Convergence Call

The sales, service and marketing deal establishes Siemens as a premier U.S. reseller of Enterasys' networking products, said Bob Ray, vice president of channel marketing at Enterasys, based here.

In addition, solution providers for each company will be encouraged to seek certification in each other's technology and sell convergence solutions built on Siemens' HiPath IP telephony products and Enterasys' network infrastructure, Ray said.

"It's a way to expand our resellers' capabilities to help us penetrate the Fortune 2000," he said.

The relationship should help Enterasys and Siemens, Reston, Va., better compete against Cisco Systems, which offers both IP telephony and networking products, solution providers said.

"Now I've got a full product line to sell," said Tom Grinde, director of the interconnect division at Quantrex, a solution provider in Virginia Beach, Va. The unit, which has been working with Siemens for about a year, plans to pursue the Enterasys certification, Grinde said.

Conflicts between Siemens solution providers moving into the Enterasys market and vice versa should be limited because neither vendor will have large numbers of cross-trained solution providers in any given region, Ray said.

Although the multimillion-dollar pact does not yet include plans to offer Siemens-Enterasys technology bundles, the two vendors said they are discussing the possibility.