Storage tape specialist, Tandberg Data, has refreshed its partner program in order to target the education market and refocus on government with its new LTO product range.
Business development manager, Georg Schlueter, said the specialised program catered for the different product-based needs of both markets.
"We are currently fine-tuning it and have already started talking to different sectors of the education channel about our opportunities," he said. "Basically, we would have a team of products that aim at different market segments."
Schlueter said the education market would be ideal for its new LTO range because of its constant growth in data retention. He hoped the education program would help the company penetrate the market within 12 months.
"Schools experience rapid data growth and now they need to comply with new data retention laws, which mean they have to keep data on file for seven years," he said. "This creates a huge opportunity for us."
Tandberg is looking for more resellers to help it get established in the education market and hopes to include up to five platinum and gold partners along with 100 authorised dealers. "We want to work with resellers that are active in both [education and government] markets - in particular with companies reselling education laptops," Schlueter said.
Specialised warranty terms, rebates and marketing tools would be offered to partners that participate in the program, which is slated for a February launch.
The company has planned partner training and product road shows for mid-2006. Tandberg has also added a new Web seminar service to its website to keep partners updated with latest company news.
New products to be launched early next year include the Tandberg Viking FS-412 NAS, 2U LTO rack-mounted enclosure and the DLT V4 tape drive.
