The new set of partners would be for middleware application products and virtualization

Traditionally we have been strong in the BFSI and Telecom segments and one
major vertical where we are seeing substantial growth is manufacturing

What is the channel structure like at Red Hat?

Besides our OEM partners who are large SIs like Wipro, HCL and TCS, we have
distributor managed partners or transaction partners numbering in at around
1,000 who are managed by our three national distributors-Ingram Micro, Integra
Micro and GT Enterprises. We also have Advanced Business Partners (ABP) which
stand at around 30-35 core partners.

What are your channel plans for the next six months?

We plan on consolidating our partner base by adding more to the mix while at
the same time also do justice to the current set. The new set of partners we are
looking to add would be for middleware application products and also
virtualization. We would also like to increase our Red Hat ABP base to around 45
partners. Of the 30-35 ABP partners we have now, 20 odd are termed Red Hat Ready
partners wherein the next step for them is to achieve certain goals like having
a minimum number of trained people on board depending on their operational
geography. For instance in a place like Mumbai our partners need to have a
minimum of two sales certified employees. Another goal for these partners is
that of revenue depending on the vertical they service, which we will monitor
over a period of two quarters.

Which are some of the key verticals for you?

We are seeing mainstream adoption of our products across verticals now.
Earlier our customer base was from telecom, BFSI and government sectors but now
we have demands coming in from travel, retail, education, logistics and
pharmaceuticals as well. Traditionally we have been strong in the BFSI and
telecom segments and one major vertical where we are seeing substantial growth
is manufacturing. We expect to see a fairly strong demand coming from
manufacturing with around 30-40 percent of revenues projected to come from this
sector.

What are some of the concerns that you are hearing from your partners?

Since last November, we have a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization portfolio
however, we are not a new player in this and we have the capability to showcase
our technology and show to our customers, how better it is through our proof of
concept centers. Our partners in this field have had to scale very fast and get
up to speed and since we do not have a large setup in India enablement becomes
an issue as this is not an overnight activity. Also since February we have had
some good gains. The sales cycles in the virtualization space are longer and
partners are not used to longish sales cycles of 60-90 days or so. It is a
learning process for them and we have been doing our part of hand holding our
partners especially through our pre-sales department.

What benefits do your channels gain from partnering with you?

Our partners have opportunities in the service space which can help them get
closer to the customer and also have a deeper relationship with them. For
instance in the manufacturing vertical, many heavy engineering companies have
UNIX based x-86 servers which they are looking to migrate to a Linux
environment. Partners can help customers in the migration process or also
provide other services like installation and conduct health checks. Partners who
are independent software vendors (ISVs) can also present their product along
with Linux and this can have a higher saleability factor.

What training programs are in place for partners?

Our training programs will focus mainly on our virtualization offerings and
this will be accessible to our ABPs. We also have an e-learning module where
partners can register for sales and technical sessions online. Besides this, we
also have boot camp training rounds for the sales and pre-sales teams of our
ABPs and this is done on a twice-a-quarter frequency. For our disti-led
partners, we have it on a thrice-a-quarter frequency across major cities while
for smaller cities it is held once in a quarter. Our boot camp sessions are
conducted either face-to-face or in a workshop mode. We have global learning
services partners like Jetking, CMS and HCL among others. Being our third-party
learning service partner is an opportunity for our existing and potential
partners to look at. By providing this service for four, eight or 12-days
sessions, these partners can make money out of training others. We already have
around five to six ABPs who already are our learning service partners (LSPs).
The LSP is required to invest in infrastructure like 10 to 20 PCs, two to three
classrooms. There is scope for partners in this area if they are willing to make
the investment.

What are your expansion plans geographically speaking?

We would like to expand towards the western region and look for markets
outside Mumbai and Pune. We see high business potential in areas like Kolhapur,
Nagpur and Nasik in Maharashtra; Ahmedabad and Baroda in Gujarat these are
already established and we are looking at places like Surat for expansion. In
the North, we see good scope in Punjab being a hub for manufacturing industries.
In the South we are well covered and in the East we already have presence in the
places with potential.

John Jacob

johnj@cybermedia.co.in