Seagate Technology Inc. has launched a two-tier reseller partner program for companies selling its merchandise. The program, which was launched on Oct. 18, is known officially as the Seagate Partner Program for Disc and Tape Products, and is the result of six months of channel research at Seagate, including interviews with over 1,200 resellers.

The idea for the program came from within the channel itself, from vendors asking for a closer, more streamlined relationship with Seagate.

According to Charlie Wallace, Seagate's worldwide director for channel marketing in Scotts Valley, Calif., resellers were asking for a closer relationship with Seagate. "One of the things that we heard over and over from resellers is that they were so inundated with communications from vendors via post, e-mail or telephone calls, that they really wanted information that was designed for their business," he says.

Thus, a major facet of the program is customized communication. VARs will be able to determine which Seagate product lines and services they are interested in receiving information about on a regular basis. This allows Seagate to target its information releases more effectively, "so we're not shotgunning information to resellers on everything we do," says Wallace.

The program is broken down into two levels. The more basic level, the resource partner program, is available to any reseller. All the reseller needs to do is fill out Seagate's online application at http://reseller.seagate.com. The resource partner level offers resellers customized communications, as well as priority tech support with Seagate's Oklahoma tech support crew and toll-free pre-sales and post-sales support.

The second, more exclusive level is known as the senior partner program. In order to be eligible for senior partner status, a VAR must move US$150,000 per quarter of disk products and US$20,000 per quarter in tape products. "At that level they become eligible for marketing funds and volume rebates," says Wallace.

Senior partner VARs are also eligible for a free five-seat registration in Seagate's Technology Authorized Reseller Training (START), an online training program aimed at bringing resellers up to speed on Seagate products and their potential applications. The Web-based program was developed by San Francisco-based DigitalThink Inc. and is divided into three courses: one on low-end personal computers, one on hard disk drive interfaces, and one on tape backup systems. Seagate is planning to add an additional online course every quarter. "It's all online, and it's self-paced, it's very interactive, with audio and videos," says Wallace. "A really cool course that is free for all our premier members, and we do offer it to the masses for a small charge — US$9.95 per course."

It doesn't take much to get involved in the program, according to Wallace. "There's no cost associated with the program at all. It's all free, primarily Web-based, and we do all the work," he said.

More VARs are now determining what the program means to them. Eric Decker, CEO of Toronto-based Get Computing, a Seagate reseller, doesn't think the program's too worthwhile for his company. "We're referred to and from Seagate already, so I have close contact with Seagate in terms of support. I'm not so sure that they can do anything more for us," he says. "I don't see where there can be anything more done at the channel level."

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