Enterasys, Siemens Forge U.S. Sales Pact

Enterasys Networks Siemens Enterprise Networks

"It's a way to expand our resellers' capabilities to help us penetrate the Fortune 2000," said Bob Ray, vice president of channel marketing at Enterasys, based here.

The sales, service and marketing agreement establishes Siemens, a subsidiary of Siemens AG, as a premier reseller of Enterasys' networking products in the United States, including its Matrix and Vertical Horizon switches, X-Pedition routers, Aurorean Virtual Private Networks, RoamAbout wireless LANs, Dragon Intrusion Detection Systems and NetSight network management products, Ray said.

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

"The ultimate result will be more margin and revenue for our partners," Ray said. "If customers buy just boxes and switches, the value of the partner goes down, but if they buy a complete architecture, the value of the partner goes way up," he said.

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

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.

"This helps me because now I've got a full product line to sell," said Tom Grinde, director of the interconnect division at Quantrex, a solution provider based in Virginia Beach, Va.

The division, which has been working with Siemens for about a year, plans to pursue the Enterasys certification, Grinde said.

By implementing multivendor convergence solutions, partners can combine quality technology without relying on a single source, said Amir Sohrabi, executive vice president at MSPX, an Arlington, Va.-based solution provider that already works with Enterasys and Siemens.

"A lot of organizations fail when they put all their eggs in one basket," Sohrabi said.

Conflict 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.

"There probably would be five or six partners being [cross- certified vs. most of our competition having significantly more than that," he said.

The multimillion-dollar pact does not yet included solidified plans to offer technology bundles that combine the two vendors' products, Ray said.

"It's something that has been discussed, and I think that's the direction we want to head," he said.

Enterasys and Siemens Information and Communication Networks, which includes Siemens Enterprise Networks, have developed similar sales agreements in other countries, including an eight-year relationship in Germany.

Other Siemens network infrastructure partners include Cisco, Extreme Networks and Sitara Networks.

Enterasys has no other IP telephony partners, Ray said.