Ahed Alkhatib, Head of Global Sales for Ericsson-LG Enterprise, first met Pragma's David George and Tim Brooks in spring 2012 at a time when the South Korean giant was evaluating its almost static UK business performance. Two years later, and from a standing start, Pragma was named Global Partner of the Year.
Since the meeting in 2012, despite the sad loss of David George to cancer earlier this year, Alkhatib has seen Ericsson LG's business in Britain grow significantly thanks to the legacy George left behind and the close bond he has developed with Pragma directors Tim Brooks and Will Morey and their expanding community of resellers. George was a legendary negotiator and had a long-standing relationship with the LG Group, but Alkhatib still took a gamble teaming up with Pragma after that seminal meeting. "The business model we operate is very different to that of our competitors in the market," he said. "Pragma is our only distributor in the UK market and Ericsson-LG Enterprise is Pragma's only vendor."
So what led to such investment in the partnership? It's all down to common values and an understanding of the channel, as Alkhatib explained when we spoke to him at Ericsson-LG's headquarters in Anyang, Seoul. "Pragma Distribution was brought to my attention early in 2012 when we were looking for ways to stimulate and drive growth in the UK," recalled Alkhatib. "As a newly established company I had not heard of them before, although both David George and Tim Brooks had a respected profile in the industry. We agreed to meet in Korea to hear them out and they presented an aggressive growth plan for the Ericsson-LG Enterprise portfolio centred on a strategy of doing the basic things better than anyone else was doing then in the UK.
"In essence, what they said made perfect sense. It was all about engaging with resellers as partners, listening and supporting them in all aspects of sales, training, marketing, technical support, supply and order management and, ultimately, working with them on the basis of mutual trust and respect. At Ericsson-LG Enterprise we pride ourselves on the relationship and loyalty we have with all of our distributors. While that may sound like some motherhood corporate statement, let me assure you it is not."
In three short years Alkhatib's wager has paid off. So much so that Pragma was named Ericsson-LG Enterprise's Global Partner of the year for 2014 and has set a course for bigger success on the back of a new cloud portfolio set to roll out to the channel in the next few weeks. "Our UK growth with Pragma has been phenomenal across both our SME and Enterprise sectors," added Alkhatib. "It's the strongest performance we have seen in the UK market for over 10 years. We have experienced a significant increase in global market share indicating to me that we have a product portfolio with a value proposition that is resonating in the market with our partners and customers. More importantly, we have a committed and experienced partner in Pragma doing all the right things to service and support the partner community in a way that I think has been lacking and missed."
To hear such words from the head of global sales for one of the top 10 technology companies on the planet is refreshing and will be reassuring for Pragma's partners. Alkhatib has been embedded in corporate structures since graduating with an electrical engineering degree and starting his career working for Avaya (then Lucent Technologies) in Sydney, Australia. He joined Nortel Networks in 2000 to be part of a broadband start-up business called Shasta Networks which the Canadian giant had acquired.
"I then had a variety of different roles while at Nortel Networks, all Asia Pacific and regionally focused, moving to Korea as part of the LG-Nortel Joint Venture company established in November 2005," noted Alkhatib. "Since 2005 I have had a front row seat for LG-Nortel's transformation into LG-Ericsson in July 2010 when Ericsson bought Nortel's stake in the Joint Venture and then into Ericsson-LG Enterprise."
Alkhatib has been 'thrilled' by the significant channel footprint Pragma has created in a relatively short time, but believes the foundations are being created for even greater growth in the months ahead. "Our partners in the UK market have a renewed understanding of Ericsson-LG Enterprise's vision, strategy and capability," he explained. "They know that we are committed to their success and investing in their future. This loyalty has led to an increase in business not only from our existing partners but from new partners that were handling competitive products."
Alkhatib believes there will still be long-term demand for on-premise IP PBX and hybrid products across the SME and enterprise sectors, which Pragma partners are addressing with the iPECS UC portfolio. "Our market is undergoing a significant transformation and we have invested heavily to stay ahead of the changing dynamics and evolving customer requirements," he said. "Our broad portfolio can match the right solution to specific customer requirements."
Those solutions include: the iPECS UCP platform, with on-board unified communications embedded natively into the system as standard; the iPECS eMG80 hybrid platform to address market demands for a hybrid solution; and the iPECS LIP- 9000 series IP Terminals with HD voice and an enhanced user Interface.
"There is still a clear value proposition for premise-based UC solutions which is highly differentiated from cloud UC solutions available today," stressed Alkhatib. "In general, on-premises UC usually allows for a high level of flexibility and customisation with a variety of solutions and available approaches. This option could also potentially lower the TCO as it generally requires a one-time investment rather than an ongoing outflow."
Nonetheless, Alkhatib is relishing the prospect of unveiling Ericsson-LG's new cloud-based portfolio to current and potential partners at Comms Vision at Gleneagles this month which will give them, as he puts it, 'the luxury of choice'. "We will continue to invest in our premise-based iPECS Unified Communication platforms and ancillary applications, namely mobile integration, contact centre, call reporting, call recording and network management solutions," he confirmed.
"But our approach to the development of iPECS Cloud UC gives our resellers the ability to offer customers a choice between a premise-based, cloud-based or hybrid-based UC solution, utilising a rich feature set and with complete feature parity. We have also designed the solution with five levels of administrative domains thereby allowing the system to be partitioned and resources to be allocated on multiple levels, making it ideal for a multi-tiered distribution model. The iPECS UC Cloud solution is also great news for our installed base of customers providing them with a cost-effective and simple way to evolve from their current premise-based iPECS UC solution to cloud, without having to replace existing terminals or losing any functionality.
"With our solid base in the mid-market and SMB, Pragma's partners have already demonstrated their capability in the enterprise channel with a number of large and interesting projects. We expect this to continue and our collaborative approach to developing both the technical and commercial proposition with our partners means that we are confident of strong sales from launch."
Pragma's contribution to Ericsson-LG Enterprise in the past three years is significant and Alkhatib clearly hopes the partnership will continue to flourish. "As we changed our channel to market strategy in the UK, we needed to undertake a major effort and focus to reassure our customers and partners that we remained committed to the UK market," he added. "Pragma has obviously played a big part in that initiative and as a team I believe we will continue to achieve our objectives.
"It's all about people, having a shared vision and aligned strategic priorities. I know that the Pragma team and the legacy that David George has left continuously emphasise the importance of engaging in an open dialogue. The Pragma Product Council which creates honest feedback from partners is a case in point."