Partner programme upheaval: Who is unearthing treasures?

Brian J. Dooley explores the crucial elements that cement vendor/reseller relationships

By Brian J. Dooley, Auckland | Tuesday, 06 April 2010
While most partnership programmes focus mainly on the sales community, RSA is developing a local initiative to support presales technical professionals. “I am a firm believer that the partner presales community is fundamental to a successful partner programme,” says Teague. “We are complementing the global programme with RSA Elite Forces locally. This targets trained technical partners, awarding them for positioning themselves to sell our product. It is a new four-tier programme, with each tier based on particular behaviour.

Elite Forces has become RSA ANZ’s most active programme. “There is a lot of change in the market itself,” says Teague. “As you move into a different computing environment, the rules change, resulting in a whole new dynamic. This means that more information is required.”

In the printing area, Hewlett Packard launched a new channel partner programme last November, focusing on print specialisation. “The new programme enables channel partners to sell contract-based printing solutions to the mid-market,” says Imaging and Printing group market development manager Sian Leigh. “Resellers that join our partner programmes have the opportunity to build long-term service relationships with their business customers.”

The new programme provides HP channel partners with:

• The ability to create additional revenue and annuity streams

• Improved customer ‘stickiness’

• Access to specialised sales tools

• Additional rebates

• Access to HP technical presales resources

• Certification and accreditation

• Access to targeted lead generation programmes.

“The programme is made up of three levels: The HP Smart Print Services (SPS) Programme, the HP Partner Print Services (PPS) Programme, and the HP Office Print Solutions (OPS) Partner Programme,” says Leigh. “The SPS programme can be accessed by any of our channel partners and requires no previous partner service experience with us. The PPS programme requires the channel partner to have a basic level of service experience and a help desk service to manage the engagement. The OPS programme requires the most commitment from our resellers, but also provides high rewards. Resellers need to have fulfilled specific criteria and have advanced service and fleet management experience.”

HP also supports its partners by holding regular partner events. These range from networking opportunities through to training. The print specialisation programme just held its initial launch event, where partners were able to meet each other and engage in discussion about the programmes.

“As the programmes grow, we will be looking to host partner events on a monthly basis so our resellers can network, discuss the market and how HP can be of further assistance,” says Leigh. “We offer discounts and support at varying levels dependent on the programme our resellers enter into. But more than that, we are running partner programmes because we have found that there needs to be more awareness rather than incentives to buy.”

Juniper Networks provides a range of partner programmes in its J-Partner series, based around either market or the business model resellers employ to address that market.

“The newest part of our programme is a service element,” says partner sales director Rob Finn. “This is designed to allow our partners to build services best practices. Juniper doesn’t compete with its partners for service business. They can provide design, implementation, and post-sales services. We enhance the services our partners deliver. Two of the newer programs are design specialisation (available next month), and implementation specialisation. Our programme is to share best practices with partners to implement a Juniper solution, rather than competing with partners.“

All of Juniper’s local revenues are directed through the partner community. “When we consider partner selection, we look for existing service organisations, and are willing to invest in that,” says Finn. “We are looking for partners that can differentiate themselves in services. We run a lot of programmes with distributors, tailored to the partner level. There is a pricing advantage to partners, based on level. This protects the investment of certified partners.”