Page 1 of 2
Radware this week confirmed a revamp of its channel program that according to the company will offer stronger partner rewards and more consistent engagement. It's a key step for the application delivery specialist as it hopes to turn recent revenue and technology gains into bigger market share on a global level.
"We need to position ourselves for accelerated growth, and we made the channel a strategic focus in 2010," said James Colby, vice president of marketing and channels at Radware. "We overhauled many aspects of the regional programs, but the culmination of those efforts is the launch of the Smart Choice program. We have one, centrally managed program that allows us to invest resources, time, effort and money in having a set of tools and capabilities we believe will support our partners as best as possible."
The Smart Choice Partner Program takes what were previously different, regionally-based Radware partner programs and streamlines them into one. The program tiers are Affiliate Partner, for entry-level Radware resellers, Select Partner, who have demonstrated Radware experience and meet at least one of Radware's defined solution competencies, and Premier, which are Radware's strategic regional VARs and system integrators, with multiple competencies. There is now one distrubutor designation, as well.
New to the program itself are a revised partner portal, a global partner locator, marketing and sales training, larger incentives for higher-tiered partners, and a spiff program that offers periodic rewards for partners and sales engineers. Colby said Radware will now look to increase the number of standardized training classes it offers and also the number of marketing events and promotions designed to create "stickiness" in the program.
"We've put a lot more effort into the business planning, and we've done a lot to create noise around the program," he said. "2010 was the building year and our 2011 focus is on executing it. We know who the key partners are, and now we want to make sure they have the right amount of focus and to promote the work we're doing and take it to prospects."
Next: Translating Radware's Growth To Channel Gains
