Officials of snom are correct when they note that in late July and early August we see the onset of the dog days of summer. Even business slows down -- unless you’re running a lemonade stand; then business is probably pretty good. And unless you live, as this intrepid reporter is currently doing, in northern New Zealand, then it’s the season for cold rain, sweatshirts and fires in the fireplace at night.

But over there in North America and northern Europe, the temperatures are rising and work calendars are cleared as “people head to the beach or the mountains to cool off, relax and enjoy some downtime before the beginning of a busy fall schedule,” snom officials say a bit wistfully, adding that for VARs, it’s not just beaches and sun, it’s also time to “take stock and develop new skills by learning about promising new IP communications technologies and products which are driving the enterprise and SMB marketplace.”

At snom Americas, officials are touting special VAR training classes at snom University on their entire product portfolio. Join snom instructors for two -- air-conditioned -- classroom training sessions the first two weeks in August, from August 2-4 in Washington, D.C., the city officially classified a “hardship post” for foreign diplomats until the invention of air conditioning, as anybody who’s spent a summer there knows, and from August 11-12 in Dallas.

snom University is a training and certification program consisting of webinars, online courses, and face-to-face classroom training. These classroom training sessions are the only way to become a Certified Value Added Reseller for snom products, so there’s that, and successful individual participants will also be officially certified as “snom Certified Engineers” (SCEs).

In April TMC (News - Alert) reported that as you may have noticed, the IP and telecommunications industries are converging. Heads-up companies have a strategy for dealing with this reality.

Accordingly, snom aims to accelerate its growth in the UK market by following a strategy described by company officials as “attacking the converging market from both ends.” That’s the high-level strategy. Tactically, snom is working in partnership with Sipaura Communications to deliver “intelligence in communications.”

Sipaura Communications Managing Director Tim Alden says the deal combines “rock-solid German engineering in the form of the snom ONE plus with a level of support other manufacturers normally reserve for their Platinum partners.  

snom is a Gold sponsor of ITEXPO West 2011. To be held Sept. 13-15 in Austin, TX, ITEXPO (News - Alert) is the world’s premier IP communications event. Visit snom in booth #721. Don’t wait. Register now!

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