Samsung Electronics America has unveiled key enhancements to its channel partner program—the Samsung Team of Empowered Partners (STEP) – with new marketing services, as well as a professional training system.
“Samsung is committed to providing our partner community with the most dynamic sales, marketing and training tools to help them drive greater demand and reach new levels of profitability,” said Ed Abrams, vice president of marketing at Samsung Electronics America. “The resources we are rolling out in 2016 for partners will increase their relevancy in the marketplace and expertise in target markets—ultimately increasing their bottom line.”
Samsung takes a vertical approach to the enterprise market, with a focus on key industries including: Healthcare, hospitality, education, retail, financial services and federal government. The expanded support is part of Samsung’s 2016 channel focus in four key areas: Driving greater demand through partners, accelerating knowledge transfer, increasing partner profitability and simplifying platforms.
Enhancements to the program include:
Marketing Concierge Services: Available to solution providers and system integrators, Samsung‘s Marketing Concierge Services expand upon existing support provided through STEP. Now, through third-party marketing platforms, partners receive help with the planning, execution and reporting of co-branded marketing campaigns.
National Solution Provider partners gain consulting expertise in content marketing and help in building a social selling presence. Support includes holistic communications strategies and closed-loop marketing campaigns to drive pipeline and enhance alignment in services and solutions.
Regional Solution Provider partners and system integrators can tap into a range of creative activities to plan, customize and execute marketing programs. Third-party expertise now available through the Marketing Concierge Services includes ROI and pipeline reporting, social media marketing, and e-mail marketing using co-branded content.
Samsung Business Academy
Samsung also introduced the Samsung Business Academy, a new training and certification program that will help partners gain certification based on advancing their business knowledge. Based on a learning management system (LMS), it uses online, offline, teacher-led and self-guided learning resources for partner education on Samsung B2B products and solutions, including Samsung KNOX security, outdoor display and offerings in hospitality and healthcare. The Academy is a centralized way to manage and track a partner’s education courses, the results of which Samsung will use to include in its criteria to determine partner tiers in the program.
Training enhancements include greater interactivity with instructors through integrated web conferencing, tracking of third-party alliance product certifications (such as industry-specific accreditations), and professional development sales and marketing training.
The Samsung Business Academy will launch in the first half of 2016 and be integrated into the current Web-based STEP portal, with mobile support coming in the second half of the year.
“Samsung’s new marketing and training programs will give us a competitive advantage when it comes to providing the best technology solutions and support to help our customers succeed in a rapidly transforming enterprise environment,” said Chris Koterski, CTO of Stratix, a mobile management solutions provider and Samsung business partner. “Samsung’s channel resources offer a simple way to discover exciting new business opportunities, including those in the key verticals of interest to us – such as retail, healthcare, and transportation.”
