Citrix claims 'vibrant' channel is focus for 2016

Company's COO boasts move away from direct culture

Citrix claims to have changed an ‘us versus them' culture between its channel and direct business last year as it looks forward to year of "vibrancy" in its partner business.

The company posted its financial results for Q4 last night and on its earnings call it received a grilling from investors about its recent channel overhaul.

Citrix's chief operating officer David Henshall said that last year it tried hard to simplify how it engages with its partners and to break down barriers between that side of the business and its direct arm.

"There had been some segmentation in the past; we've removed that," he said. "The idea is just ‘how do we engage with the channel instead of driving us versus yours?'. I think that's probably the easiest way to describe the changes between 2015 and 2016."

He added that his firm has attempted to better focus on the channel in recent quarters.

"Certainly, our partners want to hear that as well," he said. "Here is what we're focused on, here is what's important to them, here is how they make money for their businesses and then just driving a relentless focus against that. And so that's why we are seeing better and better results.

"One [thing] that I would call out is, it's fairly early on, but in Q4 we had about a 15 per cent increase in actual CSA [Citrix Solution Advisor] partners that were selling products. So that's our ability to reengage with partners and show the vibrancy in our channel, very important going forward."

For the three months to 31 December, net profit at Citrix rose 38 per cent annually to $131.3m (£91.88m) on net sales of $905m, which were up six per cent over the same period.