EMC Supplement

EMC’s partner program Velocity2 has evolved over the years to reflect a changing marketplace and is now firmly established with its channel partners as a flexible and powerful enabler of their profitability.

Willem Hendrickx, EMEA Vice President Channel & Mid-Market at EMC explains what makes Velocity2 so special, “At the heart of the Velocity2 partner program is the need to differentiate partners in the marketplace so that they can be competitive and profitable.”

“We have listened carefully to our partners and refocused Velocity2 to reflect the ONE EMC message. By bringing together our software and hardware products to build solutions that our partners can take to market we are giving them differentiation as well as synergy across our ranges.”

“We have also simplified Velocity2 and made it easier to do business with EMC.”

“However what has really made the difference is the radical decision we took to make the Mid Market the sole responsibility of the channel, removing any conflict with our own direct sales teams. Added to this we focused on identifying partners who wished to go with us and rewarded them for doing so.”

The success of this strategy can be seen in a 18% overall growth and a growth of +30 % in the last 8 quarters in the Mid Market business. Also 70% of business in EMEA is now from Channel.

“30% growth shows that there is no market size constraints,” claimed Willem. “What our partners already understand however is that differentiation and specialisation are what really makes the difference.”

“When it comes to differentiation it is not a matter of having products that nobody else has, because that will never be the case. Differentiation is about adding value to the client’s business.”

“This is achieved by specialising in areas such as integrating an archiving solution into SAP, or combining security with storage and then applying it to the client’s business applications and processes.”

“EMC has worked hard at developing solutions that the partners can take to market and what we need are partners who are prepared to specialise.”

The Velocity2 program however is much more than providing solutions and then leaving it up to partners to take them to market as Willem explains, “Not many vendors talk about market opportunity with their partners and then go with the partner to take it.”

“We want to drive market opportunity for Velocity2 partners around specialisations. We have hired lots of people and are building resources behind the channel to identify

opportunities, create demand, generate leads, assist with marketing, and then support them through the sales cycle.”

So that EMC can align these resources accurately and effectively they have a simple but effective structure to supporting Velocity2 partners as Willem explains, “It is important that EMC has the most efficient way of delivering support to channel partners at whatever level they operate. We therefore structure our channel into three areas Volume, Value and Consultancy.”

“The volume area, which includes products such the Insignia range, go through our volume distribution partners. In the value area where we provide solutions that include hardware and software we use specialist distributors who themselves are accredited to the highest level with EMC and are geared up to help partners specialise.”

“At the consultancy level are our Signature Partners who we deal with directly. They have the highest level of expertise in our products and are capable of delivering complex solutions for their clients.”

“We want all our partners to be aspirational in differentiating themselves and specialising for profit,” stated Willem. “Over the next few pages we would like show some things we are doing with our Signature and distribution partners that are having an immediate effect on their business and then we would like to explain in a little more detail how we help them and our other partners be effective and profitable as an EMC partner.”

“I hope you take this opportunity to read on and find your path to profitability with EMC.”

EMC Velocity2Driving Partner Profitability

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A challenge for all solution providers in the channel is defining exactly what a solution looks like for the client and then proving its viability and worth.

This is also a challenge for vendors like EMC who have a whole host of products which can be assembled to provide specific technology solutions but which by their nature need to be integrated into a business process to provide the end customer with a real world solution.

The issue of defining these solutions gets more difficult the larger the client and the more complex their IT requirements. Where can the client go to try out these solutions and test integration with their own business processes and with real data.

EMC have been looking at this issue for some time and have come up with a solution of their own to this problem, the Signature Solution Center.

Peter Yarwood, EMEA Commercial Sales Director, explains, “Customer solutions have been getting more and more complex over the last few years. No longer are you selling them storage, servers or networking where the complexity is purely in calculating the capacity, performance and throughput.”

“Today’s solutions are all about business process and are a combination of hardware, software and services to enable business efficiency, agility and profitability.”

