BIG DATA
CLOUD COMPUTING
CREATING VALUE
CUSTOMER-FACING ROLES
AVNET PREMIER
PARTNER GUIDE
3
AVNET’S AD
VANT
AGES
Information technology has moved from a supporting role to
center stage as companies see how data — captured, housed,
evaluated, refined, analyzed, filtered, segmented data — can
become a competitive advantage. Companies can leap to the
front of their markets. Governments can anticipate new service
needs and save precious taxpayer dollars. Healthcare
organiza-tions can lower costs, improve care — and even save lives.
You can participate in this exciting technical revolution. By focusing
on NetApp as part of your portfolio, you’re helping organizations
achieve goals that were unimaginable until now.
Where you want to take your business, of course, is up to you.
Avnet Premier is the NetApp partner enablement program
designed to help you where you want to be at each phase
of doing business: generating interest, making sales calls,
pricing and configuring systems, and ongoing services.
End-users come in all sizes and shapes, and their needs are
unique. NetApp products are designed to accommodate that
variation in customers. Avnet Premier does the same for
resell-ers, no matter their size or experience with NetApp. Take a look
at how Avnet can help you, your business, and your customers.
RELATIONSHIP-BASED BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS
We treat resellers as members of our team, recognizing their goals and ways of doing business and providing support as needed.
SERVICE INNOVATION
We respond to changes in the market and technology and provide new strategies and resources to our partners so they can continue expanding their sources of revenue and growing their businesses.
ACTIONABLE INFORMATION
We capture the latest information from the best sources in the industry, ensuring you receive the most relevant news, just when you need it. Because all Avnet team members are aligned with their NetApp counter-parts, Avnet Premier partners get consistent and complete information from Avnet and NetApp.
AN UNRIVALED GROUP OF EXPERTS
The Avnet team is composed of the most knowledgeable people in the business; they work hard to make your job a little easier. Avnet has been a leader in technology for more than 50 years and a NetApp distribution partner for more than 10 years.
AVNET’S ADVANTAGES
Put simply, Avnet offers NetApp resellers
advantages they cannot get elsewhere:
It’s a
new world
out there.
GETTING ORIENTED
Start wherever you need to ensure you and your team are
prepared for the next phase of your company’s growth. Avnet
and NetApp offer a variety of training courses
1to assist you.
Courses are offered either in-person or remotely through
webinars, video-on-demand or one-on-one phone instruction.
New NetApp Partners
Onboarding Training
Those who are new to reselling NetApp services begin with onboarding sessions to become familiar with both NetApp and Avnet. These ses-sions are conducted by Avnet’s onboarding and Partner Development team so you get one-on-one instruction. Avnet team members will give you insights gained from years of experience in the field, distilled into best practices. In no time, your sales and engineering teams will be comfortable with NetApp’s products and Avnet’s business practices.
GETTING ORIENTED
WITH AVNET AND NETAPP
Sales Skills Training
NetApp Executive Appointment Setting Program
Cold-calling is a challenge for many employees, and your newer staff members may particularly appreciate some guidance. This course shows participants how to master cold-calling and get that first appointment, often an essential element of building a robust pipeline.
Technical Team Training
NetApp Accredited Storage Architect Training
A three-day intensive training for the technical team members, these sessions help systems engineers and storage architects quickly get up to speed and achieve sales goals. Avnet offers these sessions every other month at no charge.
NetApp Synergy Fundamentals
Avnet makes it possible for you to accurately size a NetApp solution through a dedicated portal that allows quick, detailed modeling. This training course shows you how to use the portal easily and effectively.
Understanding Avnet’s Value-added
Service and Structure
Quantum Leap Partner Program
The Quantum Leap program provides a comprehen-sive set of training resources geared toward sales to end-users in the mid-sized enterprise, education and government agencies markets. Participants can earn the certification required for participating in NetApp pro-grams through video-on-demand and print resources.
Quantum Leap Graduate Partner Program
The next step in the Quantum Leap program, these sessions expand your expertise by showing you how to pair NetApp storage solutions with other technologies for customers seeking market-leading converged solu-tions. Participants, who learn through video-on-demand instruction, are eligible for qualified leads and custom-ized marketing programs upon program completion.
