Partner Perspectives Newsletter

"Everything Old is New Again: A Fresh Look at Leveraging your Two-Tier Distribution Relationships "

By Beth Vanni, Director of Consulting Practice

Wholesale distributors --- are they a necessary evil or the great "glue" of high tech channels? Many of the largest and most successful high tech manufacturers have longstanding and highly collaborative relationships with their two-tier distributors, globally. Others remain committed to direct sales or selling to and supporting resellers directly. But, almost every leading vendor has had to reckon with what role, if any, distributors play in their channel strategy.

Click to register for our webinar "Strategies for Better Leveraging Your Two-Tier Distribution Relationships"

Many things about the core competencies of wholesale distributors haven't changed. And they likely won't in the foreseeable future. Global leaders such as Ingram Micro, TechData, Arrow and Avnet are billion dollar, Fortune 500 companies who continue to demonstrate strong growth, acquire new business and manage their operational costs with razor precision. Their fundamental role in recruiting and selling products and operational services to channel partners is undisputed.
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INDUSTRY EVENT SPOTLIGHT

Oh, the People You Meet!
(When you actually leave the office)
by Eileen Renner, Director of Channel and Corporate Marketing

Recently Amazon Consulting was privileged to host our sixth Alliance Executive Roundtable and provide a forum for a group of seasoned alliance and channel executives to get together and really "talk shop". Old friends were re-connected and new acquaintances were developed. For a few hours, they "took their heads out of the sand" (as one attendee put it) and left behind email traffic, internal meetings and budgeting spreadsheets to engage in active dialogue with colleagues. There was lots of meaningful and valuable conversation, on a wide variety of topics associated with our overall theme of partner enablement.

The discussion began with a definition of partner enablement, since through the introduction we realized we were all talking about a slightly different set of actions and outcomes. As expected, there was much talk of training (a core enablement concept) and how it should be structured, rewarded, standardized and funded. Technical training and certification seemed to be the common denominator of "partner enablement." The two people with "partner enablement" in their titles focused primarily on the training and education of technical people so they could install and service the vendor's products. Interestingly enough, one of the people with a partner enablement title reported up through the services organization. Her primary role was to ensure the partners were technically capable of implementing the enterprise software solution. She did indicate that often she is at odds with her own services team as they’re also looking to grow revenues directly for the organization through service delivery.
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CLIENT SPOTLIGHT: ALTIRIS

Project At A Glance
Altiris was a fast growing $200 million company with primary strengths in IT management software and services. The majority of their revenue came through its partner base with significant percentage of that generated by two OEM partners, HP and Dell. The latter was the company's single largest OEM, representing over $50 million in annual sales. More than 80 percent of Altiris revenue came from third party allies. Currently, there are approximately 1800 channel partners worldwide, though only 125 or so have direct relationships with Altiris.

Altiris' primary goal was to significantly increase sales through the channel and leverage partners to enable the introduction of new products,gain entry into new market, and diversify its overall revenue. Altiris executives were cognizant that their current program had weaknesses that could limit their partnering success. To increase sales and customer satisfaction, Altiris engaged Amazon Consulting to help re-design their channel program to more effectively engage and empower partners.
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UPCOMING LIVE WEB EVENTS

Everything Old is New Again: Strategies for Better Leveraging Your Two-Tier Distribution Relationships

Wednesday, Nov. 14th
11am - 12pm Pacific Time

So much that is written about the role and potential value of two-tier distributors is old news. However, with the flurry of consolidations among technical distributors and many new services being offered by volume distributors, now might be a good time to re-evaluate your expectations of your old two-tier friends. This seminar will help you take a fresh look at what it takes today to get the most leverage, support and results from your distribution relationships.
Register here.

UPCOMING INDUSTRY EVENTS

Oracle OpenWorld
Nov. 15th - 17th, 2007
San Francisco, CA.

Join Amazon Consulting at this years Oracle OpenWorld. Companies large and small have been relying on innovative Oracle technology almost since the day the company was founded, 30 years ago. And Oracle OpenWorld, the world's largest event dedicated to helping enterprises understand and harness the power of information, is the best place to see that technology in action.
Register here

AMAZON CONSULTING OPEN POSITION

"Partner Development Consultant"

Amazon Consulting helps technology companies design, implement and automate partner models. Reporting to the director of the Amazon Consulting Implementation Practice, the Partner Program Consultant will be responsible for executing and managing channel sales and marketing programs and developing tools and communications to engage and empower our clients’ partners.

To apply for this position, click here.

NEW THOUGHT LEADERSHIP BY
AMAZON CONSULTING

Is Global Good? -
There is a stampede to flatten the world and engage partners on a global level. We were not surprised when about half (49%) of the respondents in our 2007 Partner Programs Survey reported the intention to globalize their partner program operations in the next 12 months. But what exactly does this mean and is globalization a good strategy for all companies? Download.

3 E's whitepaper -
At the core of every repeat sale, product upgrade, or word-of-mouth referral is a satisfied customer, the ultimate driver of most successful business ventures.
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