Vocera Communications

The case offers an overview of a startup that has chosen to sell its solutions entirely through indirect channels—currently through value-added resellers (VARs) and, in the future, through both VARs and systems integrators (SIs). In the case, we discuss why the company chose a channel strategy, how management devised its marketing, product development, and pricing scheme for channel selling, the steps the company undertook to build its VAR network, and the costs of building such a channel. We also touch on how the company motivates, supports, and evaluates this network. We discuss issues such as pricing and bundling, dealing with under-performing VARs, and fundraising from a venture community that traditionally shuns companies that sell indirectly.