CRN Interview: Dave Goulden, EMC

Earlier this month, storage vendor EMC said it would combine its Legato Systems, Documentum and legacy EMC OSO software units into one unit--the EMC Software Group--as it pursues its solution-focused Information Life-cycle Management Strategy. Senior Editor Edward F. Moltzen spoke with David Goulden, EMC's executive vice president for customer operations, about this strategy, among other topics.

CRN: How will this affect EMC's channel, Legato's legacy channel? How does the new Software Group fit in with EMC's channel structure?

Goulden: First of all, when you think of the channel partner program on the software side, Documentum has a channel partner program, Legato has a channel partner program, and EMC's OSO has a channel partner program. Initially, we'll keep those programs together. But what you'll see us doing--and I won't give you a time frame--basically we'll create an omnibus program for all three. That will take time. A number of them already are partners for Documentum, Legato and EMC [OSO]. They aren't automatically certified. So if you're a Documentum channel partner, you still have to pass a certification to be a Legato partner.

CRN: Will EMC allocate resources to help those partners acquire certification across the products, across the specialties, or is there going to be a different approach?

Goulden: I don't think you'll see a fundamentally different approach. We are, as a company, much more involved with the channel, generally, then we were just a few years ago. Historically, it was a one-size-fits-all sales force--direct accounts, partnerships, partners. We are fulfilling through partners more recently, we are doing demand [generation] with them, we are doing everything we can to optimize those partners when they're out in the market. So now I've got the group, EMC Software Group. We've got Legato, we've got Documentum, we've got EMC Open Software. What am I going to do? Well I'm obviously going to encourage my partners to become certified in all three. We're not ready to announce specific programs, but any one of these partner programs today includes [incentives] if a partner wants to get committed, get training and ramp up programs for them as well. So I think you will see us do the sensible thing, which is look at all the partners, encourage them to sign up with as many different parts of the group as possible, and over time I really think you'll have an omnibus agreement that would include everything, including getting certified.

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CRN: For your channel partners, when can they expect some of these things to start happening? Is there a general road map?

Goulden: I think that they'll see certain things start to happen in the second half of this year. I think that they can expect to see a full rollout of more unified channel programs probably at the partner conference. We plan to have a software partner conference in the first quarter of next year. If they haven't seen it all [before] then, they'll certainly see it all by that point in time. It will be a software partner conference for EMC Software Group partners, from all three parts of the group.