By akademiotoelektronik, 16/01/2023

Cradlepoint sets up the channels to set up its wireless routers

Cradlepoint, the American company bought in 2020 by Ericsson for $ 1.1 billion, created its French subsidiary last April.Its director Christian Hoareau was present on IT Partners.The opportunity to take stock with him on the first months of activity and the appetite of the French market for his new solutions of WAN Wireless routers (4G/5G).

In addition to the brand implementation strategy on the territory, priority is given to the constitution of channels."Cradlepoint's commercial strategy is entirely focused on indirect sales," recalls Christian Hoareau.On the one hand, they will rest on a group of 5 to 10 certified partners, among the major players in the ecosystem (networks, telecoms, IoT), directly followed by Cradlepoint.On the other hand on a whole network of partners in regions.

Cradlepoint took care to make his training course easily accessible online, with content in French.The certification program includes 4 levels: "sales", "associated" and "professional" networks, and the highest "5G".

The second priority of the team, which has grown with the arrival of three new commercial officials, is to promote the use cases and the added value of Cradlepoint for organizations.Rather a challenge in a country like France, pointing on fiber and ADSL networks.

"Customers understand that you cannot take a thread for each use and therefore the interest of having a wireless infrastructure, however nuances Christian Hoareau.A real craze begins to take shape, especially with the new cases of use that really take advantage of the bandwidth and latency in 5G.»»

The three markets on which Cradlepoint are positioned are WAN networks for fixed sites, mobility and IoT.

"Today the demand is mainly on fixed sites, especially after the COVVI.But with the mobile infrastructure, the Wan extends and becomes elastic.It allows for example to connect all types of vehicles, from buses to cars that raise the plates to control parking.Finally we see emerging every day with the IoT of more unexpected cases, like cereal trees that consolidate all the data of their silos in the middle of the cloud, "explains Christian Hoareau.

To respond to these use cases, CradlePoint highlights versatility and the whole of its solution, which combines routing, wireless access and safety.What allow partners to imagine all kinds of turnkey solutions for their customers.With the asset of a centralized administration of the cloud products, which allows you to manage everything in a simple and uniform way.

Discussions with customers suggest what the sales cycles will be. « Sans doute de l’ordre de 6 à 12 mois pour une opportunité de taille respectable, avec plusieurs dizaines de sites»», estimeChristian Hoareau."It is important to know to animate the commercial and partner strategy.Because it is we who intervene at first to set up the brand with the customer and convince him of the interest of relying on the expertise of our certified partners.»»