Kyocera spins second strand to partner programme

James Kight: Individually tailored support should boost sales

Kyocera has rolled out a second division in its new partner programme, signing up about 10 channel players as Principal Partners.

Alicia Shepherd, channel manager at Kyocera, said the vendor wanted to structure its programme around actual VAR strengths and the way they matched Kyocera’s, rather than the simplistic ‘good’, ‘better’ and ‘best’ layers played out by the usual Gold, Silver and Bronze denominations.

“It has been really well received so far. If anything, I wish we had come up with this idea a bit sooner, but business for us is looking good,” Shepherd said. “It is really two very different schemes.”

Kyocera’s Business Partners are resellers that are perhaps more traditional in their operations, with less focus on e-marketing.

The newest denomination of Principal Partner targets channel partners with perhaps a more consultative approach or a focus on e-marketing or areas such as managed services.

“When we focused on launching our Business Partner programme, we realised there was a gap there. Principal Partners need a different level of support,” said Shepherd.

Cheshire VAR Printerland is the latest to win Principal Partner accreditation.

James Kight, director at Printerland, said the reseller would get closer attention to its specific needs as a result of becoming Principal Partner. He was full of praise for the new designation.

“[Kyocera] has totally revamped what they do with us,” he said. “It is marketing support, and everything; they have upgraded our package basically and will be working a lot closer with us.”

The vendor had sat down with Printerland and tailored a marketing plan geared to Printerland’s specific focus areas of education and managed services.

A more customised approach should net increased sales, according to Kight.

“The marketing is the key, really. We have done co-branding, and marketing with it and will be doing it more strategically,” he said.

Printerland has been seeing “good growth” across its vendors despite the recession, which Kight put down to the continuing strength of the education segment, coupled with the need to cut running costs that played out in managed service offerings.