Understanding NetApp’s Solutions
GetSuccessful Partner Enablement Program
This program includes three elements to prepare you to sell NetApp storage solutions, starting with knowing the essentials, moving to solution enablement, and concluding with customizable workshops. You’ll learn through video-on-demand, solution kits, and face-to-face workshops.
NetApp Accredited Sales Professional (NASP) Training
A one-day, in-person or remote training, this course provides the foundational knowledge of NetApp’s features and benefits so you can effectively present its advantages against competitive solutions.
“ a group of people —
united in finding
practical, effective
ways to help get
the job done.”
Brian Chafey
Mastering Changes So VARs Don’t Have To
NetApp storage solutions are robust, complex — and constantly evolving. While frequent updates ultimately provide end-users the tools that meet their needs, resellers are sometimes burdened with staying up-to-date on NetApp’s offerings. Doing so is tough when what was reliable up-to-date information yesterday has become outdated a few weeks later.
That’s where Brian Chafey comes in. Brian is one of Avnet’s NetApp solution sales representatives. His job includes tracking every update to NetApp solutions’ functionality — monitoring every notice NetApp sends out and checking daily on what’s being learned in the field and elsewhere. With Brian’s expertise, VARs can provide end-users the kind of service they’d be hard-pressed to offer on their own. A simple example: An end-user had a NetApp FAS3140 storage controller and was adding some newer storage trays. The VAR assumed that because of its age, the FAS3140 wasn’t compatible with the new equipment. “Actually it is”, Brian said to the VAR, “but you’ve got to run it through an HBA adapter card. Just be sure that the end-user isn’t already at its adapter-card maximum for its system.” The solution worked as Brian detailed, saving the end-user the cost of a new controller and enhancing the VAR’s reputation for cost-effective service. Not only does Brian give his partners a competitive edge by providing them the most accurate and up-to-date product information, he also helps VARs to construct complete packages based on each customer’s needs.
“Sometimes the reseller doesn’t have time to learn what the best solution really is, but because I’m doing this every day I can help them fill in the gaps,” he says.
Avnet Premier is a program, but it’s also a group of people — united
in finding practical, effective ways to help get the job done. You’ll
meet a few of them in this publication. Take a minute as you read
through the components of the Avnet Premier Program to learn
about the people who make this program possible. They’ve made
life easier for hundreds of resellers. They can do the same for you.
His job includes tracking every update to NetApp
solutions’ functionality — monitoring every notice
NetApp sends out and checking daily on what’s
being learned in the field and elsewhere.
PEOPLE OF A
VNET PREMIER
THE PEOPLE OF A
VN
ET PREMIER
6
7
THE PEOPLE
Cookie-cutter campaigns have no place in today’s marketing environment.
Avnet knows that resellers need flexibility in reaching their targeted audiences
and offers marketing programs with a wide range of options to do just that.
Demand Creation
Avnet’s Demand Creation team can help you get on track by collaborating with you to develop plans that align with your business goals and increase sales in your targeted verticals. The individuals on the Demand Creation team have extensive backgrounds in marketing strategy, so they
Customized
eNewsletters
A robust eNewsletter publication tool can help you reach new customers and further develop your relationship with existing ones. By consistently providing information that your readers can use, you continue to prove your value while maintaining
Resources
and Tools
As an Avnet Premier Partner, you are eligible to receive incremental support for your approved marketing plan. You will be reimbursed for marketing-related expenses, with amounts dependent upon your level within Avnet’s marketing development funds program,
Avnet Solutions-
Path
®Engagement
Service
Vertical markets often have unique needs that resellers must understand to successfully engage end-users. Avnet helps you map out your route to specializing in any of several verticals through Avnet SolutionsPath.
Flexpod Services by Avnet
VARs with mid-size and enterprise end-users can avoid the time and expense of hunting down different suppliers with Flexpod Services by Avnet, built upon a validated data center solution. Through several easy-to-use tools — exclusively offered to Avnet Premier Partners — you can pick a solution that meets your client’s requirements. Avnet’s services team maps out, configures, tests, ships, and integrates FlexPod for you, simplifying your life and boosting your sales efficiency.
