D-Link looks to sign partner elite

Come one, come all: D-Link hopes to "increase the breadth of the reseller base" with its new channel programme

D-Link’s revamped partner programme aims to build volume of entry-level resel­lers at one end of the channel, while cherry-picking an elite band of dedicated VARs at the other.

The networking vendor’s new-look Partner+ scheme features four tiers, beginning with Reseller Plus, which partners can join in a few days, after completing an online application process. Entry-level benefits include upfront discounts of 10 per cent.
For Volume Resellers, on the second tier, the focus will be on offering a package of highly tailored requirements and benefits.

D-Link UK and Ireland general manager Chris Davies said: “Partner+ aims to build in more flexibility. One of our ambitions is to increase the breadth of the reseller base. We have put in more badges to allow different types of VARs to join the scheme.”

Value-add specialists with high-end technological or vertical expertise can ascend to the third tier: Solutions Pro­vider. In exchange for more formalised and deman­ding revenue requirements, they will be rewarded with extra margin and more hands-on sales and marketing support.

At the top will be Expert Solutions Providers, who will receive maximum margins and account management attention. Davies said there is a handful of existing partners ready for a place on the top table.

“We are really looking at a fairly exclusive, limited number of partners,” he said. “This will be a promotion for companies that have 100 per cent of their networking based on D-Link hardware, or are going to a market [where D-Link is dominant].”

Keith Humphreys, managing consultant at analyst euroLAN, claimed the loyalty demanded by D-Link at the top level can be hard to come by in the channel.

“It needs a programme that allows partners to build joint solutions with other manufacturers in areas such as security,” he said.