In a bid to drive indirect sales from 50 to 90 percent of its total revenue by the end of 2009, web hosting giant Verio has done a major overhaul of its channel program.

Key enhancements to the program include deep discounts on volume purchasing (up to 45 percent), a new partner web site, www.viaverio.com, a revised commission structure, more comprehensive program benefits, updated sales resources, and advanced educational courses.

Verio provides a suite of Web-based services that include hosting, on-demand software and managed IT/webmaster services. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of global communications leader NTT Communications.

Verio plays in a worldwide web-hosting market that has been forecast to grow from $4.9 billion in 2007 to $5.6 billion this year, according to Tier 1 Research.

The vendor’s partner program is designed to give web designers, developers, ISVs, and service-oriented VARs a turnkey solution for reselling Verio’s white-labeled hosting plans and services, or for providing them alongside existing client offerings.

“We revised our channel program to help our partners grow their businesses by giving them incentives and tools they need,” said Ken Griffin, Verio’s director of marketing. “This program reflects a couple of years’ feedback from partners, telling us what they want and don’t want in a channel program.”

Griffin said partners told Verio to increase its sales and marketing supporting without disturbing the level of full-service technical and business support.

“That’s what we did,” he said. “We increased our sales and marketing support by about 25 percent by adding more people to our channel account management team. In addition, we’ve enhanced our training support, not just product training but business development training. We’ve opened up our inside sales resources to resellers.”

Besides what he described as the above ‘hard’ benefits, Griffin said Verio created ‘soft’ benefits, chiefly a new partner portal. This portal will deliver resources and sales tools, and will serve as a forum for partners to network with one another regarding Verio’s solutions and common issues, he said.

Portal resources will include a partner-to-partner directory, a partner engagement forum, a partner blog, and a partner innovation channel which is a microsite for gathering and sharing feedback on Verio’s products and programs.

Verio also will be launching a Webinar-based partner education series to provide education on topics related to hosting, and practical advice on driving revenue growth.

TAGS: services, software, hosting, Verio, channel program

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