NTT/Verio Gives Incentive
The reseller program offers discounts of up to 30 percent off the list price of NTT/Verio's hosting and broadband services. Reseller partners are responsible for account control, independent or joint sales calls, billing and tier-one support.
NTT/Verio is in talks with roughly 30 potential partners about the new program. "These partners are getting a better discount in exchange for doing more of the heavy lifting, and we will in turn provide them with more support for doing so," said Craig Schlagbaum, vice president of channel sales for NTT/Verio's Enterprise Hosting arm, based here.
Under the referral program, partners get 50 percent of the first month's service fee. For example, if a solution provider sends a lead worth $1,000 a month and NTT/Verio closes the deal, the partner receives a one-time commission of $500 for the first month.
The new programs differ from NTT/Verio's existing agent program, in which partners play a more direct role in the sales process and get a percentage of the monthly recurring services fee for the life of that customer contract.
"[NTT/Verio has completely revamped their channel, and I've seen a lot of infrastructure put behind it," said Greg Zulli, president, CEO and co-founder of CarrierChoice, a Bethlehem, Pa.-based solution provider. "They are gearing up in a good way, and there's no doubt that a lot of effort is being put forth, particularly in marketing the channel."
NTT/Verio also revamped its hosting platform to help alleviate the need for heavy customization by partners. The new PowerPlatform bundles the most common configurations and solutions requested by customers, Schlagbaum said.
"They don't have to completely configure [the offerings any longer but can pick different components that we have preconfigured, based on the company size or their requirements," said Schlagbaum. "It's a lot like the modular configurations that Compaq has. The idea is to make it as simple as possible to do business with us."
The PowerPlatform hosting framework includes four offerings: hosting, managed services, support and portal. The platform is designed to give solution providers and their customers online access to account summaries, status reports, online requests, trouble ticketing and server monitoring.