Voda One's New Advisory Councils Are Geared At Helping Partners

The distributor, based here, has created two advisory councils to address different parts of solution providers' businesses.

The Business Partner Leadership council is for the managers of solution providers with a focus on strategy and operations. The Tekcommunicator council is geared at technical experts.

Tekcommunicator represents a departure from traditional advisory councils and offers a voice for a segment of the business that often does not get heard, said Eva Fujan, vice president of sales and marketing at Voda One, an Avaya-focused subsidiary of Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Westcon Group.

The Tekcommunicator council includes an interactive Web site for solution providers to share technical information and ideas, Fujan said.

"We'll have one spot for downloads and patches. In another part, we'll have a message board where you can see if others had the same technology problem. Hopefully, you'll find answers so [a solution doesn't get recreated in 50 cities," she said.

White papers and a dealer locator will also be part of the Tekcommunicator Web site, Fujan said.

"It's also a place where you can put in your specialties, [for example, if you're a wireless dealer in the health-care market," she said.

Solution providers said two councils allows more employees to feel involved in the decision-making process, executives said.

"The business council is for what we need to do to provide the end user with products and services," said Jarrod Sipe, president of Matrix Technologies, Washington. "The other is for once the decision has been made, how we will support that decision. Usually the folks driving strategy aren't technical people."

Tekcommunicator also includes Configtrak, an online configurator for Avaya products that tracks design requests from "quote to cash," said Jack Friedman, Voda One general manager.