BEA Details New VAR Program

Speaking to CRN Tuesday, Mercedes Ellison, BEA's senior vice president of marketing, and Bobby Napiltonia, BEA's vice president of worldwide channels and alliances, discussed the company's initial go-to-market and sales engagement model for the 12 new VARs it signed recently through its partnership with distributor Agilysys.

The new VARs--which include ACS, Alpine Consulting, Anexinet, EBS, E2E Consulting, Helio Solutions, IBS, Kalos, Locus and Melillo Consulting--all have their specific regions to cover and are targeting accounts below BEA's named accounts list, Napiltonia said.

According to solution providers, BEA usually has about 800 named accounts at any given time. In accounts below those named customers where there is no current forecasted activity, it's "free game for resellers," said Sam Jankovich, president of Enterpulse, a BEA systems integrator partner in Atlanta.

"BEA is trying to go to this indirect model and making a heck of an effort at it," Jankovich said. "BEA is trying to get real feet on the street out there to sell its products."

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BEA is designating the territory where the VARs play as the "general territory" and has about 80 BEA sales reps working with the VARs to reach new customers in their particular region, Napiltonia said. BEA has worked out individual plans with each VAR and targeted specific sales goals.

According to solution providers, VARs must meet their goals to keep their protected territory.

To help VARs jump-start their BEA sales efforts, BEA sales reps assigned to a VAR's geographic zone will take the VAR through its first six deals, following the deal from "cradle to grave," or from the initial sales call to when the deal closes, Napiltonia said.

BEA has had a somewhat stormy relationship with its channel partners over the past several years. The company had appeared to move away from the channel toward its original model of direct sales, and many solution providers felt alienated. Last year the company moved its channel efforts under its global sales team and eliminated its internal channel organization, a move some thought was counterproductive to building and maintaining a strong channel.

BEA's Ellison said the company's new VAR program and other efforts, including the creation of several new positions within BEA designed to handle VAR marketing and programs exclusively and a revamped channel program introduced earlier this year, proves BEA's renewed commitment to solution providers is real.

"[BEA Chairman and CEO] Alfred [Chuang] has said that over time he wants to move to more indirect sales than direct sales," Ellison said. "He has set a goal to become a $3 billion company in five years. Obviously, the channel will play a huge role in helping BEA reach that goal."

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