AddOn Networks provides a range of cabling solutions and is finding that its products are in greater demand as more devices are being used than ever. AddOn’s products, commitment to quality, and great support make them ideal for resellers.
With ever-increasing workflows being carried out by businesses online in a wide range of sectors, more devices than ever are being used – and these need cabling solutions.
For a business such as AddOn Networks, it means that demand for their products is increasing. “We’re seeing a lot of activity in the data centre and AI space, particularly the high-end applications, right up to 800GB,” says Sam Walker, vice president sales EMEA and India at AddOn Networks.
Sam adds that there is greater demand from businesses in the financial and pharmaceutical sectors. “This is where customers are looking for lower cost and higher availability solutions,” he explains.
“There is also a large amount of public sector opportunities such as higher education with universities deploying research projects where they’re moving big workflows around and need a lot of data centre capacity. Transport is another vertical where we are seeing greater demand.”
For a channel-orientated vendor such as AddOn, this means there are plenty of opportunities. “Our strategy is to scale through the channel, leveraging a large network of distributors and resellers and engage with end users in Europe and globally,” says Sam.
“We work very closely with our distributors, resellers and end users in EMEA to deliver the best value solution for customers. Our focus is on driving brand awareness of Add-on, enabling our partners to sell our products, generating opportunities and, of course, closing deals to support our customers’ businesses.”
Extensive range of cabling
AdddOn has a large portfolio of OEM alternative cables and transceivers. “This is because there’s a very wide range of applications they are used in, particularly for optical transceivers, which include, for example, mobile backhaul, fibre to the home, access networking, core networking, data centre core and data centre interconnect,” says Sam. “There are lots of connectivity requirements that need optical solutions, and, in some cases, copper solutions.
“AddOn’s products are compatible with more than 100 OEMs. And there are different speeds and feeds of optics that are required, as well as different distances needed depending on the application. It all adds up to a wide portfolio of solutions that ensures we have the right product for our customers, no matter what their application.”
Quality testing
For AddOn, it isn’t just about providing cables, it is about ensuring the quality of them before they reach the customer. “There are four common issues that we see with transceivers and cabling: compatibility, quality, availability and cleanliness,” says Sam.
“We test every transceiver in our UK lab in the host platform that the customer is using. We always ask customers what platforms they are implementing so we can ensure that we test in the same platform. As a result, we are very confident when we ship a product that it’s going to work first time in the customer’s application.
Sam adds that all cables and optics are cleaned to a very high standard before leaving the company to guarantee optimum performance. “We also offer lifetime warranty to our customers,” he adds.
Reseller help
Quality assurance isn’t all that AddOn does to help resellers. For instance, there is AddOnNetworks.com. “This is available for partners and customers so they can find products and solutions,” explains Sam. “There’s a ‘Where to Buy’ page on the website that lists all our distributors and resellers by country.”
The site also includes a configuration tool. “If partners or customers are looking for particular products, they can go to the configuration tool and select from pull down menus the exact product that they need,” says Sam “There are also options on our website to request support and evaluation units. For example, we follow a very simple SKU coding methodology where we tend to use the NEM SKU and add “AO” to the end of the SKU. If the customer knows the NEM SKU that they’re looking for, they can easily find the AddOn equivalent.
“AddOn also has a Fast Track programme, which provide a pre-discounted set of about 200 volume SKUs in the EMEA region, which means partners can order without needing to contact us for discount support. The SKUs involved vary every quarter, with some seasonal branding included. This programme is very popular, particularly with our resellers and disties who know that they have an aggressive price point for those high-volume SKUs.”
AddOn also has a partner programme, called AddOn Advantage. “This provides resellers and partners with a range of benefits, including account management, access to sales enablement training and collateral,” says Sam. “We’re also happy to provide ad hoc training to customers. It provides the mechanism to get pricing and discount support, as well as some funded joint marketing and lead generation activities.
“We offer sales rewards as well as rebates through to our partners, depending on which tier of the programme that they’re on, be it silver, gold or platinum. Obviously, the more commitment to AddOn there is, the higher the partner goes in the tier and the more the benefits they get.”
With the need for cabling and transceivers only set to grow in the coming years, AddOn’s established products and support for resellers means that there will be plenty of opportunities to be taken by partners in this sector.