Emulex With New Connect Partner Program
For channel partners and VARs
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on March 22, 2011 at 3:14 pmEmulex Corporation announced its next-generation Emulex Connect Partner Program for channel partners and value-added resellers (VARs).
It offers partner-specific content, Emulex Expert online technical and sales training certifications, bigger SPIFs, faster claims and higher profit margins.
The Emulex Connect Partner Program also includes an interactive community ecosystem to foster independent discussions around the transition to 10Gb/s Ethernet (10GbE) and network convergence. This community includes an open dialog about implementing a 10GbE infrastructure through blogs, podcasts and webinars around customer trends and pain points.
"The goal of the Emulex Connect Partner Program is to help our channel partners maximize revenue and gross margins in the new network convergence market," said Shaun Walsh, vice president of marketing, Emulex. "The updated program provides the tools required for Emulex and its channel partners to become the leading providers of 10GbE-based solutions in the market."
The Emulex Connect Partner Program includes:
- Bigger SPIFs, Faster Claims and Higher Profit Margins: The Emulex Connect Partner Program offers increased SPIF values, a new SPIF processing system to accelerate claims, and deal registration to help yield higher margins.
- MyEmulex.com Partner Portal: This new portal delivers partner-specific sales cycle incentives, training, demo and proof of concept equipment, and industry solutions to help partners grow their business. The delivery of this content is targeted to the specific type of VAR, their OEM affiliation(s) and partnership-level (Platinum, Gold, Authorized, and Connect+).
- Emulex Experts Certification Training: Resellers certified as Emulex Experts can move to a higher tier of program partnership and earn access to free demo units and customizable sales incentives.
- New Connect+ Partner Level: The new Connect+ partner designation is open to all partners who drive higher volumes on 10GbE-based products, complete 10GbE focused Emulex Experts training and provide customer support programs for Emulex solutions. Partners who achieve the Connect+ partner designation are eligible for additional product discounts.
- Emulex Convergence Conversations: This new resource helps partners start the conversations with IT managers on leading topics such as I/O performance, server virtualization, convergence, security, data center efficiency and other technologies that are driving data center concerns.
"The Emulex Connect Partner Program offers incentives, rewards and training materials that truly motivate us to move the sales needle, engage with our customers and each other to bring the best technology solutions into the hands of users," said Gary Johnston, President, IT Partners. "Adding such a strong ‘community’ feel to the program just makes it easier for us to have immediate access to the resources we need, which is so important in the real-time environment we live in."
"There are no revenue or training bars to enter the Emulex Connect Partner Program, and there are genuine benefits at every tier, which is something we haven’t seen in many other partner programs," said Mark Walker, Director of Converged Infrastructure, Azlan. "Emulex has created a further incentive for their partners to become well-informed and well-educated on the next generation data center."
"The community element of the new Emulex Connect Partner Program is something that will help us as an industry as we continue towards the path towards network convergence, in engaging in dialogue about customer needs and best practices," said Art Prutsalis, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Info X Distribution. "This, combined with the compelling benefits Emulex is offering all of its VARs and distributors makes this program quite appealing to us."
"As our customer data centres continue to converge, the Emulex focus on network convergence is extremely important to Computacenter as customers move to deploy 10GbE infrastructures," said Matthew Yeager, Practice Leader for Data, Computacenter. "In my experience, it is often difficult to get the balance of what’s right for the customer and what’s right for the partner simultaneously. However, Emulex get this consistently right which, in turn, enables us to do what we do best as trusted advisers to our customers. The benefits of joining the new Emulex Connect Partner Program are compelling in that it is an effective and productive way to participate in dialogue working in partnership with the variety of training, incentives and co-marketing programs available to us."