Commitment and study underpin partner training

Brian J Dooley looks at the nuts and bolts of effective partner programmes

By Brian J Dooley, Auckland | Monday, 13 June 2011
Partner programmes are important. For resellers dealing with large multinational suppliers, they provide the framework around which supplier relationships are built. Strong partner programmes can help in sales, provide training, lubricate collaboration with other resellers, and improve margins.

They also require a variety of commitments, which can include sales volume, certification, training, exclusivity and a range of other items. They are generally offered at a variety of levels and are deserving of careful review. Partner programmes can become core assets of your business, and may define and restrict how you channel your resources.

As with most other areas of IT, partner programmes are now undergoing a metamorphosis as technologies continue to converge and new skills groupings develop. Training is becoming increasingly important and availability of online training is now standard. It is always good to regularly review partner programmes and ensure that you have the right arrangement in place for your business.

Storage solutions vendor EMC is making changes to its partner programmes to accommodate emerging specialties. “In January 2011, EMC launched its Velocity Solution Provider Programme,” says ANZ channel and distribution manager, Chris Moyle. “This programme is an evolution of our Velocity Channel Programme and is built on three keys to success: opportunity, differentiation and profitability. The programme comprises four tiers and four ‘specialisations’ that provide incremental business benefits and rewards based on revenue, training and accreditation achievements. The introduction of specialisations opens up more market opportunities for partners.”

Additional specialisations will be added in the future. These will give EMC partners capability to further differentiate and enhance their profitability, which is underpinned by a strong rebate programme and services opportunity.

“We understand services are a major source of value-add and profitability for partners,” says Moyle. “We want to facilitate partners so they are able to deliver services from consulting, assessment, implementation through to maintenance and support. EMC’s aim is to provide sales, technical, marketing and product specialist resources to help partners to be more successful.”

The four tiers of the Velocity Partner Programme have scaled requirements. “At the entry level we want to encourage new partners to join and we only require sales and pre-sales accreditation, which is zero cost,” says Moyle. “As partners move up the programme there are additional requirements for certification of technical resources, which are rewarded by an increased rebate opportunity and an enhanced ability to differentiate in the market.”

For the future, EMC is continuing to expand the range of specialisations in its partner programme. For example, a new service provider specialty is planned for later in the year.

Polycom is an international supplier of video and voice conferencing solutions, with a strong audio/video focus. Its partner programme is faced with meeting the multiple challenges of conversion and emerging technologies. “We see a rapidly growing opportunity for partners,” says Polycom ANZ managing director Michael Chetner. “With audio/video integration over IP networks becoming more prevalent, companies are moving toward unified communication. Because of this, our reseller base — which began in the video sector — is growing very diverse. We have renamed and rejigged our partner programme, naming it “Choice” to reflect its multiple specialisations. We have categories for telepresence, for service providers, for handsets and so forth. Partners can be in several categories.”

Polycom encourages collaboration among partners in developing complete solutions, and it has a high level Open Collaboration Network Programme for Alliance Partners that are multinational firms. These include companies such as Microsoft, HP and Avaya. Partnerships across specialty areas make it possible to provide customers with a complete solution.

For its Channel Partners, the company provides opportunities for multiple channel partners with different specialties to get together to provide an end to end Polycom solution.

“The partner programme advantage is flexibility and choice,” says Chetner. “It also provides additional revenue streams for partners. Polycom is an A/V company and we don’t focus on anything else.”

Its certifications provide different levels of support. The level is determined by factors such as overall spend, staff proficiency, business plans and marketing plans.

“Training is the core element to get to highest levels of certification,” says Chetner. “We require a minimum number of video-certified engineers — an independent qualification. We also provide free technical training as part of the certification process.”

In October last year Polycom’s new Choice Partner Programme went live, immediately qualifying more than 50 new partners in highly divergent sectors. The number of new partners demonstrates that they had tailored the programme to the market. It helped to bring on board many companies that were consolidating Polycom’s specialty A/V products with other digital products and services.

Its programmes are backed by training, which ranges from product and marketing training to focused training related to key vertical markets, such as education. The company is now looking more closely at the SMB market, and considering how it can best be served.

