Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is taking a cautious approach to the channel.
This was revealed by Shaun Barendsen, country manager at HDS SA, in an interview with ITWeb last week. The local arm of HDS used to operate as Shoden Data Systems, which was an HDS reseller before it was acquired by HDS in February 2012.
"Like all mergers and acquisitions, the HDS acquisition of Shoden Data Systems has not been flawless, but we have come through exceptionally well and the integration process has been pretty good," Barendsen said.
Now, the company is adjusting from being an HDS reseller to being part of HDS, which Barendsen said means they have to be careful about who they recruit as partners. "We are quite new to the channel. As Shoden, we used to represent HDS 100%; now that we are HDS, we need to grow that channel. We currently have a number of partners and we are busy developing the channel."
He also revealed that, historically, HDS focused on the enterprise market, saying the company has spent a lot of time making sure it provides top-class enterprise solutions and backs them up with support.
"We have been lucky in that we have been ahead of the curve in terms of the technology we produce. But that's not what customers look for because they care about what's happening in their business; they care about whether the solutions are meeting their business requirements," he noted.
HDS needs to expand its market share and also target the mid-market and SMEs, and that's where the company is looking to exploit the channel, he added. "We would want to expand further down the market for we believe there are a lot of opportunities there. However, we do not have the breadth and the people to service that market, and that is why we are developing our channel strategy."
The company is taking a cautious approach with its channel strategy, as it wants to maintain its integrity in the market. "Our reputation is a large asset and we need to protect that. We are approaching our channel cautiously, but we do know that that's where there is space in the market."
In the South African market, he noted, HDS will deploy a mix of the direct model, as well as a channel model. For the rest of southern Africa, the company will be 100% indirect.
"It's still early days with the partners and we are very selective about who we will appoint as partners because we would want to minimise channel conflicts as much as possible, making sure we don't have a large overlap. What we don't want is having 30 to 40 resellers and we create this channel conflict in the market where partners get into price wars and start losing the value from our proposition."
HDS recently announced a series of significant enhancements to its Hitachi TrueNorth Partner Programme. The improved programme for 2013 focuses on specialisation, education, incentives and support designed to help accelerate HDS partners' sales revenue and profit.
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