Tablet PC Maker Shakes Up Its Channel

The program has three tiers, up from two, with more clearly defined benefits and requirements for participation said Scott Eckert, CEO of Motion Computing, Austin, Tex.

"What we'd like to do here is show yet again to the channel our commitment to being a channel company and we wanted to show that we have put more resources into it and more marketing and thought into being a partner," Eckert said.

The three levels: Most Valued Partner, Motion Preferred Partner and Motion Partner, offer different levels of sales and marketing support, market development funds and rebates. The top tier will be made up of about 10 of Motion's highest performing resellers. The second will have about 30 partners and the remainder of Motion's 1,400 reseller partners will make up the bottom tier, Eckert said. Motion does about 90 percent of its business through the channel.

"Elements of this we had done before but not in as structured and coherent a manner as we're doing now," Eckert said.

Motion is also launching a partner conference this fall in Austin, Texas.

In addition to beefing up its channel program, Motion is streamlining its product SKUs and reducing the prices many of its products. The LE 1700 line had thousands of potential customizations, Eckert said, but the company has streamlined it to about 30 main SKUs with about a dozen that it will be actively marketing. "It simply makes it much easier for channel partners to do business with us and they'll have a much better understanding of where they should place their bets from an inventory point of view," he said.

Motion's products are tailored for the government, field sales and healthcare vertical markets.

The vendor has also reduced its prices, with deductions ranging from about $150 to $400 depending on configuration.

Longtime Motion reseller John Hill, CEO and founder of Allegiance Technology Partners, Horsham, Pa., said the vendor's channel changes shouldn't have too big an impact on his company's relationship with Motion, but he does think they're been a responsive partner.

"They are very nice to work with as far as a manufacturer. The most frequent complaint you hear is of people taking business direct and going around resellers, and these guys are just the opposite. They refer business to us regularly, almost daily, and that part I like a lot," said Hill.

"We have been pretty well engaged with them as partner for some time and we're one of their larger resellers," he said. "For us I don't think it's going to be a dramatic change, but for other resellers it opens up a new technology for them to sell and with a company that supports them."