Canon aims at corporate deals with new programme

Programme revamp by Canon takes in all of Europe

Canon has replaced its previous country-by-country structure with a pan-European partner programme with two streams and nine product certifications.

Jane Smeeton, channel development manager at Canon, said all partners would now be funnelled into either Registered, for product-focused players, or Accredited streams, for services-led businesses that require ongoing support, and nine product certifications.

The arrangement - which for UK partners is more of a refresh of the previous programme - replaces the Reseller, Solution partner, and Advanced Solution partner streams.

"Now we have the large deals and the corporate deals, often they have to provide a much broader spectrum of products to the customer," Smeeton said. "And really it is a clearer strategy and clearer definition of support from Canon, including better business planning."

She said that Canon promises to help all its partners develop a business plan with clear joint targets for the year. Resellers will also get supportive account management and strategic or tactical bonuses such as growth bonuses and co-marketing funds.

"There is joint investment that is a formalisation of what we have done before," she said. "Partners have always invested in having the right people and the right skills. But I think we are actually now more focused on how we are going to help them."

Louella Fernandes, principal analyst at Quocirca, said for Canon to deepen its penetration among enterprise customers it will need to strengthen its partnership ecosystem.

"To really get a stronger foothold in these large deals, partners will need training on how to integrate Canon MFPs with solutions such as document workflow and security. The real opportunity is to strengthen its MPS offerings through its indirect channel which is much less developed than some of its competitors'," she said.

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