Cloud Storage Provider Box On The Prowl For Partners

Chris Penner, vice president of channel sales at Box, said in an interview with CRN that Box is actively recruiting more partners. "We are on a growth trajectory and going after market share in a big way, and we are leveraging our channel program to do so," Penner said.

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The cloud storage vendor also has entered into a North American distribution relationship with Ingram Micro, Penner said. Other distribution partners include CDW, Ahead, Insight, Forsythe and SoftChoice.

Box received $125 million in venture funding in July 2012 and experienced sales growth of 150 percent in 2012, Penner said, without giving exact financial figures for the privately held company.

In September 2012, Box launched a worldwide content-sharing network aimed at enterprises in need of fast data transfer.

The Box channel program offers recurring revenue terms, training, market development funding and deal registration, Penner said.

The program allows partners to select the Box relationship they prefer, such as choosing to refer leads to Box and earn a commission for the first-year contract, or reselling Box and earning revenue for the life of an account.

The company also unveiled what it is calling the Box Partner Network, which will coordinate relations with its channel, strategic and technology alliance and platform partners.

As part of that new network, Box revealed new software integration partnerships with Autodesk, AtTask, Fonality, Marketo, CollabNet, Clarizen, TIBCO, Tidemark and Xero.

More than 17,000 developers are building custom apps and integrating with the Box platform, Penner said.

PUBLISHED FEB. 5, 2013