Samsung wants 150 UK VARs for B2B assault

Vendor gets serious about the commercial market with launch of global channel scheme

Samsung is going for the throat of the B2B market with a new channel scheme and a plan to cement relationships with 150 UK channel players.

The Samsung Team of Empowered Partners (STEP) programme is a global framework that has been put together at a cost the Korean vendor has pegged at £30m. In the UK, the upper end of the enterprise market - comprising the top 400 accounts - are addressed directly by Samsung.

But the vendor wants to make a much bigger splash in the wider commercial market underneath that and hopes to foster ties with about 150 UK resellers.

The programme will have three tiers: Platinum; Gold; and Silver. Neil Sawyer, Samsung's UK head of enterprise channel sales and corporate strategy, estimated that the top level will consist of the leading 10 to 15 per cent of VARs, and indicated that Platinum partners will work alongside Samsung on business planning.

Some £60m is being invested globally in channel-focused sales and marketing activities, some of which will be spent on up to 50 corporate market salespeople in the UK, who will be tasked with generating leads to pass on to partners. Targeted campaigns will be launched in verticals such as retail and finance.

The programme launch - which takes place on Monday - "means we have some scale and transparency to our B2B operation", according to Sawyer.

"It allows us to manage a broader base of partners much more confidently," he said. "Our previous initiative really saw us targeting 15-20 channel partners, but this programme will see us incorporating 150 partners."

Look out in Monday's CRN and online for a detailed analysis of Samsung's enterprise plans, including insight from a wide range of channel players on whether the vendor has what it takes to make a splash in the market.