Nectar, the provider of proactive unified communications network monitoring and performance management software, has added 17 new companies as partners in the last four months. Among the most recent additions are Aura Alliance, Avaya and SKC Communications.
“We’ve been growing our partner programme over the last year or so to increase our reach into the unified communications market and to drive predictable engagement and co-selling by working together with partners,” explained Cathy Rowell, the vice president of channel and sales enablement at Nectar.
“We’re striving to be the best partner to companies in this space and provide a really good experience from the moment they join”
Nectar’s software is designed to improve visibility and service delivery across integrated voice, video and data application solutions by providing unique and critical performance information. The company says it provides monitoring and diagnostics for millions of enterprise endpoints to more than 2,100 enterprises in 86 countries. However, this is an enormous market and Nectar’s solutions are highly specific so a channel-based approach is a key means to gain attention, foster understanding and generate sales.
Customer assistance
“It is a complex product sale,” acknowledged Rowell. “We try to help our customers through that process with access to assets and subject matter experts. It really does become less complex once they have a few of these sales under their belts.”
However, the partner programme’s aim is not just to create a larger sales channel. Some partners do resell Nectar products but increasingly, products are sold as-a-service and need to be tailored and managed to meet customers’ specific needs.
“We’ve put in place a recruiting channel to target strategic partners and we have a cross-functional team that gets to work as soon as the [partnership] contract is agreed,” added Rowell. “They move through training and enablement functions so partners have training for sales, technology and management processes. We provide support where our partners need it.”
Rowell emphasised that there is no one category of partner that is an ideal fit. “It helps our reach with big name partners but our approach is strategic,” she said. “SKC Communications, Aura Alliance and Avaya are great examples of partners we’re working with and they act as different types of partner. Avaya is a solutions partner, working with us to resell and add value to Nectar solutions, SKC is similar but also a managed service provider, as is Aura Alliance because it provides Nectar as-a-service to its customers.”
It’s a two-way street
While so many partner programmes end up being little more than an exchange of logos and shared space at trade shows, Rowell sees Nectar’s programme as a genuine two-way street in terms of collaboration and the value the partnerships provide to all participants. Rowel continued,
“When I say partner, I mean partner,”
“I want a mutually beneficial relationship that shouldn’t be one sided. I don’t want partners for the sake of having partners. It’s important to make sure this is a circle and partners can provide feedback to us so we can improve our offerings for them. We’ve also just held a thinktank event which provides that feedback loop so customers can influence where our products and services are going and how the relationship is working.”
