Why team up with Extreme Networks? Pt. I

There are many vendors out there in the networking industry. Of course not all of them are exactly the same, but they all have one thing in common. From what I have observed during my thirty years in the ITC industry, people are at the heart of every success. I have been associated with different companies, vendors and distributors alike. I have taken up different positions during my career, ranging from account management to sales roles and channel positions. I have handled and been part of various partnership programs, meeting different resellers and distributors. And no matter where I was or what I kept myself busy with, every time a single truth prevailed: all success is based on trust and relations between people.

Working closely with the partners is key part of our strategy here at Extreme Networks. But what does it actually mean? Let me share five key reasons why you and your company should team up with Extreme Networks as a vendor for your projects.

We approach the market only through our partners and distributors. And we take great care of our own, so you can rest assured that if you decide to team up with us, we will never become competitors. Swooping in on a business opportunity after you have laid the groundwork with your analysis or implementation design? Definitely not our style. Yes, we do talk to the end-customers on a regular basis and we will be happy to talk to your customers as well. But it’s never for the sake of taking them away from you. Quite the opposite – if you wish, we can help your business by bringing your clients around our to our solutions. Solutions provided by YOU.

This is what many of our resellers are most excited about – Extreme focuses on actually helping them and protecting their business. Come to us with your project and we will come up with a joint plan of action. It doesn’t matter whether you are large or small company. A project developed by you will be supported for you. And that’s set in stone! As Henry Ford once said: Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. And this is our “coming together”.

We could probably spend hours (if not whole days!) discussing our networking solutions. But you certainly haven’t made it this far to have us talk your ear off about specific products or services. So let’s try something else instead. I’d like to ask you this: what do you think your customers are exactly looking for? The easy answer: they are looking for a technology that will help them connect their devices to the network and run their applications. But there’s more to it – it can’t be all about boxes and their support, right? So let’s try again. What are the customers after? They want freedom of choice. Customers are looking for efficient and secure solutions that will help them maintain flexibility for future decisions. Technologies are changing rapidly. Nobody wants to put all their eggs in one basket and “lock” their network by being at the mercy of a single tech or vendor.

OK, so let’s cut to the chase. Our story revolves around true enterprise networking for which we can offer end-to-end solutions that are secure and, what’s very important, open for integration with the current and future systems – regardless of the implementation model, whether it is managed and provisioned privately/locally or driven by public cloud using our new, strong ExtremeCloud™ IQ platform. And for all these models we have provided a clear story on how to introduce machine learning and AI technologies to the network. Staying open for future changes is one of the main reasons why so many customers love to work with us! We are giving them the freedom to choose the best networking model to automate their end-to-end wired and wireless network operations.

And the same goes to you – our partner! We are not rationing our product portfolio in any way, so there are no exclusives for selected partners or direct sales only. You can rest assured that you have full access to all our latest solutions and may start offering them to your customers from day one! On top of that we will help you with your project by providing our wide scope of services. And don’t worry, your role will never be limited to providing maintenance support only. You can utilize real flexibility in offering professional services, including building an offer for the entire project as a service to your customer. All it takes is only one handshake!

Every vendor has a partner program. No surprises there, right? And Extreme Networks is… actually no different. But what could be different for you, is that our program has been developed by merging different programs together. And yes, there’s always a concern with how well a certain program will continue to be developed through numerous acquisitions. But it’s not the case with us, as we’re constantly analyzing and taking the best parts and integrate them into our unified partner program.

We have three main partnership levels: Authorized, Gold and Diamond. Each level comes with some additional benefits and requirements so that each partner may find a position that “hits the spot” and gives them enough competitive edge. Your journey can start from the Authorized level – all you need to do is agree to the business terms and just… start selling our products! As you grow you may decide to upgrade to the next level which gives you access to additional programs, based on your sales results and training activity. But rest assured – no matter what level you’re on, your business will always be protected and supported by us. All our partners receive access to many special promotional and marketing programs, incentives, demo products, configuration tools, and complex training systems. Ah, and speaking of trainings…

We introduced significant changes to our training program last year, and the result was our unique Training DoJo partner program. In it you will find different types of courses which you and your team can take up – some of them are even open for your customers, too! Soak up knowledge in a way that suits you best: online, remote or onsite training, remote lab or unique recorded content to help our partners get acquainted with new technologies and solutions. They say that practice makes perfect. As you’re honing your knowledge at the DoJo, you will receive more certifications and other benefits for your company. But that’s not all!

On top of the DoJo training program, we are carrying out a lot of local and regional workshops, webinars and events for our partners all the time! Latest technical knowledge and full understanding of our strategy are instrumental elements to support our partners in their projects and help them provide the right service for their customers. Remember Henry Ford’s quote from the beginning? That would be our “keeping together is progress” bit. And in the next week we’ll focus on “working together is success” part, so stay tuned!