A little more than a year after Polycom launched its Choice partner program for VARs, solution providers and distributors, the company is reworking Choice to reward those partners who focus on video solutions.

While the company saw initial success with its partners in the first iteration of the program, which enabled partners to specialize in certain vertical markets or product areas such as telepresence, unified communications, voice over IP and video solutions, Polycom now believes it and its partners will see the most success in the video space. With that in mind, “Choice 2.0” – as VP of Global Channel Marketing Maurizio Capuzzo (pictured) terms it – puts an emphasis on video solutions and introduces a level of simplicity and predictability for partners working with Polycom.

“With the opportunity that video offers we wanted to take a competitive leap in the marketplace and make the way of doing business with us simple and predictable,” Capuzzo said. “We respect the fact that we have to earn the business of different partners and their trust in us, and also help them make more money and produce a faster ROI for their customers.”

Under the new program, partners who focus on selling solutions based on Polycom’s UC Intelligent Core – its framework for delivering HD video services including immersive telepresence, conference room and desktop video collaboration, live streaming, on-demand video content and digital signage – will be rewarded through a series of standardized rebates or “accelerators” aligned with partners’ business focus. The idea is to shift partners away from selling specific technologies toward a more holistic, solutions-focused sales approach, and to offer predictability to partners as they determine their level of compensation from Polycom.

Additionally, Polycom is trying to introduce a level of simplicity for its partners by tying sales and marketing and technical resources investments to business models. “We’ve aligned our resources from a technical perspective to our Platinum and Gold partners’ models in the form of sales engineers,” Capuzzo said. “Those who are investing in this competency will have a greater level of support with SEs that are assigned to them.” The company also has created a telesales organization to help drive leads, implemented deal registration, and established a Global Response Team to help partners of all levels with any type of issue, from training to enablement to lead generation. The Global Response Team is available via phone, video or instant messaging, Capuzzo said.

“Really a big area of focus for us is developing our partner skills and capabilities and aligning our sales and marketing to all of our partners,” added Deandra Cassidy, director, Global Channel Programs. “We have implemented telesales for all partners with two components: one to grow and nurture partners to help them position better with Polycom solutions and one focused on the end user to create leads for partners. Leads will be given in priority – the higher and better-quality leads will go to those partners that make the investment in specializations and focus with us.”

As part of the new program, partners will have to achieve certification in different specializations, which are different from product certifications. “There is a great emphasis on developing skills and capabilities, along with putting an emphasis on value-add,” Capuzzo said. “We have raised the bar for our partners but we’re giving them plenty of time to realize what incremental investments they need to make.”

Platinum level partners, for example, now also have specific requirements around customer satisfaction, he said.

The program changes went into effect April 1, 2011, and were announced at Polycom’s annual TEAM Polycom partner conference April 4-6. Capuzzo noted partner reaction so far has been positive. “Under this new program, partners can compare and contrast, [and] see where the overall margin and business is and what to influence based on that.”

Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Weekly Newsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. Follow The VAR Guy via RSS, Facebook and Twitter. Follow experts at VARtweet. Read The VAR Guy’s editorial disclosures here.