Citrix Expands State And Local Partner Program

More than a year after launching its State and Local Expert Partner Program, Citrix Systems has experienced double-digit growth in the number of resellers who sell its products, thanks to myriad initiatives that have driven business to the channel.

Citrix, whose federal group won the GovernmentVAR Channel Program of the Year last year, launched the state and local version in February 2005 with only a handful of partners. Today, the company touts 88, with plans to grow that number to a max 125 in the coming year.

"We try to provide as much help to partners as we can, so that they can focus on the actual solutions," says Stacey Black, channel manager for state and local government at Citrix.

Specifically, Citrix allows partners to leverage its GSA cooperative purchasing contract for state IT purchasing, and nominates partners in its negotiations for state term contracts. Term contracts are established by the procurement officer for purchasing specific products or services for a given amount of time, and are mandatory for all governmental bodies.

"Our contracting manager qualifies partners, so that they are eligible to bid on opportunities without having to devote all kinds of up-front time and resources to trying to get on the [contracting vehicle]," Black says.

Similarly, Citrix tracks requests for information (RFI) released by various state agencies, and seeks opportunities to integrate its own technology into responses. When the opportunity moves on to the solicitation stage, Citrix pulls in a partner. For partners who identify opportunities themselves, Citrix provides a solution adviser reward. The partner registers the opportunity through the company portal, and automatically receives five points back regardless of whether they win the opportunity or are underbid.

In addition, to promote lead generation, Citrix holds customer events that are co-hosted by partners; those customers that express interest are then invited to a targeted spin-off event that digs deeper into the Citrix product portfolio and potential solutions for state and local agencies. All opportunities that result from those events are handed to the channel.

While Citrix has grown the program tremendously in the last year, white areas still exist.

"We shoot for a minimum of two and a maximum of five partners in each state, depending on size," Black says. "We don't want to limit the opportunities for partners by saturating the program, but we have about nine states in the central area [of the country] that could use more partner representation."

Black also hopes to find qualified partners for Alaska, where state agencies are trying to link the various offices that are spread across the expansive geographic area.

"Citrix is perfect for that pain point, but we are having trouble finding the right partner to fill the need," she says.