Avnet lifts lid on Unified Communications opportunities

Distributor Avnet Technology Solutions recently turned its attention to Unified Communications (UC), playing host ot a number of vendors and business partners at its demonstration facility THE [resource], at its UK headquarters in Bracknell.
 
Says Wayne Gratton, director at Avnet Technology Solutions, “By its very nature unified communications can appear to be complex, however, it doesn’t need to be and taking the time to understand the technology can pay dividends particularly as this is one of the few areas in IT to see continued growth. “

The event brought together a number of vendors in the UC space. Grant Watson, sales manager at nuVIDEO, an audio-visual solutions provider specialising in integrated AV and videoconferencing technologies adds, “This event helped nuVIDEO to have a greater understanding of the business opportunities available for unified communications in terms of the products available and how Avnet can help us further.  In addition, our sister companies SRS Telecom and Exactive are also working with Avnet to offer UC products and services for example from ShoreTel, Samsung and Audiocodes.  We look forward to building on our business partnership.” 
 
Avnet’s vendor partners include Audicodes, IBM, Microsoft, Nortel, Samsung, ShoreTel and TANDBERG.
 
Geoff Taylor, Partner and Alliances director at TANDBERG explains, “Avnet and its business Partners provide TANDBERG with a shop window for its unified communications offerings.  For the last two years we have had a very close and successful working relationship.”  
 
Adds Gratton, “With so many vendors investing in this growth area it can be a challenge for business partners to decide how best to advise customers when investing in new UC technology.  There are some compelling end-to-end and integrated unified communications strategies, however, most end user companies want to implement a solution that will build on existing hardware equipment and infrastructure.”
 
“Unified communications is a great opportunity for Business Partners to add value to their existing customers…The lid is about to come off unified communications and we are ready for it.”