Citrix Partners with Ingram Micro to Foster Channel Community Business Growth

Citrix and Ingram Micro to Deliver New Tools, Citrix Enablement Program

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS), the global leader in Application Delivery Infrastructure, today announced that, effective Aug. 30, 2008, Ingram Micro Inc., will serve as its preferred authorized distribution partner in North America for products such as Citrix® XenApp™, Citrix® XenDesktop™, Citrix® XenServer™, Citrix® NetScaler®, Citrix Access Gateway™, Citrix® WANScaler™ and Citrix Provisioning Server™. The long-standing relationship, originally fostered in 1997, will be expanded to offer channel partners more strategic ways for the Citrix Solution Advisor (CSA) community to satisfy customers and deliver more value at each transaction. The enhanced partnership with Ingram Micro is specific to North America and will not impact authorized distribution partner relationships in other regions.

Increasing the resources dedicated to supporting its channel partners in North America, Citrix will rely more heavily on Ingram Micro to significantly increase the value to the channel over and above what they already receive:

* Under the closer relationship, Ingram Micro is launching the Ingram-Citrix Smart Enablement Program that will reward eligible CSAs for Citrix purchases. The earned credits can be redeemed for Citrix Certification Courses and End-user Demand Generation Programs, reducing their expense and driving new leads and business opportunities.

* Ingram Micro is significantly increasing the number of Citrix-dedicated resources to further support the CSA channel with proven marketing tools, technical support, business development, licensing specialists, field deployable sales engineer and product specialists. This Citrix-specific program enables a tremendous amount of leverage and alignment with Citrix-generated marketing to make it easier for Ingram Micro to work with the more than 1,900 authorized CSAs in North America.

* Additionally as Citrix has expanded its product portfolio, training has become increasingly important to partner success. By providing CSAs with additional resources as well as programs to enhance their knowledge of Citrix products, Ingram Micro will better enable partners to deliver the full Citrix value proposition directly translating to more value for the customer.

“All of our distribution partners have played a vital role in making Citrix the application delivery leader we are today,” said Craig Stilwell, vice president, Americas marketing and sales support, for Citrix. “The changing needs of our customers and markets, however, make the time right to align ourselves with a distributor best positioned to help us drive recruitment and development, build bigger and better programs for our CSAs and drive demand generation marketing without disrupting our channel partners. Starting with the new Citrix Enablement Program, Ingram Micro offers the most room for our programs and support to grow, now and in the future.”

“We’ve been a Citrix partner for eleven years and they’ve never let us down,” says Peter Anderson, president, Bayshore Technologies and Citrix Platinum Partner. “Initially we were a little concerned about working with just one distributor, but after talking to Citrix, we have every confidence that this move will not only benefit our business, but also help us drive more value to our customers.”

In recent months, Citrix has announced enhancements to its channel program to deliver the best possible solutions to customers. For example in July, Citrix expanded Citrix Advisor Rewards to compensate partners that influence embedded XenServer deals as well as those who fulfill them, effectively eliminating potential channel conflict and focusing the extensive expertise of CSAs to ensure strong incentives across the board.

“Increased focus when mapping out go-to-market initiatives and coverage models allows companies to better align themselves both internally and with partners,” said Tiffani Bova, analyst, Gartner. “Sales and marketing investments can be maximized for better returns and streamlined processes result in reallocation of resources which benefit the partner.”

Citrix will discontinue its relationships with its other North American authorized distribution partners effective Aug. 30, 2008.
Citrix®, NetScaler®, XenApp™, XenServer™, XenDesktop™, Citrix Access Gateway™, WANScaler™ and Citrix Provisioning Server™ are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.