Westcon Buys Largest U.S. Nortel Voice Distributor

“By melding two known distribution entities together, you are going to see a lot more focus on helping partners sell product and less on order-entry and back-end issues," Burdine explained. "Both of these guys together are going to be better than either one of them could be on their own.”

Burdine said he is looking forward to taking advantage of improved leasing/financing options from Westcon and is considering moving his data business to Westcon in the wake of the deal.

Barry Gerhardt, president of Barry Communications, a Worcester, Mass., Nortel Premium Advantage partner that has teamed with Ronco, said he was particularly pleased that Ruesch and his team are moving over to Westcon.

“That is excellent,” said Gerhardt. “We are looking forward to working with Kurt’s team not only on voice products, but on data products as well. If we are able to deal with the same people and one company for a converged solution, that adds huge value to us and reduces our time in having to deal with multiple distributors.”

Gerhardt said he is hoping Westcon’s larger size will mean improved product pricing on convergence products. “That scale should translate into greater discounts for us that Ronco wasn’t able to offer us,” he said. “Westcon obviously has much better buying power with Nortel now.”

Solution providers said Westcon’s convergence march comes as they see a sizable increase in the number of businesses of all sizes seeking converged voice/data solutions.

Rudy Casasola, CEO and president of Greenbelt, Md.-based Presidio, a Nortel Elite partner that has teamed with Westcon for years, said he is seeing growth in his Nortel and Cisco business. “The voice/data converged network is absolutely happening,” he said. “We are seeing an increased rate of adoption among enterprises.”

Casasola said he was previously sourcing his Nortel voice products from Nortel directly and will now shift that business to Westcon.

“This helps us serve our clients. We have a lot of customers on the voice side with Nortel and the data side with Cisco," he said. "With the voice piece going through Westcon now, we can source that product faster. In that respect, it improves cash flow and margin.”