News
Westcon Group names Chris Ranger VP EMEA Services
2013-03-13
Network, security and telecom VAD Westcon Group has named Chris Ranger Vice President of Services for EMEA. The appointment underscores a heightened commitment to delivering consistent, premier value-added services across the company's lines of business – including its Cisco-dedicated business unit, Comstor. Ranger brings to Westcon more than 25 years of experience in executive service leadership across a range of high technology industries. Formerly with Intermec Technologies, he led transformation of the company's services business from an in-house repair operation to successful outsourced model. He was directly responsible for building Intermec's profitable services business in EMEA with a core focus on partner strategies and consistency. In his new role, Ranger is responsible for services across the unified communications, network infrastructure and security business practices. He is tasked with formalizing the company's services model and execution – including training, post-sales support and technical audit services. Westcon offers a full range services – from global procurement to executive selling - helping partners streamline business and build new revenue streams. The company's Global Procurement Services (GPS) manages the complex aspects of international warehousing, shipping, import/export and integration. An industry first, Westcon's Executive Relevance Selling (ERS) is a strategic marketing and sales enablement program designed to create qualified Cisco proposals at the executive level. These services - along with smart logistics capabilities and reverse logistics offerings - are designed to augment, not compete, with the capabilities of Westcon partners.
Westcon Solutions launches new operations in Asia
2012-10-30
China: security and network VAD Westcon Solutions, a part of Westcon Group, has expanded its global reach with new operations in China. The company's operations in China will be led by Sales Director Alan Zhu, who will report directly to Wilson Ho, managing director Westcon Solutions.
Westcon unveils its new organization following Afina acquisition
2012-10-29
Following the acquisition of Afina earlier this year, Westcon Group has reviewed its organization in the Iberian region. Its young Spanish Westcon Convergence office (opened in 2011) has been merge into Audema, which becomes Westcon Iberia, both in Portugal and Spain. Beside Westcon Iberia, the distributor keeps its Cisco business Comstor (in both Portugal and Spain), Afina Sistemas which will act as its Westcon Security office in Portugal and Spain, and ACROSnet which is kept as is, as its cloud management business in Spain. In France, the local Afina office has moved to Westcon building, a few hundred meters away, and will be merged in the short term into the local Westcon Security office.
EMC provides Velocity distribution partners worldwide with new assembly services capability
2012-09-17
Storage vendor EMC has enabled EMC Velocity distributors worldwide with the skills and resources required to assemble multi-vendor solutions that feature EMC's award-winning unified storage systems and next-generation backup solutions. Distributors worldwide will be provided with the technical training, proven methodologies and the backing of EMC's Global Services organization so they may assemble EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure and other solutions for their reseller Partners. By receiving a pre-assembled, proven solution on-site that has been customized to meet the customer's specific business needs, reseller Partners can immediately focus on accelerating the installation and implementation so that its customers can realize the benefits of the solution faster.
The new assembly capability for distributors builds on EMC's commitment to provide choice for how Partners assemble multi-vendor solutions. It also enables Partners to accelerate their profitability by focusing on value-added services to more quickly deploy the solution to meet specific customer needs. This announcement follows a string of other new EMC initiatives developed to help channel partners worldwide accelerate their customers' journey to the cloud. These include VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, as well as Velocity Cloud Practices – Cloud Builder and Cloud Provider – and EMC Cooperative Services, which were announced at the first annual Global Partner Summit held at EMC World in May.
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Afina Group becomes South-African
2012-07-24
Telecom, network and security VAD Westcon Group has acquired Spain-based competitor Afina Group through the acquisition of the Panamian holding GLS Software and its subsidiaries for €50m. The deal will be bankrolled through the payment of €30m in cash, funded from new loan finance, and €10m in Datatec shares. The remaining €10m will be paid in cash in two payments of up to €5 million each in 2013 and 2014, subject to Afina meeting certain targets. The deal should expand Westcon's presence in the Latin American, Iberian, and North African marketplaces, through an immediate, on-the-ground, presence in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, in addition to coverage across Central America and the Caribbean, as well as Afina's offices in France, Morocco, Portugal and Spain (for the EMEA region) and its Audema sister company (present in Portugal and Spain). Officially, Afina brand should be kept as a separate division. Audema will disappear and be integrated into Westcon Convergence, which will thus lead to the merge of the small Spanish Westcon Convergence office into Audema Spain. Westcon Group plans to work in the next year and a half on the integration of Afina Group.
