Partners Can Now Use EMC Credits For VCE Training Courses

These days, every vendor is vying for a technical staff's attention, but VCE said it is totally committed to helping partners with a new EMC credit arrangement it said will "win every time."

VCE, which is part of the EMC Federation of companies, which also includes EMC Information Infrastructure, RSA, Pivotal and VMware, said its channel partners can now use EMC training credits for VCE partner courses.

The arrangement, designed to make training as efficient and effective as possible for partners in the red-hot converged infrastructure market, has Brendan Lynch, president of Milford, Conn.-based Eastern Computer Exchange Inc., fired up.

"It's huge," Lynch told CRN. "It allows us to use funds from the EMC Federation for converged conversations and training," he said. "It's a big win for partners and, more importantly, for our customers. This is EMC listening to the partner and customer community," Lynch said.

Bill Taylor, vice president of global channels at Richardson, Texas-based VCE, told CRN that the idea did, in fact, come from partners during one of VCE's regular partner meetings. "They want to be efficient, and this sounded so simple," Taylor said. "This is a no-brainer for us."

Allowing partners to use EMC credits for VCE training fosters greater integration between VCE and EMC, and puts partners in the driver's seat when it comes to learning and selling converged infrastructure.

"Converged is hot right now," Taylor said. "Partners are trying to stretch their training investment, and we're trying to make [training] as efficient as possible, as easy as possible."

In the past year, about 5,000 partners have gone through VCE's certification program, Taylor said. The credit arrangement with EMC seeks to make sales, technology and implementation training simple and quick for partners eager to sell VCE.

"They see value in it," Taylor said. "For our resellers, our partners, it's their money. If they're going to make an investment, they want a return."

VCE also is trying to avoid forcing partners into rigid training programs. "Some vendors want partners to do it a certain way," Taylor said. "Whatever your organization needs, we'll make it available to you."

"We're not trying to preach to partners," Taylor said. "These guys know exactly what they need to be successful. We're here to help partners, and if I can do that, I'm going to win every time."

PUBLISHED JULY 31, 2015

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