Hitachi to strengthen partner base

Bengaluru: As
part of its business strategy, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is now planning to
expand its channel partner program by including more partners in every region.
Talking about this initiative, Harikrishna Prabhu,
Director-Channel, HDS India said, "We are planning to have three to
five partners in every region. We will help them in building their skillsets by
training them on all kinds of solutions and architecting. We train our partners
on sales skill, product, technology and how to design solutions. We also conduct
hands-on training program for partners which enable them to deliver their own
services."

This channel partner program
is called TrueNorth Channel Partners (TNCP) Program. The goal of TrueNorth
program is to provide the company and functional teams with strategic access to
the resources and experience of a global company, with special emphasis in five
key areas-product offering and technology; business development guidance and
programs; growth and profitability incentives 360-days a year; training and
certification programs and solution sets to drive the growth.

Throwing light on the program,
Prabhu said, "Through this partnership with HDS, partners will
be benefited from the worldwide brand identity and messages. The partners will
enjoy clearly defined rules of engagement that will help them quickly to capture
new business."

The channel partner program
has three categories-Global Partners, Gold Partners and Bronze Partners. The
Global Partners or OEM partners are Sun and HP. These partners will work closely
with HDS to address the needs, whether they are looking for a solution for a
specific problem or management of their entire IT infrastructure

Gold Partners or Enterprises
Partners are Wipro and Apara. HDS has recently appointed HCL Infosystem as its
Gold Partner. They are those who understand the technology, architects the
solutions and provide end-to-end solutions to the customers.

The company has nearly 39
Bronze Partners. They are region-specific partners who are more into reselling
and are expected to sell more and moresolutions.

Apart from this, HDS has a
website named Partner Exchange Site, especially designed for the partners. Here,
partners can get complete details on the programs, especially on technical
presentations, configurations and data sheets. The site has information about
HDS, its products,its partner programs and
other benefits it extends to the channel community.