Continued channel growth and new program initiatives lead to Opengear once again recognized by CRN as providing a top IT channel program
Edison, NJ – April 5, 2019 – Opengear (www.opengear.com), a leading provider of solutions that deliver secure, resilient network access and automation to critical IT infrastructure, today announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has given Opengear a 5-Star rating in its 2019 Partner Program Guide. This annual guide identifies the strongest and most successful partner programs in the channel today, offered by the top technology suppliers for IT products and services. The 5-Star rating recognizes an elite subset of companies that offer solution providers the best partnering elements in their channel programs.
To determine the 2019 5-Star ratings, The Channel Company’s research team assessed each supplier’s partner program based on investments in program offerings, partner profitability, partner training, education and support, marketing programs and resources, sales support, and communication.
Opengear has introduced a number of enhancements to its partner program over the past year designed to further streamline its partner onboarding process, provide more sales tools and marketing content that enable partners to more easily sell Opengear solutions, and forge deeper strategic relationships with partners. Among these key initiatives is the addition of online training modules within Opengear’s Partner Portal, which more efficiently and thoroughly engages and trains partners’ sales reps. Opengear has also invested in ensuring its partners understand the advantages of Opengear’s cellular out-of-band connectivity solutions in SD-WAN deployments – highlighting a particularly fast-growing use case for Opengear products that is creating a new revenue source for partners.
These changes have come in tandem with growth to the Opengear partner program and the leadership team supporting it. Most recently, Opengear’s channel business – which has seen 30% year-over-year revenue growth in the Americas – signed a new distribution agreement with Westcon-Comstor Americas to expand distribution of Opengear products into Latin America. It also recently added Keith Hansen as the channel-dedicated Sales Engineer and has expanded channel sales coverage with a Channel Sales Manager overseeing each of the West, Central, and East regions.
“With new technologies emerging every year, evaluating which IT vendors to partner with grows increasingly more complex for solution providers,” said Bob Skelley, CEO, The Channel Company. “We are proud the CRN Partner Program Guide has become the trusted resource to identify the most rewarding partner programs and provides crucial insight into their strengths and benefits for the channel.”
“Our channel partners are essential to enabling organizations across the world and across industries to meet their requirements for the network resilience and automation solutions Opengear delivers,” Bryan Keepers, Director – Channel Sales Americas, Opengear. “We continue to invest in our channel program and our relationships, and the results continue to show how mutually beneficial these engagements can be. We’re proud to again be recognized for our commitment to the channel with the 5-Star rating in CRN’s Partner Program Guide, and look forward to continuing to grow and deepen our relationships with our valued partners through the world.”
The 2019 Partner Program Guide will be featured in the April issue of CRN and online at www.CRN.com/ppg.
