At the same time, the vendor expects the initiative to prepare resellers for the complex technical sell of a SAN or NAS system.
The initiative will be implemented in conjunction with specialist storage distributors Ideal Hardware and Hammer, revealed Howard Rippiner, marketing manager for Emea at Overland Data.
He said in order to join the scheme, resellers must be accredited or certified on a software package with one of Overland’s software partners to “offer a complete system”. On top of that, a reseller would need a $100,000 (£72,000) annual turnover with a distributor and have a minimum of two Overland-dedicated sales staff and one technical employee.
The two distribution partners will receive a three per cent discount on any product that is going to market via a gold partner reseller and are free to pass on as much of that discount to the dealer as they deem necessary.
On top of that advantage, Rippiner argued resellers would receive lead generation, access to marketing funds and a pass to enter the gold partner-only Web site, which enables the dealer to print and download mail shots.
He claimed that as well as the obvious increases in business, the scheme would galvanise its relationship with channel partners, enabling them to provide a more tailored package for user requirements.
