A Channel Partner Program is an alliance that the companies create as a business building strategy where the partner ecosystem is encouraged to sell or promote the vendor’s products and services. The partner ecosystem typically consists of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), independent software vendors (ISVs), distributors and different solution providers like, value-added resellers (VARs), managed service providers (MSPs), consultants, systems integrators (SIs) and cloud service providers, among others.
A harmonious partner ecosystem is key to gain value, accelerate growth, and open doors to new customers and revenue streams. In most industries and businesses, partners are of strategic importance and the channel partner program needs to support each partner relationship with a structured framework. To achieve this, most companies strive to build partner programs that are simple, sustainable and that reflect profitable growth.
“Our channel strategy is built to drive breadth in the non-named enterprise market through distributors by onboarding value partners that can grow Riverbed’s business and embed our products into their solution architectures,” stated Ramzi Itani, Regional Channel Sales Director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) at Riverbed Technology.
Channel partnerships have the potential to accelerate growth for many business models provided that the partner program they offer has the potential to provide enough support and benefits to its partners. “The Sophos Partner Program for Middle East and Africa consists of four levels, namely Authorized Entry Level, Silver Level, Gold Level and the Platinum Level. It is based on sales performance. Each level increases in commitment to selling Sophos’ products and value delivered to customers,” said Harish Chib, Vice President, Middle East & Africa, Sophos.
Typically, a partner program may include training and certification programs, access to vendor technical support, sales enablement, customer engagement programs, and incentives in the form of discounts and rebates for partners, etc. The kind of partner program developed by the vendor will largely depend on the vendor’s product or solution and its placement in the market. A vendor may offer an embedded solution, incentives and rebates, training and certifications or sales and marketing tools to strengthen its channel and provide unprecedented business opportunity.
“The key benefits of the new partner program include a centralized operational model which offers a single sign-on, one deal registration and one Line of Business Incumbency Program for storage. The program will uphold Gold, Platinum and Titanium, as well as an exclusive – Titanium Black partner tier for the highest performing partners. We also have an annual program strategy in place which mandates mid-year compliance review. In addition to this, the new program will ensure generous rebates for channel partners who drive new business, attach services, sell the full portfolio and offer the portfolio exclusively, regardless of their program tier,” said Havier Haddad, Senior Channel Director at Dell EMC.
Many vendors in the region are looking to start new partner programs both to help partners build such solutions and services that translate into lower costs and higher margins. To strengthen its strong commitment to the channel, Dell EMC recently announced a new Partner Program which will be effective from February 2017, stated Havier. The Xerox Partner Plus Program for the Developing Markets region has also been gradually rolled across the developing markets since the beginning of 2016.
“The StarLink Choice program is designed to reinforce the successful and significant collaboration between StarLink and its Strategic Partners. StarLink excels in enabling Strategic Partners to succeed, therefore the objective of StarLink Choice program is to support its valuable Strategic Partners to facilitate growth, differentiate services, secure investment, challenge competition, diversify product offerings, expand market share, maintain consistency in business growth and strengthen customer relationships. As per the program, all Strategic partners set quarterly targets with rebates calculated and paid at the end of each quarter,” adds Nidal Othman, Managing Director at Starlink.
Companies are looking for quality partners that can provide value and enhance their presence. Partners benefit from a highly skilled and trained workforce that allows them to sell solutions and services in new market segments. Identified training and learning paths for the sales people, analysts and technicians of the partners will lead to a highly skilled workforce to better meet the needs of current and future customer demands.
In the Middle East, Riverbed has adopted a two-tier channel model whereby resellers transact through value-add distributors. Onboarding into the Riverbed Performance Program therefore starts with the channel organization registering as an Authorized Partner, with the value-add distributors taking the lead in assisting resellers with the process.
Similarly, the Xerox Partner Plus Program is also a competency-based Channel Partner program for second tier resellers in DMO, focused on developing people skills as a basis for capturing new market opportunities. This program is designed to help channel partners take advantage of current and future market opportunities by focusing on employee development and training.
“The new Xerox Partner Plus Program is designed to help channel partners take advantage of current and future market opportunities by focusing on employee development and training,” explains Pui Chi Li, Head of Marketing for Middle East and Africa. “Identified training and learning paths for the sales people, analysts and technicians of our partners will lead to a highly skilled workforce to better meet the needs of current and future customer demands. Partners benefit from a highly skilled and trained workforce that allows them to sell solutions and services in new market segments.”
The partner programs provide increased access to competitive markets in addition to providing a boost to the company’s revenue streams. Since customers are more informed than ever before and their demands for solutions and services are becoming more and more complex, it is critical for partners to have a highly skilled workforce to understand their business needs. Realizing effective channel-partner engagement as a necessary investment, companies in the region are now focusing on increased engagement with its channel partners. They aim to achieve this by offering efficient programs to those partners who will see benefit and add value to their business.
“Misys has a long history of working with both global and local partners to better serve our customers. Our partner ecosystem is fundamental to the growth and development of our business and we launched the Misys InFusion Partner Program more than three years ago to cement our partner relationships and build out our ecosystem,” stated Hisham Esaadi, Channel Partner Director, Misys Middle East and India. “Our dedicated Partner Managers work closely with each partner to develop a business plan and provide ongoing support to enable them to reach their goals. The InFusion Partner Portal gives all partners access to the resources they need as a Misys partner including training presentations and marketing and sales collateral.”
Most vendors in the region aim to create a mutually beneficial relationship through partner programs. The focus lies in creating strategies to increase engagement with partners who give added value to their business.
