Indirect shift means more change for CA partners
Further tweaks to strategy begin in US and will cover all business segments
Computer Associates’ (CA's) UK channel partners should prepare for more change as the vendor admitted last week it is tweaking its global indirect strategy.
Initially focusing on the US, the software vendor is planning several changes in that region including increasing reseller headcounts, further reducing direct activity and simplifying licensing.
The changes are being driven by Gary Quinn, executive vice-president of indirect business operations, but are also being overseen by George Kafkarkou, a former EMEA executive at CA and now senior vice-president of worldwide commercial sales and strategy at CA.
Speaking to CRN, Kafkarkou said: “This is a very recent announcement and for now it will be happening in the US only, but we will roll it out across the rest of the world. It is a gradual process and we will start to focus on Europe in September when we will start to evolve the programme.”
Kafkarkou added that CA’s objective is to grow its market share.
“Partners are not only important to CA; they are critical in helping us grow,” he said. “We can’t achieve our goals without growing our partners’ business.”
Although he was unable to reveal any details of the changes that are due to be implemented in Europe, Kafkarkou said partners will be able to “play across all business segments”, and that CA will have a “finite area” where it invests in direct resources.
“Partners will see much more consistency than they have before and they should feel refreshed,” he said. “The changes will make it a better [partner] ecosystem.”
Kafkarkou admitted that some partners may be angered by the changes.
“We understand that partners may see this as yet more change,” he said. “This is part of the reason why I am involved. I know EMEA and the channel, and our aim is to minimise change.”
However, Greg Carlow, managing director of VAR Repton, claimed that resellers did not like change.
“The best thing any vendor can do is not change things,” he said. “Resellers figure out how to work alongside each vendor and each time anything new comes along they have to spend another six months getting to grips with the changes.”
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