Hard drive vendor Seagate Technology today announced a new top-tier channel program called Seagate Partner Program Premier (SPP Premier); a program designed for its high-value North American system builders.
John Teeple, Americas marketing director at Seagate, says high-volume channel partners will see an increased level of investment on Seagate’s part with this new program. The company will still have its Seagate Partner Program available to its system builders and resellers. But the benefits, under this program, include quarterly Web seminars, sales incentives and product rebates.
“We need to zero in on the players who are moving the ball forward [in storage],” Teeple said. “We have a real need to focus on the segment in the channel that’s delivering the highest value to their customers, and ultimately back to Seagate,” he adds.
Teeple says the storage industry has changed from once being considered as an afterthought, to now something that has become a very prominent segment in the marketplace today.
“Media and content is now being created at such a rate and volume that it has thrust us into a mainstream role,” Teeple said. “We’ve got some 3,000 to 4,000 integrators in the Americas market that buy our products through authorized distributors.”
The new Premier program has been developed to support Seagate’s direct marketers, channel OEMs, SIs and strategic focus accounts. He points out that distributors, sub distributors, brick and mortar retailers and contract manufacturers are excluded from joining this program. Also, in order to become a SPP Premier member, partners must either meet volume requirements with revenue or units and/or they must have a strategic market focus, such as with ruggedized and surveillance segments.
To help drive this program out to market, Teeple says part of Seagate’s strategy is to place a real focus on the part of the channel that’s helping to drive business for them.
Initially, Teeple says the SPP Premier will only be available to integrators by invitation only. He estimates that about 200 integrators will be targeted by the company directly.
“Eventually, we’ll probably also open this up for self-nominations too,” Teeple said. “What we’re trying to do now is create a high-level of awareness so that people can aspire to join the program when we do open it up, even if they’re not on the target list initially.”
With the launch of this new elite channel program, Teeple says he hopes the message is conveyed to partners that the partner community is critical to Seagate’s success.
“We want to focus on the business growth of our partners,” he said. “We want to step up and extend to our partners an increased level of support and we want to increase our focus on their business.”
Most importantly, Teeple says Seagate wants to maintain its focus on the benefits offered in the program. These include named Seagate field coverage, free advance replacement processing and shipping and more.
“We’re making sure we don’t over extend ourselves when it comes to these benefits,” Teeple said. “We want to make sure we can deliver on them and that they are managed in a high-quality way.”
Working with a company such as Seagate, Teeple adds, offers many rewarding advantages. He notes that the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based hard disc drive manufacturer offers a five-year warranty and with its data storage offerings so broad integrators can provide flexible options to customers. Lastly, Teeple says, the financial gains to be made by partners in this market are huge.
“People are wanting and are willing to spend and invest in more when it comes to storage solutions,” Teeple says. “Storage solutions are becoming a prominent part of the overall solution now and there are points of margins to be gained in this area.”
Moving forward, Teeple says partners can expect to see more of a focus on the Web and an increased level of partner support along with the introduction of different types of scaleable tools that will help broad base integrators better integrate products into customer-oriented solutions.
“In summary, we’re excited about [SPP Premier] and we’re stepping out with what we think is a best-in-class program to help us leap frog over other competitive program offers,” Teeple says. “We’re looking forward to getting out there and starting our recruitment,” he said.
