Tenzing Managed IT Services , a hosting solutions vendor, wants the channel to know it’s “partner-friendly and easy to work with” as it brings a new partner program to market.
Raj Atwal, vice-president of engineering and partner development at Tenzing, said the launch of the Tenzing Partner Program represents a shift to a formalized program from what was previously in place.
“We had an informal partnership program before,” Atwal said. “The last three to four months have been around formalizing the program and putting more awareness around it. We’ve made changes to our Web site and internal processes. We want partners to know we’re really partner-friendly and easy to work with for 2011 and beyond.”
The company’s sales strategy is a combination of both indirect and direct sales, Atwal said. In a previous interview with CDN, Atwal said his goal this year is to have 30 per cent of the company’s overall revenue go thru partners.
The Tenzing partner program is made up of two partner levels, Referral and Premier. Referral partners are typically e-commerce developers, systems integrators and consultant-type partners who refer customers to Tenzing and don’t wish to be a part of the sales cycle and customer relationship. Within the span of 24 hours, Tenzing will notify that partner on whether or not they accept or reject the lead. Once a contract is signed, the Referral partner will receive a commission, Atwal said.
Premier partners are the ones that establish a strategic partnership with Tenzing, Atwal said. Premier partners receive joint marketing resources from Tenzing, in addition to things like sales training and joint collateral.
“We’re not interested so much in the quantity of partners that we’re working with,” Atwal said. “Our objective is to work with quality partners. We have about 40 partners right now that we’re actively working with and we’re trying to understand a bit more about their businesses.”
Tenzing has refreshed its Web site so that communications between them and partners are more efficient and timely. Internally, the company has also trained its sales teams, business development managers and more to educate them on how to better work with and support its partners.
Last month, Tenzing announced a partnership with cloud middleware company, Apprenda, to help independent software vendors (ISVs) speed their software-as-a-service (SaaS) model migrations and deployment.
With data centres located in Toronto, Vancouver and Kelowna, B.C., Atwal thinks the company has an advantage when it comes to finding customers because many businesses are concerned where their data resides and who has access to it, he said.
“Partners are a focus for us … in 2011,” Atwal said. “We’re looking for more partners and want to drive more business thru partners and work more closely with them.”
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