Vision overhauls channel ahead of new distie signings

Firm introduces tiers to partner programme, hailing Softcat as first-ever Diamond-level partner

Cloud firm Vision Solutions has announced sweeping changes to its channel strategy ahead of a distie rejig next year.

The Worcester-based firm, which provides cloud-based disaster recovery and migration technology, has been rethinking its channel approach for the past eight months and has introduced a top Diamond tier along with a second-level Platinum tier.

Reseller Softcat has been awarded the first and so far only Vision Diamond status, while the Platinum tier is made up of the six resellers it works with direct.

The rest of its partners – about 100 in total – work through distributor CMS, although the vendor hinted that a couple of new distributors will be announced in January as part of its channel overhaul.

Ian Masters, Vision's regional director for northern Europe, said that while he could not unveil which new disties are set to come on board, the company took great care to ensure that there would be no channel conflict.

"We're not necessarily looking to bring on just anyone or just the biggest ones," he said. "We're trying to bring on disties to address different parts of the market; there is plenty of opportunity. We don't want to create conflict, we do work in a fairly niche, select market."

Masters added that when the channel changes were first unveiled to its partners, he did not expect any VARs to immediately want to sign up, but was impressed by Softcat's ambition to get the top tier.

"Softcat is going great guns and when we met with all our partners, they were the ones who said ‘what do we need to do to be Diamond [accredited]?'," Masters said.

"Our initial thought was to put all [direct] resellers on Platinum and allow them to grow into [Diamond] next year, but they wanted to push and do it straight away. It was a surprise for us... we did not expect a Diamond partner this year."

Masters added that he does not expect its partner numbers to drop following the channel rejig, but did say that some of its Platinum partners might want to drop a level and work through distribution but that this would be made up for by resellers moving up the ranks.

Back in January, Vision joined forces with Insight in an effort to sign up some of its 600-strong army of service providers. Masters said the partnership was doing well but that there was still more work to be done.

"We've been a bit stop-start getting the messaging right," Masters concended, but added that it was Vision's fault not Insight's.

"The challenge with a new partner is to understand how they operate, but I'd suggest [the partnership has] been successful but there is work to do in the next 12 months."