Venyu Opens Entire Storage, E-Mail Services To Channel

Shawn Brazeau, a four-year veteran of Venyu, now heads channel sales for the Baton Rouge, La.-based company. Venyu was founded last year in the wake of the 2008 acquisition of AmeriVault by PHNS, which also owned the Network Technology Group. AmeriVault and the Network Technology Group merged in May 2008, and the combined entity was renamed Venyu in April 2009.

Venyu has had a director of sales in the past but the position was focused mainly on online data backup, Brazeau said.

"But for the last few months, we've looked at all our products and services offerings to see how we can expand them to the channel," he said. "Now we offer them all through the channel. We want to help partners address all their customers' requirements."

Venyu works with solution providers at two different levels, Brazeau said. Strategic partners are those that resell Venyu's storage and other services with their own name and in return gain recurring revenue, while referral partners get paid by Venyu for turning over new customer accounts.

In addition to the expanded channel access to its product lines, other enhancements to Venyu's channel program include more material and technical support for partners, deal registration that protects partners from customers going direct with the company, and a new partner portal, Brazeau said.

Venyu will keep its existing direct customers, Brazeau said. "But our growth will come from the channel as customers look for the right resources to make sure the technology meets their needs," he said.