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EMC Takes Storage Crown
12:00 AM EDT Mon. Oct. 08, 2007
From the October 08, 2007 issue of VARBusiness
The crown was handed to EMC by its solution providers, who not only gave the vendor the top mark in every category in the most recent VARBusiness Annual Report Card survey, (a feat matched by only two other vendors) but also gave EMC the win with the widest margin in the entire survey.
Before the survey, EMC was already the No. 1 vendor of storage software with a quarter of the world market in the first quarter of this year, according to analyst firm IDC.
The ARC win solidifies EMC's top position with its solution providers.
"EMC's support for the channel and its involvement with its dedicated partners has changed dramatically over the past few years," said Pat Dezellar, a field account executive at AdvizeX Technologies, an Independence, Ohio-based solution provider and longtime EMC partner. "It's a complete 180-degree change."
EMC took top honors in the ARC with a total score of 73, a full 8 points over second-place Symantec and 9 points over Hewlett-Packard. IBM Tivoli, Microsoft and CA trailed those three. The win is a complete change from last year's survey, when EMC was significantly behind winners IBM and HP.
The dramatic upset by EMC came about because of time spent over the last two years talking to solution providers about what worked and about what didn't, said Pete Koliopoulos, vice president of EMC's global channel marketing.
"There was a lot of talk about ASN [EMC's Authorized Services Network]," he said. "We made changes to encourage our partners to do more and more services."
EMC changed its comp plans for its direct sales force, and introduced dedicated technical support and marketing managers to help solution providers generate new business, Koliopoulos said.
Also new was a push to simplify EMC's channel programs to base partner rewards less on total revenue and more on partner commitment, including certifications. "This resulted in an increase in the ease of doing business with our partners," he said.
It also helped that EMC was able to integrate a lot of the software offerings it got as the result of multiple acquisitions in the last couple of years into its channel line card, Koliopoulos said.
As a result, partners found it easier to work with EMC. "We removed the resistance or friction," he said.
EMC is strong in innovation because it not only continually upgrades its existing applications like ControlCenter and PowerPath, but it also chooses top-notch software vendors to acquire, Dezellar said. "We absolutely love their acquisitions," he said. EMC also brings its partners a lot of service opportunities, especially in applications like Exchange and Oracle database layouts, Dezellar said. "It's easy to partner with EMC," he commented. "They have a large organization, but if you know the right people, they're great to work with."
Joe Keefe, vice president of St. Croix Solutions, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based EMC solution provider, said his company has invested heavily in its EMC relationship because of its sales and service support, and in how well it takes care of its partners.
"We very seldom see channel conflict," Keefe said.
