VCE draws on EMC to 'enrich' distributors
VCE copies primary investor EMC's programme to hand distributors rebates
VCE has changed its distribution programme to "enrich" its commercial offering to distributors in the same way its primary investor EMC already does.
The converged infrastructure vendor, formed in 2009 by VMware, Cisco and EMC, is now offering rebates to its distributors, VCE's EMEA channel director Jan Lawford (pictured) told CRN.
"For us today we have a partner programme focused around solution providers, with the likes of SCC and Kelway, but it does not offer programmatic [benefits] to our distributors," she said.
"So at the start of the second half of this year, we have become more embedded in EMC's distributor programme. That means distributors can earn commercial benefits through the EMC programme relating to VCE sales."
VCE, which has large pan-European relationships with Avnet and Azlan, as well as some specialist regional players, carries the same distributors as EMC, with "hardly any exceptions".
"Those [VCE] distributors, which also carry EMC, can now earn rebates through the EMC programme on the sale of VCE products, provided they meet the requirements.
"We decided that rather than creating a VCE distributor programme, we felt it would be of greater benefit to the distributors if we leveraged EMC's programme," Lawford said.
A full time job
VCE has enjoyed sharp growth in recent years and now has a revenue run rate of more than $2bn (£1.3bn). For its partner community, the best way to share in this growth is to employ teams capable across the whole of VCE's portfolio, Lawford said.
"When I first started at VCE I would often find that partners had asked a member of their solutions team to take responsibility for VCE. But often that individual's day job [concerned] driving a storage number or a compute number and in addition they were asked to start looking at this converged infrastructure market," she said.
"Frankly that doesn't work well. Partners need to invest in specific skills around converged, and not just make this a part-time job for someone whose focus is storage or networking. The partners that have been successful are those who have invested in a converged infrastructure practice and are building a team of people who have skills around different tech segments."
In June, IDC ranked VCE as the leader in the integrated infrastructure market, with its closest competitor Cisco/NetApp's FlexPod offering.
Last October Cisco pulled its share of VCE to a minority stake (but its technology continues to be used), with EMC taking on 90 per cent of the company. When asked, Lawford said Cisco's FlexPod venture does not pose a threat to VCE.
"FlexPod is a reference architecture; it's not a truly converged infrastructure, so we are not competing in the same space. Secondly, Cisco partners with everyone; they are driving a strategy which is a breadth of relationship to maximise the market and we don't have any concerns about any of those relationships," she said.
"Of course there might be some small overlap competitively, but you get that with many organisations, so we don't have concerns about that. And since the changes to investment and with the new structure, there has been no negative impact to our relationships and our go-to-market strategy."