Local partners of Riverbed Technology have something to look forward to with the introduction of an enhanced global partner and channel program.
The program now has a stronger focus on new online training tools and resources that aim to assist partners when skilling up around Riverbed’s performance platform and products.
Riverbed Technology ANZ Regional Director, Ian Raper, said the improvements in the program came about following feedback from its partners and “what they want,” as well as identifying how the initiative meets their objectives.
Partners will also be interested to hear that Riverbed has introduced a new profitability program which they can use to foster more robust financial models when partnering with the vendor.
“The reason we have a partner program in the first place is that we do not have the ability or intention to do business directly with a client,” Raper said.
“Having made the decision to run a channel program, it now came down to enhancing it to make sure that our partners are profitable, and so they invest in their business to be profitable with Riverbed.”
As for the timing of the move to enhance the program at this point in time, Raper sees it as the “culmination of many months of work.”
“We have invested a lot of our resources, especially people, into the channel,” he said.
“This is in order to support our partners better.”
In addition to the updated global partner program, the investment in human resources that Raper alluded to is in reference to the four new appointments in Riverbed’s Australian and New Zealand channel team.
Joe McPhillips has become Riverbed’s channel director for A/NZ and Brett Waddington has stepped into the role of service provider alliances manager for the region.
Rounding out the appointments is Nathan Godsall in the role of technical account manager of channels, while Con Ioannou joins in the position of technical account manager of service providers.