“The issue is, how do you integrate a backup, storage and retrieval solution with Microsoft Exchange, SAP or an Oracle solution, and integrated to the client’s line of business and meet their industry regulatory requirements.”

“The client will want to see it all in action and most certainly want a proof of concept demonstration using

their data, and run under different scenarios that emulate their own unique requirements.”

“Under normal circumstances even the largest channel organisations would struggle to assemble the infrastructure and software to prove such a case. However with our Signature Solution Center program EMC’s larger partners are able to provide those facilities today.”

EMC is working today with more than 30 of its Velocity2 Signature Partners across EMEA to set up Signature Solution Centers where clients can come in and do application, proof of concept, migration and performance testing.

Peter Yarwood explains what makes the Signature Solution Center special, “The investment in equipment, software applications, skills and people in setting up a Signature Solution Centre is considerable. So it is important that that our Signature Partners get a real return on this investment.”

“EMC is committed, with the partner, to make sure that the Signature Solution Center draws the right level of chargeable business and does not just become an expensive demonstration centre.”

“By aligning proven EMC solutions for consolidation, backup and recovery, archive, security and content management with industry business applications from Microsoft, Cisco, SAP, Oracle and VMware our Signature Partners are able to offer their clients the ultimate in testing facilities.”

“We have worked closely with our Signature Partners to calculate their investment and then bring that down to a daily charge rate for the facilities that would give them a return over two years.”

It is this commercialisation of the Signature Solution Center that the Signature Partners and their clients have rapidly bought into.

“We felt that the facilities had to pay for themselves and that the end customers would see a value in a facility where all the equipment, applications and support resources were available to them to do their performance, migration or proof of concept testing,” explained Peter.

“For the Signature Partners not only would their investment have a pay back by usage but also it would instil confidence in their clients that they could support them through their implementation of these new solutions.”

An important factor in the Signature Solution Center program is the alignment with another vendor technology, as Peter Yarwood explains, “The EMC solutions are never sold in isolation. They are always integrated with a business application. We therefore require that when setting up a Signature Solution Center our partners also

Signature Solution CentersPioneering a new path to profitability




focus on at least one other vendor solution and show their integration.”

“Some partners have chosen to align with Microsoft Exchange solutions, others with SAP or Oracle. All have also implemented VMware to show a virtualised environment along with say Microsoft Exchange.”

“The important factor is that they have the skills and resources to help their clients with their solutions in whichever specialisation they choose.”

The commitment from Signature Partners has been really encouraging commented Peter, “Our partners have wholeheartedly bought into the essence of what the Solution Center concept is all about, demand creation.”

“The Signature Solution Centre has to become core to the way they do business. The stages from implementation, through launch, demand generation, customer visits to closing the first deals can be up to 9 months and if they drop the ball at any stage the center will be under-utilised.”

“However since the launch of the program mid 2007 we have had 14 Signature Solution Centers go live across Europe and by the end of 2008 there will be 30 up and running.”

“Those that are already operational are seeing a tremendous level of bookings from clients. This shows that there has been a latent need for such facilities. If the client had to set up their own facilities to test their new solutions the cost would be prohibitive.”

“The Signature Solution Center is fulfilling a vital role for organisations as they migrate to new business process orientated IT solutions. For our channel partners it provides a source of revenue at a stage in the sales cycle which has often been viewed as a cost and it reinforces the relationship between client and Signature Partner at a critical stage of the planning and development cycle.”

Over the next two pages we will look at how one of our recent Signature Solution Centre Partners has found the experience of setting up and promoting the center’s use.

Peter Yarwood




In March 2008 Dimension Data opened its first global Velocity2 Signature Solution Center in Brussels designed to simulate a customer’s specific environment and to provide a real life experience of the possible benefits provided by EMC products and Dimension Data’s solution offerings.

This is the first EMC Signature Solution Center in the Benelux and the sixth to open across EMEA. “Dimension Data is the only Signature level partner in the country,” explained Jan Barbier, Business Development Manager Data Centre & Storage Solutions (DCS) & Operational Support Solutions (OSS) at Dimension Data in Belgium.

