Telco Systems has cast a strong vote of confidence for the channel, launching a partner-based sales program that it says the company will count on for as much as 40 percent of its annual revenue.

Wednesday, the solution provider launched what it's calling the "Open Edge Alliance," a partner ecosystem designed to give members the ability to develop apps that become fully certified components of Telco's suite of solutions.

Gal Ofel, who is running the program, told IT Best of Breed the new partner ecosystem is a direct response to the wants and needs of customers who require wide suites of solutions for end users of varying sizes and budgets.

The program's goal is to bridge the gap between distributed NFV vendors and customers in order to make Telco more nimble in delivering a wider variety of solutions.

Telco, a division of Israel-based telecom and medical technology firm BATM, provides SDN, NFV, cloud networking, business Ethernet and other services to large telecom carriers. BATM brings in about $100 million in annual revenue, about half of it from Telco.

Telco says it's requiring a "minimal" partner investment in the program in order to attract smaller, younger firms and start-ups.