Polycom Touts Channel Program Plans

Polycom (PLCM) announced it will launch a made-over partner program in April. Known as the Choice Program, the plan will offer tiered levels – Polycom Registered, Polycom Gold and Polycom Platinum – and a certification program, encouraging solution providers to become specialized in particular products and verticals. The Choice Program joins two other new channel programs – the Alliance Program for systems integrators and OEMs, and the Arena Program for technology partners.

Polycom’s aggressive channel strategy is no doubt a response to the recent M&A activity in the conferencing and collaboration market, and Polycom execs feel beefing up its channel will position it better to go up against Cisco-TANDBERG, in particular.