News in the Channel - issue #36

NETGEAR

This is the space that Netgear is targeting. “We often see over-engineered and over-complex solutions, which IT departments in-house struggle to deploy and manage,” he says. “They often have features that these end customers just do not need. Coupled with that, these over- engineered and bloated networks are often expensive and not budget friendly. “Then we have the other side, the risky solutions. There are vendors out there – and, of course, cost-pays a huge part in this – that come with less reliable solutions and insufficient support. And, of course, for our partners, there’s the lower margin. So Netgear fits nicely here. We have an enterprise-grade product, made with enterprise-grade components within our products. “We offer simple deployment of a world class product at a price point that is achievable and attainable for a lot of partners and customers.” Drive for success This move into the SMB space is part of Netgear’s new leadership’s plan to grow the business. “We have huge experience that has come in from the IT and AV enterprise world, all the way from CEO to general manager and sales,” says Jordan. “We have real leadership that’s driving this change within the business. We’re focused on building partner relationships. We want to go to our partners and bring them new revenue streams to add to their business. We want to grow with our partners. “We have heavy investments in software products and technology, which is important to ensure we’re still delivering excellence to our customers from a products and software perspective. We’ve proven performance in the AV over IP space. “Now, we also have the Netgear Drive Partner Success Program. We want partners to have success when they use our products. We want the partners’ success to

come first, and we want to make partnering with Netgear easy, so we have made it simple to understand the program. “Of course, we want it to be rewarding too, and we want our partners to have good profit margins when they’re working with Netgear. The key thing is we want our partners to stand out with the services the customers value the most and provide differentiation for them; this is about what excellence our partners can deliver to customers.” Jordan adds that the core values of the programme are built around competitive differentiation. “It is about what our partners offer to end customers, not how much revenue they spend with Netgear, because revenue doesn’t matter to an end customer. The end customer wants to understand, ‘what are you going to deliver for me? Are you going to manage me and give me a good experience? Are there professional services?’ We want it to be simple to understand and easy to do business. “Integrity is a huge part as well: we want to be that trusted advisor to our partners.” Tiered approach There are three tiers in the programme, Jordan adds. “We have Netgear Drive Ignite Partner, which is our entry-level partnering tier, ideal for new and growing partners. Partners have portal access, access to training, collateral and demo gear. It’s a simple level to obtain.” The second level, Netgear Drive Apex Partner, is aimed at value-added resellers and AV system integrators that specialise in design and implementation

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It is about what our partners offer to end customers, not how much revenue do they spend with Netgear, because revenue doesn’t matter to an end customer.

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