Samsung Electronics UK has reaffirmed its channel commitment and assured resellers of a ‘business as usual' service following the departure of General Manager Julian Barnes from the Network Business Team.

The departure of a senior executive from a major company often prompts a ‘statement of intent' and an unscheduled, but sometimes not unwelcome reinforcement of core values. Such has been the response by Samsung Electronics following the departure of Julian Barnes who resigned early in May for what he described as ‘entirely personal reasons' having returned to the helm for the second time in five years. Typically honest, Barnes told Comms Dealer: "My departure was entirely amicable. I just wanted to do something else in my career and now was the time for me to move on."

The Korean giant wasted no time in appointing two experienced Samsung veterans to steady the ship and reassure the channel that it was very much business as usual. Long-term Samsung servants Wilf Wood, Head of Sales Engineering, and Peter Law, UK Sales Manager (who has headed up Samsung's UK sales teams for over three years) have taken over the day-to-day business of running the reseller channel until a replacement for Barnes is in place.

Whoever is recruited will need to fight the UK channel's corner. One Samsung Platinum reseller told us, ‘It's a shame Julian has gone. He knew exactly what we wanted from the relationship and fought to get it for us'. In true caretaker management style Woods' ‘state of the company' statement was bullish and to the point and, against the backdrop of the toughest economic conditions seen for decades, cut to the basics.

He said: "When it comes down to it, what a reseller wants from a partner in tough times is financial stability. We are a cash rich business with no creditors and we are here for the long term. We are going from strength to strength because we have a global brand and a core commitment to delivering the converged solutions customers are now demanding. There are 33,000 people working on Samsung's Korean main R&D campus, and 200 people in the Network Division working on developing and improving our OfficeServ 7000 platform and applications. The future product development plan is completely mapped out and in the process of being delivered."

Wood believes many in the channel still haven't caught up with Samsung. He stated: "There has to be a perception change. I think some people think we are still just a provider of key telephone systems for the small business sector. In truth, the products we can offer the channel have changed to such a degree that we now are one of the world's leading providers of fully converged solutions for small businesses right up to the enterprise.

"And with renowned high quality mobiles, Smartphone and video products in our portfolio resellers have an opportunity to offer fully converged solutions that all work seamlessly on one common platform. On the Korean campus the workforce all have mobiles that function as ordinary GSM phones externally and seamlessly merge onto the IP PBX when they are on campus, with the obvious saving on costs. This is the future. And although the traditional fixed line telephone will be around for some time to come, the move towards fully converged systems on a rapidly improving wide area IP network is unstoppable."

Hence Samsung's new alliance with data distributor Wick Hill which, according to Law, is not only significant and strategically valuable but is helping in the recruitment of IT resellers who he maintains really understand where IP comms is headed. "Everybody knows the voice channel is static," he said. "There is no growth. We are ambitious and because our product portfolio is fully converged, and because end users are demanding a seamless communications experience we are looking to our partnership with Wick Hill to take our solutions into the data resellers who understand convergence. They see voice and video as applications on the network. Data resellers are getting ahead in the convergence game and voice resellers need to catch up."

However, while Wick Hill is set to take OfficeServ 7000 into new data territories, Samsung's well established distribution deal with telecoms distributor Rocom remains secure. "There have been no issues following the Nimans take over. They are fully committed to continue supporting the Samsung resellers," said Law. "We have the technology in place to bring unified communications - previously out of the reach of small business - onto our seamless fully scaleable OfficeServ platform, and that has to be a unique proposition for all channel players."

Law and Wood plan to engage with all of Samsung's Platinum partners to assure them of the status quo and Samsung's plans for a more integrated marketing approach, and how the vendor plans to help the channel win more business. Woods commented: "Marketing Manager Mark Ivens has now left Samsung and we are recruiting a new marketing team. We can reassure the channel of a new marketing strategy that will be completely in line with the channel's needs and our expanding converged solutions product portfolio."