Citrix Eases Access For SMB Resellers

"We listened to what the channel has been saying to us over the past few years and made this change in response to that," said Vicky Reddington, Citrix's director of worldwide sales.

Access Essentials is a remote-access management and security system designed to support 5 to 75 users. Priced at $249 per user and sold in five-seat packs, the software includes a license for Microsoft's Windows Terminal Server. Citrix launched Access Essentials two years ago at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference and released the software's second version in May.

Citrix, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., previously required VARs working with Access Essentials to join its partner program, incurring a $995 fee, and complete two certification courses. But resellers objected to paying Citrix fees before they'd proven they could make money selling the product, limiting the product's reach, Reddington said. In reviewing its channel strategy, Citrix also decided to do away with its training requirement, although online training courses remain available for optional completion.

"The product, in our view, is so simple that it merits very little preparation," said Augie Gonzalez, senior manager of Citrix product marketing. "That's really been the case all along -- our tech support calls bear it out. It's dirt simple to use."

Scott Cayouette, president of IPW Networks in Pompano Beach, Fla., is delighted Citrix is making Access Essentials accessible to non-partners. Cayouette has had his eye on the product for years, but procurement logistics and costs previously blocked him from selling it. A Microsoft specialist, IPW Networks works primarily with small business clients who have several dozen employees.

"Being a Citrix solutions advisor isn't something I can do as part of my biz," Cayouette said. "The barrier for me was paying $1,000 a year for access to a product I'd move once or twice -- that just wasn't going to do it. If I needed something from Citrix, I would buy it from Dell or whoever. Now that they've opened it up, people like me can get it."

In its push to broaden Access Essentials's channel reach, Cirix plans to work closely with Microsoft and Ingram, which will market the offering to their own VAR channels. Ingram, which has carried Acesss Essentials since its launch, is gaining the software's exclusive distribution rights: Citrix is pulling Access Essentials from Alternative Technology and Avnet. While those distributors will continue to carry other Citrix offerings, the company decided that Ingram's channel was the best fit for Access Essentials in terms of skills and capabilities, executives said.

SMS ProTech Marketing Manager Kathy Vogler said an increasing number of vendors are doing away with certification requirements and other financial obstacles to broader distribution of their SMB products.

"We just went through the same thing with HP -- they opened the channel for a product we didn't previously have access to, and now we can sell it," she said. "The big guys are all doing this now to expand their SMB sales."

SMS ProTech, in Sidney, Ohio, is a close Citrix partner that has been selling Access Essentials since its launch. The product is a hit with smaller businesses that otherwise couldn't afford Citrix technology, Vogler said.

While Citrix's move to broaden the Access Essentials channel potentially creates more competition for SMS ProTech, Vogler said she doesn't think the effects will be felt in SMS ProTech's fairly rural locale. Overall, she feels that SMB-focused VARs like hers benefit from the broader vendor push to reduce impediments to selling their midmarket products. Also, broader use of Access Essentials could open up more migration opportunities -- and resellers will still need Citrix certification to sell its enterprise products, like Presentation Server.

Citrix hopes for the net result of its moves, and its co-marketing push with Microsoft and Ingram, is a channel flood. "We're expecting a stampede to jump on board," Gonzalez said.