Siemens looks forward to more global partners

Vendor hopes partner programme will deliver a 10 per cent growth in resellers in 2008

Siemens Enterprise Communications has targeted “substantial” growth in the UK over the next year, claiming its new global partner programme will allow resellers to gain greater margins as it looks to increase its global partner base by 10 per cent.
Siemens’ new Go Forward Programme, which includes a partner portal featuring marketing information and technical support, will see the voice vendor pump £4m into its global channel.
Leon Mangan, UK channel sales director at the vendor, said: “We are looking for 10 per cent growth with partners globally over the next year, and a substantial amount of this growth will come from the UK.
“Margins are shrinking and we need to help our VARs and distributors improve their [margins], and we will have more attractive margins for them to benefit from.”
Siemens has more than 200 partners in the UK and Mangan explained the programme will look to grow this number by building its relationship with distributors.
“We are doubling the sales and support resources in distribution to attract new partners. We think VADs have the best access to reseller recruitment and will look to sign up new partners this way,” he said.
The new portal will accelerate channels of communication between the vendor and its resellers, Mangan added.
Richard Carter, business development officer at Siemens distributor Rocom, said: “Go Forward is great news because it will help us look after our resellers more effectively - we are going to get a lot closer with the resellers. Siemens is putting a lot of commitment into the channel.”
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