Partner profitability is of paramount importance to Schneider Electric

Swarup Das 
Director - Channel Sales, Greater India - Schneider Electric  

‘Growth’ & ‘Profitability’ are the foundation of any program. The Partner Program at Schneider Electric helps amply the diverse value of partners and highlights the true value of a channel ecosystem. The Genesis of the program launch is based on feedback Schneider collects from the channel fraternity.  

For any business, be it big or small, the ability to grow depends on its partner network. The idea of a strategic partnership is to run their businesses from the initial stages to everyday operations. In the success of a vendor, channel partners play a crucial role.  

Channel partners play a pivotal role in promoting our products and solutions to end customers.  The revamped mySchneider IT Partner Program makes it possible for partners who want to market and sell their own service contracts as well as handle their own upkeep 

In terms of the program, we do have a dedicated partner portal where Partners can enroll themselves for different program based on the specialization they want to excel in categories like Software & and services, Critical infra provider, e-commerce, or Solution provider and each category offer distinctive benefit as they move up the ladder. 

Recently we introduced the industry's first of its kind enablement program: Partner People Performance [P3]. P3 is a comprehensive program spread over 30 months with a framework based on Knowledge – Skill – Methodology. The best part about P3 Certification is cobranded with IIT - Mumbai and NIIT. 

The most crucial criteria of a partner relationship should be its simplicity and transparency. Schneider has a multi-way communication process to ensure our message reaches partners in a concise, clear & and transparent way. I believe one must be a good listener to communicate or set expectations, we make sure our messages are consistent, valuable, transparent, and effective. We follow MOM’s test which means placing our communication in such a way that our mother should also understand what we want to communicate. 

The profitability of our partners is of paramount importance to us, and we design our policies, programs, and rewards in line with that. Most incentive/reward policy we roll out is targeted toward driving the Revenue and behavioral aspect of our partner. We have a Yearly, Quarterly and monthly promotional schemes that keep running throughout the year. Apart from that, deal registration, deal closure, design tool usage & and training completion attract further incentive.