Westcon Expands Into Latin America

Westcon Group has made a push to expand its global reach in recent weeks, adding a global sales desk and continuing its acquisition spree with the purchase of the assets of value-added distributor Cernet of America and its Mexican relation, Cernet Tecnologia en Telecomunicaciones.

The Tarrytown, N.Y.-based distributor did not disclose the terms of its acquisition of Ft. Lauderdale-based Cernet of America, but it expands Westcon's network into Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean. Westcon has operations in Brazil. Cernet distributes wireless, networking and security products from vendors including Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, Foundry and Proxim Wireless, and brings over 300 Caribbean and Latin American resellers to Westcon.

"When making this decision, one of the biggest things that we looked at is how do we continue to take advantage of the emerging markets that exist today. If you look at most of our vendors, and you look at their growth, you see significant growth in the emerging markets," said Anthony Daley, executive vice president and general manager of the Americas, Westcon Group.

The acquisition will help the company move itself and its major vendors, Cisco, Nortel and Avaya, into these regions. "Part of the initiative there is based on what they have today but how do we launch our traditional portfolio of products into that marketplace as well," said Daley.

As it goes more global, Westcon is having to decide whether to bring its portfolio of products under its Voda One, Comstor and Westcon divisions in closer alignment under the Westcon Group umbrella.

"As we emerge and as we move into new markets, obviously we will continue to have the emphasis we have on certain product and manufacturers, but in most cases we will look to go as Westcon but then have branding appropriately based on the direction that we take in those countries," said Daley.

In response to its growing global presence, and the growing demand for multinational product deployments for multinational customers, Westcon has also centralized its sales desk for its international resellers.

The U.K.-based global desk allows customers like British Telecom and Advantel to do international deployments through Westcon via a single ordering system and point of contact.

Westcon now manages shipments to 73 countries and has processed more than 11,000 orders with its global desk this year. "We're providing a local service to BT in 73 countries but managing all from a central point," said Sam Paris, international business manager for Westcon Group. "We have an integrated system to allow us to sell virtually from any of our companies in the world. For example, we receive an order and we don't have to give it to the French team. We can manage that centrally."

Daley said the objective is to enable business partners to perform and offer a complete solution to their customers. "No longer is technology enablement a local installation," he said. "It becomes a global capability. It is a must to really be able to facilitate the needs of the customers and being able to facility technology to benefit their business needs."

So far Westcon has held webinars with U.S resellers, and hopes to expand organically while taking care to move at a pace that will keep it a viable service for their customer base, said Paris.

"It's for us to ensure that our customers do and can receive a strategic alliance with us rather than a tactical approach that can only accommodate one or two orders," said Paris. "As a company we're taking a risk and stepping outside the standard model of distribution. It's a new marketplace we're accommodating and that's the multinational reseller and the multinational end user."