Digital transformation company Schneider Electric has launched a new IT partner programme today, offering new certification and training.
The company said the programme aims to support IT channel partners with a simplified programme structure and specialisations for key sectors including data centres, software, and services, with a new range of sales tools, training, and resources.
The first part of the new programme is available today, which will provide partners with certification across three levels, named Select, Premier, and Elite, to help them combine multiple IT specialisations regardless of their partner status. Partners will be able to identify, resell, configure, and install IT infrastructure products within the SMB or enterprise market spaces.
The programme also offers a new interface, with a dashboard that the company said is easy to navigate and offers visibility on company and individual progress against each specialisation. Partners will also be able to access a range of design tools, training, and resources to help them strengthen their business models and meet customer demands.
Schneider Electric is also introducing myRewards, which is tailored for partners’ business requirements, offering rewards and financial incentives to identify, develop, and help close new business opportunities. Partners will have access to the company’s Green Premium products, to help customers reduce their environmental impact through greater compliance and transparency.
“Many of our partners today share a strong common viewpoint, recognising the importance of strengthening relationships as one of the most effective ways to drive sustainable business growth,” said Rob McKernan, SVP of Schneider Electric Europe’s Secure Power Division “By listening to our partners and designing the program to accommodate both new market trends and changing business models, we can help them to fast-track new sales opportunities and build the partnerships of the future.”
The other parts of the programme, including software and services provider and data centre solutions provider specialisations, will become available in 2023.
The new partner programme has been designed using feedback from Schneider Electric’s partner community, hoping to support the changing requirements of their businesses and help them capitalise on new market trends.
The company pointed to Canalys research which found that the number of IT resellers in Europe is beginning to stabilise after four to five years of consolidation. However, most partners across the region are operating with multiple business types and need vendor partner programmes to be more flexible and reflective of market trends.
The survey found that 65% of partners wanted to strengthen their relationship with vendors, while 60% wanted to improve profitability and sales, and 50% wanted to build their expertise.
It added that partner transformation is also driving change, with more resellers shifting from hardware sales to becoming IT solution providers. Here, they offer managed power services, edge computing, and cloud migrations services to customers.
Lastly, sustainability is a key driver of decision making, with the research finding that 97% of customers are demanding contractual commitments to sustainability when defining and implementing data centre infrastructure.
This comes after Schneider Electric launched a channel programme in April 2021, which allows partners to create a Managed Power Service (MPS) practice. The scheme allows IT companies to establish recurring revenues by offering remote monitoring and management of physical infrastructure across customer networks.
