Aastra Telecom South Africa, a leading company in the enterprise communication market, has finalised its Sub Sahara African partner programme for launch as part of an expansion plan into the sub-Saharan region.
"Aastra is well positioned to seize opportunities in the region," saysHercules Schoombee, Managing Director, Aastra, "The sub-Saharan market contains a broad range of enterprises from small to medium enterprises (SME's) to large multi-national companies that are in need of enterprise products."
"With Aastra's wide range of products we are well positioned to cater for any type of company, from only four extensions up to sophisticated call management solutions that could scale up to 150,000 users," he says. Aastra also has products to complement hosted IP Centrex solutions and converged solutions such as world class SIP terminals with Unified Communications for Contact Centres.
Gerrie Coetzee, Marketing Director Aastra says, "Depending on the nature and size of each partner we will be able to supply tailored products and solutions to clients. Partners who offer integrated solutions as part of their service delivery will provide support and solutions, partners who specialise as distributors will supply product to the channels and some partners may do both. Specifically we are seeing great opportunities within the VoIP, Coverged Solutions and Call Centre markets which is great for the channel as this opens new revenue streams."
The Aastra partner model will be three tiered: Authorised Partners will be assigned to resell and support a limited portfolio offering mainly specialist service to end customers, Advanced partners are midsection and Premium partners will mainly focus on distributing products for Aastra, but could also - dependant on skills and competence - act as specialist partners. Each partner level will incorporate specific guidelines and deliverables in accordance with their partner level.
"Aastra will supply knowledge to all partners at a sale, pre-sale and technical level depending on the terms of their specific partner agreement to support their customers and markets effectively and efficiently," saysCoetzee.
"Within EMEA Aastra is the number one Enterprise supplier below the sub 100 port segment and we are keen to expand on this success within the Sub Sahara Market and provide our world quality systems to end customers," he says. Aastra will also start rolling out new features and offerings to its existing installed base that Aastra acquired from the Ericsson EnterpriseBusiness during 2008.
"We are keen to expand the existing installed base of Business Phone, MD110and MX-One systems with Sub Sahara Africa and work more direct with partners supporting these products already through Sub Sahara Africa," adds Coetzee. According to Schoombee, Aastra financials are very strong and the company is keen to assist customers and distributors in migrating to Aastra as a technology partner in these difficult times.
About Aastra
Aastra Telecom South Africa (Pty) Ltd. is the Sub-Saharan business unit of Aastra Technologies Limited, (TSX:"AAH"), a leading company at the forefront of the enterprise communication market. Headquartered in Concord, Ontario, Canada, Aastra develops and delivers innovative communications products and applications for businesses. Aastra's operations are truly global with more than 50 million installed lines around the world and a direct and indirect presence in more than 100 countries. Aastra is entirely dedicated to enterprise communications and offers one of the most complete portfolios of unified communications solutions individually tailored to satisfy its customers' requirements. These range from feature-rich call managers for small and medium businesses and highly scalable ones for large enterprises, integrated mobility, call centres solutions to a wide selection of terminals. With a strong focus on open standards, Aastra enables enterprises to communicate and collaborate more efficiently.
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