Surrey-based Wick Hill has entered an agreement to distribute Panasonic's unified communications solutions through its UK and German centres of operation. The move signals Panasonic's expansion into the growing voice/data convergence market and strengthens Wick Hill's position in the converged comms market which it entered last year after adding Samsung and Oak products to its range.

Stephen Gerrard, UK Country Marketing Manager, said: "Convergence is going to happen on a major scale and unified comms is the first step on this road. Wick Hill and Panasonic are taking this first step together and aim to be at the forefront of the UK's migration to a converged applications future."

Chairman Ian Kilpatrick told Comms Dealer that he believes Wick Hill can offer voice resellers specialist knowledge around infrastructure and security. He said: "This is the ideal opportunity for us to do what we've always done and educate and train partners, taking them into areas that are new. Many voice resellers have huge skills in the UC area but may not have the same breadth of knowledge when it comes to data and data applications."

Wick Hill's goal, according to Kilpatrick, is not to compete with current Panasonic distributors for existing market share but to take the lead in convergence sales. "We're not trying to be generalist or attack other distributors on their home turf," Kilpatrick explained. "We're trying to add knowledge and value for resellers so they get to sell products and services. Our goal is to be perceived by Panasonic as their number one distributor in this space.

"This appointment is an important investment for us in our continued drive into convergence and our ongoing strategy to deliver solutions that voice and data resellers can sell and implement. Our channel partners will be able to provide solutions that offer end users immediate tactical benefits, as well as forming a key part of a future move into broader unified comms."

Gerrard believes that his company's background in audio visual and CCTV means it has something unique to offer in a competitive market. Everyone has a different definition of convergence, he says, but he takes the term to include any aspect of corporate activity which requires a signal or message to be sent from point A to point B, so theoretically could be 'Converged' onto an IP infrastructure.

That means elements such as IP video security, access control, facilities management and building management services, (ie, lighting, heating, air conditioning, fire alarms, smoke detection, etc) over the corporate IP infrastructure. The definition would also extend to mobile phones, the car fleet, home workers, etc.

Gerrard added: "Panasonic is leveraging its global expertise in both audio and video applications to break new ground in applications integration and convergence over enterprise IP infrastructures. We believe that Wick Hill has the experience and commitment to help us grow the market in this area.

"It's vital that we have partners like Wick Hill who understand the broader picture of what convergence brings, as opposed to being firmly entrenched in the older PBX sector. Yes, that market is going to exist for the foreseeable future, but a larger part of the unified comms market is opening up beyond the blue chip enterprise environment into the mid-market and beyond."