Citrix Channel Chief Sees Opportunities For Partners Selling Desktop Access

In an interview with CRN, Ross Brown, vice president of worldwide channels and operations at Citrix, said he could not comment on whether the two companies' channel programs will be united. But he added that the deal will help both sets of partners.

"Expertcity has a reseller program, but the big issue for them is investing and reaching a broad number of partners selling access," said Brown, noting Citrix's 2,200 partners will have access to Expertcity's subscription services to complement their MetaFrame business and other server-based infrastructure access products.

He noted that GoToAssist could help Citrix partners reduce their support costs.

"It really balances well on-site support and remote support," Brown said. "One issue for partners is the high-cost model for support. The 'VAR in the van' model is out. Partners can step down a layer and do hands on technical support and can make changes [for customers]."

Citrix has shifted its marketing strategy over the past year to one emphasizing a variety of new products for accessing all infrastructure services, with new products such as MetaFrame Access Suite and Password Manager.

This latest deal gives the Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.-based company a desktop access solution for the first time that will complement its existing technology for giving customers access to applications published on a server.

Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Expertcity's GoToMyPC service, for instance, will allow partners to extend to their customers browser-based access to desktop PC applications from the Internet, while the GoToAssist service will enable partners to extend online help desk, call-center assistance and online training to their customers' PCs.