Storage giant EMC, which has often been touted as a late entrant into the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market, is set to expand its channel partner numbers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
This was revealed by the company's VP for EMEA channels, PhilippeFoss'e, in an interview with ITWeb yesterday.
Foss'e, who was appointed in February this year, noted that the channel has become more and more important for EMC over the past two years.
“The channel now represents more than 50% of the company's total revenue on a worldwide basis; in the EMEA region, it represents 60% of the revenue.”
Thus, he noted, the company aims to develop its relationships with partners and grow jointly in all segments, including enterprise, mid-market and the SME space.
To achieve this goal, Foss'e explained, EMC will use different strategies for each market segment and region, depending on their needs.
For the enterprise market, which he referred to as the 'top accounts', the company is looking at increasing engagement with partners to boost business.
“If I take the mid-market, we are going to do several things, including hiring a few more partners. We have to recruit more partners because it's an area where we might be lagging in some sectors. So this recruitment is going to help us cover the whole mid-market segment.”
Foss'e says EMC recently added a new set of solutions like VSPEX [virtual system specifications] targeting the mid-market segment. He explained that VSPEX is a complementary product to the company's VBlock data centre system.
With VSPEX, he explained, customers select computing and networking hardware, software and services based on the distributor line card and sizing of components.
Foss'e also revealed that EMC, which has traditionally been viewed as an enterprise class focused company, has several storage solutions specifically for the SME market.
One such solution is the company's first entry-level, standalone Data Domain deduplication appliance, which is also a first for EMC in that it is the first Data Domain model designed for sale only through indirect channels.
Highlighting the challenges the company is facing in its EMEA channel, Foss'e pointed to helping partners to transform themselves to meet the ever-increasing changes in the market, especially in the wake of cloud computing.
“We need to help our partners to transform. If they are winners, we will be big winners in the end,” he said.
He also noted that the company has to clearly understand each region's unique needs regarding the channel.
For example, he explained, in some countries such as the UK and Russia, the market is far more concentrated around large cities, while in other countries such as Spain and SA, business is fragmented and more evenly distributed throughout the country
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