Reldata Inc., a U.S. vendor of software-centric unified storage systems, today announced enhancements to its partner program, as it moves from a direct sales approach to a channel-only model.
The privately-held company has been in business since 2005 and is located in Parsippany, N.J. Its channel and business development director, Lanie Kruger, said it was only a few months ago when the vendor decided to move from a direct approach to a 100 per cent indirect channel delivery model.
Within the span of a few months, the company has built its global channel partner community to now include about 100 partners worldwide. Of those, Kruger said about two or three are Canadian partners. Kruger said the company’s previous direct sales opportunities have now been transferred to Reldata partners.
“Our partners are an extension of our sales arm and we’re looking to expand in the Canadian market,” she said. “We’re also looking to expand our sales and technical support in the Canadian market.”
Today, the company announced enhancements to its partner program which include new quarterly sales incentives, deal registration and protection, co-funded demand generation initiatives and co-marketing programs.
Kruger said Reldata partners that register their deals will receive 40 points of margin, and those that sell support contracts will make 15 points on top of that.
The company is looking for partners that have sales and technical support on staff, can drive about $1 million worth of revenue annually, and focus on specific industry verticals such as healthcare, government or the financial markets.
Reldata’s flagship product is its 9240i unified storage solution, which Kruger said consolidates both SAN (storage area network) and NAS (network attached storage) into a single management interface. The solution can virtualize block and file storage and also provides users with a “complete storage solution” with its controller and disk capabilities.
With this product, Kruger said partners can utilize Reldata’s Save as you Grow pricing model, which offers users a one-time license cost.
“When customers add disk capacity to the system, it doesn’t increase their support or maintenance costs, or the cost of the license,” Kruger explained. “Our system will also co-exist in any multi-vendor environment, which provides VARs with a competitive solution to take to their customers.”
For new partners, Reldata also has a QuickStart Kit, which Kruger said is designed to help partners more quickly ramp up their businesses to get started with Reldata’s solutions.