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Westcon Group's Voda One Practice Launches Fast Track Training Series on Avaya Intelligent Communications Solutions for Midsize Business

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 May 2007, 18:00 CDT

Westcon Group, Inc, the world's leading specialty distributor of networking, security, mobility and convergence solutions, announced that its Voda One business practice has launched a Fast Track training series focused on selling Avaya mid-market solutions, including the Avaya IP Office and Avaya MultiVantage Express IP telephony solutions. The Fast Track series, which is open to Avaya BusinessPartners free of charge, will be featured this summer in cities including Chicago, Boston and Orlando and participants will be signed up on a first come, first served basis.

The two-day training seminar introduces customers to Westcon Group's reseller sales cycle model and provides them with information to be more successful during the preparation and discovery phases. While the course emphasizes improving sales techniques and presentation effectiveness, information will also be provided on the latest product releases. Instructors include Tim Kubiak, director of strategic development, Voda One, Jim Hall, senior design engineer, Voda One and longtime Westcon Group sales training veteran Paula Pace of Executive Development Group.

"This is a great opportunity for us to deliver skills to resellers who have traditionally served the SMB market and help them move into the more lucrative mid-market space," said Tim Kubiak. "Our training can help a reseller's new sales associate become more confident in his or her presentation and closing capabilities--this can obviously positively impact their entire company. It is also very good opportunity for new sales people--especially those who have been selling three years or less--to develop basic selling skills and more experienced salespeople to refine their capabilities."

Avaya MultiVantage Express integrates key communications applications on an Avaya S8500 Media Server, including:

Avaya Communication Manager 3.1 including basic automatic call distribution

Intuity Audix IA770 3.1

Application Enablement Services 3.1

Management tools + IP telephony support services (DHCP, TFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, & FTP)

End user applications - EC500 R6, IP Softphone R5.2, Message Manager, MyPhone, & FollowMe

Basic call reporting

Avaya recently announced enhancements to IP Office, including Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based trunking, which can cut calling costs in half, and two versions of enhanced software -- the Standard edition, designed for very small businesses and serving up to 32 users, and the Professional edition, where firms can take advantage of enhanced mobility, multi-site networking or customer service intelligence and scale to support up to 270 users. Avaya also expanded its current portfolio of servers by introducing a new IP Office 500 communications server. Its compact, modular, and flexible design supports telephony, voice messaging, and a complete customer service suite -- all at an attractive price for small and mid-size businesses.

Matt Gibbons, vice president of sales for Intellitech Communications Group, a Tucson, AZ-based reseller who attended the pilot training session, commented: "This Fast Track series teaches proven sales strategies and tactics, then applies them in role play and customer scenarios that prepare you a real-life sales encounter. This has proven to be phenomenal for our reps that have been here less than three years and it is great to have them interact with more seasoned sales reps."

"Westcon Group has done a fantastic job with its sales training--they know just how much information to give without overloading participants or making the training overly burdensome," commented Jeff Koehler, director, midsize solutions for Avaya. "Voda One plays a critical role in our ability to extend fundamental selling knowledge and product information out to the reseller community."

Upcoming Fast Track sessions include June 5th and 6th at the Wyndham O'Hare Hotel in Rosemont, IL, June 12th and 13th at The Hilton in Dedham, MA and July 17th and 18th at the Radisson World Gate Hotel in Kissimmee, FL. To learn more about registration, agenda or times, please visit the ConvergencePoint web portal and click on the Fast Track link.

About Westcon Group

Westcon Group, Inc. is the world's leading specialty distributor in networking, security, mobility and convergence for leading technology vendors, including Cisco, Nortel and Avaya, Inc. Through its Westcon, Comstor and Voda One divisions, Westcon Group sells products and services to resellers, systems integrators and service providers. Westcon Group has particular expertise in the convergence of voice, data and video applications and technologies, including voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP, security for networking and communications systems, remote access, Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing and wireless connectivity. For more information, visit www.westcongroup.com.

Source: Business Wire

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