Under the microscope

You have a relationship with your partner that is working well for you now. However, how do you ensure that your partner keeps abreast of changing technologies and gets the right certifications in place? Ben Rossi looks at some of the region’s partner and certification programmes to get the answer.

Maintaining positive relationships with partners is a vital part of the channel process, and can ultimately be a key decider in how well a product performs.

Each partner is essentially representing the vendor in the face of the consumer, and as such vendors place much significance on their partner and certification programmes. Certifications, along with training, are widely recognised as the most effective way of ensuring partners are keeping up with modern technologies.

Red Hat keeps tabs on its partners through its partner relationship management (PRM) tool, according to its MEA general manager, George DeBono.

“Every affiliated partner maintains its company profile in the PRM, including certifications. Every year on the anniversary of their initial registration or upgrade to a given status, our partners go through a requalification process managed by our EMEA partner team,” he says.

“They follow up in particular with every advanced and premier partner to make sure that they still have the required number of current certifications on board. Not only to see if they have maintained the right number of certifications of the right kind, but also if they are up to date,” he adds.

Graham Owen, regional sales director MEA and Turkey at Cambium Networks, says if Cambium partners do not meet the criteria laid out in the programme they lose their discount levels and, in some cases, the contract.

“This in itself drives the partners to ensure they meet the skill level that we demand from our partners in the region,” he says.

Blue Coat reviews its partners’ performance and status during quarterly business reviews, according to its regional director for the Middle East and Turkey, Hussam Abusamra.

Philippe Fossé , VP of EMEA channels at EMC, says EMC conducts an annual review of all its ‘Velocity’ partners.

“Each partner is evaluated against a set of criteria that includes accreditation and certification. In addition to this, we conduct monthly audits for our entry-level partners to ensure they’re able to advance in the programme as quickly as possible,” Fossé says.

Interactive Intelligence also reviews annually, via the details it holds of all engineers and partner employees who have completed its training courses and been awarded certifications.

“We review this annually to see if the partner still retains these employees and their skillset. It is a condition within our agreement that the partner must maintain a certain number of skilled engineers within their workforce. This ensures that the customers are getting a certain high level of installation and support functions through our partners,” says Shaheen Haque, territory manager at Interactive Intelligence Middle East and Turkey.

Vendor understanding

Nicolai Solling, director of technology services at help AG, says customer satisfaction is a key factor of any vendor in the market, and gives tips to vendors for when a partner has carried out a large scale deployment.

“It would greatly help if the vendor gains an understanding of whether the products have been deployed according to the best practices of the vendor, if the customer was happy with the implementation, and if they found it easy to work with the partner,” Solling says.

Merely having certified engineers on board is no guarantee of quality, he adds.

“Almost none of the certification programmes manage to ensure that. It is only the certified resources who actually carry out the deployment of the specific products. And since there is no such check on this, quite often you have engineers who are not actually certified carrying out the implementation,” Solling says.

“This is something that can quite quickly influence the satisfaction of the customer. So definitely, apart from just training and certifications, actually looking into project implementation and getting feedback regarding the manner in which the partner implemented the project is just as vital to rating partners,” he adds.

However, given the sophisticated and evolving nature of today’s threats, the focus should remain on working closely with partners to stay abreast of emerging trends, according to Maher Jadallah, regional manager at MEA Sourcefire.

“The Middle East is experiencing growing demand for IT security solutions in several sectors such as government, healthcare, education, energy, telecommunications and retail. We work closely with our partners and believe it is imperative for us to have ongoing programmes that help partners address these opportunities and ensure that they stay ahead of the changing nature of today’s security realities,” Jadallah says.

DeBono agrees, emphasising that Red Hat’s technology evolves rapidly and if a partner fails to keep up, it will be left behind those that are able to provide services around the latest technology.

“The risk is also that the partner discourages its customers to upgrade because of the fact that it does not have the skills to support the newer versions. Finally, there is the overall matter of positioning. A new product release may make Red Hat more competitive in a new market, but if our channel does not follow, our main route to market is stunted from the outset,” DeBono says.

Owen adds: “It is extremely important that partners stay up to speed with any technology. We all are aware of how fast technology changes, and market trends and technology are key to the success of our business.”

It is imperative that partners know how to correctly install and support Interactive Intelligence’s technology, and certifications are the best way to monitor that, Hague says.

“It is imperative that partners sustain the knowledge and skills. Our partners do not typically only install the solution and walk away. They are in fact advisors and a knowledge resource for our customers where they provide best practices and soft skills, as well as the normal customisations and trouble shooting on an installed solution,” he says.

Counter-productive?

