surprise Avaya has moved quickly to replace Avnet, the identity of its new ally may raise eyebrows given that Avaya and Azlan tore up their previous UK agreement as recently as September 2011.

But in the intervening period, the Azlan business has been combined with SDG following parent Tech Data's acquisition of the VAD.

Despite their UK split, Avaya and Azlan continued to work together in Europe and Avaya's senior director of EMEA distribution Thomas Veit claimed the SDG acquisition provided the impetus to reignite the relationship on this side of the English Channel.

"Azlan already has a proven track record of value added distribution for Avaya on an EMEA-wide basis," he said.

"The integration of the SDG business division into Azlan in the UK created an opportunity to extend Azlan into this territory. The joint Azlan SDG business has all the key skill sets we are looking for to drive the UK business into further growth."

Azlan SDG will carry Avaya's full range of telephony, unified and visual communications solutions, including its recently acquired Radvision videoconferencing wares.

Paul Blundell, managing director of Avaya partner iQual, welcomed the appointment.

"This is probably overdue as there was a lack of distribution partners before and Avaya's intention was always to have three," he said. "I have no problem with there being more competition."

While both Westcon and ScanSource are based around the M4 corridor, SDG has a hub in the Midlands, and Blundell said Azlan's addition to the line-up would give Avaya more clout with northern partners.

Paul Eccleston, EMEA managing director at Azlan SDG, said: "The addition of Avaya to the Azlan SDG portfolio opens up new potential for the channel to address the business communications needs of customers who wish to take advantage of the excellent performance, quality and innovation that Avaya solutions deliver."