Upcoming Channel Program Changes

Earlier this month, Citrix named Ethan Fitzsimons its new channel chief and promised a “more predictable” and “more profitable” partner program, set to launch March 6 for Citrix partners. Tibco partners will not be affected by those changes.

“It’s about how do we allow [partners] to do their job faster, easier, simpler,” Fitzsimons told CRN. “How can we be simpler to work with? More predictable. More profitable. And really remove any of the inhibitors—in most cases, artificial inhibitors—that were slowing down the pace of business that we could do with our partners. … We allowed ourselves to become a little bit too complex when it came to our partner program. … That’s feedback that I received from our partners consistently.”

Mike Strohl, CEO of Concord, Calif.-based Citrix partner E360—No. 111 on CRN’s 2022 Solution Provider 500—told CRN in an interview that some CSG people he has worked with have been impacted.

Nevertheless, Strohl said that he is still confident in Citrix’s channel leadership, including Fitzsimons, Hector Lima, CSG’s executive vice president of field and channel sales, and Mike Fouts, CSG’s vice president of global service providers.

“The core DNA of what makes Citrix Citrix lives within those guys,” he said. “I fully believe in what they’re doing.”

Strohl said he is happy with the upcoming partner program changes he has heard about from Citrix.

“We’re most excited about the Citrix [Service Provider] program [changes] and what we can bring to market collectively with our customers,” he said. “There’s actually been a lot of work done on Citrix’s part to make that a much better and more-aligned go-to-market” motion.