BUSINESS INTERVIEW Global deals unlocked
changing way in which customers are buying and implementing our solutions,” commented Lawford. “Increasingly, CIOs are centralising their infrastructure design, administration, budgets and procurement processes in order to gain better control of their infrastructure. As a result, customers are looking for solution providers and vendors who can facilitate the centralised acquisition of technology to be deployed across their multi-national organisations.”
Removing complexity Jan Lawford
When is a marketing initiative more than just another programme? When it’s Avaya’s bright new arrival, says Jan Lawford, Senior Director of EMEA channels.
A
vaya’s latest marketing programme, embodied in its new Multinational Channel Deal, is designed
to encourage partners to identify, target and win more contracts with global companies. What’s so special about this initiative is that it sees the blurring of any traditional geographical divisions that block deals with global organisations. According to Lawford, a growing number of businesses are looking to role out IT projects across their global estate, and Multinational Channel Deal exists to help Avaya’s partners respond to these large scale opportunities without the need to invest heavily in new markets where they don’t traditionally have a presence.
“Multinational Channel Deal is a response to partner feedback and the
Conceiving, developing and executing ideas and implementing cross-border solution strategies may seem a distant dream to many resellers, but the Multinational Channel Deal brings such opportunities into the picture rather than keeping global deals at a distance. “Our aim is to relieve partners of the pain and complexity that is often part of structuring proposals of this nature,” stated Lawford. “Once we are sure that the deal fulfils the Multinational Channel Deal criteria, which can take as little as 48 hours, the Avaya in-house team will then work with partners to deliver a complete and comprehensive proposal. We enable the partner to get on with business as usual while Avaya does all the heavy lifting.”
Avaya has worked closely with select partners to successfully trial the programme and is now offering it to all partners with a sales opportunity that fits the Multinational Channel Deal criteria. As part of the trial Avaya has already helped partners implement projects in as few as five countries scaling up to a project that will be deployed across 65 countries in the next 12 months. “Previously partners and customers would establish independent relationships within each of the countries, but Multinational Channel Deal effectively operates as one transaction,” commented Lawford. “Our aim is to deliver a comprehensive proposal to the customer within six weeks, which is the industry standard. If the customer agrees to the proposal, the level of
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detail is such that all parties are in place ready to go the next day.”
Another important point to note, emphasises Lawford, is that the Multinational Country Deal initiative has been designed to provide partners with much needed assistance, not to take control of the deal. The partner always remains the main point of contact for the customer. Multinational Channel Deal is available to any partner putting together a customer proposal that spans more than three countries outside of that partner’s authorised territory, and which is sufficiently complex to warrant additional support. “The opportunity must also originate in the country where the partner has a presence and experience of the products they are recommending,” added Lawford. “This programme is not intended to allow a business partner to solicit business in a non-authorised territory.”
Despite the scale and cross-border reach of Avaya’s new scheme, in practice the programme is surprisingly user friendly. In operation the Multinational Channel Deal simply involves an Avaya business partner filling out a short form to confirm that the opportunity adheres to the Multinational Channel Deal criteria. Providing it complies, a dedicated in-house Avaya team will then work with the partner to structure a proposal that addresses the customer’s specific needs. This process includes finding relevant in- country partners with the right skills to fulfil the customer’s requirements locally, and ensuring that the deal is tax efficient for the customer but doesn’t contravene any tax laws.
“The aim of Multinational Channel Deal is to reduce the time and resource spent by partners tackling complex administration and legal hurdles,” added Lawford. “By removing the bottlenecks which prevent partners submitting complete and comprehensive proposals in a timely manner we are helping our partners become more competitive.” n
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