Quantum Fuels Partner Program

last week.

The new program, slated to be unveiled this week, includes more use of salesforce.com technology so Quantum and its solution providers can track the success rate of closing sales leads from both sides, said Jim Simon, director of channel marketing for Quantum's Storage Solutions Group.

Starting this quarter, Quantum will offer channel partners online training on a 24x7 basis, said Simon. The company also will invite two salespeople and one sales engineer from top solution providers to its Irvine, Calif., office for two days of training at its expense.

Amy Rao, CEO of Integrated Archive Systems, a Palo Alto, Calif., storage solution provider, said the training is a blanket certification of a partner's entire sales team, and it will mean an extra 5 margin points on registered deals for the next four quarters.

"That's a big deal," Rao said. "Extra margins are always welcome."

Quantum also hired a full-time employee to help solution providers write requests for proposal, said Simon.

"RFPs are a lot of work. They can take days," Rao said. "My engineering team will love that. They'll say, 'Quantum will write the RFP for me? I'll sell Quantum.' "

In addition, Quantum will help top partners improve margins via stackable discounts, Simon said. Previously, a solution provider might get a 5 percent discount for buying through a distributor and a 3 percent discount for government business, but not both. Under the new rules, the discounts can be combined.

Quantum also will offer a spiff of up to $1,000 to solution provider sales staff, depending on the product sold, Simon said.

On the product side, the capacity for Quantum's DX-30 backup appliance is slated to increase to about 4 Tbytes, with throughput boosted to 80-plus MBps, according to Rob Pickell, vice president of marketing at Quantum. The capacity of the DX-100, slated for release later this year, will be up to 50 Tbytes, with throughput of up to 200 MBps, he said.