Post the Foundry Networks merger, Brocade's Spicek is trying to broad base the company's channel. For this, she is keen on starting with a selective channel base

How has the acquisition of Foundry Networks impacted your channel network?
Brocade had a strong partner approach, primarily around the SAN system and connectivity. Now we have changed the channel philosophy towards building up a comprehensive parallel networking channel to offer converged and end-to-end data center solutions.

In June, we launched the Alliance Partner Network (APN) where our primary focus is to improve partner profitability as the IP world is hard pressed for margins. We also want to be very selective and not recruit thousands of partners.

We have already started talking to some of the classic Brocade partners about getting involved in the Ethernet space. We have brought the traditional Foundry partners into the APN program and are recruiting new Ethernet partners as well.

What are some of the differentiating factors about the APN program?
We are strongly focusing on lead registration and project protection, and providing enablement to the partners in terms of training at low or no cost. There are several vendors who charge a lot for offering these certifications.

We will recruit partners across three levels-Elite, Premier and Select-in very selective numbers. When it comes to distributors in India, we will not have more than three. The reason we will have limited number of Elite and Premier partners is to guarantee profitability to those partners.

We are working with our partners to prepare joint business plans. We don't want to waste our time talking to partners who are strongly engaged and have very good reasons to stay with their vendors.

Because we are entering the market late and we know that there are many long-standing partnerships and therefore also many instances of partners wanting to stay with their vendors. We want to make sure that these partnerships have mutual business plans which we can use to tap the market together.

Do you propose to work with volume distributors or value-added ones?
As a vendor, we are very much in the higher and mid-range of the market space for the enterprise and service provider space. We are not really a player in the run-rate volume business.

So at this moment, we are looking primarily at distribution partnerships that bring in value addition and are not interested in the pure volume players.

What will be the profile of partners you will recruit?
We will look at resellers who come in with a very strong IP networking skill set and professional service skills. Obviously as a vendor, we are late in entering the market. Therefore, we will look at our reseller partnerships that will help us augment our position in the Indian market.

At the same time, we come with a very strong value proposition given that we own 80 percent of the data center business. We are interested in selective partners who will go into the existing Brocade accounts and start cross selling the networking products as well.

What is the USP of the APN program?
One USP is that from the technology standpoint, we are the only end-to-end alternative to Cisco. All other vendors are in their specific niches of the market.

The other value proposition is that we are going with a very selective philosophy. Most vendors just recruit partners in huge numbers across the board. We will engage on a limited number so that our partners remain profitable, because this is a key issue in the reseller space.

This aside, we have a very rigid and monitored lead registration program with which we actually protect partners in the deal. Many vendors say this but often let multiple resellers register a lead. And we also certify our partners at little or no cost.

How do you ensure the last?
Most vendors actually ask their partners to pay heavily for certification and training. To our partners- SAN and LAN-we offer MDF dollars across all our product lines. Out of this, they can reinvest a portion of the MDF on training their people. So it becomes a self-funding relationship which is what the partners really love.

Partners are not so keen on their principal's technology prowess, as they are on profitability. How will you actually enable that?
We run a comprehensive enablement plan which is part of the business plan which includes training and then gets into details like account and lead mapping exercises. We actively identify accounts and leads together with our partners and ensure that we get into joint selling activities.

Secondly, one internal part of the partner program is that it allows the partner to leverage the service support package. So we are actually allowing the partner to create customer stickiness that will provide them with recurring revenues.

Vinita Bhatia
vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in

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