VERITAS Software has already appointed six Premier Partners from the local channel, and will soon bring that total to 12, as prospective partners bring their technical and sales expertise in line with the VERITAS partner requirements.
Elizabeth le Roux, regional manager, sub-Sahara Africa at VERITAS Software, says: "Our six Premier Partners are: First Technologies, First in Business, E-clipse, Systems Integration (SI), SBS and Supported Software. We don`t want more than between 12 and 15 Premier Partners in South Africa. We feel this number can adequately service the market and give the end users the service they require."
"Our Premier Partners qualify on a per branch basis, so while the Johannesburg branch of a Premier Partner might be certified, it`s Cape Town operation might not be. This protects our customers, the VERITAS Software end-users, and ensures a high standard of service and support throughout an organisation," she adds.
Premier Partners will need to re-qualify for their partner status each year, in addition to performing training on each new product as it is released, for both sales and technical staff.
"It is important today that the reseller knows the total VERITAS solution available in terms of the existing technology and the product roadmap. We are currently shifting the traditional VERITAS focus to storage management and high availability, making it more of an enterprise focus. It`s important for our channel partners to understand this shift and the direction in which it is headed. This allows them to work properly with the dealer base and deliver a satisfactory solution to the needs of the customers," says le Roux.
Technical support on VERITAS products in South Africa is provided by the partners, another reason it is critical their technical expertise is up to scratch and maintained. Le Roux says: "Our Premier Partners must be able to service end users with whatever first line support requirements they might have. VERITAS Software offers a follow the Sun telephonic support service for those customers who take the maintenance option with their purchase. The support centre assists with escalated support issues, and after customers obtain their support job number the local VERITAS office will assist in seeing it is satisfactorily resolved."
To qualify as a Premier Partner, channel organisations need at least two sales and two technical staff to attend ongoing training at VERITAS. Every week there are technology briefings and training for individual VERITAS products, which the technical and sales staff will attend. "Premier Partner technical staff must also complete a three-day Master Advanced training course so their organisation can qualify as a Premier Partner.
"We provide two presales engineers to assist our Premier Partners and they can also make use of allocated marketing tools and devices, such as logo`s in adverts, and we will perform joint marketing efforts with them. They will also receive all the VERITAS software they require to operate their business, for in-house use," says le Roux.
She adds: "In addition to this we will also recommend end-users to our Premier Partners as well as passing on leads generated through our Website from downloads, from e-mail queries, phone calls and faxes."
"Once accredited, Premier Partners can also provide the NetBackup Business Server solution, which runs on NT, Novell and Unix. This is the first step into the Unix field for VERITAS Premier Partners," concludes le Roux.
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VERITAS Software
VERITAS Software Corporation provides essential data availability software solutions that enable customers to protect and access their business-critical data for Business Without Interruption(tm). The Company`s corporate headquarters is located at 1600 Plymouth Street, Mountain View, CA 94043. Telephone: (650) 335-8000. Fax: (650) 335-8050.