Citrix has enhanced its Global Channel Programmes, aiming to keep partners up-to-date with cloud computing and mobile work style advancements.
The company has unveiled two growth-oriented programmes - an enhanced Citrix Solution Advisor (CSA) programme and a new Citrix SaaS Advisor (CSSA) programme. The company says both programmes are designed to make it easier for partners to do business with Citrix.
The programmes also enable partners to earn greater rewards, establish a competitive advantage in new and established markets and grow revenue by selling everything from mobility, desktop virtualisation to cloud networking and data sharing solutions.
According to Citrix, these solutions empower people to work and collaborate from anywhere and securely access apps and data on any of the latest devices, as easily as they would in their own office.
The CSA programme is being enhanced with new requirements, incentives and a simplified engagement model. The CSSA, to be rolled out over the coming months, expands cloud channel offerings for Citrix partners, resellers, cloud marketplaces, cloud aggregators and telcos via a new partner programme for its SaaS products. The CSSA programme is designed to leverage the local and regional reach of the channel to deliver Citrix software-as-a-service applications as a stand-alone offering or part of a broader solution, says Citrix.
"The Citrix Global Channel Programme update encourages deeper dialogue with existing Citrix customers and develops key sales opportunities across Citrix products and solutions such as desktop and application virtualisation, cloud networking, enterprise mobility and cloud platforms," says Simon McCullough, channel manager, Citrix SA.
"The programme updates include differentiated advisor rewards, opportunity registration discounts for cloud networking deals and published criteria for achieving silver, gold and platinum programme status. Combined with refreshed certification requirements, this is an exciting development for our channel partners, which bolsters their competitive advantage to achieve greater sales success," he adds.
McCullough also points out that over the past few years, Citrix has focused on expanding and diversifying its product and solution portfolio, to offer new opportunities to channel partners. "Now, it's time to enhance the solution advisor programme structure, incentives and rewards so our partners can keep pace with our continuing innovation and market expansion," he said.
"We listened to our partners' feedback and assessed what improvements were needed in the context of our expanded portfolio. Programme changes take time and deliberation, especially to ensure they are purpose-built for our partners and encourage longevity."
He also notes that the channel is extremely important to Citrix's success both globally and in SA, explaining that towards the end of 2012, Citrix SA appointed Westcon as its second value-added distributor.
According to McCullough, a key focus for Citrix in the local market is enterprise mobility. "In order to ensure that our partners are able to successfully deliver these solutions, we have embarked on a two-phase training initiative in SA," he concludes.
"We have already completed the first phase of the Mobility Spearhead training programme which focused on increasing the technical skills within our managed partner base. The second phase of this training will commence shortly and will include the same training for a broader range of partners."
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