EMC has enhanced its deal registration
program and added more incentives for partners and their sales executives who
invest in training and attaining certifications for EMC
technologies.
The enhancements are designed to streamline channel partners’ dealings with EMC
at the same time it rewards them for vendor loyalty to the company during
challenging economic times.
EMC says its Velocity2 Partner Program’s
Incremental Deal Registration will now reward partners with a 5 percent
discount off the list price. To qualify, the opportunity must be net new to EMC.
Separately, in April, EMC introduced a
program called Prime Deal Registration that turns EMC-generated
leads for midmarket customers over to qualified partners.
“We want to bring the partner in and give them the opportunity to work on the
engagement on EMC’s behalf,” Gregg Ambulos,
vice president of Americas Channel Sales, tells Channel Insider. “We want to
give to partners who have made the investment. We want to give to partners who
can take the registration and run with it.”
EMC is also extending new rewards to
partners who invest in training and certification with EMC.
Specifically, partners who invest in EMC
Technical Architect certifications will be rewarded with an additional 10
points. To qualify, the partner must have a local TA working the deal,
according to Ambulos, and not just fly in a TA from another location.
EMC introduced the TA certification training
a year ago, says Ambulos. The time commitment is 15 to 16 eight-hour days and
is delivered in a five-step process. It consists of training workshops, online
training, technical support and coaching, along with a proctored exam. It’s
offered for a fee of about $2,000.
In the year since it has introduced this certification, EMC
has trained hundreds of TAs, says Ambulos, and many more are signed up for the
training.
In addition, EMC has also renamed and
revamped its Journey to the Top program. Now called the Velocity Incentive
program, partners are able to get stackable rebates for a host of EMC
technologies including storage hardware, backup, recovery and archive software
and security. Both channel partners and sales executives within those partner
organizations are rewarded.
“We’ll determine which offerings we are trying to highlight and will reward
that sales rep and technical sales rep with an incentive for that offering,”
says Ambulos. “And if they tie in SourceOne, they can get an additional
incentive.” In addition, the new program now allows partners to tie in RSA
technology as well for the first time.