Shame On Citrix

This change has nothing to do with customer satisfaction and everything to do with Citrix making what can only be viewed as the first step in a bid to grab business that partners have worked hard to win and nurtured for years. It's also a slap in the face to customers, who are increasingly demanding a single point of contact and view VARs as their outsourced IT departments. What's maddening is that the change does nothing but add additional billing costs onto customers at a time when many are moving to a monthly managed services bill from VARs.

CRN Senior Writer Paula Rooney takes a look at the Citrix changes in one of our lead news stories (see p. 10). Citrix, for its part, says resellers are confused about the change. It says the percentage of Subscription Advantage renewal business going though the channel has increased to 65 percent from an average of 25 percent two years ago, and the goal is to level the playing field for partners that truly influence renewals and product sales. Citrix also said it enacted a new compensation- neutral policy Aug. 1 that no longer rewards Citrix sales reps more for going direct to customers than through channel partners. All of that sounds good, but for partners, it's about account control. And giving customers an online fiscal relationship with the vendor is a dangerous step.

Tracy Butler, president of Acropolis Technology Group, a St. Louis-based Citrix partner, says the change has him questioning whether it is a "key partnership that we want to keep or does it make sense to use those resources somewhere else?"

If there was any doubt about Citrix's intentions it was erased by how it communicated the change to partners, who had the missive dropped on them suddenly on July 28. At the same time, Citrix sent letters to customers dated Aug. 1. In the customer letter, Citrix proclaims the vendor itself will be the "sole source for Subscription Advantage and hardware warranty renewals." To add insult to injury, the Citrix missive to partners was sent under the subject: "Great News From Citrix." I say "Great News For Citrix." But not if you're a Citrix partner or customer.

What do you think of Citrix? Let me know at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at [email protected].