**Editor’s Note: Click here for a list of recent important channel-program changes you should know or here for our recently compiled list of new products and services.**

Parallels has upgraded its partner program and portal for resellers of Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS).

The Parallels Partner Program features improved margins for the channel, new management resources and tools to help partners grow their businesses, the company said. It also provides customers “cost-effective and simplified IT and end-user experiences that empower their organizations to thrive.”

Parallels also has launched its RAS version 15.5, providing organizations of all sizes with the “easiest solution to securely deliver Windows desktops and applications to employees on any device,” the company said. The latest version offers support for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and new iOS and Android clients with natural touch gestures and a Lock-n-Go magnifying glass.

John Uppendahl, Parallels’ vice president of communications, tells Channel Partners that, from a reseller perspective, “we’re very excited to bring to the channel a greenfield opportunity.”{ad}

“This really has two main areas,” he said. “It has all of the SMBs in the world that drive our global economy that haven’t been able to benefit from virtual desktops and applications because they couldn’t afford it and it was too complex. We’ve changed that. The other great market opportunity for the channel is businesses, SMEs and enterprises that are using virtual desktops and applications, but this is an easier-to-use solution with patented and other ease-of-use features that others can’t match, and they can save up to 60 percent on their licensing costs.”

New reseller benefits include: margins of up to 40 percent for Premier partners on new customer deals when they use the portal’s deal-registration engine; free online technical and sales training and certification; sales materials and guides to identify and drive new customer business conversations and sales; a demand-generation campaign and other marketing “campaigns in a box” materials; and a visibility and notification engine on upcoming renewals.

The new levels of participation for resellers include: Registered Partnership, Certified Partnership and Premier Partnership.

The Parallels RAS distribution partner program also has been updated with new benefits, such as structured joint demand-generation initiatives management at the partner portal, visibility to the resellers pipeline – including renewals – and higher margins on both traditional and service provider licensing, the company said.

“The goals (of the upgraded program) are several fold,” Uppendahl said. “With existing partners, it’s to give them tools to make it easier than ever for them to accelerate sales and grow their businesses. And absolutely it’s to attract new partners as well. Today, Parallels RAS has more than 5,000 customers … and we have a variety of different partners. There’s a lot of love and interest for what Parallels RAS is bringing to market. There’s a lot of room for everybody, this is kind of a ground-floor opportunity.”

The program also can help MSPs, ISVs and cloud service providers to “sell more solutions,” he said.

“There are a lot of businesses out there running legacy apps on XP and other things that are never going to get upgraded or be ported to mobile, etc., and businesses use them all the time,” Uppendahl said. “This is an opportunity to go to current customers or to potential customers, ask them what they use every day and what are those really old, core important things that [they] use that [they] wish were on mobile, and say, ‘Hey, no problem, we can do that for you.’ That’s the whole new level of benefits to those customers.”