NAS Vendor Touts Channel Program

The effort features channel-neutral direct sales compensation and bigger partner discounts. "The Network Appliance channel program is open for business," said Leonard Iventosch, senior director of worldwide channel sales at Network Appliance. "That was not the case a year ago."

One change is that Network Appliance will no longer insist that its solution providers refrain from carrying competing products, Iventosch said. "Our attitude over the years was, if a partner worked with our competitors, we did not want to work with them," he said. "We found that to be a great strategy for keeping channel sales low."

Amy Rao, CEO of Integrated Archive Systems, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based solution provider who has worked with Network Appliance for four years, said its attitude got a boost about nine months ago when Network Appliance brought in Whitney Tomlin as vice president of sales for the west. Tomlin was responsible for pushing 90 percent of Cisco's Western U.S. sales through the channel vs. 5 percent five years ago, Rao said.

The new Network Appliance is not merely paying the channel lip service, she said.

Network Appliance has also tightened its rules of engagement, offering a channel-neutral commission structure to its direct sales force and enforcing its customer registration process. "Our partners will know that when they engage in an opportunity with us, we will not undermine their pricing authority or take [the deal direct," Iventosch said.

The company is also cutting list prices for commodity products and increasing partner discounts, he said. Network Appliance is also revamping its sales training and increasing its technical training for partners, which will let solution providers handle installation and support independently.

The vendor currently does not work with distributors, but sees that as an inevitable move over the next six to 18 months, Iventosch said.