NEC STREAMLINES CHANNEL ACTIVITIES
22 January 2007: NEC has streamlined its channel delivery process for communications solutions through two of its UK businesses. NEC Philips Unified Solutions (NEC Philips) will supply the 2000IPS and UNIVERGE SV7000 platforms and solutions, focused at medium and large enterprises. NEC Infrontia will supply the XN120 and Aspire communications solutions that are targeted at the SMB sector.
It is well known in the channel that the Philips branded IPC100 comes from the same stable as NEC Infrontia’s XN120 and is based on the same underlying architecture. Consequently, the NEC Philips IPC100 SMB communication platform will now be supplied to the channel direct from NEC Infrontia.
This is seen as a natural and logical progression as NEC looks to streamline its supply chain process to ensure channel partners continue to get a highly competitive and efficient service.
This move does not affect the 2000IPS mid-range platform, which continues to be supplied by NEC Philips direct to its channel partners as well as through Nessco - NEC Philips’ primary distribution partner in the UK.
Chris de Silva, UK Managing Director of NEC Philips, says, “This is a logical ‘next step’ of the NEC business. Our established channel partners for the IPC100 will still be able to procure the Philips-branded system through our distribution partner Nessco as they do currently and developments on the platform will continue as normal. In addition, NEC Philips will continue to focus on our 2000IPS platform through channel, as well as our UNIVERGE SV7000 enterprise IP voice servers and Unified Communications offerings.”
Doug Lawes, UK Managing Director of NEC Infrontia, adds, “NEC Infrontia will be the single point of contact for the SMB market solutions and we will continue to drive growth for NEC in this market place. We will be working very closely with NEC Philips and we look to them for support in larger enterprise opportunities from the channel and through our direct accounts. This will give us and our partners the opportunity to leverage their undoubted expertise in the large enterprise space, notably with the UNIVERGE SV7000.”
Austin Davidson, Managing Director of Nessco, comments, “We have developed an excellent working relationship with NEC Philips during 2006, our first year as the distributor of the Philips IPC100 and 2000IPS. We understand the reasons for this alignment by the NEC companies and it is very much business as usual for us, as we continue to get the best of both a strong product line and a strong product brand. We will continue to supply the Philips IPC100 and the 2000IPS which have become important parts of our ‘one-stop’ offering to our growing national network of resellers. We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with NEC Philips and our new relationship with NEC Infrontia.”
NEC Philips Unified Solutions
NEC Philips Unified Solutions (NEC Philips) provides traditional, hybrid and IP communications solutions to medium and large enterprises in the private and public sectors. Headquartered in Hilversum, the Netherlands and with its UK head office in Cambridge, the company was established in 2006 as a 60:40 joint venture of NEC Corporation and Royal Philips Electronics. NEC Philips draws on more than 50 years experience in providing communication systems, applications, networks and services to over 12 million end users worldwide – through its direct operations and channel partners.
NEC Philips is a Microsoft Gold Partner specialising in Unified Communications (UC) – the convergence of IT and Communications to provide real-time collaboration solutions delivering rich functionality. It provides simple to use, yet sophisticated and highly secure UC solutions based around Microsoft software platforms, including Office Communications Server, Exchange, SharePoint and other UC components. These are deployed with the latest voice, data and video technologies over converged networks, utilising both desktop and mobile devices to enable real-time, collaborative working.
NEC Philips is a part of the global NEC enterprise communications business which has a market share of 12.6% ranking it number one in enterprise telephony (Source: Gartner Dataquest - October 2006).
For additional information, please visit http://www.nec-philips.com/uk
NEC Infrontia
NEC Infrontia is one of the highest profile suppliers of advanced business telecommunications equipment. Its parent, NEC Corporation of Japan, is one of the world's largest and most influential electronics groups, and claims a leading position in many international markets. For its part, NEC Infrontia, launched in 1995, is expanding rapidly in serving a growing European market. Its success is measured by its ability to satisfy an increasingly sophisticated and demanding customer base.
It benefits from a group investment of £2bn p.a. in R&D, which makes its parent the world's top five most prolific patent producer and it now has over 50,000 installed business telephone systems in the UK alone. These carry either its own branding or that of other internationally respected suppliers for whom it manufactures.
NEC is one of the world's largest telecommunication suppliers with a dominant position in many international markets. Millions of customers worldwide insist on NEC solutions in both traditional and LAN based IP telephony.
For additional information, please visit the NECiL home page at: http://www.neci.co.uk