Dodds unveils VMware masterplan
Number one challenge is to better articulate VMware's story, says newly arrived EMEA channel boss Scott Dodds
VMware's new EMEA channel boss Scott Dodds has said better articulating the firm's messaging to partners is a key priority for him in his new role.
As CRN revealed last month, Dodds (pictured) defected to VMware in January from Microsoft where he had spent the past 11 years of his career.
At VMware's Partner Exchange (PEX) event in San Francisco, Dodds said he was even more optimistic about the role now, than when he joined.
"I have come into a company which has way more opportunity than I thought even when I arrived a few weeks ago," he said. "Some of the innovations we are making around networking, security and storage is just incredible."
On Monday, ahead of the beginning of PEX, VMware unveiled a trio of major product updates which it claims stand it in great stead to achieve in 2015.
Dodds said the new product messaging was a step in the right direction when it comes to making VMware's message clearer to partners.
"The challenge we have is really to articulate this story better – you see we have started this week with 'one cloud, any application, any device' and you will hear that repeated because we have got to get that into the hearts and minds of our partners and our customers as well," he said. "We are more than just virtualisation on the compute side and we are second wave of virtualisation which will go into other areas. It is about articulating that story better.
"We have a very loyal partner base – and I know that from seeing it from the other side of the fence – and frankly, we have a very loyal customer base too and we have to leverage that great work and help them move to new areas. The hybrid cloud story is very powerful."
VMware confirmed the news of Dodds' arrival at the company at PEX this week. Its EMEA general manager Maurizio Carli said he would be an asset to the region's leadership team.
"We have a world-class global partner organisation and Scott is a proven leader whose expertise will be invaluable in helping our partners to drive further success in the mobile-cloud era," he said.
Elsewhere at PEX, VMware's senior director of EMEA channel and general business Juergen Kuehlewein said the region's partner business was doing well.
Globally, about 85 per cent of the firm's business goes through partners, but that figure rises past 95 per cent in EMEA.
Kuehlewein said the company does not divulge country-specific sales data but pointed to the UK among other countries as stand-out performers recently.
"If you look at revenue contribution, the biggest markets are obviously the UK, Germany and France," he said.
"Where we are doing extremely well and where we are seeing good growth rates are in the emerging countries like in the Middle East and north Africa and eastern Europe, but even in the mature markets we are having good success. Russia is certainly a market – not only for us – which is under pressure, but that is a macroeconomic issue and not necessarily a VMware issue."