SPAIN
SMe & CONSUMeR NeWS
Arkoon to acquire pan-european player
fRANCe ITALY
each region good,” he declares.
in the next While government and enterprise represent
EIGHT months after the opening of its Italian few months, Arkoon’s major clients in Italy as well as in France,
office, French network security provider Arkoon is which will Sonego reveals that they would also be interested
growing in the Italian market at a steady pace. provide smaller in the telco business.
In 2008, following its expansion to Belgium, resellers with “We are internationally-recognised as a leading
Switzerland Luxemburg, Spain and the Netherlands, the technical and innovative security provider and we plan to
the company aims at reaching central and eastern support they consolidate our position by focusing on the latest
Europe, while acquiring a major European player require. technologies with particular regard to convergence
in the next month or so, Arkoon Italy country “We focus and Voip,” he says. www.arkoon.net
manager Giorgio Sonego reveals. 100% on indirect
OUR ANALYSIS
In Italy its channel programme had a very sales. That’s why
high response among partners, a success that we prefer to In a relatively short period time Arkoon has
far exceeded their expectations. “Our goal was work with few partners who, on the other hand, converted in a truly pan-European network
recruiting one to two resellers per region who are highly-specialised in the security area.” provider by moving from French-speaking countries
would only be responsible for that specific area,” The company has also recently signed a to south and central Europe and is now trying to
he says. distribution contract with Itway, which will be get even bigger through a major acquisition.
And he adds: “We have now reached a shortly followed by further agreements with other A close relationship with its partners and
full coverage of northern Italy with a dozen local VADs. customers as well as a particular attention to
resellers who have joined the highest level of our Although Sonego acknowledges that the Italian the latest market trends seem to be the key to
programme.” IT channel is being significantly affected by the its success. If they continue to grow at such a
Sonego reveals that, after consolidating in global economic crisis, he strongly believes that healthy pace, achieving a full coverage of Austria,
the north of Italy by signing up a number of key there are still lots of opportunities for some niche Germany and eastern Europe as they have
resellers such as Datamatic, the company aims at markets, such as network security. announced, chances are we’ll hear from them
reaching the centre and the south of the peninsula, “We’ll publish our financial results at the end more and more often. Watch this space for further
establishing one or two competence centres in of March but I can anticipate that they are really announcements.
Ingram Micro drives into Ireland for Cisco...
UK
IReLAND
through a specialised Cisco team, Bhavesh Patel significantly extended the technical resources and
Ingram Micro UK’s Commercial Director tells capabilities for UK resellers,” says Patel.
INGRAM Micro UK will supply Cisco to Ireland. IT Europa. “A key benefit is our PIN access Pre-Sales
This follows a similar appointment last year in “Ingram Micro is the distributor of choice for Hotline, which is available until 7pm each
Denmark and Belgium. The distributor achieved many Gold and Silver Partners and their growth evening supported by 25 Accredited Cisco
recognition as Cisco’s fastest growing distributor in the past few years has been supported by the Consultants who provide Pre Sales Consultancy
last year by hitting an impressive double digit centralisation of Ingram Micro Pan European Supply and product guidance on an extensive breadth
growth, and supplied over 1,500 resellers in the Chain driving the correct stock profile for this and depth of Cisco products, including leading
UK last; the fastest growing sector being resellers channel. A major enabler for this is that Ingram edge technologies, where Ingram Micro hold
servicing SMBs where Ingram have focussed on Micro leveraged its position as Cisco’s largest accreditations and specialisations that do not exist
new reseller recruitment and partner enablement partner worldwide, and working with Ingram US within any UK distributor.” www.ingrammicro.com
...HDS uses Ingram Micro as master distributor, appoints in Russia
eUROPe
RUSSIA
as the “engine to go to the market” in the major and proving reliable, supported by a strong
economies. infrastructure, it aims to maintain momentum
HITACHI Data Systems’ SAN offering for SMBs, “Our business model is working – we have and keep margins for resellers in the 15% to 30%
the SMS100, is selling well, says the company. consistent performance in the UK, Germany and range. “It’s a stepping stone for SMB resellers,” says
Distribution goes through Ingram Micro in the France but we have also implemented this in Spain, Bhavesh Patel, Ingram Micro commercial director,
UK and other major European countries, and to Sweden and Switzerland. This gives us the ability which is organising “boot camps” – short training
eastern Europe with Ingram Micro acting as Master to ship product to anywhere in Europe in 24 hours. sessions on selling the boxes. With prices in the
distributor. It has also just appointed a Russian Where we don’t have Ingram Micro physically, we €3000 - €15,000 range, it aims to drive the SMS100
distributor in the absence of Ingram Micro in that use them as a master distributor.” and its shortly-to-be-announced enhanced versions
country – “a difficult market, but we are confident,” The HDS volume channel requires no through SMB resellers. Expect the HDS SMB range
says Jean-Luc Cevera, European Channel Director accreditation on the part of the reseller, and by to figure strongly in Ingram Micro’s messaging for
Hitachi Data Systems. He plans to use Ingram Micro close monthly monitoring of competitor prices the next six months using HDS’s lead generation
10
29 feb 2008
It0804 - 8-11_SME_news.indd 10 27/02/2008 11:02:41
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