ADTRAN Adds Benefits for Mid Tier Channel Partners

ADTRAN has a three tier partner program, and the middle tier just got better.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [April 29, 2008]

Huntsville, Ala.-based networking equipment maker ADTRAN has just expanded its middle partnership tier. The three tiers are Registered, which involves no sales commitment; Advantage, which does involve a minimum commitment; and Advantage Plus, the highest tier.

Specialization
In the past, only Advantage Plus partners were allowed to develop technology specializations. Specializations involve an investment from the service provider, who acquires expertise, and in returns obtains access to additional product lines, training, and priority access to pre- and post-sales support.

"Our partners love the support," says Ted Cole, ADTRAN vice president of channel sales.

The mid tier customers are focused on serving the SMB market. Therefore, explains Cole, they were bringing in less hardware sales in dollar terms and making more money from services. They had the expertise but could not commit to the volume requirements of Advantage Plus.

"Our partners said they could bring more value to us if they were able to specialize," explains Cole. So as of now, Advantage partners can specialize. Currently, ADTRAN offers two specializations: Internetworking and IP Telephony.

Demos
Cole says that ADTRAN is eager to get demonstration products into the hands of partners. "We're offering demo kits at a significantly reduced price. In the case of the VoIP box, it's small enough to bring out to prospects. We want to encourage our partners to use more ADTRAN equipment in their labs and in demos."

Other benefits
Cole highlights the fact that ADTRAN's support engineers are based in the U.S. "Customers appreciate the ADTRAN attitude, the friendliness," he claims.

The company has support centers in Huntsville, Phoenix, and Mountain View, adds Leslie Conway, ADTRAN vice president of marketing.

She's been working on improving the training ADTRAN offers its partners. At this point, there's a free webinar every week on any one of a variety of subjects, from basic business skills to new ADTRAN products.

Isn't that a lot of work? Yes, but it's important.

"Many of our partners are small businesses themselves," explains Conway. "They may not have the time or resources to get training on how to market their company."

So webinars have covered subjects like guerilla marketing and search engine optimization that are very important to online businesses. "Both webinars were very well attended," says Conway.

The future
Look for more announcements from ADTRAN at INTEROP this week.

As the interview ends, we ask whether ADTRAN's seeing consolidation in the VAR industry. Cole says that he's seeing VARs acquiring others for geographic reach and also VARs acquiring new skills. One company he knows based in the Bay Area acquired a few VARs across the country to expand its geographic reach. Another that focuses on IP telephony bought a company that's focused on networking.

With this channel announcement, ADTRAN shows that the world is expecting the highest quality of service from every service provider, no matter how small, and that vendors are stepping up to help.

Update: Today's announcements
This morning, ADTRAN announced two IP telephony products:

It released a new phone, the IP 700 series. The IP 706 six line phone lists at $249 and the IP 712 twelve line phone lists at $299.

ADTRAN also released a new PBX for SMB customers, the NetVanta 7060 Modular PBX. With current NetVanta 7100 equipment, a system with 24 ADTRAN IP 706 phones would cost approximately $450 per person, the company says (24 x $450 = $10,800). With the NetVanta 7060 Modular PBX, due to start shipping in June, with 24 IP 706 phones, a system would cost about $411 per person (24 x $411 = $9,864).

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