Siemens Continues Global Channel Partner Moves

When Siemens Enterprise Communications started to get serious about channel partners in 2009, Channel Chief Denzil Samuels promised a global strategy would soon unfold. Fast forward to the present and Siemens is starting to flex its muscle from Australia to North America. Here's how.

Dave Courbanou

March 31, 2010

2 Min Read

Siemens Continues Global Channel Partner Moves

Siemens_Enterprise_Communications

Specifically, Siemens and Avnet have tied the knot in Australia. They’ve just signed a 12-month distribution deal for unified communications SMB products and they’re both pretty happy about it. But it’s not an exclusive marriage — there’s a 3rd party involved.

Avnet is actually working alongside IPL Communications who once upon a time, exclusively courted Siemens. But according to Edgar Giesel, who is Siemens’ general manger, a second partner doesn’t mean the first one is under-performing.

“[The exclusivity deal ended] in mid-2009 because we introduced a new program for partners. We had an obligation from Siemens globally to not have any exclusivity in the market. It had absolutely nothing to do with performance.”

So, what does that mean for both IPL and Avnet? Both of them will have access to the same portfolio from Siemens, but then, is that wise for Siemens to over-saturate the market? Apparently, no. ARNnet.com.au claims that Giesel “insisted the market won’t suffer from excess supply.”

Why is that? Well…

“In this financial year compared to the last, we’ve had an increase of 70-80 per cent. Yes, we had a very bad year previously with the financial crisis, but the business is still going very well. It’s important to increase the channel to sell this solution around Australia.”

Of course, Siemens is making channel moves on multiple continents. Most recently, the networking company announced a UC virtualization strategy involving VMware. Also, Siemens’ OpenScape UC Server 2010 seems to be gaining traction in North America. Sales of the hosted solution increased nearly 450 percent, Siemens indicated during the recent VoiceCon trade show in Florida.

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