Tradewinds has been appointed as a master agent for unified communications vendor Mitel across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ).
The master agent model works differently from a standard distribution model because in this system, Tradewinds' partners will be able to register a business opportunity and be compensated for it even if they are not necessarily focused on the unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) business.
Tradewinds will be in charge of expanding the coverage of the UCaaS market on both sides of the Tasman.
As part of the agreement, Tradewinds agents will offer Mitel’s MiCloud Connect solution to accelerate customers’ migration to the cloud.
Mitel will provide a dedicated team led by A/NZ cloud manager Andrew Ward to ensure seamless collaboration with Tradewinds and further cloud services adoption in the region.
“The partnership with Mitel provides tremendous value to our brokers and their customers as they optimise their communications with flexible, cloud-based technologies,” said Tony Heywood, director and head of channels A/NZ at Tradewinds Brokerage.
“Mitel’s UCaaS offering seamlessly brings together the communications tools a business needs into a single, easy solution that will help users be more productive.
"As we continue to advance our agent model in Australia and New Zealand, having Mitel’s solutions in our portfolio will reinforce our position as a market leader for the brokerage of cloud-based services."
Tradewinds parent company Telarus has been a Mitel partner for some time in the United States.
Telarus CEO Adam Edwards told ARN that the Mitel A/NZ partnership will complement its portfolio of products from other vendors, including UCaaS vendor RingCentral and cloud communications vendor 8x8.
"Partners are going to benefit by having a broader selection of solutions," Edwards told ARN.
Tradewinds has also appointed its first local operations manager, Francis Choy, who was previously a business consultant at Rewardle.
In August, Telarus rebranded to Tradewinds in the Australian market, with the name change coinciding with the distributor’s official local launch on 21 August.
The distributor made the first push into the local market after appointing Heywood, the former Westcon-Comstor executive and AGC Networks country manager, as head of channels across A/NZ.
Meanwhile in September, Westcon-Comstor was appointed Mitel's exclusive distributor across A/NZ markets, in a bid to deepen partner enablement through the channel.
