Bullish Unify declares war on channel rivals
Vendor turns business towards resellers and warns competitors to watch out
Unify has warned rivals that it wants to become partners' first-choice communications vendor as it takes steps to "dramatically" boost its channel business.
The vendor, which used to be Siemens Enterprise Communications, declared its love for the channel at a partner event in Dubai today as it unveiled an updated partner programme.
The firm claims that the arrival of former Westcon boss Dean Douglas at the end of last year was the first step towards its renewed efforts to boost channel sales. Since then, it has created a global channel role – filled by newcomer and fellow Westcon alumnus Jon Pritchard – who said rivals need to beware Unify's renewed channel vigour.
"Let me be clear: we are putting the industry and our competitors on notice that we are absolutely serious about positioning Unify as the partner of choice for the communications and collaboration industry," he said.
"Growing revenue through indirect channels is one of our highest priorities and we are not wasting any time to make this a reality. We are 100 per cent focused on recruiting and working closely with the best channel partners globally."
On his first blog post at Unify, Pritchard added that partners were keen to talk to Unify but conceded there was work to be done in proving its channel credentials.
"Coming from distributor Comstor, I certainly knew and respected Unify's reputation for outstanding engineering prowess – but not necessarily as a global channel-centric organisation," he admitted. "And as per my remit – this is going to change."
The vendor claims to have accelerated its efforts to "dramatically increase" its sales through the channel, although it did not divulge what percentage of its sales partners are involved in, nor what its target figure is.
"This is the year that we change the industry viewpoint of Unify and become the first choice for the channel," added Pritchard. "We are not only strengthening our channel, we are completely reworking our strategy, business model and programmes to have a channel-first sales approach."
At its partner get-together today, Unify talked up what it claims is its new and improved Go Forward partner programme, which features new partner benefits, better access to accreditation for both new and existing partners and better marketing support.
According to its partner locator, Unify has 30 partners in the UK, but the firm claims the event kicked off its recruitment drive through which it hopes to sign up new partners from across the globe.
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