Exclusive: SOTI Revamps Partner Program To Reflect Its EMM Platform Transformation

In an exclusive interview with CRN, the COO of enterprise mobility management provider SOTI says the goal of its revamped program is to not push partners to resell its product but instead to cultivate strategic relationships that drive mutual growth for SOTI and its partners.

Enterprise mobility management provider SOTI has overhauled its global partner program to reflect its transformation into a platform provider that offers a variety of capabilities on top of its base mobile device management software.

“With the help of our SOTI One platform, we are now bringing technologies and capabilities in the market that is related to operational intelligence, that is related to providing more visibility to our customers, giving them predictive analysis, foreseeing and predicting downtime and foreseeing and predicting cost increases,” said Mustafa Ebadi, COO of SOTI, in an exclusive interview with CRN.

With the newly revamped SOTI Altitude Program, the Ontario, Canada-based company said it has expanded to include MSPs, OEMs, ISVs, distributors and platform providers under the same umbrella as VARs that were previously part of the program. As a result, the program now has more than 6,500 partners on its roster.

“While we continue to support the [VARs], and they are a massive and the most critical part of our business, we also are diversifying our partner program,” Ebadi said, adding that the company is making a push to work with more MSPs and value-added distributors.

While all partners share the same core benefits of sales support, technical support, marketing support and enablement, each partner type also receives an additional layer of specialized benefits such as discounts, access to a technical account manager, quarterly business reviews and proof-of-concept support. These benefits are contingent on partners meeting certain requirements such as meeting targets for renewals or deal registration as well as participating in the company’s training programs.

Ebadi said the goal is to not push partners to resell its product but instead to cultivate strategic relationships that drive mutual growth for SOTI and its partners.

“We truly believe that we should not have a lot of partners that are just doing the same thing but a distinct and differentiated set of partners that see the value of winning business and growing your business with SOTI,” he said.

According to Ebadi, what separates SOTI from the hundreds of other enterprise mobility management and mobile device management providers is how the company has expanded its capabilities well beyond the base of device management.

These new capabilities include SOTI Connect, which enables the management of IoT devices, cameras, printers and the like, as well as SOTI XSight, which provides analytical and predictive capabilities for remediating issues with devices and lowering operational costs.

“We now give businesses a deeper visibility into their operation so that they can make data-driven decisions for their operations,” Ebadi said.

SOTI partner Heartland, based in McHenry, Ill., said the newly revamped Altitude Partner Program is improving its profitability with resources like proof-of-concept support, return on investment calculators as well as tools and training.

"Our partnership with SOTI enables us to deliver more comprehensive, smarter mobility solutions to end-user customers across the health-care, retail and transportation and logistics sectors—three of the fastest-growing markets for mobile,” said Todd Greenwald, president and general manager of Heartland, in a statement.

“This collaboration not only helps us address customers’ critical mobility challenges but also allows us to grow our business at a time when organizations are focused on elevating and streamlining their mobile operations,” he added.