Pei Ling Hoo - Fotolia
Open Systems charting a channel course
SD-WAN specialist has decided that the time is right to become a channel first company and make a push into the UK market
SD-WAN player Open Systems is on a journey to become a channel-first company and has set its sights on growing the indirect business in the UK.
The firm not only took the decision recently to become indirect but also looked to grow out of its Swiss base and expand internationally into more territories with its cloud-based secure SD-WAN offering.
The firm has operations in Zurich and California and having taken its first steps abroad into the US is keen to follow that up with more activity in the UK and will then look to invest further in mainland Europe.
The decision to turn to the channel only became public a couple of months ago and the firm has made it clear that it expects a significant portion of its revenues to come via partners in the next couple of years.
Nicolas Capitoni, head of channel for Europe at Open Systems, said that the business had been going for more than two decades but recognised that if it wanted to grow it needed to work with partners.
"We wanted to expand through the channel as they have the partnerships and visibility. The channel is the way to go at the moment," he added “We are a channel first company so partners ore our customers.”
He added that it was not going to overload its channel with partners but was keen to work with those that wanted to pitch a secure alternative to some of the other SD-WAN offerings in the market. The firm held a partner event in London a couple of weeks ago to stir up more interest.
"In the UK it is expanding very quickly and we have a lot of partners that have come on board very quickly," said Capitoni.
The firm has also struck alliance relationships with Microsoft and Equnix and is working with some master agents, Avant and Intelisys, to try to broaden the channel reach.
"We work with the agents globally and they are independent agents that work on their own but we help them position Open Systems," he said.
