XEROX REVAMPS CHANNEL PROGRAM

[Anonymous]

Xerox Revamps Channel Program
Xerox 
announced Monday that it has revamped its Peak Reseller Program in an
effort to expand the variety of products available to its channel and
to make the company a better partner, executives said.”We want to take
this opportunity to say we really are committed to this channel and we
have made some significant changes to our Peak program because of the
feedback we received from our channel,” said Paul Crisswell, channel
marketing manager for Stamford, Conn.-based Xerox.”We’ve opened it up
to allow them to sell more of the hardware and we’re giving them more
reporting and management capabilities for their business so they can
help manage their business with Xerox,” Crisswell said.

The top
two levels of the peak program have been combined into a Platinum tier
which offers resellers a dedicated account manager and applications
engineer and marketing development funds for regional promotions. Gold
partners can submit proposals to receive marketing funding and are
eligible to receive sales leads from Xerox. Silver partners have access
to the partner portal and monthly reports generated by Xerox on
solution providers’ sales.In addition to the streamlined program,
resellers have access to instant rebates on Xerox products and an
expanded portfolio of products bringing some of the company’s high-end
multi-function devices like the Xerox Work Center 7300 series to the
channel. “A lot of those were sold through our direct channel. So this
is another step in that recommitment to our reseller,” said Crisswell.
“Those are the products that the customers have been asking for and
we’re going to open those up to them.”The company will also offer Peak
resellers training to help them get up to speed on the multi-function
products.”We’ve opened it up to allow them to sell more of the hardware
and we’re giving them more reporting and management capabilities for
their business so they can help manage their business with Xerox,”
Crisswell said. Resellers will also be evaluated on an annual basis. In
the past, assessments were quarterly.Xerox is also putting more money
on the table for Peak resellers. “We’ve taken our MDF dollars and we’ve
actually increased those over 2007 so we’re making a concerted effort
with our key partners to help them use the MDF funds wisely,” Crisswell
said. “We want to continue to improve our program to make it an even
more compelling program for our partners and to make money with them.
That’s the name of the game and we want to help them.”

One Xerox
reseller who requested anonymity gave Xerox’s outreach to the channel
and its programs mixed reviews. While he said that Xerox has programs
he thinks are “phenomenal” like Page Pack, the company’s segmentation
of programs can be overbearing. “The biggest thing that I see is that
they really don’t have a unified channel. They’re trying to have all
these [programs] and separate things out, and they’re trying to
determine what is high value and high-touch. But when it comes down to
it the customer is going to determine what’s high value,” he said.

[Author]

January 15, 2008 at 11:36 AM