Aruba retains NZ presence after key departure

Vendor set to introduce new partner programme next month

Networking vendor Aruba Networks won’t leave its systems engineer role vacant when sole local employee Keith Mataranglo leaves the company at the end of July.

He will be replaced by James Broadbridge, who has spent the past four years as an IP network consultant at Wellington networking firm Nspire. Although Mataranglo was based in Auckland, Broadbridge will remain in Wellington when he joins Aruba. Mataranglo is taking up a channel and enablement engineer role with the vendor in Europe.

“[Mataranglo] has accepted a transfer from us and we’re supportive of that. We’re sorry to see him go as we think he has done a great job for us in New Zealand. He has set a sound foundation for us to continue the momentum, particularly in the education, government, and retail verticals,” says Aruba ANZ country manager Greg Barnes.

Broadbridge says he researched Aruba prior to taking up the role.

“I decided they came out tops in the wireless networking vertical. It will be a good chance to work in the government and education space as well. I hope to spend most of my time in front of end-user customers,” he says.

Broadbridge will also be flying to Auckland and Christchurch to meet with customers and will be working closely with Aruba distributor Datastor.

Barnes says there are no plans to bring on any other staff members at this stage.

“We are basing [Broadbridge] in Wellington because we are seeing a lot of potential in the government space.”

Aruba is also set to introduce a new, as yet untitled, partner programme on August 1.

“We will be introducing this to all our channel partners and it will be structured around a tiered approach with various requirements depending on if you are a silver, gold or platinum partner,” says Barnes.

The new programme will enable partners to provide a tailored level of service and support to customers, he says. “Customers will get access to trained engineers via a help desk and there are more revenue incentives for partners.”

Aruba will host a wireless LAN event in Wellington on August 31. The latest WLAN developments will be discussed at the event, along with more details of the partner programme.