Exinda Networks Launches Revamped Reseller Program

Schreyer said by year's end Exinda hopes to have between 50 and 150 "engaged partners" offering consulting, sales and implementation and managed services around Exinda's products.

Brian Daughhetee, president of Applied Network Consulting Group, a Mauldin, S.C.-based solution provider, said offering both Exinda and Packeteer solutions helps him round out his target customer base, and gives him more of an inroad to the midmarket.

"The product is very feature rich," he said. "Side by side with Packeteer it's as good or better. And at a 20 percent to 25 percent cost savings, that's a key factor for some customers."

Daughhetee said he's going through Fast Track training now, pushing for Premier Partner status. In the three months he's offered Exinda, he already has three or four live installs up and running. He said it only took a few days to sell the first.

"I've been around long enough to see margins for hardware just about disappear," he said, adding that Exinda's Fast Track program is offering fair margins.

Dale Tesch, director of sales for Portsmouth, N.H., solution provider Invercence, said the Fast Track program will likely give him higher discount rates than his other partners. That, coupled with volume-based and other incentives will make an Exinda partnership profitable, he said.

"It seems to be a little bit more beneficial to work with a company like Exinda as opposed to a Riverbed or Cisco," he said. "And Exinda sets attainable goals. They're not unrealistic. They help you move toward growth from a reasonable perspective."

Tesch said Invercence focuses mostly on the SMB, an area that other WAN optimization vendors neglect.

"The sweet spot for my business is SMB," he said. "The way Cisco defines SMB is different from how we define SMB. Cisco makes a great enterprise product, but in the midmarket, small market, they just don't have it."

Differentiation is also key in Tesch's decision to partner with Exinda. While the vendor offers a solid product, he noted that when it comes down to it, he's typically the only VAR offering the client something different.

"If I walk into a WAN optimization opportunity, I'm the only one pitching Exinda," he said, adding that the differentiation has helped him win large clients, including a large non-profit that Cisco was also wooing. "We won hands down based on monitoring, performance and price."

Hill said Exinda is aggressive about pursuing short sales cycles. Hill inked his first Exinda deal in December. He said the value proposition is hard to ignore.

"The technology fits our customers," he said, adding that he targets the midmarket where pricing is a huge driver. "Their program is a 'get me up and running' approach."

Tesch added that the communication between Exinda executives and their VARs has so far been stellar, a level of service many larger vendors don't offer. "It's not like our voices are going unheard," he said. That ability to offer feedback and the updates to Exinda's channel program make it a win-win, he said.

"Right now we're making a ton of money with Exinda, it's phenomenal," Tesch said. "We're finding new customers who wouldn't have been interested in WAN optimization because of the price point. We always look for that one, new niche product that's out there. We want to make ourselves different than the rest."