ARC: EMC Finds Success In Managing Channel Conflict

The Hopkinton, Mass.-based storage giant, which has won the VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC) award in Network Storage for two consecutive years, beat all comers with its scores in the critical managing channel conflict subcategory. That's no small matter given EMC's roots as a direct sales organization. The ARC awards are a recognition of a channel renaissance at the $14 billion company that counts virtualization kingpin VMware Corp., Palo Alto, Calif., among its crown jewels. Solution providers said the back-to-back awards and high scores show that EMC's channel savvy is no one year fluke--it is a mark of a mature channel organization with a wide and deep channel culture.

EMC, which launched its first formal Velocity channel program only six years ago, scored an impressive 86 in the managing channel conflict subcategory in Network Storage and 85 in the managing channel conflict subcategory in the Storage Management Software category; well ahead of the next-highest scores in this area: Trend Micro's 76 for Network Security Software and 74 for Client Security Software. Cisco finished fifth in managing channel conflict with a score of 73 in the Network Infrastructure category.

HP had the lowest overall score for managing channel conflict, with a 45 in Workgroup Color Printers. Microsoft, Symantec and Oracle followed with scores of 49 in respective categories: Data and Information Management Software, Client Security Software and Data and Information Management Software. Rounding out the list of vendors with low scores for managing channel conflict with a score of 50 were Dell, Acer and Microsoft in Volume Mainstream Servers, Display Technologies, and Systems and Network Management Software, respectively.

Solution providers say the difference between the best and worst is a talented channel team that puts action and execution above rhetoric.

Keith Norbie, director of the storage/VMware division of Nexus Information Systems, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based EMC Authorized Service Network (ASN) partner and VMware Authorized Consultant partner, compares the grit and determination exhibited by the EMC channel team to that of a great athlete pushing themselves beyond all limits or astronauts in a life-and-death scenario. And although that may seem melodramatic, it is no joking matter for solution providers often forced to suffer channel organizations that show little passion for taking a channel program from the printed page to the field.

"To be successful as a channel team, you have to have life-and-death, Apollo-13 determination with a belief that failure is not an option," said Norbie. "You have to figure out how to get it done no matter what obstacles are thrown in your way. That is just what EMC did.

Next: Determination