Building a Committed Channel Ecosystem

href="http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Storage/News-Reports/Hitachi-GST-intros-two-new-CinemaStar-HDs/145336/0/">Hitachi
Data Systems (HDS), one of the
leading providers of storage systems, software, and services, banks
heavily on its strong channel community here in India. The reason
being that the company's business model in India is more indirect,
and furthermore, it believes the channel partners are its growth
engines. Off late, HDS has realigned its business model and made
significant investments in India, which is one of the fastest growing
markets. Earlier, it was predominantly present in Bengaluru, Delhi
and Mumbai, but now it has opened offices in Chennai, Hyderabad,
Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Hence, the company is strengthening its
channel community in all the cities where it is present. Besides, it
has the sales and pre-sales team spread across the country, whose
basic job is to look out for partners and ensure that the company is
growing its channel partner base. As far as the sales team is
concerned, it is headed by the channel director, Harikrishna Prabhu
who is responsible for channel business across India. Prabhu is also
responsible for indirect business in India. His responsibilities
include channel capacity and capability building, channel
development, enablement, alliances, and channel programs amongst
others. As it operates in all the four regions of the country, the
company has appointed channel managers to take care of the respective
regions. These regional channel managers are responsible for channel
relationship and channel revenue in respective locations. In fact,
they are the channel business owners in their respective regions. “We
also have alliance managers, who are responsible for alliance partner
relationships, building repeatable solutions/joint value proposition
with these alliance partners and drive joint go to market with
alliance partners and channel partners. In addition, we have a large
pre-sales and customer support organization to support the sales
managers in each of these regions. The sales, pre-sales and customer
support teams are supported by the channel organization,” pointed
out Harikrishna Prabhu, director channels-India, Hitachi Data
Systems. HDS has a very evenly spread channel community with SIs,
VARs, global Sis, and national distributors. Its partner community
includes SIs like TCS, Wipro, CMC, Accel and HCL and key regional
VARs in each location. These partners are directly managed by the
regional channel managers in the respective regions. In addition to
its already existing relationships with iValue and Ingram Micro, the
company has recently strengthened its distribution channel by signing
up with Redington. Furthermore, it is working very closely with
global alliance partners like Microsoft, VMware, ComVault, Cisco
Symantec, Nice, etc. to provide right solution to customers. HDS also
has partnerships with Indian ISVs like Newgen and Karishma to address
the government, banking and healthcare segments. Prabhu further
highlighted, “A strong channel strategy and execution plan can
dramatically extend the business reach, accelerate sales, and
increase the revenue potential. The most important part of developing
the right channel strategy includes a qualitative and quantitative
analysis of the channel needs versus what the channel can deliver.”

THE VALUE-ADDED
DISTRIBUTOR PARTNER
(VAD)

This level is for established
distribution organizations that offer services to enable affiliated
resellers and system integrators to effectively market, sell, deploy
and support a wide range of storage solutions.

THE PLATINUM PARTNER

This is for value-added resellers,
solution providers or system integrators with proven expertise in
selling storage solutions to enterprise, large business and
institutional clients. Typically, Platinum Partner companies have a
dedicated storage practice and offer custom development and/or
consulting services based on their chosen product or solution
capabilities.

THE GOLD PARTNER

This is for HDS resellers, system
integrators and solution providers possessing a strong presence in
one or more markets. It may include specific platform application
expertise, and/or experience providing solutions in vertical markets.

THE SILVER PARTNER

This level is intended for systems
resellers interested in building or expanding a storage solutions
business through HDS products and solutions. The Silver Partner level
provides new Hitachi TrueNorth Channel Partners with a great point of
entry to build a great Hitachi storage solutions business or as the
next upward migration path for existing Bronze Partners as they
succeed in growing their storage business.

THE BRONZE PARTNER

This is intended for storage systems
resellers who focus on small and medium businesses and aggressively
sell pre-packaged HDS products and solutions. “The Hitachi
TrueNorth Channel Partner Program offers you a framework for building
your expertise in storage solutions. The program is designed to help
you create new revenue opportunities while meeting the growing
storage needs of your customers,” asserted Prabhu.