Alternative Networks determined to reclaim Citrix Platinum status

VAR said it just narrowly missed revenue requirements but has plans to get Platinum status back

Alternative Networks has said it is aiming to regain its status as a Citrix Platinum partner after dropping down to Gold level, thanks to the shift from on-premise to cloud-based solutions.

Alternative has been a Citrix partner for 10 years and a Platinum one for "a good part" of that, but it recently fell short of the top-level revenue requirements, meaning it dropped a level.

The VAR's marketing director Phil Clark said: "We are clearly disappointed to have dropped down from Platinum to Gold. The reason we have been downgraded is because we missed our revenue target by a very small amount.

"We are seeing a change in the way in which customers adopt products such as Citrix, in that we are seeing adoption of cloud technologies being massively on the up. Because we have migrated those services, the revenue has drifted off a little bit, which means we missed our threshold to achieve Platinum."

Clark said that although the firm wants to regain its top-level status, it will depend on customers' requirements.

"Our intention would be to drive towards Platinum again," he explained. "Realistically speaking though, our business objectives are to drive as much annuity and service-based revenue as possible. So if our clients want to keep consuming Citrix as a service, and that means that the revenue targets don't get hit, then we will have to stay as Gold. We want to drive to recover our status as quickly as we can, providing we can get to that situation.

"If we can get to the position where the monthly revenue hits the targets without any transactional licences, that is our utopia. All our marketing focus is about driving annuity services."

Alternative Networks is not the first partner to have been downgraded on the Citrix partner programme - in 2014 a trio of resellers found themselves stripped of their top-level status.

Mark Beaumont, head of channel in Northern Europe for Citrix, said: "Alternative Networks is currently a Gold Citrix Solutions Advisor, having previously held Platinum partner status. Citrix is working closely with Alternative Networks to help it meet the necessary criteria to regain Platinum Partner status as quickly as possible.
"Smart partnering is vital to Citrix success and I am confident that Alternative Networks will continue to be an important part of the Citrix partner ecosystem."