For those of you who missed it, the IT channel was brimming with good news this week with several companies offering incentives to empower their partners.
While some organisations are tightening their monetary belts, itX, is giving black belts. The distributor has kicked off a new enablement program called, Xen Master, to help partners get on track with Citrix offerings.
“What we are trying to do with this program is reward resellers that use all of the services itX are offering,” itX marketing manager, Paul Sadler, said. “Once you are Xen Master you are then eligible to win the incentive.”
The reseller that has the highest percentage increase in sales will win a trip to Bedarra Island in the Whitsundays at the end of the year.
Applications delivery networking vendor, Blue Coat, is also pumping money into its channel program. As part of a global $1 million incentive program, the company announced its very own stimulus package, giving a $US500 cash bonus to authorised partners for deal registrations.
For a deal to be eligible, it must include a WAN optimisation or acceleration component. Any partner that closes a deal before July 31, 2009, will gain an additional $US500.
“What we’re trying to do is give partners the opportunity to exploit our technology for additional financial benefit,” Blue Coat country manager, Wayne Neich, said.
Instead of a stimulus package, Nortel has announced a rebate program aimed at nPower partners.
If a channel partner reaches 90 per cent of an agreed target, Nortel will provide a two per cent rebate. At 100 per cent, the rebate extends to four per cent and at 120 per cent, it jumps to six per cent.
Meanwhile, some companies looked towards hiring new staff and increasing global presence as a way to benefit the channel.
Mebourne-based service provider, Netsolutions, appointed Erin Harte as general manager and Richard Savage as principle consultant.
Harte will help grow the business through a consultancy-based approach while Savage will be responsible for developing networking security solutions for major enterprise accounts and strategic service provider customers.
Blignaut said he is focused on growing Promise’s Australian presence and hinted at taking up two additional distributors and a systems integrator for a strategic part of the market, such as surveillance.
And then there was Strathfield Group rising from the ashes.
It also plans to open up to 60 new franchise stores in the next 18 months, including flagship stores across several capital cities.
Last but not least, there were also a couple of new partnerships announced.
Niche distributor, Adimex, has signed on with video production vendor, ikan, to broaden its production portfolio, while wholesale internet and communications provider, ispONE, has also formed a partnership with Optus to offer wholesale mobile broadband to new and existing customers.
