Thales ties its business goals to its partners’ long term strategic interests

Ashesh Thanawala
Channel Sales Director – APJ - Cloud protection & Licencing, Thales  

Thales’s primary route to market is with the channel, generating around 85% of its worldwide revenues via partners. 
“Relationships are built on trust and in our business Trust is the foundation for digital transformation, payment and settlement systems, cloud transformation & migration,” says Ashesh Thanawala, Channel Sales Director – APJ, Cloud protection & Licencing, Thales. “Our channel policies are aptly geared up to plan, grow and execute the partners’ long term strategic interest. Our policies offer flexibility and choices for partners that provide selling options ranging from traditional reselling to managed security services and OEM relationships.” 

KEY ELEMENTS OF CHANNEL POLICY
The key elements of Thales's channel policy typically include -
1. Upfront Deal Registration: A complete transparent process to protect the reseller's partners interest while bringing, building and closing the deal with us.   
2.  Partnership Development: Thales emphasizes building long-term partnerships, providing resources and support to ensure mutual growth.
3.  Training and Certification: The company often offers training programs and certifications for channel partners to enhance their skills and knowledge about Thales products.
4.  Marketing Support: Thales usually provides marketing materials and co-branding opportunities to help partners promote products effectively.
5. Incentives and Rewards: Competitive incentive structures are typically in place to reward partners for achieving sales targets and driving product adoption.
6.  Technical Support: Ongoing technical support is often available to assist partners in addressing customer needs and troubleshooting issues.
7.  Compliance and Ethics: Thales prioritizes compliance with local regulations and ethical business practices, ensuring that all partners adhere to high standards.
“Thales as a ‘Channel company’, and not a company with a channel — and there’s a lot of pride behind that statement. We put a lot of hard work and effort into ensuring that our channel partners are set up for success when they go to market with our products. For instance, our Alliance organization, which includes all our Tech & OEM partners. We have over 400 companies worldwide that have integrated their software with our products,” recounts Ashesh.
He further continues, “When I joined in 2005, there was no channel in India as we were billing directly. In India alone besides setting up the channel from scratch, we are proud to have 40+ Integration application partners in our mix of gradually appointed Resellers, Vertical Focused Distributors that we developed and built trust relationships that are still strong for close to 2 decades.”
Thales keeps supporting its partners from time to time. It does through Transparent Deal registration that results in easy access to leads and sales support with access to new niche market growth. It also circulates joint marketing materials and activities to raise awareness and bring in customers, besides collateral that clearly defines the vendor’s solution and how it ties into what the partner can provide. Lastly, Thales provides basic tools needed for success for deals that will always include a technical element, and the high level support to make the partner shine in front of customers.