BT accelerator aims for burst of speed
Partners are offered extra commission to grab new business
BT Indirect Channels (BTIC) is aggressively pursuing market share by offering a commission sweetener to VARs that win new business away from its rivals.
Rakesh Mahajan, BTIC's general manager for marketing and strategy, said: "We have grown organically, and as a result there are 30 different types of commission. Some is paid up front, some is paid on an ongoing basis.
"What we will do now is add accelerators. For example, if the business is new to BT, we will add an accelerator to the commission."
Mahajan said that the new structure was intended to encourage resellers with high growth, such as Azzurri.
According to sources within the organisation, the move will stop resellers that are not growing from receiving a disproportionate share of the rewards.
BT has also doubled the download speed of its business broadband connections. From 1 October business customers using 512kbps and 1Mbps connections will be upgraded to Network 1000 and 2000 respectively, while the price of 2Mbps connections will be cut by £30 to £100 per month.
Gary Duke, a director at reseller Lan2Lan, welcomed the news. "Giving customers free upgrades is a nice thing to do. BT obviously has a bit of spare capacity, and it's a good payback for business users," he said.
In addition, BTIC's Paveway scheme to push broadband connections with sales of Microsoft's Small Business Server platform will be bolstered by a 25-strong call centre offering technical and sales support to resellers.
"This is a massive push into the channel to focus on broadband from a partner perspective," said Mahajan. "Broadband commission will be delivered up front. Resellers said they thought it would cost more to manage commission on an incremental basis, and were interested in up-front commission."
However, Duke remained cautious on the subject of commissions.
"BTIC needs to be a bit careful, because people have built their business models on recurring revenue. That sort of commission structure rewards loyalty and winning the business in the first place. But giving a reward for winning new business is a positive move," he said.