EMC slaps whopping $65m sales target on top-tier partners
New Business Partner Programme tier requirements unveiled to partners, CRN learns
It appears that resellers hoping to achieve top-level status with EMC will have to generate a massive $65m (£38.9m) in sales of the vendor's kit and related services when its new partner programme kicks in next year.
The vendor unveiled its new Business Partner Programme (BPP) last year when it axed its 10-year-old Velocity scheme. Only the BPP brand name is in play at the moment with the new set-up coming into force on 1 January 2015.
In a letter sent to partners this week, seen by CRN, EMC unveiled requirements for resellers wanting to earn certification on the new framework.
At the moment, partners are organised into Affiliate, Affiliate Elite, Premier and top-level Signature tiers. Benefits and rewards for partners increase based on revenue, training, and speciality achievements.
But as of next year the tiers will be renamed Silver, Gold and Platinum and different requirements will be put in place.
According to the document, it appears that in order to climb to the lowest rung on the new programme, resellers will have to transact $1.25m of EMC revenue – including services – in a year. The figure rises to $15m to become a Gold partner and a massive $65m to be welcomed onto the Platinum tier.
On top of the sales requirements, Silver partners must complete five Technology Foundation (TF) modules and have one member of staff accredited for sales and systems engineering (SE). Silver resellers must also have one employee certified as a Technology Architect (TA) specialist.
Gold partners must also complete five TF modules but must have four members of staff each accredited for sales and SE. Two certified TA specialists are required for the mid-level tier as well as two extra specialist implementation engineers.
To reach the top tier, resellers must have staff accredited with more than 50 certifications across both sales and technology – on top of the $65m sales target. In addition to this they must have one employee accredited with an Advanced Marketing Accreditation, and they must either be a VMware Premier (top-level) partner or a VCE (VMware, Cisco and EMC) Gold partner.
Once resellers are awarded a tier status on the BPP next year they are locked in for 12 months with no scope for quarterly rejigs, the document says. Training requirements must be completed by resellers by the end of November and resellers' full-year 2014 EMC revenue will be considered when tiers are decided upon.
Some EMC partners who spoke to CRN were concerned about the change and said it will effectively downgrade the majority of top-level Signature partners to the lowest level on the new programme.
EMC was not available for comment at time of publication.