Leading communications company Mitel seems to continually be in the press, delivering new innovations and updates to the marketplace. The most recent announcement to hit the media came when Mitel decided to reduce its distribution network from over 60 companies.
In a recent interview with Channelnomics Europe, Jeremy Butt, Senior Vice President International at Mitel was quoted as saying that the justification for cutting the UC giant's distribution network from "over 60 to a maximum of 20", was that some of its previous distribution partnerships were "no longer fit for purpose".
To learn more about the changes to Mitel's distribution strategy, we caught up with Richard Roberts, Mitel's Vice President for UK, Ireland and South Africa. Richard has been in his VP role since January 2018, and has a broad history in the communications market, working with companies like Cisco, Purple WiFi, and more. We asked Richard to give us a rundown of what the new distribution plan means for Mitel, and what we can expect going forward.
What Prompted the Decision to Reduce the Distribution Network?
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Richard Roberts[/caption]
I began by asking Richard what had pushed the decision to start cutting down the distribution network for Mitel. He told me that, like many decisions in the brand's go-to-market strategy, it had begun with the end customers.
"Our users were demanding a certain level of support from their partners that we couldn't deliver consistently. In today's economy where customer experience (CX) is everything, it was really important for us to create an environment where partners could offer the right support to all of our customers. That meant that we needed to get closer to our network, closer to our partners, and work on a much deeper relationship."
Roberts said that Mitel has used this change in their distribution strategy to focus all of their energies on providing partners with the best possible experience so that they can deliver the right support to their customers.
"We're concentrating all of our energy downstream, towards giving customers the experience they want, by taking best in class distribution partners and using them to empower resellers and end-users."
What's Happening with the Distribution Market in the UK?
In some markets, Mitel has decided to partner with multiple distributors. In the UK, the company relies on Westcon-Comstor, Exertis, and Trust Distribution to deliver their services to resellers and customers. "We've chosen distributors with a strong presence in the market, who have built a high level of trust with their customers. We believe that there are a lot of opportunities in the UK, and that's always something that you need to be sure of when creating a go-to-market strategy for value-added distribution."
By choosing distribution partners more carefully, Richard believes that Mitel is taking a far more mature approach to the communications market. "I also think it's better for our partners overall. When you have a long trail of partners to deal with, it's harder to deliver that focused quality of support directly. Now our distribution partners can offer the right support in a much stronger way."
In terms of the top 40 resellers and partners in the UK, Roberts told me that the majority of Mitel's partners were already dealing with distribution anyway and that they're happy with the service.
"When we went to our partners and explained the situation, the feedback was very positive."
Richard also noted that Mitel had wanted to give resellers a choice in the UK, which is why they have three different distribution partners to choose from. "This has gone down really well. We're making sure that any value we create as a company is available to our distributors too so that they can sell any one of our unified communications and collaboration solutions. It may take some time to get everything squared away, but our strategy is to ensure that every distribution partner has complete access to our portfolio."
