Daniel Sim (Vertiv)
Data centre infrastructure specialist Vertiv has released a new partner program in Australia and New Zealand, bringing a “gamified” approach to moving up tiers.
The program upgrade will see the Vertiv Partner Portal relaunched with new features, allowing partners to obtain “points” for completing training, certifications, registrations and sales.
As partners progress, they will be able to exchange points for benefits such as marketing and go-to-market support, or put them towards raising their tiers.
“If a reseller has transacted, say, between $50,000 to $100,000 a year, we would like to give them some more delivery care, making sure that they have some of the benefits and also some of the additional support that they get from our team members,” explained Daniel Sim, Vertiv senior director of channel business for Asia.
The move, which will see A/NZ further streamlined with the United States and Europe, comes as Vertiv attempts to double its regional network of partners by end of 2021.
Currently Vertiv stands at around 400 A/NZ partners, of which between 200-250 are transacting on a monthly basis.
Earlier this year, Vertiv signed a distribution deal with Tech Data, giving the latter access to its entire product suite.
In return, Sim said, Vertiv gained access to more partners, including those with complementary Nutanix and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) specialties.
The new program will also see the addition of a new top tier, Black Diamond, which will sit above the traditional tier levels of Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond.
Achievers of the Black Diamond tier will get exclusive access to benefits, participate in executive meetings and attend global channel conferences, Vertiv claimed.
Although Sim said the majority of partners fall into the Platinum and Diamond tiers, he hoped the new program would attract more “second tier” partners.
Currently, entry and lower level partners are unable to access back-end rebates or marketing development funds, but Sim said he hoped the new program would allow more to enjoy Vertiv’s “VIP rewards”.
In response to COVID-19 restrictions, Vertiv moved a bulk of its training and certification processes online.
However, the vendor is starting to open up its new Sydney headquarters to face-to-face training and demonstrations, albeit with social distancing measures in place.
Sim added that while much of the program was being driven from the US, feedback from A/NZ had played a key role in adapting the new features.
“Feedback from [A/NZ] partners has allowed us to give concise information back due to the global team, and they're taken on board.
“[Vertiv CEO] Rob Johnson has been pushing for the last few years to move our business to a channel model. And he's completely on board and committed to that. And now this is being filtered down to all the different countries.”
