Intermec shakes up channel with new partner programme

Intermec, a mobile computing and AIDC systems vendor, has announced a new partner programme which offers improved margins and better sales support – but with the caveat that partners need to gain and retain better levels of certification or potentially face the chop. The firm has also brought in two experienced channel veterans to help grow the vendor into a 100 percent channel organisation from the 80 percent of revenue it currently generates through partners.

The newest appointment is Mel Taylor, EMEA channel director, who is well known to the partner community from his long service at Fujitsu Siemens. Taylor joins Ian Snadden, another ex-Fujitsu Siemens executive who was appointed last year as EMEA vice president.

“Previously Intermec was primarily a direct sales organisation but this has changed over the last two years, so that now around 80 percent of our revenue is generated through the channel,” explains Taylor. “But now we need to set the bar and raise the standards of our channel and this is the role of the new programme.”

The new programme will drop standard discounts by three percent but increase margin on deals entered under project registration by seven percent. Intermec has also launched a Partner Relationship Management (PRM) system with enhanced communication and tracking capabilities and clearer rules of engagement for customer account. The firm is also incentivising channel through performance-based rewards on top of standard margins for delivering Intermec solutions to a high level of customer satisfaction.

Intermec has beefed up its training teams and will be offering courses to its 250 UK partners in an effort to get them into one of its three tiers. However, Taylor has made it clear that partners who don’t commit will have Intermec certification removed at some point during Q3 of this year.

Intermec is also aggressively recruiting ISVs in a bid to help its channel partners add more value and recurring revue streams through innovative new business models.  Intermec has established partnerships with a number of UK focused ISVs including Proof of Delivery specialist AirVersent and Blackbay, a former Motorola ISV of the Year.

“Our industry is a bit like where the IT industry was 10 years ago,” explains Taylor. “There is a need for partners to package up solutions, especially managed services but that is still an immature area.”

Intermec now has more than 150 ISV partners and Taylor highlights areas like devices activation and asset tracking where he believes the channel should consider offering highly-integrated solutions. However, Taylor states that Intermec will not go down the route of offering managed services directly to the channel bit will instead focus on delivering products that offer good compatibility, especially around mobility.