VMware Introduces Tiered Channel Program, Seeks New Partners

The new program divides solution providers into two tracks, professional and enterprise, to help better focus the company's sales and marketing efforts.

Solution providers in the professional track must have a specified person focusing on VMware, and must have people with technical and sales training on VMware, said Mia Blank, channel manager for VMware, Palo Alto, Calif. Such partners focus mainly on the company VMware Workstation desktop virtualization software and VMware GSX Server for business-critical server virtualization. In return, they get Workstation leads and discounts for VMware software they use internally.

In the enterprise track, solution providers who primarily focus on the VMware ESX Server for high-performance server virtualization must have at least one person certified on the software and be able to offer clients professional services, said Blank. In return, the company offers improved sales, technical, and lead support and more license support.

VMware rolled out a formal channel program in May under which it moved its solution providers to purchase through distribution while maintaining a direct relationship with them for marketing and sales information as well as demo licenses.

Jeff Largiader, vice president of sales and marketing at Programmer's Paradise, a Shrewsbury, N.J.-based solution provider applauded VMware's move to a tiered channel program as a way to reward solution providers who work closely with the vendor.

"To add value, you need to understand what the software does," Largiader said. "VMware wants us to step up to the plate, to invest in the relationship. I support that wholeheartedly. If I was going to invest in such a relationship, I would want my partners to invest as well."

For Programmer's Paradise's software development customers, VMware's software allows them to use a single server or workstation to develop applications under multiple versions of Windows or Unix, said Largiader. Corporate clients, on the other hand, use the software to partition servers which allows them to cut the number of servers dedicated to specific purposes and thereby cut costs, he said.

Blank said VMware has about 215 channel partners worldwide, including Ingram Micro and such specialty distributors as Douglas Stewart in the education field and software specialist Lifeboat Distribution Services. In North America, the company has about 70 enterprise partners and 25 professional partners, she said.

The company is looking to recruit more partners, said Blank. "For both tracks, we have people in VMware who [have] quotas on reseller sales, so they are working hard to get partners to participate in the program," she said.