eXeed turns on 3G

Distributor eXeed is planning to spin out a separate division over the next 12 months focusing on telecommunications products and services and mobility, following the signing of an agreement with Hutchison Telecoms to distribute its 3G handsets and related services.

By December, the company wants to grab around $1.5 million in sales revenue from this market which would equate to 25 percent of its total business.

Michael Bosnar, managing director at eXeed, said he had set up a separate team of four staff dedicated to pushing mobility and the messaging applications that go with these mobile platforms.

He wants 50 channel partners signed up to sell the Hutchison 3G phones and related services next month and would recruit telecommunications and IT consulting organisations that are Hutchison 'Gold' channel partners and are authorised to sell 3G handsets and services.

These services would include GPS and integrating Exchange and other messaging services on a company's business server, Bosnar said.

'We're looking for partners with the capability to understand the Exchange environment, selling fully configured gateway servers,' he said.

Bosnar said the distributor was broadening its horizons beyond the PC market and its mainstay HP distribution into markets that provide a 'better returns on assets'.

He claimed that Hutchison is 12 to 18 months ahead of other carriers with its 3G network, so the distributor would not be signing any additional telco distribution deals during this time.

Hutchison said around 43,000 services were connected to its 3 network at 4 August, up from 18,435 at the end of June.

Rohan Ganeson, general manager at the Hutchison Business Group, said the eXeed agreement is the first in Hutchison's program to recruit specialist accredited channel partners to support new mobility products set to come down the line over the next few months.

In the meantime, eXeed is still looking at potential mergers and acquisitions in the value-added distributor space.

It attempted to acquire Toshiba distributor Dicker Data, but the deal fell through at the last minute in late July. Bosnar said the company is planning to have around six 'mobility' partners on board soon. 'HP is one of them and there will be another five,' he said. For example, eXeed would move to bundle 3G cards with laptop computers, Bosnar said.