Trend Micro Inc. has introduced a global partner program and a channel conference to go along with it. The channel program is expected to be made available to the more than 50,000 Trend Micro channel partners in the first quarter of next year. The inaugural Trend Micro Global Partner Summit conference will be held Oct. 21-23 in Las Vegas.
Called the Trend Micro Partner Program, the plan looks to align better with all of its channel partners worldwide. It also has a theme of productivity and profitability. What Trend Micro did with this program is combine elements of its regional and North American programs into one umbrella channel program.
Partha Panda, vice-president of global channels and strategic alliances at Trend Micro, said that after evaluating the programs, the company applied best practices from around the globe to establish a common structure for a single program that can help partners drive sales.
“We are confident that this new approach will allow (partners) to more quickly identify and respond to business opportunities for our comprehensive security solutions. Most significantly, it will enable us to replicate successful initiatives across all regions to help partners grow their business and increase profitability,” he said.
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The new program will cover off solutions for virtualization and cloud, converged infrastructure and security management. One of the strategies behind the revamped program is to bundle Trend Micro solutions with products and services from alliance vendor partners such as Amazon Web Services, HP, IBM, Microsoft and VMware.
There is an education track to the Trend Micro Partner Program that aligns with the latest industry standards, and provides two levels of training and certification. The new education portal is focused on accelerating partner enablement.
Sales and marketing tools have a refreshed in the Trend Micro Partner Portal. In addition, Trend Micro is developing a new partner portal that has a new deal registration area, content syndication and social media network access.
Other program aspects are:
- Clearly defined partner segmentation, and an enhanced compensation structure
- Tiered, standardized reseller levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum), and the addition of a referral partner program to target “born-in-the-cloud” technology service providers and other trusted advisors
- Deal protection compensation for Gold and Platinum levels, and the extension of deal registration to include Bronze partners that have completed one or more specializations
- Dedicated channel account teams, equipped with common standards, processes and performance measurement guidelines, to help further ensure partners capitalize on the expanding business opportunities.