OutStart launches partner programme
Vendor aims to boost reseller ranks, knowledge and sales with Partnerzone scheme
Software vendor OutStart has launched an EMEA partner programme to both increase VAR numbers and to make resellers more self-sufficient.
OutStart said its Partner Enablement Programme will allow its partners to perform a range of tasks while making sales pitches to end-users.
PartnerZone forms the backbone of the programme. It gives partners access to four online resources: a knowledge bank, a community forum, an expertise location and eLearning modules.
Peter Nichol, EMEA vice-president of OutStart, said: “This programme addresses resellers’ problems. It enables them to access a knowledge bank of information to get information quickly when on a sale, and to get access to OutStart experts who can answer their additional questions.”
Nichol added that 96 per cent of the company’s business went though its partners last year, so it is keen to increase its reseller base.
“The programme allows us to increase our number of resellers. There is no golden number that we’d like to increase partner numbers to because we are more interested in quality than quantity of partners,” Nichol said.
Matthew Lloyd, managing director of OutStart VAR Omniplex, said: “PartnerZone is a positive step forward. It increases the vendor to partner to end-user flow of knowledge. We have already used it, and it’s a positive tool to help us make sales.”
Lloyd said he is not worried by OutStart’s ambition to increase its existing number of channel partners.
“If a vendor is not increasing its VAR numbers, you have to question if its market is growing. Generally we would welcome OutStart’s VAR increase,” he said.