Motorola taps Entex for GSA push

In an effort to attract new business for the federal state and local governments Motorola Inc.'s networking unit plans to offer its complete product line on Entex Information Services' General Services Administration schedule.

"This will be the beginning of a change for us " said Scott Merriman director of Motorola Information Systems Group's government channel. In addition to selling direct and through authorized resellers the company plans to focus on nontraditional channels to sell its products he said specifically through the GSA schedule and systems integrators such as Entex.

Motorola Information Systems Group's Network Systems Division will be providing products ranging from modems to frame-relay access devices.While Entex a $2.1 billion company is better known in the commercial arena this agreement with Motorola will give Entex more visibility in the government market. "Motorola is a $28 billion company that is well-known in the government " said Fred Bowes general manager for Entex's Federal Division. "They validate our [GSA] schedule."

The Motorola relationship fits into Entex's overall strategy Bowes said because both companies focus on the total cost of ownership for users not just on selling products.

Motorola manufactures its own chipsets for its modems which allows the company to charge less for its products Bowes said. That fits in well with the concept of reducing the total cost of ownership.

Motorola's product line includes its Vanguard line of frame-relay access devices 6520 and 6560 MPRouter platforms wide-area network access devices capable of supporting mixed voice fax local-area network and legacy serial data simultaneously over a single public or private frame-relay network and the new ModemSURFR and VoiceSURFR 56K modems.

Motorola expects to sign on more systems integrators to represent the company's products in the government market.