ShoreTel adds Aria Tech to distie stable

Under the agreement, Australian-owned Aria Technologies will offer ShoreTel’s Unified Communications (UC) solutions to its extensive network of local value-added resellers (VARs).

Jamie Romanin, sales manager Australia/New Zealand at ShoreTel, told CRN that Aria Technologies was one of the leading suppliers of telecommunications equipment and solutions in the Australian telephony market with an extremely well known brand and reputation.

He claimed ShoreTel was expected to gain access to the considerable Telstra market in Australia served via Aria’s VARs.

“Aria’s network of channel partners will assist ShoreTel in creating stronger brand awareness while also helping to secure a greater share of the UC market in Australia. Aria will also play an integral part in taking the ShoreTel UC platform into Telstra’s TBS program,” said Romanin.

According to Romanin, WhiteGold Solutions was the only other certified ShoreTel Distributor in Australia, with Connector Systems ShoreTel’s only NZ distributor.

“We do not foresee any conflicts between our two distributors. WhiteGold Solutions has strong relationships with data networking resellers and are presently introducing ShoreTel’s UC solutions to these partners,” he said.

He added that Aria Technologies has a strong hold with the telephony players in the local market, particularly those that are also Telstra partners: “two very different channels approaching the market from two very different angles.”

Rob Pierce, general manager of Aria Technologies in Australia, said ShoreTel’s product suite was the natural choice based on its strong reputation in the Unified Communications space.

“We identified the markets that had immense opportunities for us, but in which we were not currently playing and we looked at companies that were active in both the IP telephony and larger enterprise space in Australia,” he said.

Pierce claimed that although there were potential opportunities to form a relationship with other vendors, Aria approached ShoreTel because of its growing reputation in UC.

“We were impressed by the company’s technically strong solutions,” he said.

Rominin said ShoreTel had no plans to further add to its distributor list.

“We feel that two distributors servicing Australia is ideal to meet our needs and growth plans in Australia,” he said.