In Broadcast - March 2012 - 68

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 6 - MARCH 2012

InTECH
VAR: Identify And Engage Globally
Now is the time for broadcast suppliers to invest in Europe, says Phil Eade of The VAR Network…
In these challenging economic times, broadcast supplier investment in developing new sales territories can seem a luxury that can wait. Employing suitably experienced full-time international sales staﬀ, paying their transport costs and expenses, and possibly setting-up an international oﬃce are all drains on a supplier’s cash ﬂow. Add to this the cost of potentially modifying marketing materials to be suitable for unfamiliar markets, and the costs and risks can escalate. Yet now is the time to be investing in building supplier brand and product awareness in Europe. European broadcasters are still investing, but investing more wisely. With increased pressure on their own budgets many broadcasters, resellers and systems integrators are now interested in new approaches and will consider new suppliers, particularly if they oﬀer more eﬃcient and cost eﬀective solutions, or provide functionality and workflows that helps diﬀerentiate them. The VAR (Value Added Reseller) Network is a privately owned UK company that was formed in 2008 to provide a solution to this dilemma. With oﬃces in the UK and the Netherlands, and extensive travel throughout Europe, it provides broadcast suppliers with a cost eﬀective approach to building and managing European sales territories. Rather than employing full-time international sales staﬀ with all the
Phil Eade and Ynze Mens from The VAR Network

overheads and commitments that this involves, suppliers purchase a number of service days per month from The VAR Network, typically on an annual contract. The VAR Network team focuses on raising the proﬁle of the supplier and winning business in the target territory by assisting in the development of suitable marketing materials and building a pro-active network of value added resellers. Drawing on established relationships with a large number of resellers and systems integrators across Europe, The VAR Network is able to more eﬃciently identify and engage the right resellers for each supplier. As a result, an eﬀective European sales channel can be created or strengthened in less

time. Cost eﬃciencies are achieved as all travel expenses are shared across The VAR Network’s portfolio of clients. And timely, secure on-line reporting, including the supplier’s speciﬁc Reseller Network Status by country and Sales Pipeline by win chance, further enhances the professional service provided. The VAR Network clients include suppliers from outside Europe who wish to enter or strengthen their presence in the European market, and suppliers within Europe who beneﬁt from this results-driven model for speciﬁc parts of the European territory. Phil Eade and Ynze Mens from The VAR Network will be at NAB to meet suppliers who wish to explore this model further. ■

InMEDIA
Etere Partner OCTOPUS
Automation systems provider Etere has now joined with the OCTOPUS group of partners. Etere News is to provide a tight integration with the OCTOPUS6 platform. This new partnership offers a cost-eﬀective, advanced, ﬂexible and complete solution for news production – features that will make it well-suited for bigger channels with a standard workﬂow. As with all Etere automation solutions, the integration is a faulttolerant and user-friendly system, which does not require customers to have software expertise. The developed solution comes with all the beneﬁts of Etere’s distributed architecture, being intrinsically modular and fault tolerant. Etere can interface with OCTOPUS6 via the MOS protocol, so lastminute changes to news stories are immediately reﬂected in the Etere Automation,and are ready to go on-air. The new integration is backed up by intensive testing of
Jan Pulpan, OCTOPUS

the smooth joint operation between Etere Automation and OCTOPUS6 Newsroom. Jan Pulpan, Director of Sales and Engineering at OCTOPUS Newsroom, said: “We are delighted to now have achieved a proven and strong integration with Etere News. We both offer complementary solutions for news operations and so having the two working eﬃciently and eﬀectively together is a great step forward for both of us and great news for our customers. They can now beneﬁt from even more eﬃcient and eﬀective workﬂows over the whole news operation.” Features derived from the Etere/ OCTOPUS integration include: Media Asset Management integration; Etere Browsing integration; OCX MOS integration - enhances search and preview features; Multilanguage management; User-friendly interface. ■

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In Broadcast - March 2012

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