Aastra, a leading company at the forefront of the enterprise communication market,, held its first Partner & Reseller event for its operations in the Middle East and North Africa as the company marked the first anniversary of its acquisition of Ericsson's Enterprise Communications Business. The 2-day event entitled Partner Growth 2009 aimed to offer potential for further expansion in a region that is characteristic with emerging and promising markets. The event held in Dubai was visited by more than 60 delegates from all over the region and was opened by Mr. Hugh Scholaert, Regional Group President of Aastra. One of the highlights of the event was the live video conferencing with Aastra's co-CEO Tony Shen, who addressed the partners from his office desk in Toronto using Aastra's latest Virtual Presence (ViPr) technology. This allowed the delegates to ask direct questions to the top executive of the company, as if he were present in the same room. Speaking on the occasion of the regional gathering, Peter Hofman, President and Managing Director of Aastra MENA explains that Aastra has plans to expand both its portfolio and channel reach in the MENA region in 2009. “The Partner Growth event serves as a great opportunity for Aastra to update the channel partners about our latest Voice-over-IP, Unified Communications, Contact Centers and Mobility portfolio and further communicate the company's strategy for a continuous growth and regional expansion” Hofman adds “We used this event to launch our new ‘dedicated partner' certification level as an extension to our existing channel partner program. This will enable us to add new channel partners who can optimally focus on a single product line such as Video Conferencing, Multiplexers, Contact Centers or SIP Terminals.” The 2008 Best Performing Partner Award of Aastra MENA went to KKE (Kiasa Kish Ertebatat), a premium 1st tier partner based in Dubai with a reseller network in UAE and Iran. The award was received by KKE's CEO Mr. Farhad Mohammadi. About Aastra Telecom Middle East Aastra Telecom Middle East is the Middle East & North African business unit of Aastra Technologies Limited, (TSX:“AAH”), a leading company at the forefront of the enterprise communication market. Headquartered in Concord, Ontario, Canada, Aastra develops and delivers innovative communications products and applications for businesses. Aastra's operations are truly global with more than 50 million installed lines around the world and a direct and indirect presence in more than 100 countries. Aastra is entirely dedicated to enterprise communications and offers one of the most complete portfolios of unified communications solutions individually tailored to satisfy its customers' requirements. These range from feature-rich call managers for small and medium businesses and highly scalable ones for large enterprises, integrated mobility, and call centers solutions to a wide selection of terminals. With a strong focus on open standards, Aastra enables enterprises to communicate and collaborate more efficiently.
