Fiberlink expands channel program, recruiting new partners 18 March, 2008 By Chris Talbot

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As a company focused on mobile connectivity and security, particularly when it comes to laptop computers, Fiberlink has traction with large global organizations through partnerships with large systems integrators, but the company is now trying to move down-market with its new regional channel partner strategy, said Skip Taylor, vice president of product marketing at Fiberlink.

In the last 11 months, Jeff Gheraldi, vice president of strategic alliances at Fiberlink, has been building out and expanding the company's channel strategy so that its partner program works for two different flavours of channel partner -- the systems integrator and the new agent business partner.

"We have signed and trained 14 business partners around the United States," Gheraldi said. Fiberlink is busy getting them focused on becoming an extension of its sales team and an extension of the company, he added.

The goal is bring on between 24 and 30 regional partners throughout the U.S., with plans to eventually leverage its channel strengths to move into Canada, he said.

Fiberlink is looking for partners that have a very firm understanding of compliance and security because those two areas are both of high interest to the company's end-customers, he said.

"Our customers are generally higher level in the food chain, and reporting on compliance is extremely important to them. Security is also extremely important," Gheraldi said.

Fiberlink partners understand firewalls, network access control and intrusion prevention and detection systems, as well, he said.

"We're not looking for just any type of partners. We're looking for ones that understand this business very well," Gheraldi said.

Fiberlink is currently focusing on finding partners in the continental U.S., but in time, the company's plan is to move north into Canada and south into Latin America and South America, Gheraldi said.

Channel resellers that do work with Fiberlink will find a business focused on recurring revenue streams.

"This is a software-as-a-service distribution model, so there are some strong recurring revenue streams available to our new channel partners," Taylor said.

The SaaS element of Fiberlink's business means the company is interested in speaking with potential channel partners that are software-focused. Gheraldi said he'd like to fill out much of the remaining 10 to 16 partners Fiberlink is looking for with software-focused VARs.