The opportunity for resellers to become true business partners with top-end clients is here: Prospects in the upper reaches know the buzzwords, now they want trusted reseller partners to translate the jargon into business benefits.

There was a time when top end customers were attracted by technology, but with so many buzzwords in the air and an ever expanding choice of products and solutions sallying forth from various quarters, their outlook is less clear cut. Top end customers are in need of advice, and knowledgeable resellers that take a partnership approach will become a trusted adviser to high spending organisations. Jason Standerwick, Sales and Marketing Director at Azzurri, commented: "We've seen a shift from manufacturers having all of the influence. You used to see big system tenders coming out. Now, it's about the customer wanting a partner with the right skills."

IP is driving big system sales. Many City-based firms are already on IP. Tony Parish, Managing Director at G3, says that IP is also taking off in multi-site businesses. "When customers have multi-site networks they want to flatten and consolidate to have one centralised system, all IP, that allows the IT people to control it easily. That can be a rip and replace deal, or it can be an upgrade."

Hugh Scholaert, Senior Vice President for Aastra Technologies, which now owns Ericsson Enterprise, agrees. His business is seeing a continuous migration of big business systems to IP. "The large end of the market has been cautious about IP, because there was a lot of concern about the security of putting voice onto data networks. Security is very important at the high end of the market. Some businesses like hospitals and banks have even higher security requirements. You have to consider how you can protect voice from being snooped or sniffed, and how you can prevent a network from being tapped from the outside."

"In the same way that Cisco promoted IP, Microsoft is doing the same for UC"

Another issue that must be addressed is explaining the value of IP, what would it do for business processes and what value would it return for the company. This question is partly resolved by large companies observing other big organisations successfully make the switch to IP. This process is partly driven by marketing campaigns undertaken by suppliers such as Cisco. Now, unified communications is having its profile raised by marketing from Microsoft. Scholaert says: "It's getting interesting. In the same way that Cisco promoted IP by introducing people to the concept, Microsoft is doing the same for unified communications. So it's already attracting a lot of conversation and questions."

Parish agrees that Microsoft is driving the UC message at the top end of the market, but failing to bag the deal: "Because Microsoft is shouting about Exchange Server 2007, people are saying that sounds good, but they think that Microsoft can't do voice, so customers go back to their current communications provider to get unified comms. Collaboration is the next big thing. But while everyone is talking about SIP there are some chronic issues around it."

Money is being spent on applications at the large end of the market, rather than handsets. Standerwick says the average handset spend he sees is around £50, compared to the previous £300 in former times. The balance saved on handsets is instead being spent on applications. Standerwick said: "There's a trend towards applications. People are now seeing the benefits of services that a year ago we thought were out there. Listening to an email on your phone seemed a bit daft last year, but not any more."

With the vast amount of work that has to be done to sell into this market, Scholaert recommends that resellers focus on one area. "In the future, partners may have to focus regionally, vertically, or technologically. These are things that will make our resellers and partners successful, and will help them provide value add."

According to Darren Pattie, UK Channel Director at Avaya, resellers in the high end market need to be consultative in their approach: "They need to understand business challenges and directions, before selling into businesses of this kind. This opportunity is very different from what it was just a few years ago, when it was a technology-led sale."

Standerwick says there is one key challenge for resellers at this end of the market - people: "The challenge is have you got enough skills to deliver the promises you make to customers. People are crucial. It's all about people."