Post JDSU, Viavi Solutions Unveils New Global Partner Program

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Viavi Solutions, the network visibility and monitoring provider, is accelerating its collaboration with its 240 global partners by unveiling its new, aptly named “Velocity” partner program.

Velocity is aimed at delivering increased value to Viavi’s vendor, service-provider and VAR partners, resellers and distributors. Sergio Bea, Viavi’s vice president of worldwide channels, tells Channel Partners his company laid the groundwork for Velocity one year ago “through a very basic program, but over the past 12 months we’ve really built out Velocity to be a key competitive advantage for us.”

“We’ve invested heavily in IT infrastructure to support the partner network and have had numerous discussions with partners about what they want to see in a program,” he said. “The net of it is Velocity … combines more incentives and rewards, increased market development funds support and more sales-enablement tools for the mutual success of our partners and Viavi.”

While some programs may require partners to hit a complete checklist of criteria before moving up in tier, Viavi is giving partners the “flexibility to hit a combination of goals that overall contribute to growth,” Bea said.

The need for Velocity was prompted, in part, by Viavi’s spinoff from JDSU’s Communications and Commercial Optical Products business, now named Lumentum, he said. Viavi now is focused on the move to cloud, virtualization and enabling multi-tenant data centers, and “we see a strong channel program playing a crucial role in growing our footprint there,” he said.

“Also, note that after a series of acquisitions JDSU had led over the last few years, the new Viavi essentially fuses four different companies (the old JDSU’s networking business, Arieso, Trendium and Network Instruments), so we’ve spent time integrating the old programs that had existed as well,” Bea said. “Second, we wanted to bring the success we’ve had in the service providers/telecommunications space over to capturing more enterprise/data center customers and the way we saw to do that was through a world-class channel program.”

The program includes three tiers – authorized, premier and elite – and partners who invest more for mutual success receive higher benefits. It also includes …

… tiered pricing, deal registration and stocking discounts that become more lucrative as partners move up the ranks from authorized to elite, according to the company.

Also, a new Web-based partner portal will make it easier for partners to access sales, marketing and pricing information, and stay in close communication with their Viavi contacts, the company said.

“This is just the beginning; over the next six to seven months we’re planning to roll out even more new enhancements to the program,” Bea said.

About 35 percent of Viavi’s business is driven by its partners, he said.

“And when we’re talking about expanding our enterprise footprint as well as growing our presence internationally, we wouldn’t be able to do it nearly as effectively without our partners,” Bea said. “Around the world, especially, the need for local relationships, language and understanding cultural nuances comes from our partners in region.”

Butler Transtest Limited is one of Viavi’s elite partners.

“In the ever-competitive and evolving service provider and enterprise networking landscape, ‘a better mousetrap’ alone sometimes is not enough to win new business,” said Aaron Joyce, Butler’s group business development director. “Best-in-class support coupled with innovative solutions are vital for us, especially in the enterprise space where strong channel programs are the difference between winning and losing. We’re excited Viavi has ramped up … several aspects of its channel partner program to empower us to grow our footprint, reach new customers and bring success to our businesses and that of our customers.”