Allot beefs up channel

Global network traffic management outfit Allot Communications has stepped up its presence in Australia, with a new Melbourne-based regional office and second distributor, Channelworx.

Allot -- which develops traffic management products for the enterprise and service provider markets – had previously been represented here exclusively through distributor Techplus.

With two distributors now in place, the company is on the hunt for fresh reseller partners to tap a global market which it claimed was worth around US$150 million in 2003.

The company markets a range of products; the first being NetEnforcer, a family of bandwidth management hardware appliances for quality of service (QOS) enforcement and realtime traffic monitoring on carrier, service provider and enterprise networks. It also markets NetReality, a product that provides application performance monitoring on enterprise networks and is suitable for non-IP networks such as frame relay, or for IP networks with VoIP or H.323, the company said.

In the past few months, the company had been strengthening its channel and was working with big resellers such as Alphawest, Commander and XSI, Ronen said. 'We've already sold through those channels and have had a lot of interest as well,' said Jonathon Gordon, regional sales manager, Australia and New Zealand at Allot.

Allot was targeting service provider, ISP and enterprise markets with the products. The education market also had potential, according to Azi Ronen, executive VP, technology and marketing at the company.

Allot competes heavily with Packeteer in the enterprise market. 'Everybody's selling Packeteer – that a reason in itself to look at an alternative,' said Gordon.

Gordon and Ronen claimed Allot's products were 10 percent to 20 percent cheaper off the list price than competing offerings. 'We're offering a solution that's at least as good, and better in some areas,' Gordon said.

The company claimed its products attracted average margins of between 20 and 25 percent. It would also provide funds for reseller and distributor marketing campaigns of up to 5 percent of total sales revenue, Ronen said.