Storage management software vendor Acronis this week announced that
it is moving to a 100 percent channel go-to-market strategy and
funneling $7 million worth of leads to channel partners.
The move marks a significant change for Acronis, which previously
counted 70 percent of sales through its channel partners and 30 percent
direct.
The move to 100-percent channel is crucial to the continuing growth of
Acronis, according to Michael Coney, president and general manager for
Acronis in the Americas. Coney says the previous model in the Americas
was more complicated while overseas the company ran a more channel
centric go-to-market strategy.
But now that Acronis is committing to 100 percent channel, the company
will be increasing partner benefits. For example, a new deal
registration program gives up to 30 points back to Gold and Silver
authorized partners on deals of $15,000 or higher who register deals
with Acronis through Nov. 30.
In addition, Acronis says that partners are guaranteed 10 points just for registering the deal, even if it falls through.
“If partners want to make margin, we tell a good story,” says Coney.
Acronis says it will also offer a better MDF program and lead generation using SEO and SEM marketing efforts on Google.
“We will be funneling leads to channel partners directly,” says Coney.
“It’s a Channel First program that includes a turnkey channel marketing
program that channel partners can use. Plus they can leverage our
channel marketing group here.”
Acronis has about 1,200 authorized partners, 100 Silver partners and 50
Gold or Premier partners. While Coney says the number of partners will
likely remain unchanged, Acronis is looking to move authorized partners
up into the higher tiers.
Acronis works with distributor Tech Data in a two-tier channel strategy.
Acronis offers storage management software that runs in Windows and Linux environments.
Acronis recently announced the Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 portfolio
of products which offers software-based data deduplication, better
operations manageability and agentless backup for VMware host platforms.