Microsoft announces strategic partnership with Westcon Convergence

Westcon Middle East is a leading value-add distributor of convergence, security, networking and mobility products and services, covering the Middle East, Pakistan and North Africa regions. The company has specific expertise in the Convergence of voice, data & video application technologies, including VoIP, internet security, wireless and mobility solutions. Offering a global portfolio in the Middle East and Africa of best in-class products, services and solutions from highly reputed vendor partners.

The announcement coincides with Gartner's recent Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, 2012 report, in which they evaluated Microsoft's current in-market technologies including Lync 2010 and Exchange 2010, which came out as strong leaders in Unified Communications.

Microsoft view the strategic alignment and collaboration with Westcon Convergence as a key partnership to enabling and driving Microsoft channel partners to fully extend Microsoft Lync Unified Communication solutions to market with maturity and consolidated support from the Lync eco-system vendor partners. Westcon Convergence proven expertise in delivering excellence in core distribution services around the region is key to supporting market expectations of our customers and partners.

"Westcon believes that Lync will continue to play an even more important role in the business of Unified Communications as the market continues to grow and evolve," said William Hurley, Chief Technology Officer, Westcon Group. "Lync exemplifies Westcon's belief that the Unified Communications market is transitioning from a hardware oriented solution to software and services oriented solution."

"We are happy to see that the Gartner report considers Microsoft a leader in the Unified Communications space, as they have for several years," said Yasir Khokhar, Business Group Lead Microsoft Office Division, Microsoft Gulf .

"Our customers continue to realize value by using Microsoft Lync for Enterprise Voice, IM/presence and Conferencing and as the Lync partner ecosystem continues to grow at a rapid pace, we are glad to announce our strategic partnership with Westcon Convergence today as we've always felt that the company shared our vision for Unified Communications," he continued.