Blue Coat lights BlueTouch paper

Vendor launches new professional services certification for resellers

New certification is designed to unlock new services opportunities for partners

Security and application acceleration vendor Blue Coat has unveiled a new professional services badge to help partners boost their services attach rates.

The BlueTouch Professional Services Partner (BTPSP) programme complements its existing BlueTouch Support Partner programme.

BTPSP is designed to provide partners with the tools, certification and training to develop “consultative” relationships with their customers. Giant integrator Integralis is among those already on board.

Available to all Premium, Elite and higher-level partners, BTPSP offers two levels of certification: BlueTouch Professional Services Partner and Master BlueTouch Professional Services Partner. The latter must be certified across all of Blue Coat’s three specialisations of visibility, acceleration and security and must have proven lab experience with Blue Coat products.

Jim Harold, vice president of worldwide channel sales at Blue Coat, said: “With the new Professional Services Partner designation, Blue Coat has created an offering that enables partners to increase service attach rates and margins while building more strategic relationships with their customers.”

Andrew Lev, group senior vice president marketing, alliances and channels at Integralis, said: “With this programme, we are complementing our trusted advisor services with a valuable consultative approach that allows us to share our expertise and ensure our customers’ networks are optimised to best serve their business requirements.”