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EMC Partner Program: New Perks, One Question
EMC (NYSE: EMC) wants to spread the wealth while engaging more partners. But the company needs to make sure top-tier partners continue to feel the love. The storage company updated its EMC Velocity Solution Provider program, lowering some program requirements to help channel partners ramp up more quickly with EMC. Here's the potential upside and some lingering questions from The VAR Guy.
The VAR Guy
February 6, 2013
2 Min Read
EMCcorp
EMC (NYSE: EMC) wants to spread the wealth while engaging more partners. But the company needs to make sure top-tier partners continue to feel the love. The storage company updated its EMC Velocity Solution Provider program, lowering some program requirements to help channel partners ramp up more quickly with EMC. Here’s the potential upside and some lingering questions from The VAR Guy.First, the upside: During a call with The VAR Guy, EMC’s Leonard Iventosch, VP of Americas Channel Sales and Jeff Schmitt, senior director, Americas Theatre Lead, Global Services Partners, described how the company wants to engage partners more rapidly for cloud, storage, Big Data and mid-market opportunities.
Among the perks for partners:
Rebates: Top Velocity partners will gain a predictable income stream via rebates paid on sales of targeted EMC technologies that align to the company’s key mid-market initiatives. Eligible products include VNX, VNXe, unified storage, Avamar, Data Domain and VFCache.
Synergies: Isilon Systems, which EMC acquired in 2010, is now integrated into the Velocity program. Isilon develops clustered storage systems for unstructured data. The move was effective Jan. 31,2013.
Dollars and Cents: There is no longer a revenue requirement for partners to achieve a Specialty.
Marketing and Sales Support: EMC said it is doubling its investment in demand generation funds, programs, and resources for partners. Plus, new online training programs are launching.
So far so good. The one potential hitch in all this involves EMC lowering the bar for partners to earn the Velocity Premier Signature status. Partners that haven’t had the time to meet certain services requirements will likely cheer the move. But partners that already invested time and money to fulfill the former services requirements may resent the EMC change, The VAR Guy believes.
Still, Iventosch and Schmitt said EMC vetted the changes with EMC’s partner advisory board, and partners did not push back on the changes. Also, the duo said EMC will continue to look for new ways to help top partners differentiate themselves in the market.
The broader picture at EMC remains a bright one. EMC on Jan. 29 announced its first $6 billion quarter ever and CEO Joe Tucci predicted the company would continue to ride the cloud, big data and IT security waves.
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