Citrix looks for more competent VARs

Vendor partner programmes are an established feature of the channel. As new technologies enter the market, it is only logical that vendors will change their strategy to create new ways of working with partners to maximise margin.

To this end, access infrastructure vendor Citrix recently announced at its annual end-user iForum conference in Edinburgh that it had created five new partner competencies designed to align its partners to their strengths in specific Citrix products.

The five competencies are Access Security and Control, Client Server Application Delivery, Web Application Delivery, Comprehensive Application Delivery and Small Business Access Solutions.

Mark Templeton, chief executive of Citrix, told CRN: “These competencies are groupings of products that address particular markets. We want partners to gain competencies on both the technical and the selling side.”

Templeton added that the five competencies were not designed to replace the established Platinum, Gold and Silver partner tiers already featured under its Solution Advisor Programme.

Stefan Sjostrom, vice-president of EMEA at Citrix, told CRN: “The real objective of the five categories is to develop trained and certified partners that can represent our products well to end-users.”

Partners can choose which of the competencies to invest in, and Citrix has claimed that it will support partners that want to gain certification under several of the five classifications.

“The five categories will help to bring more leads to our partners,” Sjostrom claimed. “We will invest in partners to help them train their staff to become qualified in the five areas.”

Citrix’s VARs welcomed the more tailored strategy.

Ewan Anderson, managing director of Platinum VAR Centralis, told CRN: “These classifications should help to define resellers that invest in training their staff and those purely reselling Citrix. It will also help end-users to locate VARs that are accredited with the specific skills they need.”

Alistair Kitching, commercial director of Platinum VAR Esteem Systems, said: “Anything that provides further differentiation and expertise will only help partners.”

However, in addition to its new competencies, Citrix also used the Edinburgh-based event to announce its intentions to ramp up European partner numbers in response to its expanding product portfolio.

The vendor has about 3,300 resellers in Europe, the majority of which are Silver level partners.

Richard Jackson, managing director for the UK, Ireland and South Africa at Citrix, told CRN: “We want networking-skilled partners, security partners and partners that can sell Access Essentials to the SME market.”

Citrix initially announced plans in April to increase its focus on the SME market by recruiting VARs for its Access Essentials product line (CRN, 24 April).

Templeton said: “We want to expand our partner numbers in Europe. We have a loyal partner base, but we are nowhere near saturation.”

However, channel partners expressed a mixed reaction to any increase in partner numbers.

Kelly Layton, sales and marketing director at Gold reseller Cetus Solutions, said: “The bottom line is that there will be more competition. Our role is to keep the end-user informed, but if more VARs come on board then the number of box-shifter licence resellers not looking to support end-users after the initial sale will increase.”

Kitching said a partner expansion was a reversal in Citrix’s recent partner movements.

“Recently, Citrix reduced its partner numbers and downgraded some partners,” he said. “If it does expand then I expect Citrix will look to recruit more partners into some of its new technology areas, such as NetScaler.”

Anderson said that the announcement came as no surprise. “As Citrix acquires more products, it will need more partners,” he said.

However, Templeton reiterated that an expansion in partner numbers, and the creation of five partner competencies were all vital to Citrix’s development.

“We haven’t fleshed out our portfolio completely,” he said. “This will require more partnerships, more funding and more acquisitions.”

Contacts:

Cetus Solutions (0161) 848 4315

www.cetus-solutions.com

Citrix (01754) 276 200

www.citrix.com

Esteem Systems (01937) 861 000

www.esteem.co.uk/citrix