Funding Technical Positions, Increasing MDF And More
AMD knows it needs to become a bigger channel player if it wants to continue to take market share away from Intel. One way the chipmaker is doing that? Expanding funding for positions inside top solution providers in North America like Insight Enterprise and CDW.
Jason Mooneyham, corporate vice president of Americas sales who oversees AMD’s component and commercial systems channels, told CRN that funded technical positions, which is being doubled next year as part of a big channel blitz, have been the top requested item from national solution providers and value-added resellers because it will help them turn around AMD-based system deals faster.
[Related: Lisa Su’s Channel Awakening: Why Partners Could Be AMD’s ‘Largest Growth Opportunity’ ]
“As it relates to [distributors] and NSPs, we’re trying to fund those bodies on the floor, so that as those deals come up they’re able to go right in house to get it without having to chase down somebody in our field organization,” he said. “So that’s the goal there: to provide that technical resource on site through funded bodies that are there every day, that are comfortable with the folks inside those walls as opposed to, ‘I’ve never heard of this person before and I’m going to call him right now.’”
In an interview with CRN, Mooneyham, a former Lenovo executive, talked about AMD’s plans to double headcount and funding for commercial systems partners, to what extent the company makes pricing adjustments in competitive bids with Intel, how the company’s volume incentive rebate program works and the other things AMD is doing to win over solution provider companies as partners.
