This year has been a big one for BNS Distribution with new product launches, awards and more so we caught up with Managing Director, Lee Sinclair to review the year and look forward to 2019.
BNS Distribution are the UK’s primary value added distributor for Grandstream Networks products who recently confirmed that a wide-range of JPL Telecom’s headsets were fully compatible with Grandstream’s award-winning portfolio of IP Phones.
“Our sole focus is the VoIP market promoting the Grandstream Networks product range and more recently the JPL headsets to compliment the Grandstream IP Phones.”
“We have seen rapid year on year growth as the market has matured and as hosted and IP technologies have started to deliver real benefits for our reseller partners and their customers. 2018 has been an amazing year with a number of major product launches and an ITSPA Award for the Best End Point Device, the 2018 TMC Labs Internet Telephony Innovation Award and making the CNA Award finalists,” explains Lee
The product launches have come thick and fast for BNS this year as they extended their range of Grandstream handsets with the launch of a new desk phone this year, the GXV3370 a powerful desktop video phone featuring Android 7.0, a 7” touch screen, real-time HD video telephony, built-in WiFi & Bluetooth in June.
In addition, BNS have introduced Grandstream’s WiFi products includes the Cloud Controller and the much-anticipated WP820 handset which provides dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth and HD audio to enable smooth voice mobility and roaming throughout any WiFi environment. “This is very exciting for us as is opens a new market for our partners who can build comprehensive solutions since the WP820 can be paired with Grandstream’s other WiFi solutions to build comprehensive WiFi voice & video networks,” added Lee.
Another significant launch in 2018 came in July with the IPVT10, a powerful on-premises video conferencing server designed for modern enterprise collaboration. And the Grandstream 4K Video Conferencing endpoint launched in February is now is fully interoperable with BroadSoft’s Broadworks Platform. “Video Conferencing continues to be a strong market for us and the BroadSoft relationship is important to us as it means that service providers and enterprises using the BroadSoft Business Platform can create or expand their video conferencing solutions,” Lee continued. “And finally we launched two new ATAs, firstly the 8-Port ATA with Gigabit NAT Router and more recently the new hybrid ATA, our HT813, which features 1 FXS port, 1 PSTN FXO port and an integrated router. ATAs may not be the most glamorous of products but they are one of our biggest sellers.”
As well as the new products being added to the portfolio, BNS have entered into a distribution partnership with Comms Express and expect to start seeing the fruits of that soon. “WiFi is the newest range and is very exciting especially as we have recently signed Comms Express as a new distribution partner with an established channel and are expecting a leap in sales, particularly as we have just agreed a new range of WiFi bundles that offer really good value to our partners,” stated Lee.
“We are also very fortunate in that we have four distinct product areas – VoIP phones, ATA, Door Entry and WiFI.”
“VoIP phones are our top selling device by qunatity (GXP16XX), and continue to be a steady and reliable range especially as customers are increasingly recognising that the Grandstream quality is equal or better than other phones on the market at a very much more competitive price.”
Looking to the future, Lee believes that 2019 will be very similar to this year. “I believe the steady growth we have seen year on year is closely related to partner confidence in open SIP endpoints and their importance cost efficiency balanced against easy deployment and commissioning in a cloud based environment. The roadmap for 2019 includes a number of new developments in the WiFi, DECT, complete range of Telephony (Low, Mid, High), Gateways, Business conferencing & Video telephony. Grandstream’s new products are announced through the beta club, typically around 6 months ahead of full release. We find this an excellent method to provide up front information for our partners and to give the opportunity for feedback on product requirements in the UK market. We are expecting 2019 to be an exciting year.”
