HDS: We're not all talk when it comes to the channel
Lynn Collier insists HDS is executing successfully on its strategic plans
HDS has insisted it is delivering on its channel strategy, which it claims is based on actions and not just words.
HDS UK's chief operating officer Lynn Collier took over channel duties for the firm last year, installing a "hard deck" of direct accounts as one of her first actions.
Collier told CRN that the execution of her strategy is going well and stressed the importance of delivering tangible results to partners.
"[The strategy] has been under way for some time now and a big part of the progress has been in the execution," she said. "I am great believer that it is easy to say 'we have a strategy in place and this is what you can expect', but the proof is very much in what does happen. What we've seen in the last six to 12 months is more significant and specific engagement with a key set of our partners and also with Avnet."
HDS changed its distribution strategy earlier on in the year, dropping Zycko and keeping Avnet on, but as a sole distributor.
Collier said the partnership with Avnet has gone from strength to strength and has offered their mutual partners some tangible benefits.
"We wanted to work with a distributor who would focus on the value-add in the partner community," she said. "With Avnet we have worked on a very structured enablement training for partners at a sales and pre-sales level. We will work with [a partner] to look at what is the right set of products or service offering they want to work with HDS on – not the whole portfolio. I don't want to just throw a whole lot of products over the fence and say 'they're great, off you go'."
Collier admitted that partners had some questions about the company's new distributor strategy but insisted she "carefully considered" the move. She said the investment Avnet has put into HDS proves how well the duo is working together – something partners are pleased with.
"What I've heard back is we are taking a very different approach and we are much more consultative with partners about what's driving their business and where they want to go," she said. "They say to me that that is a differentiator for us."
The storage space in which HDS operates has been busy over the past few months – with Dell announcing plans to buy EMC and flash player Pure Storage floating on the stock exchange as some of the biggest moves.
Collier said although partners are taking a "business as usual" approach for now, in the long term, the fast-changing industry will be good news for HDS.
"What we've seen across the industry is that people are looking at what that means for tomorrow," she said.
"When they look forward to what the next financial year looks like, they are thinking about what their choices might be. There is a lot happening in the market, and on a customer level it is creating a lot of discussion and debate. I think in terms of our partner community, they're very much looking to close out their financial years as they stand with current suppliers, but they're looking at what that means for tomorrow.
"Perhaps where they may have thought about staying with the same supplier, because things are changing, they [wonder] what an alternative looks like? For those that may have traditionally fallen into partnering with those organisations, it gives us a great opportunity to say ‘this is what we stand for at HDS'. They may not have seen that in previous years but now we have something different."