I recently read an article by Everything Channel CEO Robert Faletra that outlines five things solution providers can do to drive revenue during what may be a tough year.  What caught my attention about this article is that he bluntly asks solution providers if they’ve put as much energy into figuring out new areas to explore revenue as they have on cutting cost. 

This got me thinking about how we’re helping channel partners grow their revenue with AMD.  It’s not always about expanding what you sell or searching high and low for new ventures.  Often, it’s more about maximizing and optimizing the opportunities and resources available to you.

Helping partners take full advantage of our offerings within the channel is what we’re all about at AMD. In fact, this philosophy has been a driving force behind the creation of the AMD Fusion Partner Program. While other vendors are cutting costs in their channel programs, we’re one of the few companies embracing change and looking at tough times as a way to better our relationship with our channel partners.

Today we continue this theme with the expansion of the AMD Fusion Partner Program into the commercial channel and to our software partners. With the initial launch of the program into the component channel in September of 2009, we modified our program to reflect the increasingly global nature of our partners’ business, and made it easier for our partners to work with us across product groups.   

Now, we’re making it even easier to work across AMD.  With the inclusion of the commercial channel under the AMD Fusion Partner Program, channel partners can sell branded OEM solutions as well as custom systems and components with ease. This allows partners to sell a wider variety of products to their existing customers and also to reach new customers, all without having to join separate channel programs.

Also as part of today’s expansion of the AMD Fusion Partner Program, we’re working more closely with our software partners  under the AMD Fusion Partner Program software track to help better fulfill end-user needs for full platform solutions.  These closer relationships also open up new market opportunities for our partners. Through these alliances, AMD can provide channel partners access to software partners’ sales networks and marketing programs.

Finally, we don’t just want to simplify the structure of our program – we want to optimize the resources we provide and the way we engage with our partners. As part of this goal, today we announced an all-new Web portal – the AMD Fusion Partner Portal – a streamlined resource for partners to communicate with AMD and find needed sales enablement tools and marketing and training resources.

I’d like to leave you with this thought. Engagement is a two-way street.  We can only improve the way we’re working with our partners through open feedback.  We’re working diligently to make it easier for partners to provide us real-time feedback through in-person events, the AMD Fusion Partner Portal and even this blog.   As we continue to better our channel program, we hope that you’ll continue to provide your valuable feedback throughout the process. 

David Kenyon is VP of WW Channel Marketing for AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.