In our newly christened ‘Age of Distributed Architecture', full of opportunity, unknowns, and seemingly insurmountable challenges for telecoms resellers, it's comforting to know that LG-Nortel has taken the route of least resistance with the launch of IPECS.

LG-Nortel's exclusive distribution partner in the UK is Horsham-based Capstan, a single vendor company with a compelling story to tell; and Gordon Smythe, Capstan's Managing Director, doesn't take much prompting to launch into a homily about the IPECS opportunity and the Capstan proposition. "We are going big on the IPECS launch," said Smythe.

The IPECS pure IP switch is a new member to the family and has been manufactured with the traditional LG-Nortel ipLDK system in mind, meaning that Capstan's 220-plus resellers are already familiar with the pure IP solution. For example, LG-Nortel (a cash rich organisation and separate legal entity from Nortel) designed IPECS to be programmed in the same way as the ipLDK, making the migration to a true distributed architecture straightforward. "Our resellers understand ipLDK, and LG-Nortel has made it easy for them to migrate to a different place at the bigger end of the market," said Smythe. "This creates a profit opportunity for dealers. And the low price point combined with the user benefits will attract new resellers to us."

Smythe noted that the close relationship between IPECS and the ipLDK range could encourage dealers to think that the products are the same. "Some dealers haven't had that transitional moment that opens their mind and takes them to a new place. Our training creates the vision and eases the path to pure IP."

As well as addressing the traditional stomping ground with IPECS, Capstan's resellers have an opportunity to lock horns with bigger players in the market where there is a requirement for a large IP switch, up to 600 ports, across all verticals, all types of businesses, even call centres. The cost comparisons can be 50 per cent cheaper in LG-Nortel's favour. And there are significant opportunities for dealers to profit from the functionality that is intrinsic to the IPECS solution.

For example, in the lower reaches of the market a customer, from the outset, might just need a standard 4x12 configuration, which is a fraction of what this neat little ‘box' can do. "It's about the sale today, and then in six months time pursuing the customer to up-sell, for example, voicemail, which is already built-in, along with many other features such as voice conferencing, videoconferencing, mobility, voicemail-to-email etc, that can all be up-sold and configured when needed," explained Scott Elder, Sales Director.

To ease the selling process Capstan has designed a dedicated end user website for IPECS which also generates leads. All aspects of the system are explained including the business benefits. The website can be branded, along with reseller brochures and other marketing collateral designed to spur system sales. In fact, Capstan adds considerable value by also building websites for resellers and offering training free of charge, a pivotal reason why some resellers partner with the distributor. Hands on sales help is also available to ensure the closure of certain deals.

Important to the success of IPECS, added Elder, is its positioning within the existing portfolio. Despite its distributed architecture IPECS has a strong voice heritage that is certain to appeal to resellers. Just as attractive are some of the end user cost savings derived from the deployment of distributed architecture. One common example is where the lines are situated at one end of a building and the call server at the other. To solve the problem, appropriate modules are simply plugged into a local LAN port, lego-like, avoiding the need to relocate the lines, whether analogue, ISDN or primary rate etc.

While many sales people still think CPUs and boxes should be ‘tied together by cables', Elder believes that IPECS will quickly swing their attention onto the benefits of being more data orientated. The idea of distributed architecture and LAN ports might scare some resellers, but according to early adopter Myles Leach, Managing Director at RHM Telecom, a three hour training session for an ipLDK engineer is enough to get started on IPECS, even for an all soft phone implementation.

Elder added: "IPECS presents voice resellers with an opportunity to sell data. LAN switches can make dealers more money, and where LAN switches are sold resellers get the customer's infrastructure. This takes the reseller to the desktop and PCs. IPECS is the tool to create this environment."

EDITOR'S COMMENT:
There are many important facets to comms distribution, such as logistics and stock levels - Capstan famously does not run out of stock, even components are always on hand - but just as important is the ability to forge fruitful working relationships on a personal level, on the ground, with company owners, sales people, engineers and admin' staff. As a single vendor organisation and the sole LG Nortel distributor in the UK, Capstan is able to leverage a strong pedigree of highly focused technical expertise and support, all personally delivered to sales people and engineers, on demand. This personal approach, along with IPECS' dealer-friendly design and price point, plus free training and marketing material, could go a long way to attract new dealers to the LG Nortel pure IP switch.