Ingram and Nortel unified in communications

Neville James channel director, South Asia at Nortel tells CRN Australian resellers will be able to get their hands on unified communications products for users with 20-500 seats.

Nortel and Ingram have signed a distribution agreement, which will see local resellers being able to access the networking vendor's Software Communication System (SCS).

Neville James, channel director, South Asia, Nortel said there were a couple of reasons why the vendor chose to work with  Ingram.

"The main reason is Ingram has aorund 3000 IT resellers and with the soon-to-be launched SCS 500, the distirbutor's resllers will fit with Nortel," he said.

"Ingram made sense to us because it has an IBM server business and our products integrate's with its products."

James said Westcon will continue as another one of its distirbutors.

"We've alwasy had two distributors in Australia and wil continue to do so going forward." 

SCS replicates unified communications PBX on a standard server using out-of-the-box software.

Ingram Micro will also stock Nortel's range of solutions designed to integrate with Microsoft and IBM's UC platforms.

This includes the vendor's Business Communications Manager (BCM) IP PBX's for small-to-medium enterprise and will carry the vendor's range of data networking products that form the foundation for any UC deployment.

David Lenz, general manager, Enterprise Technology Group, Ingram Micro Australia, said, Nortel is a strategic player in the UC market.

"Nortel's strategic relationships with Microsoft and IBM will give our resellers a go-to-market lead when it comes to specifying UC solutions," he said.

"In addition, Nortel's independent UC solutions like the SCS will give our resellers choice when it comes to building custom solutions for their customers."

To learn more about the SCS, Nortel invites their customers and prospective customers to attend the SCS Roadshow which being held in Perth 23rd April, Sydney 28th April and in Melbourne 30th April.

James said with UC increasingly becoming an important focus for IT departments as communications and IT converge, its products have become relevant to the broader IT market.