Ericsson revamps enterprise wireless partner program

Telecommunications equipment vendor Ericsson has announced new enterprise wireless solutions partner program structures spanning solution, distribution-managed and ecosystem partners.

The revamp enables partners to access better earnings, equips them with new tools and enablement programs that set them up for success, and rewards them for their expertise, Ericsson said.

Under the new model, solution partners will operate under a single tiered program for resellers who invest in sales and technical certifications and who have have built a practice using Ericsson’s enterprise wireless solutions.

Distribution-managed partners will experience a simplified model for resellers to receive programmatic support from distributors.

The new structures also address ecosystem member partners, including managed service providers, communications service providers and technology alliance partners who have created a service or technology around Ericsson enterprise wireless solutions.

“There’s two key things that we’re trying to achieve with the new solutions partner program,” said Ericsson’s head of sales, go-to-market and support for enterprise wireless solutions, Matt Cook.

“The first is about enabling our partners to better benefit financially from working with Ericsson and building a business around our enterprise wireless solutions.

“The second is about working closer with our partners, to realise the opportunity we have to bring superior customer services and solutions to our end-users.”

A key component of the program includes an increase to the potential discount a partner can earn on deal registration to create more meaningful protection when compared to partners without deal registration. Program rules are also expanding to include protection for opportunities that Ericsson brings to a partner.

The vendor’s “Mountaineer” program has been revised and is open to all partners, providing training and certifications designed to accelerate technical users and encourage creative applications of Ericsson enterprise wireless solutions.

The program includes both partner and individual level incentives and has been expanded outside the original technical expertise to include sales and support personas in partner organisations. Further additional roles will be included in the program in the near future, Ericsson said.

As part of the new program, different expert levels of “Mountaineers” will unlock incremental benefits for partners.

Select partners can also now benefit from the newly launched tool, Partner View, which provides a single, unified view of the partner’s data and their performance in the program including revenue, training and certifications, as well as opportunity and pipeline data.

“With Partner View, solution partners will now have this data at their fingertips, meaning both our solution partners and our partner account managers can spend less time chasing data and more time using data,” Cook said.

The new partner program goes into effect on 1 July.