Promethean has announced that it plans to align its channel operations to better represent the education technology market. The change will see partner relations and marketing support be managed directly by Promethean, with TechData continuing to oversee logistic and finance matters.
The move came about following Promethean and TechData’s launch of Activpanel, and recognising the shift toward more convergent classrooms and a need for more involvement at a manufacturer-level.
Promethean hopes to improve how its channel relationships with a model that gives business partners direct access to support, whilst delivering the distribution model in place through TechData. The company state its channel model will now “better position Promethean to take future product developments to market.”
“Ahead of launching the new ActivPanel, we invested heavily in establishing a dedicated business development team who have been invaluable in getting the right message out to schools. The ActivPanel is much more than a display device. This means the product positioning and demonstrations need to reflect its true teaching and learning capabilities – which are way beyond what an IWB or early IFPD could do,” commented Alistair Hayward, head of UKI and ANZ at Promethean.
He continued: “Just a few months’ post launch and it has become apparent that our business partners need us to provide a much higher level of support than before, which is why we’ve worked with TechData to create a channel model which effectively mirrors what is needed.
Tony Scully, managing director at Maverick, added: “By introducing these changes, we are confident that we will strike the right balance and effectively map what is happening in the education market with the revised channel model.”
The channel changes were officially unveiled at the annual Promethean Partner conference on Tuesday 18 October, 2016 at the Belfry, Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, UK.