Computer Associates is beefing up solution provider
incentives around its ARCServe Backup software, hoping to boost partner sales
of the product and gain ground against its main competitor, Symantec’s Backup
Exec.
The new program offers up-front discounts and back-end
rebates for solution providers selling the ARCserve Backup product, says Adam
Famularo, senior vice president and general manager for CA’s recovery and data
modeling business unit.
“We find there are two types of sales our solution providers
make: replacement of competitive software backup products and new product
sales,” he says. The new incentive program gives solution providers a 25
percent discount off the ARCserve product when it’s sold as a competitive
replacement, Famularo says.
“They get that discount off the top when they buy the
product – it’s like an instant rebate they can feel immediately rather than
having to wait for reimbursement on the back end,” he says.
Solution providers receive a 16 percent discount for new
product sales, Famularo says, and these discounts are paid only to the solution
provider that registered the deal.
One of the most attractive features of the incentive program
is that these discounts are in addition to CA partners’ existing margins, he
says, and there are opportunities for rebates on the back end, as well.
“They are usually making about 10 percent on ARCserve, and
these discounts are on top of what they already get,” he says. “And as long as
the deal closes, they will also get a 12 percent rebate on the back end of the
sale.”
More importantly, Famularo says, the program signals a shift
in the way CA is supporting channel partners and emphasizes how important
solution providers are to CA’s success.
Famularo says when he moved into his new role as head of the recovery management and data modeling business unit at CA about 12 months ago, he
tasked his team with taking a new look at CA’s ARCserve products and how they
were brought to market through the channel, he says. Famularo has been with CA for about 11 years.
“When I came on board over a year ago, I made sure our team
understood that we can’t always look at everything from an end-user standpoint.
We also have to find out how to better support our channel partners and what
their pain points are when delivering these solutions to customers,” he says.
He said what many channel partners were missing was
consistency and a better value proposition than their competitors, he says.
“We can’t do what other companies do and run this as one of
many ‘promotions,’” he says. “Reseller sales reps have to be two to three times
more profitable selling ARCserve than selling the competition, and we also have
to make sure that solution providers are making more money on these products
than competitors,” he says.
To that end, Famularo says the incentive program will run
for fifteen months, and CA is also offering a special ‘Xtra Value Pack’ that includes
ARCserve backup bundled with the ARCserve Dashboard reporting and management
tool and two copies of XOsoft’s replication software. The value package will
sell for the same price CA’s currently charging for one copy of ARCserve today,
he says.
The incentive program began rolling out in January, he says,
and partners who participated in the early months of the program are raving
about it, Famularo says. CA has seen the number of deals registered triple, and
in one instance, a solution provider was able to add $100,000 to their sales
pipeline in one month, he says.
To address consistency issues, Famularo says, CA changed
ARCserve’s delivery model and the product’s release schedule. Instead of
sporadic updates that can leave channel partners and end-users scrambling to
master new features and product changes, the new schedule plans for one release
each year, and alternates between major and minor fixes.
“Now we’re on a schedule, and it means much more consistency
for the channel,” he says. “If they know when and what type of releases are
coming, they can make sure their customers know about the recurring upgrades
and they can build an annuity based model that drives consistent revenue,”
Famularo says.