Vertex Standard prepares for portfolio expansion with new appointments

Vertex Standard, the two-way radio company owned by Motorola Solutions, has made three new UK appointments and is seeking to make another three in preparation for an expansion in its digital and analogue portfolio.

The company recently revealed that it has hired Bill Drummond (pictured right) as its EMEA marketing manager, based at Motorola Solutions’ Basingstoke office in the UK and now in his sixth week. A product manager for the EMEA region has also been hired and will join the company later this year in October. In addition, a UK channel account manager will join in August to support Vertex Standard’s channel partners.

"In our 60th Anniversary year, my focus is communicating Vertex Standard's long heritage, engineering & design excellence and product launch details to new and existing audiences through close collaboration with our authorised partners," said Drummond.

Tim Clark, director of sales, Europe and North Africa, Vertex Standard – who has also taken responsibility of Vertex Standard business, is also in the process of hiring three channel account managers for Vertex Standard across the Europe and North Africa region.

Later towards the end of this quarter Vertex Standard is planning the launch of a digital product, the EVX-S24, “a small compact, very tough and rugged radio”, comments Tim Clark. He added that additional products are expected to be launched later in the year. The company’s most recent product the EVX-261, an entry-level digital radio, was launched last month.

In the short term the company plans to continue offering an affordable analogue portfolio for customers not ready to migrate as market analysis has shown Clark that there is “still a significant market that is buying analogue”.

“We are also investing heavily in digital for those customers who are looking to migrate and are offering entry-level tier solutions for those. Into the future we are looking to build that digital capability with further products and applications.”

“The strength of the company is backed up by the 60 years of experience we have,” commented Clark. “We’ve got the experience and skill-set to deliver affordable high quality products. We’ve got a very strong analogue portfolio and are building our DMR digital portfolio to address an entry tier and that will progress into the future. We have a compelling roadmap for the next three years that will develop further our digital and analogue portfolio”

Clark has been in the telecoms industry for 26 years and has spent 16 of those in Motorola Solutions, involved in software engineering, channel management, project management and marketing.

Vertex Standard launched the VX-261, an entry tier analogue product, last year – which Clark reported is having “great success in the UK”. Another product to be launched in 2015 was the EVX-Link, which can link multiple digital sites together. Clark reports that it is “taking off well”.

In Q1 of this year he took over responsibility of the Vertex Standard business across Europe and North Africa. The company has recently celebrated 60 years in business, four of those spent wholly owned by Motorola Solutions. Clark added that Vertex Standard is an “integral part” of Motorola Solutions’ growth strategy and will be kept as a separate part of the business, focusing on customers looking for entry tier, rugged communication solutions – primarily voice with limited data.

“That’s where we’re separating the positioning between Vertex and Motorola Solutions,” concluded Clark.