EMC: Our channel opportunities are immense

UK channel director Terry Beale speaks to CRN after the vendor's recent global partner shindig

EMC is betting big on the channel as it strives to open up even more opportunities for its partners and ploughs deeper into the cloud.

The vendor’s most recent global partner conference in Las Vegas featured a dedicated partner track for the first time and it took the opportunity to unveil its dedicated cloud provider practices – Cloud Builder and Cloud Provider – aimed at helping partners design, build and manage private and public cloud deployments. It also launched several other initiatives and products geared towards the channel at the event.

Terry Beale, UK channel director at EMC (pictured), said the opportunity for partners was immense as IT plays a crucial role in helping to transform the way businesses in all sectors are run.

“We are seeing a pretty dramatic change [in demand] at the moment which is requiring us to take a different approach in terms of the channel. IT is having to support the transformation of business and we are looking at how to service our customers better.

“I have never seen as much opportunity for the ICT industry to deliver upon those changes as I see today,” he added. “Even industries that have not really spent a lot on ICT in the past, such as legal, are now changing their business models.” And partners, Beale said, are a crucial cog in the EMC machine.

“We need partners to help us change. We are seeing that not just in the enterprise but in the mid-market as well. New business is coming into the market and we are seeing ICT as a delivery mechanism to support clients. The channel is becoming enormously important. We [as a vendor] are just part of a solution, not the total solution.”

Since the creation of the EMC hard deck – 150 accounts that the vendor handles direct, with everything below going through the channel – Beale said the internal attitude towards the channel has surprised him.

“Our account managers understand that delivering value requires a partner eco-system. Most CIOs cannot make decisions without channel partners to help them,” he said.

“Getting account managers to understand how to use the channel has been easier than anticipated.”

And despite cloud being considered a buzzword, Beale said it was here to stay.

“Cloud is how people are using IT and it is changing at a rate of knots that I have not seen before,” he claimed.

The vendor is set to announce new appointments to its cloud business in the coming week to help partners drive cloud growth, CRN understands, although Beale was unable to expand on this further as the article went to press.

“We reach more than 1,200 sales people through the channel and it is our job to support that and drive new opportunities,” he said.