TARRYTOWN, NY–( EMWNews – April 8, 2008) – Westcon Group, Inc., the leading

specialty distributor in networking, convergence, security and mobility,

announced the availability of its SMB onboarding tool, designed to help

resellers accelerate success in the SMB market by easing the

manufacturer-certification process. The tool is available through Westcon’s

ConvergencePoint SMB program in North America and is initially focused on

Nortel BCM solutions.

By introducing the SMB onboarding tool, which is free to qualified

registrants of the ConvergencePoint SMB program, Westcon helps resellers

seamlessly navigate the certification process online, eliminating the

confusion from what can be a very often a difficult and time consuming

process for resellers.

“The SMB market is expected to grow — especially during the near term —

fueled primarily by SMB’s desire to improve their bottom lines through cost

savings enhancements. With equipment prices continuing to decline as well

as through attempts to quantify ‘soft’ cost savings, SMB telephony

equipment is expected to experience a surge of activity during the next 18

months…”*

Lynn Smurthwaite-Murphy, vice president Canada, SMB North America, Westcon

Group, commented; “We believe this onboarding tool is the first of its kind

in distribution and will result in reduced time to revenue for our SMB

customers. This tool, which represents the future of onboarding, is useful

for any reseller looking to broaden their horizons in the SMB space by

providing access to training and product certification.”

The onboarding tool — which include video training modules — will be used

in combination with Westcon’s other SMB focused resources, such as its in

person, classroom-style Fast Track trainings, held on a regular basis in

several locations across the continent.

Net Payne, Vice President North America Enterprise-Marketing, Nortel,

commented: “We see Westcon’s new onboarding tool as a good way for

customers to learn everything they need to know about becoming certified on

Nortel BCM solutions. The tool is easy for SMB focused resellers to become

accustomed to and is a major enhancement to Westcon’s ConvergencePoint SMB

program.”

Mark Seidenfeld, president of Toronto, CA-based BCI Networks, added: “We

want our staff to focus on selling, and this new tool reduces the time

expenditure required for necessary, but often time consuming tasks. It puts

the process of becoming SMB certified in a simple, easy to use context.”

*Source: Gartner, Inc. — “Forecast: Enterprise Telephony Equipment, North

America, 2002-2011,” by Megan Marek Fernandez June 8, 2007

About Westcon Group

Westcon Group, Inc. is the leading specialty distributor in networking,

security, mobility and convergence for leading technology vendors,

including Cisco, Nortel, Avaya and Polycom. Through its Westcon, Comstor

and Voda One business practices, Westcon Group sells products and services

to resellers, systems integrators and service providers. Westcon Group has

particular expertise in the convergence of voice, data and video

applications and technologies, including voice-over Internet protocol, or

VoIP, security for networking and communications systems, remote access,

Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing and

wireless connectivity. For more information, visit www.westcongroup.com.