A Smarter Serve

Distributors are rallying around Cisco Systems' Smart Business Communications System (SBCS) VoIP products for the small-business market with programs, training and incentives for resellers looking to add Cisco products to their portfolios.

D&H Distributing, Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Westcon's Comstor division are promoting the Cisco SBCS platform launched in April and available this month. "Distributors play a huge role in both reaching SMB partners and with our SBCS product line," said Wendy Bahr, vice president of U.S. commercial channels at Cisco. "They're going to be a key component to our success in this space."

The system includes the Unified Communications 500 series, powered by the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express and Cisco Unity Express, Cisco Catalyst Express 520 and Cisco Mobility Express Solution.

Cisco created the products specifically for the small-business market and has launched a new level of certification, dubbed Select, for its small-business-oriented resellers.

For Jim Brubaker, owner of JK Computing, a VAR in Blairsville, Pa., with about $1 million in revenue annually, the new Cisco line opens doors for the little guys.

"[Cisco] finally [has] a plan that will include a much broader base for small business compared to what it was, and I think as well that they have made it possible for smaller repair shops who are in the trenches like us, doing this every day, to be able to service our customers and [not] have to give them away to bigger enterprise solution providers," Brubaker said.

He buys Cisco products through D&H Distributing, Brubaker said, and the distributor has been instrumental in getting his team the training they need to sell the Cisco SBCS.

The Harrisburg, Pa., distributor has set up programs to help determine which resellers to target for Cisco certifications. "We look at it as a great opportunity for our resellers to take advantage of Cisco from a voice standpoint to our customer base," said Dan Schwab, vice president of marketing at D&H.

Westcon Group's Comstor division also is putting together resources for its customers around the SBCS platform.

Comstor will be adding the products and the ability to drive applications with them to its OneVoice portal. "One of the things that we're the most excited about when it comes to the [Unified Communications] 500 is that the application stack that can be purchased on top of the hardware solution," said Jeff Smith, vice president and general manager of Comstor U.S., which is offering a solution with software vendor IPCelerate.

Tech Data's SMB and Cisco sales teams will work jointly to sell the products, said Eric Buck, director of marketing in the networking division at Tech Data, Clearwater, Fla. "The SBCS bundle reaches down to the SMB space where customers are looking for a product that is ready to go right out of the box and can be launched into their space in a very short amount of time," Buck said. At Ingram Micro, the SBCS line will be integrated into the Santa Ana, Calif.-based company SMB-focused Cisco Glacier offering, and the distributor will offer certification and account management training.

"If there's an SMB reseller and they want to be in the SBCS game, Ingram Micro has all of the resources necessary to help them do that," said Ken Bast, vice president of vendor management at Ingram.

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