ViaWest Unveils Colocation, Cloud And Managed Services Partner Program

Colocation service provider ViaWest this week launched its Partner Connect Program to give existing partners the tools and resources to deliver colocation, cloud and managed services offerings, with hopes the new program will entice prospective partners as well.

ViaWest Partner Connect Program will allow agents, system integrators, VARs and brokers to leverage the Denver-based company's IT solutions, giving them the tools and resources necessary to do so.

"From the many experiences I've had in the industry leading the U.S. and global channel engagement, there is a real need for the partner community," said Chris Rajiah, senior vice president of sales and marketing at ViaWest. "We wanted to create a more programmatic experience and foundation to provide tools for our partners."

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As a result of the evolving cloud market, mid-market and enterprise customers need assistance with colocation solutions as well as private and public cloud solutions, said Rajiah.

"How does a partner sell all of these three markets?" asked Rajiah. "A vendor has all three solutions, so it is interesting to a partner where they can maximize their programs and take care of their customers." The program offers an "exciting dynamic," Rajiah said, that's a "win for the customer, the partner and ViaWest."

Through the Partner Connect Program portal, partners can gain access to ViaWest content, register deals, and overview their business, said Sean McCaffery, vice president of sales operation and channel at ViaWest.

"This is where we want to take the layer up on the cake, build upon the great things we have done and increase that with the partner program and the portal" said McCaffery.

As a part of the ViaWest channel road map, within the next two to three months the company will be providing e-learning and training to empower partners, said McCaffery. And, additional portals will offer cobranding materials and white labeling functionality for resellers, said McCaffery.

"Resellers, in particular, some of them want to expose the ViaWest brand and some want to be that one-stop shop for their customers," said McCaffery. "The white labeling functionality will provide a single pane of glass for partners to come in, have all of our solutions in a controlled panel where [they can] easily build, add markups and be able to provision on-demand to grow their business"

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Ian Kieninger, CEO of Avant Communications, a ViaWest partner, said he believes ViaWest is committed as a world-class data center provider and channel-friendly partner, said Kieninger.

"They have protected our interests and invested time and money to help us scale our business," said Keininger. "We look forward to further developments in their cloud offerings. As a natural transition from colocation, many or our collective customers are looking for cloud-based backup, storage and IaaS services."

The new partner program extends the Chicago-based service provider's capabilities, said Kieninger.

"It is good to see the executive team make additional programs and resources available to their channel partners," said Kieninger. "These changes will enable us to further scale our down-channel partnerships and better penetrate this rapidly growing technology market."

The company is currently recruiting new channel partners and is looking to get 30 percent of bookings from partners, said Rajiah.

"With the [partner program] launch, the infrastructure and tools, we are looking at putting partners in place in terms of quality, not in terms of quantity, with the right fit to drive the right solutions at ViaWest," said Rajiah. "We clearly see the value in our partners and what we can bring to partners, and in return, we are confident we will return benefits as well."

PUBLISHED OCT. 18, 2013