Converged Solutions
Avnet continues to expand its services by helping resellers take advantage of the rapidly growing converged solutions marketplace. NetApp’s ongoing development of market-leading technology provides opportunities for strategic alliances with some of the more robust ancillary supporters in the industry, such as SAP, Cisco and Microsoft.
With this expansion of NetApp’s solutions, Avnet has developed business enablement programs for those resellers who are eager to take advantage of the new sales opportunities they represent. Avnet offers business plan development, pre-sales configuration, order management, and monthly reporting of bookings and sales pipeline for these converged data solutions. Beyond all of this, Avnet can assemble, test, and ship a complete solution to your customer and, if needed, coordinate onsite implementation services.
MARKETING SUPPORT
SALES SUPPORT
SUPPOR
T
THE PEOPLE OF A
VN
ET PREMIER
Jonathan Lightburne
Helping Resellers Reach Their Business Goals
Jonathan Lightburne likes to surprise resellers who are considering adding NetApp to their sales line but who incorrectly assume that getting qualified is a long, drawn-out process. “Actually,” Jonathan tells them, “you can go from a registered to gold level in three months.” “Really?” the VARs typically respond. “We were thinking it would be at least a year.”Jonathan is deeply familiar with all aspects of NetApp and can guide resellers through fundamentals that will save them time and effort. A reseller can get a quote on a project, for example, in less than an hour simply by knowing the right way to get the information.
Jonathan and the members of his team help VARs keep their businesses on track on a strategic level as well. Every quarter, he’ll sit down with a reseller and go over the business plan the reseller has established. “We’ll talk to them about where they are with their current sales and what other opportunities are being considered, we’ll talk about their certifications,” Jonathan says. “With these consultations and all of our training and portals and marketing support, our goal is always to make the resellers more self-sufficient. We want to give them the awareness of how to use the NetApp and Avnet tools to ease their pain and reach whatever goals they’ve set up for themselves.”
“ With these consultations and all of our training and
AvnetPremier.com and marketing support, our goal
is always to make the resellers more self-sufficient.
We want to give them the awareness of how to use
the NetApp and Avnet tools to ease their pain and
reach whatever goals they’ve set up for themselves.”
Any reseller can “rack and stack” a system, but that’s not what today’s end-users
are looking for from their suppliers. They want top-notch service at a reasonable
rate. By providing a fully operational system from the start, you both meet their
current requirements and become their first choice for future needs.
AVNET CAN HELP YOU GET THERE WITH A RANGE OF SERVICES:
Streamlined set-up options
Avnet offers resellers a set of installation SKUs that save money and simplify the process. There’s no duplication of pre-site preparation and travel, no need to pick multiple SKUs. You pick what you and your end-user need, nothing more.
Fully certified engineers
and consultants
Avnet’s services team holds current NetApp installation and specialization certifications (NCDA and NCIE) as well as multiple special-ized certifications. For resellers who do not have staff located near an end-user’s setup location, designating a highly skilled Avnet ser-vices team member to handle the assignment is a cost-effective and timely option. And, of course, it frees up the reseller’s staff to focus on other tasks more essential to core operations.
Follow-up service
Avnet’s base installation services include an online meeting or conference call with the end-user to ensure the system is functioning as planned and to answer any questions that might have arisen. These calls can last up to two hours and are conducted by the engineer assigned to the implementation, who can serve in the capacity of a reseller employee if needed.
Lifecycle maintenance
As equipment ages and new storage demands arise, end-users need ongoing support from trusted sources. Months or years down the line, you’ll be able to provide that assistance with any of the many services Avnet offers, including: • hardware trade-in and consignment • data erasure
• hardware disposition
Financing solutions
Avnet offers several financing mechanisms for end-users. By tapping into the resources Avnet makes possible, you can help customers ac-quire equipment that might not otherwise have been possible for them.
Of course, you can also provide maintenance service of existing equipment and upgrades as needed.
IMPLEMENTATION
AND SERVICE SUPPORT
Brian Mitchell
Providing Technical Know-How
For The Most Challenging Cases
Brian Mitchell recently got a call from a large NetApp reseller with a problem: The reseller forgot to buy a new software license for a $300,000 Clustered Data ONTAP application, which was scheduled for installation in Virginia the next day. The resell-er’s representative didn’t want to have to tell the end-user he forgot to add in another $10,000 for the license and he didn’t want to delay the project. Could Brian help? Brian went to work, remotely testing the complete setup in Avnet’s demo lab in Arizona. Within a few hours, he had good news for the reseller: The system would work with existing licenses. So the reseller went ahead and began the installation the next day. The end-user never knew any difference.
