Citrix puts consultancy skills on market

Vendor partners resellers through professional skills offering

Thin client vendor Citrix is looking to address skills shortages in the channel by partnering with resellers through a professional services offering.

Citrix has claimed that its Professional Services Programme opens up its in-house consultancy skills to resellers through services packages, which can in turn be resold to customers.

Lewis Gee, managing director of Citrix UK, said the offering includes proof of concept packages as well as infrastructure assessment.

"The programme will help smaller resellers roll out Citrix projects that were out of their reach in the past," he said.

Larger players can also supplement the offering with services packages, according to Gee. "In the early stages, it is critical to get a project right, and we can support partners with best practice if required," he said.

The packages are available in the UK through the vendor's distributors, Unipalm, Interquad, Centia and ETC.

Nicky Rutherford, Citrix business manager at Unipalm, said that although it was early days for Unipalm's Citrix business, resellers are keen to acquire skills.

"It is good to know we have this resource should we need it. It will help smaller resellers get the bigger deals," she said.

Unipalm is already putting eight new resellers through the Citrix accreditation process, she added.

Separately, Citrix has become the first Microsoft Global Independent Software Vendor Partner of the Year. Microsoft gave the award at its partner conference this month in recognition of Citrix's performance in delivering its products.