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In the midst of Broadcom’s acquisition of Brocade Communications Systems for about $6 billion – expected to close soon but with no firm date – as well as the sale of bits and pieces of Brocade to various buyers – including the sale of Ruckus Wireless and the ICX Switch business to Arris International for $800 million – Ruckus on Wednesday announced an effort to simplify and strengthen its partner program.

Ruckus’ Raelyn Kritzer

The newly named Ruckus Ready Partner Program, as of Nov. 1, introduces new specialization programs, a reduction in the number of partner-program tiers from three to two, and increased profitability for partners selling Ruckus wired and wireless products together. Reducing the number of partner-program tiers will make it easier to recognize and incentivize top-performing partners, while also allowing it to re-invest in channel partners, the company said.

“We are simplifying our programs to make it easy to engage with Ruckus, provide access to our diverse portfolio, and give partners the opportunity to boost their profitably with rich incentives,” said Raelyn Kritzer, senior director of worldwide partner programs at Ruckus. The newly appointed Kritzer, with 16 years of channel experience at Brocade under her belt, takes over for Sandra Glaser Cheek, who recently left the company. Glaser Cheek worked for two years as vice president, worldwide channels at Brocade, including responsibility for the Ruckus channel. Prior to that she put in almost two years at Ruckus Wireless as vice president, worldwide partner sales and marketing.

Distributor and solution-provider partners will have an opportunity to increase profit by 40 percent when selling Ruckus wired and wireless products together, the company said. The revamped program also provides partners with enhanced sales-enablement tools and visibility into customer leads and requirements.

Already focused on specialized markets such as hospitality and multi-dwelling units, the company announced an expanded program focus on markets such as smart city, large public venue and education. The specialized programs offer access to complete solutions that deliver robust networks with seamless connectivity using Ruckus wired and wireless products, the company said.

The smart city and large public venue channel specialization programs are available today. The simplified partner program and the education specialization program will start in the first quarter of 2018, according to the vendor.

Given the impending sale of both Brocade and Ruckus, partners face tumultuous times. Nevertheless, Kritzer told us that Ruckus is always looking for ways to improve its experience with the channel.

“We’ve always had a very strong channel ecosystem within the Ruckus business unit and we feel that it’s always an appropriate time as a fiscal quarter comes to a close to launch new programs and put something together to make it easier for partners to engage with us – partners who are loyal to us – as well as to attract new partners,” she said.

Kritzer also noted that it was a good time to separate the units and start …

…launching the program for this respective channel.

Ruckus has about 9,000 partners worldwide. Prior to today’s announcement, the partner program model had three tiers — entry, emerging and elite. The emerging tier is being eliminated and partners in the that tier will be grandfathered into the elite tier and have one year, from Nov. 1, to attain the required certifications and meet the revenue thresholds in order to stay in the elite program tier.

A 100 percent partner-led business, Kritzer wants partners to understand that during this challenging time, Ruckus is here for them, continuing to work to make it easier to partner with Ruckus, and that Ruckus will continue to focus on its partners.

“We’re looking forward to the road ahead,” she said.