No New Partners, Please

At a time when most vendors are busy expanding their channel network and bringing more partners on board, Juniper Networks is clear that it will buck this trend. Instead the company is happy with the critical mass it has reached in terms of its channel and will work with the partners it already has rather than add more to this league.

Juniper Networks does not want any new partners in its
channel network. The idea is to grow with the partners, not create unnecessary
competition. The company, at the recently concluded APAC J-Partner Summit 2006
in Bangkok, revealed this strategy.

In fact the underlying message that was flashed to the
channel throughout the event was 'Accelerate your business'. Gary Kinsley,
VP-Channels APAC, Juniper made his point all the more clear with a grand
entrance at the summit in a Juniper featured formula one racing car, complete
with smoke, strobe lights and loud music.

Kinsley told the assembled partners that rather than foster
unhealthy competition for its channel Juniper will stand behind their prominent
partner's brand. "We stand behind our partner's brands and support
them. For example, in India Reliance is our partner/customer. So, if Reliance
sells our product, people who have never heard of Juniper may take Reliance's
word for it that it is a good service," said Kinsley.

"Our strategy to reach the market is 100 percent through
partnering and we have no aspiration to change that. We want to grow with our
partners," commented Eddie Munshull, Executive VP, Worldwide Field
Operations, Juniper Networks.

This was a major point that was stressed upon during the
three-day summit. Reiterating the point Kinsley said, "We want to work with
partners to encourage business as well as help them grow their product
portfolio."

Juniper Networks, which is involved in enabling secure and
assured communications over a single IP network, recently announced the
appointment of 2,200 plus partners in APAC, 100 of them in India, and said it
had attained 'critical mass' or having sufficient number of partners to
attain its business objectives. Its channel program has been running for the
past two years in which time the company had been aggressively ramping up their
focus on the enterprise segment.

The J-Partner Program enables and rewards partners for
delivering business critical networking and security solutions. It helps
partners in marketing, conducting and supports them financially by either giving
rebates, helping with credits or leasing agreements.

Today one third of Juniper customers are from the enterprise
segment, as opposed to the carrier customers, with over 900 enterprise customers
worldwide. The company has been achieving this growth through their sales model,
which is distinct in that it is 100 percent indirect.

The Juniper team and partners strike a pose for the lens

The Juniper-featured formula one racing car on display at the summit

Shot of the stage during the summit

Models show off the Juniper-featured formula one racing car on display at the summit

Growth strategy

The company is insistent that over-distribution would be harmful for the
growth of the channel and would lead to unhealthy competition amongst them. The
Juniper partnership advantage ensures that a minimum number of partners are
selected for maximum coverage and revenue.

"Partners too look for a value proposition in a
partnership. They want acceptable margins, the opportunity to sell services on
the product, training and information flow, from us. Fewer partners mean margins
are protected. While this strategy would give rise to competitors, data shows
otherwise. We are winning market shares as per various industry analysts like
Gartner," reasoned Kinsley.

Commenting further on enhancing the relationship between
Juniper and the partner as a growth strategy, Munshull said, "We want to
grow mutually in revenue and profitability. No one is here for charity.
Investing in channel programs is the heart of this strategy. We are very
passionate about enhancing the teaming between Juniper and the channel as
duplication is also very costly."

A tactful step

The company has attained a good geographical coverage through acquisitions,
the latest of them being the acquisition of Redline Networks in May 2005, and
aggressive recruiting over the last few years and has been aiming for maximum
market coverage. Speaking about acquisitions that the company has made in the
recent past, Andy Miller, VP-Enterprise Sales APAC, Juniper said, "The
difference between our company and others is that we have not been acquiring as
a strategy but as a tactic. When acquiring we are also looking at the value of
the workforce. Acquisitions have to add value to the company and not size."

Kinsley commented that in most acquisitions, the channel of
the new company were already partners of Juniper so it was just a legal
perspective of the contract. "Our acquisitions with regard to channel
transition have been pretty smooth. We induct partners in the J-Partner program,
educate them and provide information flow."

The J-Partner Program is a global program with minor changes
in different regions to make it more appropriate for business models of that
region. For example the partners in Japan follow a sub distribution model
wherein resellers have a relationship with customers but the distributors
provide value adds, whereas in most other regions the reseller provides the
value adds, Kinsley explained.

 Adding to that, Munshull said, "You can't treat
partners the same in all regions. Language is a major difference that we have to
respect and also the root to market, i.e. how many levels there are between
Juniper and the customer."

Partner support

In stride with the company's efforts to grow with the partners, the
company offers strong partner support in the form of market development fund (MDF),
or financial support. MDF, which steadily increases YoY, helps the partners to
expand Juniper presence in their markets. Dedicated channel marketing experts
are also provided to work with partners on go-to-market strategies, not to
mention, the company constantly cultivates new markets for its partners. Support
also comes in the form of education programs. "We require partners to
understand what we are doing so that they can accelerate their business,"
said Kinsley

Another big support partners get is in the form of tools that
help them understand hidden costs that come with deploying the solution and
helps them over come that. The tools and services, developed in house by
Juniper, are not fee-based and basically help to launch a profitable solution.
These tools are created for carriers and enterprise market to help them to help
their customers understand total cost of ownership.

"We work with tools and models to do analysis thus
helping carriers and solution providers to become profitable," remarked
Keith Falter, Financial and Business Analysis, Juniper. "Our tools account
for all costs and we think it is the best tool in the industry. Other companies
offer similar tools but at a price. Ours is more of a value add to the partner
and part of our strategy to build a relationship and trust with partners,"
said Falter. The company also trains local partners on how to use the tool so
that they can do calculations by them selves later on.

Focus areas

When Juniper started its business a decade ago, there was other several
companies venturing in the same space. Today, it claims to be the only one left
standing at the $2 billion plus revenue bracket. "Quality is the over rider
in business. We are focusing on being best in breed," said Kinsley.

He went on to add that Juniper historically has a good
customer base in Asia with a good penetration in the carrier market. While Cisco
seems to be the only other company giving some kind of competition to Juniper,
Jeff Lindholm, Chief Marketing Officer, Juniper Networks insisted that they do
not perceive Cisco as a competitor since Cisco, having been around for 20 years,
would be the likely market leader."We have entered the enterprise segment
in the last two years only and have already got such a huge market share and
customer base. More

and more people are now seeing us as a likely alternative to Cisco, with no
other players at this level," commented Lindholm. Once again he stressed
that Juniper was not into selling cheap alternatives but a company looking at
being 'best in breed'.

Today one third of Juniper business come from the enterprise
segment but the company is looking forward to enhancing this ratio. "Our
target in the coming years in to get a 50:50 percent balance and we are well on
our track to get that," said Munshull.

Speaking further about the company's target Lindholm said,
"We want to establish Juniper as a thought leader in open IP. We are not
looking at mass marketing but marketing to our customers. Our areas of focus are
the existing customers. Key verticals that we want to focus on are financial
services, governments and R&B."

While a lot of focus is going in to developing the enterprise
business, Kinsley informed that it did not imply that the company was defocusing
from the carrier business. Juniper also celebrated its 10th anniversary at the
summit.

RUTH SAMSON in bangkok

(The writer was hosted in Bangkok by Juniper Networks)