Is EMC's Direct Sales Antibody On The Hunt?

It's been a long time coming, but EMC finally seems to be getting serious about building a viable channel. I say "seems to be" because the company has made moves like this before, saying it wanted to make things happen in the solution provider market only to let its direct sales culture act like an antibody that attacks an indirect sales virus.

ROBERT FALETRA Can be reached at (781) 839-1202 or via e-mail at rfaletra@cmp.com.

History has shown the company's direct sales force often competes with the EMC channel—and I'm not even throwing in the issues surrounding EMC's Dell relationship. But EMC has taken a number of significant steps over the past two months that signal a concerted effort to ramp up its channel, which is growing sales faster than its direct sales efforts.

It has to have been a huge political struggle inside the company to get any meaningful power behind a channel effort, given EMC's direct sales history and the fact that many of those legacy sales heroes are still walking the hallways in the company's Hopkinton, Mass., headquarters.

But as CRN Senior Editor Joseph F. Kovar reported online last week, the storage giant is planning some major changes to both its organization and program, including the way it compensates its sales staff, to push more sales and services through partners. I obviously don't get to see the actual sales plans, so I can't attest to the strength of the changes. But you've heard me say before that the way a vendor's direct sales force's compensation is structured as it relates to the channel is absolutely critical to its success in the indirect world. EMC seems to be putting all the key components in place, including more profitable deal registration, local field-level support and incentives to bundle up EMC-branded hardware and software solutions.

To be fair, EMC has had its work cut out for it in the channel over the past two years given all the acquisitions it has made. But perhaps it has been the influx of channel expertise and knowledge gained through those acquisitions that has helped the indirect vs. direct debate be rationalized internally around growth instead of emotion and history.

I always like to get briefed personally on a vendor's channel program so that I can probe in some key areas before I endorse it. I haven't had that chance here, but I'm encouraged by what has become public. EMC seems to be doing the right things in terms of program consolidation, training, support and compensation.

Now, let's see if the indirect players and proponents inside the company have a strong enough immune system to make the channel effort survive and grow in what has historically been a direct host hostile to indirect blood cells.

What's your take on EMC's latest strategy shift?
Make something happen. E-mail CMP Channel Group President Robert Faletra at rfaletra@cmp.com.