8x8 Touts Up-Front Bonus, Higher Recurring Commissions

Cloud services provider 8×8 Inc. is touting recent changes to its channel program, hoping to lure more high-producing resellers and agents.

Earlier this year, the company instituted a three-tier plan  Silver, Gold and Platinum. Silver targets partners who do not want to commit to monthly sales quotas. For selling hosted services, they now earn two times their monthly recurring revenue and, when an end-user contracts with 8×8 for a year or more, the partner gets an additional 3 percent in recurring revenue. There’s also a one-time, up-front bonus. The same goes for Gold partners, although they must agree to a certain monthly quota.

Platinum partners, too, have sales commitments; however, 8×8 gives them 12 months to reach this status. In return, Platinum resellers earn more money than their Silver and Gold counterparts. Like the Silver and Gold tiers, Platinum reaps a two-times monthly recurring commission, plus an up-front bonus, but at a higher rate.

For all tiers, “the real strength is the up-front bounty on residual revenue,” said Matt Hutchinson, 8×8’s director of channel marketing.

Overall, 8×8 is tightening its channel program to be more selective. Partners must complete a qualification and application process; those who do not want to go through the process, or who do not meet the criteria, still can sell 8×8 services by contracting with a master agent or by bringing in referral leads. 8×8 will co-brand its products at the Platinum level only and takes care of all the billing.

So far, 8×8 has added 15 partners since the beginning of the first quarter, for a total of 54.