Swiss Microsoft large account reseller (LAR) SoftwareONE is poised to enter the UK market after wooing five sales staff from local fulfilment partner Bytes.

SoftwareONE, which also carries Adobe, Citrix, Symantec and McAfee, offers software licence procurement and software asset management services (SAM). It already has offices in nine countries.

Sales director Zak Virdi is one of five Bytes staff to make the leap across. Although his exact role is yet to be defined, SoftwareONE has tasked him with enhancing SAM practices and driving consistency across all regions.

Virdi was vague on whether his new employer would compete with Bytes, which has traditionally acted as a partner for SoftwareONE.

“SoftwareONE has European status as a Microsoft LAR and under EU law our operations can be extended into the UK,” he said. “We recently opened new offices in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, as we want to expand our footprint in all the major regions.”

Patrick Winter, chief executive of SoftwareONE, said: “We will be rolling out a UK partner model and plan to build upon it. Zak will help by driving the SAM business globally.”

Darren Spence, group marketing director of Bytes, confirmed that the five vacancies had been filled, with Bytes veteran Mandy Nicholson taking on the sales director position.

“Zak did well at Bytes and we are pleased that we will continue to benefit from his expertise,” he said.