Paragon’s Daniel Eickhoff Recognized as 2012 Channel Chief by CRN

UBM Channel’s CRN named Daniel Eickhoff, director of channel sales at Paragon, as a 2012 Channel Chief. CRN’s list of the most influential and powerful leaders in the IT channel recognizes those executives directly responsible for driving channel sales and growth within their organization, while promoting and defending the importance of the channel throughout the entire technology industry.

Channel Chiefs were chosen by UBM Channel editorial staff on criteria including policy and program innovations made during the past year, the amount of revenue their company generates through partners, their willingness to speak out publicly on behalf of the channel, and the number of years they have dedicated to channel activities.

“The 2012 Channel Chiefs list recognizes vendor executives dedicated to driving channel programs in the IT marketplace,” said Kelley Damore, VP, Editorial Director, UBM Channel.  “Being named a Channel Chief is one of the most prestigious honors in the technology industry. This year’s Channel Chiefs list offers tremendous insight into the who’s who of the channel. Top channel executives consistently ensure that the channel’s voice is heard when strategic decisions are being made and continually nurture mutually profitable relationships. We applaud the 2012 Channel Chiefs for their successful partner programs and strategies.”

Eickhoff focuses on evangelizing the company’s products by recruiting and training VAR partners, implementing best practices for channel success, and enabling partners to be successful with Paragon to grow their business. With over 10 years of channel experience and the ability to translate his partners’ needs and the customers’ requirements into a successful channel program, Eickhoff continues to build a strong reseller community.

“Receiving this award is a great honor, but much of the credit goes to everyone here at Paragon Software as well as our outstanding partners,” said Eickhoff. “Paragon has always embraced the indirect sales model, and over the past three years we restructured our sales, marketing and support organizations entirely around the channel. By the end of last year, we achieved our goal of over 95 percent of our business going through the channel.”

Paragon had another record year in 2011 thanks to signing 104 new VARs, the introduction of many new products, significant investments in strategic demand and lead generation to fuel the channel, and hiring several first-class channel managers to service our growing partner-base. “As a result, our existing partners were able to increase their Paragon revenue by an average of 25 percent, with many of our top partners growing by more than 50 percent,” said Eickhoff.

Selected by CRN’s editorial staff, the 2012 Channel Chiefs list is featured in the February issue of CRN Magazine and will be featured online at www.crn.com.

In 2011, Paragon Software Hard Disc Manager Suite earned PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award for the second year in a row, beating out both Symantec and Acronis.