Ambitious storage vendor Brocade is gunning for a greater share of the UK market with its latest loyalty programme.

To gain preference among its OEM and reseller partners, Brocade has launched a scheme that rewards partners for recommending its storage technology.

Under the terms of the Brocade Enterprise Deal Registration programme, resellers and OEM partners must register their interests on a customer installation prior to pitching.

If it is obvious once the deal has been concluded that the reseller was instrumental in influencing the purchase of Brocade storage hardware, the reseller gains points for a range of offerings.

Co-operative marketing funds, free support, free certification and training and free demonstration equipment are all on offer, with loyalty points as the currency.

Barbara Spicek, Brocade’s director of sales for EMEA, said it is all about improving presence in the enterprise sector.

“The high mid-range market is very much channel driven, and we realise there is competition,” she said. “We want to reward our resellers for being loyal to us.”

Rewards could accumulate to as much as $40,000, Spicek claimed. She warned that the high financial rewards will not be open to abuse.

“The registration system will not be open to corruption. You will not be able to siphon funds off into your own bank account,” she said.

The programme provides incentives for channel partners selling Brocade 48000 Directors and the Brocade DCX Backbone.

In time, more products might be added, including Brocade Host Bus Adapter (HBA), switch and file
management products, as well as the Brocade Professional Services offerings.

In separate news, Overland Storage has launched a tiered rebate system for resellers and a loyalty points system for distributor sales staff. The scheme allows sales people to accumulate points that they can redeem for goods.

“The resellers have had a loyalty points system for a couple of years, and it has gone down very well,” said Overland’s marketing director, Chris James. “It is only fair to give the distributors the same bonus.”
The bonus is allocated on an individual rather than company basis.