“Channel conflict is healthy for TeleWare, its partners and end-customers,” explains Lesley Hansen, Group Marketing Director for TeleWare. “It shows that our products are in demand and, ultimately, directs our channel to differentiate themselves and offer the best possible service to customers.”
“In the past, we would tend to deal with conflicts in an informal manner, but the growth of our channel over the last year has prompted us to formalise this process and put in place a system to recognise and reward partners for their efforts, irrespectively of which partner proceeds with the project on behalf of the customer,” she adds.
The Deal Registration Portal follows consultation and feedback from the channel and allows partners to ‘claim ownership’ of a prospective client project at an early stage. Third parties cannot access the portal and registered partners linked to a project will receive support from TeleWare in the event of a dispute. Hansen adds, “Our aim is to build strong and trusted channel relationships and under no circumstances will we approach a prospective client that has been recorded within the Deal Registration Portal. If we are directly contacted by a portal registered prospective client, we will recommend the portal registered partner.”
In a recent example, a TeleWare partner engaged with a prospective client and performed the initial contact, sales pitch and evaluation process. However, the client decided it would rather deal directly with TeleWare, primarily due to the scope of the project. In this instance, TeleWare financially recognised and rewarded the partner for the time it had invested in dealing with the client based on the value of the final project.
“We welcome the launch of the TeleWare Deal Registration Portal at an exciting time for the UK telecommunications industry,” comments Steve Burges, Managing Director of Edge Solutions, a leading TeleWare partner, “Channel conflict has always been part of our industry and we support any mechanism that helps to protect the time we invest in qualifying and winning customer acceptance of our offering. We believe this is a concept that more vendors should adopt,” Burges adds.
The TeleWare Deal Registration Portal is available to all registered TeleWare partners and is online from this month.