Monday Morning Impact – March 30

Published On: March 30, 2015Categories: Buzz, Uncategorized

By Ken Presti, Senior Consultant, Channel Impact

Verizon Rolls Out New Partner Program

Verizon announced the kick-off of its new Partner Advantage Program, enabling resellers and agents to sell the overall Verizon solutions portfolio, including networking, cloud and security solutions.

The program utilizes the traditional performance-based, tiered structure wherein benefits increase commensurate with investment and commitment.

“This is an incremental program to our Verizon Partner Program that allows new partners to join us at a comparable tier level they have earned with one of our competitors,” said Adam Famularo, vice president of global channels. “This way, program members can take advantage of our program without missing a beat.

“We’ve simplified our processes, centralized management on our Partner Portal, streamlined the on-boarding process, expedited quoting, contracting and ordering and updated our deal registration,” Famularo continued. “All of these things make it infinitely easier for our program members to start selling Verizon solutions, today.”

A dedicated support team is also available to provide technical and account support. In addition, members can take advantage of business planning services, specialized training/certification tracks and sales collateral, as well as access to marketing development funds, web design and other eligible marketing activities.

Channel Impact
As services delivered through carriers become more numerous and more varied, the ability to meet the needs of a variety of channel partners emerges as a practical necessity. This roll-out demonstrates Verizon’s strategy for satisfying this very important objective.

Dell Announces Two Key Changes to Executive Suite

Dell last week announced the appointment of Rory P. Read as the company’s new chief operating officer and president of worldwide commercial sales. As part of the same announcement, the Round Rock, Tex.-based company also named Paul Perez as the new chief technology officer of its Enterprise Solutions Group.

Read previously served as president and CEO at AMD, president and chief operating officer at Lenovo, and held multiple leadership responsibilities in IBM’s Asia-Pacific region. He will now lead Dell’s cross-business unit and country-level operational planning to further drive sales and go-to-market efforts. He also will own global systems integrator relationships and the global OEM business.

Perez joins Dell from Cisco Systems where he most recently served as vice president and general manager for the company’s Computing Systems Product Group, responsible for the UCS server and management portfolio. He previously served as chief technology officer for Cisco’s Data Center Business Group. Prior to Cisco, he was the chief technologist for HP’s ProLiant and BladeSystem infrastructure.

Both executives will report to Marius Haas, president and chief commercial officer of Dell’s Enterprise Solutions Group.

Channel Impact
Though specific plans for go-to-market strategy were not disclosed, both new executives are highly experienced.

Adtran Moves Towards Value-based Channel Model

Adtran has rolled out changes to its Advantage Partner Program geared towards higher rewards for product specialization. Key elements include consolidated pricing and discount levels and a reduced deal registration threshold. In addition, the program now places a stronger emphasis upon training and support towards specific specializations, including ADTRAN Bluesocket wireless products and NetVanta internetworking products.

“By making these enhancements, Adtran is able to remain a trusted associate to its partner base,” said Ted Cole, vice president of channel sales. “The bold improvements to our channel program allow Adtran to create a larger opportunity for more partners to join its channel community, expand their solutions and service portfolios, and increase their revenue.”

Channel Impact
Adtran becomes the most recent vendor to focus on channel expertise as a metric for rewarding its partners.

 

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