Avaya have been targeting the mid-market with their product launches for some time now but clearly the Channel represents a key revenue source for them to achieve true penetration in this market segment. Partners may welcome the support in gaining a foothold in various vertical markets but as yet the costs of participation are unclear.
The packaged programme, which will be rolled out across selected European markets throughout the end of 2013 and into 2014, bundles targeted sales, marketing and technical training and support, speeds up the process of getting partners trained, certified and selling to customers in this segment.
With Avaya iConnect, Avaya has adapted its go-to-market channel support model to help partners focus on profitable UK market segments. This programme is designed to streamline partner entry into this segment and ensure that Avaya partners are equipped to deliver the broadest possible solution sets to UK customers that demand sophisticated technologies at a competitive price point.
Avaya iConnect enables partners to complete 16 Avaya certifications at the end of a week’s training and includes:
•Sales training conducted by regional Avaya and distribution sales gurus: topics include solution selling, sales tools to address the midmarket and market trends and sizing
•Support for vertical positioning: in healthcare, education, manufacturing and professional services
•Technical training: on-site and hands-on training with working demo kits ready for deployment at the end of the session
•Marketing support: exclusive marketing and training tools along with website content syndication and access to premium content and end users events organised by Avaya
Michelle Jones, Emea Channel Development and Marketing Director, Avaya said “As dynamic organisations, mid-market companies have been emerging as ripe opportunity for some time now. While markets have been flattening more generally, the mid-market continues to defy the downturn. It’s widely known that medium-sized businesses offer high growth opportunity with faster time to cash, but this market continues to be underserved. We’ve created Avaya iConnect to give partners quick and easy access to all the training they need in one place so that they can really take advantage of this lucrative market opportunity.”
Niall Anderson, Sales & Marketing Director, G3 Communications added “The mid-market is a special sector and it has many distinct characteristics associated with growth by innovation. For the channel, it not only presents a large opportunity with good return on effort and shorter sales cycles, but it’s also more resilient to economic recession. For me, iConnect has the clear focus and solid execution plan required to help partners penetrate this market. It has given us an effective decision-making framework, which is then underpinned by investment in new resources and programmes.”