“This Solution Center is strategically important to Dimension Data as we plan to expand into other countries globally.”

The initial focus of this Solution Center is around the integration of EMC proven solutions for Microsoft Exchange environments.

“This centre will allow our customers to see how Dimension Data, EMC and Microsoft can help them solve the ever growing issue of information management. E-mail is now a business critical application that needs state-of-the-art professional management services and solutions. That is exactly what Dimension Data will offer in the EMC Signature Solution Centre for Microsoft Exchange Environments,” claimed Jan Barbier.

“Microsoft is one of the top 3 strategic partners for Dimension Data, and their solutions are a large part of our worldwide business.”

“In particular we are heavily involved in major Microsoft Exchange solutions and are one of their premier OCS (Office Communications Server) partners.”

At the heart of the Solution Center design is the ability to show a broad range of solutions as Jan Barbier explains, “The underlying architecture of the Solution Center provides both a physical and virtual environment so that we can demonstrate solutions running on both a traditional and Virtualized infrastructure.”

“On top of this we run the EMC Proven™ solution for Microsoft Exchange environments showing backup, restore, recovery and archiving. Effectively we can build proof of concept solutions for everything around Microsoft.”

“Later on we plan to add RSA security and show EMC solutions integrated into Cisco solutions.”

“Of particular interest to EMC and our clients is that we have built a complete management system for the Solution Center utilising EMC Smarts family of products. We are the first Smarts integrator in Belgium and this is a new area even for EMC.”

Getting the Solution Center from concept to reality has taken a lot of work from both Dimension Data and

EMC as Jan Barbier explains, “As we designed and built the Solution Center we had a person from EMC working with our project team 4 days per week. They helped us combining specific solutions that we knew our clients would want to see and we also took their advice on what we should be aiming to show.”

“In fact we had more ideas than time.”“The most important assistance EMC gave us however

was in marketing. What neither of us could afford to have was an under-utilised Solution Center.”

“We had great help from EMC’s marketing team to ensure that when we launched we would have a stream of prospects for the Solution Center. Already we have 75 companies interested to plan a visit to the Solution Center and that will take us through to late summer.”

“We are already planning telemarketing campaigns with EMC to fill up the autumn calendar and we are confident the Solution Center will be a great success.”

As well as this immediate impact Dimension Data are already seeing other benefits within the organisation. “The Solution Center is rapidly emerging as the enabler or catalyst to integrating different business units within Dimension Data,” explained Jan Barbier. “In this solutions world no aspect of IT operates in isolation. Having a true Solution Centre, built to the highest standards with state of the art technology and applications, is a major bonus for the whole company and sets us above our competitors when it comes to showing real world business solutions.”

The development of the Solution Center has been a journey of discovery for both Dimension Data and EMC as Jan Barbier confides, “Because we were only the sixth Solution Center in EMEA we have had to work closely with EMC to ensure that we both understood and were committed to achieving our goals.”

“Every week I meet my counterpart from EMC to make sure everything is on track and that both company’s activities match our goals.”

“We also have an imminent meeting with EMC’s country manager to see where we can take the Solution Center forward together.”

“Though it is early days to measure success the signs are all there that the Solution Center will be a major source of revenue in its own right and will lead to signif icant solution projects within our client base. It has been a great experience getting to this stage and I am excited about the opportunities for the future.”

Solution Centre web site: www.dimensiondata.com/be/EMC/SignatureSolutionCentre.htm

Video introduction: http://forms.didata.com/video/dd_emc_solution_centre.wmv

Dimension Data Signature Solution CenterProven solutions and real life experience




SOLUTION CENTER

SOLUTION CENTER




The emergence of the ‘One global EMC’ philosophy has redefined what EMC offers its channel partners and what it expects from its distribution channels.

Kristian Thyregod, Director - EMEA Distribution & T2 at EMC, expands on what this all means, “The breadth of products, solutions and services that EMC offers through its channel partners has expanded so rapidly over the last 2 years that we have had to focus closely on our supply channels and what we expect of them.”

