Avaya has extended its relationship with Westcon after the distie had cracking results in the UK market.
The distributor was signed up as one of the first European master agents for Avaya’s unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) offering in partnership with RingCentral last June. Since then, the firm has been operating as a master agent, selling the UCaaS offering in the UK, Ireland, France and the Netherlands.
However, now the Avaya has named Westcon a master agent for Avaya’s OneCloud contact centre as a service (CCaaS) offering across Europe, after a successful UK pilot.
Avaya said that it was using the master agent approach in the UK last February at its Avaya Engage event, which it hoped would be an entry point for volume partners. The approach has since become more widespread in the UK channel, particularly around comms solutions, and Nickenig said there were positives to the approach.
Westcon VP Marianne Nickenig said the master agent channel model allows the company to get as close to the customer as possible, therefore ensuring continuity of service and an improved customer experience.
“Traditional partner programmes often consist of multiple barriers and points of separation between the vendor and the customer. The master agent channel model allows us to minimise these points of separation and get as close to the customer as possible, therefore ensuring continuity of service and an improved customer experience”, she said.
Trevor von Puttkammer, senior director of distribution international (EMEA and Asia-Pacific) at Avaya, said Westcon had earned the right to sell across Europe.
“The ability to deliver expertise and maximum value to customers is a quality we always look for in our partners. We see a great opportunity in teaming up with a leading technology distributor such as Westcon to deliver our CCaaS solutions to the wider European market and we look forward to further establishing our brand and increasing our market share in the region”, he said.
