Use your fusion
Channel partner programmes are both difficult to market and difficult to write about for the same reason: they're intrinsically dull. Furthermore, they're all more or less the same; having the common purpose of getting the company in question's channel to flog more of their stuff.
So if it's your job to market one, the last thing you need is some smart-arse journalist pointing out it's the same as all the others, and we've received terse communications from tech companies, that shall remain nameless, on just that matter. But that doesn't mean it's not true.
One company that is putting more than the standard effort into courting its channel these days is AMD. Having admitted cocking things up with its channel a few years ago, AMD appointed a new channel marketing boss - David Kenyon - a couple of years ago, who gave a comprehensive interview to us after he'd settled in.
Kenyon was pretty contrite in that interview and, and soon moved to rejuvenate AMD's relationship with its channel by launching the Fusion (of course) Partner Program. A year down the line, Kenyon felt moved to blog on how things had gone and what he had learnt, and today he announced that distributors are now to be embraced to the programme, which has previously been focused on retailers and resellers.
"It's amazing to see how far we've come in such a short amount of time," said Kenyon. "By extending the AMD Fusion Partner Program to all of our valued distribution partners, AMD is proud to now offer them vital information, motivation, support and incentives to help them to be successful in today's marketplace."
Businesses classified as disties now qualify for financial support and incentives from AMD, access to demand generation programmes, and other support such as training and marketing collateral - the usual stuff. You can find out more about all the UK channel goodies on offer here.
