With an annual growth rate of around 23.7 per cent, the International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts the UC market in EMEA alone will be worth $16,6 billion by 2015. With the UK being the second most valuable UC market in Western Europe, it’s a great opportunity for resellers, especially in this tough economic climate.
However to introduce UC offering, and more importantly to identify the UC sales opportunity, a clear understanding of the technology and differences between UC, telecoms products and software applications is essential.
To ensure Westcoast’s resellers get a slice of this growing market, Westcoast ran a UC Partner Event at the distributor’s Lab facility in Milton Keynes. “At our first UC event we had 15 attendees who we took through our UC proposition and had presentations from AudioCodes, Aastra and Microsoft,” Scott Somenthal, UC Sales Manager, Westcoast.
Alan Reeve, Aastra Managing Director UK & Ireland said: “We were pleased to support Westcoast’s reseller event in their excellent new Solutions Suite and to meet a range of resellers who are interested in our Unified Communications capabilities. The event was a great success in positioning Westcoast’s credentials in Unified Communications with the support of Aastra’s proven experience.”
“Westcoast’s UC Partner Event was very well received by the partners attending the event and we already received a number of interesting leads to follow up on from resellers attending the event. We are convinced that well-run events such as this will boost our partnership with Westcoast and result in increased business for Westcoast resellers,” commented Daniel Raye, Marketing Manager, AudioCodes.
“Over the past 6 months we have developed some great partnerships with many UC vendors, including Sennheiser - the latest addition to our UC vendor portfolio. We are really excited for our second UC event that will be taking place at the Solutions Lab on 16th May. The event is open to all resellers and we look forward to working on exciting reseller opportunities and achieving strong growth for Westcoast and our partners,” Scott Somenthal.