EADS' Channel Efforts Score High

That combination,a well-established player with a start-up's channel mentality,creates a vendor partner that is hungry to do right by its partners and has the resources to back them up, solution providers said.

"They've probably done more for the companies engaging with them right now as partners than any vendor I've dealt with in 20 years," said Pat Grillo, president of Atrion Communications Resources, a solution provider based in Branchburg, N.J. "They're putting their money where their mouth is, investing in people and training," he said.

The Dallas-based vendor's channel push began last year after the company's February 2003 launch of PointSpan M6500, its first line of IP telephony products, which is aimed at small and midsize customers. The offerings supplemented the company's existing catalogue of high-end legacy and IP-based phone systems and contact-center software.

Since then, EADS Telecom North America has committed over 70 percent of its marketing funds to supporting its fledgling channel partner program, said Kyle Priest, vice president of marketing at EADS Telecom North America, a subsidiary of French communications firm EADS Telecom.

The vendor last year sold more than 50 systems through its new channel program, accounting for 10 percent of the company's revenue. Priest said he expects channel sales to account for 20 percent of revenue this year.

"Our resellers are ecstatic," Priest said of the level of support the company is providing to its partners. "We're doing solutions selling consulting, pre-sales and implementation support. %85 We're writing marketing plans and helping execute those plans with [partners]," Priest said.

While other companies courting channel partners could make similar claims, one unique element to this vendor's channel strategy is a program that gives money to its partners to subsidize the salary of a full-time dedicated sales champion, an employee whose sole purpose is to help the partners' sales force close EADS deals.

Partners said they have used the funds to hire sales personnel with high-end telephony experience to help their data-focused sales force get up to speed on converged communications.

Solution providers participate in the program said the presence of the sales champion on staff has resulted in increased sales.

"Our guys would not have felt comfortable selling voice if he weren't there," Grillo said.

EADS Telecom North America has also spent a significant amount of money on seminars to train its channel partners and to educate potential customers on the benefits of IP telephony, said Phil Mogavero, president and CEO of Data Systems Worldwide, a solution provider in Woodland Hills, Calif.

Mogavero said one reason he chose to partner with EADS Telecom North America was because its products are not overdistributed. "They're providing a very focused effort with a limited number of partners," Mogavero said.

Since the vendor is keeping its channel program on the small side,11 partners with plans to grow to 30 partners by the end of this year,solution providers said they get more personalized attention than they could possibly get from competing vendors that support thousands of authorized partners.

With its history selling high-end communications systems to customers such as Microsoft, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and NASA, Priest said he knows the firm is still the new kid on the block when it comes to the SMB space, a market where competitors such as Cisco Systems are already entrenched.

To take on the well-known competition, EADS Telecom North America is positioning its midrange product line as a flexible, lower-cost alternative that offers "five nines" reliability.

The PointSpan product line includes IP-PBXes, a media gateway and a communication server, giving customers full flexibility to migrate to full-IP implementations at their own pace, Priest said.

Solution providers say lack of brand recognition is the biggest challenge they see to selling the vendor's products.

"They have a sound marketing plan, and I believe [brand recognition] will improve dramatically as the year progresses," Mogavero said.