INTERNAL VMware Document – Do Not Distribute outside of VMware
INTERNAL FAQ VI3 for Professional Partners
General questions about VMware Infrastructure 3 for Professional Partners 1. What is VMware offering to Professional Partners? Around TBA of 2007, VMware will open up VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3) Starter Edition to our VIP Professional Partners. Effective TBA, 2007, VMware is opening up VI3 Standard and Enterprise Edition to Professional Partners who are VMware Sales Professional (VSP) Accredited. Are we offering VI3 Standard and Enterprise Editions to all Professional Partners worldwide? Effective TBA Professional Partners will be able to sell VI3 Starter, Standard and Enterprise Editions. We will be opening up the VI3 Standard and Enterprise Editions to the Professional Partners in the other regions in the Q3/Q4 timeframe. Why is VMware making these changes? In order to increase our market share into the rapidly growing SMB market segment, VMware is leveraging and enabling existing Professional level resellers to sell the full VMware product line into the SMB market. What requirements must a Professional Partner meet to be authorized to resell VI3 Standard or Enterprise Edition? Professional Partners must meet the minimum VMware Sales Professional (VSP) requirement of One (1) accredited VSP in order to resell VI3 Standard or Enterprise Edition as well as VDI. Professional Partners’ technical knowledge and clear understanding of the technical capabilities of these products will be essential. As a result, sales of these products to end customers will objectively require a minimum number of trained sales-reps How will the distributors know who has been VSP trained and who hasn’t? We have created a custom query for our distributors titled “VIP Professional w/VSP”, which displays on the “Communities” page of Partner Central. This query is visible to all VMware Partner Central users as well as our VMware Distributors. The purpose of this new query is to assist VMware Distributors in identifying Professional Partners who have achieved VSP Accreditation. This will then allow Distributors to sell VI3 Standard and Enterprise Edition software to Professional Partners who had not previously been authorized to resell these products. We are working on an enhancement that will also summarize the VSP count per company (currently each user is listed as a separate line). 6. What will happen if a “non-accredited” Professional Partner submits an order for VI3 Standard or Enterprise or VDI to a VMware Distributor? Non-accredited Professional Partners are not eligible to sell VI3 or VDI. If an order is submitted by a “non-accredited” Professional Partner, the order should be rejected by the VMware Distributor. . What will happen if a “non-accredited” Professional Partner requests a quote from a VMware Distributor for VI3 Standard or Enterprise Edition or VDI?
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First Draft AUST
10/30/2008
INTERNAL VMware Document – Do Not Distribute outside of VMware
Quotes for VI3 Standard or Enterprise Editions, or VDI should only be provided to Professional Partners who have attained VSP Accreditation. If a “non-accredited” Professional Partner requests a quote for VI3 Standard or Enterprise Editions or VDI from a VMware Distributor, the VMware Distributor should decline to provide a quote 8. What information will our distributors be able to share with our different partner tiers? On TBA, 2007, our distributors can communicate that VMware Professional Partners can now resell VI3 Standard and Enterprise Edition. How will this change affect VMware’s Enterprise and Premier Partners? There is no change to the Enterprise or Premier Program. The clear advantage of being at either of these levels is that only Enterprise and Premier Partners are eligible to participate in the advantage+ (Opportunity Registration) incentives program. This th program has been greatly enhanced with the introduction of advantage+ on April 4 2007. Professional Partners are not eligible to participate in advantage+ (Opportunity Registration). The new enhancements include: oppreg+ - The core component of the advantage+ program rewards partners who register opportunities with a 10% rebate if the deal is closed. newaccount+ - Partners earn an additional 6% rebate on top of the oppreg+ reward if the registered sale to a VMware pre-approved "new customer" account (10%+6%=16%). solutiontrack+ - Partners who follow the SolutionTrack methodology and register these deals through oppreg+ can earn an additional 3% (10%+3%=13%). What message are we giving to Corp Resellers who will now get the same margin as Pro-VAR+ partners? In our June newsletter to Enterprise Partners we will soft message that Professional Partners can now resell VI3 Standard and Enterprise Edition. We will not communicate anything about pricing, discounts or margins since the distributors set the price directly with their partners. Is there any change to the discount provided to Professional Partners for the VI3 Standard or Enterprise Editions? As always, pricing is determined by the VMware distributor. There is, however, a recommended lower discount structure for Professional Partners to purchase VMware products. Premier and Enterprise Partners have a margin advantage with both the discount level and the advantage+ program. How will we communicate to the Professional Partners the new product offering? On TBA, an email will be distributed to all our Professional Partners announcing the program change. Embedded in the email will be a FAQ document. For your review, we have attached a copy of the Professional Partner email notification.
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How is this message being communicated out to our Enterprise and Premier Partners? There will be a “soft” announcement in an upcoming Partner Newsletter, mentioning that VI3 Starter, Standard and Enterprise editions will be available to all partners who have met their VSP accreditation requirements. There will also be messaging during presentations of the new Opportunity Registration incentives, advantage+. Will we be informing customers of this change? At this point we do not have plans to communicate this outside of the Partner community.
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First Draft AUST
10/30/2008
INTERNAL VMware Document – Do Not Distribute outside of VMware
15. What are the benefits to the Partner Business Managers associated with this change? Partner Business Managers are encouraged to use this opportunity as a recruitment platform into the Enterprise level as VMware tracks the Professional Partners who are consistently selling VI3. What VMware products are eligible for VI3? Currently, Professional Partners are only allowed to resell VI3 Starter Edition. With this announcement, Professional Partners will now be allowed to resell VI3 Starter, Standard and Enterprise editions. What is the process for handling this change through Distribution? Distribution was briefed the week of TBA, 2007. We will provided them with a 30-day notice of change which gave them the opportunity to update their part numbers and pricing to reflect the new discounts to Professional Partners. The change will become effective TBA, 2007. How does a Professional Partner get started so they can sell VI3 Standard and Enterprise Editions? In order to achieve authorization to resell VI3 Standard or Enterprise Editions or VDI, Professional Partners must obtain the minimum VSP accreditation. Partners may access the no-charge, web-based training through Partner Central and go to the Training Tab to access the online VSP modules. Partners must complete all (including testing) of the required courses (6) and any one of the VSP solution specialties in order to achieve accreditation. What process does a partner need to follow to be authorized to resell VI3 Standard or Enterprise Editions or VDI? Once a Professional Partner has their VSP accreditation, they are authorized to resell VI3 and VDI. The VSP accreditation information will be automatically communicated to the VMware Distributors and will be updated on a regular basis. Note: It may take up to 48 hours for Partner Central to reflect updated VSP accreditations. What is the plan for technical enablement of these Professional Partners? VMware will be working with our Value-added Distributors to enable these partners. We believe partners will readily participate in further enablement sessions as they see the opportunity VI3 provides. Do Professional Partners now receive any additional program benefits based on this change in product resale? There are no additional program benefits (e.g. MDF, Opportunity Registration, etc.) that Professional Partners receive as a result of the program change. Can a Professional Partner now receive an NFR of VI3 Standard and Enterprise Edition? Currently they cannot receive NFRs of VI3 Standard and Enterprise Editions due to some systems restrictions. We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible.
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First Draft AUST
10/30/2008