EMC launches Velocity^2 Partner Programme for EMEA to deliver information infrastructure solutions cost-effectively

EMC Corporation, the world leader in information infrastructure, today announced the launch of its enhanced EMC Velocity^2 Partner Programme for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to help EMC partners more cost-effectively deliver information infrastructure solutions (hardware, software and services) to customers and drive higher profitability.

The Velocity^2 programme enhancements strengthen EMC's commitment to the partner community at every level - making it easier for more affiliate partners to offer EMC's full range of products, and provide the tools to premier and signature solution partners to help them better differentiate their value to customers.

EMC today also announced that five EMC Velocity^2 Signature Solution Centre Partners (SCPs) across EMEA, including ARES in France, Computacenter in the UK, IPM in Spain, PROACT in Sweden and S&T in Slovenia, have endorsed the newly-enhanced Velocity^2 Partner Programme by becoming partners in the highest tier of the programme.

Partners will have the opportunity to become SCPs by meeting a set of criteria which include their expertise in offering and supporting EMC-based solutions, their commitment to invest in and operate a solution centre and their sales and pre-sales technical skills for EMC - hardware, software and services.

"Each Velocity^2 signature solution centre partner has a dedicated EMC solution centre in their region to showcase EMC solutions for consolidation, backup, archiving and protection and is a member of the EMC Authorised Services Network (ASN).

ASN certification allows Velocity^2 signature solution centre partners to deliver a range of information infrastructure services, including consulting, integration, and support to own the entire customer relationship life cycle from support to implementation to management of their EMC solution.

Based on the success of EMC's own global solution centres, Velocity^2 signature solution centres enable partners to deliver the best possible sales experience for customers, by offering them a real-life view of a specific solution to highlight the benefits associated with the solution and the speed implementation.

Each solution centre has the capabilities to replicate customer environments, tailor specific application solution demonstrations, and conduct solutions training for customers. Depending on a partner's application expertise, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and Cisco, they can choose which EMC application-centric solutions to demonstrate in their solution centre.

EMC solutions are backed by stringent testing, seamless partner integration and documented implementation methodologies to reduce complexity and customer risk to ensure fast deployment.

Willem Hendrickx, EMEA Vice-President, Channel and Mid-market at EMC, said: "Today's announcement highlights our continued commitment to partners across EMEA. EMC believes the enhanced programme will provide the partners with tools to improve margins/profitability."

Hendrickx continued: "I'm delighted the five partners have embraced the concept so quickly, and our ultimate goal is to have an EMC Velocity^2 signature solution centre in every region in EMEA."

"ARES is a highly-invested partner with EMC, as with Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle," recalls Michel Berjamin, CEO of ARES Group. "We are now extremely well-positioned to serve the requirements of the companies that need to leverage their investments maximising the use of their acquired technologies.

"The announced opening of our two solution centres supports our engagement towards EMC and will drive new opportunities to set live demos of the products and solutions, as well as of our expertise."

"Our Customers demand best-of-breed technologies that are integrated and well-supported. Computacenter and EMC have consistently demonstrated information infrastructure solutions that meet these needs. The launch of the EMC signature solution centre within Computacenter is a valuable tool, which allows us to understand our customers' needs and demonstrate exactly how the solution is going work in their environment," said Mike Norris, CEO of Computacenter.

"IPM specialises in providing integrated solutions to our customers. They can now visit our dedicated EMC Velocity^2 signature solution centre and see the application solution working on the server and storage combination that they are looking at purchasing," said Ram'on Molinas, IPM CEO.

"Our customers trust Proact and we offer them solutions and services that create value and reduce risk. The solution centre concept is a great way of providing solutions that are guaranteed to be a success," said Olof Sand, CEO Proact, Stockholm.

"We are giving our customers real choice and the best of both worlds - the chance to see how the solution would work for them based on EMC technology, without them having to commit any money at all. They can visit the solution centre and see a live demonstration of a similar-sized environment to their own. This will give them the peace of mind that the solution will work when deployed at their organisation," Christian Rosner, CEO at S&T. Other significant enhancements to the EMC Velocity^2 Partner Programme in EMEA coming into effect today include tier structure consolidation from five levels to three levels, simplified accreditation process making it quicker, easier and less costly to become accredited by EMC, two-tiers for distributors, revenue-based system replaces point-based system to accrue rewards and determine partner tier:

* Partner tier restructure - the new EMC Velocity^2 Programme now has three levels, replacing the previous five levels (Affiliate, Associate, Advantage, Premier and Signature), to ensure every level of partner need is addressed, from a reseller that occasionally sells EMC solutions through to partners that offer a complete EMC experience through dedicated EMC solution centres. These include:

* Signature Solution Centre Partners - partners with alliance and expertise in Microsoft, Oracle, SAP or Cisco and have an EMC Velocity^2 signature solution centre.
* Premier Solution Partners - partners with accredited sales and technical staff focused on selling EMC solutions. These partners gain access to the Velocity^2 Partner Programme through the EMC distribution network.
* Affiliate Partners - partners selling a limited number of EMC products via EMC's distribution network. The partners gain access to the Velocity^2 Partner Programme via a simple Web-based contract.
* Distributors tier restructure - differentiating Velocity^2 distributors into two levels:
* Velocity^2 value add distributor - partners focused on developing business with value added resellers active in the mid-market segment.
* Velocity^2 volume distributor - partners focused on selling products and solutions in the small-to-medium business (SMB) market segment.
* Revenue-based system - a partner's tier and rewards are now based on revenue instead of the previously complex points-based system.
* Simplified accreditation process - partners can now advance their sales and/or pre-sales technical skills across EMC software, hardware, and services practices without the need to become accredited in eight product specialties. The consolidated model allows the partner to efficiently achieve accreditation in their focus areas, aligning their business model closely to their EMC opportunities.

Partners will also benefit from EMC's renewed focus on the delivering more services opportunities to EMC Authorised Network Services (ASN) partners. The ASN programme provides partners with the unique ability to distinguish themselves in the market and offer maximum customer value. ASN-certified partners can engage with customers on more projects, enabling partners to capture more revenue per deal. Members of ASN will have the choice of being either ASN Implement Partners or ASN Support certified partners.