Violin “Partner First” 100% Channel Program

Violin Systems LLC introduced its “Partner First “channel program that helps resellers solve customers’ storage infrastructure challenges with solutions that offer the combination of  performance, low TCO and high ROI to improve the operational efficiency needed to meet both current and future business demands.

Trusted by thousands of customers around the world, including 125 of the Fortune 500, the company is committed to empowering its strategic partner ecosystem for growth and profitability with performance storage solutions. In conjunction with its Partner First reseller community, the firm continues to execute routes to market to satisfy the increase in demand for consistent low latency and reliability across several industries, including financial services, healthcare, government, education, transportation, and media and entertainment.

The company’s 100% channel sales approach provides partners with the support, training and registration opportunities needed to help position, sell and deploy its performance storage solutions.

Among the key program elements are:

• Guaranteed margin opportunities: Positioning value ensures that resale partners receive top dollar for completion of their sales while all professional services are delivered by the partner for recurring sales
• Complementary offerings to existing sales portfolio: Instead of serving as a replacement to a reseller’s existing general-purpose storage offerings, Violin’s technology augments partners’ portfolios. Resellers expand their sales opportunities by adding low-latency storage with enterprise data services in tier-0 and tier-1 installs
• Increased marketing opportunities: Pre-funded marketing program incentives and joint event participation available for Premier-level partners with lead-generation activities tailored to individual partners at all levels

“All vendors that we work with offer some level of the same things, whether that’s training, marketing materials, SPIFs or whatever,” said Craig Stein, founding partner, The Mirazon Group. “But Violin takes the partner relationship to another level. First, with a guaranteed margin, I don’t have to play games to figure out how much I’m going to get paid. Second, they make the registration experience simple and quick with a simplified process on their portal.  And, finally, they actually work with me in supporting our sales and marketing efforts in team approach, helping ensure that the solution I’m providing to the customer works to satisfy their needs. I feel like I’m a valued partner that is an extension of Violin, and not just a conduit to a sale.“

“Violin offers solutions that our general-purpose storage and general-purpose flash offerings don’t, which has opened up market opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have had,” said Jeff Podgorski, director, sales strategy and operations, Keeper Technology, LLC. “For those workloads that need maximum application performance, Violin is able to step up and provide us with a solution that delivers consistent performance and low latency with enterprise data services. For other storage needs, I’m still able to offer other solutions in my sales catalog, giving me the opportunity to increase sales while keeping my customers satisfied.“

“With Digital Transformations, the demands of enterprise applications have changed the way most look at their infrastructure. The applications must adapt continuously and quickly to meet both current and future needs. You can never have too much speed or too much performance to handle all of the processing demands required,” said Brian Bream, CEO, Collier IT. “Violin actually offers an extreme-performance that is consistent over other flash solutions on the market today. Being able to partner with Violin to provide their solutions as an option for our clients means that we are able to provide the necessary tools they need to satisfy business opportunities, grow their companies and come back to us for additional solutions in the future.“

Violin’s performance platform enables infrastructure cost savings and cost avoidance, typically 40% or more by reducing the number of servers and cores needed. Consolidated hardware in the data center means less power and cooling requirements, less management and a reduced need for the number of software and application licenses. With improvement in application performance, there is an equally improvement in the experience of the applications’ end users, resulting in improved customer satisfaction. Combined with company’s performance advantages, customers are able to realize competitive advantages while simultaneously saving money.

Violin announced that Tim Cullen will take on the newly-created post of VP of channel sales at Violin Systems. He has over 25 years of experience in operations and sales leadership.  Previously he led the global sales operations efforts for X-IO. He reports to SVP of worldwide field operations, Rick Ruskin.

 “What we are looking to do with our Partner First program is to round out resellers’ dance cards rather than compete for general purpose storage mind share,” said Cullen. “When a customer needs consistent extreme performance as part of their enterprise data center environment, we expect that our partner will want to ask us to join them in delivering a solution. For other more general situations, we’re not going to get jealous if they partner with others, it is a matter of the right solutions for the right workloads. Expand your opportunities, find the solution that makes the most sense and reach new levels of profitability by having a full suite of offerings readily available.“

Partner First reseller program offers three tiers of membership – Premier, Authorized and Registered.  Members have access to online training and certification materials, updated price list, deal registration forms and customer facing collateral through a dedicated channel partner portal. In addition to margins earned through simplified sales opportunities, resellers will also have the opportunity for increased revenue by delivering certified services directly to their customers.