CDM Australia's Aria Technologies adds B2B Telstra dealers with Leading Edge Telecoms acquisition

Aria Technologies, the Telstra business partner owned by CDM Australia Group, has acquired Leading Edge Telecoms, the telco arm of the Leading Edge Group that was quietly shuttered mid 2016, CRN can reveal.

Aria confirmed the deal, that brings 16 B2B Telstra dealerships into the Aria Partner program, was completed in July 2016, after 12 months of planning and preparation. Leading Edge Telecoms’ consumer servicing dealers transitioned to a relationship under Telstra Countrywide.

Aria Technologies chief executive Chris Karagiannis told CRN the acquisition expanded on an already successful partnership with Telstra.

“Acquiring the Leading Edge [telecommunications] business effectively meant that Aria would add mobile, fixed voice, applications and services to its range to complement its Telstra Business Systems (TBS) and data offerings, effectively making Aria Technologies a whole of business distributor under the program of Aria Partner Program,” he said.

Karagiannis said the new partner program had led to growth and new opportunities for the business.

“The addition of the Aria Partner Program has seen the overall revenue of Aria Technologies grow in just 9 months of operation,” he said.

“It has stimulated our traditional revenues with the Aria Program Partners embracing our vendor solution set including Ericsson-LG Communication Systems, lifesize video conferencing, LANCOM WLAN solutions, Plantronics Headsets and SO Wi-Fi. The partners are able to fully service all the telecommunication requirements of their business customers with Aria and Telstra’s solutions.

“Additionally, we have already added several new partners to the program and expect this to grow to 35 partners this financial year.”

Karagiannis said the dealerships it acquired would operate a little differently than operations under the Leading Edge brand, which was a franchise model.

“Our arrangement is very much about partnership. We provide distribution and credit facilities as well as comprehensive operational, industry and telecommunication solution expertise to help make our partners successful,” he said.

The chief executive said managing the Telstra dealerships healthy going forward came down to enabling its channel.

“We ensure that our partners have all the tools they need to operate and win in an ever-changing technology landscape. We like to think that we are easy to do business with which allows our partners to do what they do best, that is providing total telecommunication solutions for Australian businesses,” Karagiannis said.