Ted Cole’s Deep Dive into ADTRAN’s VAR Success

The VAR Guy recently blogged about ADTRAN’s success secrets, but an important ingredient in the company’s ‘secret sauce’ is its VARs. During the ADTRAN Connect 2010 press and analyst event, Ted Cole, ADTRAN’s channel chief, offered up a quick yet informative deep dive into what makes ADTRAN and its VARs good for each other.

There’s stickiness in trust. That’s something Cole couldn’t stress enough. Cole said partners and VARs are looking for vendors to help them reduce risk and improve their bottom line, and ADTRAN has provided that safe haven with a competitive and reliable product. And while it may seem needless to say, Cole pointed out that ADTRAN “has no desire to mislead you,” referring to both the VAR who wants support and the end-user customer.

Day 3 of Connect 2010 began with a speech by Mike Foliano, senior vice president of Global Operations, who discussed how ADTRAN is committed to a bond of trust and delivering on promises (while also balancing quick reaction time and costs). Cole extended that theme and added some nuanced words about loyalty and product quality.

What’s more, Cole noted that 100 percent of ADTRAN’s enterprise networking solutions track is driven by the channel. That has led to what Cole called “happy” channel conflict, because it means that the channel is filled with VARs and partners who are eager to do business. All the conflicts are sorted and fixed, of course, and Cole said ADTRAN makes sure to honor deals to the right VARs.

Cole expounded on how ADTRAN helps VARs gain an edge by offering advanced equipment without losing margins, such as the  ADTRAN NetVanta 7000 Series, for example. The NetVanta line of VoIP products was developed primarily for the enterprise space, but was expanded with the NetVanta 7000 to serve the SMB space. The NetVanta 7000 provides service for up to 30 business seats at a price of just under $3,200. A UC upgrade is just $500. And if the customer wants to upgrade further, the VAR can ‘buy’ the upgrade, unlocking the 7000 to its full potential.

These are examples of ADTRAN’s VAR program enhancements, and Cole said they don’t just stop there. ADTRAN aims to target educational and training programs in the hopes of preventing ‘information overload’ and helping VARs sell the right product to solve customers’ problems.

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