Firm-handed F5 plays channel enforcer

Schoenrock: we are going to police and enforce this - it will be very fair and open

Though the mechanics of vendor partner programmes rarely set pulses racing, F5 Networks has billed the introduction of its Unity channel scheme as crucial in its evolution.

The firm that casts itself as the tollbooth to Cisco’s road-builder has been growing at a rapid clip in recent years. Unity brings the application delivery vendor’s 650 EMEA partners – including big names such as Integralis and Computacenter – under the same framework for the first time.

Vice president of worldwide channels Dean Darwin said F5 resellers must have an understanding of both datacentre and applications, and boast a strong networking and security pedigree.

He told CRN: “The largest enterprises in the world are getting prepared for virtualisation and cloud and are looking at datacentre economy. The likes of Juniper and Cisco have their value but from layers 4-7 we are the only one that understands the complexity of what is going on.”

Although F5 is not planning a partner recruitment drive off the back of its launch, Unity is designed to transform how the vendor interacts with its channel. Lying at the heart of the three-tier programme is a new “one-button” deal registration scheme and an increased emphasis on transparency and enforcement.

Formal revenue thresholds have also been introduced, with top-level Gold partners in big countries such as the UK required to turn over $1.5m (£980,000) and Silver partners $250,000.

“It took me a year of work to get this launched in America and six months here,” said Darwin. “A lot of man hours have been invested to make sure the programme is easy.”

The deal registration scheme requires resellers to nominate a distributor and those that invest in a sale – whether they be Gold, Silver or Authorised – will be guaranteed the most competitive pricing. It is F5’s first consistent deal registration scheme across EMEA.

Michael Schoenrock, director channel and alliances EMEA at F5, said: “The previous discount structure empowered distributors to take decisions on our behalf. What we are doing with the new discount structure is taking back control.”

The other main theme of Unity is transparency: F5 is for the first time spelling out exactly what partners need to do and what they get in return, and has promised to get heavy on those found wanting.

Schoenrock explained: “Revenue requirements are just one of many requirements in the programme. We have made it very clear and transparent and the big difference is now we are going to police and enforce it – it will be very fair and open.”

Each authorised reseller will be monitored every quarter by a newly recruited channel programme manager. Those who fall short will be sent a “friendly warning letter” and then demoted if they fail to make headway within three months. Audits will also be performed on distributors to check they are not “monkeying” with deal registration pricing.

Dave Ellis, e-security director at F5 distributor Computerlinks, welcomed the arrival of Unity to Europe.

“The high-level principle of Unity is F5 wants to reward partners that go out and find opportunities and to build a channel that is technically strong,” he said. “Some F5 products go into mission-critical environments and it is important to have a channel that can deploy them correctly.”

Laura Harman, Business Unit director at distributor Avnet Technology Solutions, said: “Avnet welcomes the introduction of F5’s Unity prog­ramme because it will help safeguard this investment, rewarding the entire channel for focus and innovation.”

For a vendor that has seen its revenue swell from $171m to $653m over its last five fiscal years, F5’s reseller line-up has remained static over that period, admitted Darwin. On top of pan-Europeans such as Computa­center and Integra­lis, top UK-based partners include NSC Global, BlueFort Security, Nebulas and Armadillo.

The goal remains to recruit selectively while focusing on understanding the skills sets of authorised partners and helping them grow, he said.

“A lot of people get judged on how many partners they have, but all our growth is with the same amount of partners we have always had,” added Darwin. “We have not run a dramatic campaign because we don’t have the staff and resources – we would rather work with existing partners and make their business stronger.”