FrontRange Spells It All Out For Partners

Over the past year, though, the Pleasanton, Calif., vendor of Goldmine and Heat has taken steps to improve partner relations. For starters, it has installed a new management team"including McCloskey and channel chief Gary Brand, who has been with FrontRange less than two months since leaving his previous job at Network Associates (now McAfee). Front Range also eliminated its direct-sales force.

"There was a fair amount of distrust [with partners] we had to get through," acknowledged McCloskey. "But since going 100 percent channel, we've made huge progress with our numbers."

How huge? According to McCloskey, revenue grew about 30 percent in Front-Range's fourth fiscal quarter ended June 30. That's fairly impressive considering this is the same calendar quarter in which about a dozen enterprise software companies reported disappointing results.

"We attribute much of that growth to the channel model," McCloskey said. "Enterprise companies [such as Siebel Systems and PeopleSoft] rely on extensive sales forces and large deals. We saw a number of medium-size deals, and for that you need a channel."

Now FrontRange has taken the next important step for better interaction with its channel network. Thanks to Brand, senior director of channels for the Americas, FrontRange has created a new channel program comprising four tiers of participation. Unveiled at last week's Peak Performance Partner Summit in Colorado Springs, Colo., the program provides clearly defined benefits and requirements of each tier, by such criteria as product family, geography and yearly run rates.

"It's a very black-and-white program, with all the details, including margins, clearly spelled out," said Brand, adding what should be music to partners' ears: "It's not rocket science to put in a new partner program. A program is made or broken by the company's commitment. We have made that commitment, and we will live up to it."

The four tiers"Premier Elite, Premier, Certified and Referral"are defined primarily by yearly revenue levels. To qualify for the highest Premier Elite designation, for example, a partner must sell $750,000 a year in IT service management products. Selling $250,000 earns the Premier status. But revenue isn't the only criterion. Tiers also carry basic requirements, such as Premier Elite's seven technical and 10 sales certifications, Premier's three technical and five sales certifications, and Certified partners' one technical and one sales certification. Referral partners have no basic revenue requirements and receive relatively few benefits other than flat referral fees, Web-based training and access to the most basic forms of partner communications, such as FrontRange's partner portal.

As a reward for their investments, Premier Elite, Premier and Certified partners receive a variety of benefits that increase as they move up the tier chain. Premier Elite and Premier, for instance, have access to lead referrals, rebate and spif programs, co-op funds and business planning marketing support.

"The best part of the new program is the structured approach to working with the channel, along with all of the support we get on so many levels," said Steve Dreyer, CEO of SMA Management Systems, White Plains, N.Y. "It's important for us as a business to know what's expected of us, what products we need to be certified in."

Dreyer, whose company focuses mainly on the Heat systems management product, also gave high marks to the new add-on modules for Heat, including software for patch management, infrastructure discovery and an IT infrastructure library.

"I like the personal touch and the additional products being offered," said James Kernan, president and CEO of Networks Plus, San Diego. "We are a big FrontRange partner, and would be successful with or without their help. I've felt for three years we've done this by ourselves. Now it looks like it's with them, and that should help us be even more profitable."