Quality vs. Quantity: Code’s EMEA Channel Partner Programme

EMEA Code Alliance Lowers the Volume to Hit New Highs

Turn it up!?!
Audiophiles and IT conglomerates love turning up the volume, whether it’s a hit song or the number of resellers admitted into a channel partner programme. But, for the EMEA Code Alliance Channel Partner Programme, maximizing volume for short-term benefits (like quarterly reports for shareholders) causes long-lasting harm (like margin loss for partners). So Code, a barcode scanner and data capture specialist, went a different route with its partner programme for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

"Code’s philosophy of not overcrowding the channel is unique," explains Hilde De Bisschop, Code Corporation’s senior channel marketing manager. "Imagine partnering with an AIDC conglomerate, where you can be facing 60 or more partners in your region at the same partner tier level. If there is a tender, you’ll have 10-20 others offering the same product. Getting the deal means lowering your margin."

Minding the Margin
Seeing this key shortcoming in other reseller programmes, De Bisschop, an IT channel marketing veteran, sought a reseller-centric approach for Code’s first-ever EMEA channel alliance. So she replaced the industry-standard revenue criteria and focused on partner quality.

"That’s a large part of how Code is different from the industry’s usual suspects," she explains. "We’re human and flexible; it’s about working with people—not processes."

Code welcomes VARs and ISVs who are well-established specialists or represent verticals with unique data capture needs. Its programme’s five distinct partner tiers feature partner-exclusive pricing, deal registration protection, and thoughtfully developed bonus structures to foster commitment.

"It’s really simple; you protect your partners, and they sell for you," De Bisschop explains. "Our criteria is not linked to revenue; it’s linked to your expertise in Code products and software, your industry expertise, and, of course, we reward revenue growth through rebates."

Portal to Sales
To develop and maintain product expertise, Code’s Partner Portal provides training. The portal also uniquely offers Code-exclusive bonuses like ready-to-use social media posts and marketing assets, e.g., blogs and use cases, which can be customized with a partner’s logo and contact. Code’s EMEA partners can also request in-person training to better understand proprietary features, such as CodeShield® disinfectant-ready plastics.

"Every time we do something for partners, I put myself in their shoes by asking if this is valuable for them," De Bisschop explains.

Products that Perform
Ultimately, partner success hinges on products. Just as the larger AIDC manufacturers pursue channel volume, they also chase volume sales with commodity hardware and one-size-fits-all software. Increasingly, though, these products can’t cost-effectively solve new challenges created by an increasingly data-driven world. However, Code’s products can thanks to unique capabilities such as data parsing via JavaScript.

Data parsing is extracting data from a source, like a barcode, and making it more usable. Code utilizes the well-established JavaScript programming language (that makes webpages interactive) to parse data upon barcode scan. Common uses include scanning a government-issued ID to verify age or scanning a shopper’s ID to populate parts of a store credit application. Data parsing also maintains compliance—a scan at the point of sale prevents UK shopkeepers from breaking the law by selling expired goods.

What else distinguishes Code’s data capture solutions?

Award-winning CodeShield® Plastics:
Select Code products utilize this disinfectant-ready plastic that withstands frequent sanitization. Cleansers can’t penetrate CodeShield’s dense polymers, elevating Code devices above those using "anti-bacterial" plastics. These become brittle with routine sanitation, which causes unsightly "yellowing" and enables chemical seepage, leading to premature failure.

CortexDecoder SDK:
Available in three flavors (embedded, mobile, and web), CortexDecoder transforms virtually any camera-equipped device into an enterprise-grade barcode scanner with superior barcode scanning performance. In fact, CortexDecoder-equipped smartphones can scan the world’s smallest DPM barcodes crafted by Denmark’s Rel8. The markings measure just 1mm2.
"CortexDecoder on a regular smartphone easily decodes imZERT barcodes down to 2mm2; with some attention to detail, even 1mm2 can be scanned directly," shares Guggi Kofod, Rel8 CEO. "Adding a simple macro-lens to the smartphone ensures that 1mm2 barcodes scan every time [with CortexDecoder]."

Software Licensing:
Code’s flexible SDK licensing options like offline scanning or eliminating the need to "phone home" ensure data privacy and provide scalability to grow with end-users, such as FutureProof Retail, the US-based creator of a self-checkout smartphone app.

"We needed a solution that would enable FPR to absorb the cost," shares Christian Toleg, VP of business development at FPR. "Code has a really good licensing model for the SDK. Other SDKs would have increased our pricing, and that wasn’t an option."

Code’s newest EMEA partners are finding that its strengths will drive new successes.

"Code started by finding different and innovative solutions and is now well-established," shares the CTO of Germany’s Elmicron. "Features like Unicode support, JavaScript programming, and multiple optical paths for barcode and 2D scanning are unique and important for us. Another plus is the high range of interface options, including smartphone connection. Finally, the third point is robustness and the possibility of cleaning [devices] with disinfection products."

The Perfect Partnership with Code
De Bisschop likens a channel partnership to a happy marriage and is confident the Code Alliance Programme’s structure will lead to long-lasting, fruitful relationships.

"First, you start by liking and getting to know each other, and then getting engaged," she summarizes. "Then there’s a wedding—you make that commitment. And before you know it, 20 years later, you are sitting on a bench with the same vendor because you’re happy together."

And such a relationship can only come from a quality, not quantity, approach.

To learn more about Code’s data capture solutions or its EMEA Channel Partners Programme, email or call.