Louie Llamas, Hitach Global Storage Technologies

Channel Chief Name	Louie Llamas
Channel Chief Title	Director of Sales - Americas
Company and Division	Hitach Global Storage Technologies
Markets Served:	Storage
Company's overall 2007 revenue:	$5.56 billion
Percentage of revenue from solution providers:	n/a
Number of years with the company:	< 1
Number of years involved with indirect sales:	20+
Number of employees in channel organization:	~ 10 (sales)
To whom do you report in your organization?	George Silva, Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Operations
Does that individual report to your CEO/president?	No, 1 level removed
Describe your channel organization's major accomplishments over the past year:	Our Channel has accomplished successfully transitioning our new platforms into the channel in the second half of 2007, including desktop, mobile and server. Our Channel has also continued to support our 'channel integrity program' that is targeted at providing a level playing field for all our channel partners at a global level. For example, we have established monolithic pricing, standard payment terms, and eliminating contra funding to help fix pricing issues. By implementing this normalizing business model, we are eliminating the gray market area and making it easier to make predictions and measure success.
List up to 10 of your top products sold through the channel:	The Deskstar is a 3.5'drive, that is, generally used in I.T. desktop PC applications. It is the best in class 'green' drive and is popularly used as an upgrade. It can be used in the industrial space, namely for entry level (consumer) surveillance and set top boxes. The Travelstar is a 2.5' drive that is generally used in the I.T. notebook space as external storage. Many of these drives are being designed for the industrial space for items like handheld devices, ruggized applications and with our first to market 500GB now entering the business critical market for server related applications. The Cinemastar drive comes in both 2' and 3' and is targeted for the set top box market and surveillance markets. The Ultrastar is in our family of 3.5' Enterprise Class SATA drives and has been a tremendous success. Our 1TB, 750GB & 500GB products have been qualified by more that 50+ customers that buy through the channel in the Americas alone. The reason for our success is due in part to the fact that we were first to market but more importantly we've provided our channel partners with a solid platform that has provide the mission critical reliability that their customers demand.
Describe how your partner community has grown over the past year:	Hitachi GST's partner base expanded in 2007 with our channel revenue increasing by 70% From Q1 to Q4. We continue to add partners to our community with our 'Partners First' program and will continue to grow our partner community by providing more value.
Name the one individual who has had the most profound impact on your life:	The person that has influenced me and my work has been my father. He is a former Marine who believes in maintaining discipline and never compromising on your integrity. Work hard, work smart and always do the right thing. He said the best test was in the morning when you woke up. He said that if you could look at yourself in the mirror and not have to Convince yourself that you did the right thing the day before, then chances are you did the right thing, that of maintaining your integrity.
Please name the single most innovative initiative for which you were responsible for the past year?	Our goal for the last year has been on focusing on the basics, such as working with partners that are committed to us as much as we are to them. We've rolled out a number of programs some that are outlined above. I believe at time we miss the fundamental keys to success, timely & concise communication; living up to our commitments and continuing to drive our partners success. This is an ongoing journey. We always need to focus on providing BIC support and service along of course with competitive products.
What were the key channel partner investments you made in the past year?	n/a
How are you attracting the next generation of solution providers?	We use our channel partners as advocates for Hitachi GST along with our Partner's First Program. That said our field sales team is focused on identifying new customers as well as applications since they increasingly see new applications coming from the industrial space.
What is the greatest challenge you overcame in the past year?	The biggest challenge was returning to profitabililty, followed by driving new channel business in 2007 as well as growing our existing business quarter over quarter in desktop, mobile and server. I glad to say we successfully managed both objectives.

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