Citrix Launches Solution Advisor Rewards Program

The Citrix Solution Advisor Rewards Program, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2004, gives partners margins of between 5 percent and 10 percent for volume licensing deals they influenced that are valued at more than $10,000, said Ross Brown, vice president of worldwide channels and operations at Citrix.

The reward is available to partners who work with customers and who forecast large opportunities with Citrix sales, Brown said. Partners must electronically submit a sales forecast at least 45 days in advance of a sale close date to receive a cash reward, Brown noted.

It applies to Open and Flex orders and reorder license sales for all Citrix products, the executive added.

Rewards for Open licensing products fall between 7 percent and 10 percent. Rewards for larger Flex licensing deals fall between 5 percent and 6 percent, according to Citrix.

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The new program will allow partners to receive margins for both influencing and fulfilling deals and will replace the rebate program. "The amount of money is an order of magnitude larger than in the rebate programs," Brown said.

Current Silver, Gold, Platinum, Government, Systems Integrator, Value Added Distributors and ISVs are eligible to become Citrix Solution Advisors.

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company, known for its MetaFrame software, has also changed the branding of its partner program to Citrix Access Partner. The program now has 5,000 partners.

Citrix developed the program in part due to complaints from some partners who bemoaned large resellers such as CDW and Software Spectrum moving in on their deals at the last minute with significant price cuts they could not match.

Partners, some of whom have left the Citrix program due to encroachment from larger competitors, applaud the launch of the program.

Open Technologies, for instance, was a Citrix partner who switched to Tarantella because of the poaching. "It happened, and that's why we're not [in the Citrix partner program]," said Dan Merry, president of Open Technologies, a solution provider based in Des Moines, Iowa. Merry expects the program will do some good. "It'll help," he said.

Other Citrix partners, however, are pleased with the channel program and have evaded conflicts to date. "We don't run into to many situations where we get hosed," said Jim Gildea, president of Aegis Associates, a Watertown, Mass.-based Citrix partner that reaps between $300,000 and $400,000 in Citrix business annually. "Citrix is better than most vendors."