Modular channel approach working at Avaya

One of Avaya's senior channel execs has given an update on the progress of its modular partner programme as it looks to move more of its reseller base over to the cloud and opex trading models.

The unified comms specialist has been transitioning its partner programme efforts over the past few years and settled on a modular scheme, with nine options that partners could opt for, with the idea it would reward those that focused on specific areas, like mid-market cloud.

Partners could start with any block and then add any of the others that appealed over time.

Fadi Moubarak, VP Channels, Avaya International, said that it had needed to take a different approach because the customer was changing and looking for more flexibility and wanted partners that went beyond simply selling and delivering technology.

"Partners need to deliver, implement and have the skills to integrate Avaya solutions," he added "The channel has the skills and business understanding to sell solutions and amplify the services proposition."

He said that partners were starting to get certified in two to four modules but the vendor was not being aggressive about getting resellers to step into areas where they lacked expertise.

"Not everyone can adapt, implement and amplify and we are not going to force anything on any partner, they will have the choice," he said.

He said the expectation was the in the short to medium term more blocks would be added to the programme for resellers to engage with and perhaps over the longer term some of the initial ones would disappear or merge.

Moubarak added that one of the other ambitions of changing the partner programme had been to attract in some fresh relationships and that had started to happen.

"We wanted to have the ability to attract new types of partners and allow our existing ones to evolve," he added "We have attracted new partners and we want partners coming from a complementary world and not a competitive world."

Plans for the rest of this year include accelerating the cloud and opex models and help partners navigate through those financial challenges.