Avaya To Roll Out Three Certification Levels For Partners

The levels,Silver, Gold and Platinum,will be determined by a partner's Avaya revenue, customer support, customer satisfaction surveys, technical expertise and a business management audit, according to executives at the Basking Ridge-based company.

"We will reward commitment to Avaya," said Jan Burton, vice president of sales for the business partner organization at Avaya. "You may choose not to make those investments. That's all right. But certified members will become more premium players in the marketplace."

Benefits include increased marketing funds, trade show support, lead support, nondisclosure previews of Avaya's technology road map and education vouchers, she said.

Previously, there was no marketable difference between Avaya business partners, which led to mixed experiences for customers, said executives.

"I want to be able to see more differentiation. They need it. It's going to affect [Avaya's branding and their quality of installations," said Jarrod Sipe, president of solution provider Matrix Technologies, Washington.

Some of Matrix Technologies' potential clients have shied away from Avaya because of bad experiences with business partners, Sipe said. "That hurts the name of Avaya and the channel. Direct customers almost expect bad results from a partner because of previous experience," he said.

"If you don't have certifications, it's hard to drive a value proposition," said Kevin Dohrmann, vice president of technology and consulting at IP Revolution, an Omaha, Neb.-based solution provider. "The vendor puts an investment into a partnership, and they expect the reseller to put an investment in also."

The program will launch this month, but most Avaya business partners will not become certified before October, when Avaya's fiscal year begins, Burton said.

Avaya introduced the program at distributor Voda One's Convergence Summit conference earlier this month in St. Pete Beach, Fla.

"Creating a certification program for a converged environment is the way to go, as opposed to getting certified in Avaya PBX or Avaya applications," said Tom Dolan, chairman of Westcon Group, Voda One's parent company.

Silver-tier members must buy $400,000 a year in one of Avaya's four product categories: voice, data, convergence and applications. Gold members must purchase at least $500,000 in two categories, and Platinum members must spend $2.5 million and at least $500,000 in each category, Avaya said.

"Platinum partners must be premier in all areas. We expect them to have business and marketing plans in place. You must have good sales metrics in your organization and actively market Avaya products and logos with sales experience," Burton said.

In addition, Silver members must have a minimum of two Avaya Certified Associate Communication Networking (ACACN) trained technicians, or one per $5 million in Avaya revenue. Gold-level partners must have two Level 2-certified specialists, and Platinum members must have four.

Also, Silver members must maintain a 75 percent customer satisfaction score, Gold 80 percent and Platinum 85 percent. Customer support will be based on "specific things you do to support customers through an evaluation checklist," Burton said. A business management audit will be conducted by Avaya to round out the requirements, he added.