Motorola readies channel for enterprise push

Motorola is on the hunt for network integrators and outsourcers to bolster its channel as it brings a new line of enterprise wireless products to market in Australia.

The vendor presented to partners at an event in Sydney this morning ambitious targets to become “number one or two” in the enterprise wireless space.

It also announced its intention to expand beyond a channel of vertically-integrated partners  by recruiting specialists in wireless network design and integration, as well as outsourcing.

But representatives of the company conceded that establishing Motorola’s wireless credentials in the enterprise would be a “challenge”.

“Our traditional strengths are in retail, transport and logistics [vertical markets] where we’ve got very strong customers,” the director of sales for Motorola’s wireless network solutions division in Asia Pacific, John Fogarasi said.

The wireless network solutions division is a newly-formed product group that sits under the umbrella of Motorola’s enterprise mobility solutions business.

It brings together wireless products that previously sat within different vertical market business units at Motorola.

Fogarasi described the division as “a start-up in a large organisation. We have a team of around five people initially but see that growing dramatically.”

He said Motorola was “lifting its profile” in the enterprise wireless networking market.

“Partners will see a lot more awareness activities,” Fogarasi said.

“We’ll recruit them by providing an excellent training program, better than anyone else’s, that reduces their costs and risk. You’ll see a big focus on our channel program in the next few years.”

That focus would include the establishment of a standards-based accreditation program that “won’t necessarily be linked” to the Motorola brand.

Despite repeated claims of wanting to be one of the top two in the market, Fogarasi would not be drawn on specific initiatives to challenge Cisco’s dominance or on specific targets for the share of the market it wants.

It said the local market for enterprise and unlicensed broadband wireless networking products was around $120 million. This did not include licensed broadband wireless networking products - an area the vendor is pushing further into with products released today.

Fogarasi believed integrators could achieve better margins by joining Motorola’s partner program.

“We help partners put the right solution in front of their customers,” he said.

“When partners can overlay the basic wireless infrastructure with voice or security, they will make better margins. If they can do good network designs for customers they will be able to make better margins.

“Just putting up a few access points and running a few cables is not a high-margin business. We don’t lose deals on price - it’s for other reasons.”

Many of the new products released today had their origins in acquisitions over the past three years.

Those acquisitions included Symbol Technologies, Wireless Valley - which provided the network planning and simulation tools now given to Motorola partners - AirDefense wireless security, Orthogon Systems and Mesh Networks.

Fogarasi believed Motorola’s push into the enterprise would be successful because its brand was “synonymous with wireless”, and because it was able to provide an end-to-end wireless networking product suite.

Alloy Computer Products - which distributes Motorola’s voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) suite - separately wrapped up a roadshow in Sydney and Melbourne last week introducing the new products in that suite to its channel.