Seagate has again been working with ardor on its partner programs in the Asia Pacific. This month, the company has initiated its rollout of the enhanced Seagate Partner Program in region, starting with Singapore, Australia, China, and India. According to Teh Ban Seng, vice president and managing director, Asia Sales & marketing, Seagate Technology, the company has strengthened and improved its Partner Program to better support resellers' unique business requirements.

Elaborating, he says, “Recently, we expanded our product range and wanted to better equip our partners with the right tools, support, marketing and information and incentives to continue our channel success. Seagate is an industry leader and our partner program is regarded as one of the top channel programs globally, These changes will further solidify our leadership position and demonstrate our commitment to our valued partners as part of our continued investment to provide value-add programs to support our customers’ business requirements.”

“The changes in the program are also in line with the market dynamics, with a growing portion of our channel business focused on non traditional IT applications and going into new markets such as retail and consumer type devices. This program allows us to capture a wider range of customers and provide more relevant tools, benefits and incentives for their specific markets,” he adds.

Teh also notes, "With the official launch of the Seagate Partner Program in four key markets in Asia Pacific, we will look to expand and deepen our reach in this important region. Partners can continue looking forward to Seagate providing best-in-class innovative products and services to meet their business needs."

The program will be rolled out across the Asia Pacific region in phases, starting with Phase 1 countries which are – India, Singapore, China and Australia. Teh says that the company is committed to rolling out the program to its partners in the rest of the region early next year, in line with its intention of deepening its channel penetration and market coverage.

Seagate is supporting the launch of the new Seagate Partner Program with an advertising and promotional campaign across the Asia Pacific. In Singapore, the new Partner Program was launched on 2 December.

In China, the first phase of the promotion which started from the 5th of December included an SPP roadshow covering 10 cities, including Shenyang, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Shenzhen and others. In January 2006, the second phase of the launch of the program will be in Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, and Guangzhou and other cities.

In Australia the program kicked off in Sydney on 14th December, and in Melbourne on 15th December.

In India, the SPP launch will include a roadshow covering nine cities including Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ludhiana.

The revamped program includes these innovations and benefits:

• A new password-protected, interactive web portal for easy access to new value-added product and marketing information, training sessions and customer support:
• Dedicated toll-free hotline for pre- and post-sales support for faster access to product, technology and marketing information backed by Seagate five-year warranty.
• Early access to Seagate's latest hard disc drive products through a special first-to-market evaluation program.
• Incentives designed to increase profitability for Seagate channel partners.
• Opportunities for partners to participate in exclusive promotions.
• An online Returns Management System that allows for faster, more efficient and more convenient management of warranty returns.
• Marketing materials created by Seagate for cost-effective marketing tool development.
• Access to a comprehensive suite of desktop, notebook, enterprise and retail products spanning 97% of the hard drive market.
• The quarterly "Cool Bytes" eNewsletter and Storage Solutions Catalogue which provide the latest news on products, technology and the storage market.

In addition, priority support will be given to SPP Premiers for pre- and post-sales support to ensure faster access to product, technology and marketing information.

Teh emphasizes Seagate’s commitment to the region as well as to delivering best-in-class products, service and support by closely working with its partners. He adds that Seagate's industry-leading five-year warranty program, the launch of the four collection points in Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu in China, the creation of a toll-free telephone customer support, plus the launch of the Seagate Partner Program, all underscore Seagate's aim to be the storage partner of choice for technology consumers in the region.

“The response from our partners in the region has been very positive and we will continually enhance the program to provide better support to our partners. While we are unable to reveal the actual number of sign-ups, we can say that we are very pleased with the response. This is a reflection on the value our partners see in our program backed by our five-year warranty support,” he concludes.