“Our breadth of offerings has grown to a point where our addressable market across EMEA is now $23Bn in 2008 and growing at 9.2% with more than a third of that figure coming from the commercial market where the majority of our partners operate.”

“With such a huge market opportunity we have had to re-evaluate our coverage model and redefine our strategic imperatives to ensure we maximise the opportunity for our partners and thus EMC.”

In coverage terms EMC addresses the top two thirds of the market, which includes major enterprises and corporations, either directly or through its Tier one partners. The rest of the market is then the province of its channel partners.

At the heart of EMC’s channel strategy is the role of distribution as Kristian explains, “For most vendors the role of distribution is purely for market reach. However for EMC it is much more than that.”

“When we look at market reach we tie that to market opportunity and see the role of distributor having three imperatives, market development, channel development and channel management.”

“In the role of market development we are looking for our distribution partners to get maximum exposure for EMC not just within their partner community but in the markets within which they operate. This means that they must understand how to identify and analyse market opportunities and then create demand generation activity.”

“In channel development terms we work with distributors who have partners with particular customer sets. We expect our distributors to have the understanding and skills to help those partners then exploit their specialisation and in turn increase their own abilities and maximise their profit potential.”

“We also expect our distribution partners to have a proven track record of channel management where they have shown they have the ability to align partners into profitable areas of operation and thus gained loyalty.”

Choosing the right distributor is at the heart of EMC’s strategy and their philosophy is different from many of its competitors as Kristian explains, “There seems to be a drive for pan European distribution from many vendors who are purely looking for coverage with the least hassle.”

“Pan European distribution as far as EMC is concerned only has merit if the distribution partner can execute properly in the countries that they cover.”

“Our philosophy is to focus on quality and alignment of vision and then ability to execute. The volumes and coverage will then be achieved.”

The selection process of distribution partner is rigorous as Kristian explains, “We first look very closely at the executive framework within the partner’s organisation to ensure it reflects what is needed to deliver the right level of support to channel partners. We also ensure that they look at the market in the same way as EMC.”

“Next we work with them to develop a business case for working with EMC and a channel account plan that we are all happy with. This then falls through to a P&L that makes real business sense.”

“Once on board we then work closely with them to ensure they are capable of delivering on the plan.”

“The plan is based around the business case and is reviewed quarterly to ensure both organisations are working to the same goals.”

“EMC is also sensitive to the distributors existing business which is what would have attracted us in the first place and so we ensure that the EMC focus represents a fair exploitation of the partner’s internal sales structure.”

“In fact we ensure that we align EMC’s own internal sales resource with the distributor’s to help them develop their business.”

EMC DistributionValue Add redefined

Kristian Thyregod




A major aid in ensuring success for the distributor and their partners is rewarding best practice. “The reward element throughout the channel is often the best incentive,” claims Kristian. “Our GAF strategy, Goal Achievement Form allows us to deliver partner incentives for specific areas, for sector development and for developing new customers. Our Velocity2 promotions can be geared for whole channel organisations or specific individuals.”

The role of distributor is such a vital part of EMC’s channel strategy that they expect them to be able to deliver everything to their partners that EMC provides to tier one partners.

Kristian expands on this, “Distributors have to meet the highest levels of accreditation and certification. At a sales, technical and account management level they must be on a par with their Premier Solution Partners; the highest accreditation & certification level for tier two partners.”

“Their account managers go through the same training as EMC account managers and their fundamental objectives are to transfer their knowledge and skills to their own partners and be their link to the distributor’s and EMC’s resources.”

“Distributors have to provide pre & post sales support, demonstration/lab facilities, lead generation activities and training, either through EMC, one of EMC’s authorised training partners or directly themselves.”

A particular focus which EMC expects of its distribution partners and which differentiates them and emphasises the real ‘Value Add’ is in solution sales.

“What really defines Value Add in our distribution channel is the ability to help partners move up the value chain with their clients,” emphasised Kristian. “We expect our distribution partners to have solution selling skills and to assist their channel partners develop specialisations.”

