Ruckus Rolls Out Rabid New Programs

With its new Mad Dog program, Ruckus is not only looking to get into new accounts, but also get VARs up to speed with 802.11n, the latest wireless networking standard.

"There are a lot of enterprises that want to move to 802.11n and a lot of VARs that want to move them there," said David Callisch, Ruckus' vice president of marketing. "They're looking for it. Everybody wants to move that way because they don't want to be putting in wireless LANs that are going to be outdated in less than a year."

To help VARs transition to 11n and get into the doors of new accounts, Ruckus has officially launched the Mad Dog program, which includes a swap up option and fourth quarter incentives for solution providers.

The swap program offers customers who exchange their 802.11g wireless gear from Colubris, Meru or Trapeze Networks at a deep discount if they trade it in for Ruckus' ZoneFlex 802.11n gear. Earlier this year, ProCurve Networking by HP acquired Colubris, while Belden Corp. acquired Trapeze.

Ruckus is offering bundles of 10, 25, 50 and 100 802.11n access points for enterprises that return their legacy WLAN equipment, either 11g or 11n, to ecycling.com, an equipment recycling service. Ruckus has also created bundles around 802.11g, if customers want to do an 11g to 11g swap out.

Using the swap out program, customers can get new wireless gear for 1/5 to 1/8 of retail pricing. For example, a bundle of 10 11n access points with a controller will cost an end customer $3,595 or a VAR $3,080.05, while the suggested retail price hits $14,990. The 100 11n access point bundle with a controller, which carries a retail price tag of $94,900, will be available to VARs for $28,013.69 and to end users for $32,995 as part of the swap.

"We're trying to knock over the economic obstacle that has stopped them from upgrading," Callisch said, later adding that with the discounts, Ruckus takes the hit, not its partners.

"We absorb the cost, not the channel," he said. "We absorb the bulk of the pain to get these products out there."

Along with the swap out program, Ruckus also launched new incentives for partners.

For gold partners, Ruckus is offering a 5 percent rebate on net sales of $25,000 or more on sales of FlexMaster, ZoneFlex and ZoneDirector systems, said June Eidson, Ruckus' channel director. For silver partners, Ruckus has launched ordering incentives, where they will receive the standard discount for the first purchase of the quarter and with each subsequent purchase receive increasing discounts. For example, a silver partner's second purchase of the quarter will receive a 3 percent additional discount, while third and subsequent purchases will receive 5 percent discounts each.

"It's an incentive for them to buy more with an increasing discount for the more they buy," Eidson said. "It's incentive to keep coming back and buy more Ruckus because it's more profitable each time."