Canon stresses business skills with partner audit

Canon is in the process of auditing its partners as part of its new Partner Programme accreditation.
The imaging vendor is using consultancy Veer International to assess its resellers across a range of criteria so it can award them the status of Reseller Partner, Solutions Partner or Advanced Solutions Partner.
Canon’s former Plus Programme accreditation rated channel partners as Solutions, Premier or Elite.
Geoff Slaughter, Canon’s director of indirect channels, told CRN: “The Plus Programme helped resellers progress from being box shifters to solution providers. We’re now building on that to take interested partners on a more advanced journey to learn generic business skills such as sales and technical services.”
Slaughter anticipates around 60 of its direct resellers will go through the audit and gain accreditation, with about 10 in the top tier, 20 in the middle and 30 in the lower level.
Non-accredited VARs can still sell Canon products, but will not be able to promote themselves as an official partner or use the Accredited logo.
“The aim is to push the logo and its value out to end users so they recognise and understand the difference between buying from an accredited partner as opposed to a normal reseller,” added Slaughter.
John Hayton, managing director of VAR Margolis, said: “The new programme is a fantastic idea. Advanced Solutions Partner status will prove to customers that we are capable of implementing a full solution.”
Canon’s distributors will also go through the audit process, which Canon expects to complete by 2008.
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