Juniper's Best of Both Brands

When the spotlight is turned on a technology-solution brand, Scott Kriens wants his partners to shine--and bright.

The CEO of Juniper Networks is rolling out a new strategy that places the brand of a vendor's channel partner ahead of the Juniper moniker. The idea is simple: Solution providers require more than just one vendor's product to build holistic systems. By promoting their expertise and, by extension, their brand, Kriens believes Juniper and its peers will flourish.

"It's really a principle, a practice, of giving the customers what they really want," Kriens said in an interview with VARBusiness.

Underlying the "partner brand first" strategy are open architectures that allow for easier integration of products with complementary technologies. When building solutions, Juniper wants its products to fit seamlessly with hardware and applications that will ensure the most value for customers.

But Juniper needs to do a little work on the compatibility front to make the idea fly.

In the 2006 VARBusiness Annual Report Card survey, the vendor's scores in compatibility and ease of integration were just 1 point above the average within Security Software and 8 points below the average within Data Networking.

Meanwhile, solution providers like the idea of leading with their brand but say they need both a strong vendor brand and strong vendor product offerings to stand behind them.

"A lot of what I do is based on all of the different vendors and how they perform," says Rick McClure, owner of RMC Enterprises, a solution provider and Juniper partner in Dallas. "If they perform badly, it's egg on my face too."