Jabra prepares to battle rivals for SMB VARs

Headset vendor looks to boost its VAR numbers by 30 per cent this year

Headset and UC vendor Jabra is on the hunt to boost the number of reseller partners it has by 30 per cent this year, mainly by wooing those operating in the SMB space.

The company already has about 1,200 trading partners in the UK, but its new boss Nigel Dunn wants to add nearly 400 more to the ranks by the end of the year.

He pointed to the SMB market as a key battleground for the vendor and said winning back share in the contact centre market is another key aim.

"If we're really honest with ourselves, [contact centres] have not been our marketplace," he said. "It's not that we don't have the right products, we just weren't focused there and we left it to the competition... But [we're looking to grow thanks to] all the technology refreshes going on in contact centres."

Dunn added that Ingram Micro – which is one of three disties alongside Westcon and Nimans – has been especially good at wooing SMB-focused VARs with Jabra kit, something he hopes will continue.

"The SMB market is a big battleground for us, and where Ingram has been particularly good for us," he said. "We want to expand through our direct marketing resellers such as Insight and Kelway to get more into the SMB space, which is an expanding business for us."

The former Azlan boss said he is happy with Jabra's current distie line-up, but promised a sharper focus on the distie trio.

"I want to put a bit of energy into distribution," he said. "Ingram is good at increasing trading accounts while Westcon is aligned very closely with Microsoft – we want to put more energy into those [partnerships], especially with [Westcon Group-owned] Comstor. Its close allegiance with Cisco is really important to us."