"Our priority is to help partners grow their business"

Ganesan Arumugam,
Senior Director - Partners & SMB Sales,
VMware Software.

2013 for VMware – An energizing year

The past year has been quite exciting for VMware in India, notwithstanding the economic turbulence that swept the country to a horrendous effect. “The channel team in the organization grew and we were able to put a lot of focus around building our partner ecosystem in a structured manner. We also focussed on the development of our Solution Providers, SIs and OEM partners. We ensured that VMware is one amongst the top five portfolios for every partner we engage with,” says Ganesan Arumugam, Senior Director - Partners & SMB Sales, VMware Software.

Its transactions with its partners have remained straightforward and smooth, which has helped increase partners’ confidence and trust in transacting with VMware. This also had a direct bearing on its relationships with its partners that grew deeper and stronger. Also, regular focussed engagements with SIs have helped cultivate and convert large deals for the company. Closer monitoring of transactions has further helped in improving its partner and distributor margins this year.

VMware also launched a new incentive scheme for its partners to increase its focus in addressing the SMB market. VMware also undertook a number of partner-enablement initiatives to help them develop new solutions and competencies.

Growth all-pervasive for VMware

Over the next few months, VMware plans to ramp up its channel strategy around software-defined data centers (SDDCs) as there is a good momentum around it. “In 2014, we will be strongly focussing on the government and defence sectors in India, and will be working closely with our System Integrator partners and OEM partners. We are also aggressively pursuing the virtualization opportunity in the SMB segment and recently created an SMB unit in India to drive our channel-led go-to-market strategy and have added several new features to our partner rebate program,” shares Ganesan. 

Earlier, VMware offered partner rebates on deals above $10,000, but now this has been lowered to as low as $6,000. Incentives have also been added for new accounts signed up by partners.  VMware has also increased rebates for select products such as vSphere with Operations Management (SOM) from 10 per cent to 15 per cent.

Another strategy VMware is adopting is to address more partners through its OEM relationships. “To further strengthen VMware Virtual Service Provider program (VSPP), we have appointed Ingram Micro along with Kryptos for usage-based licensing business. The program has been uniquely designed to help service providers develop, promote and sell their cloud products, services and solutions,” he says.

Premier events like its Partner Exchange on Tour, Partner Leadership Summit and Solution Trainings, among others, will help enable VMware’s partners and their teams to build their business with the virtualization leader.

It is understood without saying as to how vital partners remain for VMware’s success, especially since 100 per cent of its business is driven through them in India. “We will continue to strengthen our relationships with our partners. Helping our partners grow their business is a priority for us and we create and run many programs to support this,” Ganesan observes.

VMware partners are encouraged to –

• Build competencies to differentiate themselves in the market

• Own the entire sales process with customers – this only benefits them as they will have more control over the sale. VMware continues to focus on enabling them with the skills and know-how to sell its solutions

• Remain focussed on cultivating strong customer relationships as they will continue to see success even with any changes in the technology landscape

VMware has worked out a framework for its partners that not only help them grow their business but also encourages them to seek for themselves better opportunities. This deepening bond with its partners and the resultant success that follows emboldens the strength of VMware today as a leader. 

Samrita@varindia.com