All Roads Point North

Stuart Bradshaw of Nimans

The first major Channel event to hit the North of England will be with us shortly when the Convergence Summit opens for visitors on 1-2 May at the Hilton Deansgate, Beetham Tower, Manchester. Get it in your diary now – here’s why.

After five thoroughly successful Convergence Summits held in the Midlands and the South of England a new and regular event for the North of England has entered the mainstream Channel – The Convergence Summit North.

Almost a sell out from the time the event was launched – see exhibitor list, the Northern event also promises to deliver an equally informative and margin making seminar program as that we delivered last October at Sandown Park. 21CN, Unified Communications, Fixed Mobile Convergence and Mobility – all the hot issues for 2007 will be covered by industry leading speakers.

Northern based resellers – look no further: Comms Business is bringing you

these major vendors to your doorstep to meet under one roof on a choice of two days. You have never had this before, make sure to go!!

Manchester based distributor Nimans has always recognised that the region is both a vibrant constituent part of the UK which is why they have become the headline sponsor of the event.

Nimans’ Plans Gather Pace

Plans for the Convergence Summit North are at an advanced stage according to exclusive headline sponsor Nimans who predict the Manchester exhibition will be the ‘must see’ event in the North for 2007.

Head of Marketing, Stuart Bradshaw, said Nimans will be hosting a hospitality area, providing visitors with networking opportunities as part of a relaxed and informative atmosphere.

He explained: “As main sponsor, we are extremely confident the event will be a huge success, as demonstrated by the number of key dealers already expressing strong interest in attending. Working with Comms Business, our role is to provide the ideal platform for the show to fulfil its huge potential and become the must see event in the North this year. We look forward to welcoming many key suppliers and customers which will reinforce our reputation as the country’s leading telecoms distributor, where customer service is our number one priority.”

Summit North and South Platinum Sponsor Siemens Enterprise Communications have a lot to say in 2007 with David Dyer, Channel Marketing Manager, commenting, “Our product portfolio and product roadmap have never been stronger and our partner program and value proposition are, in my view, market leading and growing in strength every day.

With a market which is moving ever faster, communication between all channel centric organisations is key. The Convergence Summit is now firmly established as one of the key communication mediums for VARs, Distributors and Suppliers to meet, discuss and educate each other about changes in customer expectations and changes in product and service capability and as a champion in the move towards the delivery of Open Communications it is only appropriate that Siemens Enterprise Communications take centre stage.”

David Dyer of Siemens

Dyer adds that Siemens will be showing their full remit of IP capabilities at the Northern Summit from the recently launched BizIP through to the Enterprise HiPath 8000.

“The Northern Summit will see Siemens with both traditional and Hosted IP Telephony solutions for the Channel and with the applications we have developed for those platforms Siemens will be able to demonstrate end-to-end solutions from a handful of users right up to tens of thousands of users. We will be keen to talk to Resellers at the Summit about our soon to be released Hosted IP Telephony solutions and have a very positive outlook about the event. There is a real place in the market for face-to-face communications – the web is obviously a given today but people do continue to buy from people and the Summit is a great place to meet people.”

Lesley Hansen, Marketing Director at Yorkshire based Teleware, says the Convergence Summit last year has been very good for TeleWare – the market for hosted services is really beginning to move and the opportunity to launch our ‘Telephony in one Leap’ campaign to such a strong set of delegates was an excellent opportunity. The business potential can be seen from the number of new partners we have been bringing on board in the last 2 months. We are planning to participate in both the North and South events in 2007.”

Telecomplete and Mywebcalls

Ruth Davey, Marketing Manager, Telecomplete told Comms Business Magazine, “As a leading VoIP and ISP converged solutions provider, we are confident we offer the Channel a valuable proposition. We are based in Manchester and understand the local marketplace completely. The Convergence Summit is an excellent opportunity to meet with new Channel Partners. Convergence is a reality and the Channel needs to respond.”

Summit in Action

Andrew Middleton, Sales Manager at Surrey based reseller Talking Technology, returned to his office from Day One of last year’s Summit at Sandown Park and told his directors they had to visit the following day and attend the seminar program session on Hosted IP Telephony. Directors Phil and Sarah Boniface had in fact got the event in their diary as they were going to see Oak Telecom to arrange for their billing platform to be upgraded. Having done this they attended a panel debate of Hosted IP Telephony and then went to a ‘Pitch Session’ from VanillaIP.

Phil Boniface, “We had begun to come up against resellers selling hosted telephony and were starting to spend an increasing amount of time selling against it. We mainly sell Panasonic and Toshiba VoIP systems but were frustrated by the amount of resources – time and effort and often sub contract specialist services – we had to invest in integrating applications to these

Sarah and Phil Boniface of Talking Technology

products. Coming away from the Summit we were determined to that we would enter the hosted market and spent some further time considering our options before deciding to go with VanillaIP.

Unlike many of the companies offering hosted solutions Dave Dadds, Managing Director at VanillaIP, is from the same voice centric background as we are so it felt very comfortable going with a vendor that actually knew and understood the immediacy of voice.

Today, six months later we have taken the plunge. We have completed all of our training and sent out the first batch of what we expect to be many customer quotes. Already we have a VanillaIP supplied white label web portal where we can supply and configure customer configurations and expect to be using it extensively soon.”

Key Facts: Convergence Summit North

Dates 1-2 May 2007 Venue Hilton Deansgate, Beetham Tower, Manchester

How do I get in? Register online at www.convergencesummit.co.uk

How do I book a stand? There are only a few left and you should call Paul Johnson immediately on 01892 559 393 or email him at paul@commsbusiness.co.uk

Website www.convergencesummit.co.uk

Any questions? Call 01892 538 348

	www.convergencesummit.co.uk