APC greens its channel

Johannesburg, 17 Sept 2009

Customers are increasingly reliant on their data and IT systems, and the energy costs to run those systems have increased by the same proportion, says Jacqui Gradwell, marketing manager for Africa at APC by Schneider Electric.

"The industry is facing challenges severe enough to change the way customers allocate their IT budgets and how they deploy technology for decades to come," adds Gradwell.

To this end, the company has redesigned its partner initiative, introducing tiered certification programmes that offer partners increased sales and engineering competencies in power, cooling, security and environmental management. The new programmes have four levels: registered, select, premier and elite.

The redesign began with global focus groups among partners and technology users and the conclusion was clear: the challenges customers and partners face with regards to power, cooling and overall energy efficiency is unprecedented, states the company.

The update will see APC evaluate each partner's core business profile, areas of expertise, and future ambitions. In this way, programme structure, marketing, and sales support efforts will best meet the partner's expectations.

Partners will also have access to the APC partner online community, an interactive collaboration tool that provides an environment for partners to share best practices, find tools, network, and partner with each other.

“Our channel programmes will serve as the blueprints for partners to solve customer issues associated with increased power and cooling densities, higher power consumption, and energy efficiency requirements,” notes Gradwell.

“This reality puts solution providers in a position to consult with their customers on not only their IT needs, but also the physical support infrastructure, where the majority of the true efficiency savings can be found," she concludes.