Westcon Group has purchased a Nortel MCS5100 soft switch and is set to enter the hosted/managed telephony market – the first mainline UK distributor to make such a move.
Speaking exclusively to Comms Business Magazine, VoicePoint Manager at Westcon Dawn Fenton said that the switch was installed at their Slough HQ and being used as their own telephony platform.
“We recognised the potential of having a hosted play for our resellers who will now be able to buy capacity on the switch for resale to their own customers. Already, in using the system ourselves, we have seen the competitive advantage it provides our field based sales and technical personnel in terms of mobility and presence applications.”
Fenton says she believes resellers will continue selling what they do best but will begin selling hosted and managed solutions ‘on the side’ to build up their services element of their portfolio.”