Samsung Ascend Partner Portal Update Includes Automated Marketing Engine

An update to the Samsung Ascend Partner Portal now offers a personalized interface and an automated marketing engine. Samsung Electronics America, which launched the updated portal on Monday, also is rewarding partners who interact with the site.

The portal update comes a year after Samsung combined its distinct B2B mobile, commercial SSD and display business partner programs. At the time, Samsung launched the unified Ascend Partner Portal. It aims to make it easier for partners to offer products from the respective businesses.

Partners offering mobile solutions have more reason to attach displays since Samsung enhanced the DeX feature on its Android phones. Last fall, the company added wireless DeX with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 line. In November, Samsung introduced its first DeX-capable display called the Smart Monitor. Available with 27- or 32-inch displays, the Smart Monitors are optimized for home offices, while including Samsung’s Smart TV platform. Embedded with Wi-Fi, users can connect their DeX-compatible phones directly to the displays, to run Microsoft 365 apps.

Chris Mertens, VP of sales for Samsung’s display division, told Channel Futures that Ascend is having its desired effect. Since launching the Samsung Ascend Partner portal, Mertens said registrations and usage have increased 85%.

Samsung’s Chris Mertens

“We wanted to break through the silos and provide our partners, whether they’re focused on mobility, display or both [with a unified portal], Mertens said. “We have a lot of partners who focus on both in driving that business, whether it’s tablets, smartphones, or certainly display products. So we brought that together, enabling a partner to just go to one location to be able to access the programs and the materials needed to make that happen. The uptick has been pretty tremendous.”

Ascend Portal Enhancements

Among the updates to the Samsung Ascend Partner portal, it now includes an automated marketing engine.

“A lot of our partners, particularly the midsize ones, struggle with how to do a marketing campaign, especially one that’s customized,” Mertens said. “We put together the capabilities for them to be able to copy and paste material, and really utilize the portal to create a customized campaign to help drive business for them.”

The personalization Samsung added to the customer interface aims to facilitate access to resources faster. The interface will calibrate based on what a customer sells, whether its mobile devices, displays or both, Mertens noted. Samsung’s new loyalty program incentivizes partners who register deals, complete a training certification or launch a marketing campaign.

Overall, the B2B display business that Mertens oversees has been strong over the past two quarters, he said. Mertens said demand is particularly for Samsung’s large format displays, as well as desktop displays including the new Smart Monitor.

“It blends that work-from-home environment, where it’s a great desktop monitor during the day, and you’re able to utilize it as a TV at night,” he said of the new display.

The Vertical Play

The pandemic has also created demand for displays in key verticals such as education, health care and retail. Likewise, Samsung is seeing increased subscriptions to its MagicInfo solution, which allows customers to customize content for its displays. Mertens expects that to continue as people return to work and to public establishments such as stores and restaurants. Increasingly, Mertens sees digital signage users measuring how prospective customers respond to the content displayed with analytics tools.

As part of last year’s Ascend partner program rollout, Samsung combined end-user sales and partner sales management.

“Everything is continuing to evolve and change and with omnichannel requirements, and how we reach different partners and our end users, is all really coming together,” Mertens said. “We also wanted to have consistent messaging and consistent leadership to drive the objectives and priorities that the mobile team needs.”