Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA) announced a series of enhancements to its award-winning Edge Channel Partner Program, designed to fuel its global channel partner growth.
The program was named a 2018 5-Star channel incentive program by CRN and the Channel Company, and the enhancements are designed to improve Avaya partners’ ability to grow by stimulating sales of cloud solutions, leveraging a simplified incentive structure and more tailored benefits with an improved enablement model. Simplified and streamlined program requirements combined with increased benefits and rebates will expand the Avaya channel partner community across multiple business types, including enterprise VARs, mid-market and small-medium businesses, system integrators and more.
Integrating extensive feedback and input from partners, the Avaya Edge updates also place an emphasis on partner inclusivity, aiming to enable growth regardless of the size or unique partner business model. This means Avaya Edge is now the only channel program in the industry to provide equal growth opportunities to partners of any size.
“Avaya Edge is a comprehensive program for channel partners that now benefits from further improvements for 2019,” said Tim Banting, Principal Analyst, GlobalData. “Some vendor programs leave channels confused with complex structures and incentive programs which can lead to misaligned sales behavior and issues in partner profitability. Avaya has constructed a comprehensive program that simplifies, integrates and aligns with channel partner needs to help drive growth and introduce additional business opportunities.”
With the Edge Program, Avaya has already made significant progress in growing partner business over the past year. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of partners eligible for rebates increased by 281%, and there was a 159% increase in the number of partners with more than 10% growth. The company’s 2019 strategy will build on these positive results.
“Much of the coming year’s focus will empower channel partners to easily deploy cloud-based products as cloud adoption continues to skyrocket, for example, Avaya has grown its public cloud seats 300% in the past year,” said Dino Di Palma, Avaya President, Americas Sales and Global Accounts. “With offerings for small-medium businesses (SMB), mid-market and enterprise, Avaya’s range of cloud-based services continues to expand and is expected to provide significant growth opportunities for all channel partners in 2019.”
Avaya will provide training, workshops and additional information on the Edge Partner Program at its upcoming annual user group conference. From January 20 – 23, Avaya ENGAGE will span four action-packed days. The conference will bring partners closer to industry experts and thought leaders covering challenges and solutions affecting the industry through general sessions, hands-on workshops, roundtable discussions, breakout sessions and more. The Avaya Partner Forum, hosted at Avaya ENGAGE, on January 21st, is the company’s exclusive partner event. The keynote speakers including Avaya CEO Jim Chirico and his executive team will present the company’s FY19 vision and channel strategy. Avaya’s collection of content experts will drive conversations helping partners derive maximum value from selling Avaya solutions.
