The German thin client provider IGEL Technology is making inroads on North American territory with the announcement of an enhanced partner program.

Jed Ayres, IGEL CEO of North America, said he wants his company to take the clear number three market share in the U.S., behind Dell and HP. Partners will help drive IGEL to that goal, he said.

“We’re obviously getting more leverage and reach with these partners that are selling some of the largest solutions out there,” he told Channel Partners. “This is a key tenant of this strategy that we have — the success of these partners and their capacity to bring us into their customer opportunities.”

But first he said the North American partner program needed to change in order to provide the necessary incentives.

“It was just this one-size-fits-all, very simple program that really only had one benefit, which was this deal registration program,” he said.

IGEL has divided the program into three tiers: resellers, authorized partners and platinum partners. Authorized partners must incur at least $250,000 in annual revenue, while platinum partners must make more than $1 million. Both of the top two levels are required to add a certain number of certifications and increase the amount of marketing events they put on each year.{ad}

IGEL has been focusing on how to gain traction and exposure in the North American market, and the latest steps have included opening an office in San Francisco and hiring Ayres, who most recently led worldwide marketing for AppSense. He started his new job June 1.

“They’ve tried a couple different times to come to the U.S. with sort of mixed results,” he said. “They never really had the right organizational structure, the right investment and the right strategy.”

Ayres was tasked with re-working the company’s marketing, which originally was based in the German language but is now shifting to English.

The company announced earlier this week that 13 partners have now attained its platinum level, including AEC Group, Gotham Technology Group and XenTegra.

IGEL’s top two partner tiers will get increased demo resources for the top two tiers and increased access to both hardware and software resources.

“We’ve shown these guys what we’re doing and matching that up against what they’re getting from HP and Dell – or lack thereof – and that’s what has allowed us to move so quickly,” Ayres said.