Huawei looks to grow enterprise channel with new distributor Hammer

Chinese vendor added the IT infrastructure distie to its line up as it looks to strengthen its enterprise offering

Networking vendor Huawei has appointed Hammer as a distributor for its IT infrastructure solutions in the UK and Ireland as it looks to develop its enterprise channel.

Hammer joins Huawei's existing distributors Exertis, Utopia and Zycko, and will have access to the vendor's IT, datacentre and cloud solutions, including servers, storage, virtual desktop infrasturcture and SAP Hana solutions.

Jason Beeson, sales director at Hammer, said the distie has "high hopes" of becoming a big part of Huawei's channel.

He said: "It's a great proposition. We looked at it quite carefully, and I think we get a great quality product and a good channel. We have high hopes. We see we can really add value to what they are trying to achieve. We don't really go into anything without aiming to be the biggest part of the channel as possible.

"[Huawei] see us as a specialist value add distributor that can make a difference to them. [It will be leveraging] the consultancy side of our business, installation side, business development side and marketing; all those functions they see as important to them becoming successful in their enterprise portfolio."

Hammer is looking to recruit from its existing partner base, as well as recruiting partners from other verticals it doesn't currently operate in.

Beeson said: "We've got a broad set of resellers in a quite varied set of vertical markets. I think they will bring us parts of a portfolio that will allow us to go and attack new vertical markets. Huawei are looking to develop their enterprise channel, and they see us as a good fit for this."

Chris Hill, sales director for Huawei Enterprise UK, said that the main focus of the partnership was not about recruiting reseller partners, but to strengthen its offer to current partners.

"We believe Hammer's extensive knowledge and experience in the cloud and datacentre market will help to strengthen Huawei's offer to our partners," he explained. "This is the start of the relationship and we look forward to working with Hammer to achieve this over the coming months."