However, Solling says that vendors pushing certifications may even be counter-productive, as certifications become a revenue generating scheme for the vendors, rather than an actual aid to their partners.

“This is why at a point you begin to wonder whether you’re in it to actually deliver the best possible service to the customer or just because it is a mandate from the vendor. Vendors should also examine which certifications are necessary and would benefit their partners before pushing certification programmes,” he says.

“Sometimes we are expected to achieve certifications for products that we don’t focus on or for technologies that we really aren’t interested in. So understanding the partner’s business and selecting the right certifications for them should be an important consideration for the partner programme,” he adds.

Solling’s criticism raises interesting issues on certifications, but in the eyes of EMC, its partners are an extension of its own sales force and therefore the prominence is on representing the vendor.

“The standard and quality of their EMC-related activities reflect strongly on EMC. Therefore it’s vital that partners have cutting edge technical knowledge and expertise. Conversely, if EMC does not provide sufficient enablement and development infrastructure for our partners, the consequent skills shortfall can be commercially damaging to both parties in the marketplace,” Fossé says.

Hague agrees that if a partner does not maintain the required skill set for a certain period of time, there is a “serious worry.”

“Worry, in terms of the partner’s ability to fully support our mutual customers and in fact the ability to sell new solutions to new customers,” he says.

Support is the key issue and a partner not up to speed will affect end users, and in turn damage the vendor’s brand very quickly, Owen says.

Abusamra also agrees, adding: “Failing to stay up-to-date with the latest product developments and features can potentially harm the partner’s business by either misrepresenting the product and its capabilities or underselling the technologies. In either case, there could be a direct impact on a partner’s revenue or reputation.”

But Solling says help AG is often called in to carry out projects where the solution has been implemented incorrectly by a different channel partner, and that vendors must realise simply having the best product in the market is not good enough if the correct resources are not there to install it.

“One of my suggestions to partners would be to plan their certification cycles so as to avoid having to cover up a lot of ground towards the end of the year,” he says.

Pressures

Jadallah sympathises with partners that find themselves under pressure to achieve quotas whilst managing the demands of vendors, sales cycles and customers, and believes training is the solution.

“Providing quality training for our partners using approaches that can cut through the clutter in today’s fast-paced business environment is crucial for maintaining a high level of success. At Sourcefire, one of the ways we’ve addressed this challenge is by offering incentives to our partners to participate in on the job training that provides the basic knowledge they need to be successful and grow the business,” he says.

Despite these pressures, DeBono says if a partner refuses to get the required certifications, it must have pre-existing reasons.

“It is obviously not the nicest conversation to have with a business partner, but it is a necessary pain. Whether the partner has lost interest in the vendor, cannot commit the resources, has financial trouble, is more engaged with other vendors, or does not see the ROI, you simply do not want such a partner labeled as top tier,” he says.

Fossé believes a degree of flexibility is required, and also looks to training as an effective aid.

“In EMEA we ensure that these factors are taken into consideration during the Velocity programme’s compliance audit process. EMC provides localised communications and training content, and as many eLearning and video-instructor-led training options as possible. This allows partners to accredit and certify at their own pace within their own environment,” he says.

The key to overcoming challenges and maintaining a positive relationship with partners is through mutual investments and collaboration, according to Jadallah.

“Sourcefire seeks to arm its partners with a great programme, products and a strategic vision to grow their businesses. Our partners face many demands on their time as they collaborate with multiple vendors to grow their business. We conduct advisory councils once a year, take that feedback from key partners and use it to make changes to our programmes,” he says.

DeBono says the first step in that relationship is simply to sit down with the partner and listen.

“After all, the partner also has a business to manage and rightfully has primarily its own interests at heart. So a good partner manager has to take the time to understand his partner’s business and pains. If the pains or conflicts are understood, then they can most often be remedied with the right level of communication,” he says.

“If they cannot, then it may simply be best for both parties to divest and cut their losses rather than keep wasting time, money and effort. Training and certifications are an investment, and like any investment, it should eventually reap rewards,” he adds.

Hague also emphasises communication as the key enabler to a healthy partner relationship.

“Skilled people leave a company and move to pastures new – that’s just life. How you manage the process and communicate with the vendor is key. We interact with our partners at multi-levels and ensure that they feel we are part of the family and vice versa. So we would hope to realise and be aware of non-compliance periods before they arise and in that way we can minimise the impact to us, the partner and ultimately the customers,” he says.

Abusamra says the communication requires a low ratio of partners per channel account manager. “Complementing that close relationship between partner and vendor must be a regular cadence of enablement that consistently builds on a partner’s knowledge,” he