Virtualisation giant VMware has declared 2008 the year for investing in its 10,000 resellers after adding extra incentives to its VIP channel programme.

After recently forecasting that its annual growth rate will fall from 100 per cent to 50 per cent, the vendor claims it is switching its focus from partner recruitment to developing existing resellers.

Matt Piercy, channel director for Northern EMEA at VMware, said: “2007 was a year for recruiting partners and 2008’s main focus will be investing in existing partners, staying attractive to them and accelerating their performance.”

Sweetners include enterprise partners being rewarded for influencing deals ­ a benefit previously only given to Premium VARs.

“Whether a Premium or Enterprise partner wins or loses, it will get an incentive for influencing the deal. The deal size has also changed. It used to be an account of more than $20,000 (£10,200) that received an incentive, but this has been reduced to include those accounts up to $10,000,” Piercy explained.

VMware also claimed to have boosted marketing and training support for its partners.
Piercy stressed that a partner feedback survey conducted in 2007 spurred the changes to the VIP programme, not the emergence of competitors in the virtualisation space.

“In terms of competition the landscape is still limited, but all vendors are competition, not just those in the virtualisation space,” he said.

Philip Laslett, product and marketing manager at VMware VIP Enterprise partner Dilgenter, said: “From a vendor’s point of view, it is always best to invest in your key partners, rather than just having a high number of resellers.”