10 Things Solution Providers Want From Juniper

At Juniper Networks' J-Partner Summit 2008 in Las Vegas, we caught up with 10 Juniper partners and asked them all the same question: What's one thing Juniper can do to help make your business more successful? Here's what the VARs had to say:

Phil O'Reilly, CEO, Solunet, Melbourne, Fla. "A comprehensive portfolio that has a common thread, which is: JUNOS simplifies my selling dilemma to my customers. And simplicity leads to profitability."

Tim Hoffman, vice president of western region sales, Accuvant, Denver, Colo.

"Account mapping and putting together joint strategic sales efforts so we can both provide value to each other and the client."

Brian O'Hara, president and CEO, Tech Defenders, Fort Wayne, Ind.

"Keep doing what they're doing. I think they have the best partner program in the world. There's nothing else I need them to do."

Kelly Cunningham (right), director of business development, and Steve Curry (left), AdvanTel, San Jose, Calif.

AdvanTel is both a Juniper and Avaya partner.

Cunningham: "Lead generation."

Curry: "They currently have accounts that have Avaya and Juniper in them; we want to be brought into them."

Jeff Pourier, director of engineering, Darcomm Network Solutions, Phoenix, Ariz.

"Help us understand how to approach clients and customers with traditional brands that are looking to move to something more robust and more high-performance. It's hard for our accounts managers to truly sell Juniper."

John Hasty, networks services manager, HiWAAY Information Systems, Huntsville, Ala.

"They're a little short-staffed in their channel managers. They're taking away seasoned management and putting in new people and that puts us six months behind the curve. Don't take them away from seasoned accounts. Let the new guys for new accounts. It's not my job to educate the new channel managers. Sorry."

Adam Binder, CEO, Arcscale, Santa Clara, Calif.

"For us, we're a relatively new Juniper partner. Once you cross over the hurdles to become a partner, they could do a better job of facilitating rapid growth within their system. They can bring more value and a better approach."

Dave Gilden, partner, Acuity Solutions, Tampa, Fla.

"The one thing they could do would be to build certification programs for end users that have tangible value and build a brand around end user certifications that are more meaningful to end users, essentially creating end user evangelists that have a vested interest in using Juniper wherever they go."

Doug Marlin, managing partner, Independent Technology Group, Thousand Oaks, Calif.

"They could get the word out as to who they are. It's still pretty thin. We are out there evangelizing a $3 billion company. They need to get rid of the 'who the heck is Juniper?' mentality."

Michael Egmont, partner and vice president of business development, Flagship Networks, Stratford, Conn.

"From my perspective, the sales side, they need to help us drive brand awareness to better drive sales. Give us a little bit of love. They need to put money into demand generation and lead generation and get sales teams excited about selling Juniper."