Veritas to lower thresholds for Platinum status as part of programme revamp

Veritas will lower sales and accreditation thresholds for the top-level Platinum tier of its programme as the data protection vendor rolls out a flurry of new incentives and bonuses to channel partners.

As part of wider changes to its programme, the Santa Clara-based vendor will make it easier for its Gold-level partners to ascend to Platinum level.

Sales thresholds will be reduced in major European economies including the UK, France and Germany.

Meanwhile, Veritas claims it has made training for accreditations "easier to consume" for Gold partners, making it easier for them to attain Platinum status.

Speaking to Channel Partner Insight, Veritas' VP of EMEA channel sales, Jamie Farrelly, said that by promoting more Gold partners, Veritas will increase its share of wallet in key geographies, as well as key verticals such as the public sector.

Farrelly said Veritas recently reduced its Platinum base of partners in EMEA to 66, and has somewhere between 80 and 90 Gold-level partners.

He stressed that lowering the thresholds for the Platinum tier will only mean a minor increase in the number of partners in its Platinum tier. Only two or three Gold partners will be elevated to the top tier by the end of the year, he said, with the total number of Platinum partners expected to increase by less than 10 on a longer-term basis as a result of the change.

"We've been careful not to dilute. We've been careful to motivate and keep that wallet share stable. And a lot of these Gold partners that will move to Platinum don't play in the same pond as our existing Platinum partners," he said.

"Coverage is everything when you're a mid-tier market leader. You can't dilute your partner base, but you've got to keep growing into new markets. The partners we're looking to move up are those that are growing with us anyway and are Gold, and they tend to be in markets that we want to penetrate, whether that's a country, like Qatar, or a segment like the public sector. So we're targeting partners in areas where we want more reach."

Relaxing thresholds is just one in a series of new incentives Veritas has introduced to its partner programme.

The vendor has also brought in a new annual rebate to sit alongside its existing quarterly rebate. Partners will now be able to earn an annual bonus based on revenue targets.

"If for whatever reason you miss that quarterly revenue target, then you'll still have an annual target, so you can maintain your profitability with a new set of rebates which can mean a large percentage of their overall revenue with us."

With the annual and quarterly rebate combined, partners can expect to earn back up to 3.5 per cent of the business they do with Veritas as a rebate.

Quarterly and annual targets are drawn up on a partner-by-partner basis, claims Farrelly.

"Back in the Symantec days we used to have a uniform growth level - and it just didn't suit [our partners]. We've worked really hard since we became a private company again. Especially right now in the world, it's important to be agile and bespoke. I think Veritas can now tread this balance between being a market leader but still being agile with our partners," he said.

There's another new incentive available for partners that drive customer renewals of Veritas products on time. Farrelly said the goal is to reach a 90 per cent on-time renewal rate among its customers.

"If they're not renewing on time, they're and are not protected, supported and patched then they're going to be susceptible to ransomware attacks. So not only are we introducing this incentive to reward our partners, but we think it's absolutely critical that customers are protected on time."

Lastly, Veritas is planning to introduce so-called "supercharged promotions" throughout this year. This will mean that, for a certain period, partners can earn 20 per cent more in rebates on selected product lines.

Analytics firm Aptare, which Veritas acquired last year, will almost definitely feature in the supercharged promotions scheme, said Farrelly.

"We're always looking to help partners get more profitable if they can look at specific technologies that will help us get wider and deeper into customers and we'll pay handsomely for that," he said.