Bringing the supply chain together under one umbrella including the end user was the rationale behind Panasonic's new B2B Partner Portal, according to Valerie Poret, Panasonic European Channel Manager.
"The Partner Portal is about closing the gap between Panasonic, our channel partners and the end user," she said.
"Clients have access to resources that enable them to maximise potential sales and achieve higher levels of service.
"The portal covers more products and make it easier for distributors and resellers to access customer facing information and register new business."
The web-based service is open to users across the company's Visual Systems and Communications divisions Europe-wide, and will be expanded to other business divisions later this year.
Those who sign up for the scheme gain access to product information, sales news and business incentives, with rewards scaled according to the level of partnership - Registered, Expert or Solutions - depending on the user's level of training and sales volume.
High level partners will also benefit from end user business lead allocation.
The Partner Portal also offers an online training programme and provides instant answers to product related questions.
"Depending on products, partners can find easy tools to support their daily business, such as eConfig which helps comms specialists to build their customer offer and select, at a glance, the system matching end user requirements," added Poret.
"For visual technologies, AV rental companies have access to a community platform allowing them to share information about their fleet of products available for cross-rental."