Avaya Plans Certification Levels

Avaya

The levels,Silver, Gold and Platinum,will be determined by a partner's Avaya revenue, customer support, customer satisfaction surveys, technical expertise and a business management audit, according to executives at the Basking Ridge-based company.

"We will reward commitment to Avaya," said Jan Burton, vice president of sales for the business partner organization at Avaya. "You may choose to not to make those investments. That's all right. But certified members will become more premium players in the marketplace."

Benefits include increased marketing funds, trade show support, lead support, non-disclosure previews of Avaya's technology road map and education vouchers, she said.

Previously, there was no marketable difference between Avaya business partners, which led to mixed experiences for customers, said executives.

"I want to be able to see more differentiation. They need it. It's going to affect [Avaya's branding and their quality of installations," said Jarrod Sipe, president of Matrix Technologies, a Washington-based solution provider.

Some potential clients of Matrix Technologies have shied away from Avaya because of bad experiences with previous business partners, Sipe said. "That hurts the name of Avaya and the channel. Direct customers almost expect bad results from a partner because of previous experience," he said.

"If you don't have certifications, it's hard to drive a value proposition. The vendor puts an investment into a partnership and they expect the reseller to put an investment in also," said Kevin Dohrmann, vice president of technology and consulting at IP Revolution, an Omaha, Neb.-based solution provider.

The program will launch this month but most Avaya business partners will not become certified before October, when Avaya's fiscal year begins, Burton said.

Avaya introduced the programs at distributor Voda One's Convergence Summit conference earlier this month in St. Pete Beach, Fla.

"Creating a certification program for a converged environment is the way to go, as opposed to getting certified in Avaya PBX or Avaya applications," said Tom Dolan, chairman of Westcon Group, Voda One's parent company. "It helps the dealer channel be prepared for more opportunities to keep the Avaya solution under one roof."

Silver-tier members must buy $400,000 a year in one of Avaya's four product categories: voice, data, convergence and applications. Gold members must purchase at least $500,000 in two categories, and Platinum members must spend $2.5 million and at least $500,000 in each category, according to the company.

"Platinum partners must be premier in all areas. We expect them to have business and marketing plans in place. You must have good sales metrics in your organization and actively market Avaya products and logos with sales experience," Burton said.

In addition, Silver members must have a minimum of two Avaya Certified Associate - Communication Networking (ACACN)-trained technicians, or one per $5 million in Avaya revenue. Gold-level partners must have two Level 2-certified specialists and Platinum members must have four certified specialists.

"Every channel account manager has the status of resellers. They know if you need $200,000 to reach Platinum and they will tell you that. Or if you need one person to go through ACACN training, they'll tell you that," Burton said.

Also, Silver members must maintain a 75 percent customer satisfaction score, Gold 80 percent and Platinum 85 percent.

A fourth requirement, customer support, will be added in October and be based around "specific things you do to support customers through an evaluation checklist," Burton said. A business management audit will be conducted by Avaya to round out the requirements.

The program hopes to entice solution providers to expand their Avaya expertise beyond voice or data to become more well-rounded partners, said Michael Kiefer, vice president and general manager of North America operations at Avaya.

"In the new world, the partner asking the most qualifying questions will win the deal. If a customer asks what applications drive on that portal or they say they need the same dial plan worldwide, the business partner is able to sell the complete solution," Kiefer said.

The certification program is unrelated to Avaya's Diamond program, which rewards solution providers that only sell Avaya products.

"What's not decided is if we will continue with Diamond," Burton said. "We value Diamond dealers, but when we look at the money we want to invest, will we be able to invest in Diamond and in the certification program? That decision has not been made yet."