Panasonic's New Partner Program Affords Resellers New Services, More Support

Panasonic on Thursday unveiled a new partner program it says will arm VARs with a more dedicated team of channel resources, along with greater visibility and access to the company's sprawling portfolio of products.

The new program, called the Panasonic Authorized Reseller Program, was announced at Panasonic's Solutions Partner Summit 2012, taking place this week in Phoenix, Ariz. The program will be rolled out over the coming months and will replace the nine, product-specific partner programs that were previously in place.

Sheila O’Neil, vice president of channel management at Panasonic System Communications Company, the new B2B solutions unit Panasonic rolled out in April, said this consolidation of programs will not only make for an overall more consistent and simple partner program, but will provide VARs with visibility into other Panasonic product groups from which they could be generating sales.

"You could say it's an all-in-one handbook where it's all under one program and where [partners will] be able to actually pull it all together. They'll be able to view all of it. ... We're looking for simplification and unification," O'Neil told CRN. "It's not necessarily always been easy to find the information about one program for a product group versus the other. So now, it's all under one comprehensive program."

Bill Brennan, senior director of channel sales at Panasonic System Communications Company, said the new Panasonic Authorized Reseller Program is aligned with today's tech industry, where devices are becoming more and more interconnected through the digital world and IP networking. The program's goal is to encourage this broader line of thinking among Panasonic partners, encouraging them to grow their businesses by embracing new categories of products.

"When we talk about the breadth of product, it sounds almost overwhelming. But, that's the other mission today is to work with our reseller partners and make them understand that the digital world has really made this an IP offering," Brennan said. "It's really simplified the business. The way we connect products, the way we get products to work is becoming very similar across categories, ... so it's very important that we take a lot of our loyal dealers and reduce their fear and apprehension about getting into these new categories."