Intel Australia will take the wrappers off its local version of the Technology Providers program in April.
It will unite system builders and resellers into one program.
Local details are limited at this stage, however, Intel Australia national marketing and reseller channel organisation manager, Kate Burleigh, said there will be similarities with the US version, but modules would be tailored to the requirements in the local market.
“We’ll try and keep what we know is working well at a local level, but leverage off the larger and broader engine at the worldwide level and that’s mainly the IT mechanisms behind running the program,” Burleigh said.
Intel introduced the program to its partners in the US in February, which constitutes Registered, Gold and Platinum tiers.
Burleigh said bringing system builders and resellers under one umbrella within the Intel organisation was about recognising partners that sell any machine with an Intel chip.
“It always sat a bit separately, but what we decided to do this year was merge it under one department because there are similarities in what the two areas are selling,” she said.
“System builders are selling a much broader range of technology than ever before. It makes sense to have them as part of the broader reach channel, sales and marketing organisations so they can benefit from all the materials and sales messages we’re creating for large retail. There’s no reason why that shouldn’t also be applicable to the independent retail channel as well.”
Burleigh highlighted the system builder market was still a viable part of the channel.
“There are still companies that are building their own systems that have carved out niche’s for themselves,” she said. “Within the merging of the departments, we’re still keeping the one-on-one coverage of those accounts very high.”
As a part of combining its systems builder and reseller units, previous area sales manager, Thomas Tapsas, has moved into a new role as sales development manager for HP and commercial sales.
“It gives me an opportunity to do something a little different, but still focus on the channel space,” Tapsas said. “We work with HP in a lot of different areas and I’ll be looking at how they can get the best out of us.”
