UK ADC vendor JetNexus targets rivals with deal reg plan

Resellers can make 15 per cent even if a rival ultimately wins deal as part of vendor's first channel programme

UK-based application delivery controller (ADC) player JetNexus has launched its first partner programme and wants to gain ground on the market leaders with keen pricing and an innovative deal registration scheme.

The Marlow-headquartered company, which also operates offices in the US and Malaysia, has been in existence for 12 years, competing with the likes of F5, Citrix and Juniper. It currently has about 15 UK partners but aims to bring up to another 15 on board following the launch of its first formalised channel scheme.

Included in the programme is free online sales and technical training and MDF cash for joint marketing initiatives. But the flagship feature is a margin scheme offering 15 points on unregistered deals and a further 15 points for registered opportunities. The 15 per cent deal reg payment will be handed out even if the partner who registered the deal ultimately loses out to another JetNexus reseller.

"We are not a massive commodity brand and we work very closely with our partners," said chief executive Greg Howett. "If they introduce an opportunity, even if that customer already has a preferred supplier, we want them to be incentivised to continue working with us."

The vendor's sweet spot is the mid-market, claimed Howett, and the public sector – in particular local government and healthcare – are considered key battlegrounds. He added that the current climate of austerity could play into his firm's hands.

"F5 is a good product, but for £20,000, £30,000 or even £40,000 – when ours is, perhaps, £7,000 or £14,000 – it can be a bit hard [for public sector IT chiefs] to justify," he explained. "Also some of the buyers like the fact that we are a UK company and maybe we understand [the market] better than the guys out of California or Israel."

JetNexus currently serves its band of UK partners directly, but Howett revealed that the company is in discussions "with a couple of small distributors". He added that he is open to working as an additional manufacturer with VARs that may have existing relationships with larger vendors.

"We are not necessarily expecting them to drop F5 and take us on, but we can be complementary and they can put us in where F5 does not fit," he said.