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Cloud storage service provider Mozy on Tuesday signaled a significant push towards the business side of the market with the unveiling of an enterprise-focused version of its service and a new channel program.
The new channel program includes Mozy's first deal registration and lead generation offerings, said Darrell Gamble, director of channel sales for the Seattle-based company.
While Mozy has had a channel portal since 2006, it was not really useful for solution providers, making it important to shift towards a more partner-oriented stance, Gamble admitted.
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"I'm really excited about the shift," he said. "This lets us scale our business. After July of 2011, we saw the hockey stick rise in our channel sales. It shows that our investment in the channel is the right one."
Mozy is for the first time segmenting its solution providers into three levels. These include the silver level for partners who sell a minimum of $100 of Mozy services per month, the gold level for those who sell $500 per month, and the platinum level for those who sell $1,000 per month, Gamble said.
Those at the platinum level are eligible for bonus margins for registering potential deals as a way to offset the cost of developing customer interest in its offering, Gamble said.
Mozy is also asking potential customers who contact the company directly if they would want to work with a platinum level partner, he said.
"Our job on the phone is to sell the value of working with the partner," he said. "We don't sell backup. We sell restore. We tell potential customers that if they work with a local partner, they will get installation and configuration help, assurance that backup sets are correctly set up, monitoring of backups to ensure they are successful, and partner help with setting rights and privileges."
Mozy is also offering partners co-branded marketing collateral to help them sell the service, as well as new technical and sales opportunities, Gamble said.
The new channel program comes just a couple months after Mozy refocused its sales from direct-to-consumer to the channel, Gamble said.
"As of last July, our reps dealt with both direct customers and resellers," he said. "But we realized this was not providing the proper focus. So we split the teams. Before January 1 of 2012, our direct sales team was the bigger of the two. But after January 1, 75 percent of our sales reps became channel sales reps."
Next: Mozy Enterprise Integrates Microsoft Windows Active Directory
