Commvault rolls out enhanced partner programme

Commvault has cut the ribbon on its enhanced Partner Advantage programme as it looks to provide more benefits for its channel base.

The vendor is increasing the benefits for those that sign up to the programme, including building in more flexibility into the tiers and the promise of more profit potential.

There are four pillars to the programme – products, collaborative selling, a go-to-market strategy that exploits the connections of a wide ecosystem, and partners finding it both profitable and predictable.

Some of the features of the previous channel scheme remain, including a three-tier program, deal registration rewards and performance rebates. But there are a host of fresh ideas, including proposal-based marketing development funds, fresh seller incentives and a new deal registration governance practice.

The programme has been very much the brainchild of the firm’s vice-president of its global partner organisation Mercer Rowe. He joined the firm last October, and in an interview with MicroScope, just before the lockdown hit, he stated an ambition to make the firm more relevant to partners and to work on making its interaction easier and more coordinated globally.

“As a partner-led company, we continuously seek ways to support our partners’ success through increased relevance and profitability,” said Rowe.

“With the updated approach to our Partner Advantage programme, we are providing our partners increased incentives to drive profitability, and collaborative sales plays to close more deals, both underpinned by a strong product portfolio and broad partner ecosystem.

“In addition, we provide in-region support, expansive training and demand-generation resources that help our partners build a future-proof business with unlimited opportunity,” he added.

Some of the vendor’s partners also voiced some reaction to the latest changes, with the increased support and profit opportunities getting the thumbs up. It also got the approval of industry analysts.

“In today’s economic climate, IT partners, especially those in the data backup and recovery field, are a critical component to solving customers’ complex business issues,” said Kevin Rhone, director of channel acceleration at The Enterprise Strategy Group.

“As a partner-led company, Commvault understands the importance of their role in the channel and consistently makes updates that showcase their support and commitment to their partners.”

When he spoke back in March about his plans for the year, Rowe made it clear that he wanted to make changes to the partner programme.

“Today I have different programmes for traditional channel solution providers and distributors. I have a different programme for service providers, GSIs [global systems integrators] and cloud, and a different programme for alliances,” he said.

“Over the next year, I am going to fold all of these together and [create] one programme – a programme that is differentiated on business model and not partner type. We are going to have consistent tiers to make sure all partners are motivated to grow with us.”

The latest enhancements are ready now for solution providers and distributors and there are plans to shortly roll-out additional enhancements on other partner business models, including cloud and managed service providers and professional services.