Nortel’s nForce goes into OverDrive

In September Nortel launched OverDrive, a new ‘frequent flyer’ style loyalty program for its nForce channel partners. Martin Hatcher, Nortel’s SMB Sales Leader for ANZ, said, “The idea is we are trying to give more loyalty rewards back to our SMB partners, for not just selling Nortel but for doing training and certification with Nortel. We want to reward them with points that they can go and redeem for all sorts of prizes, such as barbecues and flat screen TVs”. The launch is part of Nortel’s ongoing focus on nForce, its SMB channel, which has recently undergone some cutbacks. Hatcher explained, “We want to do more with less and thought this the right time to launch the loyalty program to our partners, because we have fine tuned our channel and NZ is a great SMB market”.Any partner who is already a  qualified member of the nForce program is eligible for the OverDrive program and will be automatically added to “try and make it as easy as possible to start getting rewards”. As Hatcher mentioned, points are earned every time a partner interacts with Nortel and can be redeemed for a host of exciting rewards, such as digital cameras, flat screen TVs or even a holiday. Hatcher explained that four typical Business Communications Manager sales would be enough to redeem a Casio Exilim 7.2 megapixel camera and added, “We have already had one channel partner in Melbourne who was really excited because after a very short time he had enough to get himself a pretty good camera”.Nortel has outsourced the program to SurfGold Pty Ltd and, just like a frequent flyer program, the loyalty scheme will be administered as a totally online offering. When a partner makes a sale or attends a seminar points are automatically added to his or her total, which can then be redeemed online.