Reseller Middle East catches up with Carlo Wolf, VP of Sales, Allied Telesis
What brings you to town?
We started the business in the region a few years ago, and EMEA is our fastest growing region. Right now, we are in the phase where we are starting to get substantial business. We get good attention from resellers and partners and I want to support the business.
How strategic is this market for Allied Telesis from an EMEA perspective and also from a global perspective?
It is still in relative terms, a smaller region, but for us growth is important, we see in this region more opportunity than we see in some of the mature markets.
Have you announced any new products lately?
We have announced a few additions to our switching product line. We have announced Allied Management Framework. All initiatives are targeted to have a more complete portfolio in the enterprise switching segment. We believe we are a valid player in the enterprise market for switching, and everything we do is to complete that portfolio.
If you look at the enterprise switching market, it is one that is still dominated by Cisco. So what is your current market share and how do you plan to grow that?
I think the opportunity for us is that we have a good product portfolio, which the market doesn’t know too much about, which is also a big challenge. But an opportunity, nevertheless. I always say that we are the best kept secret in the networking industry – we have a lot to tell but people don’t know about it. If we overcome that, and get hold of partners and end users and tell them our story, we get a good response. And yes Cisco is a dominant player in the market, but every dominant player creates a set of audience who doesn’t want to go with the market leader. For example, Cisco owns about two thirds of the switching market, which means there is one third out there who are not buying from the market leader. And that is our target market because we compete in that space. And it is still big enough. We have a single digit market share, every one or two percent we can add means a lot to us.
The second area is that there is an appetite in many customers, which have built an infrastructural system to lower their dependencies on a single vendor. That’s our second market. We have shown in many customers that we can coexist with Cisco quite well. So many customers figured out that if they go single vendor, they are locked in and don’t get the best prices and other advantages.
Is your portfolio complete now?
We have a complete portfolio on LAN switching from the low end to the core switch, and we are just adding a complete controller based wireless solution. From a networking infrastructure perspective, we have everything from the interface card of a PC to the NIC card in the server and everything in between.
Are you also looking at the SDN space?
Yes, we are looking at the STN space and our moving to the AMF framework, which we just announced, is our first step towards that.
Who are your distributors?
Our distributors are Aptec, Anixter and SNB. We follow a complete indirect model.
What is your partner programme? Do you have a dedicated channel organisation within Allied Telesis?
Channel coverage is done within each region, through dedicated people. We have a certification star programme where partners can register and can certify themselves into different levels depending on qualification and training.
Is it a pre-requisite to have certified training to become an Allied Telesis partner?
No, it is not. The entry barrier for us is relatively low to become a partner but still we want to ensure that there is a minimum set of training and knowledge about our products. Our three-tier star partner program is getting mature day by day.
