Vision plots 2012 partner programme changes

Disaster recovery vendor announces partner programme changes and investments in new financial year

Disaster recovery vendor Vision Solutions has told its channel to expect an influx of investment and a shake-up of its channel programmes next year.

Following its acquisition of rival Double-Take Software last year, Vision's portfolio now contains disaster recovery products that are compatible with Windows, as well as IBM's operating systems.

Vision also acquired a partner programme full of Microsoft VARs, which it has kept separate from its incumbent channel of IBM resellers since the deal closed.

However, that could be set to change from November when Vision's 2012 financial year starts, Robert Johnson, Vision's senior vice president of worldwide sales, told ChannelWeb.

"We have not consolidated the partner programmes so far, but we have given some of our IBM partners access to the Microsoft products, and vice versa," he explained.

"Our partners will start to see us evaluate the programmes, make some changes and build some consistencies in areas such as margins, certifications and MDF funds. It is our project for 2012."

This is part of Vision's plan to plough some "significant investments" into its channel next year, said Johnson.

"In particular, this [investment] is going to be made internally, as we are going to add a lot of resources focused on the channel around the world because the growth of that side of the business has been absolutely tremendous," he said.

On the Microsoft side, the company recently announced that it had recruited more than 80 of the software giant's partners across the globe in the past three months.

This is a process that Vision plans to continue in the UK, added Johnson. "The Microsoft side of the business is so large, it is difficult to get our arms around it but bringing on board CMS Peripherals has really helped.

"That also gives us the capacity to scale and recruit more partners with good technical skills around Microsoft Sharepoint, SQL and Exchange," he said.