Without Brian’s help, though, the reseller likely would have had a major problem. The information Brian provided is not recorded in any technical documents. Nor is it something that anyone could make an educated guess about — the equipment is brand new and quite complex. Testing was the only option.
THE PEOPLE OF A
VN
ET PREMIER
The information Brian provided is not recorded in
any technical documents. Nor is it something that
anyone could make an educated guess about—
the equipment is brand new and quite complex.
Testing was the only option.
SUPPOR
T
11
10
As an Avnet Premier Partner, you are eligible for additional
marketing funds through the Avnet Select Program. Strategic
partners who are approved to participate in the Avnet Select
Program can take advantage of MDF reimbursement, based on
approved marketing plans and partner sales revenue.
AVNET SELECT MARKETING
REIMBURSEMENT PROGRAM
Adrienne Ambrose
Keeping Resellers Up-to-Date
on Revenue Opportunities
With resellers doing more with fewer resources, many of them are so busy selling their services that they don’t have time to learn of other opportunities for adding revenue. Fortunately for them, there are people like Adrienne Ambrose, a Partner Development Manager for Avnet.
Adrienne provides information and resources that are essential to Avnet’s partners and reaches out to them to make sure they’re up-to-date. Because she’s focused on building ongoing relationships, she gives each of them a phone call rather than just relying on email. How do those resellers react? “They’re definitely grateful that someone is looking out for them, making sure they’re not missing things,” Adrienne says.
For instance, NetApp recently announced an additional sales incentive. While the information was posted on Avnet’s sales portal, some of Adrienne’s partners were unaware of the promotion until Adrienne proactively notified them. With that kind of information, the resellers can take advantage of new opportunities and potentially increase revenue for their business.
As more advanced technology becomes part of the solutions’ offerings, VARs are eager to gain the necessary training for selling it. Adrienne informs them of new classes, webinars and local sales trainings so they can gain expertise in the latest technology updates and market trends. Because Adrienne is aware of the partners’ go-to-market strategies, she can be certain that the information she passes along is relevant and geared toward generating more business.
THE PEOPLE OF A
VN
ET PREMIER
As more advanced technology becomes part of
the solutions’ offerings, VARs are eager to gain
the necessary training for selling it. Adrienne
informs them of new classes, webinars, local
trainings and new opportunities to potentially
increase revenue.
LEVEL ONE:
Authorized
New Avnet-NetApp
partners begin with
LEVEL TWO:
Associate
For resellers that
are currently
en-LEVEL THREE:
Signature
Resellers that are
mid-level Gold or
LEVEL FOUR:
Elite
High-performing
Platinum partners
THE AVNET SELECT LEVELS
ARE AS FOLLOWS
2
:
REIMB
URSEMENT PR
15
14
AVNET B
USINESS T
OOLS
Avnet Inc. is a Fortune 500 Company and one of the
world’s largest distributors of electronic components,
computer products and embedded technology. Earning
$25.7 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2012, Avnet is
recognized in Forbes magazine’s list of “Most Admired
Companies” for the fifth year in a row, ranked Number 1
in its industry.
What that means to you and your customers is that
you have a reliable partner with both global reach and
a personalized approach.
WHAT AVNET MEANS
TO OUR PARTNERS
“ We’re pleased to introduce our customers to Avnet
because they have the expertise and proven capabilities
they want and expect from a security solution provider.
That gives us a clear advantage as we continue to build
our in-house capabilities.”
– Jacques Watters, VP of Sales and Operations, SLT-TEC
“ Avnet understands what it takes for partners to be
suc-cessful in high-growth markets such as virtualization.”
– Jeffrey Teeter, Logicalis
“ We’re still new to the game; we’re still discovering the
Avnet programs available to us. But even at this stage,
Avnet is invaluable at helping us do what we need to do
to drive our business.”
– Gregg DeWitt, President, Data Strategy
