UniPrint eyes "cosy club" of VARs as it opens up to channel

Managed print vendor aims to push all business through resellers as new channel chief takes over

Print vendor UniPrint is hoping to create a small "cosy club" of resellers as it aims to open its business up further to the channel.

The vendor provides products and services which enable businesses which have virtualised their IT to print across multiple locations. Previously the firm took a quarter of its deals direct, but its new EMEA territory manager Keith Joseph has ruled that every deal must involve a partner from now on.

Joseph joined the vendor from DataCore where he was its sales boss, and now takes responsibility for the UK channel in his new role at UniPrint.

The vendor currently only has a handful of partners - which are served by disties Prianto and Arrow - but Joseph said he hopes to expand the numbers to between 10 and 12 in the coming months.

"We're not looking for great numbers but really those who are technically focused VDI or cloud-driven resellers that want to embrace [our technology]," he said. "We want to almost create a cosy club of a dozen or so partners who have an understanding of what the product does who we can feed leads to and allow them to really take the bull by the horns."

Joseph was brought on board at Canadian-headquartered UniPrint to expand its channel presence and is a new addition to its UK firm. He said customers in the legal, local government and charity markets are especially keen on UniPrint's technology and that he hopes to target these as he opens the channel up.

"Historically we have been 75 per cent channel and taken certain deals direct but I've implemented a 100 per cent channel [approach]; there will be no direct business in any way. We really want to enable the channel to go out there and do their own professional services."

Yuri Pasea, chief executive of Prianto, welcomed the move and said resellers have responded well to UniPrint's offering.

"Any distributor likes [vendors] putting 100 per cent of their business through the channel," he said. "We've been with UniPrint for about 18 months now and we're seen huge interest in print solutions and their 100 per cent channel policy is great, we will put more focus around [the technology].

"Everything is going virtualised but eventually it has to become physical again and get printed out and that is why we have seen increased [interest] from resellers looking for fully rounded print solutions. We welcome the move and it's the right time for [UniPrint]."