SAS Institute SA has introduced its global reseller programme and partner initiatives locally, emphasising its commitment to growing business in SA.
Murray de Villiers, manager for Africa, Middle East regional alliances at SAS SA, says the company is starting with about a dozen partners in the country. "We would rather have 12 really good resellers than more mediocre or bad ones."
De Villiers says the South African reseller programme will follow closely in the footsteps of the US roll-out. "SAS initially launched its reseller programme in the US last year and has made significant progress since inception; we will follow the same roll-out scenario here with a few slight localisations."
The localisations will address issues such as the difference between SA and the US in definitions of things like SME.
<B>Partner programme features</B>
* Multiple levels of compensation.
* The ability to resell renewals.
* Rapid-track, no-cost training.
* Marketing support.
* Inside sales support.
* Pre-sales technical support.
* Post-sales education and technical support.
The structure of the roll-out in SA will focus on the enablement and recruitment of resellers and later move into consolidation of the programme, he says.
SA is one of 13 countries participating in the first phase of SAS SA's international initiative.
The company says, alongside its partner programme, it has also introduced products, field marketing, pre- and post-sales, service and engineering to support product life cycle management for the mid-size market.
"The new pricing bundles offer mid-market organisations the full breadth of SAS analytics capabilities to a wider market. The SAS reseller programme is already adding value to our marketing and sales strategy and management," states De Villiers.
The SAS global reseller programme will continue to emphasise the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform, which includes data integration, intelligence storage, business intelligence and analytics.
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