Seagate: New Program Puts System Builders First

The new Seagate Partner Program, which the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based hard-drive maker unveiled last week, is based heavily on feedback from more than 70 channel focus group sessions in the past 18 to 24 months, said Desa Zraick, director of global channels and development at Seagate.

"We want to make sure system builders have a really good reason to invest their time and resources in Seagate," Zraick said.

Included in the program is the opening of the company's Design Service Center to the average system builder, she said.

"Before, the center mainly focused on large OEMs," Zraick said. "It was expensive to use. So now we are offering a core group of our technology at the design center to system builders and giving them a 75 percent discount."

Seagate is also implementing its first evaluation program, which makes a limited supply of the company's newest products available to system builders at a significant discount.

Also new is an interactive system builder portal with marketing information and tools, including links to news feeds and other sites of interest to system builders, Zraick said.

Additionally, the program offers system builders dedicated pre- and post-sales support, including a toll-free phone number for them, Zraick said.

"Calls from system builders to our call center will go to the top of the stack," she said.

Samuel Sanchez, vice president of marketing at Coastline Micro, an Irvine, Calif.-based custom-system builder, said he likes how Seagate is focusing on the system builder channel with the program. "It improves our customer service, competitive advantage and time to market," he said.

For Sanchez, the most important part of the program is the dedicated customer service hot line.

"I can get direct to somebody when I need it," he said. "Before, we had our FAE [field application engineer] that we could call direct. The guy was great, really smart, and he always got back to me. But there are times I need someone now. The new hot line takes us to a pool of technicians."

Sanchez also is looking forward to more training and marketing seminars offered through the program. Seagate has about 12,000 partners, Zraick said.