Cross Channel: Vodafone Gets 100 New Partners & Dell EMC Clarifies Partner Status

Welcome to Cross Channel, a weekly round up of the most pertinent stories from our sister site ChannelBiz, where you can find out all the latest developments, views and strategies from the world of the channel.

Vodafone accepts 100 new partners

Vodafone UK has accredited more than 100 partners in the first phase of its new enterprise programme, which comes into effect on January 1, 2017.

For the first time, partners can achieve Vodafone certification across the Vodafone’s portfolio of fixed, mobile, converged and cloud technologies.

Moving away from traditional tiered partner models, the new Vodafone Partner Programme recognises partners with four new status categories: Total Communications; Advanced; Specialist; and Approved. The company says it will provide partners with online training resources as well as expanded access to specialist sector and technology expertise across Vodafone’s enterprise business.

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Dell EMC reveals channel partner status

Dell EMC’s president of global channels, John Byrne, has announced the vendor’s Partner Programme Tier Status Match Strategy, which determines partner status in the new programme.

Dell EMC revealed the new programmes tiers during its first combined Global Partner Summit at Dell EMC World in October: Titanium, Platinum and Gold, and within Titanium, the uber-exclusive Titanium Black status.

In his blog, Byrne said Dell PartnerDirect Premier+ or EMC BPP Platinum partners will become Titanium partners, Dell PartnerDirect Premier or EMC BPP Gold   will be Platinum and Dell PartnerDirect Preferred or EMC BPP Silver partners will fall into the Gold category. If a partner was a Dell PartnerDirect Registered or EMC BPP Authorized  they will be Authorized partners in the new programme.

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Juniper: Channel firms must offer consultancy to keep customers

Juniper Networks’ UK channel exec has said resellers must shift their focus from sales to consultancy if they are to achieve long-term success.

Speaking to ChannelBiz, Anthony Webb said channel firms will move from providing break-fix services to becoming embedded consultants for their customers.

“As we shift from simple hardware sales to ongoing services sales, and in light of cloud adoption becoming more prevalent in the enterprise, customers are looking more to the channel to guide them during this transition period,” he said.

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