Capstan Communications is bolstering its LG-Nortel portfolio with the launch of two new products for the IP-based call management platform, IPECS. According to Executive Director, Geoff Girdler, the move will consolidate LG-Nortel's position in the small business market, and help the company gain ground in the UK enterprise space.

Girdler has noted a shift within Capstan away from its position in the sub-50 extension environment to offering systems reaching into the lower enterprise space. "Since we launched IPECS a year ago, there's been a fundamental shift in our business. LGE and LG-Nortel have always been strong players in the SME market, but IPECS is taking us into much larger environments. It will ultimately support up to 1,200 ports."

The new products, Network Management System (IPECS-NMS) and Unified Communications Software (IPECS-UCS), add web-based remote management tools and a full collaboration suite to the IPECS toolset respectively. Once partners are comfortable with the new technology, Girdler says that his team will help them grow with the distributor into corporate markets. "We'll be introducing these concepts over the next 12 months to our current partners on an up-to-300 port basis," says Capstan's Head of Marketing, Mike Smythe. "During Q3 we plan to introduce new data switching products that will allow us to offer single-vendor converged networks that reach up into the enterprise space, using the larger IPECS call servers."

Smythe is quick to point out that the company isn't abandoning its small business customers that still make up 95 per cent of sales and have been responsible for a successful year at Capstan. "These tools will enable our dealers to win more business," he stated. "And entice dealers of larger systems to look again at the LG-Nortel portfolio."

Capstan is the exclusive UK distributor of the Korean firm LG-Nortel's call server products, and carries only LG-Nortel stock. While LG-Nortel may not be as well known in the UK telecoms enterprise market as other big names, its strength overseas and the power of its brand in other product lines are creating good opportunities for resellers. "Ten years ago people were aware of LG but it was associated with lower cost and value brands," said Girdler. "Now it's one of the biggest providers of cellular phones, a leading supplier of LCD screens and the brand is everywhere, that's a phenomenal invisible marketing scenario for us, which we get the benefit of every single day."

The relationship between Girdler's team and LG-Nortel has been consolidated by the amount of investment Capstan has made making sure the product is ready for the UK. "It's very much a tried and tested solution," he explains. "We launched IPECS last year, but globally it was already phase five of the product and had been selling since 2002. Outside of Korea, we have more knowledge of LG-Nortel product than anyone else. We have incredibly valued experience in our team which our resellers benefit from every day."

Capstan is also proactive when it comes to passing that knowledge on to its partners and provides free training for all partners, and has embraced web-based tools to back up on site demonstrations. It's produced hours of online video and delivers marketing advice that goes into details like search engine optimisation for websites. "We practise what we preach," says Girdler. "We believe in the IP environment and use it to the fullest extent that we can; and the more we involve our resellers in buying into that process the easier it becomes to sell."

Despite the ambitious plans to grow the company into new markets, Smythe is keen not to lose sight of the fact that one of its most attractive points for new partners is the small size and feel of Capstan.

"We have no aspiration to become a faceless distie that is just in the box moving game," he says. "There's only 16-17 of us in the company, and there are a lot of family relationships within that We're very flexible and friendly as a business, and we don't try to play like the big boys. We try to do things differently and with more of a personal touch."