David Fenner, (Ruckus Wireless)
Ruckus Networks has launched a series of "intensive" training programs in Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) with the promise of discounts and marketing leads offered as incentives.
The Arris-owned networking equipment vendor has launched four partner specialisation programs in the areas of hospitality, managed service, support and cloud, which will require between two and eight hours of training either online or on site offered in eight cities across A/NZ.
Partners which complete the training will be awarded specialisation badges in each area plus vertical-specific leads generated by Ruckus’ marketing team. Those who complete the cloud training will also gain "substantial additional discounts" on products.
Explaining the launch to ARN, Ruckus A/NZ partner account manager David Fenner said the vendor hoped to simplify the process of passing leads as well as adding value to the channel.
“We’re giving the partners the ability to differentiate themselves in the market, which is going to add more margin capability to their offerings to the end users,” he said.
“Plus it means we can streamline the lead generation and pass the specific leads to the partners who are in verticals where they have demonstrated the ability to deliver in a specific area. We’re simplifying the process.”
The training will be free of charge and available to all partners within Ruckus’ channel. Fenner said the vendor counts roughly 200 to 250 partners who are actively trading with them.
Ruckus is also seeking new partners with capabilities in cloud and the retail space and the internet of things (IoT) as the vendor expands its offerings.
“IoT is the natural evolution,” Fenner said. “We have been leading in the wired and wireless space for some time. Leveraging that to activate it across the overall infrastructure so it can connect to the smart devices available now either in homes or on business premises is what we want to leverage.
“We want to bring lots of technologies together -- alongside our own -- to bring an outcome that is not only rich in data and analytics, but is scalable into new areas.”
The company has already partnered with Assa Abloy Global Solutions to deliver IoT-enabled door locks for hotel operators.
Ruckus’ partners have been through a number of upheavals since the vendor was acquired by Brocade in 2016 for US$1.2 billion, and subsequently acquired by the Arris Group for US$7.4 billion in December 2017.
With Brocade Communication Systems also sold to Broadcom for US$5 billion, Ruckus merged its formerly separate partner programs for Brocade and its own technology into the Ruckus Ready Partner Program in September of that year.
Six months later, the company signed a global original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement with Dell EMC, which saw the latter sell Ruckus’ portfolio of wireless solutions as Dell EMC-branded solutions.
