Citrix shakes up channel program

Citrix channel sales manager, Belinda Jurisic

Citrix has added new facets to its partner program including new training regimes and certifications to help differentiate and highlight specialist partners in the market.

The vendor has launched new courses for partners in four areas: virtualisation, mobility, networking for datacentre and networking for mobility.

Citrix channel sales manager A/NZ, Belinda Jurisic, said the new program was based on providing partners with the ability to become skilled in specialist areas.

The program is currently open to all Citrix partners. The new certification requires partners to give three customer references, complete an online training program and a six-to-eight hour practical exam - costing $1600 per organisation.

For that, Jurisic said partners will be able to show their specialist certification and will be promoted to prospective clients by the vendor.

“They will be up the top of our partner locator and we will be going out to customers to promote these partners that have proven skills in a specific area,” she said.

Jurisic said this was to ensure the Citrix sales team had the confidence to recommend these partners when engaging with customers directly.

“Our strongest message this year is around partner-led selling and to be able to promote which partners are doing that effectively is a real cornerstone of this program,” she said.

The first Australian partner to complete the program is Canberra-based systems integrator, oobe.

The firm’s director solutions architecture, Steve Tys, said that Citrix had turned its partner program on its head with the new initiative.

“We play in a big pond, especially in Canberra where we are surrounded by a lot of big players. For us, it was really a way to rapidly point out to the other partners we work with that we have this specialist skill,” he said.

The largest Australian partner to complete the program thus far is Thomas Duryea Consulting.

The company’s national practice manager for mobility and collaboration, Damian Zammit, said that as a Citrix shop, participation in the program was a ‘no brainer’.

“There are financial rewards on the back-end. TD is one of the largest Citrix players and so for us that’s substantial and also gives us recognition by customers,” he said.

“Our customers want to make sure they are going with a trusted Citrix partner and if this is a hoop we have to jump through to get that, we are more than willing to do it.”