Avaya looks set to add at least one distributor in the next couple of months to join its current, sole local representative Agile.
Andy Hurt, Avaya’s South Pacific regional channel director, says one option is Distribution Central, which has just formed business unit Unity Systems to represent the vendor and other unified communication specialists in Australia.
“We’re systematically going through the organisation and haven’t made changes to the New Zealand model as yet. We’re continually looking at expanding our reach into the mid-market and that applies also to New Zealand,” says Hurt.
Avaya will make a formal announcement about its distribution model and go-to-market strategy in New Zealand in the next couple of months, says Hurt, adding its strategy involves “our investment into bringing on partners that are going to help us bring our vision into that mid-market more strongly”.
“We’ve got strong penetration into the enterprise and into the small enterprise telephony and contact centre space, but we haven’t been addressing what we class as the mid-market space.”
The head of the recently-formed Unity Systems division at Distribution Central, Steve Jones, says it would be keen to represent Avaya in New Zealand. He says the division, formed to represent Avaya and other UC specialists in future, has an agreement with Avaya that would allow Distribution Central to adopt the agency in New Zealand in future, if it was appointed.
“Avaya need to see us perform to their level of expectation in Australia. Once we’ve done that, we’ll chat with them about what we can do in New Zealand. “We want to make sure we’ve bedded down our procedures before we look at New Zealand,” he says.
Agile general manager Tony Jayne is unfazed about the prospect of being joined by one or more distributors in the market.
“As part of a global environment [Avaya has been] looking to expand their coverage at a reseller level. We’ve had discussions around what the optimum number of distributors would be and there’s agreement on what that number should be.” Jayne says Agile has made a significant investment in the small and medium enterprise space with Avaya’s IP Office suite, over the 15 years it has represented the vendor here.
He says there will be “some devil in the detail” as Avaya beds in its new strategy.
