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Following its $3-billion Foundry Networks acquisition last year, Brocade has realigned its distribution network and launched a new partner program called Alliance Partner Network (APN).
“The acquisition of Foundry has resulted in the expansion of our product portfolio and hence we have evolved a new distribution setup and partner program that is broadbased and inclusive,” said Barbara Spicek, Vice President, Global Channels, Brocade.
The company has signed Renaissance Softech and Transition Systems as distributors for its storage products, while Inflow Technologies will drive the IP networking portfolio.
Brocade has also introduced three partner levels under the new partner program—Elite, Premier and Select—and rolled out new sets of benefits for each partner level.
“The key objective of the new program is to achieve quality, profitability and differentiation for our partners. One of the key challenges in the IP networking space is that of profitability. By offering more benefits, we intend to improve partner profitability,” added Spicek.
Those signing up as Brocade partners would get a 2 percent marketing development fund (MDF) on all products. “No matter which level of engagement the partner has with us, we will give him MDF. We want partners to reinvest this into buying new hardware and software for training their employees, and for demand generation and marketing activities,” said Spicek.
Brocade has evolved a new deal registration mechanism and also plans to focus on providing sales and technical training to partners. “We have ensured that our certification cost is kept low, to allow partners to invest in trained manpower. We also have several free Web-based training courses that they can undertake,” Spicek informed.
Next month, the company will launch two new specializations under the Elite and Premier partner categories.
The first one, called the On-Delivery program, will provide advanced post-sales support to specialize partners, while the Professional Services Program (PSP) is for partners who intend to offer pre-sales and implementation services to other partners.
Brocade has identified cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Chandigarh for expanding its partner network.
“While we want to expand our partner network, we also want to be selective. Selectivity grows profitability. If we go on recruiting too many partners like the other vendors have, we won’t be able to guarantee partner profitability,” Spicek stated. |