Hands-on HDS grows through recession

Smith: We focused on partners, ensuring they understood the products and had the leads to win new business

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has credited its channel partners with helping it to achieve growth in the face of the recession.

Harvey Smith, regional sales director for the UK and Ireland channel at HDS, admitted that the spending restrictions imposed on companies during the recession had impacted on business.

However, the company’s collaborative approach to helping partners close new deals had compensated, he said.

“Last year was a tough one, but the company managed to achieve 30 per cent growth over the course of the financial year and we did not have to lay anybody off,” he said.

“We focused on working closely with our partners, ensuring they understood the products and had the leads to win new business.”

Smith cites the work the vendor’s internal sales team does as a key growth driver.
“They contact partners to find out if there are any prospects they are working on,” he said. “From there, they will set up a four-legged sales call with the partner, a representative of HDS and the customer.”

The approach is one that Anthony Head, technology director at Kavanagh, said has benefited his firm since partnering with HDS last November.

The VAR worked with HDS during its Storage Economics campaign, an initiative aimed at helping the firm’s customers make the most of their storage infrastructure.
“[The campaign] generated 40 opportunities that we have been able to win new business on the back of,” explained Head. “I have been with Kavanagh 14 years and it has been our most successful campaign to date.”

OrangeIS started working with HDS eight months ago and claims to have enjoyed a similar level of success. Jody Pawson, sales director at OrangeIS, said the firm has generated about £1m in revenue since joining forces with the vendor.

“Usually it takes about 12 to 18 months to hit those kinds of targets, but they set us up so that we were in a position where we could start selling very quickly.”

Smith revealed that HDS has also recently introduced a new public sector-focused sales team to help VARs trap as much of the IT spend from this market as possible.

Nigel Wright, sales director at HDS partner Abtech UK, said having a team in place that understands all the rigours associated with public sector procurement would benefit VARs.

“It makes a difference sending in someone who understands the pressures a sector is under and can marry that up with what the vendor is offering,” said Wright.

Georgina O’Toole, research director at TechMarketView, said that while public sector IT spend might drop off over the coming months, HDS was wise to commit additional resources to it.

“The public sector is still a huge market, with the UK government accounting for 30 per cent of the UK software and IT services market, so it certainly should not be ignored,” she said.

At your service
While the company is happy to work with partners during the first stages of the sales cycle, services are one area where the vendor is keen for them to go it alone.
Smith said: “We do not want to be seen as arrogant, by taking on the services piece, when it is such a big part of partners’ overall business.”

In cases where VARs are not in a position to offer services around its product line, HDS would ask its distribution partners, which include Bell Micro, Ingram Micro and Zycko to step in, said Smith.

Abtech’s Wright said this stance is good news for VARs who could otherwise lose business.

“If there is a project that requires a high level of services that a partner is not able to deliver, either because of time or skill constraints, having that facility means that they can still compete.”

He added that the vendor’s line of modular storage products had also helped to make it easier for VARs to compete at the lower end of the price scale during the recession.

“The products have a good entry-level price point, which allows us to approach new customers with a product from a well-known brand that is low in price,” he said. “There are lots of products available at the lower end of the market, but the brands are not as high profile.”

Smith confirmed that the modular products had become an increasingly important part of the vendor’s business during the past decade.

“We launched the first modular product range eight years ago and back then it was not a main focus of the business,” he said. “Since then it and the channel have become a very important part of our strategy for growth in the UK.”