Monday Morning Impact – June 22

By Ken Presti, Senior Consultant, Channel Impact

D&H Adds “Cisco Pro” Partner Enablement Program

D&H Distributing has implemented a new partner enablement program to reward and support resellers who increase their sales of Cisco products. The three-tiered “Cisco PRO” (Partner Revenue Opportunities) program is aimed at D&H’s Cisco Registered, Cisco Select, and Cisco Premier Partners, with benefits that scale by membership level.

At the basic level, elements include marketing templates and materials, dedicated sales specialist support; and exclusive training opportunities.

Select members also receive on-demand Cisco OIP (Opportunity Incentive Program) training, priority system engineer access, inventory forecasting, virtual training and Select Recertification Testing at no cost.

Premier members receive additional on-site training and free access to express collaboration specialist services to help resellers sell, design, install and support the Cisco Business Edition 6000 portfolio of products and Cisco TelePresence solutions.

Channel Impact
As the channel sales environment becomes increasingly competitive, distributors are looking for new ways to help allied partners while, at the same time, differentiating themselves against other distributors through programs such as this one.

Ping Identity Updates Security Partner Program

Ping Identity, a San Diego-based identity access management vendor, has updated its partner program, offering new options and benefits for three key partner business models.

Resale partners can qualify for the Platinum, Gold or Referral programs for different levels of support and benefits, including in person pre-sales training, web-based trainings, certifications and competitive margins.

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) interface with the vendor through a single-level program with a variety of benefits, including on location technical support training, pre-sales and post-sale support training, implementation training at Ping Identity, resale and referral margins, a dedicated Ping Identity partner manager and access to sales and marketing tools.

The Alliance Program caters to SaaS providers and technology partners including Netskope, ServiceNow, Box and Concur. Depending on an organization’s partner level, benefits of the Alliance program include web-based sales and pre-sales training as needed, free implementation training on all products, referral margins, a dedicated account manager, testing environments, access to Ping products, as well as access to sales and co-marketing investment.

The company also launched two new online communities to encourage best practice sharing and provide direct access to Ping’s tools and resources. The community portal gives partners and customers a direct line of access to Ping products, best practices, tips, feedback and questions. The developer portal provides access to software development kits, documentation and code samples to enable developers to bring Identity Defined Security into their applications by leveraging Ping products and open standards.

Channel Impact
Increased diversity in channel business models has vastly increased the complexity of building comprehensive vendor channel programs that meet the needs of all constituents. A growing number of companies are building multiple parallel programs to better address that need.

AppDynamics Expands Partner Program for U.S. Federal Market and Canada

AppDynamics, a San Francisco-based application intelligence company, announced the expansion of its partner program with new channel partnerships and an expanded team to support the U.S. federal government and Canadian markets.

In addition to expanding its North American channel team, AppDynamics is now available through Promark Technology Inc.’s General Services Administration (GSA) schedule. This distribution arrangement provides AppDynamics’ federal reseller partners a clear sales process through Promark, and provides U.S. federal, state and local government agencies a relevant purchasing vehicle.

To support these efforts, AppDynamics has also promoted Matthew Polly to vice president of worldwide alliances and business development. Polly now leads strategic alliances, technology partner, systems integrator, managed service provider, and solution provider sales.

To facilitate the certification process, AppDynamics has also put in place an enablement program that includes live, in-person classes to bring partner sales and technical staff up-to-speed.

Partners earn a percentage margin off of the net selling price of every customer deal they resell.

Channel Impact
Sales into the federal market have traditionally been a unique experience for channel partners as compared to sales to enterprise or commercial markets. Initiatives like this are designed to help pave the way.