Westcon Unleashes Online Solution Configuration Tool

The configurator, available through the Tarrytown, N.Y.-based distributor's Voda One ConvergencePoint portal is a web-based tool that allows VARs to create quotes around Avaya's IP Office 4.0 and 5.0 VoIP systems that incorporate supporting products from other vendors. The distributor's Comstor and Westcon divisions are expected to unveil similar tools later this year.

The system is based on Cambridge, Mass.-based Exalt Solutions' on demand software product.

CRN parent, United Business Media, has made a $2 million investment in Exalt. As part of the deal, UBM acquired newly issued shares of Exalt representing a 25 percent equity stake and an option to purchase an additional 15 percent. In addition, CMP's Channel Group, which publishes CRN and crn.com, is working with Exalt to market its Solutions Sales Platform

Westcon Group is also beta-testing multi-vendor configurator software in Europe that will work off-line for resellers when they do not have Internet access. The Voda One tool will allow resellers to get quotes to customers faster and help them win deals, said Duncan Potter, director of marketing for Westcon Group.

"It dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes them to actually bid or propose a particular solution to a customer, in some cases from a couple of days down to about 15 minutes. That then helps them make money. That increases their probability of winning a particular deal because they're able to respond on the spot, then and there, with a quote to the customer and it doesn't require huge amounts of time and effort," said Potter.

The tool is currently available only to participants in Voda One's ConvergencePoint program at is free of charge.

Demand for the configurator came from both vendors and resellers, said Steve Bernard, vice president and general manager of Voda One.

"What customers were telling us that they were looking for was a tool that was much more intuitive, easy to use and quite frankly multi-vendor," he said. Vendors' sites that had configurators often didn't allow them to be combined with products from other vendors, leaving resellers in a lurch when trying to put together solutions proposals.

"Wouldn't it be nice to have a tool that walks you through, is more intuitive and is also a training aide at the same time as providing a solution to the customer?"

The company hasn't set any targets for how many resellers it would like to see utilizing the tool or how much revenue it might be used to generate, but it does hope it will help set Westcon Group apart from the competition.

"In the recruitment process of new partners we believe it will be a major differentiator. We expect our recruitment rate to increase, but we haven't set a goal around that," said Bernard. "We also believe that it will help with the loyalty of our partners. The resellers have choices with distribution and we think that if we have better tools, that is a reason for them to focus on purchasing through Westcon and Voda One."

Owen Wilson, CEO of Hilltop Technologies, an Avaya solution provider in Suffield, Conn., has been using the configurator tool with his sales team and said it's been helpful so far.

"It's a great tool and we plan on having all of our sales people use it. It's one example of Voda and Westcon providing us with the right tools to do our job," he said.

Dan Collins, vice president at Ashland, Mass.-based Summatis, which just recently began selling Avaya products, said that the configurator has been helpful in getting his sales team more comfortable with the new products.

"It helps with sales engineering and order management. Because of the way the quote comes out we can format it and add it in to the actual sales document. It's helping us with efficiencies in sales," he said.