“We have 5 specialisation areas, Consolidate, Backup, Archive, Security and Content, where our value add distributors are helping partners develop solutions for their clients. EMC and distributors are working very closely to ensure that together we supply all the support that the channel needs in these areas.”

“Additionally many of our distributors are now working with ISVs to integrate these speciality areas into their own applications and then introducing them to EMC Velocity2 partners who can help them deliver really innovative solutions.”

This evolution of distribution, from purely a supply channel to a true value add organisation, is enabling EMC to deliver on its ONE global EMC strategy throughout EMEA.

Kristian concludes, “In the past distribution was often viewed by vendors and channel partners as a ‘necessary evil’ to provide credit, warehousing and coverage.”

“In this new world of solutions however distributors have found their true vocation. They now truly earn their ‘value add’ title by delivering a whole raft of added services that help create markets and enable channel partners to evolve and grow in profitable areas.”




The intelligent channel partner understands that working closely with your vendor’s marketing team and aligning your go to market strategy with theirs is the recipe for accelerated growth and profitability.

This is only the case however if the vendor is sensitive to the channels issues and moulds and adapts its marketing programs accordingly.

At EMC the whole marketing strategy behind its Velocity2 partner program is geared to the partners needs as Kathleen De Bondt, Director Channel and Commercial Marketing EMEA explains, “The Velocity2 partner program has evolved over the years as a direct result of feedback from our partners.”

“Once a year we have a partner council with over 100 attendees from our EMEA channel. This council is a balanced mix of all types of partners from Signature level and distributors to premier partners and affiliates. The feedback from these meetings goes to help structure our marketing and sales support as well as the Velocity2 program itself.”

“From listening to our partners we are able to deliver focused and impactful marketing programs that deliver real competitive edge.”

Examples of this activity are evident in supporting Solution Centers get established and profitable and in helping distributors mobilise Tier 2 level partners.

Kathleen explains how this works, “For our Solution Center partners we work at three levels of marketing support to get them established and successfully trading.”

“The first is all about branding and presence. We have developed complete branding for the Solution Centers including the layout of the Solution Center itself, banners, joint logos and a standard look and feel across all marketing materials. However within these guidelines there is the ability to localise the content and include the partners own words on the solutions that they are showing.”

“At a launch level we provide material for end user awareness campaigns, local press releases and telemarketing. Then for ongoing marketing we have put together a whole range of seminars on different topics that the partner can deliver backed up by all the collateral they may need.”

“At the same time we are helping create a community of Solution Centers by bringing them together once a year to share their experiences and what they have discovered is best practice.”

At the distributor level, working with Tier 2 partners, the focus is very much around partner education and end user lead generation as Kathleen explains, ““We run Velocity2

Workshops in 32 countries where the distributor and EMC jointly update them on new product announcements, provide tools for their own marketing activity and provide training courses on our solutions.”

“We also jointly run campaigns like Virtually.perfect our Virtualization campaign where we provide direct marketing tools so that they can generate end user leads. We have a number of future campaigns like this in the pipeline.”

“Additionally we provide ‘seminar in a box’, telemarketing scripts and inside sales Blitz campaigns to help partners in generating real business leads.”

Backing up all this marketing support EMC runs a reward scheme VIP (Velocity Incentive Program) which runs on a quarterly basis and is tailored for the different partner levels.

“The important issue is to have a rewards program that reaches everybody in our channel program from organisations of all sizes to individuals at all levels,” stated Kathleen De Bondt.

“All this marketing support and the rewards scheme is a major incentive to be part of the EMC Velocity2 community.”

“In February 2009 we will be holding our first pan EMEA channel event where our partners can meet and network between themselves as well as learn more about what we EMC can do to accelerate their growth and profitability.”

“If you want to know more about anything we have covered in the previous pages or would like to meet with an EMC channel representative in your country then email [email protected] or go to www.emc.com/partners/velocity

Accelerating growth and profitability

Kathleen De Bondt


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