Brother Updates Partner Program with New Portal, Knowledge Center

Brother International announced several additions to its Authorized Partner Program to provide SMB partners with resources and training to sell the company’s portfolio of print services and solutions.

Partners now can access an updated partner portal and a new knowledge center designed to provide Brother’s resellers with information to grow their understanding of the company’s portfolio. These additions finalize the core tenants of Brother’s partner strategy that were established with the program’s inception, according to Jeff Sandler, Brother’s director of SMB Marketing.

“The partner portal was in dire need of a refresh … to make it more inviting and to deliver much more comprehensive information,” said Sandler, in an interview with The VAR Guy. “Being able to offer this out to the resellers that buy through distribution was really new for us, and that was very exciting.”

Sandler also spoke about the company’s new Knowledge Center program, which functions as a platform for Brother to educate resellers on the benefits of its products so they can sell more effectively. The program will provide partners with modules and education pieces surrounding Brother’s product portfolio, with additional modules planned in the near future.

Brother unveiled the Authorized Partner Program in October, but was unable to launch all of the features the company envisioned during the program’s original launch window, according to Sandler. Since then, Brother has turned its efforts toward unifying the different elements of the program and shoring up additional assets to help partners become better resellers.

The core tenants of Brother’s Partner Program include a focus on competitive bids, a volume print program, deal registration and program-exclusive products. Brother launched its partner program in conjunction with the company’s “Don’t Supersize. Optimize” campaign, to help SMB customers think differently about their printing needs.

Earlier this month, the company announced a new series of SMB-focused desktop scanners as a continuation of its campaign to reduce enterprise printing and documents costs for midsize businesses.