“The cloud is making it possible to provide enterprise-grade products to the SMB market,” says Chetner. “This represents a new opportunity for us. We are also finding new opportunities in upgrading products from legacy to high definition video, along with a training programme we have in place to help our partners to take advantage of this.”

IBM has traditionally maintained a strong and diversified partner programme designed to meet the highly complex requirements of a wide range of enterprise solutions. “Under our Partner World programme, we provide opportunities to become a partner of IBM,” says IBM NZ channel manager, Raymond Skoglund. “Our programme is based on capability and investment, and has three categories: Member, Advanced Partner then Premium Partner. Advantages of the programme are twofold —establishing a skill set and developing more proficiency around products; and having the confidence of support around products being sold. Partners can move from a reactive approach to a proactive approach.”

Partner World includes a strong learning component, in which points are gained for improving skills; there is also a revenue component, where organisations can earn points on revenues. Points can be exchanged for a variety of incentives through an online rewards system.

“IBM training tends to be based in the major centres,” says Skoglund. “We do regional road shows, taking it out to wider base of partners. However, we also find that a lot of organisations, such as smaller partners, can’t afford to release consultants for days or weeks training, so we offer online training based on self learning. The majority of our training is actually available over the internet.”

Training is available on products, around best practices, on sales methodology, and on efficiency improvement for sales teams, among other areas.

IBM’s partner programme is designed to contributes to profitability, and provides remuneration for sales that sales teams make. “In becoming a contracted partner, you get a number of tools that aid in sales proficiency,” says Skoglund. “You can earn and learn, remunerate sales people selling IBM products, improve skill sets, communicate with a wider IBM community, and improve engagement, along with other advantages.”

IBM’s programmes tend to be specific to particular lines of business. There has been some relaxation on requirements for some product areas, particularly in the mid-market sector. The programme has continued to evolve with changes in business and technology.

“Joining a partner programme is a first step,” says Skoglund. “The next step is to leverage it. That comes down to relationships and teamwork. With our partner programme we can show companies how easy it is to work with us, and that’s a good starting point.”

Fuji Xerox’s two main partner programmes are Channel 1st that provides rebates, and the incipient Colour Value Products Partner Programme (or CVP Partner Programme) that guarantees specific margins.

The company is in the enterprise printer business, and this demands an approach focused upon sales and profitability. The Fuji Xerox partner programme is heavily geared toward defending reseller margins. “Our CVP Partner Programme is designed to assist resellers by protecting them from the marketplace,” says ANZ general manager, David Borg. “Basically, we guarantee a level of margin for partners. Then we have a marketing programme that is designed to help resellers protect their existing customer base and seek new opportunities.”
The CVP Partner Programme is just in the process of being launched in New Zealand. Margin is a critical issue in the printer business, with increased risk in turbulent times and with currency value fluctuations.

Fuji Xerox has made major changes to its programmes recently, introducing new components aimed at helping resellers improve markets, retain customers, and attract new customers. There is no cost to join Fuji Xerox’s partner programme. However there is a sales volume commitment required. The company is aiming more toward developing a few strong relationships rather than many weak ones.

“One important new programme is PagePack, a channel-exclusive, managed-print solutions programme,” says Borg. “It is designed to help both the customer and the reseller by alerting resellers to resupply and maintenance needs for printers. This takes away all the risk. It is designed for the SMB sector, and supports hardware, maintenance, and finance in one easy to use and administer vehicle.”

PagePack is a cloud-based solution. “Reseller partners access our cloud portal, look at their entire customer base, and review weekly or monthly usage and consumption for customers,” says Borg. “This makes it simple and painless to keep up with supplies and service.”

Fuji Xerox is now developing a sales academy that will allow authorised partners to come and understand how to sell managed solutions. It will be important to bypass the hype, and pitch the programme so it makes sense to the customer.

“We have switched market focus to help resellers articulate their value to customers,” says Borg. “There are three programme levels: gold, diamond, and platinum. We work to find best fitting programme. Incentives include a range of rebates available for reseller, plus cash rewards or vouchers for salespeople.

“Some of our programmes, such as PagePack have special requirements. In order to resell PagePack, you must attend training. We want to limit this programme to resellers who are committed to working with us. They need to invest time and training to become a PagePack authorised reseller.”