News
Citrix Moves To Lower Barriers to Entry for SMB Resellers
- By Scott Bekker
- October 02, 2007
Citrix Systems Inc. on Monday dropped requirements that North American VARs and consultants join the Citrix partner program to resell the company’s small and medium business-focused Access Essentials.
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company also announced a streamlined distribution program for Access Essentials resellers through Ingram Micro Inc.
According to Al Monserrat, vice president of worldwide channels, strategy and sales operations for Citrix, the company believes the “very capable Windows partner community” can handle rolling out Access Essentials, which has just been released in a 2.0 version. The Web-based Access Essentials allows companies to distribute applications to five to 75 remote or mobile users.
"At $249 per user including Microsoft Windows Terminal Server CALs, partners have been clamoring for Access Essentials, but shied away from the upfront investment we asked of them prior to making the first sale," Monserrat said in a statement.
Citrix encourages resellers to enroll in the Citrix Solution Advisor program and obtain Citrix certifications for larger, more complicated Windows-Citrix deployments involving Citrix Presentation Server.
The updated program with exclusive North American distributor Ingram Micro includes streamlined contact points, pre-sales assistance and trial software, along with order fulfillment.
Citrix' move comes as many IT vendors increase their outreach efforts for SMB sales. In a recent example also aimed at Windows resellers, Oracle eliminated the cost for SMB-focused VARs to resell certain Oracle products.
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.