Intel to roll out new partner program

At the Intel Solutions Summit that was held in Sanya, China, Intel announced
their plan to have a new channel partner program. The new classification, which
will be effective from July 1, 2006 will do away with the emphasis on unit
selling and will focus more on the solutions provided by the partners.

In the new scheme of things Intel has decided to do away with the existing
ranks of GID, IPP, ITR and in its place will come Premium, Associate and
Registered partners.

Explaining the move Sophia Chew, VP and GM - Sales and Marketing Group,
Reseller Channel Operation,  Intel
said, “Sales will no longer be a criterion, as we at Intel believe that for
the market to evolve the partners need to look beyond sales and towards
solutions. So the new program will emphasize on the kind of solution that the
partner is providing, the level of complexity that the solution has and the
impact that it ultimately makes.”

Throwing light on the pre-requisites Chew said, “We have already
communicated certain pre-requisites to our partners that will help us in further
classification. The final list will be unveiled on July 1. Also from now on
training will be an integral part of our partner program.”

Commenting on the new partner program Marcus Low, Director-APAC Reseller
Channel Operation, Intel said, “Channel is very important for us to be able to
reach out completely in emerging market.”

The main criterion according to Intel for judging partners under the new
scheme will be revenue, technical strength, marketing capability, training and
financial strength.

Talking about the approximate number of partner's who will make it to the
new program Low added, “Based on the current buying behavior in the APAC
region approximately we are expecting about 400 Premier, 10,000 Associate and
34,000 Registered partners. But the final figures we will only come to know once
the program is unveiled.”

The initiative of new partner classification is an off-shot of Intel's
focus on Common Building Blocks (CBB), which will help in achieving
standardization at the component level. The idea behind the CBB is to allow the
partners to provide products, which are easily interchangeable and upgradeable.

So is it the end of the road for box-pushers as far as Intel is concerned?
Refuting the theory Chew explained, “Ultimately for the industry to become
more robust people have to start thinking in terms of solutions. Earlier we
would give them the product to sell and we would grow together. But now with the
CBB we are transitioning from products to entire package/solutions.

Shivangi Yadav Sanya, April 24