Persystent Technologies launches channel program 16 April, 2007 By Vanessa Ho

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"The technology has been evolving where the organization made a decision to bring [a channel program] in," said William Corkery, director of channel sales with Persystent. "We believe we have a channel ready product that fits what channel partners are bringing to their customer base from a management services capability."

The Persystent channel partner program offers complete deal registration for qualified opportunities that includes a back-end rebate of 15 per cent for the suggested retail price of deals that pays partners whether they sell the deal or not.

"There are no levels to the program," said Corkery "You are either authorized or not."

Additionally, the program offers sales and technical training as the program requires that two engineers be technically certified.

"We don't provide services on [our] technology but will help partners get trained so they are functional, productive and capable to install, implement and consult on products," Corkery said.

As well, Persystent has launched a partner portal that is the primary communication piece between the company and its partners. Within this portal, partners get access to marketing materials, product information, technical documents and best practices. As well, Persystent does a quarterly business review with partners to give insight into its business plans. Partners can also request marketing development funds via this portal and register its deals.

Also, all sales leads generated by Persystent's marketing outreach programs are distributed to partners. Persystent Enterprise can be sold on a per-project basis or delivered in a managed services model.

In the past, Persystent had a tier one and direct sales distribution model but has now moved to two-tier distribution. Partners wanting to purchase Persystent technologies must do it through Ingram Micro.

"With Ingram being [one of] the largest distributors out there, we felt that was the right thing for our business as they add a lot of value to what we do and have the means to find the right set of partners," said Corkery.

In addition to buying the products through Ingram Micro, partners are also required to participate in quarterly demand activities in order to acquire new customers or cross-sell into existing accounts.

Ideal partners for the program are those that know how to sell software, have services as a large part of its business and build networks and VPNs for mobile computing environments.

Since launching the program in January, Persystent has signed 35 partners and another 15 set to sign on over the next couple of weeks. Corkery said his goal is to have 85 by the end of the year.

"The number [of partners] is not important but it is about finding the right partners that really see this technology as a compliment to how they are providing availability, business continuity and driving user productivity for their customers," he added.