Credit: Commvault
Data protection and information management solutions vendor Commvault has revamped its partner program, focusing on four key pillars in its effort to give partners a modernised program that offers a bigger bite of the profit margin apple.
The key pillars underpinning the vendor’s new enhanced Partner Advantage program are: innovative products that are partner-ready to sell; a tightly aligned collaborative selling team; a go-to-market strategy and ecosystem that is “built to win”; and a profitable and predictable program.
For Commvault Asia Pacific and Japan partner and alliances regional vice president Dino Soepono, the new program marks a dramatic change within the vendor’s channel business.
“My hope is that the partners will see a new modernised program that is profitable to the partners and that is relevant to the partners,” Soepono told ARN. “Hopefully, they will see from the last three to four months months of research we’ve done in the market that we’ve come up with a very relevant and profitable program to help them grow the Commvault business within their organisation.”
Credit: Dino Soepono
With the evolution of the program, according to Commvault, partners are set to receive a range of benefits, including simple win, growth and performance rebates.
Partners will also have more flexibility across program tiers with predictable profit potential and trusted deal support for business growth.
At the same time, deal registration benefits and new partner seller incentives are aimed at providing transparent guiding principles and operational efficiencies to accelerate the sales cycle and speed payment of rewards.
Partners will also continue to benefit from features already in place, including a three-tier program that delivers progressive deal registration benefits, seller incentives and integrated proposal-based marketing development funds for new customer acquisition, account growth and performance.
Moreover, partners will have access to Commvault’s enhanced Partner Portal, which features sales and technical training and accreditations, deal registration tools and a Partner Demand Center that provides marketing resources and packaged demand campaigns to help partners build strong customer pipelines.
“As a partner-led company, we continuously seek ways to nurture our partner relationships and provide mutually beneficial opportunities for shared success,” said Mercer Rowe, Commvault Global Partner Organisation vice president.
“With the updated approach to our Partner Advantage program, we are able to provide our partners with incentives that drive more profitability into their business, collaborative selling and smart sales plays that help them close more deals and faster leading to deep ecosystem relationships.
“In addition, we provide in-region support, expansive training and demand generation resources that help them build a future-proof business with unlimited opportunity,” Rowe added.
As with just about all partner program updates, Commvault’s revamp was heavily informed by partner feedback from around the world, with the Asia Pacific and Japan region standing as a significant contributor to the development of the new program, according to Soepono.
“We surveyed the partners about the program...and we gathered a lot of feedback,” Soepono said. “As a result of that we made some changes to the program, we made it a lot more modernised. It was outdated.
“Secondly, we wanted to make sure the new program was more profitable for the partners. They were finding other vendors more profitable and we wanted to prove that we were better than the vendors we were competing with.
“We weren’t seeing the recurrence of business. We would see partners transacting with us, perhaps 10 deals a month, as opposed to what we’d expect, 50 deals per month. They weren’t growing within our business,” he said.
Now, with the new program updates, Soepono suggests that the company will be able to go deeper with its existing partner ecosystem.
“This is a significant change with Commvault. A dramatic change that really benefits the partners,” he said.
The enhancements to Commvault’s Partner Advantage program are now available for all solution providers and distribution partners.
Commvault expects to make further announcements in the ‘near future’ about further enhancements on other partner business models, including cloud and managed service providers and professional services.
As reported by ARN, the back-up and disaster recovery solutions vendor earlier this year granted Dicker Data exclusive distribution rights in Australia following a distribution review, a move that saw the company drop Tech Data from its distribution roster in the country.
The move, which was effective from 1 July, followed a major reorganisation of Commvault’s channel in Australia and New Zealand since at least mid-last year.
