Brocade Alliance Partner Network Adapted

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. invests
in accelerating channel time to revenue.

As Brocade partners
evolve their business models in response to customer demand for virtualization,
cloud, data center consolidation and professional services, the Brocade
Alliance Partner Network (APN) has adapted to provide a program to accelerate time to revenue.

By delivering focused resources and competitive incentives, Brocade helps
partners deliver on their business strategies, enhance their brand and build
their technical expertise.

The new
resources include an online partner portal to centralize management of all
resources and assets, an online configuration tool, online pre-sales training
and marketing and sales asset development resources. Brocade has streamlined
the point-of-sale processes, and will be increasing rebate caps and incentives
on IP networking sales focused on driving new customer growth.

"The Brocade APN
program makes it easy and straightforward for us to manage our business with
Brocade, allowing us to focus our resources on growing our revenues. The APN
solutions provide our sales team with the tools necessary to give us a
competitive edge, by enabling fast but professional communication with
customers from early engagement through to building a successful long-term
relationship," said Jennifer Beck, senior development manager at
Walker and Associates, Inc.

Faster Time to Revenue
With Technical
Enablement Solutions
Brocade is
making enhanced configuration tools available to partners, in addition to the TCO
calculators, the Brocade BMI Configurator and inclusion in the Netformx Design
Expert tool. The online product configurator tool will provide configurations
to provide initial comparisons and compatibility reviews. The tool is designed
to facilitate early discussions with customers and accelerate the sales
process.

Simplified Management With Single Point
of View
Brocade is
launching APN Central, a portal that provides partners with a single online
location for all deal information and program updates, along with access to all
marketing, sales and pre-sales tools. APN Central helps partners manage their
marketing development funds (MDF), deal registration, lead management,
education and configuration needs. These capabilities allow partners to view
business plans, check program compliance and provide direct access to the new sales and marketing tools to drive
growth and target revenue opportunities.

Driving Demand With New Sales and
Marketing Resources
As part of
Brocade Grid, three new online resources will now be available to support
partners in their efforts to drive sales and build their own brand. The
marketing hub, Brocade pre-sales training and the sales kit provide
ready-to-use assets for demand generation, information blasts, product
information, sales and training and seminars-in-a-box that can be co-branded
and personalized. Brocade is also providing enablement funding to new Elite and
Premier level partners, and has developed ‘kick-start’ campaigns that
can be tailored. By utilizing these self-service marketing solutions, partners
can access advertising, marketing programs and assets to extend their reach and
attract both net-new and current customers to accelerate revenue growth.

"Channel organizations want networking
solutions that provide differentiation and that help them build their
professional services revenues quickly and easily. Brocade delivers this
through Brocade Ethernet fabrics, The Effortless Network!" vision for
campus solutions and Brocade Network Subscription," said Regan
McGrath, VP WW Channel Sales and Marketing at Brocade. "With this wide range of innovative
networking solutions and easy-to-use online tools, we are giving our partners
the assets and support they need to build their brand, drive sales and
ultimately accelerate their revenue growth."

The Brocade APN has three levels of membership (Select, Premier and
Elite) and a distribution category. It offers partners qualified leads, sales
support and technical education in addition to a range of self-service
marketing tools, enablement portals and training and education programs to help
partners develop and tailor their business models to their particular needs.